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Show Priorities vs. Toys And J clinic's Sock Comes Off 2nd Best CHICAGO. When priorities clash with pop-guns, little Johnie and his Christmas stocking come off second best that is if metal toys are being used to fill it this Christmas. For while many department stores throughout the country were fore- PKNUHIMU ' l I'll l l ll i , ii n Priorities vs. Toys' sighted enough to make advance purchases of scooter cars, bicycles, all metal wheel goods, and defense toys including air guns, there does exist a shortage in these items for 1941 Christmas shopping. No child need be toy-hungry at Christmas, despite a 20-per cent increase in-crease in demand this year over last. It is expected that the nation's toy bill will reach an all-time high of quarter of a billion dollars this year, according to a report of the Merchandise Mart, Chicago, 111. Reflecting our national armament program, military toys and games are more popular than ever, despite de-spite mass production handicaps. Toyland arsenals include dive bombers, bomb-ers, anti-aircraft guns, defense forts, Red Cross ambulances, trucks and airplanes of all varieties. Similarly slanted are many non-metal war games and books featuring life in army camp's. Manufacturers of miniature railroad rail-road trains and equipment, directly affected by priority rulings, report a 10 per cent increase in demand. A record number of the nation's 150,000 perennial train hobbyists, anticipating an-ticipating shortages and substitutions substitu-tions are sending their old equipment equip-ment back to the factory for reconditioning re-conditioning and repair. Toys classified as educational are In sharp demand. Reproductions in miniature of the advancement in the home maker's art, science and engineering, en-gineering, are all in evidence on the nation's counters. |