Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 1

An Editorial' Administrative Issue City eraies 'Bhtafmg' To Mehaunts Tan said yesterday that the city "has no intention of telling the merchant how to run his store. In fact," lie added, "the city cannot do so under law." Woodall said the attorney general's office and the merchants withdrew their expressions of doubt once the mixup was explained. "What we are doing," Woodall said, "is offering some guidelines to merchants on various ways the tax can be collected. We have studied procedures in other states to provide these suggestions. How the merchant does it is his business." If, while passing it on to the consumer at the cash register, the merchant physically divides his receipts into profit and taxes, the city and state get all that he designates for taxes.

And that amount is sometimes more than the tax rate, Woodall said. Woodall said the citv will determine the non-foodstuff content of supermarket and discount store volumes by using pre-set averages "subject to regular audit." The average market, he said, sells 35 per cent non-foodstuff items. The average discount house makes from 65 to 75 per cent of its sales in non-foodstuffs. Some supermarket owners have complained that the split on city tax will cause them to spend money in accounting that they will have to pass on to consumers by increased prices. Because of that, they said, the tax ordinance will not benefit the low-income food consumer as it is supposed to.

"The marketplace, the consumer himself, will prevent that from happening," Woodall said yesterday. Smaller non-foodsale department stores have complained that the larger discount Many Tucsonans, especially merchants, are aware that diligent efforts have been under way for several days to arrive at a method of administering the proposed Increase in the city sales tax. It appears that these efforts may be successful. But there has also been confusion anions some people ho do not realize that voting the sales tax Is one thing and administering It Is another. The sales tax proposition on the Dec.

16 ballot Is sound. It should receive a resounding approval front the city voters. The alternative Is too grim to countenance willingly. On a favorable vote rides the ability of the city to houses will take advantage of the grocery exemption to lower the prices of non-foodstuff items below competition levels. "Regular city audit procedures," Woodall said, "will prevent that.

The city and the state will find the way to get their money on all discount store sales." No store. Woodall said, will overtax if its Impartially iter An Independent Newspaper Printing The News TUCSON, ARIZONA, FRIDAY. DECEMBER 5, 1 969 34 Jurists Urge Nixon-Picked My Lai Panel By TOM TURNER Special Assignments Writer A cloud formed temporarily yesterday over the city's proposed sales tax increase, which comes up for public vote Dec. 16. Officials said the flare-up resulted from the "misunderstanding of city intentions." Certain supermarket owners and the state attorney general's office expressed the belief that the city intended to illegally regulate how merchants collect their city sales taxes.

The city proposal provides the addition of one per cent tax on all items "not for human consumption" and the removal of all city tax on the sale of foodstuffs. This would mean that the total city and state tax on non-grocery items would be 5 cents on the dollar, while foodstuffs would carry only the state's 3 per cent tax. Deputy City Manager Lawrence Woodall IT?" f. VOL. 128 NO.

33? Rail Strike Averted By Wage Pact 20-Hour Talks Yield Agreement On Raise WASHINGTON (AP) The threat of a nationwide rail shutdown was erased Thursday when agreement was reached on a wage increase for 48,000 shopcraft workers, after 20 hours of nonstop bargaining. The agreement still must be ratified by members of the four unions involved, but Secretary of Labor George P. Shultz said, "We will not be having any strike on the railroads." William W. Winpisinger, the chief union negotiator, agreed. Details were withheld, but it was learned current average pay will increase from $3.59 per hour to $4 for 1969 and to $4.28 by August 1970.

The agreement covers all of 1969 and will mean back pay to Jan. 1 of $380 to $400 for each worker. "While we were not able to achieve every goal we set out to achieve, we did hit some milestones," said Winpisinger, vice president of the AFO-CIO International Assn. of Machinists. "We are confident our membership, in evaluating it, will agree with us." Other unions involved are electricians, sheet metal workers and boilermakers.

Shultz called the settlement a triumph for collective bargaining. "The carriers are very gratified," said John P. Hiltz, chairman of the industry's national Railway Labor Conference. Throughout the marathon bargaining session, Shultz remained in his office. The Nixon administration had a major stake in the negotiations, hoping not only for a settlement without government intervention, but also for one that would hold down increases in wages and prices in line with efforts to curb inflation.

