St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 1

FINAL On Today's Editorial Page Why 1,000,000 Barrels? Editorial Not Without Treatment hdiloriiil VOL. 97 NO. 38 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1975 Suggested I ST- Horn Delivery tl.M Month 171, St. UbU Poa-Dttpitch To Mike pi 'V- -4 lo7 Per Cent of Saigon after a Communist rocket attack. More than 50 houses were destroyed.

(UPI Telephoto) SWIMMING FOR HIS LIFE: A Vietnamese civilian swimming to safety from the burning ruins of his village on the outskirts Saigon Facing New Attacks On Tet Prey Pouch, 12 miles west of Phnom Penh, the sources said. Heavy fighting was also reported two miles from the capital on the east bank of the Mekong River, where about 300 Communists were battling 600 government troops. In another development, half a dozen opposition deputies in Saigon pricked their fingers with razor blades and signed a petition in blood calling on the U.S. government to "withdraw all support to the dictator Nguyen Van Thieu." said, killing 85 Communist soldiers and seizing 47 weapons. Government casualties were put at 15 wounded.

Command spokesmen declined to elaborate on the new troops in the capital except to say, "Several security measures were taken to strengthen the defense of Saigon, a little tighter than in ordinary days." The government has shortened to one day the traditional three-day holidays for all civil servants and has ordered all troops on full alert. Two Are Killed, Two Wounded In Outbreaks Of Violence Complied From News Services SAIGON, South Vietnam, Feb. 8 Communist forces are increasing their attacks on the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon with the coming of the lunar new year, military sources said Saturday. The Saigon Command has reinforced its defenses with more than 5000 police and combat troopers, they said, bringing government strength in the area to nearly 15,000 men, including several battalions of rangers outside the city. The three-day celebration of Tet, the lunar new year, begins Tuesday.

However, Col. Vo Dong Giang, deputy chief of the Viet Cong delegation to the two-party Joint Military Commission in Saigon, denied reports that Viet Cong sappers had infiltrated into Saigon to launch attacks during Tet. He told a press conference that it was part of a United States-South Vietnamese propaganda campaign to get more American military aid for the government of President Nguyen Van Thieu. He said he could not say whether it would be a peaceful Tet "because our headquarters never notifies us of any military action they would take." During the 1968 Tet, the Communist command launced one of its biggest offensives of the war, setting off heavy fighting across South Vietnam. A Saigon command spokesman said Communist troops launched 134 shell-ings, 23 ground attacks and 32 acts of sabotage against government positions in the 24-hour period ending at 6 a.m.

Saturday. The heaviest fighting Friday took place about 345 miles north of Saigon, near Due Due, a district capital, the spokesman said. Field officers said Communist soldiers launched three waves of attacks and shellings against defense posts two to three miles northeast and west of the town. Government troops backed by heavy airstrikes repulsed the attackers, he Pro-Communist rebels in Cambodia fired 135 rounds of 105-mm artillery Friday into Trapeang Peay, a town about nine miles northwest of Phnom Penh, killing one soldier and wounding nine, military sources said. The town is near the headquarters of the Seventh Government Infantry Division, which has been under siege since the beginning of the year.

Another relief column was dispatched to break the Communist encirclement of has last been seen on Thursday morning. The second victim was Henry A. Blake, who had been serving a nine-year sentence for robbery in the state penitentiary until he escaped last November. His body was found in a bullet-riddled automobile in the parking lot of the Blumeyer housing complex in the 3300 block of Bell Avenue. Police recovered a large clip from a .45 cal.

automatic weapon near the mur Suspect Arrested In Reginald Darns, sought for several days as a suspect in the triple killing Sunday on St. Louis Avenue, was arrested Friday night. Darris, 24 years old, was charged- in warrants issued earlier with three counts of murder and one of robbery after a pawn ticket for a television set taken from the home of one of the victims was found to bear Darris's name. Police found the bodies of James Howard Casson, 29, Mrs. Emma L.

Ervin, ate ing and are expected to cut into the profit figure substantially by the time any at increase woulfl take effect, Cornelius said. In addition to increasing the basic rate, the Union Electric proposal would make some changes in the rate schedule. It would reduce somewhat the rate paid by those who use electric heat by lenghening the "winter heating season" to seven months from five. Rates are higher in the peak summer season because of the demand caused by air conditioners. The company proposal would switch two months, October and April, from the summer schedule to the winter schedule! The company has justified the lower rate for those using electric heat as a way of balancing the demand for power between summer and winter.

