The Courier-News from Bridgewater, New Jersey • Page 1

Tonight: Partly cloudy Tomorrow: Sunny, cool METRO Details on page 3 A GANNETT NEWSPAPER Thursday, March 30, 1972 44 Pages Home Delivered 75e per week Phone 722-8800 15c 1 pne Mot dip 1J W3KiK WIS 7 ffs'- 1 I 1 for the food chains, told reporters that "the secretary is indeed a very persuasive person." But he said that the decline in food prices can be expected because carcass beef prices are dropping and not because Connally called the chains in for private talks. In the next few weeks, Mitchell said, meat prices should go down to the level that prevailed during the price freeze last year. He said that "meat prices are going down no matter what is said because of competition." Connally said he foresees "quite a satisfactory decline" in meat prices, but he added that "I don't think you can attribute this to the fact that we called them in." The secretary said he emphasized the Nixon administration is determined to make the Pay Board and Price Commission work. He said he WASHINGTON (AP) Heads of the nation's largest food chains, emerging from a two-hour meeting with top government officials, say the price of meat will be coming down in the next few weeks. The executives met Wednesday with Treasury Secretary John B.

Connally, Agriculture Secretary Earl L. Butz, and members of President Nixon's Council of Economic Advisers. Afterwards, they told newsmen that meat prices will be falling because of market forces rather than government action. Connally agreed. "We think that over the next 140 days you will see a decline in meat prices," he said.

The secretary also persuaded the 12 food chains to make weekly reports on meat prices to government. Connally said the reports will be made public. William Mitchell, president of Safeway Stores and spokesman told the executives the government is prepared to do anything necessary to bring down the cost of living. Meanwhile, Rep. Wilbur Mills, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, told a Boston audience that, unless the present inflationary trend is slowed, he will be "just about ready to say we must go back to some sort of price freeze across the board." Mills, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, said that time might be reached "in just a few more weeks, the way things are going." If the freeze on wages, rents and prices is resumed, Mills said, he would want it extended to profits and interest.

Connally left open the possibility that meat packers may be brought in to discuss the wholesale price of meat. Connally called the executives to Washington after the February Consumer Price Index went up 0.5 per cent, with food prices rising by 1.6 per cent, the highest in 14 years. He said that cattle prices reached their high the second week in February before starting to decline. The wholesale carcass price of beef reached its peak the third week of February, he said. Also, the supply of beef is larger, and as a result, Connally said, "we will continue to have an ample supply of meat without a substantial increase in price." In addition, Connally said, hog prices peaked the first week in February.

"We expected this decline in pork prices to continue." Asked about President Nixon's statement of last week that the middleman was responsible for the sharp rise in food prices, Connally said, "I don't know where that mid dleman expression came from. The retail men denied that they're the middlemen. They say, 'We're the But in New York, John M. Trotman, president of the National Cattlemen's Association, said he agreed with Nixon that the price increases have gone to middlemen. "On the ranch in 1951," Trotman said, "beef was worth $35.24 per hundred pounds to the farmer.

In 1971, that same 100 pounds of beef was worth only $32.35 to the farmer." At Price Commission hearings Tuesday, Harvard economist Otto Eckstein said the farmer is to blame for rising food costs. He suggested a task force be named to study government farm price supports, import restrictions on produce and other governmental controls on farm prices and food supply. John Connaily tells a Washington news conference will be coming down in the coming weeks. ional guard an remap treat inmates jJL ff 0e TRENTON (AP) The N. J.

National Guard has agreed to undertake an experiment in public health inside Trenton State Prison. Governor Cahill and Guard officials announced yesterday that guardsmen will spend an April weekend at the prison providing a unique health service to inmates. Cahill said he believed the program was the first such undertaking by the National Guard anywhere in the country The program will be inaugurated on April 22 and 23, when special medical units conduct complete medical examinations for any of the MM Treasury Secretary meat prices Pope Paul VI for a during at the throne. Vatican City. firing I think that's appropriate." Somerset Prosecutor Michael R.

Imbriani saw a different problem. "A serious argument can be made that in non-criminal cases there is a basic uniairness because different juries won't find the same," he said. "Snmptimp? wp nlapp imrm jurors a case that is far beyond their abilities and maybe judges can decide better than laymen. You also get more uniformity." Meredith also cautions: "Usually, in criminal cases, a jury can understand the charge, in rivil nmp ar vptv mmnliratPH and thfr is snmp Continued on Page A-12 1,300 men inmates who desire them. Cahill said, "The eventual goal is the development of a basis for upgrading regular and emergency services for the inmates." Several weeks ago units of the N.

