Beckley Post-Herald from Beckley, West Virginia • Page 1

Cease-Fire In Effect: Page 7 Volume 72--No. 132 At Peace Talks BECRLEY POST-HERALD N. Viets Charge U. S. Dishonest PARIS (AP) North Vietnam accused the United States and South Vietnam Thursday of deliberately going back on an offer to repatriate more than 600 North Vietnamese disabled prisoners, saying it was a "dishonest maneuver and an odious act." Beckley, W.

Friday June 4,1971 About Revenue Sharing 12-County Regional News Service (RN8) 2 Sections--10 Cents Conn ally Optimistic The North Vietnamese circulated a statement at the Vietnam peace talks saying the United States and South Vietnam canceled the transfer of the prisoners after promising to free This was Hanoi's explanation of why only-13 of the sick and wounded North Vietnamese prisoners agreed to return home. Washington and Saigon had a completely different version. South Vietnam offered April 29 to free 570 prisoners. Later the figure was increased to 660. Saigon and Washington said they called in the International Committee of the Red Cross to ask the prisoners if they wanted to return home.

The Red Cross reported that only 13 agreed to go. Whether the 13 would be accepted Friday as scheduled was thrown into doubt when the North Vietnamese in Paris said that previously agreed arrangements for the transfer were no longe valid. The North Vietnamese delegation to the peace talks would not go beyond a statement that the i arrangements "are no longer valid." A spokesman said that "a new statement concerning the 13" will be issued soon. The spokesman, Nguyen Than Le, added, however, that the United States and South Vietnam "must release all pa(Continued On Page 7) WASHINGTON (AP) The Nixon administration is pinning its dogged hopes for 'revenue sharing on testimony still to come about state and city needs and its offer to modify a much-criticized distribution plan. "You've got to keep in mind that the.

hearings have just started," Secretary of the. Treasury John B. Connally told newsmen after two days of testimony before a predominantly critical House Ways and Means Committee. Connally is the spokesman for President Nixon's proposal to distribute $5 billion with no strings to states and localities. Committee chairman Wilbur D.

Mills, said of Connally, "It's his responsibility to be optimistic." "There isn't a ghost of a chance that Congress will pass revenue sharing," Mills said. "Anybody who thinks I'm going to change my mind doesn't know what he's talking about." Mills also said something must be done to help cities out of their financial plight, at least temporarily, by legislation. He said he has an idea, but isn't ready to talk about it On the Senate side, Sen. Edmund S. Muskie, con- ducted another of his series of hearings to give proponents of revenue sharing a chance to be heard.

Ten mayors from many of the nation's largest cities told Muskie's Intergovernmental Relations subcommittee they were in such desperate financial shape that only the federal government could bail them out Most of the mayors strongly praised the Muskie revenue sharing bill in preference to the one offered by President Nixon, saying that it would give them considerably more than the administration proposal. Muskie has introduced a factor of need into the distribution formula in his bill while the Nixon formula is based on pro- pulation and tax effort Says Mills Revenue Sharing No Good WASfflNGTON (AP) Rep. Wilbur D. Mills, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has been getting a free ride on comapny- owned airplanes for trips around me country to speak against President Nixon's revenue sharing plan. A plane owned by a land development firm flew Mills to Baton Rouge, Monday to address the Louisiana Legislature, and a twin-engine jet owned by Sears, Roebuck Co.

took Mills from Washington to Springfield, last week to (Continued On Page 7) Our National Emblem The bald eagle looks pretty angry here, perhaps because he knows people are killing him off. Many of the once-plentiful birds have been found dead in the west in recent weeks, believed victims of pesticides, electric power lines, and from eating poison bait left for wolves. Good The News PPLICATION will be made to the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation for $64,375 to help finance recreational development at Cabway- lingo State in Wayne County, it was announced Thursday. Arch A. Moore Jr.

said money would provide SO per cent of the cost of upgrading a swimming pool and parking lot, plus other improve-' merits. i Appalachian Poor People Inc. in Webster Springs has been awarded an $80,000 a 1 from Die U. S. Office of MOORE Economic Opportunity, Jennings Randolph, D-W.

said Thursday. Jennings also said the U. S. Office of Education has awarded $300,374 to finance a yearlong Head Start program la Parkersborg and $42,913 for a Head Start program in Webster County. Fischer, fresh from a one-sided victory in Vancouver, B.

