The Winona Daily News from Winona, Minnesota • 1

Thousands of drivers vow fo keep rigs parked mm tus i to talk sense, we won't either And 500 strikers attending a meeting with Edwards Thurs-day night vowed to stay shut down. So did drivers attending Thursday night meetings In Joplln, Branford, Wildwood, Coates, Palmyra, Moorhead, Glasgow Del; and Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz. To flex their strength, some of the protesting drivers went out and closed down more truck stops Thursday night. Pennsylvania Gov. Milton J.

a the self-appointed mediator who Initiated the Washington settlement talks, vowed to visit dissident inde pendents to explain the agree ment to them and get them rolling again. Others favoring the settlement agreed to in Washington early Thursday planned to do likewise. But National Guardsmen remained on duty in eight states to keep the peace and escort truck convoys of gasoline and food. Federal officials said they might call out federal troops if necessary. State police la it Inst 10 states said that truck traffic was up, but still far below nor.

mal levels. In almost every case, drivers speaking out Thursday on the proposed settlement echoed the view of Roger Callaway of Overdrive magazine. "It's a sellout," he said. "They sold these guys down the river." Violence was down considers-bly Thursday after the proposal was announced. There were reports of tire slashings, hose cut tings and scattered shootings.

A bullet struck a policeman's car in Oklahoma. There were still more than joo.ooo workers laid off, and some more layoffs were expected to be felt briefly even if the strike ends. There were also predictions of scattered food shortages In the Northeast, where prices for scarce meat, poultry and produce were By CRAIG AM MERM AN Associated Press Writer More trucks were report moving on the nation's highways today, but resistance to the proposed settlement of the crippling nine-day shutdown by independent drivers was strong. Thousands of drivers rallied largely around the men and groups which touched off the shutdown. They vowed to keep their rigs parked until they get lower diesel fuel prices.

That was the demand which started the strike movement. "I think we are a long way from ending this mess," said strike leader J. W. "River Rat' Edwards in Kansas City. "As long as the government refuses climbing rapidly.

And It was predicted meat and produce would be short In supply for a week or so, with prices higher than normal. Against that background, a few independent truckers said they thought the settlement fair and it was time to return to work. But the majority of those speaking out said government promises of all the diesel fuel that truckers need, an immediate surcharge on freight rates to compensate for past diesel fuel increases and future rate hikes to pass along Increased costs were not enough. The general sentiment of dozens of loosely knit groups. The settlement terms being carried to these drivers will allow them to charge more for the cargo they carry to cover charges for past and future fuel cost increases, It guarantees them all the fuel they need, and Sunday sales of it.

It promises government study of possible increases In weight limits of the mammoth rigs, and an audit of the oil Industry, And federal energy chief William E. Simon said he would ask bankers and other creditors to be sympathetic to the owner-drivers unable to meet current debt payments because they have been idled. those opposing return to work wss that the proposed settlement reached In Washington would only be Inflationary and would wind up on the consumer's back. Some truckers' spokesmen present at the Washington talks predicted the trouble would end by the first of the week. It was possible, as some of them contended, that most of the ones 6peaking against the settlement were militant independents who initiated the strike.

But it was also far from clear what power the truckers' negotiators In Washington would have over the largely disorganized Independent drivers who only recently formed into 1 i fit1 nona uy Cloudy through Saturday with chance of snow 119th Year of Publication tmsfflv Negotiators now trying to sell drivers on plan WINONA, MINNESOTA 55987, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1974 16 Pages, 15 Cents Sailors have ringside seat jr i p. n. My JAY PERKINS WASHINGTON (AP) Negotiators for striking independent truckers are turning from selling the government on the needs of truckers to trying to sell the truckers on the sincerity of the government. The White House was optimistic that the tentative settle-ment reached Thursday would end the nine-day-old strike but return mm safely Chief negotiator William Hill of Pittsburgh said he felt the shutdown could end by the first of next week "if they 'individual drivers) get the program and the package explained to them." He said Pennsylvania Gov. Milton J.

Shapp, who organized and mediated the negotiations, had promised to "bounce like a grasshopper all over the country'. if necessary, to explain the proposed settlement. Shapp, who started his career by driving a coal truck, said the independent truckers "did not get everything they want II. 1,1.1 II .1 1" 1 II I I ABOARD US NEW OR 1 I LEANS (AP) Skylab 3's as- svt. tronauts came safely home 1 Y-rr FY rit: from man's longest space voyage today, splashing down with pinpoint precision In the Pacific ft Y' 7 Ocean alter 84 days In orbit.

V. The Apollo taxi ship carrying i Gerald P. Carr, William R. Pogue, and Edward G. Gibson parachuted into the sea 3.4 said contingency plans had been developed in case the protests continued.

