Big & Little

The Museum of the City of New York last week was given $50,000 to create a gallery depicting the history of the New York Stock Exchange. When the gallery is completed there may well be mention of last week's market, for prices sagged broadly to a new 1937 low. Dow-Jones industrial averages closed one day at 118.13, lowest closing point since June 1935 and only a fraction above the depths touched by prices on "Black Tuesday," October 19. U. S. Steel dropped to $48.88.

Behind the renewed market fall there was no new cause, merely an emphasized continuance of the old ones. Steel production fell five points more to 31% of capacity. Freight cars. were 12% less full. Automobile production dropped to 83,000 units against 116,000 for the same week last year. The National Industrial Conference Board announced that employment had fallen 6.4% since August.* Lumber and power output slipped again, and national advertising lineage in newspapers was 16% lower than last year. About the only thing that could have halted a market slide in the face of such statistics was good news from Washington. This there had been for Little Business, in that part of the President's address to Congress which favored lowering their taxes. The stockmarket, however, is dominated by Big Business.

*Let out last week because of bad business were the 80 beauteous damsels of Manhattan's French Casino, which temporarily closed its doors.

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