C. over Soviet grandmaster Mark Taimanov, says he is confident he will go on to win the world chess title. Says Union Leader Minimum Wage Must Rise New Member Welcomed Dr. Charles Merritt (right) was elected the new chairman of the Beckley- Raleigh Gounyt Board of at its Thursday night Pugh. re-elected as secretary-treasurer.

Both men wlecomed new board member Warren Davis (left) who represents Raleigh County Board of Education. Raleigh Board Of Health Elects 1971-72 Officers The Beckley Raleigh County Board of Health met Thursday night to elect new officers for the 1971-72 term. Dr. Charles Merritt was elected as Chairman replacing Dr. Paul Loflin who indicated he did not wish to be re-elected.

E. S. Pugh Jr. was re-elected as secretary-treasure of the board. A new member to the YUBA CITY, Calif.

(AP) A 24th body was discovered Thursday in an orchard north of Yuba City near where the bodies of 23 itinerant farm workers, hacked and stabbed to death, have been found buried. It was the first body discovered since last Saturday when irrigation waters flooded portions of the orchards lining the banks of the Feather River, forcing deputies to scale down search. "It's No. 24," said Sheriff Roy D. Whiteaker.

The first body was found May 20. A 37-year-old farm labor contractor, Juan V. Corona, has pleaded innocent to murder charges in the deaths of 10 of the drifters and itinerant farm workers. board, Warren Davis was introduced. He is representative for the Board of Education and replaces William Shanklin.

Dr. Merritt read a letter from Robert Silvagni, Solid State Disposal project director of the Southern West i i i a Regional Health Council. Silvagni sent information concerning the proposed garbage collection system for Raleigh County. The Raleigh County Health Council had received a request from Silvagni that they approach the Raleigh County Court for matching funds for equipment which would include a truck and container. The system would replace all the dumps mat are being closed in the county.

Containers would be placed around the county, which would be emptied by the truck, and taken to the sanitary land fill. Dr. Merritt indicated that he too would go to the county court and request they appropriate funds for the project. (Continued On Page 7) WASHINGTON (AP) A top labor union official said Thursday mere is a concerted gram, of which he said the Nixon administration is a part, to force a low wage economy on America. Andrew Biemiller, legislative director of the AFL-CIO, testified at a Senate Labor subcommittee hearing that the minimum wage must be increased immediately to at least $2 an hour, with coverage extended to all workers.

He said "there is a concerted campaign--and mis administration is part of the campaign--to force a 'low economy on America. We reject the philosophy of a low wage economy. The burden of this administration's economic failures must not be placed on the backs of workers." The subcommittee is considering legislation which would increase me minimum wage from $1.60 an hour to $2 upon enactment and with another in- crease to $2.25 a year later. The administration has op- powd- as inflationary. Its bill would increase the minimum to $1.80 next January and $2 in January, 1974.

Biemiller said mat in the first two years of this administration, living costs have increased 11.3 per cent. "That this administration should now say that the in- crease in the minimum wage to $2 should be postponed until some later date is unconscionable. It is not fair to ask low wage workers to bear the brunt of inflation," he said. Biemiller, said the real problem facing Congress and me administration is that the economy is generating too few jobs for all workers, old as well as young. Space Program Bill Is Passed By House Congress Approves New Action 1 Corps Proposal WASHINGTON (AP) Congress gave its approval Thursday to a new, consolidated volunteer agency, Action, but one senator made it clear the legislators will watch closely the Nixon administration's treatment of its two largest components, the Peace Corps and VISTA.

