STEEL BUYING is picking up on the off-chance of a strike by the C.I.O. Steelworkers, who will soon present new wage demands. Actually, neither industry nor labor feels that it would be much hurt by a short strike. High steel inventories would drop and Steelworkers, now working only part time, would not lose too much in wages. Final settlement will probably be around a 5ยข-an-hour increase in pay, including fringe benefits.
GENERAL MOTORS paid its President Harlow H. Curtice a grand total of $637,233 in salary, stock and cash bonus in 1953, the biggest money ever given a G.M. executive, surpassing Charles...