GASOLINE price wars will probably get livelier because of the unseasonably high stocks on hand. In Oklahoma City, prices dropped from 30-c-to 23-c- a gal. and one eight-station chain has suspended operations; in some Pennsylvania areas, prices for regular grades have been chopped more than half, from 26-c- to 12 1/2-c-a gal.

UNION labor may soon have a daily newspaper on the West Coast.

The A.F.L.'s Teamsters' Union, headed by ambitious, bulletheaded Dave Beck, is reported to have paid $250,000 toward the purchase of the Los Angeles Daily News (circ. 188,453). Although News Publisher Robert L. Smith denied the report, union spokesmen say "there is a chance that some arrangements have been made."

STOCKBROKERS next week will get their first boost in commissions in six years. On stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange, buying and selling fees will increase an average of 18%, with a minimum of $6 on any transaction, a maximum of $50 on each 100 shares or less.

ATOMIC reactors for commercial use got a boost from the AEC.

For royalty-free use, the commission this week released the original patent on nuclear reactors which it got from Nobel Prizewinner Enrico Fermi and six other Italian scientists. Though atomic research has progressed rapidly, the patent is still basic for reactors.

CARTHAGE Hydrocol, the ill-fated synthetic gasoline company set up in 1946 and headed by ex-Republican National Chairman Guy Gabrielson (TiME, June 26, 1950), may be back in business before long. Stanolind Oil & Gas Co. wants to take over the closed-down Texas plant, pay off an $18.5 million RFC loan, and put another $25 million into expansion. The RFC, which is itself going out of business, is negotiating with stockholders to okay the deal, and thus get back the money it sank in the project.

CARMAKERS are testing mod els with turbine engines which burn cheap, diesel-type fuel. General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler all have turbine engines, but expect eventually to use the power plants chiefly in trucks and buses.

HOTELMAN Conrad Hilton has rung up his second big capital gain in less than a month (TIME, Oct. 19). Since he needed cash for his new $14 million Beverly Hilton which is scheduled to open in 1954, Hilton sold the 300-room Town House in Los Angeles to the Beverly Hills Development Corp., then leased it back under a management contract. Sale price: $3,600,000, four times what he paid for the hotel in 1942.

FREE baggage hauling will soon be stopped by eastern U.S. rail roads. The Interstate Commerce Commission has given 58 railroads east of the Mississippi (except New England) permission to charge 25-c- for every suitcase and 50-c- for each trunk a passenger checks through to his destination. (Baggage taken along by the passenger to his seat or bed room will not be affected.) FARMERS, whose estimated net 1953 income of $12.5 billion is 7% less than last year's, can expect about the same in 1954, predicted the Department of Agriculture. Prices of some farm products (beef, feed grains, wool) are expected to rise slightly, while production of most farm products will remain about at current levels. One exception: pro duction of pigs, which fell to the lowest mark in five years (84 mil lion), will probably increase from 5 to 10%.

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