News stories from Thursday July 20, 1972
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The Senate is approaching a vote to raise the minimum wage from $1.60 per hour to $2.20, and also broaden its coverage to include 8 million more workers such as maids, civil servants, retail employees and farm workers. The Nixon administration failed by one vote to hold down the new minimum to $2.00. Senate Republicans deliberately delayed the vote until after the AFL-CIO made its decision to endorse neither McGovern nor Nixon.
Another victory for organized labor is seen, as President Nixon has shelved his compulsory arbitration plan for transportation strikes; signs of a political deal are evident, despite White House denials. Press secretary Ron Ziegler insists that the President decided not to support his own anti-strike bill simply because it appeared that Congress would not pass it. Stories of a deal surfaced when Teamsters union leaders met with Nixon in San Clemente to give him their endorsement. Senator Robert Packwood thought he had the necessary votes for passage of the administration's bill until Monday, when the Teamsters endorsed the President.
Packwood complained that nine months of work went down the drain without any consultation with him. He refused to make allegations of a deal, but hinted at it. Ziegler stated that organized labor will be consulted if and when the anti-strike bill is revived.
[CBS] - When the Senate defeated the Nixon administration's minimum wage amendment, seven senators failed to vote but Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern was not one of them. McGovern interrupted his South Dakota vacation to supply the key vote in the 47-46 rejection of President Nixon's minimum wage proposal and to show that he supports labor's position.
In an effort to heal the breach with Democratic leaders, McGovern named former party chairman Lawrence O'Brien as his national campaign chairman, saying that O'Brien will be his liaison with Democrats in Congress as well as Democrat governors, mayors, state legislative leaders, party officials, organized labor and other organizations which support the principles of the Democratic party. O'Brien says that he believes the McGovern-Eagleton ticket is outstanding and he pledged to do everything in his power to help them; Gary Hart remains as campaign manager. Democrat John Connally will start a "Democrats for Nixon" committee.
[CBS] - A session of the Paris Peace Talks took place today, the day after foreign affairs adviser Henry Kissinger met with North Vietnam's top negotiators, but the Viet Cong's Madame Binh was as uncompromising as ever. North Vietnam's Xuan Thuy is still demanding simultaneous political and military agreements, and he insists that America oust President Thieu. American Ambassador William Porter noted a slight improvement in the tone of the exchanges, but nothing discernable on substance.
The Nixon administration feels that North Vietnam has decided to wait out the presidential election before making any significant concessions. If there is a breakthrough in Paris, it will come only because the President finally yields to the pressures of war, not North Vietnam.
[CBS] - Communist forces closed in on Highway 1, trying to slice South Vietnam's supply lines between Hue and the Quang Tri battlefield. [CBS]
- Off the coast of Dong Hoi, North Vietnam, U.S. Marine helicopters stopped Communist sampans which were unloading supplies from Chinese freighters. Three Navy jets were reportedly downed over the A Shau Valley in South Vietnam near Laos, apparently by their own bomb. All but one crewman were rescued. [CBS]
- Eight Americans were killed in Vietnam last week, and 26 wounded; 14 are missing or were captured. [CBS]
- The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the two arms limitation agreements that President Nixon reached with Soviet leaders. Secretary of State Rogers says that the Senate's action permits preparations to begin for new a round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. [CBS]
- In the early 1960's, the Chevrolet Corvair was one of America's most popular cars. Washington, DC lawyer Ralph Nader then wrote the book "Unsafe at Any Speed", which started his career but was the beginning of the end for the Corvair; production was discontinued a few years later. The National Highway Traffic Safety administration has now concluded after two years of tests that the 1960-63 model Corvairs were no more likely to turn over than other cars of the same year and weight. Nader called the study a "shoddy whitewash". [CBS]
- The 1968 housing law which was designed to help low-income families and rebuild inner cities has been abused by speculators who sell run-down houses at inflated prices. The government must assume the mortgage when such houses are condemned. Federal officials still cannot agree whether the 1968 law is workable. Housing and Urban Development Secretary George Romney says that the government does not insure houses for more than what the speculator actually paid for the property, therefore speculators cannot profit when a property is condemned.
The city of Milwaukee has tightened loopholes, stressing tough screening of low-income applicants and rigorous counseling to protect them against the pitfalls of the housing market; the foreclosure rate in Milwaukee is one of the lowest in the nation. Counseling continues even after the home is purchased, in areas such as upkeep and maintenance.
A member of the U.S. Justice Department advocated a government blacklist -- real estate companies with which the government should refuse to do business because of their speculative activities; he said that non-criminal sanctions would be a more effective deterrent than criminal prosecution.
[CBS] - A railroad settled its 35-year dispute with the railroad firemen's union over the necessity for employing firemen on modern diesel trains. The agreement gives job security for those still working but provides for a gradual reduction in force as they retire. [CBS]
- Fire investigators in Dallas think that someone may have tried to burn down the Texas school book depository from which Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President Kennedy nine years ago. [CBS]
- Bobby Fischer beat Soviet Boris Spassky in the fifth game of their world chess championship in Iceland and evened the score of the 24-game series at 2 ½ each. Fischer failed to obtain a new chessboard with less glare and smaller squares. [CBS]
|
Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 910.45 (-6.24, -0.68%)
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* |
| July 19, 1972 | 916.69 | 106.14 | 17.88 |
| July 18, 1972 | 911.72 | 105.83 | 16.82 |
| July 17, 1972 | 914.96 | 105.88 | 13.17 |
| July 14, 1972 | 922.26 | 106.80 | 13.91 |
| July 13, 1972 | 916.99 | 106.28 | 14.74 |
| July 12, 1972 | 923.69 | 106.89 | 16.15 |
| July 11, 1972 | 925.87 | 107.32 | 12.83 |
| July 10, 1972 | 932.27 | 108.11 | 11.70 |
| July 7, 1972 | 938.06 | 108.69 | 12.90 |
| July 6, 1972 | 942.13 | 109.04 | 19.52 |