The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 101

Revolutionary Changes in Southland's Schools Urged 1 CC PART II San Fernando Valley News TUESDAY MARCH 7, 1967 BILL HENRY jftggaf IN HER GOWN OF WHITE MONKEY Mrs. Glodys Towles Root, known for her flamboyant is attired in what she described as an Italian Vatican style draped cape and dress of white monkey as she arrives in court with Morris Lavine, her attorney in perjury case. Times photo Gladys Towles Root Will Stand Trial Alone in Sinatra Case Government in Surprise Move Drops All Charges Against George Forde, Flamboyant Woman Lawyer's Co-defendant Loss of Voter Support Called Crucial Problem BY JOHN KENDALL Timet Staff Writer Revolutionary changes in Southern California's school system were urged Monday by the Southern California Research Council to forestall an educational crisis. Recommendations such as year-round use of school buildings were made in a 65-page, broad scale study of the school system in eight Southern California counties. The SCRC report, titled "Crisis in School Financing," studied the past, forecast the future, identified problems and suggested solutions.

In perhaps the greatest move away from tradition, the researchers recommended that Southern California schools give serious consideration to the proposals of Fritz Machlup, professor of economics at Princeton University. $400 Million Saving Seen Adoption of the professor's proposals for accelerated education could save perhaps as much as S400 million a year in direct expenditures for public education, the report said. Briefly, the Princeton educator believes that the traditional 12-grade elementary and high school education could be compressed into 9 or 10 years without loss. As a matter of fact, Machlup thinks students of an accelerated program who are ready for college at ages 14 and 15 would be in many respects better prepared than students are now. Prof.

Machlup argues that accelerated education offers a rare chance to "get more for less" since school facilities could be used more efficiently and would permit accelera-tion of the nation's economic growth. Viewed With 'Urgency' The businessmen and university economists who prepared the SCRC paper cautioned they view the school finance situation with "urgency and alarm." They said taxpayers must be able to better understand where their school money goes. The council presented its report at a California Club press conference conducted by Joseph E. Haring, research coordinator and chairman of the economics department, Occidental College; Jack R. Corteway, assistant vice president, First Western Bank; Norman R.

Rehm, vice president, Security First National Bank and Richard C. Gilman, president of Occidental College. Already, the report warned, voters in many Southland communities bewildered by lack of understanding of the purpose and necessity of school spending have rebelled through the ballot box against higher property taxes. The SCRC researchers said that despite widespread support by civic Please Turn to Page 10, Col. 1 SPEAKING FOR HIMSELF Robert Douglas Hill in court scripts that he later used in a personal attempt to win a with tran-new trial.

Times photo HERTEL Writer RFK Runs Into LBJ WASHINGTON The "new Lyndon Johnson," the 1967 model which rolled out of the factory following the recent November elections, is, like the new model automobiles, the subject of close scrutiny and heated discussion. There are several new features. It is smoother, quieter, seldom backfires, an apparent transition from a hot-rod to a luxury-type limousine. But there's a suspicion among this town's Johnson-watchers that it's the same old ma-chine with a streamlined and a fresh coat of paint. These experts say that the manner in which the admin istration bracketed Sen.

Robert Kennedy's latest peace pro-nosal with a drumfire of counter-argument that almost smothered it was a perfect example of the old, original Lyndon Johnson. It was the same tactic he used so many times in the past against political opponents. Usually they were Republicans. This time it was Bobby Kennedy. Smother Treatment Kennedy, whether you agree with his halt-the-bombing proposal or not, did his best to placate the President.

He announced in advance that he was going to make the speech, he sent an advance copy of it to the White House, he opened it with something of a tribute to the President's efforts to seek peace, sought to take some of the onus away by noting that three Presidents had participated in bringing about the present situation, even acknowledged' his own participation in some of the decisions and agreed that perhaps some of the blame could be assessed against him. What happened to Kennedy was plenty. First of all, just before the senator took the floor, the Pres ident held a hastily arranged news conference and revealed the receipt of a front page stealing friendly letter from Soviet Premier Kosygin which was certain to command attention. Kennedy's speech was then offset by a well-timed letter to Sen. Henry Jackson which was made public by the White House shortly after the Senate talk.

Moments later Secretary of State Rusk called newsmen to a press conference at which he rebutted the Kennedy proposal point by point. And, within hours, from the scene of battle the U.S. commander, Gen. Westmoreland, issued a statement which seemed obviously aimed at the Kennedy plan, as it outlined the military necessity of continuing to bomb the north. Altogether it was a smashing example of LBJ's effective technique for smothering the Opposition Reaction Some of the reaction to these tactics was fairly extreme, too.

