The Gastonia Gazette from Gastonia, North Carolina • Page 1

Good Morning! It's Saturday, January 18, 1975 Truth, like the sun, submits to be obscured, but like the for a time. Baxter THE GASTONIA GAZETTE The Gastonia Gazette, 1975 "THE PIEDMONT'S GROWING NEWSPAPER' Gastonia, North Carolina Single Copy Daily, 20 Sunday High today: 55 Low tonight: 35 (Details en 7B) 1 6 Pagts 2 Sections Layoffs announced elsewhere 40,000 automakersrecalled By The Associated Press The Ford Motor Co. said Friday that it is recalling nearly 40,000 idled workers to their jobs. But new layoffs in other industries and statistics showing a sharp decline in home construction in December provided fresh signs of the recession. The Commerce Department said number of ne.w housing units started last, month dropped to its lowest level in eight years.

-The department also' said that the number of privately owned new houses and apartments started in 1974 was 35 per cent less thanin 1973. There were several moves aimed at spurring business: New York's First National City bank cut its prime lending rate again and a Michigan legislator said he will introduce legislation providing a tax credit for new car buyers. The Civil Aeronautics Board, acting in response to requests by airlines faced with declining passenger loads, approved a limited discount air fare plan proposed by American Airlines. The CAB rejected more liberal plans suggested by other carriers. The American Airlines plan calls for a 20 to 25 per cent discount on day flights of more than" 1,500 miles.

It carries several restrictions, including a requirement that tickets be purchased at least 14 days in advance of the flight. Ford Motor which announced on Thursday a rebate program to boost lagging sales, said, 39,900 hourly employes who have been on layoff since Jan. 10 will be recalled to work on Monday. At the same time, the auto maker announced other production schedule changes that will result in either temporary or indefinite layoffs for 22,875 hourly workers a variety of facilities next week. A company spokesman said the total of workers laid of (indefinitely now comes to 33,350.

Some 282,000 of the 685,000 auto workers throughout the country already are on layoffs and Motors and Chrysler Corp. announced more cutbacks on Thursday. Both Ford and Chrysler are offering rebates to buyers of certain new model cars AFTER THE FIRE This is the kitchen-dining area of Mrs. Katherine Herndon's home at 3335 Deerwood Drive after fire gutted four rooms of the eight-room brick house Friday night. Gastonia firemen are shown here as they clean the hot debris and water from the floor.

The fire is believed to have started in this area. (Gazette photo by Gary Martin) In Gardner Park Flames damage widow's home Fire of unknown origin gutted four rooms of 'Mrs. Katherine Herndon's home at 3335 Deerwood Drive in Gardner Park Friday night, three hours after she had left for Florida. The fire apparently started in the kitchen area of the house, according to Gastonia City firemen. Neighbors said that Mrs.

Heradon, widow of Dr. John Herndon, and her three children left by car at 4:15 p.m. Friday on their way to Florida. Fire Capt. Glenn Bolick said there was considerable damage to at least four of the eight rooms in the one-story brick house.

"It appears to me that the fire started between the wall of the kitchen area and living room. How long it was burning before we were Deaths Michael Gene Fortenberry, Kings Mountain Annie Willis Tallent, Belmont Summey G-. Brittain, Mount Holly Mrs. Laura Sarvis Holland, Gastonia Paul Tale, Gastonia (Details on Page 2A) notified I don't know," hesaid. Firemen, notified by neighbors, arrived on the scene with two trucks at 7:46 p.m.

Bolick said firemen did a good job, confining the fire to four rooms. "It was burning pretty good when we got here," he added. Bolick said two firemen were assigned to remain at the house throughout the night. will insure that the fire doesn't start up again, and will keep anyone from looting," he said. While firemen declined to estimate the loss, it appeared that it would exceed $15,000.

Influenza epidemic is felt in Gaston Mortgage as they try to boost sales, off about 30 per cent from 1974 levels. General Motors has declined comment on the rebate plans. Lagging sales in other industries were blamed for new layoffs Friday. Plastics workers in Ohio and Massachusetts were idled as the Foster Grant Co. started laying off 50 of the 1,500 persons it employes at its plant in Leominster, and Cincinnati Milacron, a machine tool manufacturer, announced 125 layoffs at two Ohio plants.

Cincinnati Milacron declined to say how many people it employs. The Converse Rubber Co. announced its Berlin, N.H., plant will close for one week beginning Feb. 14 and may close for an additional week starting March 21. More than 1,000 workers are employed at the plant, making sneakers and other rubber footwear.

Joseph H. Couhie, factory manager, said large inventories had built up at the plant because of declining sales. "The February shutdown is definite," said Couhie. "The March shutdown is tenative, contingent upon market conditions." PRODUCTION RESCHEDULING Officials of the Uniroyal tire plant in Ardmore, Okla. announced Friday what they called a "production rescheduling to adjust to the buildup of passenger cars." A spokesman said about 1,250 emoyes at the plant will work only four days a week every other week.

