Mexico Ledger from Mexico, Missouri • Page 1

20 PAGES Mvxlta RAIN Mexico, Wednesday, March 26, 1975 Phone 581-1 m-i21st Year No. 72-1 Fifteen Cents Agree On Rebate On Tax WASHINGTON (AP) President Ford today urged SenateHouse conferees on a compromise tax cut bill "basically to accept the House bill with minor revisions." Ford also was described as encouraged by the conference committee's progress as it met again behind closed doors to hammer out a bill that could win quick approval in both chambers. Ford made public a letter to House Speaker Carl Albert in which he said the Senate version "goes far beyond the purpose of providing a quick stimulus and mortgages our economic future in a way that is unacceptable to me." Ford did not mention specifically a veto, promising to work with Congress "as long as necessary to assure the American people of a reasonable tax cut which will stimulate the economy without jeopardizing its future." The letter was dated Tuesday. With Congress ready to recess for Easter, the Senate and House negotiators were at odds over a tax credit for new home buyers and the oil depletion allowance. The conferees agreed Tuesday that the final bill will include a 10 per cent rebate of last year's taxes up to a $200 maximum.

There would be a minimum $100 rebate, except that anybody who paid under $100 last year would just get all of it back from the Three Found Slain In Home The bodies of three persons, two children and one woman, 'were discovered by Mexico police today shortly after noon at 608 W. Pearson. Public Safety Chief Don Bolli said the bodies had not been identified. The house was sealed for investigation. Neighbors said Mr.

and Mrs. Russell Epperson have been residing at the one-story white frame house. Their two children, Richard and DeAnn, are six and four. Chief Bolli said "very preliminary" Investigation showed that the young children in the bedroom of the home had apparently been suffocated. The woman's body had gunshot wounds.

Mrs. Epperson has been employed at the Prescription Shop, and Mr. Epperson as a mechanic at Bob's Auto Clinic. Mr. Epperson was formerly employed at the A.

B. Chance Co. at Centralia. The Eppersons formerly lived at 619 Baker, having bought the home in northwest Mexico recently, neighbors said. Bob Schulte of Bob's Auto Clinic said Mr.

Epperson did not appear for work this morning and was gone most of the day yesterday. He had reportedly taken his wife to Audrain Medical Center for an X-ray yesterday morning and to a doctor yesterday afternoon. He stopped at the auto shop about mid-afternoon and reported he expected to be back later. Mr. Schulte said he hasn't heard from him since.

Senate Votes To Ban Beef Imports WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate, beginning final consideration of a bill giving emergency aid to farmers, voted today to ban imports of foreign raised beef for 90 days. The import moratorium, suggested by Sen. James Abourezk, was approved in a unanimous voice vote. "I see no reason why foreign countries should be allowed to dump beef into the United States when our market is so depressed," said Abourezk, urging support for the measure designed to boost the domestic meat market. Meanwhile, Sen.

Frank E. Moss, D-Utah, said he would attempt to lower government price supports for tobacco because he finds government support for the tobacco industry inconsistent with other government programs aimed at discouraging smoking. As introduced in the Senate, the bill would increase tobacco supports to 70 per cent of parity, up from the current rate of about 60 per cent. Anticipating Moss' challenge, Sen. Walter D.

Huddleston, said the tobacco price-support program has brought negligible cost to the government. As debate opened, senators from farm states urged acceptance of the bill, which they said would stabilize the agriculture industry. A final Senate vote on the measure was expected in late afternoon. An aide to Moss said Tuesday, "The government spends $1 million a year to educate the public on the hazards of smoking and then spends $50 million a year to help grow it." He said the figures were those of the Agriculture Department. The higher tobacco supports were added Friday bv the Sen- The Senate panel also voted to raise the parity level for dairy products from 80 per cent to 85 per cent, and to raise support levels for cotton producers.

