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Show RAILROADS DECLARE EMBMGOflH STEEL Incoming Freight to Detroit Includes Only Coal and Foodstuffs. HANDICAPS FACTORIES Shortage of All Standard Makes of Automobiles Is Predicted. Some indication of the unprecedented conditions which automobile manufacturers manufac-turers aro facing at the present time in an attempt to manufacture a surplus of cars during the winter months to meet the heavy demand of spring buying, was received Friday by Frank Botterill, distributor dis-tributor of Hudson Super-Six, Pierce-Arrow Pierce-Arrow and Dodge Brothers motor cars, just .before he left for the Chicago automobile auto-mobile show. Hal Smith, one of the salesmen of the Botterill organization who is now in Detroit and Buffalo visiting the Hudson, Hud-son, Pierce-Arrow and Dodge Brothers factories, wired from Detroit Thursday night that the announcement had just been made in that city of an embargo declared by all railroads on incoming freight at Detroit, with the exception of coal and foodstuffs. In other wordH, not a pound of steel or other material entering into the manufacture of automobiles auto-mobiles is moving into Detroit this week, and many of the large factories have had to lay off hundreds of men. Great Buying Year. The telegram received by- Mr. Botterill Bot-terill is interesting in view of the fact that it is now conceded on every hand that 1917 will be a greater automobile-buying automobile-buying year on the part of the public than any season since the beginning of the automobile industry, not even excepting ex-cepting 1916, which was a heavy year. That there will .be a shortage of practically all the standard makes of cars now seems certain, despite the fact that many dealers and distributors have been able to accumulate email surplus stocks of cars this winter. Mr. Botterill left Friday to visit the Chicago show, with the probability of going on to Detroit and Buffalo for a I trip through the Pierce-Arrow, Hudson ! and Dodge Brothers factories. One oi the interesting communications communica-tions received by Mr, Botterill during the past few days from the factories of these automobile manufacturers was a letter received from President Clifton of the Pierce-Arrow company, in which the head of this great concern submits a tabula t ion from his engineering department de-partment showing the tremendous increase in-crease in the prices of materials entering enter-ing into the construction of automobiles during the past eighteen months. Increase in Prices. All the materials listed below are ued in motor cars and the increase in the price of many of these materials is little short of phenomenal. The materials ma-terials and their increase in price during dur-ing the past eighteen months are as follows: fol-lows: Pig iron, per ton, from $12 to $35. Copper, per pound, from 14 cents to 34.5 cents. Tin, per pound, from 37 cents to 44.75 cents. Lead, per pound, from 4.75 cents to 7.50 cents. Spelter, per pound, from 9 cents to 12.75 cents. Antimony, per pound, from 7 cents to 14.5 cents. Rolled steel, per ton, from $30 to $75. Steel forcings: Iron castings, per pound, from 2 cents to 4 cents. Composition castings, per pound, from lS1 cents to 37 cents. Babbit No. 1, from 35 cents to 46 cents. Babbit No. 2 from 36 cents to 45 cents. Coal (in six months) from $2.50 to $5.25. Coke at ovens (in December, 1915). from $2.75 to $7.50. |