Business & Finance: Index: Nov. 19, 1928

Radio. At Linden, N. J., Standard Oil is erecting a lofty aerial as the first mesh in a projected world radio network to keep all its marine and land plants in constant communication.

Soda Fountain. Said Capt. C. W. Gilbert of the Panama Mail Line's Venezuela, last week, "I have watched American citizens when they had every opportunity to drink hard liquor if they wished. Most of them just don't do it." Impressed, company directors installed a soda fountain on his ship, were gratified when it reported $100 business between New York and the Pacific Coast.

Graybar. A. T. & T. owns the Western Electric Co., which owns the Graybar Electric Co., which is the world's largest ($75,000,000 business in 1928) distributor of electrical supplies (telephone apparatus, train despatching equipment, cables, loud speakers). A. T. & T. has long been focusing its subsidiaries on strictly telephonic affairs. In 1925, it sold Western Electric's foreign supply business to I. T. & T. Last week, it announced the offer of Graybar's entire $3,000,000 common voting stock to its 2,500 employes and officers, as the Graybar Management Corp. Led by A. L. Salt, Graybar's president, the gleeful new owners planned to buy.