Downtown

Dun & Bradstreet reported a sharp gain in retail buying. Housewives, who had lofted department store sales in August 16% above the 1932 level, were flocking back to the counters; the downward sweep of the long-delayed normal summer slump seemed to be flattening out. Best buying was in the Midwest and on the Pacific Coast. Said D. & B.: ''No small part of the maintenance during the last few weeks of the headway made during the spring and summer months is attributable directly to the relentless enterprise of the NRA. . . . There has been no abatement in the rise of employment." Also released last week were figures on the output of two important consumer goods: U. S. factories in August produced 236,400 automobiles and trucks--an unseasonal increase of 3,300 over July and of 146,000 or 160% over August 1932; cigaret production in August of 11,000,000,000 was 17% above July, 17% above August of last year.

Fact-finding National Industrial Conference Board last week announced that the cost of living in August increased 2.3%, was 7.6% above April but 23.6% below August 1929.

The manager of the Rochester, N. Y. office of L. F. Rothschild & Co., Manhattan stockbrokers, last week banned women from his boardroom. "Women are usually star readers or chart followers," he explained. "They try to influence others with their theories. Some used to grab our mail before it was opened."

When the R. F. C. demanded salary reductions for high executives of borrowing railroads, Pennsylvania R. R. promptly paid off the last instalment of its electrification loan. When Coordinator Eastman set $60,000 as a proper salary for a big railroad president, Pennsy hired special accountants to prove that present salaries in terms of the "normal" 1913 dollar were actually lower than they were 20 years ago. President Atterbury's $103,883 wage was shown to be worth a mere $55,700 in 1913 money. Nevertheless, President Atterbury last week was moved to wire Coordinator Eastman that he had taken a cut to $60,000 Roosevelt. Gerhard Melvin Dahl, argumentative, square-jawed chairman of Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit (subway), who astonished lis squalling stockholders four months ago cutting his salary from $135,000 to $90,000, last week took another cut to $40,000.

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