Postblogging Technology, September 1955: Paper Rationing Is Over, Interest Rates Are Up, and the President is still Healthy

It appears that Susannah and the Singing Dogs are only represented on Youtube by this, and not their chart-leading performance of "Jingle Bells."

R_. C_.,
Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
Canada

Dear Father:

A short note as I am fitting myself in at the firm and a bit frazzled, as you might be able to tell from all my screaming at The Economist to just get on with it! Hopefully I will be a bit more at ease by Christmas. 

Your Loving Daughter,

Ronnie

The Economist, 3 September 1955

Leaders 

The magazine goes on for a bit about the "crisis of confidence" in British finance and blah blah. It thinks that most of the trouble could be sorted by the government coming clean about the plan for convertibility that it was hawking around in 1953/4, since rumours that it included a floating rate are discomfiting Continental bankers. All eyes are on Gaza, "[W]here the sound of gunfire shows no signs of slackening." With the relationship between Egypt and Israel deteriorating, something has to be done, and Dulles has floated a plan for a loan guarantee to pay for water improvements so that Gaza Arabs can farm more of the land in the Strip, and to Israel to allow it to compensate the 200,000 refugees living in camps there. The problem is that the resettlement of "specially privileged newcomers" in the poor surrounding Arab countries isn't likely to go well. Neither is the whole scheme, which is dead on arrival for various reasons, but also a step forward to some kind of solution to the whole knotted problem. Some burbling about Germany, because we're still waiting for Adenauer's trip to Moscow, and then on to the town development plans for Oxford and Cambridge, which are complicated by the fact that there are universities there. 

From The Economist of 1855, "Hard on Wine," which is several long paragraphs inspired by the recently published Gatherings From the Wine-Lands that can't really be called a review since it omits the name of the author (per the Berkeley catalogue, it is anonymous). The Economist is upset that it is about wine duties and not wine, because it likes wine even more than it likes free trade. 

Notes of the Week

The first two Notes are about two labour disputes, railways and stevedores, which seems less important than the settlement with the newspaper printers unions that is buried several Notes further on. The final details of the compromise in Morocco are in place. The nationalists will cooperate with a regency council so long as the former sultan is allowed to leave Madagascar for France, from whence he is expected to  go to Morocco after a suitably face-saving delay. The final bit of face-saving is the dismissal of Grandval in favour of General Boyer de la Tour, allowing General Koenig and M. Pinay to come in line with the rest of the cabinet. The Red Chinese purges are getting worse, and more public. J. R. Hicks gave a presidential address to the Economics Section of the British Association about the modern "Labour Standard" that has replaced the gold standard, but didn't say that unemployment should be higher, so he's dumb. The purported controversy between the Neue Züricher Zeitung and Franz Blücher is not actually a controversy, says the magazine, so pay it no mind. The new government in Malaya should probably offer an amnesty to the Communists and end the Emergency. East-West trade is going at about the rate that can be expected given East Bloc exports, so it doesn't matter that Moscow is now pressing for fewer controls. The Economist has no serious problems with the Indian government's new regulations on Christian missionaries. It does have a problem with the freeze on footballer wages at £15/week in spite of the marginal value of the stars exceeding "four figures." 

Letters

Younger of Leckie writes to explain why a proposed scheme for a partial call up of National Servicemen to replace Regulars up to the limit of service needs is a terrible idea. S. Knox Cunningham objects to Your Dublin Correspondent supporting the current lack of an extradition agreement between Britain and Ireland. J. B. Danquah is on at great length about British attitudes and policy towards the Gold Coast. The White Fish Authority writes to say that they are not, in fact, getting too big for their britches, while Andrew Carden writes from London to defend the Alberta government's commitments to the principles of Social Credit, and Paul Katona has opinions about the current state of the Socialist International.
 

