Why Can’t I Find American-Made Toys? 1935

Letter to the Editor from the Dec. 9, 1935, issue of the New York Times

The letter from Grete Stencel deplores the fact that she could not find, after several hours of search in various toy departments, practically no toys made elsewhere than in Japan, and evidently assumed that these Japanese toys had forced the American-made articles from our markets, to the detriment of 10,000,000 unemployed Americans who might be put to work making toys for American children.

If she refers to page 38 of The New York Times of today she will note that there is a shortage of American-made toys, reported by W.E. Coventry, president of the Toy Manufacturers of the United States of America, and that estimates placed the volume of the domestic toy business at $200,000,000 annually, with plants being run at full capacity.

The imports of toys from all countries, including Japan, for the first nine months of the year amount to $1,566,782, so that for the entire year the imports will amount to but little, if any, more than 1 per cent of the American production.
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   --C.T. Riotte, New York, Dec. 6, 1935