The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 1

SECTION A THE WEATHER Mostly cloudy with showers likely today, ending Monday. High today in low 80s, low in upper 60s. High Monday in mid-BOs. Sunrise sunset 8:36. Details 6B.

Caovrttit (USPS 1W-7M) Dm Memi Matitter and Tribune Cmowtv THE NEWSPAPER IOWA DEPENDS UPON Des Moines Iowa July 29, 1979 75: Single copy or motor route delivery Carrier delivery in cities towns U.S. MAY LOSE FBI THE IOWA POLL JIMMY CARTER: Has your confidence in President Carter's leadership gone up or down in view of the Camp David meetings, cabinet firings and recent TV speeches? 427 $nnhm Wtwttt IK BILLIONS ON ARMS DEALS S1MJH urn 1 Liable for contracts canceled by Iran mm. 2i r. II II til I if, ALL IQWMS By PHILIP TAUBMAN 1979 New York Timet WASHINGTON, D.C. Th UP DOWN NEITHER DON'T KNOW 16 47 26 11 36 33 25 6 16 45 31 8 Republicans Democrats Independents Will Carter's energy policies enable this its energy problems? Yes ALLIOWMS 35 irfer slips after This story was written by Register staff writers Richard Paxson and Bonnie Wittenburg from reports by staff writers TJ.

Ryder, Jack Hovelson, John Carlson, Jean Saylor, Francie Leto, D. Vance Hawthorne, Martha Kegel, Jerald Heth and Bud Appleby. gas, purchased some cheaper fuel and decided to pass along the savings to customers. Blixt says the same about price cuts elsewhere. He warns they may be only temporary, and that station allocations for August will determine what happens next to prices.

"When you get down to the end of the month, and there's been a reduction in consumption, and the dealers) find they can make it or have a little more gas than they thought, then the price goes down," he said. Says Edward Stanek, director of the Iowa Energy Policy Council: "As the supply picture gets better, the dealers are in a better position to hold back from the federal ceiling price, and I think that's what they're doing." Conservation Cited Consumption is down, or at least the Iowa Department of Transportation says traffic on some interstate highways is down. Stanek says Iowans' conservation is one reason why the July-end fuel scene is less hectic than in recent months. Stanek and Blixt say Iowa country to cope with No Don't Know 49 18 percent say it won't, compared to scores last April of 24 percent positive and 67 percent negative. Giving the president an overall job rating of 39 percent approval, 46 percent disapproval statistically the same score he drew before the latest drive to improve his fortunes.

Tending to believe that changes in the Cabinet and senior staff won't make any difference. Forty percent say that, 33 percent say the changes will improve things, 10 percent say the changes will hurt and 17 percent are unsure. Steadily losing faith in the president's ability to lead. Three of every 10 Iowans think Carter is an effective leader, down from four of 10 in April of this year and five of 10 in October 1978. Fifty-nine percent now believe he is not effective.

Nonetheless, doubting by a 48 to 41 percent margin that someone other than Carter could do a better job as president. That last finding is the only one where the balance of opinion seems to tip in favor of the man from Plains, Ga. But the result may signal despair After ending April, May and June with the nervous "no gas" jitters, Iowa drivers should find more plentiful fuel supplies in July's final days. Just as this month's gasoline allocations to service stations are running out spot check at 145 Iowa stations shows that two-thirds of their operators think they'll have enough fuel for business as usual through Tuesday the last day of July. Some stations are abandoning the limits they had put on sales, a few are extending their open hours, and a handful hold onto your steering wheels are even knocking a few pennies off gas prices.

Larry Blixt, executive director of the Iowa Gasoline Dealers Association, shares the survey's conclusion that his members and their customers needn't be quite as shaky as last month. "I think we can see an improvement" says Blixt. "There's no comparison with June." More specifically, The Register's unscientific survey conducted late last week indicates: One-third of the station operators say their fuel supplies are more plentiful than at this time last month, and another one-fourth think things are no worse than in late June. Two-thirds say they will have sufficient gasoline to keep regular open hours for the remaining three days of the month. Half will be open after 6 p.m.

this week. But three-fourths are closed today. Only one in 10 still has some limit on how much gas a customer can buy. One-third are pricing at least one grade of gasoline, usually premium, by the half-gallon. That became legal in Iowa two weeks ago, and made it possible for gas prices to go over II a gallon at many stations.

Gas prices still are going higher. The average price for regular gasoline at full-service pumps was 96.9 cents, up 9 cents in 30 days, and up 15 cents since a Register survey in late May. The unleaded price was nearly $1.01, up six cents since late June and up 9 cents a gallon in two months. Part of the increase is because of a IVi cent increase in the state tax on a gallon of gas that took effect July 1. Some Cut Prices Prices aren't up everywhere.

The end of July is bringing what many Iowa motorists must have by now thought impossible: a few stations are cutting prices, some substantially. For example, a Site station in Cedar Rapids cut its self-service price for regular a full dime from 99.9 cents to 89.9 cents last week. Unleaded dipped from 99.9 to 95.9. In the Des Moines area, some convenience stores also reduced their prices a penny or two. A spokesman at Site's St.

