ATOMIC PLANE ENGINE has been getting air tests in the Southwest for the past month, the Air Force announced. Though the nuclear engine is not powering the plane, Convair has installed power-plant components in a B-36 at Fort Worth, is taking them aloft to study weight and radiation problems.

PRICE CUTS are spreading in appliance lines. After cutting appliance prices as much as 30% recently, General Electric will also give up its nationwide practice of "suggesting" retail prices on its TV sets to dealers. Competitor McGraw Electric is also giving more ground, will cut its bestselling Toastmaster 10%.

FLOOD INSURANCE may be tried under a $3 billion Administration plan presented to Congress. President Eisenhower wants the U.S. and the states to help individuals buy insurance otherwise unavailable from private firms. Householders and storekeepers will pay 60% of the premium, with the Government and the state splitting the rest. Top damage claim: $250,000 per person.

AUTOMATIC WAGE HIKES will go to a record 2,750,000 U.S. workers in 1956, says the Labor Department. Under long-term contracts designed to assure labor peace, 1,500,000 auto, farm machinery and electrical workers will get another 6-c- per hour; 850,000 transport and construction workers will get 8-c- to 11-c- more, and John L. Lewis' miners 80-c-.

AUTO TROUBLES in Britain are hitting the industry hard. With high taxes and skidding sales, so many cars are piling up that both Austin and Rootes Motors (Humber, Hillman and Sunbeam-Talbot) are cutting back production, putting workers on a four-day week.

SMALL-BUSINESS MEN will get a solid boost from the U.S. Government. Under a new "limited loan participation plan," split 75%-25% between the Small Business Administration and the borrower's local bank, even the smallest shopkeeper will be eligible for loans up to $15,000 plus a share from his bank for modernization and expansion. Heretofore, the problem of assessing the fixtures and inventory such stores usually offered as security was too complicated for the Government to handle. Now the banks will take on the job.

PARTNERSHIP POWER is making big strides in the Northwest. In a pair of reciprocal contracts Seattle's privately owned Puget Sound Power & Light Co. has agreed to sell the Chelan County Public Utility District its interest in the Rocky Island Dam and power plant near Wenatchee, Wash, for $28,300,000 and half its 250,000 kw. power output. In return, Puget Sound will get a 50% interest in 644,000 kw. of new power, which will be turned out by the P.U.D.'s projected $250 million Rocky Reach Dam to be built soon, will help by putting up $1 1/2 million to complete the engineering work.

LEOPOLD SILBERSTEIN, who built Penn-Texas Corp. into a $100 million empire (TIME, Oct. 3), is moving in on Fairbanks, Morse & Co. (1954 sales: $108 million). Silberstein will buy up to 15% interest (180,000 shares) in the Midwest industrial-equipment maker for an estimated $6,000,000, but insists that he will not start a proxy fight, merely ask for "representation on the board." Silberstein would have a tough time winning control anyway; The Morse family and the company management own some 30% of the company's voting stock.

LAS VEGAS BOOM is losing some of its glitter. High entertainment costs (up to $50,000 weekly for a top star) and disappointing business have forced the $5,000,000 Royal Nevada to shut down, the second hotel to fold in three months. One other, the Dunes, reports financial troubles, while three more new hotels abuilding--the Tropicana, Lady Luck and Stardust--are still not finished.

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