Time Clock, Jan. 28, 1957

Monday, Jan. 28, 1957

    • WORLD'S BIGGEST SHIP, a 106,000-ton tanker, will be built for Spyros Niarchos at Bethlehem Steel shipyards in Quincy, Mass. Giant ship is expected to go into service in 1958.

    FAIR-TRADE PACTS with dealers are being abandoned by Bell & Howell because "enforcement of Fair-Trade agreements [is] no longer feasible."

    TRAILER FERRY service to Europe is starting with shipment of 97 loaded truck-trailers from Brooklyn to France. TMT Trailer Ferry, Inc. is chartering 475-ft. transatlantic ferry Carib Queen to Army, expects to begin commercial trips by March. Company figures roll-on, roll-off shipments will cut shipping time by two-thirds, trim packaging and handling costs.

    COUNTERATTACK against Financier Leopold Silberstein is being pressed by Robert H. Morse Jr., whose control of Fairbanks, Morse & Co. is challenged by Silberstein's Penn-Texas Corp. in proxy war (TIME, Dec. 17). Morse has bought 1,100 shares of Penn-Texas stock, is helping finance dissident stockholders trying to unseat Leopold Silberstein from Penn-Texas presidency.

    MISSILE PRODUCTION will be started by Temco Aircraft Co., No. 1 U.S. airframe subcontractor. Dallas firm has just won $16 million Navy contract to develop secret new missile, will increase its 750-man engineering force by 50%.

    U.S. FARM-SURPLUS SALES are heading into trouble abroad. Japan, second biggest foreign buyer of overflow U.S. crop, will not sign surplus purchase pact for fiscal 1958 because "produce has been generally bad in quality, import procedures have been extremely cumbersome, huge amount of U.S. farm produce has tended to hamper trade between Japan and other countries."

    NEW PACKARD CLIPPER, out this week in two body styles, will have supercharged 275-h.p. Studebaker engine and automatic transmission as standard equipment. First Packard station wagon since 1950 is listed at $3,093, and four-door sedan at $2,933.

    ATOM-POWERED PLANE and nuclear-driven missile development are being sped by U.S. Budget for fiscal 1958, which includes $91 million for aircraft, missile reactors, almost double the 1956 cost of $49.6 million.

    EASIER CREDIT for small business is being pushed in Congress. Chairman Sparkman of the Senate Small Business Committee is calling for creation of privately-operated national investment companies, financed in part by Federal Reserve banks, to make long-term loans and invest in stock of small companies. He also wants Government to insure 90% of value of any small business loan up to $250,000.

    LABOR POLICY FIGHT over whether U.S. should pull out of International Labor Organization is turning in favor of I.L.O. New report by committee of business-endorsed experts, saying I.L.O. can be effective anti-Communist instrument, should make the difference when issue is voted on in next fortnight by National Association of Manufacturers, U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Some members of the two groups had questioned whether I.L.O. is socialistic, especially since Communist countries also belong.