Federal Energy Office deputy administrator John C. Sawhill said those plans involved the possible use of federal troops to keep the highways open to truck traffic. Many Independent truckers' leaders denounced the settlement as a sellout. One J.W. "River Rat" Edwards of Kansas City said "As long as the government refuses to talk sense, we won't either." But the negotiators said they felt they could end the shutdown once they explained what government concessions mean to the independent drivers.

miles from this recovery ship Gibson Carr Pogne i ed" but that the negotiations nevertheless were a "major breakthrough." He said he believed the actions would bring "prompt, positive assistance to the truck drivers The Federal Energy Office agreed to give the truckers all the gas they need, instead of limiting tliem to 110 per cent of the amounts they used in 1972. The office estimates this will make an additional 76,000 barrels of diesel fuel available to truck stops each day. to climax a record flight which the space agency said proved CDT after a journey of 84 days, 1 hour and 16 minutes, breaking the previous Skylab 2 record of 59 days. With visibility of 10 miles, (Continued on page 11) Skylab return traveled 34'4 million miles and gathered a wealth of scientific and medical data on man, his earth and his solar system. The astronauts hit gentle waters 176 miles southwest of San Diego, at 10:17 a.m.

"America can do anything in manned space flight that it so desires." During nearly three months in space, the astronauts had circled the globe 1,214 times, SLASHED TIRES Truck drivers ex- others from moving out. Drivers are refusing amine slashed tires on their trucks parked to have the tires replaced or to move the rigs in one of the exits from a truck stop in until the trucker dispute is settled. (AP Photo- Breezewood, Pa. The trucks were used to stop fax) No one sure agreement will hold Truck negotiations strange, complex By ROBERT A. DOBKIV AP Labor Writer WASHINGTON (AP) With the nation's economic health riding on the outcome, an unlikely set of negotiators shuttled between a Washington noiei room ana tne wnue House trying to get striking independent truckers rolling again.

And although they produced a tentative agreement Thursday, no one was sure they could make it stick. An AP News Analysis sides together and kept them talking, but his presence added to the complications. The federal mediators had to walk a tightrope to avoid partisan politics, yet see to it that Shapp received his share of attention while not overshadowing what the Republican administration was doing. Sources said that while the administration acknowledged that the truckers had legitimate grievances, it ordered a hard line. There was the fear that if the truckers received too many concessions, other groups would resort to the same pressure tactics described as terrorism by Atty.

Gen. William B. Saxbe. Further complicating the negotiations was the interest of the Teamsters and its president, Frank E. FKzsimmons, who denounced the strikers.

Fitzsimmons is Nixon's closest labor ally and the Teamsters have always been regarded as spokesman for the entire trucking industry. Although not Involved In the negotiations, he was kept advised of all developments, reportedly by Labor Secretary Peter J. Brennan. federal agencies, the states and Congress. "It made it very difficult trying to put all these pieces together," said W.

J. Usery the government's veteran chief mediator, after four days of marathon negotiations. Unless the highway shutdown is ended quickly, this country faces the same kind of economic chaos threatening Great Britain in the dispute with coal miners. The independent truckers are a relatively small group of businessmen operators of their own rigs wielding their power to win relief from the profit squeeze generated by the energy crisis. Trucks carry 70 percent of the nation's foodstuffs and most other freight including gasoline.

A good bit of this is hauled by the independents. It wasn't until the fourth day of the strike with its effects spreading across the country that the government finally agreed to sit down and listen to their problems. And that was only at the insistance of Pennsylvania Gov. Milton J. Shapp.

It was Shapp, a Democrat, who brought the two The talks were some of the stransest and more British coal miners refuse fo delay strike LONDON (AP) Britain's coal miners today rejected a last-minute plea from Prima Minister Edward Heath to put off their strike until after the Feb. 28 national elections. Union leaders decided instead to call out the nation's 280,000 miners on schedule from midnight Saturday, raising the specter of widespread electricity cuts during the three-week election campaign and paralysis of British industry by spring. The miners' walkout Is now expected to strengthen the election prospects of Heath's Conservatives who plan a campaign on the issue of who runs Britain the elected government or strike-prone trade unions. Whatever the political advantage, leaders of all parties in complex labor negotiations in years, with a Democratic governor on one side and a Republican administration on the other.

There was no contract and nothing to be signed and the federal mediators didn't know whether negotiators for the truckers spoke for all or just a few. The problems involved not only the independents, but the major fleet carriers and the giant Teamsters union as well. And the solutions required action by numerous '4 On the inside: Impact of oil embargo fails fo match fears 3 i I Parliament had agreed that 1 postponement of the strike would be in the national President Nixon's lawyer and lawyers lhlJbdWUiilbIiI for the Houe judiciary Committee which is considering the possible impeachment of Nixon, have agreed to get together soon for a talk story, page 2. Piattl nlan The Winona City Planning Commission Uldlil pidll Thursday night gave the grec light to a residential project in Knopp Valley the size of the city of St. Charles story, pape 3, fklf Pmcl Winona Park-Recreation Director Robert Tl UI Welch today was named Jack Frost and will reign over this weekend's Winona Jaycces Carnival story, page 3.