Books 

The Economist liked Frank Thistlewait's approach to an introduction to American history, The Great Experiment. Gove Hambridge's The Story of FAO is a very worthy book about the Food and Agricultural Organisation's first twelve years. Ernest Campbell Mesner's The Life of David Hume is industrious but dull, and  says that Hume was fat. Michael Sheehy's Divided We Stand is an interpretation of Irish affairs with which the reviewer disagrees. J. R. Mallory's Social Credit and the Federal Power in Canada continues the recent trend of people paying attention to Social Credit, which would be important if anyone cared about the Social Credit movement any more. Arthur Keithhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Keith's Darwin Revalued is a scientist's interpretation of Darwin. And by "scientist" I mean one of those crazy old eugenicists who haven't noticed that WWII is over. G. A. Campbell's The Civil Service in Britain is a "ramble through bureaucracy." Sounds fun! Max Gluckman 's The Judicial Process Among the Barotse of Northern Rhodesia shows how funny foreigners have law, too. K. Mandelbaum's The Industrialisation of Backward Areas and two histories of New Zealand (by A. H. Reed and David Hall) aren't bad if you like that sort of thing. 

American Survey

"Money versus the Cycle" The question is whether the Americans can check the boom without causing a recession solely by monetary means, with no controls. The answer, I'm predicting, is "No." "Morning after Geneva" is a meditation on the question of whether the good will of Geneva can lead to disarmament, which seems like peering into a misty future even further on than the next Eisenhower recession. Speaking of which, the Eisenhower trade policy is for free trade unless domestic manufacturers get very upset and hold their breaths until their face turns blue, and then it's time for duties. The American national response to the hurricane-caused New England flooding shows the limits of American faith in laissez faire. If the budget is balanced this year, there might be tax cuts next year, although "whether an increase in purchasing power through a reduction of taxation is the best formula at a time of galloping prosperity is another matter." The Brooklyn Dodgers are angling for a new stadium so they can finally win the World Series, but it's looking less likely because the Giants want one, too.

"Checks on Claims" The magazine explains the Land Reform Act, which introduces significant limits on mining claims on government land in the West, which have been used in very abusive ways. A similar article introduces the four-year extension of the Interstate Oil Compact, which unites 28 states under a commission that either regulates oil production to reduce waste, or to keep prices high, depending on who you ask. The latter group, the magazine explains, are just a bunch of sore-headed conspiracy theorists. Oil prices are actually kept high by Texas manipulating outputs. Glad to have that sorted out!  

The World Overseas

"Goa Reviewed" comes to us from Our Correspondent Lately on the Goan Border. What is happening on the front lines of this contentious effort by a democracy to recover a colony ruled by a fascist dictatorship? The Economist supposes that it is a bit of a damp squib because the Goans like being the colonial dependents of a fascist dictatorship. And speaking of democracy, it turns out that Marshal Pibul Songgram has brought a parcel of it back to Bangkok after his latest world trip, disconcerting patriotic Siamese who don't want democracy, we are told. Never mind, says Songgram, as it turns out that democracy is just the thing for purging his cabinet. It sounds as though everything will work out swell for the Marshal!  Something about those German trade unions and the strikes they are having now. The Colombian government has suppressed the national newspaper, suggesting that they might be becoming more dictatorial, because that is where you cross the Rubicon, and not, say, when you have a military coup. The Russians are being nice to Muslims because Communism is bad. Political events in New South Wales show that Australia is "returning to sanity." Rumania's annual economic report suggests that Communism hasn't been good for much of anything except for oil production.
 

The Business World

"Materials on the Tightrope" "In the past twelve months Britain and other West European countries have tasted abundance for the first time in fifteen years." Because they can finally afford cars, refrigerators, television sets and "other worldly goods," because industrial production in Western Europe  has risen by 20% in the last two-and-a-half years, and by 40% since 1950." So far this surge has only strained manpower, but now materials are showing some signs of strain. This is, in part, because, "after faltering for nine nerve-wracking months," the American economy is advancing again. It doesn't hurt that Europe has been importing U.S. finished steel to meet demand, particularly Germany. Copper prices are up because of strikes causing scarcity and the sale of the U.S. strategic reserve earlier in the year; aluminum because demand for it has been rising faster than even optimistic projections, rubber because of cars and because the Russians have the money to buy natural rubber again. It is only among agricultural goods that demand is weak.  