Parity is a price level set by the Agriculture Department at which a farmer should be able to make a profit on his product. Establishment of 85 per cent parity means that if the market price of the product falls below 85 per cent of the theoretical parity price, the government begins buying the product to force the market price up to the 85 per cent level. The tobacco amendment and higher level of milk support increased the chances of a presidential veto. The Agriculture Department has opposed the higher tobacco supports. Speech, Hearing Clinic To Be Free The Audrain City-County Health Unit will sponsor a preschool speech and hearing clinic for three and four year olds in the Mexico area on April 11.

The speech and hearing staff of the Audrain City-County Health Unit will screen children for possible speech or hearing problems. This screening will only take 10-15 minutes and will be offered at no charge to preschoolers who participate. To make an appointment for screening, call 581-1760 Ext. 323. All preschoolers ages three and four years old are invited.

Today's Smile These days, we're running out of things our grandfathers never imagined anybody government. Under pressure from the President to reduce the size of the tax cut, the conferees also began to trim the $34.4 billion tax bill voted by the Senate. Ford's press secretary, Ron Nessen, told reporters today the President was "encouraged by the fact they are whacking money out of the bill, killing amendments and acting with a certain amount of speed." Once the bill gets to him, the President has indicated he "wants to sleep on it," Nessen said. The spokesman said there would be no reaction from Ford for a few days to the final congressional tax decisions. Ford has said the final figure must be held down, lest Congress make the bill "so bad it's easy to veto." If Ford vetoes the bill, he might call Congress into special session next week, forcing the lawmakers to give up their own recess.

The White House indicated Ford might skip his planned Easter vacation in California to stay in Washington until Congress finishes work on a tax cut. Rep. Al Ullman, chairman of the conference committee, said the panel would "hopefully finish in time so that Congress can act" on the bill later in the day and then begin a 10-day Easter recess. Sen. Abraham A.

Ribicoff, another conferee, was skeptical. "We're stuck on oil and housing," he said. The Senate conferees are reportedly holding out for a tax break for house buyers that allows a buyer to subtract 5 per cent of the cost of a new house, up to a maximum of $2,000, from his 1975 tax bill. The oil depletion allowance, which now allows oil and gas producers to avoid taxation on 22 per cent of their income, also is a point of disagreement. House conferees want it eventually ended for all oil and gas producers; the Senate wants it retained for small producers.

In areas of agreement, the conferees: a $1.5 billion program of special tax cuts for poor working families. on a tax cut for businesses as an incentive to buy machinery and equipment and thus promote expansion and creation of more jobs. They also agreed on a $1.4 billion tax cut aimed chiefly at small businesses. $6.6 billion from the $34.3 billion Senate's package of tax cuts and increased spending. Also accepted by the conferees was a $200 million Senate provision authorizing an extra (Continued on Page 5) S.F.

Smithey Dies At 77; Rites Friday Stockwell F. Smithey, 77, 320 Eastholm died at p.m. Tuesday at the Audrain Medical Center where he had been a patient since March 4. Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Friday at the Arnold Funeral Home with the Rev.

Jerry Anderson officiating. Burial will be in the East Lawn Memorial Cemetery. Born in Monroe County on Nov. 9,1897, he was the son of William Lee and Emma Fulton Smithey. He married Anna Maude Talley on April 8, 1925.

She survives at the home. Mr. Smithey was a farmer and stockman and had lived on a farm northeast of Mexico until two years ago when they moved to town. He was a member of the Littleby Baptist Church and had served as treasurer and deacon of his church. Survivors are his wife; three sons, George William Smithey of Kingdom City, Louis Smithey and James Smithey of Mexico; 10 grandchildren; two brothers, Robet Smithey of Paris and Thomas Smithey of Phoenix, and one sister Miss Annie Smithey of Paris.

Friends may call after 2 Thur.viav at Prince's Girl Says He Became More Radical By The Associated Press Prince Faisal Ibn Musaed Ibn Abdul Aziz was a teenager when he came to the United States to study. When he went home to Saudi Arabia last year, he had been involved with drugs, had lived among campus radicals and had the death of his brother to avenge. In announcing that the 27-year-old prince killed King Faisal on Tuesday, Radio Riyadh called him "mentally deranged." The official Saudi Arabian broadcast gave no hint of the fate of the prince, whose father, Prince Musaed Ibn Abdul Aziz, was King Faisal's stepbrother. The Saudi Arabian Embassy in Lebanon said Prince Faisal was once confined to a mental institution. The semiofficial Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram said his father, Prince Musaed, was once sent to prison by King Faisal after a quick trial for killing someone in Jidda, Saudi Arabia.

