Panama City News-Herald from Panama City, Florida • Page 1

Good Morning! Today Is Friday, August 1975 NEWS HERALD A Florida Freedom Newspiriper "The man without puipose Is like a ship without a rudder; a waif, a nothing, a no-man. Have a purpose in life and having it, throw such strength of mind and muscle into your work as God has given you." Thomas Carlyle, English essayist. Turkey Refuses Ford Deal Vol. No. 7 No.

92 The World's Most Beautiful Beaches Panama City, Florido Telephone 763-7621 Four Sections 40 Pages Price IS Cents Miami Hotel Fire Causes Heavy Damage MIAMI (AP) Twenty-one persons, including four firemen, suffered smoke inhalation, injuries and minor bums early Thursday when fire broke out at a nine-story hotel, officials said. More than 100 persons were evacuated during the early- morning blaze which caused damages estimated at $150,000, fire officials said. Fire fighters used conventional and aerial "cherry ladders to help the hotel's guests to safety as smoke quickly filled the structure's interior after the fire began in a fourth-floor room. "I smelled smoke and went down and told the desk clerk about it," said Bessie Baker of Jacksonville. "When I got back to my room on the fourth floor, there was smoke everywhere.

I had to go out on my balcony and wait to be picked up." Farm Prices Up Again in July Report WASHINGTON (AP) Prices farmers receive for raw agricultural products, bolstered by recent grain sales to the Soviet Union, rose 3 per cent from June 15 to July 15, the Ag- i 11 Department said Thursday. Some government economists have said consumer food prices might rise slightly because of the Russian purchases but that no major hike is expected if farmers get the record harvests now forecast. Agriculture Secretary Earl L. Butz defends the grain sales and said in Williamsburg, shortly before the price report was issued that it is "intellectually naive or dishonest" to blame Soviet purcha.ses for rising food costs. In its report, the depart- mpnt's Crop Repoitine Board higher prices for hogs, wheat, potatoes, upland cotton, milk and soybeans accounted for most of the increase.

Lower prices were reported for cattle. The increase put July 15 farm prices 6 per cent above the same date last year. Farm expenses, meanwhile, rose one- half of 1 per cent during the month and averaged 11 per cent above a year earlier. RESPITE A Miami fireman gets a cold water soaking from a medic at the scene of a fire early Thursday morning at a Holiday Inn in Miami. Some 21 persons, including four firemen, suffered smoke inhalation.

For details, see story at left. (APWIREPHOTO) Business Tax Cuts Asked Of Congress WASHINGTON (AP) The Ford administration asked Congress on Titui'sday to approve nearly $14 billion in tax cuts for corporations and stockholders, saying the money is needed for "the massive job of rebuilding" the nation's industry. But the proposal ran into immediate and serious questioning by Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee. Chairman Al Ullman, said he would not tolerate any tax changes that would "shift the burden from corporations to Senate Near Arms Voting WASHINGTON (AP) Warned against budget-busting, the Senate on Thursday approached a vote on a $31.2 billion weapons authorization for the next 15 months. Seii.

Edmund S. Muskie, D- Maine, urged that the bill be returned to a Senate-House conference for cutting. He warned that if the weapons programs and defense personnel levels in the bill were adopted "we will not be able to achieve the budget targets which the Congress adopted in May." Muskie, the chairman, and Sen. Henry Bellmon, senior Republican on the Senate Budget Committee served notice they would make the same budget-busting appeal against a pending school lunch bill emerging $430 million in excess of congressional budget goals. They said the success of the new congressional budget control process depends on applying the same restraint in all areas on federal spending.

The military procurement bill authorizes weapons appropriations of $25.8 billion for the 12- month fiscal year 1976 and S5.4 billion for the three-month transition period to the new federal fiscal year starting Oct. 1,1976. Its $31.2 billion total is $3.3 billion under President Ford's budget. It directs that women be admitted to the military, naval and air force academies for the first time beginning with classes starting next July. Muskie said it now appears unlikely that the 5 per cent ceiling on military and civilian cost-of-living pay increases will be realized, erasing one potential saving envisioned in drafting the congressional budget resolution in May.

Thus, he said, military and civilian payroll for the 3.1 million personnel authorized in the bill would reach $34 billion. The bill also provides first procurement money for long lead time items for the controversial Bl bomber- individuals." About $7.5 billion of the proposed rediictions would go directly to corperatiuris, and another $6.3 billion would go to stockholders by allowing them a tax credit equal to about 50 per cent of the dividends they receive. Corporations would gain by claiming a tax deduction equal to about 50 per cent of the total dividends they pay. Treasury Secretary William E. Simon told the committee the reductions would start in 1977 for corporations and in 1978 for stockholders, and both would be increased in annual steps until they took full effect in 1982.

