News stories from Saturday April 27, 1974

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

Vice President Ford intensified an apparent campaign to bolster President Nixon by asking Republicans to stand with him for the good of the party in the November congressional elections. In appearances in Texas and Oklahoma, Mr. Ford sought grassroots support for the President, as well as local Republican candidates, while attacking the Democrats for "endless exploitation" of Watergate. [New York Times] The country's first experiment with peace-time regulation of prices and wages will end at midnight Tuesday with the nation in the grip of the worst inflation in two decades. Unions and business, conservatives and most liberals oppose renewal of the Economic Stabilization Act, under which the administration operated its controls program. Despite inflation, neither Congress nor the administration has a comprehensive plan for arresting the price trend. There is a growing feeling in Washington that little can be done, that events must be allowed to take their course. [New York Times] The number of Republican governors in the country -- totaling 32 in the early days of the Nixon administration -- has declined to 18, and it appears likely that the number will decline further in the 35 governors' elections this fall. Democrats see an opportunity not only to win a record-high majority in the 50 governorships, but also to re-establish themselves in the giant industrial states where they were virtually shut out in the late 1960's. [New York Times] The jury in the Mitchell-Stans trial, in its third day of deliberations, spent at least part of it wrestling with the problem of whether John Mitchell had committed perjury. It asked for a reading of the testimony of Harry Sears, who is a former associate of Robert Vesco, a former New Jersey state Senate Republican leader and a former friend of Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Sears was the first major government witness to testify at the trial and he directly connected Mr. Mitchell with the federal investigation of Mr. Vesco, who is now a fugitive. [New York Times] Asserting that the power of the presidency has pyramided to nearly that of a monarch, Senator Jacob Javits said that he would introduce legislation aimed at restoring a balance of power between the executive and legislative branches of government. In a speech in New York before the Ripon Society, Mr. Javits criticized the Nixon and past administrations for allegedly usurping war-making and legislative responsibilities that he said belonged to Congress. [New York Times] Gen. Antonio de Spinola, who assumed the leadership of Portugal after Thursday's swift military coup, said that a provisional government of civilians headed by a military man would be formed in three weeks. He promised general elections in one year. [New York Times] The military junta now ruling Portugal made it clear that it was not prepared to end the war in the African territories by granting independence. Gen. Antonio de Spinola, the junta's leader, told a meeting of newspaper editors in Lisbon that "self-determination should not be confused with independence." The statement appeared to indicate the possibility of future conflict between the junta and leftist forces in Portugal, but an open break may not come for some time. General Spinola indicated signs of alarm at some of the activity of the left as it gave vent to feelings that had been suppressed for almost half a century. [New York Times] The Portuguese were saying it with flowers. Just what they were saying was not quite clear, even to themselves, except that they were very happy. Carnations have become the symbol of Thursday's coup and there were carnations all over Lisbon. Women were clutching bunches of them, giving them to everyone they met and especially to the soldiers who stood guard on the streets downtown. Lisbon's impassive and discouraged look has been erased by excitement, almost boisterous good humor and a newly discovered expressiveness. [New York Times] Nikita Khrushchev, in reminiscences published this weekend, expressed hope for a "more enlightened Communist society" in the Soviet Union in which people would "enjoy their inalienable rights." The former Soviet leader, in memoirs dictated before he died in 1971 at the age of 77, also expressed regret that "the progress we achieved after Stalin's death has slowed down." Adopting an even more liberal stance than he displayed while head of the Soviet Union, Mr. Khrushchev also denounced excessive military secrecy and defended the right of citizens to judge literature themselves. [New York Times] Secretary of State Kissinger will leave tomorrow on another Middle East trip with the goal of persuading Israel and Syria to make the necessary compromises to bring about an agreement on the separation of their forces in the Golan Heights. Some diplomats in Washington and in the Middle East believe the basic outline for the agreement has been reached in secret by Mr. Kissinger. But he and his top aides insisted all week that they were uncertain about the mood in Jerusalem and Damascus, and had no firm indication that agreement could be achieved on this trip. [New York Times]