Al Ahram described Prince Faisal as "a nervous person with aspiration for power, worldly joys and fame." The newspaper said members of the royal family frequently complained to King Faisal about the young prince's behavior, but the king dismissed them, saying, "May God redeem him." Prince Faisal came to the United States in the mid- 1960s to study. In 1966, while he was attending San Francisco State College in California, his brother, Khaled, was shot to death by Saudi Arabian police during a violent demonstration. In 1969, while enrolled at the University of Colorado, the prince was arrested and charged with conspiracy to sell the hallucinogen LSD. He pleaded guilty and was placed on probation for one year. In 1971, he received a bachelor's degree in political science and left the Boulder, campus to return to the San Francisco area.

He enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley, taking graduate courses in political science. But according to university records he never received a master's degree. A Los Angeles woman who said she lived with the prince for five years while he was in the United States told the Boulder Daily-Camera that he "became more radical" while he was at Berkeley, a center of student activism during the 1960s. She did not elaborate. Surma, 26, now an auctioneer, said the prince told her there was a lot of political animosity against King Faisal but that he did not share it.

"He held no ill feeling toward his uncle. He knows he will be killed for this," Miss Surma told the Daily (Continued on Page 5) Easter Vacations Begin Easter vacations start today and religious observances of Holy Week are under way. Students at St. Brendan's school were dismissed at 3 today for an Easter vacation that lasts till Tuesday. Mexico Public School students will be dismissed Thursday afternoon and will have a Good Friday vacation.

But they have to return Monday to make up a day lost during the snowstorm earlier. Tomorrow high school students will have two assemblies, a Farmington band assembly in the morning and an Easter assembly in the afternoon from 2:30 till 3. Many churches will observe Maundy Thursday with evening communion services. Mexico United Methodist Church will gather at 7:30 p.m. in the sanctuary for a prelude of organ music and then go downstairs for the communion service.

First Christian Church will have a candlelight communion service at 8 p.m. conducted by the Rev. George B. Wraith and special music by the chancel choir. A nursery will be provided.

St. Matthew's Episcopal Church will have Evensong at 7 tonight followed by a Lenten lecture, and on Maundy Thursday at 8 the Holy Eucharist followed by stripping of the altar. Friday at 8 the service of Tennebrae will be observed. First Presbyterian Church will have a communion service at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

St. Brendan's Catholic Church wllll nave a mass commemorating the Last Supper at 7 p.m. Thursday. Friday the church will be open for private prayer from noon until 3 p.m. The Good Friday service of the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ will be at 7 p.m.

The annual Community Good Friday service will be held from 12:30 to 2 p.m. at the Mexico United Methodist Church, sponsored by the Ministerial Alliance. The service will be in 30-minute segments based on the Seven Last Words of Christ. Meditations will be given by the Rev. Brendan Griffey, the Rev.

C. A. Trotter, and the Rev. Robert Collins. Soloists will be Mrs.

Henry Finck, Mrs. Frank Greiner and Mrs. Walter Leeper. i 1 I I i I Wailing Arab Crowd v.v. Mob BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) Thousands of wailing Arabs mobbed the coffin of assassinated King Faisal before the world's richest monarch was buried in an unmarked grave today.

It was the only public portion of the simple funeral rites proscribed by the puritanical Wahabi sect of Islam Bathed by Moslem holy men, shrouded in a seamless white sheet, Faisal's bullet- torn body lay in El Eid mosque in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, while princes and commoners chanted "Allah akbar," God is great. Faisal's brother, the new 62- year-old King Khaled, wept as he prayed over the body. He was flanked by members of the royal family and 16 other kings, presidents and premiers. Radio stations in Kuwait, Egypt, Syria and the United Arab Emirates hooked in with Riyadh state radio to broadcast live coverage of the event. The wailing of the crowd outside the mosque could be heard over the chants of the muezzin, the Moslem priest.