A major purpose of the cuts, he said, would be to make more money available for investment by encouraging savings and stock ownership, especially for middle and lower income persons. "In our great country everybody can be a capitalist maybe not great big ones, but big enough to improve their own standards of living," Simon said. He also asked Congress to work on a plan to encourage savings by individuals by offer ing tax incentives, such as by exempting interest on the savings from tax liability. But he offered few details of how such a savings program would work. There were these other economic developments Thursday: farmers receive for raw agricultural products, bolstered by recent grain sales to the Soviet union, rose 3 per cent from June 15 to July 15, the Agriculture Department said.

Commerce Department reported that inventories of the nation's manufacurers declined another six-tenths of one per cent in June, the fourth consecutive month of decline, and that new orders for manufactured products increased 1.7 per cent. Auto Worker Layoffs Continue Decreasing DETROIT (AP) layoffs of auto workers will fall to a new low for the year next week as a result of callbacks announced Thursday by three of the nation's automakers. Indefinite furloughs will total 104,500 on Monday, down from 112,000 this week. More than Labor Backs Boycott On Loading Of Wheat Inside Siory Abby 7D Classified 5-9C Comics 8B Calendar 3D Crossword 5C Deaths 3A Editorial 4A Horoscope 3D Local 7B TV Log 5D Society I-4B Sports I-3C Stocks 8D Weekender 1-7D CHICAGO (AP) With flour prices on the rise, the AFL-CIO gave its formal backing Thursday to a threat by maritime unions to block the shipment of Soviet grain purchases, called by federation President George Meany "a ripoff of the American taxpayer. In a resolution adopted during its Executive Council meeting, the labor federation said it wants solid assurance from the Ford administration that the grain sale will not drive up consumer prices or create domestic shortages.

"We are saying to the administration and Congress: 'We want protection and if we don't get it we're going to try to protect ourselves in the only way we know how," Meany declared. "We don't think the American people should be suckers in this thing. At a news conference after the council meeting, Meany noted that two of the nation's largest food proce.s.sors General Mills and Multifood i raised flour prices Wednesday by $1.60 a hundredweight, and charged that Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz "deceived the American people." Butz has said that the anticipated large grain harvest this year made it unlikely that sales to the Soviets would have a significant effect on U.S. prices. However, Treasury Secretary William E.

Simon said Wednesday that the administration was still trying to learn how much grain the Russians intended to buy, and indicated that there would be alimit on sales beyond which the United States will not go. He acknowledged that domestic prices be affected. The International Longshoremen's Association and six other AFL-CIO maritime unions have said they would refuse to handle Soviet grain shipments this fall until they were a.ssured that their interests and those of the consumei- were protected. 213,000 blue collar workers were on layoffs during the worst of the industrywide this winter. In addition, 40,300 workers will be on temporary layoff next week, mainly due to model changeover shutdowns at 16 plants.

Callbacks accounted for most of the reduction in the number laid off, but several thousand workers have been eliniinated from job rosters bt'cause they either no longer had job seniority or they failed to respond to earlier recalls. Consequently, hourly employment in the industry has declined from 712,000 this spring to a current blue collar force of 703,000. HELSINKI, Finland (AP) President Ford offered on Thursday to give Turkey $50 million in military aid in exchange for the reopening of American bases but was turned down, according to Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. The offer came during a breakfast meeting between the President and Turkish Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel.

Kissinger said the Pre.sident made the offer under provisioas of U.S. law that allow him to waive a ban on arms aid to Turkey if it is in the American national interest. Demirel rejected the offer as contradictory, Kis.singer explained. "Turkey takes the position that it is contradictorj' to give S50 million as a gift when it can't buy arms or take delivery on secretary told a news conference. Nevertheless, the secretary went on, "It is our impression that the situation is recoverable.

That is, the bases can be substantially restored if the House reverses itself." Kissinger was referring to action by the House of Representatives last week to continue the embargo against arms aid to Turkey because of Turkey's use of American military equipment to invade Cyprus a year ago. Kissinger was asked what he understood Demirel to mean by saying after breakfast with Ford that the shutdown of the bases including some that did ultrasensitive spying on the Soviet Union was ordered "for the time being," indicating the closings may only be temporary. "I don't believe there was a significant change in the situation," Kissinger responded. Meanwhile, the Soviet news agency Tass reported that Demirel had met vnth Soviet Communi.st Leonid I. and Foreign Minister Andrei A.

