September 24, 1973

evidence gathered in civil suit against GSA suggests to persons dose to case pattern of irregularities in Feb '71 award of multi-milliondollar Fed contract to Phila developer M B Weinstein and indicates active involvement by Weinstein, law firm with which Sen Scott is associated and others to present to GSA false documentation of legality of Weinstein's bid on contract; pretrial discovery on behalf of plaintiff, unsuccessful bidder J W Merriam, has produced evidence showing that documents supporting successful bid were backdated, apparently illegally, to satisfy GSA requirements; that document that GSA says was submitted as part of bid was prepared after deadline for submission of bids; that Sen Scott was actively involved in effort to win contract for Weinstein even before GSA sought bids; and that high GSA official got in touch with business partner of Weinstein before bids were sought to inform him what Govt's solicitation for bids would reflect in terms of space requirements and when developer had to meet certain legal requirements; Sen Scott has rejected implication that he personally benefited in any way from selection; discrepancies between documents and GSA head A F Sampson's affidavit discussed; bulk of negotiations with GSA was handled by H A Fogel, Weinstein's nephew and partner in Scott's law firm, who was apptd to Fed bench earlier this yr under Scott's sponsorship; R Kunzig, then GSA Admr who previously served as Scott's admr asst, campaign mgr and pol protege from '63 to '67, awarded contract to Weinstein; present GSA head Sampson, as the then Comr of GSA's Pub Bldgs Service Div, processed bids for Phila office space and recommended to Kunzig that Weinstein's bid be accepted, was brought into GSA by Kunzig and succeeded to Admr under Scott's sponsorship; Sampson, Kunzig, Weinstein and Scott are close friends of long standing; there is no evidence that Scott was actively involved in negotiating lease although 1 Gov official close to deal says it was always understood that 'it was being handled out of Scott's office'; US Atty in Phila R E J Curran said in Aug that Justice Dept was investigating contract; R Galli, asst in Curran's office, said FBI was conducting inquiry under direction of US Atty's office, telephone int; Curran is also chief defense counsel for GSA, Kunzig, Sampson and L M Shipp Jr, another GSA official named in Merriam's action; sources say Justice Dept's investigation began in response to lr from Merriam's attys in late June to Asst Atty Gen Petersen, which pointed out fraudulent aspects of lease award; Scott illus

NYC officials and reprs of med laboratories administering tests in new city med testing program for welfare mothers assert that 65% of welfare mothers screened are found to have severe disabilities; officials are reptg on 1st wk's results of 10-wk screening of about 250,000 welfare women to whom 1rs were sent out in Aug; about 30,000 women have responded; last wk, almost 10,000 women were examined at 20 clinics in city, and examinations for 20,000 more are scheduled for next few wks; welfare recipients who do not go for physical examinations will not receive additional benefits in their monthly checks starting Jan 1 '74; NYC Soc Services Deputy Admr C Morris asserts on Sept 23 that he is not startled at high number of women found to be disabled; NYC and NYS would save up to $12.5-million each next yr if 25,000 women who have been receiving help under program of aid to families with dependent children are reclassified as disabled; reclassification would take advantage of new provision of Soc Security law under which, starting Jan 1, Fed Govt assumes complete public assistance responsibility for welfare recipients classified as blind, aged or disabled; such costs are now shared by Fed, state and city govts; women on welfare would benefit by reclassification because each would receive about $130 a mo from Fed Govt; mothers now avg about $80 a mo; Dr P A Brown, chmn of Metpath Inc, Hackensack, NJ, concern that is administering med tests, expresses satisfaction at 1st wk's results; adds that Metpath has received contract for $950,000 to notify welfare women and to administer tests; Morris asserts that contract is more in vacinity of $500,000 and that Brown's figures probably include estimates of other welfare-related contracts; adds that 2d mailing will be done soon to notify 200,000 women who did not respond to 1st notification; women who do not reply will not receive additional benefits in '74 if they are not reclassified as disabled; Morris asserts that city expects about 60,000 welfare mothers would legitimately meet disabled standard

Comment on success of Skylab 2 project notes that scientists are expecting to find out through wealth of data gathered during flight about how to produce more nearly perfect metal spheres and alloys in weightlessness; Dr H C Gatos (MIT) says astronauts experiments in melting and shaping metallic spheres, crystals for electronics and alloys 'should make us all look toward outer space as a powerful new dimension for mastering molecular engineering'; says that working in absence of gravity astronauts have demonstrated that it is possible to make more nearly perfect spheres and crystals and stronger alloys because 'there is no thermal convection in the liquids to disturb the uniform formation of the solids'

elected Pres of Argentina on Sept 23

IMF annual meeting continues on Sept 23, Nairobi