RETURNING PROSPERITY

Taranaki Daily News, 3 April 1934, Page 5

RETURNING PROSPERITY

NEW YORK FASHION PARADE BRILLIANT EASTER DISPLAY CROWDS ATTEND CHURCHES BETTER FEELING EVIDENT By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright v New York, April 1. What is considered graphic evidence of improved economic conditions is reflected in the so-called Fifth Avenue Easter Sunday fashion parade, which to-day was the most colourful since the depression. The richness of the raiment of the fashionable people who strolled down the great thoroughfare after the church services and the large crowds of less socially elect but equally resplendent who thickly intermingled showed that something of the old-time splendour has begun to return to this annual fixture of spring display. Torrential rain that all through yesterday beat down and drenched the city and a high wind were replaced by brilliant sunshine and mild air to-day, giving just the sort of setting that the event requires, and it was little short of brilliant.

Another barometer of the improvement of material conditions was the absence of “Zero” Le Doux’s tubmen. These disciples of the bizarre reformer in recent years • used to mingle with the Easter Sunday church-goers dressed in battered silk hats and jeering every evidence of fashion or riches. The paraders to-day were in a uniformly good temper and well-being.

The great negro residential district, Harlem, mirrored Fifth Avenue, having the greatest Easter parade in its history. Crowds moved down Lenox Avenue in formal marching order to the Minister of the Gospel i ;tivities, culminating in a “monster healing service.” i All churches, black and white, reported the largest congregations for years. There were .also many open-air sunrise observances. Two of America’s largest corporations, United States Steel and General Electric, announced general 10 per cent, wage increases yesterday to be effective on April 1, to about 200,000 workers.