Daily News from New York, New York • 165

DAILY NEWS, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16. 1977 46 Let's hear it for Sen. Scrooge (D-Wis.) JAMES WIEGHART WASHINGTON In the same spirit that a maiden of yore went to her grave vowing "death before dishonor," New York officials seeking federal loans should ward off heavy handed political Lotharios on the Senate Banking Committee with the warning, "bankruptcy before betrayal." Perhaps that is too emotional a response to Sen. William Proxmire's none-too-subtle hints of recent inordinately large percentage of the city's These are tough questions to be sure, but not too tough for a man with Proxmire's background Yale University, Harvard Business School and 20 years in the Senate, with service on the Banking, Appropriations and Joint Economic Committees. During Proxmire's 20 years in the.

Senate, the federal budget has been balanced only twice in 1960 and 1968 and deficits totalling about $375 billion have been run up during the other 18. Perhaps it would be helpful if senior senators like Proxmire, who are members of the majority party and who sit on key economic committees, were asked to justify the continued need for deficit spending on much the same terms that Proxmire is now setting for the City of New York. The real problem with Proxmire and some other liberal Democrats in Congress who say they would like to help New York but take a hard line on extending aid is not that they don't understand the economic issues involved. The problem is that they see a political need to kick the city around a little bit first, before extending a helping hand. They may love New York, as Proxmire claims he does, but if so, he sure has a kinky way of expressing it.

ers, perhaps the closures of a few more schools and hospitals. In exchange for this new round of sacrifice, which after all is good for the soul, Proxmire indicated. that the Congress might be willing to con-, tinue to let the city borrow from its federal govern- ment at the going commercial interest rate, plus one percent enough money to keep it solvent for a few more years To sum up, the Proxmire prescription for New York calls for no tax cuts (maybe even increases); further reductions in services; more layoffs; further deterioration in the city's capital plant and equipment, and continued high interest charges for any federal loans. One is tempted to ask Proxmire whether his prescription sounds like the right medicine to restore fiscal health to a city brought to its deathbed by the massive flight of business, jobs and its affluent citizenry due to rising crime, skyrocketing taxes and inadequate services. The senator should also assess the social and political implications (not to mention the inhumanity) of even further cutbacks in services for the poor and elderly who now make up such an days that if New York hopes to have any chance for federal fiscal neip in coming months, CAPITOL A STUFF the had better not re duce state taxes or ffffPf 1 UkJr tra25 mm.) i grant excessive raises to public employes.

The Wisconsin Democrat, who as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee will have a good deal to say about whether the $2.3 billion federal seasonal loan program to New York City should be extended beyond next June 30, made it clear to Gov. Carey that he thought a cut in state taxes next year would not be in the city's real interest. "You have come before this committee many times and asked that the federal government do more," Proxmire lectured Carey. "Now you come before us and talk about a (state) tax cut and we find it hard to justify how you can talk about cutting your taxes while at the same time you're asking the federal government to do more." Proxmire was actually engaging in a bit of hyperbole, since New York is not officially asking the federal government to do more, but to extend the $2.3 billion seasonal loan program for another three years or so or until the city can get its finances in good enough shape so that it can borrow in the private market. Proxmire had similar prudent advice for Mayor Beame when he criticized the City Council's decision earlier in the week to vote itself a 50 pay increase.

"How the dickens can you expect a teacher or fireman to hold down his wage demands if the politicians are raising their own salaries." That's not the end of Proxmire's advice either. You can be sure that he'll have some penny-pinching directions for the bankers when officials from Citibank, Chemical, Chase Manhattan, Morgan Guarantee, Manufacturer's Hanover and Banker's Trust show at today's hearings. To be fair to Proxmire, he wasn't entirely negative at this week's sessions. He was clearly pleased that the city had laid off 60,000 or so employes and had cancelled or deferred millions in capital improvement projects. Obviously, he looks forward with relish to even greater sacrifices in 1978 more layoffs for firemen, policemen, teachers and sanitation work 1 MMMMlHMMH- East side, West side, all over town WILLIAM REEL Leaving the great old hotel is Prime Minister Begin.

And there, stepping out of an elevator into the lobby, is Elizabeth Taylor. Not as young as she used to be but still not bad And bounding up the steps into the Empire Room, is none other than the most popular man in the world, the greatest athlete of the century, the one and only Muhammad Ali! Inside the Empire Room under the chandeliers, with jacketed waiters pouring Bloody Marys and presiding over the elaborate hot buffet, fight pro-. moter Bob Arum, 46, a product of the streets of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, is about to announce a championship bout between Ali and Spinks. The TV and newspaper guys in attendance will carry the news to every corner of the earth. Just another day in the great city.

