The Greenville News from Greenville, South Carolina • Page 1

I The Greenville News THE LEADING NEWSPAPER OF SOUTH CAROLINA 100th Year No. 17 Greenville, S. Thursday, January 17, 1974 54 Pages Gas To Use May Still Be Avoided Rationing Coupons Be Printed, Stored Oil Industry Credibility Said To Be Sinking Fast SPRING PREVIEW Furman University lake attracted from the indoor study habit are Anne Swann, a sophomore sun seeking students Tuesday as Greenville's winter weather from Richmond, left, and Cheryl Snider, a senior from took a sudden turn for the better. The sunshine pushed the Charlotte. (Staff photo by James G.

Wilson) thermometer up to a high of 77 degrees. Enjoying a break Few Had Tape Access, Aide Says WASHINGTON (AP) A White House aide testified Wednesday that he knows of only five people who ever had possession of the Watergate tape on which an 18.5-minute segment of conversation was erased. Stephen B. Bull, a special assistant to President, told a federal court hearing that the he knew of who had access to that tape were himself; the President; his secretary, Rose Mary Woods; J. Fred Buzhardt, a White House lawyer; Gen.

John Bennett, an aide. Bull denied telling a New York Times reporter that number of other people also had access to the tape of a June 20, 1972, conversation between the President and his then-chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman. Bull testified shortly after U.S.

District Judge John J. Sirica raised the possibility he might refer the case to a grand jury. "I have to decide whether or not I'm going to recommend to special prosecutor that this case should be submitted or whether the special prosecutor should seriously consider submitting it to the grand jury," the judge said. "I'll make that decision in due course," he said. It was the first time he had given any indication in open court of what action he might take.

On Tuesday a panel of technical experts said there were at least five and perhaps as many as nine instances of erasing and re-recording in the 18.5 minute obliterated segment. The experts are scheduled to return to court on Friday for cross-examination by White House lawyers. Most of the questions directed to Bull and a Secret Service official who preceded him on the stand dealt with who had access to the tape and the Uher 5000 recording machine the experts pinpointed as the one used when the conversation was obliterated. Bull startled the spectators in the courtroom when, upon being shown a receipt indicating had received the Uher recorder last Oct. 1, he said, "That is not my signature that is not even close." Duke Power To Boost Retail Rates Columbia Bureau COLUMBIA Customers of Duke Power Co.

will begin paying higher prices for their electricity Saturday as the utility boosts its retail rates by 2.25 per cent and imposes a coal cost adjustment clause. The S.C. Public Service Commission, which had suspended Duke's petitions for both increases pending hearings, announced that Duke is putting them into effect under bond subject to refund as provided by law. Under the coal cost adjustment clause, the utility pegs the retail rates to the price of coal used in its generating stations. Rates are adjusted upward or downward with the cost of coal.

Coal costs, however, have been rising for months and show no signs of falling. Duke officials report difficulty in buying coal at any price and its own reserves were reported to be 40 days off normal supply. The 2.25 per cent across the board increase is in addition to the eight per cent boost which Duke put into effect under bond last Nov. 15 as part of an overall rate increase of 17 per cent requested on its South Carolina sales. Both the 2.25 per cent increase and any increase resulting from Former Anderson College President Annie Dove Denmark Succumbs FROM STAFF, WIRE REPORTS GOLDSBORO Dr.

Annie Dove Denmark, 86, president emeritus of Anderson College in Anderson, S.C., died Wednesday in Wayne Memorial Hospital. She had been in declining health for several months. She had served the college ast president from 1928 to 1953. A native of Goldsboro, Dr. Denmark received degrees from Meredith College and Anderson and an honorary doctorate of literature from Furman University.

Dr. Denmark's tenure as fifth president of Anderson College was the longest in the school's history. She guided the women's college through the that she had been elected presipression years and in 1930 led in dent emeritus for life, and was Anderson's transition to a co-edinvited to spend the remainder ucational junior college, the first such institution in the state. of her life on the campus. This Dr.

Denmark achieved two program ended the official sersignificant firsts during her long vice of 36 years at Anderson career as an educator. She was College of the woman who was the first woman ever elected South loved known president." alumni as "our bepresident of a college in Carolina and was the first wom- A memorial service for Dr. an to hold office in the college's Denmark will be held Thursday sponsoring body, the S.C. Bap- at 4 p.m. in the Anderson Coltist Convention.