He intoned: "Regard not as dead those that are killed for the sake of God 0 ye tranquil soul, return to thy God willingly and join my slaves in paradise." The prayers lasted for 10 minutes. Then the body was placed in a simple wooden coffin and carried outside the mosque from shoulder to shoulder by the waiting crowd. An emotion-choked radio announcer said crowds of mourners fought to touch the coffin before it was turned over to theUlema, the Moslem holy men, for private burial without fanfare or a tombstone. The Wahabis do not mark graves because they believe veneration of the dead detracts from worship of Allah. Earlier, King Khaled and his 53-year-old brother, Crown Prince Fahd, received pledges of allegiance from princes of the royal family, military commanders, Moslem religious leaders, Bedouin tribal chieftains and commoners.

Khaled, and Fahd at his side, were dressed in traditional flowing white robes with brown cloaks trimmed with gold. For 90 minutes, the new king's subjects approached the throne one by one, placed their hands on the Koran, and made their pledges. The hundreds of Saudis in William E. Woods Dies At Age 54 William E. (Bill) Woods, 54, 1420 S.

Coal died at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Veteran's Hospital in Columbia. Funeral services are set for Thursday at 2" p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church with the Hev. Robert Collins officiating.

Burial will be in East Memorial Park cemetery Born in Mexico on May 16, 1920, he was the son of James W. and Lena Margaret Hampton Woods. He married Eva C. Crouch on Sept. 11, 1948, in Wellsville.

She survives at the home. He was a life-time resident of Mexico and the owner and operator of Bill Woods Truck and Tractor Repair. He was a veteran of World War serving in the U.S. Navy and a member of the First Presbyterian Church. He was active in Boy Scout work in Troop 38 at the Presbyterian Church.

Survivors are his wife, three sons, William E. Woods II, Kenneth Wayne Woods and John Michael Woods, all of the home; one daughter, Nancy Margaret Woods of the home; and two brothers, James H. Woods of Thompson and Claude E. Woods of Mexico, The family will receive friends after 7 p.m. today at A mold Funeral Funeral ff the royal court and thousands of citizens massed outside the government palace chanted "God is great" and "May Allah be with you." A sobbing radio announcer reported that King Khaled burst into tears, starting a chain reaction among the audience.

There was no official word on the fate of Faisal's assassin, who the Saudi radio said earlier was a mentally deranged nephew of the king. Some Beirut newspapers said -NEW SAUDI is an official portrait, taken in May, 1974, of Crown Prince Khaled Abdul Ibn Aziz, who was proclaimed king of Saudi Arabia to succeed his brother, King Faisal, who was assassinated, according to Riyadh radio. (AP Wirephoto) Faisal's bodyguards killed him. Others said he was arrested and would be beheaded after the funeral. One Beirut newspaper reported that Faisal pardoned him as he lay dying, saying: "Have mercy on him.

I feel no hate for him." King Khaled in the first public statement of his reign pledged to follow Faisal's policies. "I beseech Allah to have mercy on our great departed leader and seek the Almighty's support to help me carry on his mission," said the statement, which was read over the government radio by Information Minister Ibrahim el Angary. Diplomats in Beirut interpreted this as a pledge to continue seeking friendship with the United States and other Western powers while contributing liberally from Saudi Arabia's vast oil revenues to pressure on Israel to withdraw from East Jerusalem and all other Arab territories occupied in the 1967 war. Prayers were to be said over Faisal's body for most of the day, and at sunset the remains were to be buried in an unmarked grave, in accordance with the tenets of the Wahhabi Moslem sect. There was speculation that he would be buried beside his father, King Ibn Saud, who is buried somewhere on the outskirts of Riyadh.

