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Show I Bits O' Business 1 And I Things To Come ' BITS O' BUSINESS 1 TV enthusiasts who have been busy announcing radio's early demise may have a surprise coming. Radio sales will be higher high-er during the next five years than even in the 1935-39 period, predicts RCA vice president Joseph Elliott. The novelty of television is already wearing thin, Elliott believes. . . A comparative com-parative look at yesterday's and today's population and cigar-consumption cigar-consumption figures presents a pretty clear picture of what's 1 happaning to the stogie-makers' business: In 1900, with 76,000,- 000 people in the country, 5,500,-000,000 5,500,-000,000 cigars were smoked. Today, with population doubled, doub-led, the "rope" burning rate is just about where it was 50 years ago. . . Prefabricated house builders, who never quite fulfilled ful-filled glowing pre-war produc- I tion promises, seem to be com- j ing into their pwn at last. Many firms are topping last year's sales figures by 200 pe cent and more. One producer, Gunnison Gun-nison Homes, Inc., boasts a: thumping 815 per cent boost, , , Congress won't OK any potato: price supports after 1950 unless controls are clamped on spudi output. The Agriculture Depart-! ment can't order the curbs without with-out Congressional authority. The I stalemate may doom potato price props by the year's end, since ' it doesn't look as though the lawmakers will get around to ! providing the necessary sanction. sanc-tion. THINGS TO COME Here's a "plug" for an elec trie wall outlet: It's made with . a rotating cap which automatically automat-ically seals off the socket when the plug prongs are withdrawn. Object: no shocks for prying 1 little fingers. . . . Versatile is the word for a new plastic whiskbroom. The bristles telescope tele-scope into the handle, permitting permit-ting a variety of whisking jobs: clothes - brushing when pulled out full, upholstery - cleaning when telescoped half-way, and shoe-brushing when shortened enough to stiffen the bristles. To top it off, the brush is washable, wash-able, too. ... If the grass is always greener in the other fellows fel-lows yard,' use a new du Pont-developed Pont-developed organic sulphur coating coat-ing compound for your seed. It not only keeps grass from rotting, but also nourishes it when it starts growing. . . . Retracting rubber-mpunted rol-I rol-I lers simplify furniture shifting I for TV viewing. Attached to the I inner frame of a chair, they , drop in place when the seat is tilted, snap back when it's righted. |