"Circus in the Air" "To say that the opening of the Farnborough air show this year finds the British aircraft industry on the defensive would be an exaggeration." But there sure has been lots of criticism! One of those criticisms is that the show has become a flying circus, to the detriment of the industry. France and Russia have held air shows that showcase technological development and production, whereas Farnborough has begged the RAF for some Hunters and Valiants to show that the industry isn't just in the throes of development, and is actually delivering some aircraft. Part of the problem, as shown by the Swift, is that the Ministry is demanding too much progress, too soon, and the industry is agreeing to try. The Javelin looks like it is going the same way, while the success of the Valiant, compared to "the other big bombers," is due to the manufacturer being less ambitious about performance. The de Havilland 110 and Folland Gnat were not received well, it is supposed, because they were not midern enough. It is suggested that not enough prototypes were ordered, leading to delays when they crashed. On the other hand, direct orders without prototypes might have led to too many modifications. On the other hand again, the Canberra and Viscount were accelerated into service, and didn't need many modifications. On the other hand, the engine picture is pretty good. It's just too bad that the industry won't be able to sell Hunters abroad in the numbers of the old Meteor and Vampire, which were sold to eighteen foreign air forces, because modern fighters are so expensive, and their uses are so limited. 

Business Notes

 

Is it time to panic about the pressure on sterling? Maybe. Who knows? Anyway, the point is that interest rates are going up, and stop complaining. Further increases in industrial output like the ones seen this spring are uncertain because labour costs are rising. The price of copper is hitting new highs.

"BOAC Without the Comet" The grounding of the Comet cost BOAC a fifth of its fleet at a single blow. The fact that it still made a profit last year is a testimony to its financial resilience. Combined with late Britannia delivery, BOAC has an aging fleet with which to accommodate, and maybe even drive the air-carried tourist trade. It has £87 million in advanced payments out already for replacement aircraft. Douglas, for example, already  has 25% of the payment for its DC7C order, and de Havilland will probably retain the money paid for Comet 1s and IIs for the IV. 

"The Radio Show" With the average size of televisions creeping up from 14 to 17 inches, and price to £70--£100, allowing manufacturers to experiment with cheaper  models with 12" sets and various other economies such as using fiberboard instead of plywood for the cases. Sales of 12" sets have fallen to just 8% of the market, but several manufacturers  have brought 12" sets to the Show "capable of receiving both BBC and commercial TV programs" at £50. The Show also saw better sound, but we're waiting for high fidelity tapes, instead of discs. 

"Competition and Suppression" Thorn Electric and Sylvania are already working together to produce florescent lamp tubes in Britain, and are now adding a line to produce the cathode ray tubes for 21 inch television screens, for which there is hardly a market right now, but will be soon, the way things are going. They also intend to undersell the current British standard of 1£ per inch and already  have a contract to sell half of their intended output to Fergusons, with the balance to be exported, with hardly any to be available as replacements for retail customers, who would get the direct benefit of the price savings. Which points The Economist launches into the air without coming to any kind of point. Maybe if I still had a London paper, I'd know what they were actually talking about. (Are other tube makers complaining about deliberate underselling?) It then pivots to the Post Office's decision to fine people operating electrical machinery that interferes with nearby televisions rather than impose new manufacturing standards requiring emission suppressors like the ones already required in refrigerators. The Economist thinks this is wrong, and so we have two stories, one about competition, somehow, the other about suppression. Cigarette sales have risen slightly, competitive gimmicks have got right back to prewar standards of ferocity. The rail strike cost the British Transit Commission £17 million, or about 14% of expected annual income. Wool prices are down, Durham Steel is issuing shares, Lancashire wool mills may adopt a second shift, British locomotive builders have failed to sell to India for the second year in a row, "a nasty shock for firms in this country." Germany, Japan, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary have picked up all the Indian business for steam locomotives,  mainly, it seems, on price. Oil tanker orders are starting to slacken in spite of continuing increase in world oil consumption due to all the tankers ordered in the last few years starting to come into service. Hudson's Bay Oil and Gas has finally shown a significant increase in its oil output, resulting in a bump in share prices that the ordinary shareholder has been waiting years for, but then there was profit taking and before you know it they were back to 5s 3d, and no-one cares how much you paid for Chicken Kiev at the Bay in Nelson last week, why are you holding this stock?

