Tallahassee Democrat from Tallahassee, Florida • Page 3

inxsafiB campaign '80 GOP committee drops ERA from platform dorsement of it in the party platform. So supporters of a floor fight, including the Republican Women's Task Force, may have trouble producing enough votes to guarantee a battle. There is little or no likelihood at this point that the convention would endorse the ERA, but a floor fight might induce the Reagan forces to avoid further public embarrassment by trying still another compromise, The equal rights plank adopted Tuesday reads: "We reaffirm our party's historic commitment to equal rights and equality for women. "We support equal rights and equal oppor tunities for women, without taking away traditional rights of women such as exemption from the military draft. We support the enforcement of all equal-opportunity laws and urge the elimination of discrimination against women.

"Ratification of the ERA is now in the hands of the state legislatures, and the issues of the time extension and rescission are in the courts. The states have a constitutional right to accept or reject a constitutional amendment without federal interference or pressure." John Leopold, a delegate from Hawaii, urged the subcommittee to adopt intact the put the party on record against public financing of abortions. Both decisions will be reviewed by the full platform committee later this week. That group votes on a final platform which will be sent to the entire convention for a vote next Tuesday. Under the rules, a minority report cannot reach the floor unless it has 27 votes from the platform committee.

A recent CBS News poll of delegates showed that 24 committee members favored the ERA, 68 were opposed and 14 had no opinion. But only 16 of those favoring the amendment said that they definitely wanted an en Now York Tlnws DETROIT Republicans seeking to preserve the party's 40-year support for the proposed federal Equal Rights Amendment were routed in a platform-writing session Tuesday. Conservatives voted overwhelmingly to keep endorsement of the amendment out of the platform, for the first time since 1940. A few hours later, a similar majority on the same human resources subcommittee of the platform committee adopted a plank en-; dorsing a constitutional ban on abortion that was slightly stronger than the 1976 version. And, for the first time, the subcommittee 1976 platform's endorsement of the amendment.

Opponents did not debate the issue, but the subcommittee voted 11-4 to table his motion. Then it became a question of which anti-amendment plank would prevail. The action on adoption of the abortion plank was very similar. The draft platform contained the 1976 language, supporting "the efforts of those who seek enactment of a constitutional amendment to restore protection of the right to life for unborn children." The final draft added: "We also support the Congressional efforts to restrict the use of taxpayers' dollars for abortion. Poll shows Bush leads in VP race Administration to call Reagan soft on Soviets By LEE EGERSTROM Democrat Washington bureau WASHINGTON The Carter administration has decided to defend its grain embargo against the Soviet Union by suggesting that Ronald Reagan, of all people, is soft on communism.

(i Willi MfS lrl 1 I I 1980 INTERNATIONAL i'i That's the line Agriculture Secretary Bob Bergland will deliver in a speech in Washington today. Berg-land's aides say that he and other representatives of President Carter will use that theme in defending the embargo and attacking Reagan while campaigning in the farm states. In remarks prepared for delivery to the National Association of Farmer Elected Committeemen. Bereland fv 'ft A- 4 fv' siCNk" savs of Reaparv LA By TIM KISKA and WILLIAM J. MITCHELL KnifiM-Riddcr news Mrvlct DETROIT George Bush enjoys the broadest support for the vice presidential nomination among delegates to the Republican National Convention, according to a Detroit Free Press survey of nearly two-thirds of the convention's 1,994 delegates.

Senate Minority Leader Howard Baker tops a list of candidates described as "unacceptable" by the nearly 1,300 delegates surveyed. Overall, Bush is favored by 33 percent of the delegates surveyed, followed by New York Congressman Jack Kemp at 26 percent and Baker at 15 percent. Half the respondents listed no candidate as unacceptable. Among those who did, Baker was listed as unacceptable by 34 percent. Bush and Kemp draw their strongest support from opposite ends of the party Bush listed as the leading choice among delegates who describe themselves as "middle-of-the-roaders," and Kemp the top choice among "very conservative" delegates.

The delegates seem to be sending Ronald Reagan this message with their responses to the survey: Pick Bush if you want to please the most delegates and broaden your appeal to moderates; pick Kemp if you want to please your own supporters and bolster your support among the Republican right wing; pick Baker only at the risk of angering some of your most ardent supporters. The same delegates who favor Kemp seem to feel most strongly about keeping Baker off the ticket. While Baker is the leading second choice for Reagan's running mate among many delegates, he's listed as "unacceptable" by 57 percent of the "very conservative" delegates. After Bush, Kemp and Baker, the next two most popular choices -Illinois congressman and former presidential candidate Phil Crane (6 percent) and former President Gerald R. Ford (4 percent) are not among the candidates currently un- 7 mm is Bergland "To my mind, it is the ultimate iro ny that this man who has built his entire political career on being fervently pro-American and belligerently anti-Soviet aggression turned out to be neither the first time he had to stand up and be counted.