Louis, office said the price cuts don't mean his stations have more gas than they know what to do with. He said Site, whose Iowa stations once sold some of the state's most expensive Defense Department's arms sales program is riddled with financial problems and may have left the United States liable for billions of dollars worth of contracts canceled by Iran, according to a government study. The report, prepared by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, concludes that the Defense Department has failed to charge foreign governments for hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons. In addition, the report says, the department cannot specify which weapons were purchased from domestic defense contractors with billions of dollars the department received from foreign countries. The GAO study is to be made public Monday.

A copy was obtained by the New York Tunes. Pentagon's Role The criticisms center on the Pentagon's role as middleman in the sale of arms by American manufac turers to foreign nations. When a foreign country wants to buy Amen can-made weapons, it orders them from the Defense Department, which then signs a procurement contract with the domestic manufacturer. The Defense Department, according to the study, does not require foreign governments to keep enough funds on deposit here to cover the costs of terminated contracts. Contracts usually specify that a manufacturer will receive part payment, in the form of damages or a penalty, if an order is canceled, to cover overhead, equipment and other costs.

In the case of Iran, the report says that policy may force the United States to use general Treasury funds to reimburse American manufactur ers whose weapons sales were canceled by the Tehran government after Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi fell from power. Figure Inexact When the shah fell, Iran had $12.6 billion worth of arms orders pending, the Defense Department said at the time. Since then, the Iranians have canceled $7.7 billion worth of these orders. The Defense Department now says that the original total may have been inflated, and that it has no more than $2 billion in signed sales orders from Iran. However, the GAO report says this figure is inexact And it is uncertain whether Iran still wants those arms.

The department estimates that the ultimate cost of terminating signed procurement contracts will be about $800 million. The department also has agreed to spend $1.3 billion for four destroyers originally ordered by Iran, bringing the government's total liability above $2 billion. A spokesman for the Defense Department said that the Pentagon would not comment on the report until it is released. Privately, however, Defense De- IRAN Piease turn to Page 9A i By DANIEL PEDERSEN Cwvrtaht 179, Di Moirwt Rnltiw Jimmy Carter's dramatic moves to restore confidence in his leadership have backfired in Iowa, a special Iowa Poll indicates. The poll, taken last Thursday evening, shows 42 percent pf the state's adults say their confidence in the president's leadership has decreased in the wake of the Camp David "domestic summit," and the subsequent speeches and Cabinet shake-up.

Half as many, 21 percent, say their confidence has increased because of those events, and the rest remain unchanged or have no opinion. That finding is another sign of Carter's political unraveling in Iowa, where the president will face the first formal test of bis chances for renomi-nation in party caucuses six months from now. Conducted by telephone, the poll of 400 adults also shows Iowans: Remaining pessimistic about Carter's energy policy but growing less so. Thirty-five percent say the president's plan will enable the country to cope with the crisis and 49 INSIDE YOUR REGISTER Kidvid Are there too many ads? Is there too much violence? An article in Iowa TV discusses the issue. Also, read about the man many Iowans wake up to: David Hartman.

Balloons Lovely, subdued watercolors by Register artist Frank Miller feature the beauty of Indlanola's balloon races. See Picture Magazine. Tornadoes Manson and Aleona are revisited. See Iowa News. Roads: an explosive issue for the 1980s motorists are getting more used to tight gas supplies, and are becoming tested veterans: they've learned to tank up early in the day and not to depend on finding gas on Sundays.

"Iowans always knew how to cope," says Stanek. "It was a matter of getting motivated. They know now how to prevent disruptions in their lives." Dealers, too, are coping better, says Blixt "There were a lot of dealers who didn't believe there was a shortage or didn't want to," he says. "Basically, they were like the average consumer." And Stanek thinks dealers are doing a better job of stretching their monthly allocations to last to the end of the month. "More of them have gotten used to it," he says.

"There's a shock initially. Many dealers are doing better now." Because of transportation delays, or the peculiar supply problems of individual oil companies, the conditions of dealers range from feast to famine. "We have more gas than we can get rid of," says Bev Walker, owner of Gene's DX station at Whittemore in Kossuth County. "People from the cities can't believe it how in a small town we have gas and they can't get it." But listen to Bill Hreby at Don's Conoco in Cedar Rapids: "We had to spend $6,000 for two new pumps so they'd register over $1 dollar a gallon, and here we sit without any gas. It's pretty discouraging." sEi about the office of the presidency as much as belief in Carter.

That, at least, is the state of things with Betty Barry, a Democrat and Pisgah farm woman who lost confidence in the chief executive because of the broad-based conferences at Camp David. "I just don't think a president should go around asking what people think of him," she says. "Maybe he doesn't have enough confidence in himself." But could someone else do a better job? "Well, I just don't know who it would be," she says. "I'm kind of at loose ends right now." That's not where Carter meant to put her. Coming down from the Maryland mountaintop, he attempted to rally the nation to the energy battlefield in a forcefully delivered television address two weeks ago: mapping out a six-point program to curb U.S.

dependence on foreign oil and exhorting listeners to "say something good POIX Please turn to Page 12A ommendation was a suggestion that at least one-third of the state primary system (which includes interstate, U.S. and Iowa highways) either be maintained less meticulously or given to the counties. Primary candidates for a transfer to the counties would be roads such as U.S. Highways 6 and 65 and Iowa Highways 17 and 44, highways reduced in importance by the opening of new highways nearby. But counties, already at their road spending limits, know that if they took on extra responsibilities from the state, they would have nowhere to dump their excess road mileage.

