YOUR MONEY'S WORTH

...With ample supply and prices 3040 per cent lower than a year ago, U.S...

...Astin's caliber will remain as head of the Bureau...

...Extension Food Marketing Program, 149 Church St., New York 7, N. Y. Refinishing Wood Floors...

...For every $10 a housewife spent for food during June, the farmer got $4.46, and middlemen—the transportation, processing, and distributing organizations—got $5.54...

...Shellac Information Bureau, 65 Pine St., New York 5, N. Y. Pots and Pans for Your Kitchen...

...Specifically at issue in the Astin dismissal was the Bureau's negative reports on the worth of AD-X2, a battery additive manufactured by Jess Ritchie, self-described as "basically a bulldozer operator" of Oakland, Calif...

...The critics seemed interested in how well it sold...

...Body changes are predicted for Buicks, Oldsmobiles, and Cadillacs, and more horsepower (surely just what we need) for Fords, Mercurys, and Chryslers . . . Low sodium canned food—vegetables, tuna fish, meat, and soups—are turning up on grocery store shelves...

...With an election coming on, the issue of government support will be as urgent as the current one of declining farm prices...

...New Madness Here we go again...

...Allen V. Astin, head of the Bureau of Standards, and AD-X2, the controversial product that claims to revive batteries, are likely to raise their eyebrows over the final results...

...The drop in farm income has not been reflected in lower food prices, with one exception...

...families have enjoyed a beef binge...

...It was an amusing if disturbing irony that the Committee, alongside Secretary Weeks' charge of insufficient "objectivity" against Astin and the Bureau, found itself open, more accurately, to a similar charge...

...Reflecting the decline in the farm machinery market, International Harvester has cut production at 17 of its 19 plants...

...The independent offices bill, which would have provided $186,000 for the FTC investigation, emerged from the House with the stipulation that no funds would be available "for a statistical analysis of the consumer's dollar...

...In the great domestic debate of whether or not we are headed for a recession, some crystal gazers interpret the decline of farm prices as a serious danger sign...

...Langer's amendment to give the FTC the green light on the consumer dollar study was defeated by a vote of 45-30—one more demonstration of the current lack of interest in the public interest...

...Secretary Weeks had not reckoned on the ire of scientists and citizens who rushed to the defense of Dr...

...Meat juices flavor the bun, the bottom half gets hot, the hamburgers can be quickly moved to a serving platter, and there are no pans to wash...

...individuals saved more money during the first three months of 1953 than in any quarter-year since the end of World War II...

...Consumers have benefited—this is the one exception—from lowered prices on cheaper grades of beef...

...The Bureau of Standards, as the St...

...On the contrary, the cost of living has continued to rise month after month to a higher peak, as every housewife —and farmer—knows...

...Free...

...Forest Products Laboratory researchers, Strenge says that an average house should not be painted more often than once every six years to avoid the breakdown of the paint surface called "cross-grain cracking...

...Testimonials, Astin replied, are often misleading...

...In testimony before the Committee, Dr...

...Free...

...Astin is reinstated as head of the Bureau, in the future Secretary Weeks, not the Bureau head, will decide whether or not a commercial product will be tested by the Bureau, and Secretary Weeks will decide whether adverse reports of the Bureau on a product are to be published...

...Tips on refinishing old floors...

...Because the Bureau found the claims of the product to prolong the life of batteries false, the Postoffice Department, under a fraud order, prohibited use of the mails by the AD-X2 company...

...Free...

...Louis Post-Dispatch said, "tried to measure AD-X2 by whether it was useful...

...In a test of it, Consumer's Union found that operation cost was about twice as high as operating a washer and dryer separately...

...The question of whether AD-X2 really does what it claims has not been settled and probably won't be...

...To Ritchie's insistence that the formula for AD-X2 was a "secret," Astin said that the ingredients were known down to "five parts per million" and that the magnesium and sodium sulphate (epsom and Glauber's salts), the two principal ingredients, used in a $36 carton could be bought at wholesale for five cents...

...We're still riding high...

...The furor began when the new Secretary of Commerce dismissed Astin (a Republican) with a challenge of the accuracy of the Bureau's report on AD-X2 and, more important, a question of the propriety of the Bureau's testing and public disclosure of the worth of a commercial product...

...Bricker, Ohio, William E. Jenner, Indiana, Joseph R. McCarthy, Wisconsin, Everett M. Dirksen, Illinois, and B. B. Hick-enlooper, Iowa...

...Those on low-salt diets are advised to look for cans listing the actual amount of sodium per serving instead of merely bearing a "low-sodium" label...

...The broiler can handle more hamburgers than an over-size frying pan...

...You find that true in the case of hair restoratives...

...Well-balanced menus and food-buying suggestions for a family of six...

...Prepared by the home economics staff at Cornell...

...While Dr...

...Last year it hired as a consultant Keith J. Laidler, a chemist at Catholic University, who was on AD-X2 manufacturer Ritchie's payroll after as well as before he went to work for the Committee— a situation hardly conducive to "objective" consultation...

...A guide for selection and care of kitchen utensils, with emphasis on cooking qualities of different metals...

...Hard-fisted American business men," he said, "couldn't be fooled that long...

...Astin as "head" of the Bureau—and point up the penetrating observation of columnist Thomas L. Stokes that "if the new managers of government were smart, it would appear that they would have kept the regulatory agencies sturdy and independent in order to protect business as well as the public from its own chiseling minority...

...What is known as freedom of the market place has prevailed...

...With farmers getting less for their products and housewives paying higher prices for farm products, who is getting the spread between...

...An investigation of that would be even less popular...

...John ^V...

...Astin's resignation...

...These results dampen the good news of retention of Dr...