J. National Guard were airlifted to Puerto Rico for a weekend. They provided medical checkups and emergency medical services for coital llttoc several villages. A recent report by a special committee appointed to look into prison health services in the state found critical deficiencies, particularly in the availability Presbyterian Medical Center, since Sunday. In an affidavit accompanying the hospital's request for guardianship pending the show cause hearing, Dr.

Gilbert Simon the attending physician, said the child was in critical condition suffering a vascular tumor of the liver. The child is reported "improving" with treatment today. Behrman is chairman of the department of pediatrics at Presbyterian's Babies Hospital. of routine health checkups and emergency care. State Commissioner of Institutions and Agencies Robert L.

Clifford said prison officials expected enthusiastic participation among the inmates. Poor medical care was one of the 14 grievances after a not at the prison last Thanksgiving Day. Cahill said the guard's prison health project would be coor HinafpH hv riiffnrd and Mai dinated by Clifford and Maj. Gen. William R.

Sharp, commander of the Guard. The units that have been assigned to the project are the 50th Medical Battalion of Elizabeth and the 194th Dental Detachment with headquarters in Paterson. Plans announced for the prison health operation called for both units to arrive at Trenton State Prison on April 22 at 7:30 a.m. The guardsmen, more than 20 physicians, four dentists and nearly 100 enlisted medical technicians, will be briefed by the prison physician, Dr. John D.

Dennis, and then will begin conducting examinations in the institution's new education building, Trenton State Prison is located in the heart of Trenton and is enclosed by a massive stone wall on all sides. Inmates live and work in a compact complex of buildings including one cellblock that was built in 1836. uardian named for oiling infanf lifts a baby towards on the head. The incident An unidentifed man blessing and a pat took place TRENTON (AP) A deal last Monday between Democrats from Essex and Hudson counties has killed a congressional redistricting bill in the Assembly which could have passed both houses of the Legislature. As a result, the entire matter of redrawing the boundaries of the state's 15 congressional districts to make them more nearly equal in population was tossed to the federal courts.

The deal came to light yesterday in a story in the Trenton Evening Times and was confirmed by sources questioned by the Associated Press. According to the Times, the arrangement was made between Essex County Democratic Chairman Harry Lerner and Hudson Assemblyman David J. Friedland and involved efforts by both men to protect the existing districts of the two congressmen from each of their counties. Lerner unequivocally denied there was any deal. "I never even spoke to Friedland," Lerner said.

"I had no deal going. If there was any deal it was made by Joe Gannon in the Democratic caucus which I was not invited to." Gannon is executive director of the Democratic State Committee and staff adviser to the Assembly Democrats. "Of course I would have hoped the Essex Democrats would have done something to protect the two greatest congressmen in New Jersey," Lerner continued. He was referring to Reps. Peter Rodino of Newark and Joseph Minish of West Orange.

Lerner and other Essex Democrats were seen by newsmen talking with Friedland in his office during one of the debates on a redistricting bill Monday. Friedland admitted talking with Lerner. "Harry and I just had a short discussion and our views coincided," he said. "We had a common point of view. I'm not saying there was a deal.

We agreed that the Democratic party had to be But other reliable sources say that Friedland agreed not to move a Hudson-sponsored bill which would have endangered Minish's chances of re-election, if Lerner agreed that Essex Democrats would not vote for a ReDublican bill which protected both Rodino and Minish but wouldhave forced Hudson's two succeeds the Pontiff's weekly general audience yesterday The Pope is sitting on his portable congressmen, Dominick Daniels and Cornelius Gallagher, to run in the same district. Soldier killed in explosion BELFAST (AP) A huge explosion devasted a main Belfast street, killing a British army officer, and bombers tried unsuccessfully to assassinate a Protestant leader in the Catholic civil rights movement early today as London was formalizing its takeover of Northern Ireland. The British Defense Ministry announced it will send 600 more troops to help restore order to the province, bringing the number of soldiers in Ulster to 15,100. The blasts were the third and fourth to hit Northern Ireland within hours. The explosion on Wellington Street, 100 yards from City Hall, went off in a car and tore a huge section of the thoroughfare.

It sent parts of the car soaring over four-story buildings into nearby streets and hurled the officer, a bomb disposal expert, against a wall. Maj. Bernard Calladene, 39, died in a hospital. He was the 292nd person killed in 32 months and the 56th British soldier to die in the Ulster troubles. Police said the car was stolen in the Lower Falls area of Belfast, a stronghold of the Irish Republican Army, and blamed the IRA for the blast.

