Americana

P: In Forest City, Iowa, Furniture Dealer John Hanson dramatized the U.S. farmer's prosperity in a new way. He scrubbed the dollar signs off his price tags, substituted a figure in hog-pounds. When one of his customers came in with a load of fourteen 220-lb. hogs, Dealer Hanson did a little quick figuring. At 1941 prices, he pointed out, the hogs would have bought one 9-cu. ft. refrigerator. Last week the customer got not only the refrigerator, but an electric range, an automatic toaster--and $20 in change.

P: David M. Kellogg, 34-year-old Seattle veteran who was awarded Russia's Patriotic War Order, First Class, as commander of a U.S. destroyer escort in the North Atlantic, discovered that his medal carried a monthly pension of 20 rubles for life. Fortnight ago he walked into the Soviet consulate in San Francisco, walked out with $462.79, for 26 months' back pay.

P: The U.S. people (whose income has more than quadrupled since 1932-33) were giving proportionately 38% less to charity, said the Golden Rule Foundation.

P: The observation tower of New York's Empire State Building, jumping-off place for many suicides (four this year), was finally fenced in with a jump-proof rail.

P: Manhattan's Loew's State Theater, one of the last strongholds of oldtime four-a-day vaudeville, announced that it was switching to double features.

P: Over redcaps' protests, eastern railway stations upped the fee for each bag from 10-c- to 15-c-. The redcaps figured that the higher the fee (all of which goes to the terminal), the smaller the tip.

P: As Arizona's grapefruit crop went to the canners, growers, as usual, dumped 50 tons of culls (undersized fruits) on the desert, to keep the price up. Local residents, as usual, promptly picked the dumping ground clean.

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