Breather

U.S. civilian production will be cut back no more this year, said NPA Boss Manly Fleischmann last week. But the good news was received without cheers; sales were already so slow that many businessmen were cutting back of their own accord.

One of the hardest hit was the textile industry, whose sales have been "slow to lousv" for four months. Textron, Inc., whose rayon weaving mill in Suncook, N.H. closed down for vacations at the end of June, decided to postpone reopening of the plant indefinitely; its nylon weaving plants closed down for two vacation weeks instead of the normal one.

Other textile manufacturers followed suit, planned cutbacks of 10% to 50%. There were also spreading cuts in wholesale prices, not only in textiles but in soap (Procter & Gamble and Lever Bros, cut 11%) and in shoes.

Merchants, still plagued by heavy inventories, were also cutting retail prices to move goods faster. The move paid off: sales rose a bit higher than the same time last year, when war-scare buying was at a peak. Retail food prices were still edging up. This week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that retail food prices went up 1/2 of 1 % in the last half of June, pushing the food-price index 12% above the pre-Korean level. But there were surpluses--and probably lower prices--ahead. Farm planting, said the Agriculture Department, is at the highest level since 1933. In the stockyards, even the price of beef eased off a bit, as a heavy flow of cattle came to market. But most businessmen still thought the lull was just a temporary breather.

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