The Open Road

In the U.S. economy, no single business is more important than the auto industry, which helps pay the wages of one in every seven industrial workers. Last week, as another series of 1955 models went on public display, Detroit's production lines were moving at a record-shattering rate. With employment already up about 100,000 since September, automakers set their November-December output schedules at 1,080,000 cars, up 7% above the record set in the last two months of 1950. At that rate, total output for the year would be 5,400,000, making 1954 the third best auto year in history.

A big reason for Detroit's optimism could be found in the dealers' empty lots. Last May a record 607,275 new cars were waiting to be sold; by last month the number had been slashed to 305,314, without a wave of panic selling. Another reason lay in the 1955 products coming off the assembly lines. Last week Chrysler Corp. brought out its new Plymouths and Dodges, all lower and longer than before, with Plymouth's new V-8 h.p. boosted to 157 and Dodge's to 193. Lincoln also showed off its 1955 model, sporting king-sized horizontal grilles and twin exhaust vents in the rear bumpers. Throughout the industry, sales were so brisk that some dealers have taken more orders for new cars in the past month than they had sold in the preceding twelve months.

Here and there, some of the 1955s were already appearing on used-car lots--but that turned out to be a tribute to their popularity rather than any indication that they were hard to sell. In most cases, the "used" 1955s had been bought for $300 to $500 over list price, and were serving in used-car lots as advertising come-ons.

The auto upsurge, sparking a huge demand for metal, was firing up furnaces all through the steel industry. Mill output last week was at 77.5% of capacity, highest in ten months and a full 20% over the summer level. Steelmen were also receiving big orders from such other metal-consuming industries as machine tools and appliances. TV setmakers for example, hit a record monthly output of 948,000 units in September and were pushing higher still.

Elsewhere in the economy, signs of the upswing multiplied. Rayon-staple mills were stepping up production to capacity, and rayon yarn prices were on the rise. Hardware sales were picking up, and the building boom showed no signs of slackening. House-building contracts in the 37 states east of the Rockies totaled $851 million in October, up 10% from September and a thumping 34% ahead of a year ago. As a measure of the overall business surge, electric power output set a weekly record of 9.4 billion kwh, up 11.4% from 1953.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.