Slowdown

Was the bloom off the boom? The Department of Commerce last week saw some signs of it. In the first six months of 1948, said the Department's monthly Survey of Current Business, "the rate of advance was probably the slowest for any six-months period since the postwar up trend began, with fewer industries reporting gains in output and more reporting downward adjustments."

Out of 26 manufacturing groups studied, the Survey found that nine were continuing an unbroken uptrend begun in 1945, but 17 had shown declines for six months or more. In the downtrend group were automobile tires, truck-trailers, water heaters, oil burners, glass containers, shoes, and women's and children's clothing (see Textiles).

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