The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 55

Realty Firm Acquisition Agrees to of Recrion "T'l i1 iniummiMMMii iimw I iwiiiimihii iimm mi I. i mm wmmim iwiwuM T. If v' 'v vr- a vr" i 1 r. ft IT'S A PHONE BOOKlnstead of tussling with heavy telephone directories, Monica McCulloch of General Telephone Co. answers information requests after a few taps at a computerized keyboard.

Times photo by Fitzgerald Whitney Nov Phone Operator's Fingers Do Walking Through Computer BY ALEXANDER AUERBACH Times Staff Writer usiness WEDNESDAY, National The Weis trustee said he had OKd payment on 55 of claims received. Edward S. Redington, appointed May 30 to oversee liquidation of financially troubled Weis Securities of New York, said a 175-member staff had worked seven days a week to complete work on 13,482 of 23,192 customer claim forms received as of Monday. But Redington said 55,000 such forms had been mailed out and the total number processed and approved for payment so far is only 20 of those expected. Weis Securities collapsed after the Securities Exchange Commission accused the firm of fraud.

Redington said the liquidation staff had forwarded to customers and transfer agents some $9.96 million in cash and $37.5 million worth of securities in connection with claims processed to date. U.S. aides want to reduce Japan's American trade surplus even more. The Commerce Department reported that Tokyo's trade surplus with the United States has dropped drastically to an annual rate of $1.9 billion from last year's $4.1 billion, but that Washington is still dissatisfied. Trade experts observed that the Japanese are buying more U.S.

goods, but mostly raw materials. This country "does not like to be virtually in the position of a colony shipping raw materials to an industrialized nation," commented one official. Western Union plans further action in its fight with Graphic Scanning. Western Union Telegraph New York-based subsidiary of Western Union said it intends to "pursue and prosecute vigorously" its complaint against Graphic Scanning Corp. of New York with the Federal Communications Commission.

The action follows dismissal last week of Western Union's suit against Graphic Scanning. The court ruled that full relief is available to Western Union through the FCC and therefore it lacks jurisdiction to hear charges. Western Union alleges Graphic Scanning's message business violates FCC regulations and is in competition with its own. Kyams denied that he was asked to resign his Columbia Pictures posts. In an interview with The Times, Jerome F.

Hyams, executive vice president and chief operating officer of New York-based Columbia Pictures Industries branded all speculation about his possible forced resignation "a complete fabrica- ii tt. i 1 1 1 iiim. ne maicaiea ne is sua very active in the firm's management. Rumors about Hyams' possible exit from Columbia began earlier in the week when Alan J. Hirschfield was named to the company's board of directors.

Hirschfield is an executive of a private investment company. Columbia President Leo Jaffe, however, immediately branded the Hyams rumors groundless. S50 40 30 '20 10 900 90 80 70 60 Hi 26 24 22 20 18 16 14 I rVHHMMHIH OTH TtVHM MM IN MIUlONS handled doesn't warrant a compu ter. The 10 computerized offices handled more than 120 million directory assistance calls last year at a cost of some $10 million, and General Tel says the number of calls is growing. The microfilm system has a number of side benefits for the company, says John Bentley, traffic planning manager.

For one thing it cuts down on the huge amount of paper the company has to process to keep its directory operators up to date on new and changed numbers. Printed directories are revised and reprinted every month. The downtown listings are updated every two weeks. Now, instead of dumping truckloads of directories, the company can change sheets of microfilm in a cartridge. The computer that operates the retrieval system also can gather data on how the system is working, and can be used as a training aid for new operators.

The enormous capacity of the system, much of which is now unused, may someday allow General Tel to offer services now unavailable, says Bentley. 1 11 ii 11 II' JULY 4, 1973 Part III 7 The Chicago Mere limited trading in July and August pork belly futures. In an order effective next Tuesday, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange limited trading in July and August 1973 pork belly futures contracts to liquidation only and bona fide hedges supported by actual possession of deliverable product. Merc President Everette B. Harris said the order "seeks to maintain an orderly market in July and August 1973 pork belly futures in the face of the government's price freeze of those two futures." California A judge dismissed a suit which grew out of losses at UCB's Swiss bank.

U.S. District Court Judge William P. Gray here dismissed a shareholder derivative suit brought against approximately 25 officers and directors of Los Angeles-based United California Bank, a subsidiary of Western Bancorporation. The suit relates to losses incurred by UCB's subsidiary in Basel, Switzerland in 1970 and had sought about $100 million in damages on behalf of UCB. The suit alleged the California bank had been damaged by actions of officers and directors in connection with the Basel operation.

