Spring Push

The step-up in production was no mere statistical abstraction. Businessmen had plenty of solid evidence last week of the upsurge in the economy in 1950's first quarter. Electric utilities, which provide a prime share of industry's power and thus serve as a general barometer of activity, did more business than ever. Their gross revenues for the first three months hit an estimated $1.1 billion, a new record, and 6% above 1949. The big boom in housing snowed no signs of slackening. In the first three months of the year, new construction totaled $4.4 billion, 18% above the first quarter of 1949, and an alltime record for the period.

Even a few prices (e.g., tires, cutting tools, men's suits, grains) had begun a hesitant rise--partly because of increased demand, partly because of recent wage and pension boosts. But both business and labor had to think twice about any precipitous price boosts; they had the example of the coal industry before them. After the wage increases last month, some high-cost mines closed, and 3,000 miners were laid off in Pennsylvania alone. But nationally, a brisk upswing in jobs more than made up for such local soft spots; in March, the Census Bureau reported, employment jumped 598,000 to 57,551,000, trimming unemployment to 4,123,000.

In its April letter, Manhattan's National City Bank cheerily observed: "Any inference that overall consumer buying is lagging, or purchasing power diminishing, would be incorrect." In fact, the bank thought the outlook for the coming months was "very satisfactory."

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