SELLING: The Expense-Account Society

The whole rationale of the expense-account society—aside from the benefits reaped by free-spenders of the company's money—is that the uninhibited use of high-priced food, liquor and gifts helps mightily in making a sale. Not so, says Clarence B. Randall, retired board chairman of Inland Steel, in a caustic attack on "The Myth of the Magic Expense Account" in the current Dun's Review. After 30 years in the executive suites of the nation's eighth largest steelmaker, Randall, 69, believes that "this orgiastic abuse of the expense account is a spectacular and alarming trend, participated in by enough companies and individuals...