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Sometimes trivial, often aggravating, occasionally frightening, hundreds of rulings by federal arbiters made life tougher for businessmen. Last month the U.S. Forest Service infuriated lumbermen by sharply curtailing the amount of timber that they may cut in national forests. Loggers insist that the conservationist-inspired move will drive lumber prices through the roof as housing construction rises. Last week the Food and Drug Administration made its 350th move of the year against dubious or dangerous products. Having discovered traces of poisonous mercury in test samples, officials persuaded grocers to recall nearly 1,000,000 cans of tuna from the shelves for further testing. Depending on how much of the total tuna pack is finally classified as unsafe to eat (none so far), FDA experts estimated that the loss to canners may reach as high as $84 million.
For polluters, former Interior Secretary Walter Hickel poured trouble on oiled waters. Prodded by Hickel, the Justice Department sued a subsidiary of Standard Oil of California for flouting federal safety rules before the Gulf of Mexico fire and oil spill blackened the Louisiana coast. A court fined the company $1,000,000, the largest penalty for polluting ever imposed on an American firm. State governments also struck blows for the consumer. Wisconsin's Supreme Court found J.C. Penney Co. guilty of violating the state's 12% usury ceiling by collecting 18%-a-year interest on revolving charge accounts. In similar cases, a Connecticut court ruled against Sears, Roebuck, and this month Minnesota sued Montgomery Ward.
The auto industry found that it was becoming the national scapegoat not only for air pollution but for a grab bag of the nation's ills. Urban congestion? The auto caused it. Land-scarring superhighways? Detroit's fault. Last week Congress adopted a strong clean-air bill requiring carmakers to produce a nearly pollution-free auto engine within six years—despite pleas from the industry that it needs more time to devise the necessary technology. Reports TIME Detroit Bureau Chief Peter Van-derwicken: "The industry is reeling from these attacks. Its leaders are hurt and baffled by the flood of criticism. They are on the defensive and acting like it."
Shape of Tomorrow. Consumer Crusader Ralph Nader kept winning plaudits —and practical victories. In part because of the safer autos that he helped force automakers to build, highway fatalities are expected to show their first significant decline this year since 1958. The toll will drop 2%, to about 55,400. Speaking of automen's accumulating problems, Henry Ford II predicts: "Never before has American business been under such great pressure to change. Neither business in general nor the auto business in particular will survive in its present form."
While it tries to cope with longer-term problems, management can take at least some short-term comfort in the widespread prediction that business will improve during 1971. By most measures, the recession is over. Having suffered the headaches of the hangover, business will benefit increasingly from the stiff anti-inflationary medicine imposed this year. For one thing, productivity will increase in 1971, probably by 4% or more. That will contribute to a rebound in profits and a moderation in the rate of price raises.