Flight, 2 September 1955

Leaders

"At Farnborough Next Week" Flight seems to be apologising for the Hunter on the grounds that an armament of 4x30mm cannon means that it's not fair to compare it to a more lightly armed fighter. Other than the Hunter and a mass flypast by Valiants, and the appearance of CF-100s, as noted by The Economist, this is "shaping up to be an engine year," as The Economist also notes, because the Gyron, Conway, Orpheus, and Viper. (Because I am not going to pretend that the Leonides Major is news.) 

From All Quarters reports that the Herald has made its first flight, that the F-100 has supposedly set a new speed record, that an Olympus-powered Canberra may have achieved a new height record. Bristol has entered into an eight year agreement with Solar Aircraft of LA for afterburner development. The founder of Lear must be on the outs with his board, because he is coming over to Europe for an eight week vacation with his family to sell Lear whatnots. Canada and Avro Canada may hae unloaded their flying saucer on the Americans. Westland's tiny Widgeon helicopter is new, and the English Electric P1 prototype is in the shop for an investigation after the cockpit flew off during test flying. Sweden is flying its first Hunter, and that report of the Hoover Commission on offshore procurement gets some more coverage as Flight explains why it is awful and wrong, and why Bernard S. Van Rensselaer, who was primarily responsible for the report, is ugly and smells bad.  More planes fly the Atlantic fastter, this time a Canberra setting a record. Details of the Comet 4 and various upcoming lectures get a cutout in the first case and a brief notice in the second. 

Civil Aviation reports that SAS is buying some Convair 404s, that BOAC and BEA have officially adopted the Smiths Flight System, and Singapore's new airport has been opened. Here and There reports the Do 27, that a Soviet jet bomber will be produced in Czechoslovakia, that the CAB has authorised a 20% reduction of air fares between NY and LA, so that American and United will offer coast-to-coast return for $160.  

Correspondence

A. W. Hill wishes that the P.1 could show up at Farnborough somehow, and thinks that some heads should roll. A. G. Lamplugh thinks that aviation should have some kind of retiree's association, while Stanley Udall recalls the old days, before the war. Averill Harriman regrets that the USAF doesn't have more B-47s, Lt. Cdr. J. S. Sproule is in Washington to show his "helicopter scoop net." The balance of the article is a catalogue of the British industry and its products, as is traditional for the pre-Farnborough article. 

The Economist, 10 September 1955

Leaders

The BofE didn't cause the Panic of 1858, the Dred
Scott decision did. But it was solved by the kind of
 ' unorthodox measures" Wilson is wagging his finger at

"Great Powers and Small"  It is tough for the United Nations because big countries and small countries are on equal footing in the General Assembly and that's maybe probably going to end up doing something about something, there's a page and a half about the imminent new session can I go home now! No? I have to do another page and a half on the TUC Congress? Blah blah, if strikes, then bad. And the aftermath of Geneva. Ahem. Radio propaganda is bad and it is bad that the Communists are better at  it. Good enough? Bye! The new Crofters Act will be good for the Highlands on account of how northern Scotland has emptied out for, well, everywhere else. The Economist explains why and then goes on to discern troubling aspects of the Act that may lead to trouble. 

Just by the way and apropos of not very much, "apartheid" is now a colourful way of saying "separate." "Colourful!" Ronnie made a funny! 

From The Economist of 1855, "Bank Rate" The Bank of England has put up the rate. The Economist of 1855 is impressed by its sound and solid management. 

Notes of the Week

There has been no progress in the talks on Cyprus, Russian aid for Bulgaria includes a line of credit allowing it to pay gold for Jugoslav exports, which is also good news for Tito. The Labour Party seems to be moving to the right under Gaitskell. Britain's Gross National Product last year was £15.7 billion, of which 14.5 billion ended up in private hands. Rents, professional, farm, and self-employed income, and social security income were all equal in the range of £1.5 billion each, and a bit more than that to income tax and national insurance payments, leading to the conclusion that spending power is concentrated in the  hands of three broad categories of "the middle classes" earning between £250 and £1000, and in conclusion what are you socialists complaining about? It turns out that the Russians are speculating about what Adenauer's visit REALLY means, too. The Economist has opinions about how the Germans are running their economy. The Colonial Secretary is back from Malaya, where his mediation cooled things down in Singapore. 

