News stories from Saturday November 1, 1975
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A nationwide poll indicates that the public is closely divided over whether the federal government should provide financial aid for New York City. The poll taken more than a week before President Ford's speech last Wednesday, when he said he was "prepared to veto" any legislation that would rescue New York City, showed that 49 percent opposed financial aid and 42 percent favored it. But a spokesman for the Gallup organization, which took the poll, said that the normal margin of error in surveys of this type was "3 percent, plus or minus." Thus, the normal margin of statistical error in any such sampling could all but erase the margin of difference. In any event, the poll indicates that national attitudes are far closer than many politicians have said they expected. [New York Times]
- Governor Carey made a strong appeal to President Ford not to force New York City into bankruptcy, but to give it time to solve its fiscal problems. In a statewide radio and television address, the Governor cited the steps the city and state had taken to meet the crisis and said the city was not seeking a bailout, but rather a federal guarantee of its bonds that would not cost Washington "a dime." Asserting that there was "blame enough for everyone," for the crisis, he included Vice President Rockefeller and the state legislature, and "Presidents who diverted tens of billions of dollars to foreign dictatorships and senseless war, and who plunged our economy into its worst crisis in 40 years." [New York Times]
- The $11 billion Housing and Community Development Act, passed by Congress in 1974, with provisions that were to create more housing for the poor, has not yet made any impact on their housing supply, according to city officials and housing industry spokesmen. The act is supposed to replace such programs as public housing, urban renewal, model cities and subsidized construction. So far, only about 200 families in the nation have been provided housing under the new law. The new program's defenders say that it is too early to judge its effectiveness, but some housing experts are convinced that it will never measure up to its promise. A Baltimore housing official said that "the 1974 housing act is extremely misguided." [New York Times]
- The migration of the civil rights issue from South to North is vividly illustrated in the small group of elections today and Tuesday. Race has been of no real consequence in the governorship contests in Louisiana and Mississippi, two states where it dominated politics only a decade ago. But it matters a good deal in the Kentucky governor's race and in mayoral races in Boston and Cleveland. In Louisiana, where voters went to the polls today under a unique new electoral system, Gov. Edwin Edwards, a Democrat, sought a second term against five lesser-known opponents. No Republican is running for governor in Louisiana, but in Mississippi the party has made its strongest bid in this century for the governorship. [New York Times]
- A new $6 million housing development in the South Bronx has been standing empty and ravaged by vandals for a year and a half, its smashed windows a symbol of the shattered hopes of government agencies, a merchants' group, and 111 families who lost thousands of dollars in rent deposits. The development, South Haven Houses, is the victim of what so far has been an unsolvable tangle of financial disputes. [New York Times]
- Arguing that the tawdriness of Times Square has subtracted from the city's economic well-being, and anxious to present a fresher image for the delegates at next summer's Democratic National Convention at Madison Square Garden, the Beame administration has started a drive to clean up Times Square. [New York Times]
- A night of fierce fighting in the Beirut suburbs of Chiyah and Ain el Rummaneh, in which 100 people were reportedly killed, shattered a tenuous truce. As the situation worsened, the United States Embassy ordered several dozen wives and children of American officials out of the country, firmly suggested to other Americans in Beirut to leave, and began cutting down non-essential staff. Other foreign missions were reported to be following the American evacuation preparations. [New York Times]
- An apparent policy reversal by Spain, which had nearly reached an agreement in principle on the transfer of sovereignty over Spanish Sahara to Morocco, angered the Moroccans who were determined to proceed with the civilian march to the territory this week despite a threat of war by Algeria over the annexation efforts. Pressure from Algeria and Secretary General Waldheim of the United Nations apparently stopped Spain from completing negotiations with Morocco. [New York Times]
- A campaign by the opposition to force the resignation of President Isabel Martinez de Peron of Argentina has started in a political atmosphere reminiscent of the Watergate affair. The Radical party is demanding the formation this week of a committee of inquiry by the Argentine Congress to investigate charges of corruption in Mrs. Peron's administration. A federal judge has already opened an investigation into the accounts of the Ministry of Social Welfare. The focus of the investigation, however, is $700,000 that Mrs. Peron allegedly transferred from a publicly supported charity called Crusade of Solidarity to the estate of her late husband, President Juan Domingo Peron. [New York Times]