News stories from Tuesday March 14, 1972
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Polls in the Florida presidential primary are closing, with approximately 2 million ballots to be counted. The busing issue, more than the candidates, is responsible for the heavy voter turnout. George Wallace wants his Florida victory to be sealed up so that he can move on to Wisconsin; a 35% victory is predicted.
Hubert Humphrey campaigned up to the last minute in elderly and Jewish communities; he hopes to beat Muskie by 5%. Edmund Muskie visited his headquarters, then relaxed with an afternoon of golf. Henry Jackson hopes for 4th place among Democrats. George McGovern is casual about the results of the Florida primary, but he would like to come in ahead of John Lindsay, who is striving to finish ahead of McGovern for the liberal vote. Shirley Chisholm will be happy with any amount of votes.
[CBS] - Senate Judiciary Committee hearings resumed concerning whether the Justice Department made a favorable settlement of ITT's antitrust case in exchange for ITT's pledge to contribute to the Republican national convention. Former Attorney General John Mitchell testified and disclosed a 1970 meeting with ITT president Harold Geneen, covering only general anti-conglomerate policy. Mitchell denied all implications of a political deal in the memo of ITT lobbyist Dita Beard and said that he told her to "shove off" at a Kentucky Derby party. Mitchell said that the President never intervened in any Justice Department case.
Senator Hugh Scott agrees with Mitchell that impugning the reputation of acting Attorney General Richard Kleindienst is scandalous. Senators Edward Kennedy and John Tunney questioned Mitchell on the role of White House aide Peter Flanigan, who obtained the financial consultant who was used by the Justice Department in the settlement; Flanigan may be allowed to claim executive privilege and not testify. Senator Thomas Eagleton stated that he recalled Eisenhower aide Sherman Adams hurling corporate "fix-it" charges at Flanigan.
Flanigan's rebuttal came from Senator Norris Cotton, who has defended him in the past. Flanigan sent information via aides to Cotton; the aides sat in the Senate gallery tracing Cotton's rebuttal line by line as he read from their memo. Cotton said that Eagleton's attack on Flanigan smacks of McCarthyism, and Flanigan charged that partisan politics is behind the attacks. Press secretary Ron Ziegler called Eagleton's charges absurd and said that President Nixon has the utmost confidence in Flanigan.
[CBS] - Jordan's King Hussein has scheduled an important news conference for tomorrow, and Radio Baghdad reports that he will announce the settlement of a territorial conflict between Jordan and Israel; a plan, rather than a deal, is expected. The U.S. State Department received word of the announcement yesterday and officials applauded the King's willingness to take the first step towards trying to break the Mideast deadlock. The Israeli-occupied West bank of the Jordan River would be linked to the poorer East bank according to the plan, forming a new Palestinian state to be incorporated into Jordan. The Gaza Strip would also eventually come under Jordan's jurisdiction. Jordanian and Israeli officials denied that any deal has bean made. [CBS]
- The April issue of the ecological magazine "Earth" charges that in 1968 the United States used North Vietnamese troops in Cambodia as guinea pigs to test a deadly new type of nerve gas. The Pentagon denied the report. [CBS]
- President Nixon will meet in Canada with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau from April 13-15. [CBS]
- The defense and prosecution in the Angela Davis trial in San Jose, California, accepted the jury. The all-white jury consists of 8 women and 4 men, almost all of them over the age of 30. Davis believes that the jury will try to give her a fair trial. Defense attorney Leo Branton said that he accepted the all-white jury because the only prospective black juror was dismissed by the prosecution. [CBS]
- At a public meeting, both management and labor asked the Pay Board to approve a wage increase for West coast longshoremen in excess of government guidelines. The 26% pay raise, which ended the ruinous West coast dock strike, is the largest that the board has been asked to approve. Pacific Maritime Association president Edmund Flynn argued for the settlement on the grounds of high productivity; the threat of another strike by the union is also pressuring the board. [CBS]
- Transportation Secretary John Volpe urged Congress to change the current law so that money in the highway trust fund could be spent on urban mass transportation systems. [CBS]
- Columnist Jack Anderson charged that Robert Stewart, editor of the McGraw-Hill trade books division, accepted $1,700 three years ago from the authors of a book about Nazi concentration camps. Anderson said that Stewart had control over whether the book would be published and therefore the incident looks like a payoff. McGraw-Hill says that the money was a loan and that Stewart was later relieved as chief editor. [CBS]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 934.00 (+5.34, +0.58%)
Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish. | |||||||||||||||
| Market Index Trends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | DJIA | S&P | Volume* |
| March 13, 1972 | 928.66 | 107.33 | 16.73 |
| March 10, 1972 | 939.87 | 108.37 | 19.69 |
| March 9, 1972 | 942.81 | 108.94 | 21.46 |
| March 8, 1972 | 945.59 | 108.96 | 21.29 |
| March 7, 1972 | 946.87 | 108.87 | 22.64 |
| March 6, 1972 | 950.18 | 108.77 | 21.00 |
| March 3, 1972 | 942.43 | 107.94 | 20.42 |
| March 2, 1972 | 933.77 | 107.32 | 22.20 |
| March 1, 1972 | 935.43 | 107.35 | 23.67 |
| February 29, 1972 | 928.13 | 106.57 | 20.32 |