VaforffAfa The Scnatc Watergate committee has aTreed to delay its final report until May so as not to interfere with the Watergate prosecution story, pnge 5. Trarlfl Seiu cliffor Case- has charged the Nixon I fuuB administration made a secret deal to lend Russia at le.ist $5(10 million at 6 percent interest and violated a law by not telling Congress story, page 16. i A The decision to go ahead with 1 the strike was made by the 27-man Executive of the National Union of Mineworkers. Sid Vincent, Lancashire area secretary, told newsmen after the meeting that the vote was 1 I MILK GOES TO WASTE Marvin White, an Oakland, dairy farmer, pours milk out as a cow watches. White, like other dairy farmers in the area struck by the truckers' protest, cannot get his milk to market.

(AP Photofax) almost unanimous. Vincent said that Joe Gor WILLIAM SIMON Suggests stale action mley, the union's relatively moderate president, had favored a strike postponement. The Conservative prime min Five other states consider plans New York sixth state to adopt rationing ister, who has been standing firm against the miners waga demands, coupled his an WASHINGTON (AP) -The federal government has been told that the impact of the Arab oil embargo may be less severe than had been expected. And, a semiadvisory group reported Thursday, oil imports may actually increase in February and March. For the first quarter of 1974, the group said, the United States may face an 11 percent oil shortage instead of the 14 percent predicted only last December.

The report was made to the Emergency Petroleum Supply Committee an oil industry advisory group with a government official as its chairman by one of its subcommittees. Walter Uhle, a retired Caltex vice president who presented the subcommittee report, said the Arab oil embargo was most severe In December, before the Arab nations began relaxing their oil cut-off to all but a few nations considered friendly to Israel. "The relaxation has improved the situation, essen tially, outside the United Slates," Uhle said. For the first quarter of this year, he said, Europe can expect a five percent oil shortage instead of the 18 percent predicted In December; Japan and South Korea may be 10 percent short instead of 15 to 25 percent; and the "free world" shortage should be about 7 percent instead of 13 percent. Uhle said the new first quarter estimates assume that the Arabs will continue their embargo against the United States, the Netherlands, Portugal and South Africa.

Federal officials have admitted some Arab oil was being leaked to the United Stales. As late as Thursday afternoon, however, four hours after Uhle's report but apparently before it made its way through official channels, John C. Sawhill, deputy administrator of the Federal Energy Office said there was no reason to expect any change from present oil import levels until the embargo is lifted. nouncement Thursday of the election with an appeal fir postponement of the strike. The government hinted that if the strike was postponed, industries that have been on a three-day work week since Jan.

1 to save power will be permitted to operate four or five days a week. Economists say that if the short weeks continue, they will start taking heavy financial toll at the end of February. By then, they say, many firms that have survived despite two months of money losses will be forced to close, throwing millions out of work. An Associated Press survey shows that officials in New Jersey, California, Illinois, Delaware and Arkansas are studying the possibility of some form of gasoline sales restrictions. Another Associated Press surveys shows the East, especially the Northeast, with less gasoline than other areas of the country.

The eastern part of the South also is hard hit, especially heavily urban states like Florida. plans involve selling gasoline to drivers with even-numbered license plates only on even numbered days and to drivers with odd-numbered plates on odd-numbered days. This plan Is in effect In Oregon and Hawaii and goes into effect Monday in Massachusetts, New York and Washington. A plan scheduled to go into effect Monday in Maryland has been delayed at least until Tuesday for a public bearing. on gasoline purchases In an effort to end the "panic buying" that has caused long waiting lines at service stations.

Simon suggested that gasoline purchases should be no less than $3 worth and no more than 10 gallons at a time. He recommended local governments "coordinate the operating hours of retail outlets" to make sure some gas stations are open at all times of the day and throughout the month. The six state rationing By JEFFREY MILLS Associated Press Writer With the federal government still undecided on imposing nationwide gasoline rationing, an increasing number of states are implementing controls on thsir own. New York on Thursday became the sixth state to adopt a voluntary alternative day rationing program. Five other states are considering programs to alleviate the fuel shortage.

In addition, numerous localities have enacted such plans. In telegrams to the nation's governors, federal energy chief William E. Simon said states should consider alternate-day programs If state problems are severe. However, Simon's deputy, John C. Sawmill, said the federal government is reluctant to impose nationwide rationing on grounds that only a few states have serious gasoline problems.

Simon wired the governors and local government officials to urge voluntary limits.