Business: Halfway to a Record

To no one's surprise, the first wave of midyear earnings last week showed that 1959's upsurge in profits, so striking in the first quarter, had picked up even greater momentum in the second. From companies across the broad spectrum of U.S. industry—most of them old-line firms showing new vitality—came the heartiest figures to grace many a balance book in years. Items:

JOHNS-MANVILLE. The building boom pushed company sales of materials up 17% over last year to a six-month record of $176 million, lifting earnings 71% to $1.80 a share. Said President A. R. Fisher: Earnings and sales were "substantially greater than in...