Sir Philip Joubert's complaints about Ministry of Supply aircraft procurement are found to be without merit by The Economist's  magisterium. The "Coloured Tide" isn't a bad thing, The Economist says, but, you know, the average Briton will probably get all racist, so even though it isn't bad, maybe something should be done. About prejudice, mind you! The latest report of the Ministry of Housing and Local Development celebrates the Tories' ability to get housing built by shrinking the size of council homes, but has no indication of the day when Britain can exit this awful era of building homes for poor people into the capitalist utopia to come. The French are sending another fifteen battalions to North Africa, which is bad for Nato, with 110,000 troops in Algeria and 60,000 in Morocco, half of French land forces not counting Indo-China. Not even The Economist can see a light at the end of this tunnel. Did you know that there is such a thing as the Liberal International, which met in Switzerland this week, because it's nice there this time of year. Meanwhile the Inter-Parliamentary Union had to settle for Helsinki, and was terrible, because it admitted bad people, like Communists and the Spanish, who admittedly are not at all Fascist. The BBC is not extending broadcasting hours after all because the government didn't come through with the money. The Economist explains why this is terrible. It's about free enterprise, curiously enough. The bloody clashes this week in Gaza show that Israel and also Egypt are terrible. Kenya, on the other hand, is quietening down. There are still 5000 British and 7000 African troops in garrison there, but the cost of bribing the Kenyans into peace is large and increasing and the British will probably find a way to ditch their commitments soon, and then what happens? Indonesia is trying not to be corrupt again. The Economist doesn't think much of the show the British Association for the Advancement of Science puts on these days. 

Letters

J. E. Meade offers a robust defence of high interest rates to maintain the soundness of sterling and castigates The Economist for not agreeing with him even more. D. I. Trotman-Dickson defends the East Kilbride Development Area. "International Relationist" defends the academic study of International Relations against The Economist's reviewer, who thinks it too scientistic. James Walters of the Cheap Food League is upset about new egg regulations that allow egg inspectors to enter private homes (ccops?) to inspect for irregular egg production. G. J. Fletcher seems as tired of Geneva-related effusions in the press as I am. 

Books

Not to be confused with Marguerite Harmon Bro, who popularised Edgar Cayce

R. G. Hawtry's Cross Purposes in Wage Policy is a compact but enlightening look at the theory and policy of wages from a new angle. Maybe so, but he goes on to argue that the pound was undervalued before the 1949 devaluation, and is still undervalued today, which seems just bizarre to me, but then I am just, etc., etc. John William Ward's Andrew Jackson: A Symbol for an Age gets a review that essentially just explains the title. Karl Gruber's Between Liberation and Liberty is Austria's Foreign Minister's history of the eight years of his ministry. Kathleen Jones' Lunacy: Law, and Conscience, is a history of British lunacy law from 1744 to 1845. It's a pretty good book, the reviewer says, summarising the history Jones recounts. Marguerite Harmon's Indonesia: Land of Challenge  is a book that is "pro-Indonesian without being anti-Dutch." C. H. V.  Sunderland's Art in Coinage, Edmund Hilary's High Adventure, and L. G. G. Ramsey's The Concise Encyclopaedia of Antiquities, Vol. II, are all worthy books in their various ways. Shorter notices of publications of letters in the proceedings of the Champlain Society, a history of Turkey by Harry Luke, looks at American law and agriculture, and one on labour disputes by Kurt Braun round out the feature.
 

