News stories from Sunday March 7, 1976
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Representative Wright Patman, Democrat of Texas, the dean of the House and chairman of its Committee on Banking, Currency and Housing, died of pneumonia at Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland at the age of 82. He had been a member of the House since 1929. His term in Congress was the fourth longest in its history. [New York Times]
- The postal system must be reshaped to conform to the new "economic reality" or it will be destroyed, Postmaster General Benjamin Bailer said in a speech prepared for delivery tomorrow at the Economic Club of Detroit. The chief problem is that business is drying up while operating expenses are increasing, he said. The postal system handled 90 billion pieces of mail in 1974, a record volume, Mr. Bailer said. He estimated that volume over the next five years would decline to 83 or 84 billion pieces and never recover. [New York Times]
- At least 100,000 employees have lost the company pension they counted on in retirement, according to the Federal Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, which estimates that more than 5,500 company plans have been terminated in the last 18 months, The plans were stopped because some of the companies went out of business, others had to make recession cutbacks, but many canceled pensions because of the costs of complying with the Federal Pension Reform Act of 1974. The law established complex new regulations to eliminate widely reported abuses. [New York Times]
- Secretary of the Treasury William Simon praised President Anwar Sadat of Egypt in Cairo as "a man of tremendous vision and courage" for having "broken with the Soviet Union" and liberalized Egypt's economy. Mr. Simon, at a news conference after a three-day visit, also said that the United States would give Egypt $1.85 billion in economic and financial assistance in this and the next fiscal year. The amount had previously been reported from Washington. Mr. Simon's main objective in going to Egypt, it was said, was to advance the administration's efforts to establish conditions there that would attract American private investors. [New York Times]
- Cambodia's people are working under "total mobilization" to create the most radical communized society in the world, according to Kaj Bjork, Sweden's Ambassador to Peking, the first Westerner to tour Cambodia since the Communist takeover last April. He described Cambodia as a nation under tight military control led by nationalistic intellectuals whose goals are more radical than those of China's leaders. [New York Times]
- About 50 officials of the four American oil companies that are partners with Saudi Arabia in the Arabian American Oil Company held a meeting in Florida with Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yemeni, the Saudi Oil Minister, to discuss final arrangements for the complete takeover by Saudi Arabia of Aramco, as the jointly owned company is known. Exxon, Standard Oil of California and Mobil Oil own 40 percent of Aramco, Saudi Arabia owns 60 percent. [New York Times]