Out of Storage

After considerable tinkering, the U.S. auto industry finally got itself out of storage last week. The motor was .still misfiring, but it was running well enough to push production to its highest peak since the General Motors strike started. The industry hopes to turn out about 75,000 cars in January--as many as it had turned out all last year.

At first glance, the record looked good. Studebaker, delayed for three months by parts-suppliers labor disputes, finally turned out its first car on Jan. 2. Ford hit its fastest pace to date, 1,223 in one day. Hudson was again producing 250 cars a day. Chrysler, which had more reconversion pains than anyone else, was finally making 800 autos a day.

But this rate was only one-third of the quotas which the automakers had set themselves. And there was every chance that shortages of materials and strikes would shut down the industry completely. Except for a steel strike, the most immediate threat of a shutdown was the seven-week strike in the glass industry. The creeping glass shortage had already closed Nash, was slowing down Willys' production of civilian jeeps, was holding Ford down (Ford makes some of its own glass). If this strike were not settled soon, Hudson and Studebaker might be forced to close in four weeks. Even if the General Motors strike ends, G.M. could be shut down again by lack of glass.

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