American Survey 

 

"Too Many Businessmen?' Was it a mistake for the incoming Eisenhower Administration to put so many businessmen in the cabinet? Harry Truman is saying so. But much of the Leader is concerned with the problem of executive agencies in general, which have been brought into focus by the way that the businessmen appointed to them by the Administration might be too friendly to business, and, if so, what can, or should, Congress or the President do about it? The Prime Minister of Japan has come to Washington to be lectured on the need to buy more guns to fight Communism. In this particular article we do not talk about the possible drawbacks, as we do, sometimes. Chrysler has accepted the guaranteed annual wage to settle its strike, because, given sales, it can afford the estimated additional 24 cents/hour/per worker it will cost, which is a good excuse to append a very brief discussion of now Chrysler engineered its turnaround. Tensions are rising in Mississippi over the latest lynching, although it is not polite to call it a lynching and the not-unrelated fact that it is a racist nightmare. Farm incomes continue to fall, while food prices continue to rise. The first polio vaccination campaign in the United States has been declared a success, and the failure at Cutter Laboratories is somehow not anyone's fault, except what falls on the broad shoulders of the American government. The $64,000 Question sure is something. The Justice Department is going after the CIO for allegedly violating electoral law by broadcasting some pro-Democratic tv shows in Michigan, which may or may not be an attempt to stifle organised labour's freedom of speech.  American international investment is rising. 

The World Overseas

Two pages on Peron not being gone yet. Give me a pistol and I'll shoot him myself. Nothing against Peron, but how many words do you have to spend!!! We then peer into Morocco's future in an attempt to see anything but an independent country under King Sidi Mohammed. Sorry, that trick only works in Paris! There has been a very worthwhile Canadian-American meeting on trade and economic policy, but mainly the price of wheat. "The progressive withdrawal of American troops in Japan . . . [will be] an object of negotiation." The Japanese are especially upset at the arrival of Honest John rocket batteries, as they are completely irrational on the subject of atomic bombs. It is funny when changes in the party line lead to different tones in subsequent volumes of The Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Nothing much is happening in the Copper Belt, but especially with the price of copper, something has to, so here's two-thirds of a page about ongoing labour negotiations. 

Bizarre that increases in productivity 1935--53 aren't broken out of the data

The Business World

"Map of Manufacture" The seventh Census of Production since the war occasions an article about the politics of conducting the Census. A long one, sorry about harping on a theme! Still better than a long explanatory article about the Rating and Valuation Act of 1955! 

Business Notes 
 

Money, finance, gold reserves under strain, another "'Odd Year' Payment Crisis" in prospect? The Monopolies Commission is looking at copper, coal miners don't want Italian miners in the fields, industry is turning to oil, with production up 6% but coal consumption only up 2.5% year over year. Farnborough coverage is censorious. Too many inventions, not enough new or new production aircraft. Cocoa prices may have seen the worst, the Russians are selling more wheat internationally, and hire purchases are down thanks to tighter money, who would have guessed? Lead and zinc are up, too. Still no "conversion" on convertibility at the Treasury. 

Flight, 9 September 1955

Leaders

"Production: A Change of Method" Flight patiently explains that the point of Farnborough is prototypes and new planes, which isn't to say that there isn't a production problem. 

"America's Own Show" The National Aircraft Show was quite a show, and maybe there'll be some coverage eventually. 

From All Quarters reports that there is a new height record. Fl. Lt. Gibbs has reached 65,876ft in an Olympus Canberra. Martin Baker has conducted the first live altitude zero ejection seat test, shooting S/L Fifield out the back of a Meteor so fast that a parachute had time to decelerate him on the way down. (The Meteor was going 120 knots on the grass at the time.) More Valiants are in the Far East for no reason. Peter Masefield has left BEA to join the board of Bristol. We catch up with the latest versions of established British engine families announced for Farnborough. Proteus engine icing trials show that nothing is wrong at all. Blackburn is going to pick up Jowett Cars to build up manufacturing capacity in the Yorkshire area. Here and There reports that, well, nothing much, unless the crash of the prototype Swiss P-16 jet fighter is bad news for the prospects of the plane being produced. Someone at the Ministry decided that Farnborough Week was a good time to demonstrate the use of helicopters in marine air search and rescue. Civil Aviation looks at BOAC's report for 1955, but I won't scoop The Economist. Australian National is still flying DC3s. which is news. 

