CONGRESS will probably agree if the Administration wants to keep the corporate tax rate at 52% instead of dropping it to 47% as scheduled, predicts Speaker Joe Martin. But he doubts Congress would pass a manufacturers' sales tax.

SHORTAGE of titanium, the newest wonder metal for jet planes (TIME, June 15), is still so severe that Air Force Secretary Harold Talbott wants Congress to authorize a subsidy to the industry to help boost production immediately. Current production is only about 2,800 tons a year, and planned production of 25,000 tons by 1956 falls far short of needs. Talbott wants to subsidize the industry with Government-guaranteed loans, a rapid tax write-off, and Government contracts to buy all it can produce.

RUSSIA has upped its oil production to an estimated 1,000,000 bbls. a day from its own and satellite fields (U.S. production: 6,000,000 bbls. a day), now probably has all it needs for its cold-war economy. Storage tanks are brimming, and the Reds are selling oil to Sweden and Denmark, even offering to sell drilling rigs to South America.

COLUMBIA Broadcasting System, which owns six radio stations and has minority interests in three others, will have to sell some of its holdings. A new FCC rule limits holdings to seven AM stations and defines holdings to include minority interests.

JAPAN Air Lines, the only scheduled Japanese airline operating since the war, has sent its first route-breaking plane across the Pacific in 31 hours, The airline will start regular biweekly, 32-hour service (v. 30 1/2 hours for Pan American) from Tokyo to San Francisco in February, with three Douglas DC-6Bs, eventually plans to extend its routes to Southeast Asia, Europe and South America.

TECHNICOLOR Inc., which has been hard pressed to keep up with movie demands, has decided to share its secrets in expectation of new business from color TV. The company signed a 20-year royalty agreement with De Luxe Laboratories, a 20th Century-Fox subsidiary which will build a $1,500,000 printing plant to turn out 170 million feet of color film a year, the deal will increase present Technicolor film output by about 25%.

CATTLEMEN may no longer have to gamble on which calves to sell off and which to keep for fattening. Dr. H. O. Kunkel, a biochemist at Texas A. & M. College, worked out a blood test that showed, on 300 cattle, which ones would gain the most weight.

BANNER year is predicted by the two biggest automakers for 1954.

Chevrolet expects to sell close to 1,700,000 cars and trucks next year, only 100,000 short of the alltime high set in 1950, and Ford is tooling up for record production. Said Henry Ford: "I expect automobile production the first of the year to be the highest in U.S. history."

CORTISONE price war, already hot, will probably get even hotter soon. Two of the biggest makers of the new drug, Merck & Co. and Upjohn Co., have cut prices 22%, the second such reduction in recent months. Reason for the cuts: new techniques have upped production tremendously.

RUBLE offensive by Russia is making headway in Britain. After getting Admiralty approval, an agent for British shipyards is going to Moscow to close a deal for a reported 30 trawlers (which can be converted into minesweepers) and five fish-factory vessels.

WINTER cruises will have their biggest boom this year since the war. Shipowners are adding about 50% to the cruise fleet by transferring some of their vessels from the stormy transatlantic run, expect a record total of 65,000 passengers v. 35,000 last year, most of them headed for the West Indies and South America.

PRATT & Whitney's J57 jet, most powerful engine in production, will go into two more U.S. military planes. The engine, already slated to power three new Air Force fighters and the B-52 bomber, will also be used in the Navy's Douglas F4D "Skyray" fighter and Douglas A3D twin-engined light bomber.

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