Carbide's Sneath Earnings a little less

taxes, which is partially offset by a re­duction of $4 million in taxes accrued for prior years, but now no longer re­quired. "

William S. Sneath, vice president and chief financial officer of Union Carbide, told the Investment Analysts Society of Chicago that his company's third-quarter sales should be about $670 million, or a 5% gain over the third quarter of last year. "Earnings may be a little less than the 66 cents a share we earned in each of the first two quarters of 1968. The third-quarter figure for 1967 was 61 cents a share," he says. Mr. Sneath points out that the estimates do not take into account a write-off of about 10 cents a share resulting from a decision to discontinue certain unprofitable man­ganese mining operations in Guyana.

In the second quarter, John W. Brooks, president of Celanese, stated, a reserve had been established by a non­recurrent extraordinary charge of $44 million. The reserve anticipates po­tential losses that may be associated with the disposition of certain non-U.S. investments. Previously deferred preoperating expenses of Celanese's Sicilian forest products operation amounting to a charge of $15.8 million were also written off.

PEOPLE:

Boyle to Lead ICWU Thomas E. Boyle is the new president of the International Chemical Work­ers Union ( ICWU). He succeeds Walter L. Mitchell, who died Sept. 19 at age 53, shortly after adjourning the fourth session of ICWU's 21st Consti­tutional Convention in New Orleans (C&EN, Sept. 30, page 14).

The 52-year-old Mr. Boyle, who has been ICWU vice president since 1956, was elected unanimously by the

union's International Executive Board. He will serve the full four-year term to which Walter Mitchell had been sworn on the morning of his untimely death.

As one of his first acts as president, Mr. Boyle appointed ICWU interna­tional representative Richard J. Whalen, of New Brunswick, N.J., vice president and regional director in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

A veteran trade unionist, Mr. Boyle, who lives in Montclair, N.J., has been a member of ICWU since 1945 when he worked for New Jersey Public Ser­vice Gas and Electric Co. In 1946, after holding several top posts in his local union, he was appointed to the international union's staff as a rep­resentative.

In 1956, he was elected vice presi­dent of ICWU at the union's conven­tion in Buffalo, N.Y., the same year that Walter Mitchell was first elected to ICWU presidency. Mr. Boyle is a vice-president of the New Jersey AFL-CIO, a member of the New Jersey vocational Training Commission, a member of New Jersey governor Rich­ard Hughes' Manpower Training Commission, and a member of the President's Advisory Council of Seton Hall University. A political activist, Mr. Boyle was a liberal Republican candidate for the New Jersey legisla­ture in 1967.

At ICWU's New Orleans conven­tion, Walter Mitchell had been given a unanimous vote to join a new labor organization, the Alliance for Labor Action. ALA was formed July 23 by the United Auto Workers and the Teamsters and has been asking other unions to affiliate with it, but so far only ICWU had done so. ICWU had thus put itself in the position of in-

ICWU's Boyle Keeping fingers crossed

curring at least disfavor, at worst sus­pension from AFL-CIO, which re­gards ALA as a rival labor organiza­tion.

It is expected that Mr. Boyle will peipetuate Walter Mitchell's contribu­tion to ICWU aims by holding firm on membership of ICWU in ALA, and organizing the thousands of nonunion workers in the chemical industry. On the AFL-CIO's displeasure, one union member says ICWU's Boyle is "keep­ing his fingers crossed."

TRADE:

Surplus Shrinks The foliage isn't the only thing that is undergoing change this autumn. The outlook for the country's dwin­dling balance of trade surplus is rap­idly shifting too—unfortunately to the dark side.

Based on eight months' figures re­leased recently by the Department of Commerce, the U.S. trade surplus— that is, excess of exports over imports-will be a slender $1.3 billion in 1968. If the trend continues, and there is little reason now to expect otherwise, the country's performance in interna­tional trade will be both disappointing and alarming. And it is almost certain to become a major topic for the next session of Congress.

The $1.3 billion projection is a re­sounding $2 billion decline from last year's trade surplus. It represents the fourth successive year in which tha surplus has dropped—it stood at almost $7 billion in 1964-and it will be the lowest that the surplus has ever been since the end of World War II.

The paradox in this year's trade pic­ture is the chemical trade surplus, which should approach or even surpass $2 billion. Chemicals always have been the bulwark of this country's trade balance, traditionally contribut­ing 30 to 50% to the overall trade surplus. But at this year's level, they would represent an unheard-of 200% of the total favorable balance.

Through August, chemical imports were 18% ahead of last year at $761 million. Growth of chemical exports, however, was unexpectedly high; they were up 16% to $2.16 billion through August.

Explaining the diminishing trade surplus is fast becoming an exercise in repetition. U.S. exports continue to grow and grow rapidly, but imports are growing more rapidly. Through August, exports were $22.4 billion, 7.7% higher than they were through the first eight months of 1967. How­ever, imports, through the first eight months of 1968, were $21.5 billion, almost 23% higher than last year's mark. The eight-month surplus, as a

OCT. 7, 1968 C&EN 15