Ed Estes, industrial relations manager for the company, said the plan, under which employes will work a 32-hour week, takes effect next week and is scheduled to continue through the first quarter of the year. "The situation will continue under constant review and if the predicted upswing in the economy takes place, things could change rapidly," Estes said. The plan is designed to cut the plant's daily production of 30,000 tires by about 10 per cent. Rep. Marvin L.

Esch, said he will introduce a bill on Monday that would give an income tax credit of up to $250 to anyone buying a new U.S. or Canadian-made car this year. Esch said the credit would be $250 for a car that receives at least 15 miles per gallon averaged between city arid open road driving, and $100 for a car with a lower average mileage rating. First National City Bank, the nation's second largest commercial bank, said Friday it was cutting its prime lending rate by 'A point to per cent, effective Monday. The prime rate is the amount banks charge their best corporate customers.

It is not tied directly to consumer interest rates, but a change in the prime can foreshadow a change in consumer rates. The President postponed a scheduled Cabinet meeting on the economy. The meeting had been set for Friday afternoon, but White House Press Secretary Ron Nessen said it was postponed until next week because Cabinet members 'had heard a detailed explanation of the President's economic program at briefings on Thursday. In other economy developments Friday: Commerce Department said the United States appears headed for a trade deficit nearly equal to last year's. Final figures on the 1974.

trade balance have not been released, but the deficit is currently running at $2.2 billion. The department estimates imports in 1975 will total more than $100 billion, with exports totaling $98 billion. Henry M. Jackson, said he will fight President Ford's proposed crude oil taxes because they will cost consumers $25 billion a year. Jackson said the proposal will increase unemployment, bankruptcy and inflation.

SAD BAND LEADER Skitch Henderson, music director, and his wife Ruth leave Manhattan Federal Court in New York Friday after he was sentenced to six months imprisonment and fined $10,000 for filing false income tax statements. Henderson going NEW YORK (AP) Bandleader Skitch Henderson was sentenced to six months'in federal prison Friday for putting an $350,000 income tax value on a collection of his musical scores and arrangements that were adjudged "almost worthless." He also was fined the maximum $10,000 on his conviction last month of filing false income tax statements and backdating documents to take advantage of tax laws that had been changed. The government said it was beaten out of $52,000 in taxes as a result. However, federal Judge Edward Weinfeld made it clear in sentencing the goateed musician that the fine was secondary to the prison term. "If those who attempt to violate the tax laws upon conviction receive the proverbial slap on the wrist, and a fine they can well afford to pay, the deterrent force of a sentence upon the rest of the community is gone," Weinfeldsaid.

The one-time conductor on the "Tonight" show displayed no visible emotion at the sentence. He could have gotten six years in prison. He was continued free without bond pending an appeal. Henderson unsuccessfully sought dismissal "of the income tax charges by comparing his case to an almost identical one involving former President Richard M. Nixon.

Nixon's papers were found to be overvalued for tax purposes after they were donated to the National Archives. His tax deductions were disallowed, but he was not prosecuted. Henderson, 56, was convicted of donating 750 scores and arrangements collected during his period on the "Tonight" show to the University of Wisconsin and setting a value on them for tax purposes of $350,000. "He knew the gift was almost worthless," Weinfeld said at the sentencing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Henderson also was convicted by a jury in two stages last month of seeking to have the date of the donation changed from February 1970 to February 1969, before law banning such tax deductions took effect. "There was strong proof that" the defendant was fully aware of the significance of his request to change the dates," Weinfeld said. During the nine-day trial before a jury of eight women and four men, the defense called witnesses from the musical world who set values as high as $1,700 on some of the scores and arrangements donated by Henderson. Henderson testified that in tax matters he simply followed the directions of his tax accountant. He had hired a new one in 1969.

"If he asked me to do something, I did it," the pianist-conductor testified during the trial. Save money on medicine Did you ever stop and think how much money you spend for drugs? Over a year's time, it can be a sizeable amount. We interviewed some doctors and pharmacists this week to find out how to save money on drugs. It's the subject of a story that will be in Sunday's Gazette. Don't miss it.

Also coming up Sunday are some other features that will help you save money and should be interesting to read. Included are: interview with a woman who makes quilts. local mountain climbers make a Tyrolean traverse. A Belmont man commutes to work in his own airplane. renewal is slow in Gastonia, but the downtown business district should take on a "new look" bv 1976.

-Police Chief Don Rostman tells why he's having trouble hiring policemen. An influenza epidemic is sweeping'the southeastern United States and is being felt in Gaston County, but is not causing deaths here as in other areas of the South. During the last seven days, 21 people with flu or other illnesses and 'flu been admitted to.Gaston Memorial Hospital as emergency cases, hospital spokeswoman Marcia Martin said Friday. "That's 21 cases admitted through the emergency-room. Others may-have been admitted through other procedures, but that's 21 cases of pneumonia and croup, flu related problems, that we know of," Mrs.

