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Show , - ! Industry and War Orders By Richard Waldo end Gabriel Vogliotft ''...ft NEW YOBK-Six weeks after the announcement -of hostilities a survey of th war's effect on U. S. Industry, compiled by New Tork brokerage houses, concludes with the finding that the war had better go on or else. Boiled down to simple figures the basis of a growing boom is hope. Total To-tal war orders for steel from all belligerents during the first month of fighting came to less than a half million tons. Foreign orders have since slackened off, Indicating these were Inventory purchases. Yet American osnu-factorers osnu-factorers in all lines responded with an optimism totaling steel orders for nearly 30.000.000 tons. These were distributed over scores of different industries-rails, industries-rails, aircraft, arms, etc.. in prep ration for a war sales economy. The steel Industry is now geared to the expectation that these orders or-ders will be validated. Metal mining Industries In the red for years exploited a similar rush demand in a way that might kick back. Some of the orders were accepted and filled, others were turned down while producers pro-ducers built up inventories against future "desperation" prices. These inventories repre-sent repre-sent capital Investment that will be profitable if and when industry indus-try makes a bid. ' But copper demands are already tapering off. The same story Is true of petroleum-" production which un til recently was paralysed by overproduction and price-slashing. War ended all talk of curtailing cur-tailing the wells, with storage tanks piling up fuel against a war demand. , To cap it all, every broker on the street is trying explain the disparity between what the industries are doing and what the public thinks about It On the basis of a sky-rocketing In- ' dustrtal Index, corresponding stocks should be up in the strato- ' sphere. On the contrary, they reflect, on the basis of figures, about one twentieth of the optimism opti-mism of the industrialists. New York sources with exceptional excep-tional Italian connections reveal that Rome la relaxing the secrecy se-crecy surrounding axis politics. The story tells of a spaced -out ' plan to drift out of, rather than break with, the German alliance. It reverts to a meeting of the grand council, immediately after Germany Joined Russia, in which party chiefs were told the nasi-fascist nasi-fascist union was no longer the north star of Italian politics. Aa open break would be dangerous, premature and damaging to the prestige of a country that is never bested In diplomacy. The word went out that foreign rep- s resentativ.es and the press must take an equivocal position, not discouraging either to Germany or the allies. Future developments develop-ments must provide Italy with a sound "case" for whatever decision deci-sion it may take on the German partnership. The Anglo-Turkish pact has now provided that case, according accord-ing to Rome Information. The new lineup which directly menaces men-aces Italy is a direct consequence of Hitler's alliance with Stalin-has Stalin-has cleared the way for Italy to cast off axis responsibilities and -bargaiav-a v irae- gt with, out benefit of bombast or pyrotechnics, pyro-technics, the Informants say, the two ends of the axis have quietly and definitely parted. Copyright, 1939, McClure Syn. By not aiding England and France, we are helping Hitler and Stalin establish their system all over the world. Colonel Roa-coe Roa-coe Turner, aviator. |