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Show The Early Shopper Gets the Toys There Aren't Enough for Everybody ir Gets the Toys-r ugh for Everybody l $ ,! I"'''- ' k Stock of Playthings Is Larger Than Last Year, but Still Short Eager-eyed kiddies will have to be content with about half as many toys this year as they used to get' before the war, when they come dashing in to the parlor on Christmas morning. As everybody knows, all kinds of civilian goods are scarce, including toys. It's a wonder, in fact, that there are any toys on the market, in the midst of a great war. Both toy factories and toy makers mak-ers are busy making war materials percussion caps for torpedoes and shells, gas masks, and a thousand other things. They make toys out of scraps and leftovers, and substitutes substi-tutes like wood and pasteboard. But at best they couldn't make nearly enough to satisfy everybody this year. Wjth wartime prosperity putting money into everyone's pocket, fathers fa-thers and mothers, uncles, aunts and cousins have a good deal to spend on presents for the children in their families. But they can't buy all they want to, because there just aren't enough toys in the stores to go around. Besides this, there are two million more youngsters in the country than usual a result of the rising birth rate of the war years. ' Few Metal Playthings. Metal toys will be represented by a few articles, but in general steel . and iron playthings will be missing. Wooden playthings like blocks are not so hard to get, but it's still , good Idea to shop early. A record-breaking demand for toys of all sorts is anticipated, and many children are going to be disappointed, be. cause of shortages. utensils are being offered, and tiny furniture can be had. Hobby sets, such as chemistry outfits, out-fits, are in "fair supply," manufacturers manufac-turers say. Apparatus made of glass, porcelain, plastics, wood or pasteboard is being substituted for metal articles. For instance, a microscope mi-croscope included in some of the science sets has a plastic tube and base. A survey of the toy supply situation situa-tion conducted by the Toy Manufacturers Manu-facturers ef the U.S.A. reveals such shortages as these: Less than 15 per cent of the normal nor-mal supply of sleds with steel runners run-ners will be on sale. Sleds with wooden runners will be fairly plenti- toy lines, these companies wete enabled to handle their war con-'tracts con-'tracts more efficiently, because they could operate their entire plant at near capacity. Another organization busily at work on the toy situation is the Office Of-fice of Price Administration. This government agency has to set fair ceiling prices on every toy item that is to be offered for sale. More than 3,000 articles have been examined ex-amined and priced and many others oth-ers are pending a decision. In i big warehouse in Washington 0PA officials look over samples of all sorts of things many of them new to the market, such as transparent plastic ducks and giraffes, wooden telephone sets, and pasteboard dolls. It's a big job to put fair price tags on all these things, but the 0PA hopes to complete its task before Christmas. ft' - . A f J I ? ' , A f - -? t ; i . . y , S S !? 5!S ji.i..n, rm,rim.vmlMn., .to,r,.-,i.-..,. - v ,,,,.. . J Planes and tanks and siege guns naturally dominate the childish mind In these war years. These models of fighting machines are made of wood and cardboard. They are simple but sturdy. The WAC uniform the little girl wears is a novelty this year. Steel-runnered sleds, tricycles and bicycles, coaster wagons, construction construc-tion sets, and a thousand other things will be very scarce. Sotae manufacturers have been able to find left-over stocks of metal, fabricated fabri-cated before the war restrictions went into effect, and others are using us-ing scrap material, so a small quantity quan-tity of metal toys are on the market. mar-ket. Back in peace times, playthings play-things made of cast iron, steel, copper, cop-per, aluminum and so on, constituted consti-tuted nearly half of all the Christmas Christ-mas presents. Toys made of rubber are very rare. So are plastic goods. Tires for doll buggies are being made of "mud" which is residue from reprocessed re-processed rubber, but these are about the only such articles on the market. Wood is being used to make lots of things formerly made of metal and other scarce materials. There are trucks, for instance, of polished hardwood on sale. Tanks and siege guns, battleships, steam shovels and many other mechanical toys are made largely of wood, with a few metal parts. Cardboard and wood combinations are also numerous, particularly in the 'games division. A cardboard and wooden circus is a favorite this year. Enough Dolls and Teddy Bears. Girls are more fortunate than boys this year, for dolls are being turned out in sufficient quantities to meet the demand. There are both hard and soft bodied dolls in the stores, made of everything from cotton cot-ton to porcelain. The fancy models have moveable eyes, curly hair, pretty dresses and all the other trimmings. Stuffed animals are on hand in sufficient numbers to take care of ordinary demands. Teddy bears are plentiful, it is said. Carriages for dolls are offered to early Christmas shoppers, at least, since there are 100,000 buggies on sale throughout the country. These are made of wood, with metal wheels. Doll dishes, of china and scrap plastic, and cast-iron cooking ful, but all in all, the total number of sleds available will be less than before the war. While no electric trains are being manufactured, there will be some trackage offered for replacements, for those boys who got a train set years ago. Some metal construction construc-tion sets are offered. About 10,000 of these have electric motors included. in-cluded. There are a good many wooden sets on the market. No electric elec-tric lights for Christmas trees are being made, but a few are on hand from last year. No Autos or Bicycles. Wagons with wooden wheels are fairly plentiful, and there are some with metal wheels. No metal toy autos or two-wheeled cycles or any such vehicles are offered. A few scooters, made from scrap steel, can be had. In some cities a small dumber of second-hand bicycles and other wheeled toys are on sale These generally have been repaired and repainted. Blown glass balls for Christmas tree ornaments can be bought readily, read-ily, but tinsel, excepting lead foil is off the market, and certain other ornaments or-naments and decorations are scarce or unobtainable. Better Goods This Tear. The Toy Manufacturers state that a higher quality of wood and pasteboard paste-board toys is being offered this year i explaining that experience has enabled en-abled makers to do a better job now. Many companies have sprung lately that were not in the toy business busi-ness before the war, and some of these have had little production experience, ex-perience, so there is bound to be some poorly made articles on the market. Skilled toy makers, too are working in war plants in many cases, so the toy factories have had to get along with partly skilled labor, la-bor, many of whom are over-age or disabled. More than 200 of the largest toy manufacturing plants are turning out war materials in the main, and are making toys on the side. 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