Forest Products

Several products made from lumber have lost ground during the past decade to metal products through the replacement of wooden furniture, wooden barrels, and cork stoppers by articles made from metal. On the other hand, venetian blinds, primarily made from wood, have gained greatly in the same period.

Paper and paperboard boxes and containers rose in value of products between 1927 and 1939 while wooden boxes declined. Concurrent with an increase in the use of corrugated paper shipping containers has been a decline in the output of excelsior.

The value of paper towels more than doubled between 1927 and 1939 but during the same period the production of cotton towels and toweling fabrics also advanced substantially.

The production of paper cups advanced greatly during the period 1927 to 1939, and the output of gummed paper and tape doubled in the same period perhaps because of its speed and convenience in wrapping.

Plastics in the Foreground

The increased production of plastics has been an outstanding trend in American industry. The value of plastic materials in 1929 was over $29,000,000; it rose to about $79,750,000 in 1939. In pounds, plastic materials advanced from about 114,400,000 to about 185,760,000 pounds.

The production of laminated glass or safety glass (containing plastic filler) amounted to a little over $8,880,000 in 1931; it was nearly $40,400,000 in 1939.

Two heavily advertised drug products which gained sharply in the past decade were vitamin products and deodorants. The value of vitamin products rose from $16,000,000 in 1935 to $41,640,000 in 1939. The value of deodorants doubled between 1931 and 1939.

Fans, Electric Clocks, Refrigerators

There has been an increasing production of washing machines, mechanical refrigerators, percolators, and similar products. Electric

desk fans and electric clocks have made marked gains during the last decade, both for office and home use.

The year 1927 accounted for about 900,000 washing machines. In 1939 there were 1,500,000. Electric coffee makers or percolators rose from 260,000 in 1923 to over 1,670,000 in 1939. Desk fans increased from about 660,000 in 1929 to over 1,500,000 in 1939. The increase in the electric clocks has been spectacular. The figure for 1927 is a little over 87,000. For 1939 the number is nearly 4,000,000.

The value of mechanical refrigerators expanded from $91,700,000 in 1927 to nearly $230,000,000 in 1939.

Radio a Leader

The radio industry has made sensational advances, while the value of phonographs produced declined between 1933 and 1939, in spite of the inclusion of radio-phonograph combinations during the latter year. Pianos and all types of musical instruments declined sharply.

Changes in Transportation

Changes in transportation have been at once striking and significant. Automobiles and trucks have not only displaced carriages and wagons, but trucks have also made substantial inroads at the expense of freight service railroad cars.

In 1923 almost two-thirds of the passenger motor vehicles were open cars. Touring cars, roadsters, and runabouts made in that year numbered over 2,215,000. In 1937 the number of such vehicles dropped to about 20,280. On the other hand, over 16,000 automobile trailers were manufactured in 1939.

Taking the years 1904 and 1939 we can see vividly the change wrought in the manner of American life by the advent of the motor vehicle. In 1904 the number of such passenger motor vehicles was about 20,000; in 1939 the number had risen to over 2,800,000. On the other hand, the number of carriages, buggies, sulkies dropped from nearly 900,000 to slightly over 600.

The number of commercial cars and trucks

Carl F. Bartz has been appointed manager of the Dallas regional office of the United States Department of Commerce.

Born at Galveston December 10, 1894, Mr. Bartz graduated from the grammar and high school at Weimar, Tex.

From 1915 to 1927 he was in the spot cotton business with the Southern Products Co.-later the Southern Cotton Co.--at Dallas and Galveston, Tex., and Seattle, Wash.

In 1928 Mr. Bartz, with associates, organized a company known as Bartz & Co., Inc., of Dallas, to engage in general cotton merchandise. From 1933 to 1935 Mr. Bartz, with headquarters at Shanghai, served the Chinese

National Government as technical cotton expert to the Central Bank of China and manager of the Chinese American Cotton Syndicate in connection with the $50,000,000 cotton and wheat credit extended by the United States to China in 1933.