Fast Action Planned On Social Security WASHINGTON (AP) Senate Democratic leaders moved Thursday to assure action on a 15 per cent increase in Social Security benefits before Congress goes home this year. Chairman Russell B. Long, of the Senate Finance Committee, introduced a 15 per cent hike similar to that recommended Wednesday by the House Ways and Means Committee, as an amendment to the pending tax reform and relief bill. Long deferred a vote on the proposal pending House action expected next week, but said he would then call it up for approval. or i 'H TOP of the NEWS MORE RAIN LIKELY.

Facing a 30 per cent chance of more showers today Tucsonans can look forward to tomorrow's likelihood of warmer temperatures, clearer skies and a 10 per cent chance of further showers. Today's high is expected near 55, with tonight's low about 40. Yesterday the high was 53 and the low 50. A year ago the high and low were 73 and 31. Records for the date were set in 1946 with an 82-degree high and in 1948 with 30 for a low.

Snow hit an area from Arizona to Kansas as Icy temperatures continued to plague the eastern half of the country. Details on Page 7A. in.iJ CANCER RESEARCH. American doctors report at a Paris conference that new evidence indicates a link between a virus and certain types of human cancers. Page 11B.

SOVIET SUMMIT TALKS. Better relations with the West and limited praise of the new Bonn regime are emphasized in a communique Issued by the Warsaw Pact countries following their two-day summit meeting in Moscow. Page 12A. NATO WARNED. Secretary of State William P.

Rogers, expressing pessimism about the Paris peace talks, advises NATO foreign ministers not to be lured into a premature security conference by the Soviet-led Communist bloc. Page HA. CHRIST ROLE NOT FOR BEATLE. John Lennon won't be portraying Jesus in London's St. Paul's Cathedral because the backers of the musical fear his personality might shove Christ into the background.

Lennon has already said he isn't interested in the part unless Yoko Ono is given the role of Mary Magdalene. Page 13B. CONGRESS OF CITIES. Mayor John Lindsay of New York is defeated for the vice presidency of the National League of Cities by Mayor Lugar of Indianapolis, who is a Nixon supporter. The vice president traditionally becomes president of the league the following year.

Page 6B. POVERTY PARLEY ENDS. Delegates to the White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health have ended their sessions after establishing and accepting priorities for feeding the hungry in the U.S. Page 10A. BLACK PANTHER KILLED.

Chicago police gun down Fred Hampton, chairman of Chicago's Black Panther group, in the second shootout within a month between the black militants and the police. Another Panther is killed and six persons are injured. Page 9A. MEXICAN AGENCY APPROVED. A cabinet level agency to help the 10 million Spanish-speaking persons in the United States clears a major hurdle with House Government Operations Committee approval.

Page 6A. GRAND JURY TO GET TATE CASE. Los Angeles officials, both prosecutors and police, say grand jury indictments will be sought against members of a hippie cult accused of slaying actress Sharon Tate and four others in August. A charge of conspiracy to commit murder is being requested against the leader of the cult. Pagel4B.

CATTLE RUSTLING. Nevada ranchers ask state help in combating cattle rustling. They want the brand inspection department tightened. Arizona has no such problem, as its branding law was established years ago. Rustlers can purloin Arizona cattle, but they can't take them out of the state because of the brands.

Page 12C. CHAVEZ HAS PLANS. Cesar Chavez, leader of the grape boycott and farm workers' strike in California, says he has definite plans to unionize farm work in Pima and Santa Cruz counties, but he is keeping those plans quiet for the moment. Page 3B. BONANNO WILL STAY.

Mafioso Joseph Bonanno Sr. has withdrawn his request to a New York federal court to move to California and instead will continue to live in Tucson. He had petitioned to move to Atherton, where his daughter lives. Page IB. EPIC UA DRAMA.

