Toy World

Hundreds of portly, earnest, grey-haired gentlemen were playing with toys in Manhattan last week. They fondled dolls, pushed kiddie-cars, ran trains, played blocks eight hours a day. It was the annual U. S. Toy Fair, to which go toy buyers from nearly every big store in the U.S. to place their orders for next Christmas.

For the 400 or more U.S. toymakers whose wares were spread over several floors of the Toy Center (No. 200 Fifth Ave.) and spilled into the Hotel McAlpin, this year's fair was a milestone. It marked the 20th anniversary of the ''birth'' of the industry in 1914 when the flow of German products was abruptly cut off. Since then the domestic industry has grown 300%, now has a retail market of $200,000,000 annually.

The old German toys were largely flimsy knick-knacks but the practical U.S. manufacturers promptly created a toy world modeled on the current industrial scene. Last week they had looms that wove, vacuum cleaners that swept, concrete mixers that mixed, washing machines that washed, dump trucks that dumped, foundries that spouted molten lead, Pullman cars with berths that made up. Buyers had a choice of 50,000 items ranging from doll houses with radios and period furniture to puzzles and knee-action penguins.

Backbone of the toy trade is the standard low and medium priced lines whose sales during Depression ranked in stability with food, clothing, shelter. Prices at the fair last week were up 10% to 20% but toymen reported the best early buying in years. Last year fair buying was poor, yet the final Christmas rush was so heavy that they were unable to fill orders.

Titular ruler of the U. S. toy world is William Charles Lehman, big, jovial, redheaded president of Toy Manufacturers of the U.S.A., Inc. Lehman Co. of America (more specifically of Cannelton, Ind.) has been making nursery furniture since 1876. The business is now run by four third generation toymaking Lehman brothers of which the oldest and wisest is William Charles. At the fair last week, the Brothers Lehman's pride & joy, was a 275-lb. high chair, built for display, from which no baby could escape. Even an adult locked in behind the tray cannot overtip it.

Having made what they consider a heavy contribution to Recovery, toymen are now vastly alarmed by talk of lowering their 70% tariff in possible foreign trade deals. They claim that even the present tariff is no barrier to peasant-made goods. And in defense of high protection, they hammer on the educational value of domestic toys, on U.S. diligence in making toys safe & sanitary. A modern child may safely wolf a pack of crayons, eat the paint off a set of blocks.

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