In 1936 he returned to active management of Bartz & Co. at Dallas, continuing until 1939. In 1940 Mr. Bartz engaged in the cotton futures and spot cotton business in New York City with Ernst Cohn & Co.

Following an initial period of duty in Washington Mr. Bartz will assume charge of the Dallas regional office in August.

For Testing Concrete

A new and improved method for determining the air-content of freshly placed concrete has been developed by the National Bureau of Standards, Department of Commerce.

In this method the measured volume of concrete is inundated with water, vacuum is applied, and the container is agitated by

rolling in order to release the air bubbles. The volume of air released is measured by replacement with water.

There are good grounds for believing that the air-content of freshly placed concrete is a factor which may greatly affect its properties and particularly its weather resistance. For this reason the new development is important.

The percentage of United States farms using electricity for lighting homes more than doubled in the 1930-1940 decade. This is indicated by an analysis of the 1940 Farm Census returns from 16 widely scattered states, according to the Bureau of the Census.

The 16 states covered by the report had a total of 1,523,378 farms, or one-fourth of all the farms of the nation. Of these, 696,775 were lighted by electricity in 1940 as compared with 303,332 in 1930. The percentage of farms using electric lighting was 45.7 in 1940 compared with 20.1 in 1930.

Of the 696,775 electrically lighted farm dwellings, 624,272 obtained light from power lines and 72,503 had individual home lighting plants.

The following table shows the percentage of farm dwellings which were electrically lighted as of 1940 and 1930 in these 16 states:

The first comprehensive survey of the nation's available and potential public facilities for storing general-merchandise and household goods will be undertaken by the Census Bureau at the request of the National Defense Advisory Commission.

This inventory will provide vitally needed, accurate, and up-to-date information concerning the location, capacity, and type of warehouses now in operation and furnish some measure as to what can be expected from the industry in the way of expansion to meet the storage problem which confronting the

national defense agencies.

At present the only figures available are furnished by the Census Bureau in its monthly reports covering the operations of 1,092 public-merchandising warehousing establishments which have an occupiable capacity of 34,316,084 square feet of floor space. April, 26,749,711 square feet, or 78 percent of this space, was occupied.

Questions Are Keyed to July 1, 1941

In

The questionnaire to be used was prepared by leading experts in the warehouse industry working with the Defense Commission and will be mailed to 5,200 warehouse operators. The questions are keyed to July 1, 1941, so as to present a picture of the industry on a given date.

Information will be secured covering

the total gross area of every building used for warehouse purposes, the gross floor area operated by individual companies, the net occupiable area, and the space now occupied.

A number of questions will be devoted to building characteristics. These include type of construction; number of floors; maximum load per square foot of top and ground floors; and the number and maximum load of freight elevators in each building; also, whether or not the building is equipped with sprinkler fire prevention system.

Information will be secured concerning what types of commodities are usually stored and whether or not the buildings are equipped with handling facilities and space for other types of commodities.

Special attention will be given to location with respect to shipping facilities, such as nearness to railroad spurs and docks. Operators will be asked to indicate whether or not, and to what extent, they operate trucking services in connection with, or in addition to, their warehousing operations.

Three special questions will be asked of operators who have made definite arrangements to take over additional space for storage purposes or for the construction of new storage space.

These questions cover kind of space, approximate storage space in square feet, and the date when the space will be available for storage.

Under Secretary of Commerce, Wayne Chatfield-Taylor has been named Chairman of the Government unit for the 1941 fund campaign of the Washington Community Chest which opens November 13. His appointment completes the list of group chairmen who will supervise the 2-week drive for funds during 1941.

Mr. Taylor has been interested in aiding the Chest for several years. He was Chairman of the Government unit in 1938, and also the Chest's Vice President.

In the same year he was appointed to the Board of Trustees. This position he continues to hold to the present day.