AUTOS: Treading Water

For a moment, the auto industry got its head above hot water. Combined U.S. and Canadian output last week: 91,260 cars and trucks, a new postwar high.

But automakers are still just treading water. Total production since V-J day was only 35% of expectations. Output of passenger cars for the first seven months of this year was 862,373, as compared with 2,771,350 for the same months of record-high 1941.

Biggest drag was continuing supplier strikes; General Motors alone was burdened with 63, down from 143 at the end of May. Chrysler had to shut...