One TV newsman saw a deep plot in the fact that Kennedy's opponents kept the debate going on the Senate floor following his speech so long that "they prevented Sen. Kennedy getting before the TV cameras in time to appear on the evening news programs." A cartoonist summed it up with a very funny drawing of Kennedy standing on a stage trying to deliver his speech and being practically bowled over by LBJ dashing in front of him waving the Kosygin letter in one hand and his own letter to Sen. Jackson in the other. The caption reads "we interrupt this peace program to bring you some important announcements we just remembered!" This exercise in practical politics is taken here as a sharp reminder to all who oppose the President on this or any other matter that he doesn't abide opposition gladly. Convicted Slaye Attempt to Win Hill and Attorney Argue All Judge Denies Their Motion, Convicted slayer Robert Douglas Hill, 23, failed Monday in his personal attempt to win a new trial and reduce his penalty to life imprisonment.

Superior Judge Mark Brandler, after a lengthy summation of the evidence, denied the motions argued both by Hill and his attorney B. Gordon Her. The motions were opposed by Dep. Dist. Atty.

Leslie Light. Judge Brandler continued until Thursday the formal sentencing of Hill. Voted Death Penalty Hill, a television and stereo repairman, was found guilty Jan. 27 of first-degree murder in the rape-slaying of Mrs. Phyllis Black, 28, an attractive Granada Hills housewife.

The same jury on Feb. 2 voted the death penalty. Hill and Her argued that all the evidence was circumstantial and that the defendant' was not properly But the second offer, she said, did not give her the right to approve the story and the director, as did the first contract. It was also different, she added, because the second picture would not have been made here, but in Australia. When the studio conceded that the second proposed contract was different in these respects, Miss Mac-Laine's lawyer, Benjamin Neuman, moved for a summary judgment, contending that in effect the studio had admitted that the contract had been breached and therefore nothing was left for a trial court.

Judge Zack agreed. BY HOWARD Timet staff Charges of rigging testimony in the Frank Sinatra Jr. kidnaping trial will be pressed against attorney Gladys Towles Root, but not against attorney George A. Forde, the government revealed Monday. The move caught the flamboyant Mrs.

Root and her attorney, Morris Lavine, completely by surprise. Forde and his lawyer, Joseph A. Ball, were not even in U.S. Judge Pierson M. Hall's court to hear the Waterfield Charges Jane Russell With Excessive Drinking Former professional football player Bob Waterfield, 46, charged his estranged wife, Jane Russell, 45, motion picture actress, with habitual intemperance and cruelty in a cross-complaint to divorce Monday.

In seeking a division of community property, Waterfield listed Miss Russell's -week contract with Howard Hughes, along with various real estate. Waterfield also asked custody of the couple's three adopted children. Miss Russell filed suit for divorce Feb. 3, asking the court to evict him from their home at 14SS8 Round Valley Drive, Sherman Oaks, and also asking custody of the children. Waterfield denied that they separated last Christmas Day, as she had alleged.

But he said she had imbibed so much that he had to prepare the holiday dinner. He set the date of their separation as Jan. 24. In answering his wife's complaint, Waterfield said that Miss Russell "has concealed supplies of liquor in various parts of (the house) in order that she may satisfy her drinking desires at various hours of the day." On Feb. 1.

he said, Miss Russell took their 15-year-old daughter, Tracy, out of school and disappeared for a week without notifying him. SHIRLEY MACLAINE VS. STUDIO Actress Awarded $800,000 r7s Personal Retrial Fails Evidence Was Circumstantial; Sets Sentencing for Thursday advised of his rights to remain silent and to an attorney when he gave his first statement to police Aug. 4, the day after the murder. They also contended that the prosecution improperly denied them the evidence pertaining to the finding of Hill's palm print in the hallway next to where Mrs.

Black's body was found, that the verdict did not represent the independent thinking of all 12 jurors, and that Hill was prejudiced by accounts of the case in the press. Not Proper Representation On his own, Hill additionally said he was not given proper representation by Her. In denying the motion, to reduce the penalty, Judge Brandler said that because the evidence disclosed "a brutal, savage and bestial strangulation and rape (language used during the trial by Her)," he would not disturb "the wholly justified verdict of death Imposed on the defendant by an Impartial jury of his peers." Judge Brandler also denied Monday Hill's last-minute attempt to discharge Her in favor of attorney Alvin G. Tenner, and to continue the arguments for a new trial and reduction of the penalty. 25-Millionth Vote in NLRB Election Cast A milestone of industrial rela? tions, the casting of the 25-millionth vote in a National Labor Relations Board election, was hailed Monday by a member of the board.