The judge ordered the dismissal after hearing a motion for summary judgment by UCB. The plaintiffs indicated they will appeal. World French stainless steel has been "dumped" here, the Treasury said. Imports from France of cold-rolled stainless sheet and strip steel are being sold in the United States at less than their fair value, the Treasury Department announced, which is in violation of U.S. antidumping laws.

The department said the value of the steel material imported during the year beginning April 1, 1972, was $8.5 million. Asst. Treasury Secretary Edward L. Morgan said the Tariff Commission will be asked to determine whether the sales at less than fair value have been harmful to American industry. He said if such harm is proven special "dumping duties will be assessed against French steel, VWsoid 1973 U.S.

sales won't match 1972, but first half figures rose. At the Volkswagenwerk AG annual meeting in Wolfsburg, West Germany, Chairman Rudolf Leiding said VW's first half sales volume in the United States totaled 249,000 vehicles, up from 226,000 year earlier. But Leiding said total unit sales in the United States aren't expected to reach the 486,000 sold in 1972. Leiding said he hoped the U.S. market would improve later this year if the energy crisis forces a trend toward autos using less gasoline.

He attributed the expected drop in sales in this country to price increases which have resulted from the higher value of the German mark in relation to the U.S. dollar. At the Top Uris Buildings Corp. elected a new president and five new directors. The changes were made following an acquisition on Monday of a 54 interest in New York-based Uris by National Kinney a subsidiary of Warner Communications New-York.

Seymour Milstein, a private real estate investor, was named Uris president to succeed Harold D. Uris, who resigned but will remain a Uris director. In addition, five officers of National Kinney were elected Uris directors to replace five directors who resigned when the acquisition was completed. The five new directors are Andrew J. Frank-el, National Kinney chairman; Morton A.

Sweig, vice chairman; Paul Milstein, brother of Seymour Milstein and president of National Kinney; and Harold Grabino and John J. Knapp, vice presidents. Briefly Told The SEC continued a trading suspension in shares of San Diego-based U.S. Financial Inc. through July 12 United Air Lines flew 2.7 billion revenue passenger miles in June, up 8.9 from a year before Picker a subsidiary of C.I.T.

Financial said its X-ray equipment can comply now with new FDA safety standards to take effect in August, 1974 Air Cali-fornia, Newport Beach, flew 41.1 million revenue passengers in June, a 22 jump over June last year Koyo Seko Co. of Osaka, Japan plans to set up a ball roller bearing manufacturing company in North Carolina Eastern Airlines reported a total of $1.4 billion revenue passenger miles in June, up 7.8 from a year earlier A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction barring a tender offer by Liquifin AG, an Italian company, for 52 of the outstanding shares of Ronson Corp. Stock Prices Sink i in Slow Turnover; Dow Index Off 6.40 NEW YORK The stock market sagged Tuesday in dull pre-holi-day trading. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials to 874.17. New York Stock Exchange volume amounted to 10.56 million shares compared with 9.83 million on Monday.

Out of 1,741 issues traded on the Big Board, 520 advanced and 813 declined. Prices also declined on the American Stock Exchange and in the over-the-counter market. The Amex price-change index closed at 22.25, off 0.02, and the Nasdaq composite index of OTC prices fell 0.70 to 99.45. Bond prices drifted lower. No Buying Support In the absence of significant new developments in the news background, the market just fell under its own weight, brokers said.

In the absence of buying support, prices just drifted downward. The cumulative effect of rising interest rates, tighter money, pressure on the dollar and Watergate were all factors in the market's decline, said one analyst. He predicted the market would continue sliding "until there is some selling climax or some news to turn it around." Volume leader on the New York Stock Exchange was Hercules, off 1 to 31. Natomas, second most active, rose 3V4 to 31. The issue dropped more than 10 points Monday on news the firm expected to lose a substantial amount of money from shipping operations.

Later the company added that it still expected to show a profit, and the issue rebounded. Avon Products fell 5 to lll58. It was mentioned negatively in a recent magazine article. Also, analysts said that Avon, like other glamors, was being hit by selling. Eastman Kodak fell 4V4 to 1305s and Polaroid dropped l3i to 1ZVA.

IBM, which recently received an unfavorable mention by a technical analyst, dropped 6-14 to 298J2. The preliminary count on large block trades of 10,000 or more shares, traded on the NYSE, was 86 compared with a revised total of 67 for Mondav. Big-blocW trades of 10,000 shares or more included: Davlin 66,700 shares at 6, off Vfc; Exxon, 58,200 shares at 97, off Allied Chemical, 50,000 Please Turn to Page 9, Col. 2 controls the nation's savings and loan institutions. The FHLBB has been resisting higher ceilings, while the Fed has been convinced that the rates of interest paid to all small savers must be allowed to rise.