Gromykoand discussed Soviet-Turkish relations, the security conference here and other international issues. Tass said the meeting was held in an atmosphere of "mutual understanding." This came amid reports from Florida Higiiway Funds Gone TALLAHASSEE, Ha. (AP) Florida has spent its entire $43 million share of $2 billion in impounded highway funds released last spring by President Ford, a state Transportation Depai'tment official said Thursday. Approximately S20 million went to Interstate 295 in Jacksonville and Interstate 95 at Vero Beach, and the re.st of the $43 million went to non-interstate roads throughout Florida, Michael Dye, federal-state coordinator. This clears out all of the impounded funds due Florida and the state has no prospects of getting more, he said.

The Transportation Department had hoped to receive additional funds if other states could not use their right away, since Ford released the money on a first-come-first- served basis. But the Senate limited each to its portion of the funds, Dye said. The interstate construction now under way from the impounded funds and other sources fills most of the gaps in Florica's interstate system that are going to be completed in the near future. Washington that the Russians are offering helicopters to Turkey in what could be the first step in a Soviet effort to replace the United States as Turkey's source of military supplies. But Kissinger, asked about this, said it was "extremely unlikely" Turkey would enter into a military relationship with the Soviet Union.

Turkey shut dowTi 24 U.S. military facilities last week after the House of tives refused to lift a bun on arms imposed in in the wake of Turkey's invasion of Cyprus. Officials of both TOuntries refused to discu.ss any substance of the Ford-Demirel talks, but there were indications the Pre.s­ ident showed some hope that Congress will change its mind and at least modify the embargo. Ford said the United States will "do our best to remove any roadblocks" to good relations with Turkey. He told newsmen what he presumably told Demirel good relations and close mili- ties help both nations as well as the rest of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

This argument has been accepted by Turkey, at least publicly, and Demirel repeated it in the brief news conference. Ex'Teamsters Leader Hoffa Said Missing BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. (AP) Former Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa was reported missing Thursday after his car was found abandoned outside a restaurant. Police said there was no evidence of foul play but would not rule out the possibility. Hoffa's son, James said his father failed to return home Wednesday afternoon.

The younger Hoffa filed a missing persons report Thursday evening and said his family is extremely concerned. "We just don't have anything to say, we're just waiting, hoping," James Jr. outside the Hoffa compound in nearby Lake Orion. In Washington, an FBI spokesman said: "We have no evidence, no indication, no reason to believe that there was foul play." The FBI said it is not involved in the search for Hoffa. But Bloomfield Township police Lt.

Curt Grennier, who is directing the investigation, conceded, "You always have to consider foul play, considering Hoffa's background." Hoffa, 62-year-old ex-president of the 2.1-million-member Teamsters union, was released from prison in 1971 after then- President Richard M. Nixon commuted his sentence for jurj- tampering and mail fraud. The clemency decree barred Hoffa from union activity until 1980. Hoffa has been involved in a court battle to regain the right to participate in union politics and has been at odds with current union leaders. Reports of Hoffa's disappearance came in the wake of the recent bombing of a car belonging to Richard Fitzsimmons, vice president of Teamster Local 299.

Some union observers blamed the bombing on a rift between pro-and anti-Hoffa forces in the Detroit local. Richard Fitzsimmons is the son of Teamsters International President Frank Fitzsimmons, Hoffa's handpicked successor who is now his bitter rival. Even in the rough-and-tumble arena of Teamster union tics, the last few years have been unusually violent in Detroit, with Hoffa and Fitzsimmons partisans sharing power at Local 299. Local President Dave Johnson has been beaten, his boat blown up and his office windows shattered by gunfire. A Local 299 trustee lost the sight in one eye after he was shotgunned; a local organizer's home was flrebombed, and a barn on the farm of a local officer was burned to the groimd.

Both Hoffa and Fitzsimmons rose to power in Local 299. James Riddle Hoffa was last seen at 2 p.m. Wednesday outside the restaurant where his 1974 Pontiac was found, unlocked and untampered with. The person Hoffa was to meet at the Machus Red Fox Restaurant never showed up and Hoffa called his wife. "That's the last we've seen or heard of him," Lt.

Grennier said. Hoffa's family said they did not know who the former union leader was to ha ve met. Woter Damage Viewed SnWalce Of Rainfall Bay County and its surrounding area Tliursday began repairing damage to roads, streets, homes and utilities caused by the torrential rains of the la.st few days. Rain continued but in a lessening degree. Some homes in low lying areas are still flooded and several highways remained closed.

