March 3, 1975

About 2,600 GM workers at Linden, NJ, assembly plant who were temporarily laid off on Jan 4 '74 have become bitter toward co and UAW Local 595 now that layoff has entered its 2d yr; shutdown of night shift and ‘bumping’ by sr night personnel of jr day-shift workers has eliminated most of employment gains made by women, blacks and other minority-group employes; idled workers express anger over fact that most of them delayed looking for new jobs because of repeated promises that layoffs were only temporary: most of workers are no longer members of union because they failed to keep up their dues; new ‘caucus’ called Linden Auto Workers has proposed ‘share of the work’ program that would put GM workers on 3-day wk; Local 595 pres Earl Stutzman, caucus spokesman Doug Stevens and some idled workers comment; Stutzman illus (L)

NY Times survey on US educ trends finds many liberal innovations of last decade are being modified as many schools place renewed emphasis on basic reading and math skills; says drops in standardized test scores are most frequently mentioned reason; also notes Coll Bd scores nationwide have been declining steadily in last decade and colls are beginning to complain about getting freshmen who cannot read at proper level or who cannot write coherent essays; says parents of black and Hispanic children in country's large urban school systems have played part in demanding new stress on basic skills; notes steep drop in amt of Fed and state money appropriated for educ experimentation has also contributed to decline in innovation; holds school dists almost without exception rept that parents are taking much stronger hand than before in shaping school policy; Long Beach, LI, Supt Jerome P Oberman, Sharon, Mass principal Fred Bellows, Radnor School Dist (Phila) Supt Frank Manchester, CCNY head Alfred A Giardino, Atlanta pss Supt Alonzo Crim and Phoenix hs principal Robert Dye comment (L)

Sen Select Com on Nutrition and Human Needs issues rept estimating only 38% of eligible food stamp recipients receive food stamps and that 20-million eligible do not; demand for food stamps has risen to 17.9-million as of Jan 31, with 2-million new recipients joining in Dec and Jan; Cong Joint Econ Com study shows that as of Nov '73 avg food-stamp recipient had monthly income of $364, of which 80% was drawn from Fed and state programs for poor; found that more than 70% of heads of participating families were not in work force; both repts charge program is badly administered, is distributing more stamps than it should in some instances and is not reaching people who need it most; Nutrition Com chmn Sen George S McGovern offers 15 recommendations to improve ‘administrative inadequacies,’ including certification of applicant's declaration of eligibility rather than certifying procedure that is currently used; Community Nutrition Inst official Robert Greenstein wants local food stamp workers to make it clearer to recipients that they do not have to buy all their stamps at 1 time, contending that because this point is not emphasized many people who do not have money to purchase monthly allotments do not apply for stamps at all (VI)

HR Ways and Means Com proposals labeled ‘alternatives for consideration’ and not meant as specific legis recommendations include proposal for gradual tax increase on ‘excess’ use of gasoline, which is defined as consumption of over 9 gals a wk per motorist; tax would start at 5c a gal and built to 40c by '79; President's chief energy adviser Frank G Zarb indicates that Adm might be agreeable to some kind of excise tax on autos, although with some reservations about advantages that might accrue to foreign cars, int, NBC-TV program Meet the Press; says there is room for compromise with Ways and Means Com emphasis on conserving oil through gasoline tax and says Adm wants to save on whole barrel of oil; notes there is room for negotation (M)

Mar 3: Israeli Defense Min Shimon Peres suggests that Israel return Abu Rudeis oilfields as well as strategic Gidi and Mitla passes in Sinai to Egypt only if Egyptian Pres Sadat gives open and direct pledge to end belligerency against Israel, int; says agreement should preclude Amer role, adding that promise to Sec Kissinger rather than to Israel would limit scope of proposed interim agreement and that in such event Israel would be prepared to offer less; says choice clearly is in hands of Egyptians; describes nonbelligerency pledge as a ‘psychological step’; says Israel expects any interim agreement to be followed by full peace treaty; emphasizes that Israel will concentrate on new negotiations with Egypt rather than with other enemies; suggests that Syria might act as ‘spoiler’ in talks with Egypt, fact which makes extremely necessary that negotiations with Cairo be conducted on direct, bilateral basis; says agreement would make it easier for other Arab states to follow suit; says Jordan's King Hussein may then be better disposed to discuss future of occupied West Bank since Israel will not negotiate with Palestine Liberation Orgn; suggests that negotiations with individual chosen by residents of West Bank and Gaza Strip is possible; sees ‘more difficulties than prospects’ in policy of Amer guarantee to Israel, adding that Israel would be more comfortable if it did not burden US with difficult requests (L)