News stories from Tuesday May 16, 1972
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Alabama Governor George Wallace has been removed from the critical list though he is still partly paralyzed. The Maryland and Michigan primaries are being held today, and Wallace still hopes to win.
Security remains tight at Holy Cross Hospital. One bullet is still lodged near the governor's spinal column, and he may be permanently paralyzed from the hips down. A hospital spokesman said that Wallace will eventually require further surgery for removal of the bullet in his spinal cord area. George Wallace, Jr. reported that his father is feeling much better today, and that if anyone can make a full recovery from something like this, his father can. Campaign manager Charles Snider vowed that the campaign will continue until the governor says otherwise; Wallace's wife will make the speeches. Wallace's press secretary stated that the governor will go to the Democratic national convention in a wheelchair if necessary.
[CBS] - The man accused of shooting Governor Wallace, 21-year-old Arthur Bremer, is being held under tight security at the Baltimore County jail in Towson, Maryland. Bremer was arraigned on charges of violating federal law by wounding Governor Wallace and Secret Service agent Zarvos. Normal security at the jail has been bolstered with the addition of FBI agents and U.S. marshals. Bremer will be returned to federal court in Baltimore on Wednesday for a pre-trial examination. At his arraignment, Bremer said that his net worth is less than $200, and he requested that his attorney be provided by the ACLU. Bond is set at $200,000. Bremer was then whisked out of the courthouse through the back of the building; the memory of Jack Ruby's assault on Lee Harvey Oswald is still fresh.
Bremer was charged under the Civil Rights Act of 1968 for interfering with a candidate seeking elected office, and with assault on a federal officer (the Secret Service agent). There is a 10-year prison sentence on each charge, and life imprisonment if a victim dies. Bremer had been following Wallace for some time. Police in Kalamazoo, Michigan, questioned him before Wallace's rally there on Saturday; Bremer also appeared at another Maryland rally in Wheaton yesterday and he is visible in a film of the event.
[CBS] - Senator Birch Bayh said that the .38-caliber pistol which was used to shoot Wallace would have been banned by gun-control legislation that is now stalled in the Senate. Bayh called an emergency session of the Senate Juvenile Delinquency Subcommittee for today to attempt to get the legislation moving.
The Treasury Department reported that it took only 10 minutes to trace Bremer's gun to its owner thanks to a 1968 gun control law. Wallace has opposed gun control legislation as penalizing honest citizens, because such laws would be ignored by criminals.
[CBS] - The Soviet news agency Tass reported the shooting of Wallace, but did not comment. Other foreign newspapers generally hold that the act typifies a sickness in America. Britain's liberal "Guardian" newspaper said the incident shows that America is a deeply divided and frustrated society, infected by violence. [CBS]
- Democrat John Connally resigned as Secretary of the Treasury; Connally will be replaced by budget director George Shultz, and Caspar Weinberger replaces Shultz. Connally avoided questions regarding his possible candidacy for Vice President, but said that he will remain "politically active". President Nixon walked with Connally to the Treasury Building amidst tourists, unworried by recent events; Nixon disregarded the objections of Secret Service agents when he mingled with the crowd on the sidewalk. [CBS]
- Proponents of the end-the-war amendment admit that the Senate has watered down the plan by adding a requirement for a cease-fire to the bill which cuts off funding for the war when American POWs are returned. Senator Byrd said that the cease-fire requirement backs President Nixon on his trip to Russia. [CBS]
- American jets bombed the North Vietnam air defense command headquarters at Bach Mai Airfield, three miles south of Hanoi; Russian technicians may have been inside at the time. A pipeline leading to the DMZ was also bombed near Vinh. A Russian cruiser and three destroyers are reportedly in the South China Sea, 300 miles from North Vietnam. The Pentagon stated that half of the 25 foreign ships that were en route to North Vietnam have changed course. [CBS]
- The attempted assassination was thought to create a large sympathy vote for George Wallace in Maryland and Michigan, but a CBS poll in Michigan shows no substantial sympathy vote; in fact, more voters have changed their minds the other way. Wallace has so much support in Michigan that he needs no sympathy vote. Wallace campaign workers in Detroit, fearful that voters would think the governor is now out of the race, spread word of his continued candidacy. One worker said that nothing can stop Wallace's spirit, even if he is crippled like Roosevelt was. George McGovern and Hubert Humphrey have temporarily called off their campaigns while Wallace's picks up tempo.
Someone tossed a brick through the window of Senator Humphrey's campaign headquarters in Detroit, and threatening telephone calls have increased nervousness among campaign workers. Humphrey's staff has stopped campaigning in white areas in and around Detroit, but are continuing in the ghetto, where they face less resentment. Frustration is noticeable at McGovern headquarters, where campaign coordinator Joseph Grandmaison said that the campaign's success has been in locating McGovern voters and getting them to the polls, but McGovern has forbidden doing this in Michigan.
[CBS] - The vision of Cornelia Wallace pushing her husband around the country in a wheelchair is such a political imponderable that no leading Democrat wants to contemplate it. Wallace's physical condition will keep him in the public eye as much as campaigning would. No one will try to pressure Senator Edward Kennedy into running now. [CBS]
- Arthur Bremer, the suspect in the shooting of George Wallace, is characterized by those who know him in his hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin as being quiet and withdrawn. Bremer's high school coach says that Bremer was reserved but enjoyed physical education and was competitive; has was no different from other boys, except for being introverted. Fellow students said that Bremer was always defensive, never violent, but he always had a smirk on his face. He was withdrawn and reacted to criticism with a half-smile.
Bremer has been employed as a busboy and as a janitor. In 1971 he was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon; a psychiatrist saw Bremer after his arrest and reported that Bremer's personality was dull, but that he was a normal type of person, just not very bright. Bremer's father, William, says that his son must be sick.
[CBS] - Presidential assassination victims from Lincoln on became the objects of violence just as they were at their peak of success. They were strong masculine figures, and their assailants have been just the opposite. Leon Czolgosz, who shot McKinley; Lee Harvey Oswald, who shot John F. Kennedy; Arthur Bremer, who is accused of shooting Wallace -- all were loners. A presidential commission on violence three years ago predicted that future assassins would be from a broken home, withdrawn, white, male, foreign-born, short with a slight build, armed with a handgun, and in the midst of a crowd when attempting violence. [CBS]
- "Concerned Clergy Against the War" demonstrated at the Capitol rotunda. Police arrested 150 people for refusing to leave at closing time. Yale chaplain William Sloane Coffin and Dr. Benjamin Spock were among those arrested. [CBS]
- A planning commission for the 1976 Bicentennial celebration of the American revolution voted against having a World's Fair in Philadelphia. The creation of commemorative parks in all 50 states is being considered. [CBS]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 939.27 (-2.93, -0.31%)
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* |
| May 15, 1972 | 942.20 | 106.86 | 13.60 |
| May 12, 1972 | 941.83 | 106.28 | 13.99 |
| May 11, 1972 | 934.83 | 105.77 | 12.90 |
| May 10, 1972 | 931.07 | 105.42 | 13.87 |
| May 9, 1972 | 925.12 | 104.74 | 19.91 |
| May 8, 1972 | 937.84 | 106.14 | 11.25 |
| May 5, 1972 | 941.23 | 106.63 | 13.21 |
| May 4, 1972 | 937.31 | 106.25 | 14.79 |
| May 3, 1972 | 933.47 | 105.99 | 15.90 |
| May 2, 1972 | 935.20 | 106.08 | 15.37 |