This Day In 1970's History: Thursday January 23, 1975
- President Ford signed a proclamation increasing the import fee on petroleum. Meanwhile, Democratic members of Congress declared that his action constituted "an abuse of presidential power, like Watergate," and major moves were made in the House and Senate even before Mr. Ford signed the proclamation to prevent the increased fees from ever taking effect. [New York Times]
- The Federal Energy Administration said that President Ford's energy and tax-cut proposals, if enacted by Congress, probably would add to the spendable income of some households and certainly would shrink it for others, and released figures in support of its statement. [New York Times]
- The general board of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., in an emergency meeting to discuss President Ford's energy economic proposals, demanded a boycott of oil from the Arab nations that took part in the 1973-74-embargo and called for rationing at home. It also rejected Mr. Ford's economic program, which the organization's president, George Meany, described as "the weirdest one I have ever seen." He also rejected proposals by Democrats in Congress as "press statements" with no substance. [New York Times]
- The Chrysler Corporation reported that its rebate program had lifted sales of its compact cars, although overall sales were still behind levels of a year ago. The first nationwide sales figures compiled since the program went into effect Jan. 13 show that Chrysler's compact sales were up 12 percent from a year ago. Just prior to the rebates, sales of those models had been running at half of the 1974 levels. [New York Times]
- New statistics indicate that a man in his 40's or 50's is less likely to die of a heart attack than men of the same age a decade ago, possibly because of public-health campaigns. The drop in the coronary death rate, first noted last year in data from the 1960s, continued through 1972, indicating that "the downtrend is real, not a statistical fluke," according to Dr. Jeremiah Stamler, a leading heart specialist. [New York Times]
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