Money is moving out of the thrift institutions savings and loan associations and mutual savings banks because interest rates are higher elsewhere. For example, government ceilings limit the interest that can be paid on various kinds of "consumer-type" savings accounts to 4Vi to 6. But prodded by a steady increase in the Fed's discount rate (now at V2) other kinds of interest rates have been soaring. Thus, the Treasury 90-day bill rate is around 8, and similar yields are available on Please Turn to Page 9, Col. 4 to Develop Oil cessions for actual discovery but eventually the South Vietnamese would share 50-50 in profits.

Some of the bidding for South Vietnam's offshore oil was also dampened by propaganda blasts from Hanoi which call the bids illegal and protests from Cambodia, which wants to negotiate ownership of some of the sites. The South Vietnamese, naturally, claim the sites without strings. The companies bidding represented the major world oil companies including Gulf, Shell, Hunt International, Esso Exploration, Amerada Hess, Mobil and American Oil. The bidding was complicated because some joined forces the Japanese Kaiyo Oil for instance, entering into an agreement with the American-based Seashell Development Co. It will most probably be several months before the bids are finally accepted or rejected and actual exploration will doubtless be many months beyond that.

The bids must Fleas Turn to Page 11, CoL 1 av iviiniuii 1 1 RY RflTfERT A. RnSF.KJRT.ATT i Hints aiair ivnivr (l- Stardust and Fremont hotel-casinoa an agreement uriuupus 10 ue pur- 4 cnasea by Goodrich Kealty uevei- 1- firm. The agreement is subject to ties approval. RipViarrl PnVioti a Wotir Vnrlr real 1 estate developer, owns" 70 of the snares in uooaricn, a iew lont- oased lirm which operates aDart: ment buildines and shoDDine cenvV" Goodrich would pay approximated tfr" iim i 1 i riiiiimn ii'jun nil iit 11 i in I I- t-l 'I II II Kl 14 I l-l II III lfr I i ft I' I'Kl nt Vflrinnc sppiirir.iee linripr thp XcicA rmrnViaco ocfroorriont More man nan oi me million, would be borrowed from a crouu of IT Al 1. 1P A'fl "11 a si' i fTW i iuesaay.

i ne rest wouia come irom uasu auu casu euuivaiems uieius ca- crion and Goodrich. wouia oe usea to nnance tne on oi net i ion siiK Knn ners nv iioon- II 1 ii i rich. Recrion, based in Las uas suusiaiuiai casn riuimiit'js million in cash out of $75 million in- total assets. Since most of RecrionV-revenues come from its gambling ca- sinos, the firm's inventories are' hand at the casinos. A incf firm nrmtroc-f no mirontn." If the acquisition is approved, Re- crion will disappear into the corpor-.

u- i oic cmuioLc ui a umui smaller tuiiir 1 pany. mere were no current siaiemenis lmmpmatp avai ah 101 uoouncn. wnirn nppamp a nun. 11 i 1 1 i I I. 1111 TT.m a xiiiii in uaiiuaiv wiieii il acquired General Mortgage mAwfn nv.

A 1- "KUW, an JtUlKLUMll OLOCK. JliA- change firm, in return for cash, mon siock ann nenprmirps va between $14 million and $17 million. IT. nac nro etr tno Imov nrri tfnHf. on the Pacific Stock Exchange riease Turn tn Pave 11 rn 1 -w rj 141 111 AM I fIA JI.

IIV IA II' IU I Tl II I kfUl If II IUI II If I1IAVII 1WUVI IUUIY AllI KI-MVIA rLiAMA4-: UUIII UM I I I II Mil II I I III llUlllli l.llll.llllll my an iir 1 i liTTnrrlQ hl I niflt xmm 1 BY RONALD L. SOBLE Timet Staff Writer iay uaneiL, a vincago auorney specializing in security and corporate law, was reported Tuesday to be -r under serious consideration by the-White House to be the new head the Securities Exchange Commis- sion. Garrett, 53, a Republican, had cently told The Times that he asked the Administration to take his name off its list of candidates for personal -reasons. Garrett said Tuesday, however, that the White House recently asked again if he was interested. "I said, 'Yes, I would reconsider1" Garrett declared.

-I The. Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday that Garrett was President Nixon's selection following an inter- -view at the Western White House at San Clemente. Denies Visit Garrett told The Times he did not visit the Western White House. .7 Moreover, he said, upon hearing of the report he called White House officials in Washington and was told that no final decision had yet been made. Chicago attorney speculated, however, that a nominee would be announced soon based on reports he has heard.

Garrett, a partner in the law firm of Gardner, Carton, Douglas, Chil- gren Waud, served in the SEC from 1954 to 1958, ending his service as director of the agency's division of corporate regulation. "Of all the candidates on the Pres- ident's list, he is by far the best in of ability," said one knowledg- eable Wall Street source. G. Bradford Cook, 36, resigned last May as SEC chairman amid allega- tions that he was instrumental in de-leting information about a presidential campaign contribution from SEC fraud charges against New Jer sey financier Robert L. Vesco.