Museum of Modern Art. Holding back the line at the door is security guard Nick Revelli of Ozone Park, Queens. "I've been here five years and I ain't never seen nothing like this Cezanne," Nick said. "Cezanne is a winner!" Inside, museum publicist Bill Grant, 23, formerly of Middlebury, now of W. 98th said that the Cezanne show, which opened Oct.

7, has been viewed by 320,000 art buffs. By the way, how does W. 98th St. compare with Middlebury? "Quite different," said Grant. Does he like New York? "Most definitely" said Grant.

Walking back east and down Park much hustle and bustle is observed around the Waldorf. The Watergate gang surfaces again WHAT'S UP? What's new? What's happening? On a beautiful day in the big city, let's take a stroll around midtown and see if anything is going on. For openers there is a ton of activity In the gleaming new Citicorp Center on the block between Third and Lex and 53d and 54th. The centerpiece is a glistening skyscraper built on giant stilts. It is the eighth tallest building in the world.

Put this in Cleveland and it would be the eighth wonder of the world. In New York people hardly look up. Beneath the skyscraper is an airy market place full of classy shops and the brand new bathed-in-light St. Peter's Lutheran Church, perhaps the handsomest house of worship built here in this century. Workmen, shopkeepers, executives, sightseers, secretaries all mingle happily.

Newness creates optimism. Everybody is amiable. "We've been open two months and we've been very busy," said chic Giuliana Rinna 25, manager of Richoux of London, a smart eatery open 24 hours a day. It is one of many nice restaurants in the market. Giuliana grew up outside Detroit, became a nurse, moved to London, quit nursing in favor of restaura-teuring and came to New York to help run Richoux.

Go in and have pancakes and say hello to her. A few stores away in the market is Chez Chocolate. Right. They sell chocolates. Owner Jerry Tant-leff, 42.

now of Matawan, N.J., but formerly of Bath Beach, Brooklyn, where he was pals with Sandy Kou-fax at Lafayette High School, was mixing a batch of creamy stuff to pour over strawberries. "I just opened and I'm working like crazy, seven days a week, but I love it," he said. "I quit a good job I had for 20 years in textiles to open this. Textiles is a kishka business. It eats your insides out.

This business is fun. It's going to be a big success, believe me." An hour is barely enough to scratch the surface of Citicorp Center. A day could be spent there. Many days. But moving on across proud Park and bustling Madison a long line is encountered at Fifth Ave.

It runs half way down 53d St. and into the cern" over Panama's drug smuggling and, therefore, that "if Torrijos didn't shape up and cooperate, he was going to be wasted." Hunt's lurid claim was not taken too seriously. However, we have now obtained some corroborating evidence from a far more reliable source than Hunt. It is a significant segment of a secret memo prepared in 1973 by Dade County, investigator Martin Dardis. Dardis has authenticated writing the memo after an interview with the late Manuel Artime, who led the Cuban exiles on the Bay of Pigs expedition.

He was close to Hunt and was considered an enigmatic but truthful man. Dardis recounted in his memo that Artime told him "he had in fact been approached by Howard Hunt to recruit a band of Artime's former associates to to quote Hunt 'take care of the situation in "The Nixon administration was highly concerned that the flow of narcotics into the United States was being filtered through Panama and was being done with the aid of the Panamanian government." Artime said Hunt had avoided using the word "assassination," but had employed a "key phrase" and had. stressed "something had to be taken care of in Panama." Artime said the project apparently was shelved, but Dardis quotes a reliable Cuban source as telling him the plumbers "were going to bump off Torrijos at the racetrack" in Panama. JACK ANDERSON and LES WMTTEIV WASHINGTON Shadowy rumors that the Watergate plotters marked Panamanian dictator Omar Torrijos for assassination have suddenly taken on more substance. The first hint that Richard Nixon's "plumbers" might be plotting Torrijos' demise appeared- in June 1973.

Newsweek magazine reported that John Dean was going to tell the Senate Watergate Committee that "low level White House aides" had hatched a scheme to get rid -of Torrijos. The ringleader was said to have been Waterbugger E. Howard Hunt. Torrijos' name was placed on the White House hit list, Newsweek wrote, because he was allegedly implicated in smuggling drugs into the United States. Dean never made the statement at the Senate hearings, presumably because all he had was hearsay evidence.

But meanwhile, these tantalizing tidbits have surfaced: Hunt at first denied to Senate Watergate investigators that he had any knowledge of the Torrijos death plot. But later he mentioned in a TV interview that the plumbers had planned a secret foreign mission. He would not describe the mission. After he emerged from prison, Hunt told a Boston television interviewer that there was "con.