News stories from Saturday June 14, 1975
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- President Ford, paying homage to the United States Army on its 200th anniversary, said that the country's current all-volunteer Army was better than ever. Speaking at Fort Benning, Ga., home base of the United States Infantry, Mr. Ford said that the "doubters" had been wrong in warning that the end of the draft system would produce an ineffective army of low-quality volunteers. He repeated an admonition he has made frequently since the collapse of Vietnam and Cambodia -- that the United States requires strong armed forces now more than ever. His visit to Georgia also gave him an opportunity to do a little politicking in the Deep South, and he had a meeting with local Republican leaders. [New York Times]
- In an intense policy debate between the Ford administration and Congress, the sale of billions of dollars of American nuclear equipment is being balanced against the dangers of hastening the spread of atomic weapons throughout the world. The immediate focus of the debate is how aggressively the United States should work to tighten restrictions on plutonium, the waste product of nuclear power plants. There are 426 nuclear power plants either operating, under construction or planned in 39 different countries, each producing plutonium which, after relatively simple processing, becomes a raw material of bombs. [New York Times]
- One of every five welfare mothers in New York City has either broken up her marriage or her relationship with a man so that she can go on welfare or has pretended to do so to increase family income, according to a federally financed study, which says that a major defect in the national welfare system is "gross discrimination" against intact families. Even in New York, with its home-relief program and the national Aid to Dependent Children, the study said, "the intact family fares substantially worse in terms of the benefits it can receive from welfare than the female-headed family." [New York Times]
- Disclosures of thievery and corruption throughout its East Coast operations have shaken Chevrolet, which last year accounted for 60 percent of General Motors total car and truck sales. The most serious disclosure so far, one that could carry criminal penalties, involves a pattern of phony warranty work covered by false serial numbers that outwitted the corporation's computers at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The scandal provoked the swift, summary dismissal of 43 Chevrolet employees in the New York area and in New England. More than a score of dealers, dealers' employees and dismissed employees of Chevrolet were willing to talk about the abuses they observed or took part in, and they depicted a corporate world seldom encountered by the ordinary consumer. [New York Times]
- Three years ago, Agriculture Department officials blocked efforts by one of its own investigators to press the kind of broad inquiry into alleged corruption in the grain trade recently undertaken by the United States Attorney's office in New Orleans and other ports. It is not clear which officials made the decision, but the agent, William Griffin, was ordered to turn his attention to other matters, and when he attempted to take his alleged evidence to the United States Attorney in New Orleans he was rebuffed as a scandal monger. [New York Times]
- After years in an economic slump, the Broadway theater has made a sharp comeback despite inflation and the worst recession in 30 years. The 1974-75 season, ended May 31 generated gross receipts of $108,398,181 for Broadway and road performances, a record, and an increase of nearly 15 percent over the previous season's take, according to Variety, the show-business journal. The remarkable box-office activity is probably a result of a variety of factors -- a bumper crop of hits, the drawing power of quality shows, the importation of popular British stage productions and a bigger variety of shows appealing to a wider audience. [New York Times]
- State Department officials said that despite three days of intensive discussions with Premier Yitzhak Rabin of Israel, the United States was still uncertain whether a formula could be worked out for a new limited agreement between Israel and Egypt on Sinai. The uncertainty caused Secretary of State Kissinger to continue the talks beyond their official conclusion in Washington and he and Mr. Rabin will meet again today in New York. [New York Times]
- Leaders of India's political opposition parties began a nationwide protest movement to force Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who has been found guilty of corrupt election practices, to resign. Officials of the Old Congress party and other opposition groups said they planned further legal action against her and had ordered provincial party workers to start "anti-Indira" rallies and other nonviolent demonstrations throughout the country. As the political and legal crisis set by the court's ruling entered its third day, Mrs. Gandhi told cheering supporters outside her New Delhi bungalow to confront the "new challenge from our enemies with courage and determination." [New York Times]
- Although Congress enacted a law six months ago giving itself veto power over United States arms sales, it has never exercised it. The law is aimed particularly at controlling multibillion-dollar sales to the Arab countries and Iran. Since its passage, the Defense Department has given Congress notice of about 26 proposed sales, mostly to the Middle East. None of them has been challenged, but all are still to be fulfilled, The failure of Congress to exercise the veto power is regarded by some legislators and their aides as one instance of the lack of congressional interest and follow-through on new international legislation. [New York Times]