TRUCK WAR between Ohio and 19 other states over Ohio's stiff axle-mile tax (up to 2 1/2-c- a mile per truck) on all trucks traveling in the state may be eased by the state legislature this year. Not only have Ohio truckers lost their freedom from local taxes in other states, but the law itself has been a flop; instead of bringing in $20 million in new revenues, it has netted only half that amount and helped drive 18 firms out of the state.

OIL MERGER is being talked over by Mid-Continent Petroleum Corp. and Sunray Oil Corp. Both firms would benefit by combining. Sunray has more reserves (more than 359 million bbls. of oil, 1.5 trillion cu. ft. of gas) than it can process, and Mid-Continent must buy most of the oil it processes. Combined assets, if the two merge: $475 million.

GENERAL SHOE CORP., fourth biggest U.S. shoemaker, will soon make an even bigger play for the women's luxury market. The company, which last year bought I. Miller & Sons (TIME, Dec. 28, 1953), is negotiating for Manhattan's Delman Shoe, Inc.

COLOR TV PRICES will start dropping soon. RCA has just cut the price of its new 21-in. tube (from $175 to $100), which may mean a $125 to $150 reduction in the cost of completed sets, now around $900.

EXECUTIVE PAY is lagging behind corporate profits, says the American Management Association after a poll of 2,500 companies and their officers. In the past five years corporate earnings have jumped 28%, but executive compensation (salary, bonuses, etc.) has increased only 23.5%.

BRITISH MUSIC INDUSTRY is moving into the U.S. market. Electrical & Musical Industries, Ltd., the RCA of Britain, has bought 52% control of Capitol Records, one of the U.S. big four (1954 sales: more than $17 million), from President Glenn Wallichs, Composer Johnny Mercer and the estate of Composer Buddy De Sylva.

TITANIUM PRODUCTION will be nearly tripled by 1956, largely because of a new $25 million plant just opened by Crane Co., makers of "everything and the kitchen sink." Crane expects to become the biggest U.S. titanium sponge producer by boosting output to 6,000 tons annually by 1956, some 2,000 tons more than total U.S. production last year. Expected Crane sales from the new plant: about $90 million annually.

GAS-TURBINE SHIP will soon be plying Atlantic sea lanes for Shell Oil Co. After five years of experiments in Britain, Shell engineers have developed the first successful 5,500 h.p. gas-turbine engine to hook up to a ship's propeller-shaft, will install it in the redesigned hull of an 8,200-ton tanker for faster speed and more economical operation.

TRANS WORLD AIRLINES may be the first U.S. carrier to move into long-range turboprop transports. It is dickering on a $100 million deal with Lockheed for 1957 delivery of 25 new 1449-model Constellations fitted with four 5,500-h.p. Pratt & Whitney T34 turboprop engines. New plane is designed to carry up to 99 passengers, cruise nonstop across the U.S. at more than 425 m.p.h., about 60 m.p.h. faster than current piston-engined DC-7s.

COAL PRODUCTION may rise this year for the first time in four years. Industry experts think increased steel and electricity output will boost coal production from its 1954 total of 395 million tons, lowest since 1938, to around 440 million tons, a healthy 11% boost.

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