Business: Fizzle

General Electric’s Charles E. Wilson sounded disillusioned. Two months ago he had slashed the prices of about half G.E.’s products (TIME, Jan 12), hoping to start a “chain reaction” of lower prices from industry and head off an inflationary third round of wage increases from labor. What he got, said he, was sneers and new wage demands from the CIO union at G.E. (which G.E. turned down this week), and price hikes by many another company. Said Wilson: “An expensive gesture.”