Kingsport Times from Kingsport, Tennessee • Page 1

Kitchens Cooking School at 7 tonight in Kingsport Civic Auditorium Thursday April 17, 1975. Kingsport, 37662 61st year, number 149 Phone 246-8121 Circulation 246-8129 5 sections, 44 pages 1 5 cents First quarter GNP figures took a nosedive, but other indicators have economists bubbling with confidence Economy Is Uncle Sam still running an economic fever? WASHINGTON (UPI) --Every three months, the Commerce Department officially tells the public how the nation is doing economically. It's called the Gross National Product, and the quarterly figures were to be released today. The worst unemployment in 34 years and the deepest quarterly decline in industrial production since 1937-38 suggests that GNP, the market value of the nation's output in goods and services, can be only bad. Administration officials have been making public statements to try to ease the impact of the GNP figures.

Assistant Commerce Secretary James Pate said GNP in January-March would be 10 per cent lower in real terms than the preceding three months. "This is going to be hailed as one of the sharpest declines since 1946 and perhaps one of the largest declines since the Great Depression," said Pate. The GNP in the fourth quarter of 1974 declined at an annual rate of 9.1 per cent, the sharpest since a 9.2 per cent decline in the first quarter of 1958, also a recessionary period. The fastest decline since the Depression was a 12 per cent drop in 1946 under the unusual circumstances of the nation's industry retooling from wartime production to consumer goods. Machines used for making tanks, for instance, had to be overhauled and rebuilt for making cars.

The GNP slump in late 1974 resulted from slipping production plus inflation that shot prices up a record 14.4 per cent. Or, is a money-burning boom around the corner? WASHINGTON Some government economists are so confident about the prospects of an early business recovery that they are worrying about what the economy will do for an encore in 1976. F.yery day seems to bring new signs that the slide has just about run its course. It may give way to an expansion even before the spring is over with a steady upward trend assured for the rest of this year. The factors that promise the recovery already are doing their thing.

But the analysts are worried that these lifting factors may run their course by the time next year rolls around. They already are talking of the need for further stimulation, say, 12 months from now. At the moment, of course, they are heartened by the hopeful evidence. Much of it is negative what is NOT happening. Employment, for example, has been falling more slowly in recent months.

Industrial production last month registered its smallest drop since October. The experts are especially impressed and pleased with the success that industry is having in working off excess inventories a process that must occur before new ordering and new hiring can get along. Holdings fell $1.5 billion in February, the first decline in about five years and the steepest since record keeping began in 1948. The drop centered in autos, a key industry whose depression has hit the economy hard. But the biggest plus factor in the picture at the moment is the tax cuts voted 'oy Congress the rebates, the cuts in withholding rates and the $50 one-shot Social Security payment.

The impact will he concentrated in the next two months. It will sharply reinforce the slight but encouraging firming in consumer spending that has been evident since the first of the year. More On Page CA, Col. 1 Inside Area News ID Classified 4D-7D City News IB Comics 7C Deaths 6A Editorials 6C Family Columns SC Movies 4D Television 7C Sports 1C-5C Weather Map 7A This Week 7A Outside Party cloudy through Friday with a chance of sh.wers or thnndershowers MI Friday. Warm temperatures today, tonight and Friday.

High yesterday, low this morning, High today, upper Ms; low tonight, middle 50s; high tow 70s. Probability of rain is 50 per teat Phnom Penh Surrenders, Khmer Rouge In Control By United Press International Phnom Penh surrendered today to the Communist-led Khmer insurgents, ending five years of warthat devastated Cambodia and took the lives of a quarter million persons. Fall of the city closed a painful chap ter in American history. The victorious rebel forces spurned government offers Wednesday to negotiate a cease-fire so they could enter Phnom Penh "as conquerors." The black- shirt ed insurgents were greeted by Cam-- bodians waving flags and streamers as they moved into the city through a sea of white surrender flags. Jubilant Khmer Rouge soldiers fired shots into the air as they marched through the.streets or rode in captured American Jeeps.

