Show economic highlights HighliA tS happenings that effect the dinner palls pails dividend checks and tan tag bills of every individual the annalists anna lists axe aie pursuing a cautious course their forecasts are liberally qualified with is ifs aads buta and ou on the other hands por for the trend of business generally geue rally is quite different than was prophesied a few months back the spring slump was expected what was as not expected was it its i deverity verity te worst in our oui recent his tuii tory on oli top of that the expected signs of betterment have hae not appeared appealed in particular force war buying is an all important bullish factor iu in only a limited number ot of industries the result la Is according to paul mallou that the guesses of even een the government goi eminent experts run on the pessimistic side the federal I 1 deral reserve board in de dex x of industrial production which ume came close to the mark during last baht winters ingels Int els sharp upwind upward movement fell to around in march and the forecast Is that it will drop to and perhaps below by the time may ends then the forecasts continue a new upturn should set in but few are willing now to gamble that it will be as strong st iong as steep or as long lived as wits forecast foie cast two or 01 three months ago some business briefs of interest follow STEEL there was a contra seasonal decline I 1 lu n production lately and that leads to the belief lief that a contra seasonal rise in production may be expected soon due to the fact that production has been lagging behind consumption dally daily february output was about 10 tons whereas dally daily consumption in the same period was waa tous tons LUMBER demand has been fairly good and aad operations have been at about the expected level orders for hardwood flooring have been especially good construction has shown moderate increases summer almost always brings substantial new building and that is expected as usual this year big activity is still in the residential f field due to FUA guarantees of heavy loans to the builder however betterment in residential nonresidential non buli building diug la Is also algo anticipated POWER output Is thigh ich h and the industry according to reliable reports plans on considerable sid erable expansion and new construction st this year this indu biggest problem Is still political as it has been for years WOOL prices are expected to decline somewhat inasmuch as im am ports have hae betm excessively great the th thigh level leel of recent alwi has haa been exceeded by supply COAL uhe the extremely exlie mel cold win ter lei and early spring weather heather caus ed consumption to ta be nigh high ia A sharp decline is to be expected now it will probably be sharper than seasonal due to the generally lower level leel of industrial activity D it Is hoped that tin the new census will ft at last provide data from which it will be possible to discover more or less exactly the number of unemployed estimates range lange from to with the higher figure more prevalent recent increased inci eased activity of the british fighting forces character zed by the air raid on the german seaplane base has proven highly popular with the british Britis li people as a whole whether the ft quiet of germanas germanys Geiman Germ anys ys fighting arms la Is the pence peace before the storm Is a matter of considerable conjecture hitler has been talking blitzkrieg so long without acting that some observers have become became convinced it is in mainly allily bluff on the other side of the fence fire are those who re main convinced that ferniany Gerni any will shoot her bolt before long that she must it being her only chance objective would be to destroy al lied docks power plants transportation warehouses houses as well veil as munitions depots and air fields in the meant meantime line more and more are aie saying that no one will or can will ln this war that it will prove a 11 disastrous stalemate sta leiato lerate for foi all concerned ile d hitler himself has said that in modern war there can call be no phiners whiners only losers and in that opinion lie Is joined by thinking people in nil all countries of the wo orld rid |