Balancing the load, company spokesmen say, allows for a more efficient use of the generating plants. Another change proposed by the company is that the rural rate classification be dropped. In the past, sparsely populated areas in Jefferson, Franklin and St. Charles counties, for example, were charged a higher base rate because of the expense of distributing electricity over a large but sparsely populated region. Now, company spokesmen said, most of those areas have become sufficiently urbanized to qualify for the regular rate.

Cornelius said the company did not expect any increase to take effect until next year. U.S. Station Fired On In Asmara ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Feb. 8 A United States communications station in the provincial capital of Asmara was struck by gunfire early today after Eritrea's military headquarters, informed sources said. All of the 100 U.S.

personnel were reported safe. American officials were reported considering closing the station and evacuating its personnel. Their families were evacuated along with other foreigners Tuesday. Sources said a 15-minute battle between rebels and government forces broke out after the attack. Asmara is ringed by about 20,000 government troops, who in turn are said to be surrounded by insurgents.

Today's fighting indicated that some of the 6000 rebel forces were still in the city. Damage and casualties wre not determined. There has been no major fighting in Asmara itself since Monday night. Diplomatic sources estimated the death total from the nine-day civil war at more than 1000. The new assault occurred after a government statement Friday night that it would never allow the northern province to secede.

A statement from Ethiopia's military rulers called the rebels bandits and said secession was unthinkable. It said Eritreans were opposed to the "oppressive rule of the former regime" of Emperor Haile Selassie, deposed by the military last September. The statement asserted that the government is committed to finding a peaceful solution. No food or fuel reached Asmara since the fighting broke out. The airport is closed, electricity is supplied intermittently and few of the 200,000 residents venture into the streets.

In Addis Ababa, witnesses said Ethiopian soldiers exchanged gunfire with civilians for an hour Friday when a groip of Eritreans living in Addis Ababa resisted arrest. The Eritreans were reported loaded into a truck and driven away. Addis Ababa was calm Saturday but there was an increased military presence in the city of 1,000,000 residents. MoPac Laying Off 209 At DeSoto Almost two-thirds of the work force at the Missouri Pacific Railraod Co. car shops in DeSoto will be laid off Tuesday.

Company officials refused to speculate on when the workers might be brought back. A total of 209 workers will be laid off at DeSoto, with 130 men remaining on the job. A total of 58 workers had been laid off at DeSoto about a month ago. Railroad officers said also that 121 workers would be laid off at the Sedalia shops, That would effectively close the shop, where 69 workers had been laid off earlier this year. A spokesman for the railroad said here Friday, "We did not anticipate the layoffs until the Interstate Commerce Commission failed (last week) to grant the railroads the 7 per cent increase in freight rates we sought to meet the higher cost of wages, materials and By MARGIE FREIVOGEL Of the Post-Dispatch Staff Union Electric Co.

has asked the Missouri Public Service Commission to boost electric rates by $77,350,000 a year, or 21.7 per cent. Such an increase would mean $4.68 more a month on the electric bill of the average customer. The increase was proposed in papers filed Friday in Jefferson City. The money is needed to attract investors to ensure construction of new plants and "reliable electric service," company spokesmen said. Union Electric's last rate increase went into effect in June.

It amounted to a 13.8 per cent increase for the average customer. The company originally had requested a 15.2 per cent increase. In addition to that rate increase, customers have had to pay since June a surcharge to cover the increased cost of generating fuel. The surcharge is calculated each month on the basis of fuel costs at the time; last month, it amounted to $1.74 added to the basic bill of $20.50 for the average customer. Union Electric's rate increase follows close on the heels of the company's financial statement, which said that earnings for each share of the utility's common stock had dropped 15 per cent in 1974.

The proposed rate increase would bring the return on common stock up to 14 per cent, said William E. Cornelius, executive vice president of the company. Public utilities on the average earned a rate of return on common stock of 10.6 per cent in 1973, the latest year for which statistics are available from financial reports made by the First National City Bank. Public Counsel William M. Barvick, who represents the public in utility rate matters before the Public Service Commission, questioned the need for the increase.

"It sounds like all the rate increase requests we've been getting from the utilities," Barvick said Friday night. "They all say they're not getting a high enough rate of return on their investment. It's kind of depressing." Barvick asserted that Union Electric appeared to believe it was living in the better economic times of past years and that it was entitled to increased profits as a matter of right. "Utilities seem to think the public can absorb these annual increases. They keep coming back for, and there's a limit to what the public can absorb," he said.

