I]I THE LUMBER IlIDUSTRY

as in all other lines of commercial endeavor, Goodyear Means Good Wear girded itself for the business, which increased from year to year.

If you are not already a user of Goodyear Truck Tires and Truck Tire Service, it will pay you to investigate this combination.

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Construction material prices and construction labor wages have fluctuated during the years since the war until during the latter months of tgl+, when the fluctuation ceased. A level of at least temporary stability is reached, with wages of wo-rkm^en-in the nuitairig tracles much highei than the)' were in 1919 and materiai- pric.es consideribly low.er. -Taking the av^e_r3ge for wages- during the 5_ye# p-eriod from 1919 to 1923 as a base-to figure-on, we -find that waggs^in 1919 were 86 per cent of thTs average, while wages in1924 were l17-per cent of the average. Tiis comparison is computed, of -course, on a national basis.

Construction material prices computed in the same manner as building wag^es stood at 100 per cent, or equal to the S-y'ear average in 1919. In 1924 the material prices stood at 89 per cent of the S-year average.

The movement since 1919 in wages and prices is of greater moment to the man with money to invest in build_ ing-than would be a comparison of wages and prices now with -what they were in 1914. We are l-iving inL difierent era than we lived in before the war. We ire living in a distinctp.gtio.d o{_expansion, which evidences itself in"many ways. _9ity building is just one manifestation, and this is proceeding rvith con_ditions being acted on by influences of post-war nature. It is harking to ttre dead past to make elaborate comparisons of presenicosts with th'ose of before the war.

The tabulation of building permit valuation in 20 cities, which shows the accomplishment in each city during December and November, 7924, and a comparison bet"ween the_years 1923 and 7924, bring out many pbints of interest. While the total lor 20 citiel shows gaiir for this year, 8 cities show losses from last year. Ch-icago is the iargest cit-y showing recession, and the loss is siz-eable, erren ionsidering.the m_agnitude of the city itself. Roughly, the loss is 33 million dollars. That amount of money-wiii account for 11 projects, each with a valuation of 3 miilion dollarsan amount of construction that more than equals the yearly valuation of building permits in the majoiity of tie 210 cities whose permit iaiuations are tabulaled i-n connection with this review.

. Los Atrgeles shows a still larger loss from last year than d.oes Chic_ago. Atlanta, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, St. Louis, and Cleveland also show loss-es.

_^New York City shows the huge gain of $62,435,131 for 1924 over 1923. The significance oi this gain is apparent when the tabulation ol 2L0 cities reportingls scannid; and only 9 cities out of the entire number have a total vearlv valu-ation amou_nting to the gain of this year over lasi year in New York City.-

Detroit is the second ground gainer, the valuation for 1924 exceeding that for l9Z3 by 30 million dollars, almost the amount sufficient to counterbalance the loss of Chicago.

December witnessed a larger total valuation for building, permits issued than did November. This augurs well foi

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