"Just as he (Reagan) could not make up his mind about the Olympic boycott, just as he cannot come up with an optional course of action to free the hostages in Iran, he has not once told us precisely how he would have responded, as president, to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan." Reagan has pledged to end the grain embargo if elected president. Agreeing with farm-state campaign advisers like Sens. Bob Dole, Roger Jepsen, R-Iowa and Rep. Tom Hagedorn, Reagan has said the embargo has failed to harm the Soviets but has damaged domestic farm prices. Since the embargo is likely to become the hottest farm issue in the presidential campaign, Carter and his advisers decided to turn Bergland loose and make support for the embargo a litmus test on patriotism.

In his speech, Bergland notes that July 4 Independence Day marked the sixth-month anniversary of the grain embargo. The president, Bergland said, had just three options when he imposed the embargo, and the other two were either to ignore the invasion of Afghanistan or order military intervention. Bergland said recent news dispatches from Moscow verified U.S. intelligence reports that the embargo was cutting into the Soviet food supply. The reports, he said, note that workers in various cities have begun unprecedented strikes and protests against the shortages.

Bergland acknowledged that farm prices slumped early this year following the announcement of the embargo. tflLB I tw 1 DETROIT George Bush Reagan for nomination der consideration by the Reagan camp. Such potential running mates as former Treasury Secretary William Simon, Indiana Senator Richard Lu-gar and Michigan Congressman Guy Vander Jagt are supported by less than 4 percent of the delegates surveyed. The findings of the survey, conducted by mail between June 2 and July 7, generally parallel those of earlier delegate surveys conducted by other news organizations. In a Gallup Poll published last week, Ford got 31 percent support compared with 20 percent for Bush.

In light of Ford's expressed disinterest in the vice presidency, his support was redistributed in the survey to the others on the Gallup list, giving Bush 29 percent and Baker 15. AP booth was constructed to greet the people who began arriving in Detroit this week for the Republican National Convention. The convention begins Monday. Welcome GOP Detroit's Renaissance Center dwarfs an information booth near the GOP convention center, Joe Louis Arena. The But prices for the same grains are now as high or higher than they were Jan.

3, the day before the embargo was imposed, he said. Christian battle breaks Lebanon alliance national briefs power struggle for domination of the Christian-controlled territory carved out during the bitter 1975-76 war. Chamoun, 80, met Gemayel, 75, and both men issued an appeal for all troops to lay down their arms. Chamoun, looking frail and haggard, also issued what amounted to a surrender. "My men have called up and said the Phalangists are surrounding them, what should they do," Chamoun said.

"I have told them to take their guns, go home and give the Phalangists the keys to the Although the two leaders tried to maintain a facade of unity, it appeared Jheir split was final. The Lebanese Front they formed during the civil war had collapsed in a jumble of mutual recriminations and a series of bloody feuds between families seeking to avenge the deaths of relatives. Police sources said the Phalangists had occupied almost all of the barracks and party offices of the National Liberals in a 50 square-mile area extending from East Beirut, along the northern coast and into the mountain region of Kersrouan. nearly 200 wounded during the street and mountain clashes which pitted Christian against Christian. Hospitals in the Christian enclave stretching from East Beirut north to Tripoli made urgent appeals for blood donations.

The fighting began with a Phalangist offensive Monday and, despite a cease-fire, continued sporadically into the early morning with heavy artillery, tank, rocket and mortar battles. The two sides, allies against the Lebanese Moslems and Palestinians during the civil war, have been locked in a bitter BEIRUT, Lebanon (UPI) Lebanon's -long-time Christian alliance fell apart Tuesday after the private army of Phal-angist warlord Pierre Gemayel routed the forces of former President Camille Cham-oun in the bloodiest fighting since the 1975- 76 civil war. Chamoun conceded defeat and issued -what amounted to a surrender statement that left the country's separatist Maronite-Catholic enclave under the control of the Gemayel clan, which commands the largest militia on the Christian side. More than 70 people were killed and NBC chairman fired NEW YORK NBC Chairman Jane Cahill Pfeiffer, one of the highest ranking women in the world of business, said Tuesday she was fired by NBC President Fred Silverman, and said Silverman told her "he would probably follow me out the door in six months." Pfeiffer said 'l: Iranian leaders she was informed by Silverman Monday that "there was no way we both could stay. He wanted his contract renewed now and for that to happen I had to make a decision and implement it." Under an unusual corporate structure, Silverman as president outranks Pfeiffer as chairman.

