The boot and show shoe industry showed a marked decline after the signing of the armistice. This, too, was borne out by the investigations of the Council.
"The production of boots and shoes for the first quarter of 1919 was reported as about 60 per cent. below the production for the last quarter of 1918. Plants were partially closed and in some cases it is reported that machinery was returned to the Shoe Machinery Co. All in all, there were 75,000,000 less pairs of shoes produced in the first quarter of 1919 than in the last quarter of 1918.
"The census report shows a reduction of more than 25 per cent. in the output of civilian men's shoes in the quarter ending with March, 1919, as compared with production in the quarter ending with December, 1918, and nearly 25 per cent. reduction as compared with the quarter ending with September, 1918. The reduction in output of women's shoes amounted to approximately 30 and 25 per cent., respectively, in comprising corresponding periods. The reduction in the output of shoes for youths, boys and misses was even more marked."
COAL AND IRON
What has been said of the production of cotton and woolen goods applied equally to the mining of coal and to the output of iron and steel. During the war we increased our coal production. In 1918 it amounted to "685,000,000 short tons, almost 50 per cent. of the world's estimated output for that year. Production for 1913 was 571,000,000 short tons." The coal situation since the armistice is stated as follows:
"Coal, the source of a vast proportion of our industrial power as well as our chief source of heat and light, is a commodity the production of which is itself an index of our economic life. Coal output since the armistice has been greatly reduced, the weekly production of anthracite for the first half of 1919 being from 1,200,000 to 1,800,000 net tons, as against 1,800,000 net tons to 3,000,000 net tons for the corresponding period of 1918. Bituminous production was 9,147,000 net tons for a typical week in 1919, as against 12,491,000 net tons for the corresponding week in 1918. Coke production for the week ending June 28, 1919, amounted to only 287,000 net tons, as compared with 627,000 net tons for the week ending June 29, 1918. The total amount of coal produced up to July 5, 1919, was 261,000,000 long tons, as compared with 364,000,000 long tons for the corresponding period of 1918."
The production of iron and steel which was greatly stimulated by the war was allowed to decline as soon as the concentrated effort of the nation to win the war was abandoned. The resulting condition is succinctly described by the Council:
"The record of our after-war steel and iron output furnishes us with another warning that we have been neglecting to keep pace with the established American rate of industrial improvement and expansion and foresighted preparation for future requirements and progress.
"The iron and steel business was considerably stimulated by war-time requirements. There was a governmental agency whose business it was to forsee the war needs and to place orders so that those productive forces which are wrapped up in the steel industry might be utilized to capacity. The steel industry's activity has, however, since the armistice greatly declined. Pig-iron production for April, 1919, was 82,607 tons per day, as against 109,607 tons in April, 1918. Birmingham properties are reported to have been working in April, 1919, at about 50 per cent. of the 1918 production. For the period January to May, 1919, pig-iron production was only 2,114,000 tons, as against 3,446,000 tons during the same period in 1918. Steel-ingot production fell in the spring of 1919 to lower figures than had been reached in more than two years. In fact, a regular decline in production was in evidence after December, 1918.
"The figures representing the unfilled orders of the United States Steel Corporation at the end of May, 1919, were smaller than they had been since 1915."