She was named lege Chapel. This will coincide vice president of that body in with the funeral service Thurs1950. day at Goldsboro's First Baptist On May 22, 1953, President Church. Burial will be in Willow Denmark presented diplomas to Dale Cemetery. her last graduating class.

On Dr. Denmark left no immethat day the trustees announced diate family. Strauss Says President's Credibility 'Unsalvageable Robert S. Strauss, chairman of the National Democratic Committee, on a one-day swing through South Carolina said in Greenville Wednesday that the "credibility of President Nixon is just about unsalvageable." Strauss said six months ago he might have been "shocked" about the electronics experts explanation of what caused the 18-minute gap in a taped conversation between Nixon and Bob Haldeman, former assistant to the President, "but nothing shocks me any more." The experts said at least five erasures were made on the WASHINGTON (UPI) Deputy Energy Chief John Sawhill said Wednesday gasoline rationing coupons will be ready by the end of January, but the decision whether to use them may be delayed until "a peak time of gas usage" next summer. Obviously optimistic that the nation can avoid rationing, Sawhill outlined more details of the government's standby rationing plan at a news briefing.

He said 1.6 billion rationing coupons will be printed and placed in storage by the end of the month and the entire standby system will be ready for possible implementation by March 1. But added: "It is more likely the plan would go into effect in the summer at a time of peak gas usage If gasoline demand mounts in the summer, there will be pressure to bring on the rationing plan. "Our view on rationing is unchanged. We still consider it to be a last resort." He said the nation can get through the energy pinch without rationing if American drivers continue to save gasoline and if domestic refining holds up. There also will be enough heating oil, he added, if most Americans keep their thermostats 6 degrees lower than last year and unless the weather turns severely cold.

An improvement in the energy situation is necessary to avoid rationing, Sawhill said, "and we're getting an improvement." He said employes of the Federal Energy Office (FEO) are trying to set up the mechanics of the standby rationing system in discussions with representatives of the states, post offices and banks. He estimated there are 123 million licensed drivers who would be eligible for coupons. The rationing system will classify drivers' needs region by region, largely on the basis of the availability of mass transit, he added. Sawhill said rural, areas would get the best break along with urban areas having little or no mass transit. He said urban areas with moderate transit would get 90 per cent of the maximum and areas with good transit, 80 per cent.

Among cities in the 100 per cent category were Dallas, Cincinnati, Detroit, Los Angeles and San Diego. The 90 per cent class included Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Miami. The 80 per cent category included New York, Baltimore, Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, New Orleans and Philadelphia. Assuming a gasoline shortage of 800,000 barrels a day or 11 per cent, Sawhill said, Los Angeles drivers might get 49 gallons a month, Washington 44 and Boston 40. In other energy-related developments: -John Schaefer, who helped draft the FEO allocation program announced Tuesday, told major oil company representatives in a meeting at the Interior Department that price controls soon will be removed from aviation and ocean ship fuels for international transportation.

Weather The warm 77-degree high temperature recorded at the Greer weather station Wednesday set a record for the date. The previous record high was a 74-degree reading of Jan. 16, 1952. Wednesday's temperature also came close to setting an all-time record high for the month of January. A high of 78 occurred on Jan.

13, 1960. The forecast: mostly sunny and warm Thursday. Partly cloudy and mild Thursday night. Partly cloudy and warm Friday. High Thursday mid 70's.

Low in upper 40's. Probability of precipitation near zero Thursday and Thursday night. Other data on Page 2. WASHINGTON (UPI) Congressional and government spokesmen told the oil industry Wednesday its credibility was sinking fast. Industry leaders responded that they were not trying deliberately to decieve the American public but conceded some key statistics on their operations were misleading.

William Johnson, head of the Federal Energy Office's policy analysis office, told industry representatives the mood in Congress and among most Americans was of "major suspicions of the oil companies that could have ugly results." "So you need to cooperate with our program," Johnson said during a question-and-answer session with industry representatives over the FE0's newly-anpounced fuel allocation program. A group of Democratic congressmen charged in a statement the administration acquiesced in "extortion" of the American consumer by major oil companies. the administration is committed to controlling inflation, it is not only permitting but encouraging massive price increases for crude oil, finished petroleum products, natural gas and other fuels," the congressmen said. They urged Energy Chief William E. Simon to impose immediately a 90-day freeze on domestic crude oil and petroleum product prices.