"If there is any attempt to emasculate or otherwise downgrade the programs which are Sen. Smith Bribery Trial Is Recessed CHARLESTON (AP) The bribery trial of State Sen. W. Bernard Smith was recessed Thursday pending the conclusion of a hearing on whether electronic surveillance was used by state investigators in the case. The trial in Kanawha Intermediate Court began Tuesday on charge against Smith, D- Logan, of a accepting a $5,000 bribe from Charleston businessman Raymond George.

A previous trial on the same charge was declared a mistrial after the jury failed to agree on a verdict. hotting began feme attorneys filed motions askinf of all evi- dence obtained by use of electronic equipment. The motions were accompanied by an affidavit from Smith in which he contended that his conversations with a state witness had been illegally intercepted and seized by state investigators. The witness in question is Curtis Duckett, a former assistant comptroller in the State Welfare Department. The bribery charge against Smith concerns a time when he was State Welfare Commissioner.

Dvckett, now living in 111., is expected to be used by the state in rebuttal testimony after comptetioB of de- being included under this umbrella, or any attempt to substitute quantity for quality in the nature of the volunteers chosen, and the type of work they do, the Congress will be quick to notice, and to call upon the agency to fulfill its promises," said Sen. Harrison B. Williams, Williams led the unsuccessful opposition in the Senate to President Nixon's proposal to merge the Peace Corps, Volunteers in Service to America and six other volunteer service agencies into the new Action Corps. The Senate voted 54 to 29 Thursday against a Williams A Bargaining To Resume Monday NEW YORK (AP) The Communications Workers of America, representing 3,000 of the 20,000 workers who have struck Western Union Telegraph will resume bargaining here with Western Union next Monday, Morton Bahr, international vice president of the CWA said today. The CWA employes in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area and 17000 members of the United Telegraph Workers around the rest of the nation, itruck Western Union Tuesday.

resolution to kill the President's proposal. Last week, the House voted 224 to 131 to approve the plan. The reorganization plan goes into effect July 1. Joseph Blatchford, head of the Peace Corps whom Nixon has named director of Action, (Continued On Page 7) Smut Bill Proposed WASHINGTON (AP) A proposal to rewrite the Supreme Court's obscenity definition by act of Congress and also to put tighter curbs on smut mailing was advanced through committee Thursday. The bill cleared the House Post Office Committee 16 to 2.

No date is set for House action. Rep. Morris K. Udall, D- one of the opponents, said Congress cannot impose its own definition of obscenity when the final decision is up to the courts. "I don't think we're going to achieve any more by going further down this road," Udall said.

"We pass obscenity laws every year. We pass tht law and the courts either trim it down or dtclare it ftitwtiOMl." WASHINGTON (AP) Shouting down efforts to cut two Apollo moon flights and the futuristic space shuttle, the House approved a authorization Thursday for U.S. space program. Attempts to cut $300 million for the final Apollo 16 and 17 flights scheduled for next year, and $125 million to start development of the space shuttle to ferry passengers and equipment to space stations were overwhelmingly defeated by voice votes. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) authorization for the fiscal year starting July 1 then passed the House 302 to 64 and went to the Senate.

The amendment to cut $300 million and make the Apollo 15 moon flight next month the last was made by Rep. Peter A. Peyser, He said the money should be diverted to mass transportation--and said the space program should move in to its next phase, the Skylab space station, without more moon The Weather BECKLEY VICINITY: Partly cloudy today with a chan.ce of a few isolated showers, high in the middle 80s. Fair tonight and Saturday. Low tonight in the upper 50s.

High Saturday in low 80s. Probabilities of precipitation arc 30 per cent today, and 10 per cent tonight and Saturday. WEST VIRGINIA: Partly cloudy with isolated thunder sMwers today. Fair tonight and Saturday. High today and Saturday in the 80s.

Low tonight in upper 50s. Ot Pap 9) flights. But Apollo backers led by Rep. James G. Fulton, said savings from closing down the Apollo program early would be offset by high cost of restarting the space program to put a Skylab space station into orbit early in 1963.

