The Leavenworth Times from Leavenworth, Kansas • Page 1

THE LEAVENWORTH TIMES One Hundred Twentieth Year- No. 112 LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS, TUESDAY, JULY 20,1976. -FOURTEEN PAGES. Single Copy Price Inventories Stabilize Economic Growth Rate WASHINGTON (AP) The Gross National Product, the broadest measure of the nation's economic well-being, registered a sharp drop in the growth rate during the spring quarter, the government reported today. The drop was attributed primarily to a stabilization of business inventory accumulation.

The Commerce Department said the GNP grew at an annual rate of 4.4 per cent in volume for April through June, compared to a 9.2 per cent annual rate of growth in the year's first quarter. Despite the decline in the rate of growth, most economists say they feel the drop will be temporary. The GNP represents the nation's total output of goods and services and is a key determinent of how many new jobs the economy generates as well as, the economic status of all Americans. The Commerce Department said the slower growth rate was accompanied by a quickening of inflation. Prices as measures in the GNP accouts, which include the prices of all goods and services in the economy rather than just consumer prices, were up 5 per cent at an annual rate in the second quarter.

The inflation rale in the first quarter was 3 per cent. A sharp drop in the growth rate had been expected by Ford administration economists for at least a month. Despite the slower growth rale, the GNP figures contained some encouraging signals. Demand in the economy, or the level of final sales, actually grew at a faster pace 4.7 per cent at an annual rate. Final sales had climbed at a 3.7 per cent rale in the first quarter.

The reason that final sales managed to climb faster while the economy as a whole was growing more slowly is that the sharp boost in inventory accumulation of the first quarler was absent. Businessmen satisfied demand in 1975 from inventories because they were overstocked with goods and raw materials in (heir storehouses. Then in Ihe first three months of this year they suddenly began building invenlories again. That inventory building quickly stimulated production and created new in Ihe second quarter of this year inventory accumulation was at a slightly slower pace, slowing dowri creation of new jobs. Inventories grew by $13.3 billion in the second quarter compared to a $14.8 billion growth in the first quarter, the government said.

The total value of GNP at an annual rate in Ihe second quarter was placed at $1,673 billion. Simultaneous with release of the GNP figures, the Commerce Department reported that tola! personal income of Americans grew by Ihe smallest margin in 11 months during June. Personal income for the month was at annual rate of $1,308.9 billion, an increase of $6 billion, or four-tenths of 1 per cent, over May. That compared with a $10.4 billion advance in May and was the smallest monthly gain since personal income dipped last July. The GNP accounts showed that disposable personal income, which is total inlcome af (nr deduction of taxes, amounted to $5,452 per person in the second quarter.

That compared to per capita disposable personal income of $5,347 in the first quarter. The latest GNP figures included revisions of earlier estimates for recent years. The 9.2 per cent growth in GNP for the first quarter represented an upward revision from the 8.7 per cent estimated last month as the growth rate of GNP. The estimates provided for the latest quarter are also subject to later revision as additional data becomes available. In another economic report Monday, the Federal Reserve Board had estimated that manufacturers in the nation were operating at 73 per cent of capacity in the second quarter of the year.

That compared to a 72.1 per cent rate of capacity utilization in the previous quarter and was the highest since 75.7 per cent in the last three months of 1974. Capacity utilization is an indicator of the inflationary pressures in the economy, because as manufacturers qperale close to their limits of capacity, the strong demand usually enables them to get better prices for their products. The general rate is still well below, however, the83 percent in 1973 when inflation was strongest and shortages were cropping up in the economy. The fact that economic performance was somewhat sluggish in the second quarter was no surprise. Industrial production, retail sales and other economic statistics released on a monthly basis have already shown a less robust economy this spring.

Captures 16 Additional Delegates WASHINGTON (AP) President Ford's campaign claimed 16 more Republican National Convention delegates today, including two plucked from Ronald Reagan's total in Virginia and seven from Suffolk County, N.Y. The latest announcement from Ford headquarters came less than 24 hours after the Reagan camp named three new converts from the uncommitted ranks and contended the former California governor would have 1,140 votes on the first ballot. James Baker, Ford's chief delegate hunter, said the President now has 1,119 of the 1,130 delegates necessary to secure the GOP nomination at Kansas City Aug. 18. The Associated Press count of legally bound and publicly declared candidates now stands at 1,081 for Ford, 1,023 for Reagan, 154 uncommitted and 1 for Sen.

