May 10, 1975

Demonstrators throw stones at US Embassy, Vientiane, Laos (S)

Sen-HR conf com agrees to set tentative ceiling of $367-billion on Govt spending for fiscal '76; com estimates that this ceiling, if not breached, would mean a deficit of $68.8-bilion; agreement is next-to-last step in 1st part of Cong's new budget process; last step is for both HR and Sen to decide whether to approve target figures; sign of possible softening of Repub resistance to proposed budget ceiling is seen in speech by Treas Sec W E Simon; speech quoted; Joint Conf Com allows for expenditure of $2.25-billion in fiscal '76 on program of accelerating construction of pubic works designed to provide jobs for unemployed (M)

Commerce Dept repts business inventories dropped $1.9-billion in Mar to total of $268.9-billion; repts sales dropped 2.5%, inventory-to-sales ratio rose to 1.69 compared with 1.66 in Feb and 1.46 in Mar '74; Commerce Asst Sec James L Pate comments; says inventory-to-sales ratio is disappointing, but does not alter expectation that econ is close to bottom and will recover in 2d half of '75; US C of C economist Carl H Madden and AFL-CIO economist Nat Goldfinger comment; charts showing inventories and sales, seasonally adjusted, Mar '74 to Mar '75 (M)

Chmn David L Yunich says MTA is planning sharp cutback in subway trains operating between 11 PM and 5 AM and also longer waits between daytime trains running in off-peak hrs; says principal service cuts, forced by declining ridership and rising costs, will go into effect in Oct; says nighttime plan, still being evaluated for cost savings, involves elimination of express train service, merging of routes into all-local service and substitution of bus shuttles along some lines; says proposals are detailed in 'working document' prepared by special MTA task force on operations headed by Raleigh D'Adamo; Yunich por; major proposals of task force listed (M)

Illus of steeplejack Andrew F Collins working atop steeple of Fifth Ave Presbyterian Ch at 55th St, built in 1875 (L)