The amendment to cut $125 million for development of the space shuttle to fly between space stations and Earth airports almost like an airliner was made by Rep. Bella S. Abzug, She said U.S. scientific efforts should concentrate first on wiping out disease, improving housing and eliminating hunger. CRUSADER Dr.

I. E. Buff suggested Thursday that West Virginia's air pollution efforts would get nowhere without a mobile laboratory for on-slte testing. He said the facility would be owned and operated by the state and staffed "with capable chemists who have never worked for the Interests." A search was under way Thursday for an inmate of the Huttonsville Corrections Center who walked away from a work crew Thursday morning at a Cheat Mountain rock quarry. Center officials identified the escapee as Roger Allen Swick, 19, serving a 1-10 year term for grand larceny on conviction in Tucker County.

Jones Laughlln Steer Corp. coal mlnei near Waynesburg, Pa. remained ctooad Thunday in the wake of a two-day rtrflw which hM Idled MOM men, vtrfc stoppage began when III mtmbtn of Unltod Mine Workart Local f3N at tfct ftm'a Gate jy walked oat over to nient of three AN ESTIMATED 400-500 business and civic leaders from throughout southern Weft Virginia are expected to attend the Governor's Conference on Industrial Development in Huntington beginning June 9. federal Office of Water Rewmrcw Research granted $31,428 to Wort Virginia Unrftntty for a study for factors Oat determine water aervice prices. Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested 33 persons in Toledo, Akron and Greater Cleveland Thunday in connection with what was termed "a major gambling operation extending throughout Northern Ohio." Child Is Injured Beckley city police rushed a vehicle to 214 Maplewood Lane at 5:30 p.m.

Thursday where Lyndo Jones, 8, of Beckley was hit by a car. According to city police the youth was treated for cuts and bruises over the right eye but was not hospitalized. No one was charged in connection with the mishap. Body Is Found EAST BANK, W. Va.

(AP) The body of Robert Lee Wood, 19, of Cabin Creek was recovered from the Kanawha River near mis Kanawha County community Thursday, about 250 yards downstream from where he wai last seen Memorial Day. For Union President WASHINGTON (AP) The eamsters Union's jailed president James R. Hoffa will not run for re-election as chief of the world's largest labor union, it was announced Thursday. Vice President Frank E. Fitzsimmons, who has been Hoffa's hand-picked stand-in, made the announcement.

Fitzsimmons said he will run for president at the union's convention in Miami Beach July 4. Hoffa, who ruled the union with an iron hand for a decade before going to federal prison four years ago, sent word through attorneys from his prison cell in the Lewisburg, federal penitentiary that he was withdrawing from the presidential race and endorsing Fitzsimmcns. Hoffa is serving a total of 13 years on federal convictions of jury tampering and mail fraud involving a Teamsters pension loan scheme. "It has been a difficult decision for Jimmy," said the 63- year-old Fitzsimmons, longtime friend and associate of Hoffa since their ecrly Detroit davi ii the onion. Theft Ring Apprehended Beckley city police put the "grab" on a juvenile theft ring Thursday that started their operation in late March and worked steadily through the end of May according to police Lt.

Tom Durrett. City police arrested four Beckley youths al 12:30 p.m.Thursday on four counts of grand larceny, one count of petit larceny, seven counts of tampering with automobile and one count of destruction of property. According to city police the youths aging 15, 16, and 17 committed the violations at two places during their three month reign. Police said some of the thefts occurred in the parking lot of the Beckley Appalachian Regional Hospital and others occurred in the parking area of Bowl Wick Bowling Alley on Johnstown Road. Police said three of the five tape-players stolen by the youths have been recovered.

"Also two additional arrest will be today," said Durrett. Contract Is Awarded WASHINGTON (AP) The of the Army has contracted with the SboMow BroMeCorp. of Kingwood, W. to an etttmatod 79,111 brant frafi Jeiminfs Randolph, D-W..