Summer Smiles

By tradition Labor Day marks the end of the summer doldrums for Industry, the beginning of the autumn upswing and better business. The summer of 1936 was not so commercially spectacular as the summer of 1933, when Industry was racing the approaching Blue Eagle and the threat of inflation, and the imminence of Repeal was intoxicating the stockmarket (TIME, July 21, 1933). Nevertheless, this week as Labor Day came & went, most U. S. businessmen concluded that the summer of 1936 had been good for trade, that autumn should, by experience, be even better. Indices of a smiling summer:

P: Heaviest of heavy industry, Steel had pounded along at 72% of capacity all through August, reaching its highest production peak since 1930.

P: An optimistic jingle sounded from the Bell System, which had installed 40,800 more telephones in August 1936 than in August 1935.

P: Recklessly breaking record after record, the automobile industry reported sales in the third quarter 21% ahead of the corresponding period last year.

P: Knee high in quick cash from the Bonus, retailers reported that, far from suffering the customary summer slump, their sales were up 10% to 17% in June, July, August.

P: Carloadings for the last week in August climbed to 753,742 units, a five-year high.

P: Consumption of electricity in August's last week was up 18% over last year's similar period.

P: Commercial airplane sales, booming through the hot spell, were almost double for the past six months what they, were the year before.

P: Also at a five-year high of more than 54 billion was the value of all shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

P: And the hammer blows of the long promised building boom were at last within earshot as Federal Housing Administration announced that construction in July was 700% ahead of July 1933, that 200,000 dwellings would be constructed this year compared with 75,000 last year.

Only cloud on the autumnal business horizon was that patch which always spooks Industry with the shadow of political uncertainty in a Presidential election year.

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