The University of Arizona will present "Mourning Becomes Elec-tra," a six-hour trilogy by Eugene O'Neill, Dec. 8 through 14. Page 12C. UA WINS. The University of Arizona opens its home season with a 72-68 decision over Utah's Weber State in Bear Down Gym.

Page ID. Bridge 13B Horoscope 5B Comics 10-11C Mostly Hers 1-6C Crossword 12B Movies 12B Editorial 18D Pub. Rec 7D Financial 15-17B Radio-TV 11C Good Health 7B Sports 1-6D kiniRilflMPr fpmiHin keep its word to a whole corps of faithful, honest, presently underpaid policemen, firemen, sanitary workers and other employes. Vote the sales tax Increase on Dec. 11.

The administrative problem lies In how to collect the Increase justly and equitably, and still take Into account the fact that the city sales tax on food Is removed completely. The problem surrounding administering of the tax increase should not be so great as to insoluble on a basis of ordinary fairness, equity and justice, to the public and to merchants. The matter of administration is at Issue, not the need to raise the money. receipts are itemized because it will spell a loss to the merchant. "Remember," he said, "we get any overage identified for privilege tax purposes." Woodall said he "won't say there won't be changes in the classification of food and nonfood items as we go along.

After all," he added, "federal income tax was begun in 1883 and they're still changing the form." SIXTY PAGES Timet Newi Service 16. 1968. wfcen a olatoon led bv Lt William L. Calley allegedly killed a large number of civilians, including women and children. Re- (Contlnued on Page 8A, Col.

7) U.S. Casualties Pass Weekly Toll Low SAIGON (AP) American casualties In the war have passed 300,000, although the U.S. Command reported Thursday that battle deaths last week were among the smallest weekly totals of the entire conflict. The U.S. Command said 70 Americans were killed and 1,049 were ounded in the week that ended Saturday, raising total casualties for the war to 300,829.

The 70 dead were the lowest in two months. They compared with 130 the week before, the highest in nine weeks. South Vietnamese and enemy casualties also fell off last week, reflecting a lull that may be followed by a storm of battle. The South Vietnamese government announced 24-hour cease-fires for Christmas and New Year's. The U.S.

Command agreed to observe the standoffs. South Vietnamese headquarters reported that 373 government troops were killed and 953 wounded last week. The week before 567 government soldiers were killed. The allied commands said 2,177 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese were killed last week, compared with 3,220 the previous week. Allied communiques Friday reported a new series of clashes along the Cambodian border west of Saigon the focus of the war in the past few days.

The South Vietnamese military command reported 23 enemy slain in two battles. Bombers and artillery struck enemy targets inside Cambodia Thursday for the second day in a row, but the U.S. Command said no -strikes were flown overnight. Allied officials said U.S. planes and South Vietnamese artillery struck at enemy positions 20 miles apart north of a vast, swampy Mekong Delta region known as the Plain of Heeds.

emotion, said the three stood together near the door. One of the family's buffalos had also come inside. When the soldiers burst into the brick house, the black man stood near the buffalo. The boy said the soldier raised his rifle, and the mother pleaded for life. The soldier fired, Cu said; they all fell, and all the soldiers left He did not say whether the others had fired.

The next thing the boy said he remembered was another older sister picking him up and carrying him to be treated. His right thigh shows the scar of entry and exit of a bullet. Freed Fliers Return Spec. 4 Herman E. Hofstatter, on stretcher, wean a big smile as his parents greet him aboard plane at the naval air station in Glenview, after his arrival from Korea.

Behind Hofstatter are the other two helico pter crewmen released with him, Capt. David H. Crawford of Pooler, left, and WO Mai colm V. Loepke of Richmond, Ind. They were freed by North Korea, where their aircraft was shot down Aug.

17. Hofstatter was wounded in the right knee. (AP Wirephoto) Urban Funds 'Freeze' Lifted For 300 Cities 6 1H Ntw York NEW YORK Arthur J. Goldberg, former justice of the Supreme Court, and 33 other prominent jurists proposed Thursday that President Nixon convene a commission "of unquestionable impartiality" to investigate the alleged massacre at My Lai in Vietnam. In a statement, the lawyers, legal scholars and deans of law schools urged that the commission be authorized "to inquire not into questions of individual guilt but rather into the larger questions of policy guidelines for the conduct of military operations." They further proposed that the commission be empowered to "inquire into aspects of military-civilian governmental operations to determine whether there has been a lapse in the chain of communication and command." The commission's "findings should provide the occasion for a general assessment of the implementation of the laws of war in Vietnam by all sides," the statement said.

