Masonry Magazine March 1975 Page. 16
BLOK-TRUS
ADJUSTABLE ECONO-LOK
STONE-LOK TH
TYPE S ADJUSTABLE TIE
BLOK-TITE CONTROL JOINT
BLOK-LOK®
AA
WIRE PRODUCTS COMPANY
All AA Wire reinforcing and wall tie systems save labor costs. Many of them solve other mason problems such as Adjustable Econo-Lok for tying together double walls where the joints don't line up. Then there's Stone-Lok the fast way to tie random shaped stone to a backup wall. Select the system that saves you more money and speeds your jobs. Send for your handy free Guide to AA systems.
AA Wire Products Company, 6100 South New England Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60638.
AA
1975 MCAA Convention Report
(Continued from page 14)
eventually lead to the destruction of the American middle class, "which is by far the majority of us, the group that made this country work when it did work, and who in the future will make it work again, if they don't tax us all out of existence in the meantime."
Following the special slide presentation depicting the 25 years of MCAA history, economist George A. Christie, a recognized authority in the field of construction economics, discussed the state of the building industry and presented his forecasts. His outlook was optimistic.
Christie felt that the residential building market, which dropped to 1 million units last year from 2.4 million units the year previous, "was ready to go. We certainly know what the missing ingredient in this area has been, and that is mortgage money. The events of the past four months have made something very important happen here, and that is to reverse the flow of savings so as to make mortgage money more generally available."
He predicted that housing starts in 1975 would range from 1.4 million to 1.5 million units. In terms of dollars
Winners of the Norton Company's Caribbean Cruise tickets were Mr. and Mrs. Justin Breithaupt, Shreveport, Louisiana. Mr. Breithaupt (right) thanks Mr. R. Neale, Norton Company, for the seven-day cruise.
associated with that spending for housing, he estimated it would be as much as 15 per cent more than last year. He suggested that the demand for housing would continue to rise through 1976 and 1977.
On the nonresidential side of the market-industrial and commercial buildings Christie predicted that contracts would drop sharply through most of 1975 and probably not begin to recover until early 1976.
According to Christie, 1975 will experience the recession pattern of 1970. And while the residential market will climb slightly and the nonresidential segment will decline, he felt that there will be an upswing in institutional building.
"Here are two very positive areas of the construction market for this year-institutional and residential," Christie said. "But as far as 1976 is concerned, this is when something will really begin to happen. Not only will we get stability in institutional building and a recovery in the residential area, we also stand a very good prospect of a turn-around and recovery in the industrial and commercial building field.
"We look at three basic markets all rising simultaneously. This is more or less like lightning striking it only happens about once every seven or eight years in the con-
(Continued on page 36)
masonry
• March, 1975