There were fears that the rebel forces would carry out a bloodbath when they stormed into Phnom Penh after a three a half-month siege, but the International Committee of the Red Cross said in Geneva the Communist forces were respecting the neutrality of the Royal Phnom Hotel. About 2,000 persons, including some Americans, United Nations and relief of- ficials and other foreigners, were crowded into the hotel. The Red Cross, which declared the hotel a neutral zone Wednesday, said many of the persons at the hotel were wounded or sick. The Yugoslav news agency Tanjug, in a dispatch from Peking, said Prince Norodom Sihanouk announced he will be chief of state in Cambodia but that direct, power will be wielded by Khieu Samphan, commander of the Khmer Rouge forces. Sihanouk also said Cambodia would join U.S.

ROLE IN WAR See analysis story page 2a the nbnaligned bloc of nations. Khieu Samphan, a hardline Communist closely allied to China but believed to be first of all a nationalist entered the capital with his troops and broadcast an appeal for calm. He urged all government forces to lay down their arm. There was no immediate reaction from the U.S. government to the fall of Phnom Penh but in Saigon there was dismay among South Vietnamese who saw it as a portent of the future.

Gen. Duong Van (Big) Minhcalledagain for the resignation of President Nguyen Van Thieu before Saigon "becomesanother Phnom Penh." Australia, citing the "realities of the situation," promptly recognized the new Khmer Rouge government. Japan said it would do so-shortly. Britain said it would wait to see what kind of government was formed in Phnom Perih. China and the Soviet Union merely reported the "liberation of Phnom Penh." Thailand closed its borders to halt the exodus of Cambodian refugees but at least 11 Cambodian air force planes landed today in Thailand with 140 refugees including a Cambodian general and 29 children.

Thailand said it would recognize the Khmer Rouge government when there is formal announcement of its formation. President Ferdinand E. Marcos of the Philippines said the fall of the American- supported Cambodian government made it necessary for the Philippines to review its ties with the United States in view of the developments in Indochina and hinted he would turn to the Soviet Union and China. The first order given by insurgent spokesmen-who took over Radio Phnom Penh was for the surrender of senior of- More On Page 6A, Col. 5 Kieu Samphan, (left) Khmer Rouge army commander, is the most likely head of the new Cambodian government.

He is shown with Norodom Sihanouk, a figurehead leader, in a 1973 photo taken in Hanoi. Saigon Teeters In The Wake SAIGON (UPI) Gen. Duong Van (Big) Minn, an arch political rival of President Nguyen Van Thieu, called again today for Thieu's resignation before Saigon "becomes another Phnom Penh." Some officials expressed fear that the fall of Phnom Penh was a prelude.to events in Saigon. Minn told newsmen he is ready, to head a new government of national reconciliation with the Viet Cong, "because that has always been niy stand." 'Minn is considered the leader of the so- called third force composed of elements who opposed the Thieu government and the Communists. American officials on orders from President Ford were organizing a massive evacuation of U.S.

citizens from Saigon with a warning that the time to make the break is running out. A U.S. Embassy source said earlier this- week there were about 5,000 Americans in Vietnam but put the figure today as fewer than 4,000. On the worsening military front Communist forces moved their heaviest artillery into the Mekong Delta for the first time and used it to destroy a government naval transport. Large Communist forces also were poised some 23 miles northeast of Saigon.

Minn, who led the 1963 coup that toppled the government of Ngo Dinh Diem, said Thieu's continuation in power would bring the collapse of South Vietnam. 'The present situation is not hopeless," Minn told a luncheon he held for reporters at Thu Due, six miles north of Saigon. "Non-Communist Vietnamese can still negotiate a relatively good political solution with the within the framework of the Paris peace accords. But the urgent problem now is that the government of President Nguyen Van Thieu should' resign, for the national interest, and in Saigon, there should be a new government which can implement the agreement. remaining time is short," he said.

"With the continuation in power of Thieu, very soon Saigon will become another Phnom Penh." Hundreds of refugees run toward the last Chinook helicopter to drop supplies. at Xuan Loc. About 100 people squeezed on board before it lifted off. A South Vietnamese government official said the surrender by Cambodian officials to the rebels "was a psychological shock for the army and the people of South Vietnam who have been fighting the Communists" and who have seen two- thirds of their country fall to North Vietnam. More On Page 6A, Col.

