Retire Early in the News:
Exhibit 1.

TO: Headquarters Staff

FROM: Employee Relations - Mail Stop BRT-12

cc: Pearl Harbor File

Date: May 25, 1997

Subject: Improvements to Acme Service Award Program

In an effort to be sensitive to our increasingly diverse work force and to allow the company to remain competitive in the current politically correct environment, the Executive Committee announced today an improvement to the Acme Service Award Program.

Effective July 1, 1997 employees reaching five, ten, twenty, and thirty years of service will be able to select a nose ring or tongue stud in addition to the more traditional gifts of lapel pins, money clips, and hunting knives. Five year employees are eligible for a solid brass nose ring or tongue stud. Employees with ten, twenty, or thirty years of service are eligible for a 14k gold device with one, two, or three diamond gemstones, respectively. Regrettably, insurance restrictions have forced us to make the actual nose or tongue piercing the responsibility of the employee.

The Acme Chemical Corporation is proud to be able to offer this improvement. You, as a valued member of the Acme family, can rest assured that we will continue to honor our former slogan of "Changing to serve a changing world."