Facts & Figures

Alarm Signal? Business inventories in February, said the Department of Commerce, reached a new high of $42,750,000,000, up 3% from the month before. With a worried frown, the Department noted that only 30% of the $757,000,000 increase was due to a seasonal slack in sales; the rest was caused by growing buyer resistance.

All Clear. Western Union Telegraph Co., in the red so deeply a year ago that some suggested that the Government take over, staged a remarkable comeback. For 1947, it reported $11,000,000 profit--enough to pay a $1-a-share dividend. The reasons: new rates on Government traffic and windfall business during the telephone strike.

Sparkler. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. brought out its Raleigh cigarettes in a shiny new aluminum foil package, now being tried out in Detroit. The pack, stronger and more moisture-proof than paper, was developed by Reynolds Metals Co. Raleigh hopes to offset the higher material cost by production savings in wrapping the single-sheet unit.

Dispersal. Chance Vought Aircraft Division of United Aircraft Corp., now making F4U-5 Corsair fighter-bombers for the Navy at Stratford, Conn, will move to a Navy plant at Dallas, Tex. to build F6U-1 jet-propelled Pirates. While the move is under way, Corsair production will be tapered off at Stratford and jet production started at Dallas. The shift, which will take several months to complete, is under the Government's policy to disperse war plants. Other reasons: Dallas has better flying weather and a larger airfield for experimental flights.

Reopened Door. After months of negotiations Cities Service Co., and Antonio Bermudez, boss of Mexico's government-owned oil monopoly Pemex, signed a historic agreement in Mexico City. The deal brought a major U.S. oil company into Mexican oil development for the first time since 1938, when expropriation drove most foreign companies out. Under the deal Cities Service will set up a Mexican subsidiary (Mexico-Cities Service Petroleum Corp.) to provide the capital, and presumably the machinery and technical help, for Pemex's development of a million-acre tract in northeastern Mexico.

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