STATE OF BUSINESS
Of all the battlefronts of U.S. business, few are more crucial than construction. Last week the news from the builders was good. Instead of slumping off, construction is climbing at a record rate. First-quarter figures showed expenditures of $7.3 billion, up $108 million over last year. March brought a better-than-seasonal increase of $2.5 billion in contracts for new buildings, with highway construction up approximately 35% and total private building increasing by 8%. Reading the figures, construction men revised their earlier forecasts and started thinking of 1954 in terms...