OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTIES are on the way out. The Employers' Association of Chicago took a survey of 265 companies, reported that less than half will hold parties this year. Nearly 40 companies that had office parties last year will discontinue them in favor of extra time off, gifts to charity or parties for people who really enjoy them: employees' children.

POWER-POLICY CHANGE by the Administration will be reflected in the new budget now being prepared. For the first time it will ask for a sizable chunk of money to finance new water projects. Among them: an irrigation plan for the upper Colorado River, and the Frying Pan-Arkansas project to bring water by tunnel from the Colorado River under the continental divide.

VOODOO-IT-YOURSELF KIT has been developed for the Air Force by McDonnell Aircraft Corp. To make repairs on its new supersonic Voodoo jet fighter, the St. Louis planemaker has printed 1,100 drawings of structural parts (wing panels, etc.) on a special, transparent glass cloth. All a mechanic has to do is lay the cloth over a sheet of chemically prepared metal, set it in the sun; the sun's rays trace the part's exact outline on the metal for the mechanic to cut out.

COTTON-PRICE PROPS will probably be held at 90% of parity again next year, providing farmers vote to approve an 18.1 million-acre planting allotment as expected. Agriculture Secretary Benson has all but promised farmers that he will keep props high, although he could push them down to 82.5% under the new flexible price law. However, if farmers turn down acreage quotas in their vote this week, the props will automatically drop to 50%.

NLRB SERVICES can no longer be called on by small radio and TV stations, telephone and telegraph companies (less than $200,000 in annual business). By a 3-2 vote, the Republican majority has clipped the board's authority in line with its policy of limiting jurisdiction to cases with a "pronounced effect" on interstate commerce.

PHILIPPINE OIL REFINERY, built and owned by Caltex Inc., will be the islands' first and the largest private investment in the Philippines. The $30 million plant, just opened 72 miles south of Manila, will employ 450, start with a refining capacity of 13,000 bbls. of crude oil a day for the expanding Asian market.

ELECTRIC APPLIANCE SALES, which have been down this year, will hit a record in 1955, predicts John H. Ashbaugh, vice president of Westinghouse's Electric Appliance Division.

SYNTHETIC RUBBER with all the properties (including the same molecular structure) of natural, tree-grown rubber will be produced by Goodrich-Gulf Chemicals, Inc. The new synthetic, which could make the U.S. completely self-sufficient in rubber during wartime, can be substituted for natural rubber now needed in such strategic items as airplane and truck tires.

NEW CAR SALES for 1955 will approach the 6,000,000 mark, predicts C.I.T. Financial Corp. President Arthur O. Dietz, whose 1954 estimate of 5,400,000 cars will be only a shade low. Demand is so heavy that Detroit production is up to 142,000 cars a week, 65% higher than this time last year. One example: Studebaker, which slumped badly in 1954, last week went on overtime at its South Bend, Ind. plant.

JET FLYING BOAT, the Martin XP6M Seamaster, will give the Navy its first water-based, long-range strategic jet bomber next spring. The new plane, under construction at Baltimore, will have an internal bomb bay built into the hull, will be powered by four Allison J71 engines buried in the wing, and probably have enough speed (600-plus m.p.h.) to outrun the Air Force's B-47.

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