Near the Top

U.S. factories produced at a near-record rate in the Sept. 12 week and TIME’S Index stood at 182.3 (estimated), only one-fifth of a point below the all time record.

Despite strikes, materials shortages and a flock of bad publicity, Detroit war-goods output booms ahead. The Automotive Council for War Production last week said that August production hit $450,000,000, almost three times January deliveries. Output is now at the rate of $5,400,000,000 annually, some 30% above the best year the automobile industry ever had.