STATE OF BUSINESS: Facts & Figures, Sep. 1, 1947

Five Straight. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that wholesale prices reached a new postwar high, rising 0.3% to 152.7% of the 1926 average.

Corn Casualties. Hot weather in August shriveled corn crop prospects by another 223 million bushels. The Department of Agriculture put the total 1947 yield at 2,437 million bushels, the lowest since 1936. As a result, meat supplies will probably be sharply reduced next year, meat prices sharply raised.

New Numbers. American Telephone and Telegraph Co. will ask its stockholders to authorize the largest financing transaction in U.S. corporate history—a new issue of $354 million convertible debentures. With this sum, the funds raised by A.T. & T. for postwar expansion will reach a whopping $1,220 million.

Free Play. The Securities & Exchange Commission finally published the results of its exhaustive inquiry into the causes of last fall's sharp break in the stockmarket. There was no evidence, said the report, that manipulators were to blame. In fact, said SEC, the drop of 10½ points last Sept. 3 was the result of no more than "the free play of different opinions as to when to buy and when to sell."

Down with Boston! Governors of four of the nation's big wool-producing states —Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming—began a concerted drive to break Boston's domination of the wool business. Colorado's Governor William Lee Knous said they would meet in November to discuss the possibilities of processing western wool in the West.