New, New, New, New, New

Last week with two years of recovery behind them, 500 crack U. S. sales executives assembled in Manhattan for a two-day display of enthusiasm. Secretary of Commerce Roper soothed them. Major Lawrence Lee Bazley Angas, British propheteer, titillated them. President Thomas J. Watson of International Business Machines belabored them. President Allen Zoll of the International Association of Sales Executives told them: "I am . . . persuaded you will have a Democratic Administration for the next five years-- whether you like it or not."

But the speech that brought the sales executives to their feet was made by Clarence Francis, executive vice president of General Foods and the man who is supposed to make that corporation hum. Cried he:

"The U. S. is ripe for a . . . replenishment program such as the world has never seen before. We need new cars, new houses, new clothes, new shoes, new radios with television, new air-conditioning in dwellings and work places. We need new foods, machinery, comforts and culture. We need to clean up and paint up. We need to raze thousands of antiquated factories and houses--rebuild, modernize."

Overproduction? "Pshaw!" snorted Mr. Francis. "We do not produce enough by a third." Last year, he declared, total production of U. S. trousers was only 14,500,000--one for every three males over 15. Only one overcoat was made for every eleven men; one felt hat for every four men. Output of shirts was two-and-a-half per man; of shoes two pairs per man. For women there were only three dresses per year, and coats and suits would only cover one woman in three.

Homes, Mr. Francis called "primitive." Three-fourths of the automobiles on the road are more than four years old. Farm machinery is dilapidated. Office equipment is antiquated. "Anything you choose to examine," said he, "is cluttered with wear and is simply crying for renewal and modernization."

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