Foreign leaders gathered in Riyadh to pay their respects to the dead king and his successor. President Ford sent Vice President Nelson Rockefeller to express the (Continued on Page 5) Rockefeller Carries Ford's Message To New King Khaled TORREJON, Spain (AP) Nelson A. Rockefeller, making his first overseas journey as vice president, stopped here briefly today en route to Saudi Arabia to offer President Ford's condolences on the assassination of King Faisal. An Air Force plane carrying Rockefeller and Assistant Secretary of State Alfred L. Atherton and a party of aides landed at the U.S.

air base here, some 12 miles from Madrid, at 10:59 a.m. (5:59 EDT) for an hour-long refueling stop. Rockefeller was bound for Jiddah in Saudi Arabia where he was to remain overnight before flying to the winter capital of Riyadh on Thursday' to meet with the new king and convey Ford's "deep shock and regret" on Faisal's death. The vice president was planning to spend less than five hours in Riyadh before flying back to Washington via Torrejon, Faisal was shot and killed Tuesday by one of his nephews. He will be buried today.

Faisal was succeeded on the throne by his brother, former Crown Prince Khaled. As Ford's representative, Rockefeller is carrying "a personal message from the President to King Khaled expressing his condolences on the death of this great leader and his confidence that the bonds of friendship which have been forged between Saudi Arabia and the United States will endure," White House Press Secretary Ron Nessen said in Washington Tuesday. As Rockefeller prepared to board his jet before leaving Washington, he told newsmen there is every indication Saudi Arabia will continue its pro- American policies. He also said he would not discuss substantive issues, such as the breakdown of Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger's Middle East peace effort, with the Saudi Arabians, except to say the United States still desires a continued search for peace.

Despite expectations that Faisal's successor will continue friendly relations with the United States, American officials said the death could not have come at a worse time because of the setback of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. The instability caused by the failure of Kissinger's Middle East peace effort easily could be worsened by Faisal's assassination, said one ranking State Department source. Faisal was credited by U.S. officials for giving major support to Kissinger's last peace- seeking journey.

Pentagon officials said they expect little, if any change, under the new Saudi Arabian leadership in more than $1.6 billion in recent arms sales to the country. They also said they were not worried about the safety of some 1,250 U.S. military advisers, contractors, technicians and civilian employes of the Defense Department now in Saudi Arabia. Ready For Geneva Now, Kissinger Says WASHINGTON (AP) Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger today said the United States would be in touch with the Soviet Union in the near future on reconvening the Middle East peace conference in Geneva.

"The step-by-step ap- oroach" he pursued to arrange an Arab-Israeli settlement "has suffered a setback," Kissinger told a nationally broadcast news conference, and the situation now requires a new method. He warned the Arabs and Israelis to moderate their public statements and actions in what he said was still a time of great danger. "A moment of potentially grave danger is not a time to engage in recriminations," Kissinger said. He added in an indirect reference lo the Soviet Union 0 J. i-.

J1; 1: for outside powers to act irresponsibly. Saying he would entertain any other ideas for a Middle East solution, Kissinger stated that the Geneva approach now appears the only alternative. The United States is prepared to go to Geneva and will be in touch with Moscow, the cochairman, about restarting the Geneva conference, Kissinger said. Turning to Southeast Asia, Kissinger said the real question is "whether we will deliberately destroy an ally by withholding aid." He referred to congressional resistance to giving $222 million in emergency military aid to Cambodia and $300 million to South Vietnam. U.S.

policy in the Middle East is linked to Southeast Asia, Kissinger said "The policy of selective reliability." A breakdown in one area reduces U.S. ability to influence events in another, he said. Asked whether problems in getting congressional approval for aid to Indochina was a factor in the breakdown of his Middle East negotiations, Kissinger said, "On the part of our friends it raised the question of the durability of our assurances." But he added that the major factor in the breakdown was unrelated to congressional action. As to the Middle East, Kissinger said a reassessment of U.S. policy there, ordered by President Ford, "is not aimed against Israel." The United States remains "irrevocably committed to the survival of Israel," Kissinger said.

The question of a reduction un 1'age.