EXCHANGES WILL r-TAKE A HOLIDAY The nation's stock and commodity exchanges will be closed today in observance of the July 4th holiday. Banks, government offices most businesses -will also be Exchanges will resume trading hours Thursday. ri i j. ni 1 V. When you have to look up a phone number you drag out the directory and flip through it, run your finger down the columns and find the number.

And, until now, information operators have had to do the same thing, about 500 times per day. A computer system is changing all that for General Telephone Co. of California, the Santa Monica-based subsidiary of General Telephone Electronics New York. The $2.5 million system will save time (34 seconds for the average request versus 40 seconds under the old system), money (one office threw away 10 tons of phone books every year) and a lot of page-turning muscle, the company says. First Installation General Tel claims its "rapid retrieval" system is the first to be stalled on a permanent (rather than experimental) basis in any phone company in the nation, although a New York affiliate of the Bell System recently announced plans for a similar system.

Now, instead of facing a shelf of eight telephone books and stacks of other printed material, the information operator sits at what looks like a computer terminal. When a caller calls for a listing, the operator types the first four letters of the last name on a keyboard. Then the computer takes over. Stored at each operator's station, on microfilm, are some 2.5 million listings for Greater Los Angeles (the system has a capacity of 15 million listings.) The computer electronically rummages through the microfilmed listings (reduced by 210 times from their original size) and finds the section with the listing the operator needs. Listing Projected An optical device magnifies the tiny print and projects it onto a screen for the operator to read.

General Tel is putting 10 of the systems, which are manufactured by Microform Data Systems Inc. of Mountain View, into its offices. Operators will use a total of 492 viewing terminals. Three offices are now fully equipped, and three more will get the system by the end of the year. Th rest will be outfitted in 1974.

Ten small offices will retain the old system because their volume of calls EXPLORATION BIDS Fed Reported Ready to Allow Banks to Boost Savings Rates BY HOBART ROWEN Th Washington Post S. Vietnam Takes a Big Step WASHINGTON Federal Reserve Board officials, concerned about the drain of funds from thrift institutions, reportedly plan to raise the ceilings on interest rates that its member banks can pay on savings accounts. It was learned Tuesday night that after a meeting with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLLB), the Fed decided to raise the passbook rate to 5 from 4.5 at the end of the week, and time de-posit certificates by a similar amount. The FDIC, which regulates commercial banks outside of the Federal Reserve System as well as mutual savings banks, would take comparable action.

The Fed-FDIC move will probably force the hand of the FHLBB, which DISAPPOINTING 33 exploration sites up for bidding. Each site measures roughly 2,500 square miles. The deadline for submitting bids was Monday and the bids were opened publicly Tuesday in a room of the National Petroleum Committee. Oil company representatives and diplomatic attaches were present for the 90-minute session. The bidders from the United States, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Japan were interested in only eight of the 33 available sites.

The exploration sites are all located in the relatively shallow waters of the South China Sea off the Ca Mau peninsula, the southern tip of South Vietnam. Under South Vietnam's petroleum law of 1970 which was patterned on Middle Eastern lines, most notably Libya's petroleum law each company pledges to spend $6 million within five years on the site selected. There are liberal financial con lir BY GEORGE McARTHUR Timet Staff Writer SAIGON The South Vietnamese government Tuesday opened bids from 13 major international petroleum combines, which, in effect, have pledged an initial $40 million to explore for oil off the nation's southern coast. The government was officially happy with results of the long awaited bidding but there was disappointment that many sites went begging and the total amount of exploration money fell short of expectations. Although the bidding a milestone long hoped for by U.S.

officials who must argue with Congress for economic aid to pay for South Vietnam's annual $70 million worth of oil imports it will obviously be a long time before any oil flows. It has taken seven years, since the first seismic findings in 1967 indicated offshore oil, for the South Vietnamese to reach this far. The government originally asked for bids from 27 companies and put 12 10 WEEKS ENDINO YESTERDAY A NEW YORK Tha Dow Jones 30 industrial stock average closed at 874. 17 off 6.40. High during the day was 882.53; the low, 868.75.

The Amex closed off 0.02. LONDON The Financial Times index of 30 industrial stocks closed at 439.7, off 3.6. The 1973 high of 509.5 was set Jan. 10. The 1973 low of 426.5 was set March 5.

TOKYO The Tokyo Stock Exchange 225-share index closed at 4,722.96, up 34.19. The 1973 high of 5,359.75 was set Jan. 10. The 1973 low of 4,374.77 was set April 25..