News stories from Saturday October 18, 1975

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

Three of the nation's leading bankers warned Congress that a default by New York City would adversely affect international currency markets and they urged Congress to enact legislation to ease the city's fiscal plight. The three bankers -- David Rockefeller, chairman of Chase Manhattan; Walter Wriston, chairman of the First National City Bank, and Elmore Patterson, chairman of Morgan Guaranty Trust -- issued the warning in a joint statement before the Senate banking committee. Earlier in an interview Mr. Rockefeller went further, saying that the city's fiscal crisis had already had international repercussions and had contributed to the decline of the value of the dollar. [New York Times] The impact of New York City's fiscal crisis is being felt around the nation. When cities and states borrow money by selling securities in the bond market staggered by New York's crisis, the cost is shared by American taxpayers and homeowners. By some estimates, the debacle will cost local and state governments and taxpayers an extra $3 billion for a single year of borrowing at swollen interest rates. [New York Times] Governor Carey's staff is working with Democratic Senate aides in Washington on a plan to get the federal government to guarantee New York City's borrowing for a limited time -- perhaps one to three years -- and to set up a special panel to monitor city budget cuts. The conferees believe that a $5 billion guarantee is the necessary amount to meet the city's borrowing requirements. [New York Times] Despite inflation, recession and high charges, the nation's private college "prep" schools are steadily growing in enrollment and popularity. Public schools, under criticism by middle class parents, are experiencing declining enrollments, frozen budgets and reduced services. But many private day and boarding schools are enlarging their programs, starting costly building plans and routinely turning away applicants. [New York Times] The Department of Agriculture, in an unusual action, moved to put a Louisiana grain inspection agency out of business and to revoke the warehouse license of a grain company whose shipments the agency was authorized to inspect and grade. The action was reportedly caused by government findings of a pattern of alleged kickbacks and profiteering involving the agency and officials of the company. The two are the Delta Weighing and Inspection Bureau, Inc., and the Mississippi River Grain Elevator, Inc. [New York Times] Scientists have reported mapping, on the genetic material of a virus, the precise location of the gene that makes a cell become cancerous. The studies of viruses in animals, by a team at the University of California, Berkeley, have no immediate relevance to the problem of human cancer, but they represent an advance in understanding the complex events through which viruses and living cells interact to produce cancer. [New York Times] The United States' domination of world arms sales and recurring reports of new weapons deals with foreign governments have evoked new uneasiness among policy-makers and members of Congress over the impact of the arms on world affairs. Sales of American-made weapons have grown from about $2 billion a year in 1967 to about $11 billion in the latest fiscal year. The sales have been spurred in part by federal policies of liberal credit and a benign view of the sales and the rapid obsolescence of arms. Congress is weighing the idea of seeking greater control over the shipments. [New York Times] Reporters traveling with Secretary of State Kissinger, who is to arrive in Peking tomorrow, were given the impression that Soviet-American relations would be high on the agenda for Mr. Kissinger's four days of meetings with Chinese leaders. The impression was that relations among Peking, Moscow and Washington were entering a new phase and that the key to this phase was relations between Moscow and Washington. Chinese leaders, the newsmen were told, are concerned about Washington's ability to maintain a balance of power in the face of Moscow's ambition and military strength. [New York Times] In Hong Kong, Chinese officials indicated that Peking was disappointed but still patient with the slow progress of relations with Washington. For example, in the year since Mr. Kissinger was last in China on his seventh visit, there has been little movement on the critical issue of Washington's ties with the Chinese Nationalist government. [New York Times] A high American diplomat charged that Chile had voted for a draft resolution linking Zionism with racism in a United Nations committee in return for Arab support against charges that Chilean authorities were responsible for torture and other violations of human rights. Chile, the American official said, "sold her vote to the Arabs."In Santiago, lawyers and church groups have compiled hundreds of documented incidents of torture of political prisoners. The issue is a highly sensitive one for the junta governing Chile. [New York Times] There is evidence that military units of the ousted South Vietnamese government are resisting the Communists in scattered regions. Saigon's radio has twice reported seizing "former puppet soldiers." The latest broadcast said that 500 of the insurgents, including many officers, had "gathered to harass the revolution and disrupt security and order." [New York Times] With the Vietnam war ended, the arrival of foreign diplomats and technicians in Hanoi has brought back capitalist customs such as tipping and bribes traditionally disdained by a Marxist society. If a customer wants some good meat in a state-run butcher shop or to be served speedily in a state-run restaurant, he can grease a palm. [New York Times]