Facts & Figures, Jul. 14, 1947

Hope for Househunters. The Department of Commerce reported that the value of new building in the first six months of 1947 totaled $5,356,000,000, a whopping 40.1% more in dollar volume than in the same period last year. Increases were even bigger in private residential building (63.2%) and public residential building (75.6%). The Department failed to note that 1) increases in volume were chiefly due to an increase of about 25% in prices, and 2) unitwise, residential building was still 25% below expectations.

Snappers. The War Assets Administration received 2,000,000 surplus false teeth from the War Department. It will soon put them on sale.

Sweet Plan. Free trading in sugar futures was resumed last week after 5½ years of rigid controls. As traders gathered around the ring in the New York Coffee & Sugar Exchange, the House Agriculture Committee approved a new set of controls—but of a very different sort. With a world sugar surplus in the offing, the bill will extend for five years the present sales quota system for all foreign and domestic producers. The bill, which Congress is expected to pass this session, ties the sugar price to the cost of living. As long as the cost-of-living stays up, sugar prices will also, no matter how plentiful the supply. In effect, a form of parity will be extended to sugar growers—with consumers footing the bill.

Jukebox Genius. At a Manhattan coin-machine show, exhibitors proudly demonstrated a mechanical “Information Please,” patterned after a Navy wartime training device. For a nickel, the machine propounds five questions on a printed screen from a selection of 8,000, gives the player a choice of answers to each question. The player selects one by punching a button and is graded by the machine.

A. P. Steps on It. A. P. Giannini’s Bank of America extended its lead as the largest U.S. bank. Its midyear statement reported total resources of $5,469,783,000, topping New York’s National City Bank, the nation’s second largest, by more than $400,000,000. New York’s Chase National Bank, once neck-&-neck with the leader, ran third with $4,814,277,000.

Shot-in-the-Root. Des Moines’ Ross Daniels Root Feeder Co. has needled its business with a hypodermic needle for plants. Attached to a garden hose, the needle is inserted into the ground near the plant roots. The water dissolves powdered fertilizers in the neck of the needle and feeds them directly to the roots. The price: $4.95.

Hello, Shanghai. After a lapse of nearly ten years, the American Telephone and Telegraph Co. resumed telephone service between the U.S. and China ($12 plus tax for three minutes). One of the first commercial calls from the U.S. rang the phone of Woo Kyatang, executive editor of the Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury. “Hello, darling!” said a feminine voice from Washington, “How are you, dear?” When puzzled Woo failed to respond, the voice went on: “This is Dorothy, darling. How are you? . . . Isn’t this Bill?” No, said Editor Woo, wrong number.