No Magic Wand

Some 3,000 members of the National Association of Manufacturers met in Manhattan last week to talk about business under the Republican Administration. Having racked up a record year in output, it was small wonder the manufacturers thought that doing business under the G.O.P. was just fine. But they were soon reminded that the new Administration can wave no magic wand to wipe out taxes and Government deficits.

"Additional tax reduction is desired by everyone," said Under Secretary of the Treasury Marion Folsom, onetime treasurer of Eastman Kodak and longtime NAMster in good standing. "But taxes can be reduced further only as expenditures are reduced." Folsom saw little hope for big cuts in spending; in fact, said he, with the excess-profits tax expiring and personal taxes about to be cut, there was already the prospect of a $7.5 billion deficit next year. In view of that, the Administration would oppose the cut in corporate-tax rates (from 52% to 47%) and the elimination of some excise taxes, both slated for April 1.

The NAMsters also touched on a subject that has recently caused some dissension in their own ranks: U.S. tariff policy (TIME, Nov. 23). But no one seemed upset as National Cash Register Co.'s President Stanley C. Allyn told them: "Lowering or elimination of tariffs do not provide the entire answer" to unbalanced world trade. However, said Allyn, customs policies should be re-examined with the goal of producing "a consistent tariff policy not subject to the whims of a changing economic climate."

As its new president, N.A.M. elected Los Angeles Paint Manufacturer Harold Chadick ("Chad") McClellan, 56, the first Pacific Coast businessman to get the job. Only six years in the N.A.M., McClellan attracted notice as the representative of a West Coast faction in an N.A.M. family argument, smoothed over the difficulty so expertly that he eventually wound up as regional vice president. ("I got acquainted with people, and the rascals put me to work.")

The son of a small-town minister, McClellan worked his way through Occidental College as a cantaloupe inspector and packer, cook and college janitor, was made head janitor when he devised a way to save the college 10% on cleaning expenses. After graduation he went to work for a creamery, and a year later was made sales manager. In 1927, McClellan decided to go into business for himself; for $10,000 he bought a rundown Los Angeles paint company. His company, which now employs 150, has increased sales in all but two of the years since, this year will gross about $2,500,000.

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