Howard Baker of Tennessee. In addition to the seven New Yorkers, the new Ford claims list five delegates from Virginia and one each from Illinois, Delaware, Louisiana and South Carolina. Edwin M. Schwenk, Suffolk County GOP chairman, said his group of seven decided to switch to the President last Friday. Earlier, said Schwenk, he had met for about 10 minutes with Ford to discuss the county's need for federal help on a major sewer project.

But Schwenk denied that the sewer project help would be any quid pro quo for the seven votes in Kansas City. "We're just asking fair consideration," he told a news conference at Ford campaign headquarters. Richard Rosenbaum, the New York state GOP chairman, claimed that of the 154 New York delegates, Ford has 131, Reagan 18 and 5 remain uncommitted. Ford, at a news conlerence Monday, said he expected good news from his delegate hunters later in the week. Ford claimed he already has 1,103 of the 1,130 delegates needed to assure nomination on the first ballot at the Aug.

16-19 convention. The Associated Press delegate count, which does not count those considered to be only leaning toward one can- didate or the other, currently gives Ford 1,066 and Reagan ,023, with 169 uncommitted and one expressing a preference for Sen. Howard Baker Jr. of Tennessee. Ford acted at his news conference on the White House front lawn Monday like a man already certain of nomination and looking toward the general election campaign against Jimmy Carter.

He said his campaign will be pitched on economic recovery, maintenance of peace and restoration of faith in government. Asked what his biggest issue with Carter would be, Ford said, "I'm not going to discuss this campaign from that point of view. It is important for me to act affirmatively. CLEARANCE II FEET LOW BRIDGE The Ida Street railroad bridge In Lansing has a clearance of only 11 feet 2 inches, and is only wide enough underneath to accomodate one lane of traffic. The Santa Ferailroad has offered to replace the wooden bridge with a stainless steel span and split the estimated $52,500 cost with the city.

(Times Photo) Boy Drowns fpubeof the News Lansing Studies Splitting $1 A 15-year-old northeast Leavenworth boy died Monday nighl in Gushing Memorial Hospital after being rescued from the bottom of Northside Pool by police about 10 p.m. The victim was identified as Timothy Warren, son of Mr. and Mrs. Earl Richards, 317 Dakota. The pool was closed at the lime oftheaccide.nl.

Police said Warren and other youngsters had been swimming in Ihe pool when his body was seen on the bottom of the pool and police were summoned. Police made several attempts to raise the body from the bottom hpfore finally succeeding. Warren was given mouth to mouth resuscitation and heart massage by police and fire fighters before being transported by Leavenworth Ambulance Service to Gushing, where reportedly a faint irtbeat was raised. He died Vr Monday night, "arks and recreation director Larry N. Foster called the incident "a real tragedy.

Parents should advise their children not' to swim after hours." The pool is fenced. Swimming is free to the public during established daytime hours. Police had warned children away from the pool earlier Monday night. Warren was born June 24, 1961, at San Diego, Calif. He was a student at Leavenworth High School.

Surviving besides his parents of the home are two Angelina Jackson and Annie Doris Warren, both of the home; six brothers, Ernest Ridley, Harvey Ridley and Rudolph Ridley, all of San Diego; Joe Matt Brown, Palm Springs, Griffen Warren, San Diego, and Waddell Warren of the home; and several uncles and aunts. Funeral arrangements will be announced by Davis Funeral Chapel. Top Argentinan Terrorist Dead BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) The Argentine army confirmed today the death in a clash with security forces of Roberto Santucho, the elusive kingpin of Latin-American terrorism. Police sources 'said Santucho's chief lieutenant, Enrique Gorriaran, also was killed in the clash Monday, but an official communique from army headquarters did not mention him. Intellligence sources said the slaying of Santucho might be a death blow to the Marxist People's Revolutionarry Army ERP considered the more important of the two leftist guerrilla organizations at war with the government.