Pfeiffer apparently still retains her position as a director of RCA back spy trials Pfeiffer the parent company of NBC. V. Underground leader gives up after 1 0 years From Democrat wk-n NEW YORK A leader of the radical Weatherman faction of the Students for a Democratic Society in the 1960s surrendered Tuesday on charges stemming from a 1970 explosion that killed three people. The explosion occured in a bomb factory hidden in a Greenwich Village townhouse. Cathlyn Piatt Wilkerson, a former Quaker prep-schoolgirl, gave herself up in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Robert M.

Morgen-thau. Wilkerson, 35, had eluded the FBI for 10 years. Two lawyers who accompanied her, Elizabeth Fink and Margaret Ratner, had telephoned the district attorney's office Monday to say their client was ready to surrender. Wilkerson was charged with criminally negligent homicide and possession of dangerous instruments dynamite. She faces a maximum 1 1-year jail sentence if convicted.

Her lawyers offered no explanation for Wilkerson's whereabouts in the 10 years since the March 6, 1970, blast that destroyed a four-story townhouse owned by her father, broadcasting executive James Scott Wilkerson. Cathlyn Wilkerson appeared at a bail hearing Tuesday night and signed a unsecured bond document allowing the woman to go free without putting up collateral but making her liable for $10,000 if she failed to appear again. Outside court, Cathlyn Wilkerson read a statement in which she said her political beliefs have not changed. She also was critical of the CIA, the Ku Klux Klan and other right-wing groups. She also protested treatment of blacks, women and American Indians.

Shortly after the blast, two women ran from the building and were taken in by a neighbor. They later disappeared. Police think one of the women was Cathlyn Wilkerson and the other was Cathy Boudin, then 26, who still is being sought by the FBL AiMclttod Crots The idea of putting the American hostages on trial as spies is winning strong support among some influential members of the Iranian Parliament, the body that may soon make a decision on their fate, a Tehran newspaper reported Tuesday. The newspaper conducted interviews with 23 legislators. In another development, Iranian officials fired 131 female civil servants from their jobs with the police and military because they balked at wearing traditional Islamic dress.

Many women working in government offices have objected to demands by revolutionary leaders that they abandon their Western outfits and begin wearing the head-to-toe chador veil or similar traditional Islamic clothing. The Tehran newspaper, Ettelat, reported it interviewed 23 members of Parliament, some of whomoire influential leaders of the Islamic Republican Party, which controls the new Parliament. Many want spy trials for the 53 hostages, the newspaper said. In Cairo, Egypt, the deposed shah, Mohammad Reza Tahlavi, was reported recuperating gradually from bis latest surgery. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat paid an unannounced visit to Pahlavi Tuesday, the second time Sadat has visited him since the shah was hospitalized 12 days ago.

In Washington, an Iranian emigre with close contacts in his homeland, said that 20 Iranian extremists are either in Egypt or attempting to get there to assassinate relatives and associates of the shah, who were expected to gather in Cairo upon his death. U.S. government sources said they had heard' such rumors were circulating in Tehran but they could not confirm them. Building strike continues LOS ANGELES With California's housing industry just beginning to recover from a slump, construction in Southern California was at a near standstill Tuesday as more than 100,000 construction workers stayed off the job for a second day. The construction industry, already hobbled by walkouts in Northern California, accounts for more than 60 percent of the state's $20 billion-a-year construction industry, according the Construction Industry Research Board in Los Angeles.

Industry sources said the strikes were costing builders an estimated $17 million a day in interest on loans and inflation in labor and material costs. Cost of stamps may rise WASHINGTON The Postal Service Tuesday began its case for a 20-cent first class stamp it contends it needs to shave a deficit expected by 1982. The Postal Service filed proposed rate changes for all classes of mail. The rate changes would include a 33.3-percent increase, from 15 cents to 20 cents, for a first-class letter. Each additional ounce would cost 17 cents.

Ten-cent postcard stamps would go to 13 cents. AP Greetina poor child Pope John Paul II hugs a child from a poverty-stricken section of Brazil Monday. The pope continued his journey Tuesday, visiting a leper colony on the edge of the Amazon River. The lepers proclaimed the pope "the best governor we ever had" because his arrival had spurred the state into tarring roads, putting in sewers and painting buildings in and around the colony all of which had long been neglected..