After a long look at the opening of the show we get Robert Blackburn, "Profit in Perspective: A Critical Survey of B.E.A.'s Report" He discovers that it isn't really making that much money. C. B. H. Barford, "The Lofoten Route: Flying On One of the World's More Remote Airlines" visits a remote Norwegian airline! Short discussions of rotor production, a postscript on the Helicopter Conference, and the Cessna 310 fill out some space. 

Correspondence

J. P. Alexander is pleased to hear that Flight is being read behind the iron Curtain. A. H. Wheeler is on about years ago, before the war. J. B. writes on the 717mph peak speed achieved by a Hunter flying from London to Edinburgh by noting the actual time it took, which is pretty much irrelevant for commercial aviation, since passengers don't care whether it takes 27 or 72 minutes to fly from London to Edinburgh. 

Letters

A. L. Williams of IBM writes to point out that Fortune misreported IBM's profit, doubling it. h. Schindler, Nathan A. Bailey, and Gerald C. Frewer have very different views on American productivity. Schindler points out that it is a consequence of the scarcity of American labour while Frewer thinks that thinking about it is crass materialism. Bailey is more of a booster. John Brennan of U.S. Pipe and Foundry in Birmingham, Alabama and M. A. Adelman have opinions about the Fortune 500. Brennan thinks that indexing them by the value of physical assets is unhelpful, while Adelman has doubts about ranking them by sales. C. R. Swisshelm of Crescent Tool Company to point out that while there are lots of monkey wrenches out there, only the Crescent Wrench is a crescent wrench. Ettore Lolli, an Italian banker in New York, sticks up for Italy, which isn't actually a "slow" country, in his opinion. Arthur Newfield of American Aviation points out that Fortune is greatly overstating the size of the American military's aircraft production backlog. 

Business Roundup reports that the boom is surging ahead, in the United States and the world in general, and that money is tightening, that farm production is up, but farm incomes are falling. Tooling is up, housing starts down. 

The Business Globe reports that Britain's current accounts are under pressure and that's why the British have raised interest rates and cracked down on hire purchases, because you just can't read that enough. There is still some room on the page for commercial television to start in Britain, with advertising selling at $2735/minute. Germany's boom might be affected by rearmament. Japan is taking away tax concessions that protected resident foreign businessmen from the country's high income tax rates, and they are protesting. The United States/Philippines tariff situation defies description. Fortune does its best to make the best of it. India's capitalists aren't happy with Nehru but not that unhappy, either.

Leaders

"Wising Up About Money" leads off with yet another explanation of why you raise interest rates during a boom. Shorter Leaders are on about how income taxes are too high, including the example of one $64,000 Question who passed on the next questions because he wouldn't make enough money after taxes to be worth taking a gamble on the answer. More American farmers are leaving the farm than ever, if American voters want to pay for highways they should write Congress, the Democratic Digest is trying to swim against the Liking Ike tide by pointing out that Grant wasn't much of a president, and they were both generals. 

Charles V. Murphy, "The New Air Situation" The Reds have planes now! Not more than American planes, to be sure, but too many. Then Perrin Stryker explains "The Vice-President Problem," about which I do not care. Gilbert Burck explores "The Rush to Diversify," explaining why American corporations are diversifying into new lines of business. 

Nathan M. Pusey, "The Exploding World of Education" explains that this very large country has lots of schools. Apart from the surprisingly large number of people who think that public schools are mainly venues for "United Nations propaganda." H. K. Porter, Sol Polk of Chicago, Ligget's, Coca-Cola, U. S. Gypsum and Alaska get articles. J. J. Brown's "How to Run a Stock Swindle" is a lot more entertaining, and may give you patriotic feelings, since it i s about Canadian gold mining swindles specifically. (Canada doesn't have a capital gains tax or an SEC equivalent, so it is the Wild West for this sort of thing.) The trick is to use direct sales phone calls to push up the price of the stock, then short it and make a mint. I sure hope that something is done about this soon! 

Spencer Klaw, "Salk Vaccine: The Business Gamble" explores the live-when-it-should-have-been-dead polio vaccine fiasco of the spring.  The basic explanation is that it was a crash program, and crash programs lead to mistakes and waste. 

History may not repeat itself, but this is one busted rhyme.