Facts & Figures

Glut. With a bumper wheat crop in sight, the Department of Agriculture thought it time to cut down. Out to farmers, for the first time in five years, went the once-familiar call to reduce planting. If the department has its way, farmers will plant 71.5 million acres next crop year, 8% less than this year. To build up cattle herds depleted by the heavy slaughter last year, the department also asked cattlemen to reduce slaughterings 7% next year.

High Ceiling. Real estate mortgages hit a record high of $33 billion, so the Federal Reserve Board thought it was time to tighten credit. It warned that an increase in mortgages would tend to raise house prices (already up 13% over last year) without bringing new building, which is limited by material shortages.

Scaled Up. Toledo Scale Co. came to the rescue of butchers whose prices have outrun the computing capacity of their scales. Toledo's new scale will have 39,000 new price computations (total: 129,000) for fractions of pounds.

Coalman. Railroad Juggler Robert R. Young juggled his high command. To run the coal-hauling Chesapeake & Ohio while President Robert J. Bowman is on sick leave, the board named a coalman, Walter J. Tuohy, 47, as first vice president. A graduate of De Paul University, Tuohy was boss of Chicago's Globe Coal Co. when he joined the C. & O. in 1943 as vice president in charge of coal operations. Still unfilled was the vacancy left by Financial Vice President William H. Wenneman, who resigned because "too many [C. & O.] activities have been undertaken for the sole purpose of attracting public attention."

Angel. The hard-pressed British film industry, aching from financial bruises despite the soothing balm of U.S. critics, got some help from the government. Because private investors have shied away from the industry, the Board of Trade set up a $20 million fund to lend to distribution companies and independent producers at low interest rates. The board hopes to step up film production enough so that British theaters can show British movies 45% of the time, thus meet the new quota regulations against U.S. films. Hod Royalty. With building trade wages at a record high, bricklayers in New York were up to $3.20 an hour, the Department of Labor reported. The national average for such work is $2.67, compared with $2.10 for all construction work.

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