April 25, 1972

7 crew members of USN munitions ship Nitro jump overboard, Apr 24, Middletown, NJ, as ship steers out to sea past a canoe flotilla manned by 45 antiwar demonstrators; crewmen picked up by USCG ships assigned to keep demonstators out of the path of the Nitro and returned to their ship; demonstrators say they want to prevent ship from delivering ammunition to aircraft carriers for use in Vietnam; ship's capt, Comdr H Davis, to probe incident; any disciplinary action involving sailors is up to Davis; R Carey, spokesman for demonstrators, says 12 sailors aboard Nitro applied for conscientious-objector status and were turned down; 21 demonstrators were arrested Apr 23 at munitions pier

major corps are routinely airlifting Govt officials and Cong members around US at savings to travelers of many thousands of dollars; recent check by NY Times at Natl Airport, Washington, and at other airports turns up instances in which 2 Cabinet members, 3 Sens, 5 Reprs and 2 Pres candidates flew on planes owned by corps, cos and orgns; Fed laws forbid all public officials to accept gifts from any source that might raise conflict of interest; in many cases, corps providing free flights to public officials hold there are merely helping group that is sponsoring speech or appearance by the official, not official himself; in 4 of cases observed by Times, corps said they were helping orgns by flying officials in to make speeches; in some cases, speakers flew to other destinations afterward; in other cases, officials insist they are simply taking advantage of seat on plane that was going their way; sources at Natl Airport and on Capitol Hill say that before some Cong recesses and long holiday wk-ends in past, as many as 40 or more Cong members have been seen leaving DC on corp planes; Sen Dole and Repr Michel flew to Repub dinners in Peoria, Ill, and Minnesota aboard plane owned by Clayton Enterprises Inc; Michel says plane was chartered by his office through C Rautbord, Clayton pres; Rautbord says he 'did that flight as favor' to Michel and insists it was not charter flight; Sec Peterson flew to Chicago on plane owned by Standard Oil (Ind) subsidiary; Sen Taft flew to Margaretville, NY, to Repub dinner on plane owned by Nevele Country Club; list of cos that have carried officials includes Tenneco, Southern Rwy Co, Lockheed Aircraft Corp and US Steel Corp; Lockheed official says many cos engage in practice; officials of Page Airways Inc, which operates exec terminal at Natl Airport, twice called airport police in unsuccessful attempt to bar NY Times photographer from taking pictures of embarking and disembarking passengers; some Cong members questioned about practice of free flights insist they are merely taking advantage of seat on plane going their way and that no conflict of interest is involved; others say they reimbursed corps for flights; Sen Humphrey, Dem Pres aspirant, flew from Detroit to NYC aboard plane owned by Glen Alden Corp; his staff insists he reimbursed corp for flight; corp chmn Riklis is heavy financial backer of Humphrey; Dem Pres aspirant Wallace campaigns in plane owned by Natl Assn of Stock Car Racing; W H France and son, who are past and present assn presidents, concede that plane has been leased to Wallace at below-normal rates; Sec Butz flew to Coatsville, Pa, in plane owned by Lehigh Valley Cooperative Farmers; Repr Whitehurst flew to Minneapolis on plane owned by Gen Mills Corp; Cong members who recently flew to their home dists on corp planes include Reprs Quillen and Wampler (on plane owned by 1st Natl Bank of Memphis) and Repr F B Rooney (on plane owned by Kelly Construction C); Quillen, Wampler, Rooney defend actions; Sen Hartke, who has also flown on corp planes, sees no conflict of interest; illus of Peterson, Dole, Wallace, Rooney family and Wampler boarding co planes

White House aide P M Flanigan, in lr to Sen Judiciary Com supplied in answer to questions submitted by com, says he told Kleindienst that ITT found antitrust settlement proposed by Justice Dept unacceptable; says Kleindienst was present in office of then chief of Justice Dept Antitrust Div R W McLaren when financial rept was submitted that led to out-of-ct settlement of ITT cases; says ITT case came up 'in a collateral manner' when ITT dir F G Rohatyn visited him June 29 '71 'to discuss current situation of securities mkt' in his capacity as chmn of surveillance com of NYSE; says when he was questioned by Rohatyn on nature of settlement proposal he replied that it was matter for ITT and Antitrust Div; says he told Kleindienst of Rohatyn's discussion; Sen Kennedy holds that conflicting statements of Flanigan and Kleindienst and Govt involvement with ITT case requires that both men return to testify before com before it makes recommendation to Sen on matter

The commanding officer of the Harlem precinct in which a policeman was fatally shot in a Black Muslim temple said last night that he was resigning from the Police Department because it had failed to state that the patrolman was acting properly when he entered the mosque.

NYS Assemblyman Jack and 4 others are found guilty, Fed Dist Ct, NYC, Apr 24, on charges of conspiracy and violation of conflict-of-interest statutes for conspiring to promote food products in Harlem grocery stores whose employes were members of RWDSU, union affiliated with Coordinated Service Inc--public relations co owned by Jack; other defendants are listed as H Rosenblum, T I Solomon, L J Overton and Coordinated Service Inc