Consumer's Report

In 1933, when Arthur Kallet co-authored a bestselling expose of dangerous drugs hidden in popular products (100,000,000 Guinea Pigs), advertisers turned apoplectic and many a consumer turned pale. Kallet, a dark, intense young M.I.T.-trained engineer with a talent for pricking advertising humbug, had learned much of his lore by working with co-author Frederick J. Schlink's Consumers Research, Inc. which reported on the quality of consumer products.

After a break with Schlink, Kallet in 1936 formed his rival Consumers Union, which eventually outdistanced Consumers Research to become the best-known tester of consumer products in the U.S. Paying himself a starting salary of $10 a week, Kallet and five technicians issued monthly Consumer Reports, advised readers how to save money on everything from tooth paste (use precipitated chalk) to fly spray (mix pyrethrum powder and kerosene). By this year 900,000 subscribers were paying $5 a year for the reports, and the Union had 75 part-time shoppers in 50 cities, a headquarters staff of 175, an automobile laboratory in Connecticut, a textile laboratory in Massachusetts.

But as Kallet led his organization out of Manhattan into bright new offices and laboratories in suburban Mount Vernon, N.Y., there was trouble in the board room. President Colston Warne, an Amherst College economist, and other directors wanted Consumers Union to use its prestige with consumers to influence U.S. economic policy. Kallet wanted to continue to concentrate on the practical matters of analyzing new products.

Last week the August Consumer Reports announced at last what the Union had kept to itself since a 9-to-8 board vote in June. After 21 years Kallet had stepped down as Consumers Union director, will now be only a member of the board. But in private Kallet said: "I was fired."

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