...Lambert splashed its campaign despite an advance criticism of the American Dental Association that Lambert's "actual or implied claims" are "premature...

...Paul Douglas, Illinois Democrat, said that the FTC study for the benefit of the public "would have cost only a fraction of what the average Congressional committee spends...

...Colgate and others will join the race to convince us we can prevent dental decay by a new concoction...

...Its principal value is space-saving, for it cuts the width needed by two feet . . . The year of 1954 won't be one of major changes in cars...

...Astin stuck to his support of the Bureau's tests which found AD-X2 worthless...

...Former President Truman asked the FTC to break down the dollar spent for key items like food, to find out how much of that dollar went to the farmer, wholesaler, middleman, retailer...

...Are Home Freezers and Frozen Food Plans for You...

...Asked Secretary Weeks: "Should government, through regulatory bodies, the courts, and scientific agencies, test the merits of new products and the soundness of claims made for them, or should this function be left to the test of the market place...

...To those who thought that question had been answered long ago, when Congress established agencies like the Bureau of Standards, Federal Trade Commission, and Food and Drug Administration for the protection of the commonweal against health menaces, deception, and fraud, the Secretary of Commerce's query sounded like a Rip Van Winkle emerging from a sleep of twenty years or longer...

...Astin and the Bureau's 30-year record as a non-political, impartial testing agency...

...Astin and Epsom Salts Consumers who have followed the case of Dr...

...10 cents...

...Among the anti-FTC Senators from agricultural states where farmers and housewives alike would benefit from knowing where the food dollar goes were Sens...

...We don't know if that is a fair or unfair return—middlemen's costs, especially labor and transportation, have gone up steadily...

...The combination washer and dryer, the Ben-dix Duomatic, costs about the same as separate units ($499.95), takes up less space, requires no bolting, and may need special wiring...

...A handbook of uses...

...Reporting the results of 15-year experiments by two U.S...

...We continue to buy on credit and save, simultaneously...

...The postoffice fraud order has been cancelled, and AD-X2 can be sold to anyone who wants to spend the money for the salts that claim to prolong the life of batteries...

...Soap-and-water ways to keep household equipment clean...

...We haven't distinguished ourselves as thrifty meat buyers during this record beef period as, the country over, consumers have passed up the economical lower grades of beef for expensive steaks and roasts...

...It is good that a scientist of Dr...

...Ritchie cited repeat purchase orders as testimonials of the worth of AD - X2...

...Advantages and disadvantages of freezers and commercial frozen food plans...

...The Senate Small Business Committee took up the case, and it's sad to report that the result was a comic opera performance...

...A delicious, easy method is to spread the meat on the bottom half of the bun, letting it overlap to allow for shrinkage...

...Your Money s Worth By MARY SHERIDAN ONE of the most difficult issues that will confront the Eisenhower Administration and Congress next January is what to do about farm policy in an election year...

...One brushing, say the Lambert ads, will keep teeth immune to decay all day long...

...Net income of leading corporations for the first half of 1953 was 18 per cent higher, after taxes, than a year ago...

...10 cents...

...112 Easy Ways to Chase Dirt...

...Free...

...It's very easy to convince people that these products actually help them grow hair even though they may have no value whatsoever...

...Consumers Service, Pierce & Stevens, Buffalo 3, N. Y. Shellac...

...Against these disturbing facts, optimists point out that employment and personal incomes are still high...

...This is a reversal, in response to public pressure, of Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks' demand last spring for Dr...

...The current advertising madness to compete with the previous frenzies over ammoni-ated and chlorophyll dentifrices is Antizyme, a new tooth paste launched with a two-million dollar advertising campaign by the Lambert Co., makers of Listerine...

...A candidate for the most popular article of the year is "Don't Paint Your House Too Often" by F. A. Strenge in the October issue of Science and Mechanics...

...Wlien the bill came up in the Senate, Sen...

...Farm prices have dropped more than 12% since last year, and the farmer's share of the food dollar has shrunk to 44 cents...

...No Breakdown of the Dollar We might be on a straighter road to understanding the complicated problem of farm prices if the present Congress had not killed the Federal Trade Commission's investigation of where the consumer's dollar goes...

...The testing agency found it as effective as the best of automatic washers, and, as a dryer, slower than any of the separate clothes dryers previously tested...

...Sen...

...Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D.C...

...Because of that drop in income, farmers spent at least 10 per cent less for new equipment in the first six months of this year...

...In a statement that had little if any publicity, Sen...

...Other indicators of trouble ahead are the increasing repossessions of TV sets, the leveling off of defense production, the slump in the used car market, the growing battle for sales of automobiles and appliances, the slow-down in building, tighter credit, higher interest rates, and a staggering, still rising consumer debt of 87 billion dollars (60 billions in home mortgages, about 20 billion in installment debt...

...the Securities and Exchange Commission has reported that U.S...

...William Langer, North Dakota Republican, was the one to point out that the restrictive curb on the FTC's authority to investigate in the public interest was without precedent since the agency's creation in the Wilson Administration...

...The ads merit the scrutiny of the Federal Trade Commission, but, with the FTC now dominated with men distinguished by their devotion to business over public interests, it's more likely that they will be left unexamined in the marketplace...

...Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D.C...

...Pertinent Pamphlets Food [or Families with School Children...

...Association of American Soap and Glycerine Producers, Inc., 295 Madison Ave., New York 17, N. Y. Notes One of the good things coming out of the last Congress was approval of an inspection amendment which gives the Food and Drug Administration the right to inspect food, drug, and cosmetic plants...

...Secretary of Agriculture Ezra T. Benson has indicated that he will seek a revision of the present system of high price supports, which expire at the end of 1954...