Barvick noted that part of the reason Union Electric's profits were down was because President Gerald R. Ford and other leaders were urging less use of energy. Such urgings, coupled with continued requests for rate increases by utilities, place consumers "in a real box," Barvick contended. But Cornelius contended that the request was not out of line. "All the figures show is that the entire utility industry is in bad shape," he said.

"Comparing us to other utilities is like comparing your health to who has lung cancer." If the rate of return were better, Cornelius said, utilities would not be having trouble raising capital and building plants to meet the needs of their customers. If operating costs are stable, roughly half of the extra $77,350,000 a year the company is seeking would go to profits. However, operating costs are increas- calm in the grass as Susan Simon Expecting Economy To Improve In Last Quarter der scene. Blake, 33, escaped from custody on Nov. 21 when he and another prisoner walked out of a drug conference being held at St.

Louis City Hall. A second man was found in the auto with Blake. He was identified as Robert Cole, 29, of the 2800 block of Caroline Street. He is satisfactory condition in City Hospital with a gunshot wound of the neck. A.

fourth shooting victim Friday was TURN TO PAGE 8, COL. 1 Triple Slaying 49, and Mrs. UIra Richardson, 60, in Mrs. Ervin's home at 4126 St. Louis.

Police said each had been shot in the back of the head in an apparent robbery. Sgt. James Doggendorf said Darris of the 4100 block of Green Lea Place, in, was arrested in the 4100 block of St. Ferdinand Avenue after Darris's parents telephoned Sgt. Doggenforf.

The officer had had previous dealings with the family. dignified Three outbreaks of violence Friday resulted in the killing of an 18-year-old girl and and an eaped convict, and the serious wounding of two men. Homicide detectives were investigating also the death of a 64-year-old south St. Louis woman, whose mutilated body was found in a second-floor flat at 3036 Rutger Street. The deaths biing to 32 the number of killings in St.

Louis for the first 5'2 weeks of the year. The city recorded 18 killings in the month of January a year ago and 25 killings the first month of 1973. The girl who was killed was Miss daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L.

Sims of 1386 Shawmut Place. She was found shot to death in the south parking lot of the Municipal Opera in Forest Park. She had been shot in the chest and head. Detectives are puzzled by Miss Hunter's death. She was found fully clothed by a passing motorist.

Her purse contained several dollars. Police said she tion has revised its outlook. There will be "positive growth of the Gross National Product in the fourth quarter continuing into 1976," Simon said. The Administration is forecasting that the GNP will decline 3.3 per cent this year. Last year's decline was 2.2 per cent.

Simon said also that the Arab oil embargo of last year could be blamed for the economic downturn in fhe United States. He said the embargo had pushed an already declining U.S. economy into a much sharper downward path. "The embargo changed the dimension of our entire economy," he said. Simon said the the recession was peculiar, because although some industries such as automobiles and housing are noticeably declining, "many businesses are producing all-out, and others are not far below capacity." He did not say what these were.

He said economic planners and the Congress must be careful to prevent economic recovery from getting out of hand, once it begins. The Government announced Friday that the umemployment rate for January was 8.2 per cent, a figure that AFL-CIO president George Meany said "spells tragedy for American families and disaster for the American economy." White House press secretary Ronald H. Nessen said that President Gerald R. Ford was concerned about the 7,500,000 unemployed persons, but that Mr. Ford did not want to cause a panic by dump- TURN TO PAGE 8, COL.

1 "vr I I Compiled From News Services WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 Secretary of the Treasury William E. Simon says he expects that the nation's economic upturn will begin in the final three months of the year later than Administration forecasts had said previously. Simon and other Administration economic advisers had predicted until recently that the economic slowdown would reach bottom in midyear, with an economic recovery beginning in the second half of the year. But Sinon's emphasis on a resumption of growth in the fourth quarter, made Friday in an itnerview with Associated Press Radio, indicated the Administra- Low 10 To 15 Over Official forecast for St.

Louis and and cold Saturday night with snow flurries ending; light northerly winds; clearing and continued cold Sunday; low Saturday night 10 to 15, high Sunday around 20. Chance of rain or snow late Monday, continuing into Tuesday; cold Monday with the low in the upper teens or low 20s. KILOWATT? WEATHCHSIR0 MB Of' Other Weather Information on Pas 1A WHITE HOUSE BIRTHDAY: Susan Ford, daughter of the President, was hostess at a birthday party for the family dog, Liberty, who was 1 year old Friday In keeping with his new maturity and status, Liberty reposed presented the birthday cake. Not so Liberty's brother and sister, who. nearly knocked their hostess over in the excitement.

(UPI Tele-photo).