ATOMIC POWER may be speeded soon by AEC after hot congressional pressure to build more plants (TIME, Feb. 10). AEC would boost spending on civilian program from $124.3 million annually to about $200 million in next five years. Items: better research to cut high cost of uranium fuel, more Government money to build three new advanced reactors, higher price paid by AEC for byproduced plutonium to give industry healthier profit.

DRESS PRICES will creep up by summer as result of 8% wage increase won in dress strike (TIME, March 17).

U.S. TOURIST SPENDING will top last year's record $1.9 billion. American Express reports 660,000 Americans will visit Europe alone--10% more than in 1957--and hotel bookings are running as much as 50% ahead. Paris expects 420,000 dollar-laden American visitors, Brussels 400,000 (thanks to world's fair), Rome 313,300, London 300,000, Amsterdam and Madrid 210,000 each.

MARTIN'S TITAN ICBM will be test-flown this year. Air Force has successfully completed ground tests of 5,500-mile missile's components and inertial guidance system, which uses gyroscope rather than radio control.

KRESS FOUNDATION will exercise control of S. H. Kress & Co. variety-store chain. Four members of Kress's seven-man board were replaced with four foundation men. Company Chairman Rush H. Kress acceded to demands of foundation, which owns 42% of Kress common, after it threatened proxy war (TIME,

March 3) to change management, mainly because foundation's dividends from chain had been cut.

SOIL-BANK HANDOUTS will be boosted from $500 million to $750 million this year because so many farmers rushed to cash in on acreage reserve program, scheduled to expire in 1959. Boost will cut market for farm labor and supplies, pinch many rural merchants. Example: in Georgia each dollar paid by soil bank will take an estimated $3 to $5 out of circulation in farm towns.

$100 MILLION CONTRACT will go to General Electric Co. to design, build and test world's biggest known radar system. It will be first part of Air Force's $721 million missile early-warning system (TIME, Feb. 3) to detect ICBMs in flight several thousand miles away. Work starts soon in G.E.'s Syracuse plant, will buoy company's defense employment.

SANTA FE RAILWAY henceforth will serve only one of the three cities in its famed title--Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe. Kansas Supreme Court ruled that railroad, which has not served Santa Fe for years, could drop money-losing passenger service to Atchison, Kans. Line will serve Topeka only as alternate stop.

NEW AIR POLICY will encourage U.S. airlines to give more financial and technical aid to fledgling foreign lines, especially in Latin America. Program is being triggered by Defense Department fears that Soviets will move in if U.S. lines do not, and offer Russian jets (with accompanying "advisers") at hard-to-resist giveaway prices.

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