News stories from Monday March 6, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The Taft-Hartley Act's back-to-work provision was invoked by President Carter against the 160,000 striking coal miners. He said that at least a million more Americans would be out of work if the strike continued another month. The miners' union, however, has defied three Taft-Hartley back-to-work orders in the past.
The miners seemed determined not to go back to work under the Taft-Hartley injunction. Remarks made by members of the big District 17 local of the U.M.W. in Charleston, W. Va., appeared to reflect an attitude reported from other major mining areas. "We'd go to work if he seized the mines, but not under any Taft-Hartley injunction," a West Virginia miner in a typical response to the President's decision. Even the few miners there who said they would like to return to work under the injunction said they were too afraid of reprisals from miners defying the back-to-work order.
[New York Times] - President Carter is prepared to use federal power to repress violence in the coal fields, administration officials said. If necessary, federal marshals, the F.B.I., the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and, as a last resort, federal troops, would be enlisted if violence, sabotage, or an obstruction of the government's back-to-work order occurs. [New York Times]
- Larry Flynt, the Hustler magazine publisher, was shot and critically wounded on a street in Lawrenceville, Ga., where he had testified earlier at his trial there on an obscenity charge. His lawyer, Gene Reeves, was also wounded. The police said the assailants were two men who pulled up alongside Mr. Flynt and his lawyer in a car. Mr. Flynt professed to have become a "born-again Christian" under the guidance of President Carter's sister, Ruth Stapleton, a faith healer. [New York Times]
- An abortion law in Pennsylvania that limits the choices that a physician has in performing operations will be reviewed by the Supreme Court. The law requires physicians to preserve the life of a fetus if there is reason to believe it is viable. [New York Times]
- The Supreme Court ruled that states could not keep supertankers from plying their waters on the grounds of safety and environmental protection. Several states, one of them Washington, had wanted the authority to impose their own restrictions on the tankers. The Court's 6 to 3 decision, which arose from the Washington case, declared unconstitutional a state law prohibiting tankers of more than 125,000 tons from entering Puget Sound. The majority of the Justices said that Congress had made ship size an area of federal jurisdiction and that it was an area that states could not constitutionally enter. [New York Times]
- Stock prices declined in slower trading, mainly because Wall Street felt that many coal miners would not heed the government's back-to-work order. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 4.59 points to 742.72. Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by a ratio of almost 2 to 1. [New York Times]
- Trading in the dollar was hectic. It dropped and finally steadied for an overall gain in New York. Its trading in European foreign exchange markets was marked by rapid and sharp fluctuations. [New York Times]
- President Carter asked the C.A.B. to suspend proposed retaliatory measures against British Caledonian Airways at least until negotiations now underway with the British are completed. [New York Times]
- China will abolish the revolutionary management committees formed during the Cultural Revolution in schools, factories and farm brigades. Prime Minister Hua Kuo-feng announced the decision, which is a move toward restoration of a stable system of administration. The committees were ostensibly designed to allow students, workers and farmers to share administration authority, but professional administrators said the committees had been responsible for a breakdown in discipline. School principals and economic managers will take over the work of the committees. [New York Times]
- There was no contradiction, Israel's Foreign Minister, Moshe Dayan, said between Prime Minister Menachem Begin's peace proposals and United Nations Resolution 242, which calls for Israel's withdrawal from Arab lands captured in 1967. He told the Israeli Parliament that "of course there are different interpretations" of the resolution, which is the latest cause of friction between Israel and the United States. He said reports that his government's position in effect nullified the import of the resolution "are entirely without foundation." [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 742.72 (-4.59, -0.61%)
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* |
| March 3, 1978 | 747.31 | 87.45 | 20.12 |
| March 2, 1978 | 746.45 | 87.32 | 20.29 |
| March 1, 1978 | 743.33 | 87.19 | 21.01 |
| February 28, 1978 | 742.12 | 87.04 | 19.75 |
| February 27, 1978 | 748.35 | 87.72 | 20.00 |
| February 24, 1978 | 756.24 | 88.49 | 22.51 |
| February 23, 1978 | 750.95 | 87.64 | 18.73 |
| February 22, 1978 | 749.05 | 87.56 | 18.45 |
| February 21, 1978 | 749.31 | 87.59 | 21.86 |
| February 17, 1978 | 752.69 | 87.96 | 18.50 |