Facts, Figures

> WPB ordered a 42% cut in bicycle manufacturing for the next three months, forbade any further manufacture of children's models. Since 85% of the 1,800,000 bikes produced last year were children's models, actually about three times as many adult bikes can be produced this year. They will weigh only 31 lb. (v. 57 lb. now), have no frills, must rely mainly on four metals: iron, unalloyed steel, silver, gold.

> OPA threw U.S. railroads into a frenzy by suggesting that they forego the 6% freight-rate increase which ICC recently granted them on ten key commodities (lumber, cement, petroleum products, pig iron, etc.). OPA further hinted that, if rail revenue (in January, gross revenues were 27%, net income 30% above 1941) continues up, it would request ICC to revoke the rate increase entirely.

> Japan's successes have taken a 7% slice out of the U.S. cinema industry's already shaky foreign market; in normal times, gross film rentals from Japan, China, the East Indies and Straits Settlements amount to almost $6,000,000 (Java alone: $1,500,000). In Australia and New Zealand, 14% more of the industry's foreign revenue is at stake.

> Consolidated Oil sold $18,000,000 worth of a new type of security "ship mortgage notes," the maritime equivalent of the railroads' "equipment trust certificates."

> Production of cotton textiles is running at the fabulous annual rate of 12,500,000,000 yards. Reason: half of it is being used for war purposes, in many cases to take the place of much scarcer materials (wool, jute, etc.). Before the war, each U.S. citizen used about 20 lb. of cotton, each U.S. soldier needs about 250 lb.

> After May 1, WPB will allocate all wood pulp, domestic and imported, to paper mills, because increased need for nitrating pulp (for explosives) may cause a serious shortage for normal uses.

> Monsanto Chemical Co. proposed to the Senate Finance Committee that, under the next tax law, corporation reserves for severance pay to wartime employes (like those needed for Monsanto's four new explosives plants) be made taxexempt.

>The Department of Labor reported that 40% of the nation's war plants are operating 160 hours or more a week; 75%, 120 hours or better; 10%, 60 hours or more; the average war employe works 48-50 hours a week. Lack of raw materials is holding down fuller operations: one aircraft factory had to go back to a 40-hour shift for that reason.

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