Time Clock, Sep. 12, 1955

FLOOD-STRICKEN INDUSTRY in the Northeastern states will get defense contracts. Defense Mobilizer Arthur Flemming has directed Government agencies to channel new contracts to disaster areas wherever possible, thus make more jobs in undamaged factories.

CONFLICT-OF-INTEREST problems for Government officials will be decided by Trustbuster Stanley Barnes. President Eisenhower has instructed Assistant Attorney General Barnes to rule on where the line of propriety should be drawn. Example: Is it proper for the Defense Department to award a contract to a firm whose president recently returned from a key Government post? Barnes may also bring out an official guidebook for the use of Government officials who still have business interests.

GENERAL MOTORS’ stock plan, turned down by the U.A.W. for the 350,000 hourly workers, will be offered to the company’s 112,000 salaried employees. For every $2 put up by an employee, G.M. will contribute $1, put $1 of the total in Government bonds, buy G.M. stock with the remaining $2. Participants may contribute up to 10% of earnings, will get a guarantee that, if the stock goes down, they will still get back their contributions plus interest. In the three months since E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. launched a similar thrift plan, 73% of its eligible employees signed up.

QUIT-BUSINESS CAMPAIGN of the Eisenhower Administration is moving ahead. As its next step toward taking the Federal Government out of competition with private enterprise, the Administration is putting up for sale its $13.2 million Texas City, Texas tin smelter, built during World War II and still the biggest in the Western Hemisphere.

JAPANESE TRADE CARTELS, broken up by the Allied occupation authorities, are fast coming back. Mitsui Bussan, Japan’s biggest prewar trading firm, has regrouped itself from its two biggest post-occupation splinter companies, now controls 18% (about $450 million) of Japan’s total foreign trade—about the same as the prewar Mitsui Bussan.

AUTO SAFETY will be the next big sales pitch of the automakers. Ads for 1956 models will play up such safety features as seat belts, crashproof door locks and padded dashboards (see MEDICINE).

STOCK SALES of new issues will be helped by changes in SEC rules. Instead of restricting companies to “tombstone ads,” i.e., bare facts a out the broker’s name, address, and the security to be sold, SEC will permit them to publish advance sales bulletins with enough detail about pricing and underwriting to attract dealers and customers.

SALES TO RUSSIA will be made by General Motors under a new policy, though it will now make no drive to encourage Red business. (Only a month ago G.M. turned down an order from Bulgaria for 500 Chevrolet sedans, even though it was approved by the U.S. Commerce Department.) G.M. itself put a ban on sales behind the Iron Curtain during the Korean war after it was criticized in Congress for a deal to sell truck and auto parts to Poland.

COFFEE PRICES, which have bounced up and down for two years, will go up again. Frost damage to Brazilian crops plus uncertainty about dollar-cruzeiro exchange rates pushed New York wholesale prices up 3¢ a lb.; the jump will soon be passed on, thus pushing up prices on such popular brands as Maxwell House and Chase & Sanborn from an average 95¢ to as much as $1 per lb.

MACHINE TOOLMAKERS will get a fat batch of orders under a new Government plan to boost the nation’s turbine-making capacity by one-third. As part of a long-range program to build and store critical defense items, the General Services Administration will spend up to $70 million for tools and equipment to make steam turbines and turbine gears.