The HIGHWAYS Please turn to Page SA 'Give him a shot, nurse. He's battle Funeral Arrangements Findlay asked to be buried in his dress uniform. He had seen personally to all the arrangements and had picked out the Scripture. He liked The Book of Psalms. Huitink said he worked a 340-acre farm by himself in Iowa and might not make it back.

He and Charlotte visited with James and Ruth for an hour and a half that first day then came back a second day. "We didn't know each other very long two weeks but that was some lifetime, wasn't it, James?" James smiled weakly. Memories of the past blurred his soft smile: "Yeah," he said, "you'd see me sitting over in a corner by myself sometimes, and you'd think I was feeling low. Then you'd come over, pull out the Book and read some Scripture to me. It boosted my morale.

If there hadn't been a Huitink, I never would have made it" James Findlay died July 23. He had a full military funeral. Henry and Charlotte Huitink could not attend, but they were there in spirit. A HP Book Reviews 4C Markets SF Country Living 2F Movies 4H Crossword 2H Obituaries 7B Food 4E Sports Opinion 90 Robert HuHihan IB Stamps 2H Investors Memo 4F Larry Stone 11H Jumble 2H Travel 8H John Karras 2E TV Mail Bag 3TV Donald Kaul 1C Weddings 8E Ann Landers 2E Week In Review 6C A final, poignant meeting for buddies By DAN FILLER RnliMr ButkiMS Writer AMES, IA. A sneak preview of what may become one of the hottest issues in Iowa during the 1980s occurred at a meeting of the Transportation Commission last week.

Iowa Department of Transportation planners were quietly explaining to the seven-member commission how the state's road system is too large for expected maintenance revenues. Their presentation was not particularly startling. Both the planners and the commissioners know that when it comes to highway construction and maintenance, the state has bitten off more than it can chew. At issue is who will be forced to swallow. The planners didn't offer any solutions; the closest thing to a rec something to do with that I've gotten 35 years older." Then the two men quickly retraced their steps they swapped stories, brought each other up to date on their personal lives and showed each other Polaroid snapshots.

Once or twice, Huitink took off his glasses and wiped at the corners of his eyes. The conversation was not always easy. "I don't know if you knew it or not, James," Huitink said, "but I went back to hitchhiking after I left you and caught up with my old company. The Battle of the Bulge I was in that, too." Then Findlay recalled: "After you left, Henry, they took me to a field hospital. I told the medics, 'You'd better burn my clothes.

I've got every bug on me in "My leg was torn up, and they tried to set it. But it never looked right after that I was hurting, and I kept telling the doctors and nurses, 'I'm an Infantryman, and I know what my feet are supposed to look like. They should look like a piece of pie when they're together. The doctor said, By bill Mcdonald Reprinted from The Slate, newspatr In Columbia, S.C. COLUMBIA, S.C.

James Findlay's world was shattered eight years ago when doctors told him he had cancer. And yet the retired Army sergeant, a gaunt 90-pounder, looked to the inevitable without so much as a blink. Death held no terror for him and never had. His only request was to see Henry Huitink from Alton, an Army acquaintance he had known for only two weeks during World War II. In early July, he was in the William Jennings Bryan Dorn Hospital.

His wife was at his side. He squeezed her ring finger. "Want to See Henry" "Ruth, I want to see Henry before I die. He saved my life. Please try and locate him." Findlay and Huitink (pronounced Hi-tink) were POWs during the latter stages of WW II.

One night in France they escaped a German POW train by crawling through a narrow opening in a boxcar. It could have been a page right out of Hollywood. They slept the first night in a turnip patch. The next day, a boy on a bicycle led them to the French underground. For two weeks, tbey raided German-held villages in France with the underground.

During one such raid, Findlay was wounded. Huitink applied a tourniquet above a shattered kneecap and kept his buddy from bleeding to death. They made a death-do-us-part pact. Later, Henry waved a white flag at advancing soldiers, and the soldiers held their fire. They were American GIs.

Findlay and Huitink kept in touch for a while after they returned to the states, exchanging Christmas cards and writing letters, but eventually they lost track of each other. It had been almost 35 years since the two men had seen each other when Ruth Findlay traced Henry Huitink to Alton and gave him a call. Henry and his wife, Charlotte, booked the first available flight to Columbia. Halting Chitchat When they arrived, they walked hesitantly into James' room at the VA Hospital. The chitchat came haltingly, at first: "You sure have changed, Henry.

Quite a bit." "Well, James, I suppose I've had WU JiJT-. What a terrible waste of precious oil!".