News stories from Thursday July 19, 1973
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The Senate Watergate Committee experienced a bizarre occurrence regarding its request for White House tapes from President Nixon. This morning the White House advised majority counsel Sam Dash that the President will make a statement on Monday regarding the White House tapes and the committee's possible access to them. But in a surprise announcement, committee chairman Sam Ervin reported receiving a call from Treasury Secretary George Shultz, who said that the White House tapes would be turned over to the committee on the President's orders. In a few moments, Ervin reversed his statement and said that the call allegedly from Shultz was a hoax and was made by an imposter. Shultz later spoke with Ervin and assured him that no call was made. An FBI investigation has been requested to determine who impersonated a government official. [CBS]
- Nixon re-election campaign assistant Fred LaRue continued his testimony before the Senate Watergate Committee and stated that Jeb Magruder seemed to know of the Watergate break-in beforehand. LaRue's testimony that some campaign funds were used as hush money for the Watergate defendants brought one of committee chairman Sam Ervin's sermons. Ervin said that the men engaged in Watergate abused the laws of God and man, but forgot about one law of God; he quoted Galatians 6, verse 7.
Campaign aide Robert Mardian also testified today. Mardian acted as a lawyer for the Nixon campaign committee. He stated that G. Gordon Liddy explained the Watergate burglary plan and implied that the President approved the break-in of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office. Mardian said he was told that John Mitchell approved the Watergate bugging plan. Another witness with a conflicting story.
[CBS] - Judge John Sirica ordered that a second grand jury be empanelled to probe possible violations of the law during President Nixon's '72 campaign, as requested by special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox. [CBS]
- Former White House counsel John Dean appeared before the House Armed Services Committee. He took the 5th amendment 67 times because he was not granted immunity from prosecution. [CBS]
- The Senate passed a bill raising the hourly minimum wage from $1.60 to $2.20 and extending minimum wage protection to 7 million more workers. The House must also approve the bill. [CBS]
- The Phase IV economic plan ended the price freeze on all food except beef. Wholesale food prices are up; the egg and milk industries have announced increases. Pork prices are up at the wholesale level, as expected.
But gloom grips the beef industry because their prices are still frozen until September. It is believed that growers will slow down fattening their beef so that most meat won't be ready for market until after the freeze is lifted. This means serious shortages through August and early September. Beef supplies may be hoarded by housewives at the currently-frozen prices.
[CBS] - An Arab terrorist took hostages in Athens, Greece, after an unsuccessful attempt to take over an Israeli airline office. He threatened to kill the hostages if he was not allowed to go free. Police surrounded the hotel where the terrorist was holed up, as ambassadors from Egypt, Iraq and Libya tried to talk with him. After five hours, the terrorist left with the Iraqi ambassador; the hostages are reportedly ok. Hostage Sharon Lewis said she recalled the incident at the Munich Olympics, and was afraid that police would scare the terrorist, who would then kill all the hostages. [CBS]
- "Steamroller" tactics, where bills are forced through with little discussion, are familiar in American legislatures. Japan feels that such tactics are in poor taste. The ruling Democratic party tried to steamroll a bill through the Japanese Senate; all was quiet until the chairman called for a vote. Fighting broke out and debate was stopped. One Senate member was taken to the hospital after the battle. [CBS]
- President Nixon will leave Bethesda Naval Hospital tomorrow and go to the White House for staff meetings. He is scheduled to go to Camp David later in the day. [CBS]
- The Pentagon recently admitted that secret U.S. bombings occurred in Cambodia in 1969 and 1970. Former Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird now says that he ordered the bombings to be kept secret, but clams that he knew nothing about falsifying records. Pentagon spokesman Jerry Friedheim first said that Strategic Air Command gave the orders for falsifying records, but retracted that statement later. Friedheim stated that a special reporting system was needed to get correct information to those who needed to know while protecting sensitive diplomacy; it was not a question of falsifying reports. In response to a reporter's question, Friedheim confirmed that Laird got accurate reports, and all who should have known about the bombing operation did know about it.
However, the Pentagon omitted the secret raids in its report to the Senate Armed Services Committee. Exactly who authorized this omission is being probed. Admiral Thomas Moorer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says that the Nixon administration didn't approve the omission. Deputy Secretary William Clements, the former ranking civilian official at the Pentagon, had no comment about omitting the secret raids from the report.
[CBS] - The Florida Supreme Court ruled that newspapers must provide basically the same equal-time rules for politicians as those required for television. The Miami Herald was sued last year by the head of the teachers union because the paper editorialized against him when he was running for the state legislature. Pat Tornillo demanded equal space but was refused; he lost the election.
Herald manager Larry Jinks believes that the equal-time law takes away a newspaper's constitutional rights. If the editorial page can't carry opinions then freedom of the press is jeopardized, he noted. Jinks said that his paper will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court abides by Florida's decision, politicians from all over the country would be provided with equal space to rebut newspapers' editorial positions.
[CBS] - The Loyal Order of Elks in Chicago decided to abandon its whites-only membership policy. The Elks said that legal pressure and changes in society were the reasons behind the rule change. [CBS]
- The city of Pompeii, Italy, was buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 B.C. Now a new city has been discovered that's believed to also have been buried by Vesuvius.
At the foot of Mt. Vesuvius, archaeologists have unearthed a villa which dates back to Roman times. The villa is the only unearthed remains of a city called Oplonti. Questions have abounded for years about such a mystery city; now archaeologists say that Oplonti was a seaside resort for the very wealthy. Magnificent art works have also been unearthed. From the crowded metropolis of Rome, the wealthy fled here for a return to nature.
[CBS]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 906.68 (+1.28, +0.14%)
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 18, 1973 | 905.40 | 106.35 | 17.02 |
| July 17, 1973 | 898.03 | 105.72 | 18.75 |
| July 16, 1973 | 897.58 | 105.67 | 12.92 |
| July 13, 1973 | 885.99 | 104.09 | 11.39 |
| July 12, 1973 | 901.94 | 105.50 | 16.40 |
| July 11, 1973 | 908.19 | 105.80 | 18.73 |
| July 10, 1973 | 888.32 | 103.52 | 15.09 |
| July 9, 1973 | 877.26 | 102.14 | 11.56 |
| July 6, 1973 | 870.11 | 101.28 | 9.98 |
| July 5, 1973 | 874.32 | 101.78 | 10.50 |