January 23, 1975

Swiss natl bank vp Alexandre Hay notes that former 12% tax on new deposits did not prevent influx of funds because this rate was same as that of US inflation last yr; Swiss lifted annual tax on new money from abroad deposited in Swiss francs to 40%, from 12% (S)

Pres Ford's insistence on going ahead with oil import fee will somewhat delay antirecession tax‐cut; HR Ways and Means Com begins hearings on Ford's econ‐energy pkg; Treas Sec William E Simon testifies on entire pkg although com had asked him to confine testimony to antirecession tax cut that com had wanted to consider 1st; Simon illus with com chmn Al Ullman and ranking Repub com member Herman T Schneebeli (S)

15‐yr study reveals Clofibrate and niacin, 2 drugs widely used to prolong lives of men who have recovered from heart attacks, are useless for that purpose; drugs lower cholesterol and other fatty substances in blood; study, called Coronary Drug Project, is 1 of major research efforts sponsored by Natl Heart and Lung Inst to reduce toll from heart disease, foremost cause of death among Amers; involved 55 research clinics and 8,341 patients who had recovered from 1 heart attack or more, Dr Robert I Levy says project cost about $40‐million; calls project extremely valuable in many respects although its major findings are negative; men enrolled in project were aged 30 through 64; no women were involved because in that age group they are less likely to die of heart disease; use by project of 2 other drugs, hormone estrogen and thyroid‐related substance called dextrothyroxine, were discontinued when risks were found to outweigh any possible benefits (M)

NYS Regents Bd on Jan 22 adopts new policy disavowing use of racial enrollment quotas or ratios in judging school dist's degree of integration; measure could have profound effect on pending efforts by Educ Comr Ewald B Nyquist to integrate schools of several cities; Chancellor Joseph W McGovern condemns it as ‘dilution’ of bd's earlier support for integration and pleads for its defeat; Dr Kenneth B Clark, lone black member of bd, calls measure ‘shameful’ and says he will seek legal means to have it repealed; measure says that bd is now prepared to judge compliance with integration laws by extent of dist's effort to ‘bring about equal opportunity’ among students; statement was composed by William Jovanovich; Nyquist had angered some of Regents by what they considered abruptness of integration orders for Buffalo, Lackawanna, Utica, Newburgh and Mt Vernon; McGovern, Clark, Alexander J Allan Jr and Edward M M Warburg opposed measure; 9 voted in favor of it; list (L)

Statements from files of NYS Health Dept and Temporary State Comm on Living Costs certify that Bernard Bergman's net worth climbed from $6‐million in '69 to nearly $24‐million in '72, although Bergman testified before Sen Subcom on Long‐Term care that nursing home business is not very profitable; statements were certified by Bergman accountant Samuel Dachowitz, who is being sought by process servers from subcom; Assemblyman Stein challenges Bergman testimony that he owns only 2 homes in NYS and has property interests in only 7 more; says Bergman as of Feb 28, '73 owned at least 20 nursing homes worth $11‐million and held mortgages of $5.4‐million on others in NYC; emphasizes that homes are owned by Bergman and his wife and do not include scores more owned and operated by his cos, relatives and associates; NYS Health Dept, in another development, announces that it will no longer ‘routinely’ give nursing home operators advance warning of inspections; Congressional accountants in NY begin studying truckload of records delivered in response to subpoenas issued by Sen subcom to 41 nursing homes, operators and suppliers; James M Breiner, chmn of First Conn Small Business Investors Corp, which advances capital to small businesses, gives Bergman high credit rating; was until recently vp and dir of Medic‐Home Enterprises, of which Bergman is largest stockholder; Bergman, who has said he does not know how to run nursing home, lists property holdings in 11 homes; list does not include all homes owned by Bergmans; Stein comm researchers have established tentative network of 60 of city's 110 privately owned nursing homes; Bergman took issue at hearing with details of family tree that Health Dept researcher had assembled in effort to explore such ties; illus of Bergman at hearing and Barbara Grace, comm consultant (M)