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Show HIGHER BUYING SEEN AFTER WAR U. S. Chamber of Commerce Finds Spending Will j Be on Big Scale. WASHINGTON. Purchases by the American public, after the war, will be far in excess of those estimated last December by the United States Chamber of Commerce, the chamber cham-ber reports on the basis of a new survey of this prospect. At the same time, the department of commerce released a report by one of its specialists which seemed to support this view. The chamber of commerce based its conclusion on polls which it made in December and within the last few, weeks. These, it said, showed that the number of families now planning to buy one or more major articles within six months after the return of peace had increased from 53 per cent to 64 per cent of the nation's total. Higher Estimate Detailed. The chamber summarized the results re-sults of its current survey as follows: fol-lows: "3,675,000 families, compared with 2,590,000 in December, now intend to buy automobiles to cost $3,307,-500,000, $3,307,-500,000, compared with $2,331,000,-000. $2,331,000,-000. "The household - appliance field shows an increase in buying intentions inten-tions from $860,185,000 to $1,215,910,-000, $1,215,910,-000, with the greatest jump occurring occur-ring in radios and electric kitchen mixers. "Overall home - furnishings purchase pur-chase intentions show only a nominal nomi-nal increase from $709,905,000 to $711,410,000. "One million five hundred and forty for-ty thousand families an increase of 50 per cent intend to build or buy a new home within six months after the war is over. The prospective investment has risen from an estimated esti-mated $5,000,000,000 to $7,184,800,000. "Seventy-two per cent of the people peo-ple say they feel they are at least as well off financially as a year ago, a drop of 1 per cent. The figures, broken down, show the following percentages for the two surveys: East, 65 per cent now, and 69 per cent a year ago; Middle West, 74 per cent and 72 per cent; South, 79 per cent and 78 per cent; Far West, 70 per cent and 78 per cent." More Buy War Bonds. Its second survey, the chamber said, showed that the percentage of persons buying war bonds and stamps had risen from 69 to 76. It revealed also that while the percentage per-centage of those putting money into life insurance had declined from 58 to 56 per cent, "the percentage going go-ing to savings account windows has risen from 21 per cent to 26 per cent." "But only 25 per cent of the nation's na-tion's families are saving for a specific spe-cific purpose," the chamber's report re-port continued. "Even so, that figure fig-ure is six points higher than a year ago. Despite the evidences that many people intend to make immediate imme-diate major post-war purchases, most of them are not, on the basis ctf present savings, counting on paying pay-ing cash. The American habit of installment in-stallment buying will continue to be a major factor in large consumer purchases." : |