November 21, 1974

comment on financial status and holdings of AT&T, against which antitrust suit has been filed by Justice Dept; notes AT&T is nation's largest privately owned corp and is long‐time favorite of investors; co ranks as largest non‐Govt raiser of capital and regularly finances huge expansion programs; 1 wk ago raised $600‐million in biggest public financing ever by corp; assets at end of ‘73 amounted to $67‐billion, approximately same as total for next 20 top ranking utilities; employs some 1,010,000 people, ranking 2d only to Fed Govt in that category; is made up of 23 domestic operating phone cos and Bell Canada, of which it owns 2%, and also owns outright Western Elec Co, chief target of divestment action; Western Elec and AT&T jointly own Bell Labs, which holds thousands of patents vital to communications field and other scientific developments; AT&T chmn John D deButts por (M)

Nov 21: in grief mingled with anger and shame, people of Israeli town of Beit Shean on Nov 20 bury 4 civilians slain Nov 19 by 3 Palestinian guerrilla infiltrators from Jordan; shame stems from fact that after Israeli Army stormed apt guerrillas seized after shooting tenants to death, angry crowd threw guerrillas’ bodies out of window and set them on fire; shame is heightened by belated realization that 1 of 4 bodies burned was of Israeli victim; Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, speaking at graveside, says desecration of bodies, even of enemies, is prohibited by Israeli law; Mayor Yitzhak Kenan promises to instruct police to bring perpetrators to justice; says number of civilian defense force volunteers has doubled since attack; urges that there should be at least 2 weapons in every house; illus of couple grieving at funeral and of Popular Dem Front for the Liberation of Palestine spokesman who described raiders as Palestinians from Israel and west bank of Jordan River (M)

Govt estimates see continued coal miners strike resulting by early Dec in unemployment of some 400,000 through shutdowns and layoffs in industries dependent upon coal (S)

Pres Ford plants 9‐foot Virginia dogwood tree on guest house grounds, Tokyo, Japan, to commemorate his stay (S)

In an action that may augur well for ultimate passage, the $11.8‐billion masstransit bill that would help preserve New York City's 35‐cent fare was cleared yesterday by the House Rules Committee for consideration on the House floor. Page 93.