40 Per Cent Chance ofjfcain The Natiqnal Weather Service said partly'cloudy skies and warm temperatures will prevail tonight in the Leavenworth area, with a chance of thunderstorms through Wednesday. The high Wednesday should be in the upper 80s. There is a 40 per cent chance of precipitation Wednesday. The high Monday in Leavenworth was 93, the low was 72 and there was no precipitation, personnel at the Leavenworth Waterworks Department plant said. The Pilot Knob reservoir was 96 per cent full, pumping 4.52 million gallons.

Carter Sets Strategy Confab PLAINS, Ga. (AP) Jimmy Carter today was to hold his first meeting since the Democratic Naional Convention with the advisers who helped him capture his party's presidential nomination. The meeting was set up to discuss camiaign strategy and to map plans for the transition to a possible Carter presidency. "In essence, they will talk about how to get from where we are now to a Carter administration," an aide said. Africa Prepares for Riots JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) Reinforced police patrols were on the alert for a new outbreak of rioting today in the Soweto township eight miles south of Johannesburg.

But the birthplace of the black uprising last month remained calm. Mexico Recovers from Floods MEXICO CITY (AP) Mexico began cleaning up Monday after the worst rains in memory caused floods that in which at least 120 persons were reported killed, 50 were missing and 200,000 homeless. Texan Seeks Schorr 9 Answer WASHINGTON (AP) A congressman from Texas urged the House ethics committee today to ask news reporter Daniel Schorr how he got the House intelligence committee's secret report and said Schorr would have no legal recourse but to answer. The congressman, Dale Milford, a member of the intelligence committee, denied leaking the report himself and said he does not know who gave it to Schorr. Rep.

Les Aspin, was ready to testify to the same thing later in the day. Cost of Railroad Bridge C-- 7 By STEPHEN SELBST Times Staff Writer, The Santa Fe railroad has offered to split the cost of improving the Ida Street railroad bridge with the city of Lansing, but City Atty. Wilbur Stakes Jr. said he opposes the deal because public money svpuld be spent to support a private enterprise. City Engineer Robert Wessel last week read to the Lansing City Council a letter from C.

L. Holman, a Santa Fe official, in which the railroad proposes replacing the existing wooden trestle structure with a stainless steel span. Holman estimated the cost of the project at $52,500 and suggested that the city and the railroad split the cost. City officials admit they have been concerned with the condition of the bridge. The clearance 11 feet, 2 inches, is low, the roadway underneath is only 14 feel wide, enoueh for only one lane of traffic, and the bridge is not aligned on a perpendicular to the street.

In addition, the city has applied for money to improve the street under the Federal Aid to Urban Routes program, and federal regulations require a minimum clearance of 14 feet for any bridge over a street being improved with public money. Holman said the bridge "has been of mutual concern to the city and the railroad." He added that "We haven't had any accidents there yet, but there's always that possibility. The improvement of the bridge would permit the city to put in a two-lane road there." The proposal put forth by Holman calls for replacing the bridge with a stainless steel span, for widening the space under the bridge to 32 feet, and for raising the clearance to 16 feet. Stakes, who said he will recommend against the city accepting the Santa Fe proposal because the city would be using tax money to improve the railroad's capital stock, pointed out that a previous study of the bridge indicated that the structure could only be raised six inches, meaning that if the clearance were raised to 16 feet, an.underpass would have to be dug. Stakes also said the cost of improvements to the roadway an underpass and approach had not been included in Holman's proposal, and implied that such work would raise the cost of the project.

Wessel said that the city's application for federal money to improve the street is still active, but is stalled, and it might be several years before the project reaches the top of the federal list of high priority proposals. Wessel indicated that the project "had been put on the back burner" by the federal government because an attempt to improve the western three- quarters of a mile of Ida had been blocked by a suit begun by Lansing taxpayers. On April 20 the Lansing City Council had ordered improvements on Ida, and May 11 it passed a resolution ordering the forced paving of a section of the street. On May 19 a group of 17 Lansing taxpayers residing in the benefit district to be assessed for improvements to Ida then filed suit in Leavenworth District Court, seeking to enjoin construction of the street. In their suit, they charged that the benefit district was drawn improperly, and that the resultant assessments would be "erroneous and excessive." They sought and received a temporary injunction to prevent the work from proceeding.