It specifically referred to the atrocities committed by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong at Hue during the Tet offensive in early 1968. Justice Goldberg read the statement to newsmen on behalf of the legal group at a news conference in the Center for International Studies of New York University. He said the proposal would be sent to President Nixon, but he did not say when or how. He added that making the statement through the news media was a form of communicating with the President. The event in question occurred on March Viet Reds Execute Deserters, 2 Report SAIGON (AP) The U.S.

Command quoted two North Vietnamese prisoners Friday as saying at least a dozen of their comrades had been executed while trying to desert. A spokesman said it was the first time reports had been received in the northern I Military Corps area of execution of North Vietnamese army deserters. The statement said the informants had deserted their units in August. In addition, the statement said, a Viet Cong prisoner who deserted his unit in September said he saw the bodies of two soldiers who had deserted their unit and had been recaptured by a sapper battalion. charges, heard of the boy from the youngster's father, Nguyen Then.

He sent for him without notice, to forestall any coaching. The senator found that the story seemed to be accurate and consistent with other accounts they had heard in the last two days. When shells started to fall in the vicinity of the hamlet, Cu, his mother and sister darted into the underground bunker that is a standard feature of all houses in Vietnam's contested areas. They climbed back to the ground floor when the shelling ended. The boy, speaking without eagerness or WASHINGTON (AP) The Nixon administration Thursday lifted a seven-month freeze on a controversial urban renewal program affecting over 300 cities.

It announced planned expenditures of between $330 million and $340 million for accelerated rehabilitation this fiscal year. In addition to the dollar ceiling, the Department of Housing and Urban Development limited participating cities to 80 of approximately 315 applicants. But the administration did not impose restrictions on the scope of the Neighborhood Development Program that were feared by city officials and their allies in Congress. Neighborhood Development, a special form of renewal aid that allows cities to begin spot noise. The three senators and others watching shuddered at the realism captured in the eight-year-old's pantomime.

He did not act out the rest, but only because the grownups thought the play had come too close to reality for them to bear. They coaxed the rest of the story out of the boy in words. The man wielding the gun, the boys said, was an American Negro soldier, the imploring gesture was that of the boy's mother. The burst of fire killed the woman, wounded the boy in his right thigh and his sister in the back. rehabilitation before all planning for an area Is complete, was frozen for review April 30 when demand threatened to outstrip federal funds available for all forms of urban renewal.

The program was formulated by former President Lyndon B. Johnson as a means of speeding up renewal efforts that in some cities added to neighborhood unrest by replacing slums with expensive apartments the former tenants couldn't afford. Big-city congressmen and such organizations as the National League of Cities have accused the administration in recent months of planning to scrap the Democratic-inspired program. But Secretary of Housing George Romney announced the money allocated this year is approximately $30 million more than in the previous fiscal year. It happened, the boy said, in the house where he used to live.

The house stood in Tu Cung hamlet in Song My village, which was destroyed during a sweep by American troops on March 16, 1968. An unknown number of men, women and children died in the incident, allegedly in a manner similar to that described by the boy, who said his game was Cu. This is a nickname for all little boys in central Vietnam, who learn their real names only when they are older. Sen. Tran Van Don, head of a Senate defense committee group studying the atrocity Vietnamese Boy Acts Out Atrocity For Probers By HENRY KAMM 3D lt New York Timet Newt Service QUANG NGAI, South Vietnam The little boy in the blue jockey cap picked up the toy tommy gun, jammed it low against his side and pointed it menacingly, making the plastic weapon describe an arc before him.

Next, he put down the gun and raised his hands joined flat against each other in supplication. He looked upward, as though pleading with someone much taller than himself. The boy picked up the gun again and this time accompanied the arc with a clattering.