STATE OF BUSINESS: l-to-5

Manhattan reporters last week journeyed to the docks to count cases of gold being unloaded from the Queen Mary. They counted 355 cases, thus estimated that the Queen brought in some $20,000,000. This was presently dwarfed by a shipment on the Manhattan estimated at $56,000,000, largest ever. At week’s end four other liners were on the way from frightened Europe with $75,000,000 more to add to the $15,007,517,132.83 (57% of the world’s monetary supply) in gold already admittedly in the U. S. Treasury’s hands.

As usual when the golden tide laps high on U. S. shores, reporters went to see Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau. As usual, he pooh-poohed the idea of inflation. But though he said the gold was not affecting U. S. economy, it was amply clear that the continued European crisis was. Markets were nervous. Businessmen cut their buying for the future so low that three new indexes of inventories published by the National Industrial Conference Board touched the lowest point since May 1937. Most cheerful fact of the week (to businessmen): the sales ratio of twin beds to double beds was up from 1-to-10 in 1936 to 1-to-5.