May 25 the Lansing City Council met and revoked the ordinances and resolutions ordering the improvements, and May 27 the case was then dismissed by mutual agreement of the residents and the city by the court. Until last week, there had then been no further progress on improving Ida. Welds in Question XrRays Due on Pipeline WASHINGTON tAP) The head of a consortium building the trans-Alaska oil pipeline told Congress today that X-ray inspections will be made on every weld on the line requiring one. "All of them will be reconciled even if it means exposing a weld in the field and re-Xraying it," said Edward chief executive officer of the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. He testified before a House subcommittee trying to find out what went wrong with the pipeline welding program.

Chairman John Melcher, D- called the hearing after learning from the Interior Department that the Arthur Andersen auditing firm has been unable to verify the validity of rays required to confirm the integrity of the welds. Patton said the number of discrepancies has been reduced to 61 and that Alyeska is continuing to work on the problem. Most of the pipeline is buried, and Palton was asked if federal inspectors will be reluctant to give it final approval for use. landed. AT parts of the Viking 1 Lands on Mars PASADENA, Calif.

iAP) America's Viking, spacecraft landed today on a dusty plain of Mars to search for lift 1 on the red planet. In a spectacular space achievement, Viking began sending back razor-sharp photos of the planet's surface. The pictures arrived dramatically, appearing line- by-line on television monitors after traveling 213 million miles at the speed of light. The failure of two earlier Soviet Mars landing crafts had heightened the tension in the project laboratory. "The details are just incredible," said Dr.

Thomas Mutch, head of the lander imaging team. It just couldn't be better," he said as the iirsi picture, a ion of the surface directly under one leu of the lander deep valleys and craters. Later, the unmanned three- legged lander svill make life- detection and soil sampling tests. For more than 100 years scientists have thought Mars might harbor some form of life. ahead of the Viking mission.

"I know in the next 20 years we'll have a manned landing on Mars eventually we'll have colonized and taken over the planet." Bradbury said. The first picture showed an Scientists cheered and hugged area of soil strewn with what each other as the fe seemed to be chunks of rock of craft radioed that it touched sizes. Mutch said it down on Mars at 4:53 a.m. PDT. llooked as though some of the The signal took 19 minutes to frocks had tails of dirt formed by reach earth- For many, the rthe rushing of strong Martian ras a childhood Swinds across the surface.

SURFACE ftj? MARS TWi plsfwre Mw Jet PropiMllw Mboratory to Pasadena a vlf of the Martian landscape, made by Viking I moments after it Gold Plain Mars the smoothest place on a planet marked by volcanic peaks and achievement was a childhood dream come true a Mars landing. President Ford telephoned his congratulations to the project headquarters, calling the mission a "wonderful and most remarkable He said. "1 think it's amazing that in the spun of a single lifetime, the exploration of space has grown from the dreams of very, very few individuals to such a massive cooperative reality." Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury was at JPL for the touchdown, his dreams racing Scientists had expected the landing site, a low plain where streams may once have run, would be covered by a blanket of material deposited by the Water. Although the pictures showed a rocky surface, the apparently avoided any geologic hazards that project officials had feared might imperil the touchdown. In the corner of the first picture could be seen one of Viking's round metal landing (ojQlpads.

The rivets on the footpad were visible and the footpad cast an oval shadow in the late afternoon sun as it rested on the soil among the rocks, which Mutch described as "a beautiful collection of boulders." The second picture was to be a panoramic view of the Martian landscape, made by a camera on the lander with the ability to sweep a long path across the horizon. Asked if the panorama shots, of the Martian surface revealed the desert scientists had expected, project chief Jim Martin said, "It's certainly very close. We don't see a lot of big rocks. It looks like there might be some hills ouA there." "1 think it's great," Mission Director Thomas Young, viewing the Martian horizon. "It has exceeded all our expectations.

The landing was U.K., there were problems, and it's as scientifically interesting as we had hoped," The Soviet news agency reported the Viking landing in one paragraph..