TIME CLOCK

SECRETARY of the Treasury Humphrey's campaign to put more of the public debt in the hands of individuals is beginning to pay off. So far this year, sales of series E and H savings bonds have soared 26% (to $2.6 billion). Even more important, Americans have stopped cashing in savings bonds faster than they buy them.

UNION Pacific Railroad Co. is out to get more families to travel first class on its line. Next month, it will become the first U.S. railroad to offer special family rates on first-class tickets. Fathers will pay full fare, wives and all children under 22, half fare.

THE Rockefellers, heavy buyers of Manhattan real estate in recent months, have New Yorkers guessing over their latest acquisition: 80,000 sq. ft. of land across the Avenue of the Americas from Radio City Music Hall, for an undisclosed sum. A likely guess is that they plan to expand Rockefeller Center to provide more studio space for the expanding TV industry. Meanwhile Rockefeller Center, Inc. last week sold (then leased back) 60,000 sq. ft. of its land to Columbia University, which already owned the rest of the site. Price: $5,500,000.

GOVERNMENT oil experts, who talked last spring of a coming surplus, have changed their tune. Now they expect oil demand to keep climbing for at least nine months, top last year by about 5.5%.

THE elevator trend to robot machines is growing. Otis Elevator Co. is building 30 operatorless elevators for Prudential's 41-story Chicago offices, and robot elevators now account for 75% of Otis' sales, v. only 12.6% in 1950.

A BIG battle is shaping up among farm implement makers. While Ford is preparing to jump in with a big new line of farm machinery (TIME, Aug. 10), British Inventor Harry Ferguson, once Henry Ford's "only partner," is merging with Canada's Massey-Harris. With five plants in the U.S., four in Canada, and others in England, Scotland, South Africa, France and Germany, the new company, Massey-Harris-Ferguson, Ltd., will be the world's third largest farm implement maker, and plans to challenge International Harvester and Deere for first place.

EAST-West trade is steadily growing despite restrictions. New Zealand has quietly signed a deal to sell 500 tons of butter to Russia, and is dickering to ship even larger quantities of meat to Poland. Russian oil has begun to be sold in Italy, France and Argentina, and may soon be flowing in bigger quantities to Greece and half a dozen European countries currently negotiating barter agreements.

AUTO dealers are being warned by the National Automobile Dealers Association to stop talking about falling car prices (TIME, Aug. 3). Reason: dealers' gloomy talk has already caused cancellations to roll in from buyers. Says the association: "Sad songs are contagious."

CLEVELAND Industrialist Cyrus Eaton, who recently tightened his control over the big West Kentucky Coal Co., is reportedly negotiating for other non-union coal companies. His good friend John L. Lewis, a longtime Eaton collaborator, also figures in the deal. Coal operators believe that Eaton will dramatically accept unionization of his coal properties, and that Lewis' treasury will help finance Eaton's new coal ventures.

SMALL-Business Administrator William D. Mitchell is working on a new plan to help small businessmen: pools of local capital patterned after the Maine Development Credit Corp., which has loaned $690,000 to small enterprises in the last two years. Mitchell hopes the pools will enable recession-hit cities like Portland, Ore. and Lawrence, Mass. to help themselves.

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