Martin said. GMH, which has been operating hear patient capacity for two weeks, temporarily opened 16 additional beds earlier this week. According to Gaston Coroner Bill McLean, his office has not investigated any deaths which may be attributed directly to flu. "No flu connected deaths have come under the authority of my office. They would if they died at home or without a doctor's attention.

Anyone dying in a hospital or in a nursing home with the attention of a doctor would not come under my office," McLean said. The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, said Friday the flu is Type A Port Chalmers influenza strain. An effective vaccine is available, a CDC doctor said. The CDC also noted that deaths from the flu epidemic have crossed the "epidemic threshold." The CDC estimated earlier this year that 530 persons would die throughout the nation from pneumonia and influenza during the second week of January. When more than 50 more deaths than anticipated were recorded in a regional sampling conducted through CDC offices in 121 U.S.

cities, the center said the deaths were substantially over the expected level and the epidemic threshold." The epidemic rating now applies to North South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Georgia. It is almost at epidemic levels in West i Virginia, Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia, the Center for Disease Control said, predicting a spread to the Midwest and New England states. Local doctors were reluctant Friday to discuss the number of flu cases treated by them in recent weeks. Clerical employes in the New Hope Professional Building, a clinic that houses about 12 doctors, said Friday that the number of cases treated each week is remaining constant. "1 can't say how many flu cases the doctors are treating, but we can tell you that it does not appear to be going down.

We're seeing as many now as we have for the last few weeks," a receptionist said. Dr. Ben Drake, director of the Gaston Health Clinic, and members of his staff were not available Friday for comment on the epidemic. A clinic employe said the doctor left Friday afternoon and could not be reached. market gets Dem leaders buck Hebert big boost in desperate fight for job INSIDE TOPAY Bridge 4B Classified 6-8B Comics 4-5B Crossword -iB Movies 8A Opinion Page 4A Sports 2-3B Women's News 5A WASHINGTON federal government is pumping another S3 billion into the home mortgage market, making it possible for people to borrow money at 8.38 per cent interest for houses costing up to $42,000.

The latest action was announced Friday by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Starting next Wednesday and continuing through Feb. 28, HUD will buy Good news from lenders up to $3 billion in commitments for home loans to be made to buyers at a basic interest rate of 7.75 per cent. This is down from 8 per cent which is now charged. The new effective rate will be 8.38 per cent when fees and other charges are added.

This compares with 8.64 per cent now being charged. HUD earlier committed $3 billion into the program from $7.75 billion authorized by Congress last October. The commitments arc for mortgages up to $42,000 on single-family houses, with 90 per cent of the money to be used for loans on new houses and 10 per cenl on existing ones. The $3 billion being released next week will be split between conventional mortgages and FHA and VA mortgages, with $2 million for conventional and $1 million for government-backed mortgages. WASHINGTON (AP) Top Democratic leaders threw their weight Friday againsl House Armed Services Chairman F.

Edward Hebert in his desperate fight to keep his job. Speaker Carl Albert told the Democratic Caucus vote binds all Democrats to vote against Hebert and that House rules "would seem to preclude" Hebert's overturning the Democrats' action. House Democratic Leader Thomas O'Neill Jr. added bluntly: "In my opinion anybody in the Democratic Caucus who joins any such coalition (for Hebert) should be stripped of his seniority and maybe ejected from the caucus." The speaker and O'Neill took their hard stands after the Democratic Steering Committee bowed to the will of the House Democrats and recommended seating two committee chairmen it earlier voted dumped. The steering committee unanimously reversed itself and recommended that Banking Committee Chairman Wright Patman and Administration Committee Chairman Wayne L.

Havs keep their jobs. The Steering Committee also recommended unanimously that Hebert be replact-ii with Rep. Mclvin Price. D-Ill, and that deposed Agriculture Committee Chairman W. R.

Poage be replaced with Rep. Thomas S. I'olev D-Wash. Hebert announced after the Democrats voted Thursday to dump him and Poage that he would carry a possibly unprecedented battle to the full House to overturn the action. The 73-year-old Armed Services Committee chairman charged that his secret-vote rejection by the Democratic Caucus was "a propaganda show" and that he would put his fate to a public vote in the full House next week.

But Albert told newsmen that a House rule providing that the majority party select committee chairmen seems to preclude Hebert from getting his job back. Albert said his judgment also is that all 291 Democrats are just as absolutely bound by caucus rules to vote against Hebert and for Price as they are to vote for the Democratic nominee for speaker. He thus suggested the penalty for voting for Hebert would be the same as that for voting for a Republican speaker: loss of chairmanships, seniority or any other privilege of being a member of the majority Democratic party. Further, Deputy Democratic Whip John Brademas of Indiana said he could not imagine House Republicans joining an effort to help Hebert overturn the Democrats' decision that could bring retaliation from Democrats that could include packing committees with friendly Republicans. But House Republican Leader John J.

Rhodes' office has said Republicans "will keep their options open" on whether to support Hebert. The Hebert floor fight probably would come next Thursday..