Changes of the Week

P: Joseph F. Finnegan, 51, was nominated for director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (TIME, Nov. 22), succeeding Whitley P. McCoy, who resigned. A graduate of Columbia ('28) and Fordham Law School ('31), Finnegan helped pay his way through school by writing a question-and-answer column for investors in the Wall Street Journal and working on Brooklyn piers as a cargo checker. After a three-year stint as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, he joined a private law firm, and in 1948 hung out his own shingle. As background for his new $16,000-a-year post, Republican Joe Finnegan has done an impressive amount of arbitration and mediation work, approved by both labor and management, e.g., Mack Trucks, C.I.O. United Auto Workers, National Cash Register, C.I.O. United Steelworkers, Royal Typewriter.

P: Philip M. Talbott, 58, senior vice president of Washington's Woodward & Lothrop department store, was elected 1955 president of the National Retail Dry Goods Association. After graduation from Virginia's Randolph-Macon school, Talbott joined W. & L. ("Where my parents shopped when I was a kid. I sort of liked the store") and never left. Starting as a boys'-clothing salesman, he missed few rungs as he climbed, fitted in well with W. & L.'s character: dignified, with a folksy touch. Talbott predicts a 2 1/2% to 3 1/2% boost in total U.S. retail sales this year over 1954's booming over-the-counter business. But he cautions: "I'm a little afraid of complacency."

P: P. (for Peter) O. (for Olai) Peterson, 58, was elected president of Mack Trucks, Inc., succeeding E. D. Bransome, who continues as board chairman. Norwegian-born, Peterson was brought to Michigan by his parents when he was six. After high school he got into the auto business as a Buick car inspector, went to Studebaker in 1919, where he rose to be director of purchases in 1933, manufacturing vice president in 1947 and executive vice president in 1951.

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