But with the rains lessening city, county and state crews started the task of getting the thoroughfares back into use. The tropical depression responsible for much of the trouble, along with conventional "dog-day" showers, had broken up after moving into Louisiana and Mississippi from the gulf and the National Weather Service predicted a general clearing today. Officials said the damage would run into many thousands of dollars. To aggravate the situation, the Intracoastal Senate Seat Runoff Set PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (APj Republican Louis C.

Wyman and Democrat John A. Durkin on Thursday began a 48-day rematch campaign for New Hampshire's still-vacant Senate Gov. Meldrim Thomson and the Executive Council on Thursday afternoon set Sept. 16 as the date for the special election among Durkin, Wyman and C. Christopher Chimento, the American party candidate.

The three were candidates in last November's disputed election. Waterway, through which much of the gasoline and natural gas is moved into this area, was closed because of cave-ins west of West Bay. A dredge from Mobile was a.ssigned to the task of reopening the canal. Two tornadoes whipped across the western Panhandle Thursday, causing damage in Escambia County north of Pensacola. Lightning was blamed for a fire that gutted a Pensacola house, unoccupied at the time.

Meanwhile about a dozen residents of the Bayou George area, evacuated when the waters rose into their homes, waited for the flood to subside. So did families in parts of Panama City Beach and that fell victim to rising waters. The official forecast for today called for a 60 per cent chance of showers this morning and 50 per cent this afternoon. To add to the aggravation, the Apalachicola river was expected to crest above flood stage this morning, though little damage was expected. The rising Sopchoppy and Wakulla Rivers in Wakulla County caused 17 persons to evacuate, and official damage to roads and bridges exceeded A dam in Okaloosa County burst Thursday, causing millions of gallons of water to (See WATER, Page 2-A.) Arms Cut Call Given HELSINKI, Finland (AP) Soviet leader Leonid I.

nev called Thursday for a reduction of armaments in central Europe as the nf xt step in East-West detentebut said the delicate process mast be ba.sed on noninterference in each other's internal affairs. The 68-year-old general secretary of the Soviet Communist party addres.sed 34 other leaders of EurojX' and America on the second day of the European security conference, a pet project for the past two decades The Turks walked out of the session as Archbishop Makarios, president of Cyprus, was about to speak. said Turkey's invasion oi Cyprus a yeai' ago violated the conference principle regarding the inviolability of frontiers. Turkey contends Makarios does not represent the Turkish Cypriot population on The Soviet Union and its East European satellites have billed the supcrsummit, the biggest gathering of world leaders since the Congress of Vienna of 1814-15, as a salvation for a continent drenched with bkwd through centuries of war. Brezhnev stressed this teme when he urged the leaders to give high priority to a for "ways to reduce armed forces and armaments in central Europe without diminishing the security of anyone." But he cautioned that the whole process of detente which helped bring the conference about would be endangered if any of the nations represented here interfered in the internal affairs of another.

The remarks were subjcH to varying interpretations. I At A Glance Taiwan Aircraft Crashes TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) A Taiwan domestic jetliner trying to pull up from a landing attempt in a driving rainstorm Thursday skidded its wing on the runway, turned over and split into three killing 26 of the 75 persons aboard, officials The U.S. Emba.s.sy said tlie victims included an American couple, but withheld their names pending notification of next of kin. Taiwan officials identified one of the Americans as a woman with the last name Cehon. The flight's manifest listed her as accompanied by R.

Cehon, male. Breeder Reactor Favored WASHINGTON (AP) The Thursday rejected a move to cut funds for the controversial Clinch River breeder reactor project near Oak Ridge, Tenn. It turned clown, 66 to ,30, a proposal by Sen. John 'V. Tunney, that would have deleted $94 million earmarked to ijegin construction on the controversial atomic project.

The Senate also voted to ban non-military air shipments of the radioactive sub.stance plutonium until a crash-proff container" to carry it in can be developed. Portuguese Junta Reigns LISBO.N, Portugal Portugal's three-man military junta formally look power Thursday and removed some of the country's top security officers from their posts for failing to support the lefti.st revolution. The action, ordered by Gen. Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, a member of the junta and head of the national security force known as COPCON, appeared to be the first of expected purges of dissident military officers. Butz Raps Bread Scare WILLIAMSBURG, Va.

(AP) Secretary of Agriculture Ear! L. Butz Thursday labeled as "phony" charges that multimillion-dollar wheat sales to Ru.ssia will the price of bread soaring. "To blame the sale to Russia for an increase in food prices is being intellectually naive or di.shone.st," Butz told a news conference here. When bakers talk about the sale of grain pushing the price of bread up, said, "I want to label that as phony as can be.".