One federal official, Administrator Russell Train of the Environmental Protection Agency, said he believes the administration will make a proposal to divert any windfall profits which oil companies make during the energy crisis to a fund to help pay for mass transit. A House Small Business subcommittee heard an expert, Martin Lobel, testify that energy, accurate information on the oil crisis was "closely held in the hands of a few international companies not the government (and) "they refuse to provide it." Exxon Vice President W. T. Slick replied that the oil industry would "welcome a government-sponsored system for collection and publishing timely petroleum data." In Boston, Sen. Edward M.

Kennedy, said total disclosure by the oil firms "of every aspect of their activities" is needed to back up their contention that they are not boosting profits to the detriment of the consumer. Kennedy said Congress should put higher priority on passage of legislation to establish a "federal bureau of investigation" within the oil industry to locate reserves, determine how much is being stockpiled and where, pinpoint the actual cost of transportation, storage and marketing and report the profits. "The administration has been depending on the oil companies to place the public interest over private gain," Kennedy said. "The administration has accepted their data, their price justifications and their supply information, and the result has been near disaster." At the Washington hearing, Slick said the industry funnels its data to the American Petroleum Institute, its trade organization. The API weekly reports, he admitted, do have a built-in time lag and anyone using API figures as a basis for comparison of supplies must do so "very judiciously or misleading conclusions can result." The chairman of the House subcommittee, Rep.

John D. Dingell, D- complained that Congress is trying to make public policy in the fuel crisis "in a total vacuum." The administration, he said, "has completely delegated the authority to the oil John Schaefer, an official of the Federal Energy Office who helped draft the fuel allocation program, told industry representatives at the program briefing allocation would be in effect "for a long, long time." the coal clause would, like the eight per cent hike, be subject to refund to customers at six per cent interest of any excess over what the PSC ultimately approves. State law permits an electric utility to put into effect under bond rate increases suspended by the PSC. The bond must be posted to protect interested parties. Duke petitioned the PSC on Nov.

30 for the coal cost adjustment clause, noting the sharp rise in coal prices. The coal clause would charge or credit each kilowatt hour of electricity sold with the proper share of the cost of the coal above or below the established base of .4745 cents per kilowatt hour based on the cost of coal to Duke of 50 cents per million BTU. Duke gets part of its coal from a mine one of its subsidiaries owns in eastern Kentucky. The PSC is expected to conduct hearings this spring on the Duke petitions before it. On The Inside Abby 26 Comics 39 Deaths 16 Editorials 4 Life Style 25 Markets 22 Sports 18 Television 14 Theaters 38 Want Ads 40 ROBERT S.

STRAUSS FIRE DAMAGE Heelarama at 243 N. Prevost Building Tuesday night. The floor Main Greenville, was believed to be of the second story of the building collapsed, hardest hit by structural damage in the fire dropping debris into the ground floor of the which swept through the top level of the shoe shop. (Staff photo by James G. Wilson) Fire At Prevost Building tape.

Strauss said he personally was offended by what happened to the Nixon-Haldeman conversation, "and I think the average American is saddened by it. "It puts the presidency in a dimension that no one in America gets much joy or pleasure from," the Texas Democrat Noting that polls show 80 per cent of Americans believe Nixon is guilty to some degree in Watergate, Strauss said Americans are tired of Watergate, "but not because they don't want a disclosure most Americans want to get on with running the country." The "sad part" about Watergate, Strauss said, is that "the musical chairs the White House is playing with it" is taking away, from the real problems which confront the nation such as inflation and the energy crisis. Strauss said the energy crisis is real, but Congress has not been able to come to grips with it "because there is no executive leadership in the White House. "If Congress does not get a thrust of leadership from the (See Nixon's, P. 8, Col.

1) Began In Electrical Wiring A fire which gutted the floor of the Prevost Building on North Main Street Tuesday night started in electrical wiring, according to Greenville Fire Chief Charles Wilson. The chief said the fire originated in electrical conduit on second floor, burned through the conduit, and then either caused sparks or the gradual overheat ing ignited surrounding wood- four hours before it was conwork. tained. No flames reached the The attic above the ceiling of first floor level, Wilson said. the second floor was open from There was no estimate of the O'Neal Williams Sporting Goods damage late Wednesday.

HowStore to College Street. Wilson ever, WESC radio may have intermed the blaze as "one of the curred damage of more than most stubborn fires I have seen $100,000, according to program in several years." director Bob Hooper who said The blaze was discovered the automatic FM equipment about 6 p.m. and raged for some cost in excess of $75,000. A.