Facts & Figures

Back Talk. Armour & Co.'s Chairman George A. Eastwood had an answer to the Government's charge in an antitrust suit (TIME, Sept. 27) that meat packers had conspired to keep prices high, and thereby assure high profits. Because of the ten week packinghouse workers' strike and the upsurge in livestock prices last spring, Armour & Co. will wind up the year with a $2,000,000 loss on close to $2 billion in sales.

New Copilot. After 13 years as boss of Curtiss-Wright Corp., Guy W. Vaughan, 64, shifted some of the load to younger shoulders. As oldtime airman Vaughan moved to board chairman, William C. Jordan, 50, onetime vice president and general manager of Steel Products Engineering Co., became president. Vaughan hired Jordan away after the war, and groomed him for his new job by making him general manager of the Curtiss-Wright airplane division and later vice president and general manager of Wright Aeronautical, the engine-building division.

Wrong Decision? U.S. Rubber Co., which had just been fined $5,000 for conspiring to fix prices at home (TIME, Nov. 1), was in trouble again for its doings in the international market. Attorney General Tom Clark filed an antitrust suit against U.S. Rubber, its British subsidiary, Consolidated Rubber Manufacturers Ltd., and British Dunlop Rubber Co. Ltd. The charge: that the three companies had divided up the world rubber market, and prevented the unlimited flow of rubber products into the U.S.

Subtraction. The Railroad Commission of Texas, which governs state oil production, ordered oil men to cut output 10% in January. The reason: estimated demand in the first quarter next year will be 190,000 bbls. a day below present levels.

Subsonic Express. At Muroc (Calif.) Air Force Base, Northrop Aircraft, Inc. ran first flight tests on an odd-looking plane that seemed to have swallowed its tail. Called the X-4, it is a batshaped little (20 ft. long) craft with two jet engines and broad, backswept wings (see cut). No entry in the supersonic sweepstakes, the X-4 was designed in the belief that subsonic speeds will still be the practical concern of aviation for many years. It will be used for research at speeds of about 650 m.p.h.

Quarter Salesman. When he went down to his Detroit haberdashery one day when it was closed, Louis Dean Kilgore had trouble shaking off the window shoppers who wanted to follow him in. Disturbed over the business he was obviously losing in off-hours, "Red" Kilgore last week set up a coin-operated salesman in his front window. By inserting a quarter in it, an off-hour window shopper can verbally order any item on display, have his name, address and phone number recorded on a tape inside. Next morning, store clerks transcribe the tape, recheck with customers by phone, and send out the orders. Kilgore, who plans to manufacture and lease the gadget, already has more than 300 orders for it from other stores.

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