In Londonderry, guerrilla bombers tried to assassinate Ivan Cooper, a Protestant member of Northern Ireland's now-defunct parliament and a leading figure in the Roman Catholic civil rights movement. Police said a bomb blew up Cooper's car outside his home minutes after he received a phone call telling him he was urgently needed at a hospital. Cooper told police the caller posed as a policeman and explained that one of Cooper's friends had been hospitalized after an auto accident. Cooper was about to go to his car when the bomb went off. No one was injured.

Soldiers came under sniper fire in Londonderry early today, and a gunman in a speeding car shot up a jeep carrying members of the part-time Ulster Defense Regiment militia. There were no casualties in either incident. Today's Index A SECTION Reds shoot down gunship A 12 SECTION Family, features Garden news B7 Television B8 Entertainment 9 SECTION Obits, weather C3 Classified C4-11 SECTION Sporfs 1-5 Editorials D6 Comics, Bridge 8 Stocks, money Jury system colled good, room for improvement NEW YORK (AP) A state Supreme Court justice yesterday named a physician guardian of a 7-day-old infant in danger of dying from a liver condition so as to allow medical treatment objected to by the parents on religious grounds. Rodolfo and Juana Pajaro of 546 W. Front Plainfield, N.

both are Jehovah's Witnesses. Justice George Starke ordered them to appear for a show cause hearing April 3. But in the meantime, he named Dr. Richard Behrman guardian of the girl and barred the parents from interfering with medical treatment, surgery and blood transfusion that may be necessary for the infant's welfare. The child has been at Behr-man's hospital, the Columbia Gabriel Heatter dies, 82 MIAMI BEACH (AP) Gabriel Heatter, who kept wartime audiences turned to their radios with "there's good news tonight," died today at the age of 82 in the Miami Heart Institute following a five-year illness.

Heatter, whose deep baritone brought the London blitz and the Pacific jungle into American living rooms, died of pneumonia, said son-in-law Ralph Daniels. "He was an old, tired man and all I can say about his death is that it is good news for him he has suffered so much for so long," Daniels said. The pioneer newscaster retired from his national nightly broadcasts on the Mutual network in 1961. His last broadcast, over a Miami radio station, was May 23, 1965. Royal visit PARIS (AP) Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands will make an official visit to France June 19-22, the Elysee Palace has 4 St i v- r.

W- 4l it juries. Bills have been introduced in the legislature to increase the pay of jurors, but they always seem to get nowhere. "What you have, basically, are older persons serving." Superior Court Judge Walter L. Hetfield III said he believes smaller juries might make for higher paid jurors. Studies are under way.

"Reducing the number of jurors in criminal cases might raise some problems," com mented Nagler. The very right of jury trial criminal cases is constitutionally guaranteed. "One of the comments I heard recentlv is 'if we reduce the number of criminal iurors from 12 to six, why not go a step further and make it a three-man By ROBERT B. THOMPSON Last of four articles The jury system is thought of as being as American as apple pie, baseball and the Stars and Stripes. No one would disclaim any or all.

"As far as the jury system itself is concerned," said Somerset County Judge Arthur S. Meredith, "I'm very impressed with it. I'm constantly impressed with the excellent verdicts juries come down with. They approach it very conscientiously." Though no one would argue against the system, there is room for dissent on its fairness and infallibility. "Basically, we recognize there are things wrong with the jury system," said Steve Nagler, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in New Jersey.

"We think there isn't enough cross section of the people in iries. The poor are screened out. "Persons who don't register to vote are screened out and many poor don't register. In places where urban renewal is going on, many people move aroirnd and get unregistered frequently. "JURORS ARE UNDERPAID and even people who are middle class must take serious financial loss to serve on Second revival try Flores trying unsuccessfully to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to Alexandier Cabello, 7.

Patrolman James Meggison grabbed the lad and revived him with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The child is in good condition at St. Peter's Hospital. He and his family, from Miami, were guests of the Flores family, police said. PISCATAWA A man tried unsucessfully to revive the 7-y ear-old boy who was visiting him after the boy fell into a backyard pool here yesterday, but a policeman succeeded.

Police answered an emergency call on a possible drowning at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ismael Flores, 104 Wynnewood Ave. They found Arthur Prescott, a Long Island district office manager with Dun Bradstreet, leaves the Brooklyn Federal Court yesterday, after he was named in an indictment stemming from a federal grand jury investigation of a $200 million foreclosure scandal concerning slum housing mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Authority. Prescott and the credit-rating firm were named in 24 counts of false.