FREER TRADE POLICY has been upheld again by President Eisenhower. Overriding recommendations of the Tariff Commission, the President rejected any boost in import duties of screen-printed silk scarves mostly from Japan, has also turned down, a request for import quotas on wood screws from Western Europe. The presidential box score, thus far: eleven nays, eight yeas on requests for higher import barriers.

SUPER-HIGHWAY TRAVEL is growing so fast that the three-year-old, 118-mile New Jersey Turnpike is already obsolete. The $255 million toll road is now carrying the traffic load (102,000 cars on busy days) originally estimated for 1981, will have to be widened from four to six lanes along most of its length, at a cost of $26 million.

SYNTHETIC RUBBER SALE by the Government is nearly complete with contracts signed for 689,000 tons out of its total 865,000-ton capacity. So far, the U.S. has sold 22 of its 27 World War II plants (cost: $500 million), is now negotiating contracts to sell or lease four more. Among the buyers last week: Goodyear Tire & Rubber, which bought two plants with 116,000-ton annual capacity; Firestone Tire & Rubber, two plants with 130,000-ton capacity; Humble Oil & Refining Co., two plants with 89,000-ton capacity.

MEXICAN CATTLE will soon be flowing to U.S. markets for the first time in 19 months. Mexico has finally stamped out its epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease, and the U.S. will officially open the border on Jan. 1 to cattle crowding stockyards south of the Rio Grande.

RADIO & TV SET competition is getting so tough that Stewart-Warner Corp. (electronics, lubricants, auto and aircraft products) will get out of the business after 31 years. Stewart-Warner, whose gross dropped from $129 million to around $100 million last year, as a result of poor sales on home radio and TV sets, will close down its production lines for consumer goods, concentrate on developing electronic products for commercial and military customers.

AIRLINE STORM is raging over the Civil Aeronautics Board's preliminary decision to knock two Alaskan airlines out of their lucrative Stateside business. CAB has decided not to renew temporary permits for routes flown by Pacific Northern and Alaska Airlines between Alaska and the Pacific Northwest (43,013 passengers in 1953), letting Pan American and Northwest Airlines fly the routes alone. But the move has brought such a howl that CAB may be forced to reconsider.

FARM PRODUCTION for 1954 will be the fifth biggest in history despite drought and strict planting controls, says the U.S. Agriculture Department. Although corn, cotton, and wheat are all down, big gains in lesser crops (oats, barley, rye, etc.) will push the totals to well over 100% of the high 1947-49 average.

JET SPOTTING PLANES are in the works for the U.S. Army. The artillery, which now flies 130-m.p.h. spotters, wants a small plane fast enough to escape the radio-active blast from its long-range atomic cannon, and has asked several planemakers if they could handle a production order for such a plane. Leading candidate: Cessna's new, 400-m.p.h., T-37 twin-jet trainer (TIME, Aug. 9), now being produced for the Air Force.

PACKARDS will be cheaper on the West Coast next year as the result of a cost-cutting maneuver. To beat high shipping charges, the company will move part of its assembly out of Detroit to the Studebaker plant in Los Angeles, the first time in 50 years that Packards have been made anywhere but at home.

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