BUILDING: New Straws

One straw that businessmen have clung to during Depression II has been the steadiness of building as compared with virtually every other major U. S. industry. Although new construction was at such low ebb it could not drop much, there were other considerations: 1) rents in 1937 rose out of proportion to living costs, 2) building costs simultaneously fell, 3) the New Deal still further liberalized its construction lending policy.

How building is faring was last week indicated by the National Industrial Conference Board in a nine-page survey with charts. Its big fact: In the first seven months of 1938 industrial production was lower than for any corresponding period since 1933 but construction exceeded the corresponding figure in every recent year except 1937. And in the second quarter of this year the building lag behind 1937 was cut from 18.2% to 9%.

Then F. W. Dodge Corp. added a still more hopeful postscript: residential building contracts in August were 17% above August 1937. Financial Reporter thereupon declared that F. W. Dodge Corp.’s 37-State tabulation of $1,297,513,000 worth of construction awards in the first half of 1938 meant that “as far as the investor … is concerned, this industry deserves close and serious consideration.”