December 18, 1972

Radical new procedures being devised by new Cong com to give Cong more control over Govt spending include allowing Cong, after reviewing President's annual budget, to adopt rigid over-all spending ceiling each yr and binding itself not to pass any appropriations bills exceeding ceiling; in addition, any bills creating new Govt programs or revising old ones would have to be passed by 2/3 vote of both houses if they would commit Govt to spending in violation of ceiling; measures would allow Cong, for 1st time, to debate econ policy; new joint com to study Cong budgetary reforms discussed; Repr A Ullman outlines budget-control procedures he would like to see

US Sens, Dec 17, express disappointment at negative turn in Paris peace talks; it is not clear whether they will renew criticism of Nixon Adm's Vietnam policies; Repub Sens suggest that keeping matter under control was one of the pol purposes behind the decision to have Kissinger break secrecy on talks and give a pub accounting; question being raised is whether a Dem controlled Cong will be as tolerant and docile if no accord is reached when Cong reconvenes on Jan 3; Sen McGovern's immediate reaction is that Adm had 'misled' people into believing the war was virtually over; says Cong action may be needed to end US involvement; Sen Mansfield suggests there will be a renewed attempt in the Sen to force an end to US involvement; comment by Sens Scott, Fulbright, Dole, Saxbe, Dominick and Buckley

Rhodes scholars announced; list; scholars J M Petkevich and T Valenzuela por

NYC Budget Dir Grossman on Dec 17 questions Fed calculations of revenue-sharing funds allocated to NYC; will confer on Dec 18 in Washington with Treasury Asst Sec J E Smith on apparent cut in allocation of up to $70-million; believes cut for NYC is far greater than that for any other major locality; says he and members of Cong expected NYC allocation to be $305- to $310-million for period beginning Jan 1 '72 and ending June 30 '73; recalls members of Cong in Sept '72 saw US Treasury figures putting NYC allocation at $247.5-million for calendar '72 and $371-million for 18-mo period; city recd $100,847,538 without explanation, indicating allocation had been cut; Grossman says Fed formula was supposed to be based on 3 elements: population, per capita income and local tax effort; Grossman asserts city's fund eligibility has remained, on balance, unchanged

Henry A. Kissinger's an nouncement that the Vietnam peace talks had failed to reach “a just and fair agree ment” has raised many unanswered questions. An article attempting to answer some appears on Page 3.

Professional football's reg ular schedule ended yester day as the Giants upset Dallas, 23‐3, and the Jets lost to Cleveland, 26‐10.

Population experts, commenting on econ effects of at least 30-million cut in population projection for US in yr 2000, suggest that fewer births might be accompanied by relative decline in poverty population

Dec 18: Hanoi, Dec 18, charges US resumes air war N of 20th Parallel, with heavy raid around Haiphong and drops more mines by air off Haiphong harbor, Hanoi Foreign Min statement, broadcast by Hanoi radio; says attacks cause heavy damage and destruction; resumption of mining and air attacks N of 20th Parallel were predicted as a means of pressuring Hanoi into a truce agreement following Kissinger's news conf rept that talks failed to reach agreement and his charge that Hanoi was to blame

Poverty-stricken Haitian peasants are moving into Port-au-Prince and creating major urban problems; Under Sec of Educ H de Ronceray says preliminary findings of Govt study indicate that drift toward urban living is developing as it has in more advanced countries and that despite high unemployment and disappointments, peasants have no intention of returning to land that does not support them; foresees role of internatl aid orgns; high rate of population increase and peasants' belief in voodoo seen abetting problems; illus

Apollo 17 astronaut Comdr Evans takes 47-min 'space walk' on Dec 17 while craft is 185,000 mi from earth; retrieves film from rear of command module that houses scientific instruments, which had been exposed during lunar orbit for mapping and ultraviolet spectrometry; illus; repts blistering of paint on spacecraft's exterior because of heat and formation of ice around nozzle of waste water dump valve; spacecraft reptdly has left moon's sphere of gravity and is accelerating under increasing pull of earth's influence; NASA flight controllers rept spacecraft is 'absolutely nominal' and that midcourse correction will not be necessary because of near-perfect trajectory; scientists at Manned Spacecraft Center rept remote-sensing instruments on Apollo 17 have worked properly and have transmitted wealth of information on lunar temperatures, gravitational anomalies, subsurface features and atmospheric gases; say lunar sounder gathered information at 500-million points on lunar surface and that infrared radiometer returned 100-million measurements on lunar surface temperatures; families of Cernan and Evans illus with former astronaut J L Swigert Jr watching telecast of space walk

Nixon Adm officials, Dec 17, say Nixon considers number of diplomatic and mil measures designed to put pressure on Hanoi to reach an early cease-fire agreement; says Kissinger's Dec 16 news conf is first move in campaign; steps under consideration include trying to have USSR, China and other nations use their influence, renewed mining of N Vietnamese ports and resumption of bombing N of 20th Parallel; much of current US planning is predicated on conclusion that it is Hanoi's shifting negotiating tactics that are primarily responsible for the delay in reaching an accord; US officials cite, as example, Hanoi's shifting stand on size of internatl truce supervisory force

LIRR strike enters 19th day on Dec 18 with 2-hr bargaining session, 1st since Dec 6, producing no progress; MTA Chmn Ronan, in int, says strike occurred just at time when rr was making major improvements in commuter service; asserts line was in position to attract new ridership but now faces probable ridership loss of 10% when strike ends; repts that strike has also caused freight orders to decline; LIRR is largest passenger line in US, carrying 90,000 regular commuters per day and selling avg of 80,000 one-way tickets daily; strike is seen as more than just routine rr stoppage because in forcing thousands of commuters back to hwys, it undermines philosophy of urban mass transportation; case of Chicago & North Western Ry, which was hit by 32-day strike in '60 and was able to recoup losses as result of aggressive salesmanship and improved service, is cited as hopeful precedent for LIRR; until strike began, riders, state govt and union members believed rr had begun to make solid gains in terms of service rendered and public support; rr's financial future is still unclear; rr has spent $400-million upgrading signals, trackage and rolling stock, including acquisition of air-conditioned trains; recent schedule changes were made in attempt to adjust service to changing residence patterns in LI; all sides in dispute fear extended strike could push rr back into cycle of less money, less service and fewer riders; LI Commuters Assn pres J Bernstein says riders are always used as pawns in transportation strikes; urges politicians and rr to 'sit tight,' and refuse to accede to wage demands, whose financing would have to be passed on to public in form of fare increase; rr financial statistics noted; trains illus; graphs show ridership figures and fare increases since '68; list of comparable commuter costs on 4 rrs; map of LI passenger rail routes