1 Commission Will Hear Park Proposals Tonight By MARY KISS Times-News Staff Writer The Kingsport school board will go before the Kingsport Planning Commission tonight with its controversial proposal for leveling J. Fred Johnson Park to make a physical education field. And a group of conservationists and city committee members are expected to be on hand to support an alternate plan which they say would save the park's trees and -at the same time give Dobyns-Bennett High School its track and 13 physical education spaces. The school board's proposal calls for cutting down three-fifths of the oak trees in the wooded picnic and recreation area and grading the top of the hill to make a level spot for outdoor physical education and eventually an athletic track. The alternate proposal a plan supported by the Kingsport Recreation Advisory Committee, the Citizens' Advisory Committee, and local conservationists -would put the track in a low spot on campus between the gymnasium, the stadium and the park.

The plan would entail closing Stadium Drive and acquiring four houses on Stadium Court. Bodie Scott, chairman of the Recreation Advisory Committee, said the plan is basically the same one he presented to the city council on the night it voted (4-3) to allow the school board to cut the trees and level the park. As shown in the background sketch by another supporter, Kingsport artist, teacher and conservationist Mrs. Georgia (Neeley) Bianchard, the alternate plan would: --Abandon all of Stadium Court except for a stub to be entered from Eastman Road, with a new circle at the dead end. This would require acquisition of three additional houses at.the high school end and one at the Eastman Road end.

--Relocate the circle on Berry Street to give enough room for the new track to be built next to J. Fred Johnson Stadium. --Plant screening shrubbery and hedge around the residential section on Stadium Court and Berry Street to enhance the privacy of these landowners and to increase the green appearance of the school grounds. --Abandon Indian Court except for a small stub lobe used for official parking at the stadium, and give additional outdoor recreation space. --Build the new vocational building on Center Street near the existing high school (as called for under present plans).

More On Page 6A, Col. 1 Track plans Two alternate proposals for the D-B track site are shown in this composite diagram. The background sketch, in black, shows the plan supported by conservationists. The red shaded area shows where the track would go if the school board's plan is used. In the school board plan, Stadium Drive (shown in color) would remain in use.

New Process Turns Sulphur Coal Pollutants Into Fertilizers CHICAGO CDN) --The Illinois Institute of Technology announced Wednesday the development of a device to allow industry to burn plentiful high-sulphur coal and turn the air pollutants into high- grade fertilizer. If successful, the development would have enormous impact on Industry, which has been looking for -sources of energy besides oil and gas and sources of fertilizers in a food-scarce world. Unlike similar devices up till now, its developers said, It produces fertilizer not In the form of bulky sludge but in liquid ammonia sulphates. The announcement was made by its co- inventors Ralph Peck, professor of chemical engineering at 1IT, and Ladd J. Pircon, president of Purity Corp.

of suburban Elk.Grove Village. The pilot system, which the developers say has been successfully tested for five months at IIT, is called a Polypure Im- pinger, an improvement on Pircon's Pen- tapure Impinger developed three years ago and installed in more than 30 plants. Pircon said the new antipollution system achieved the same 95 per cent removal of sulphur gases as the much- publicized earlier model but was so much cheaper to build it would be economically feasible for the major electrical utilities. Pircon said utility companies were understandably wary of new antipollution systems, which in the past have been "half thought out" and cost huge sums to try to perfect. Pircon said Impiner II was one-fifth the size of the comparable Impinger I.

He estimated an electric.utility could equip a full-scale plant with the new device for $25 a kilowatt of capacity, compared with $50 a kilowatt for the present sludge-producing plants. Aside from lower construction costs, said, he estimated a 500-megawatt generating plant using his process could save $23 million a year by using Illinois' high-heat sulphur coal instead of the low- sulphur "cowboy," or Far Western, coal, and could generate an additional S32 million a year through sale of the fertilizer. Pircon said it would take 12 to 18 months lo build a pilot utility plant and two more years to build a full-scale power- fertilizer plant. "We will be talking about a system with the capability to be fully operational in utilities throughout the country within three to five years," he said, "not one that will require decades of additional research and testing.".