Samuel Zagoria told a Town Hall luncheon at the Biltmore that since the NLRB was established in 1935 it has conducted 200,000 secret elections to determine whether or not workers wished to have union representation. three one-day conferences (one for about 200 Mexican-Americans and two smaller groups of Negroes) at Cal Poly, Pomona. But on Monday, Dep. Police Chief James G. Fisk appealed for reconsideration and won approval of $2,254 in antipovcrty funds to bring police officers and "militants" together during the next few weeks.

Fisk, head of the Police Department community relations program, said officers are to sit down "with those who have been our most severe critics in the past for the purpose of finding a long-range approach toward solving problems." The four community representatives of seven on the board Please Tarn to Page 10, CoL 1 government motion for dismissal granted. "This move would indicate the government probably will call Mr. Forde as a witness," Lavine said. Asst. U.S.

Atty. Donald A. Fareed, who filed the motion for dismissal of charges against Forde "in the interests of justice," declined to comment. U.S. Atty.

John Van de Kamp said the government is planning to go to trial against Mrs. Root on charges of obstructing justice and instigating perjury. A 148-page indictment charged that Mrs. Root and Forde conspired with two of the kidnap defendants, Joseph C. Amsler and John W.

Irwin, to present testimony indicating the abduction of young Sinatra in 1963 was a publicity stunt. It was alleged that the attorneys Instructed Amsler and Irwin to testify the plot was masterminded bv a mysterious person known only as "Wes" or "West." Judge Hall had dismissed the indictment, but he was reversed by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Last month the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene.

Bill of Particulars Lavine said Monday he will file a motion for a bill of particulars, demanding that the government show exactly what in the indictment constituted perjury and obstruction of justice. Judge Hall said he is anxious to know, too. The judge set March 14 for filing of the motion, March 21 for the government to respond and March 27 for a hearing. Mrs. Root, just returned to her law practice following recuperation from auto accident injuries and a cerebral hemorrhage, was not required to appear in court but she showed up anyway.

"I don't want anybody to think I'm running," she said, adding that she is anxious to go to trial as soon as possible. She was wearing what was described as an Italian Vatican style draped cape and dress of white monkey, with a large Rosicrucian cross set with amethysts pinned to her breast. have no trouble attracting a small minority of youths who will participate in a demonstration. "If more acceptance by the adult community were offered," he added, "it would act as an incentive for youths to withdraw their acceptance of the demonstrators and once the support is gone, the leaders of demonstrations will have no followers." Parrick is one of 35 young people, ages ranging from 14 through 22, who meet twice a month at City Hall and who are submitting reports and recommendations on youth problems in the districts they represent. Robert Werner, 19, of Van Nuys, also a Valley College sophomore, criticized news media for giving too Please Turn to Page 8, Col.

1 4 Poverty-Area Representatives Walk Out of EYOA Meeting Adult Discouragement Blamed for Divorce of Youth From City Shirley MacLaine, without having to set foot in a courtroom, Monday received judgment for $800,000 against 20th Century -Fox Film Corp. The award was made by Superior Judge Ernest J. Zack on the basis of a suit in which the actress charged that the studio breached a contract signed Aug. 5, 1965, calling for her to play the role of Evalina in a film, "Bloomer Girl." Miss MacLaine complained that on April 4, 1966, the studio notified her that the picture would not be made and offered her instead the leading feminine role in another film, "The Big Country, Big Man." Dep. Chief James G.

Fisk TlmMM BY JACK JONES Tlmn Staff Wrlttr BY SID BERNSTEIN Tlim Staff Writer Four poverty-area representatives walked out of the Economic and Youth Opportunities Agency board meeting Monday, angry because other members voted to underwrite Police Department workshop conferences with "militant" Negroes and Mexican-Americans. The four objected primarily on the grounds that separate meetings, as planned by the EYOA staff and the Police Department, would further split the two communities. They also questioned whether Mexican-American and Negro groups consulted about whom to invite to the discussions really speak for their communities. The EYOA board previously turned down the proposal to stage Los Angeles youth has a great potential for constructive action but young people feel divorced from their city because adults do not encourage them to get involved. This is why the city's youths don't feel they are contributing members of the community, Gerald Parrick, 20, of Sherman Oaks, pointed out in a report to Mayor Sam Yorty's Youth Advisory Council.

"All too often only the youths with drive, ambition and initiative are allowed to become involved," Parrick, a Valley College sophomore, declared, "while the average youth who is not a self-starter and who looks to others to show him how to get involved is overlooked." Parrick feels this lack of concern is why agitators on the Sunset Strip.