Time Clock, Jul. 19, 1954

COLOR TV SETS with 19-in. tubes will soon be on the market for less than $1,000. Columbia Broadcasting System is now making its new “Color-tron 205” picture tube, the first color tube to be mass-produced. A CBS-Hytron plant will be turning out 10,000 tubes a month by September for Motorola (which will use the tube in its new $895 and $995 sets), Sears Roebuck, and CBS’s own sets.

BURLINGTON MILLS Corp., No. 1 U.S. producer of synthetic textiles, is bidding for control of Pacific Mills (which ranks seventh in cottons and woolens). In one big deal Burlington bought (mostly from Ely & Walker Dry Goods Co.) close to 20% of Pacific’s 959,052 shares at $50 each (v. $36.50 on the stock market), has offered to pay same price for another 285,000 shares to get voting control.

GOODYEAR plants were all struck for the first time in the company’s history. Some 23,000 C.I.O. United Rubber Workers walked out of factories in ten cities after bargaining collapsed. The union is reportedly asking 12¾¢ an hour; Goodyear has offered 5¢.

HOUSING PROJECT, one of the biggest in U.S., will be built on the outskirts of Houston by Millionaire Home Builder Frank Sharp. Project will have 15,000 homes, also parks, office buildings, two country clubs, will cost $200 million. Sharp announced that the first 1,000 homes (three-bedroom brick veneers, about $12,000 each) will be ready in January.

TRANSATLANTIC STEAMSHIP travel is setting alltime records. At the midyear mark liners have already carried 367,000 passengers (v. 352,000 at mid-1953). Bookings indicate some 930,000 will sail by year’s end. Air travel is also up about 20%.

MOST POPULAR STOCKS of investors under the New York Stock Exchange’s Monthly Investment Plan are (in order) Radio Corp. of America, Dow Chemical, General Motors, American Telephone & Telegraph, Standard Oil (NJ.) and General Electric. After nearly six months, M.I.P. has attracted $4,000,000 from 20,000 investors (67% men, 17% women, 16% joint accounts).

PIGGYBACK railroading, temporarily checked by an ICC order four weeks ago, now has the commission’s O.K. Though truckers have complained about proposed rates of six railroads for carrying loaded trailers on flatcars, the ICC decided to give their new service a green light, while the rate discussion continues.

WEST GERMAN OIL industry is making a rousing comeback. New and rebuilt refineries are turning out 10,-500,000 tons (74,808,300 barrels) a year (12% of all European production), and crude-oil production is up to nearly 2,500,000 tons a year, one-third of domestic consumption.

ALUMINUM PRICES may go up soon. C.I.O. Steelworkers asked Aluminum Company of America for same wage boost won in the steel industry. Alcoa says it cannot absorb the raise without a price boost.

ROYAL DUTCH PETROLEUM will soon be traded again on the New York Stock Exchange. Stock was dropped 18 years ago for failure to comply with SEC regulations. The Big Board’s governors authorized Royal Dutch to list 24,327,312 shares, par value 50 guilders (about $13.26).

BIRTHRATE BOOM that started with the war shows no signs of slowing down, and sales of children’s clothing are up 10% to 30%, still rising. The nation’s under-18 population has gone up to 53.6 million (from 40.3 million in 1940), is expected to reach 62.2 million by 1960.

TRADE WITH RED CHINA is being pushed by Britain, though the U.S. still opposes any easing of the strategic list. In London the Chinese trade mission made progress on an exchange of goods that may reach £100 million ($280 million), three times its original goal. Among the “nonstrategic” items: antibiotics and chemicals.