July 27, 1975

Article on increasing popularity of Japanese cars in wake of recent sales repts showing that Toyota and Datsun have replaced Volkswagen as best selling imported cars in US; growing inroads that Japanese cars are making is touching off new round of appeals for protective legis restraints on imports; imports have traditionally accounted for about 10% to 15% of US car mkt but during 1st 6 mos of '75 they have captured 20%; Toyota sold 159,586 units in US during 1st 6 mos of '75, gain of 13% from corresponding '74 period; Nissan Motor Co sold 159,366 units, up 33%; sales of other Japanese auto mfrs noted; Toyota and Nissan execs Norman D Lean and Robert O Link comment; illus of Toyota, Datsun and Volkswagen '75 model cars; table compares foreign car sales in US in June '74 and June '75 (L)

Brokerage indus profits continue to rise in bull mkt; profits in May were highest on record, despite NYSE survey showing that brokers lost $25-million in fees in first month of competitive rates; indus data suggest that big insts got 25-30% reduction on commission fees, while individuals got 5-7% discount; SEC Comr A A Sommer Jr explains that handling inst customer is cheaper than handling individual, thus the bigger discount to insts; Sommer still feels, nevertheless, that small investor deserves larger discount than he is now getting; graph showing brokers' profits from Jan '73 to May '75; chart showing prices of leading brokerage house stocks in Jan, May and July '75; illus (M)

Boston 4, New York 2. Baltimore 4, Milwaukee 0. Chicago 5, Oakland 2.

Survey finds soaring malpractice ins rates for doctors and hosps have sharply driven up med costs; health officials fear unpredictable nature of rising malpractice costs, by making it difficult to estimate future med care costs, reduces prospects for natl health ins; 27 states have passed largely stopgap bills to insure availability of malpractice ms or set up comms to study problem; HEW aide Dr Roger O Egeberg says hosps with top reputations often have to pay highest rates because they treat patients with worst conditions, int; noted heart surgeon Dr Michael DeBakey notes he now pays $25,300 a yr for same ins that cost $894 in '69; Amer Hosp Assn vp Paul W Earle says hosp ins rates vary widely; Calif Hosp Assn aide James Ludlain cites jump in per bed ins cost from 10c in '53 to $4.50 now in Calif; legal medicine expert William Curran comments on Mich law calling for voluntary arbitration of malpractice cases by Amer Arbitration Assn; AMA officials hold US has malpractice crisis while GB and Canada do not because only US attys can collect large percentage of settlements; Ludlam cites US tradition of compensating victims for pain and suffering as major factor; surgeons illus (L)

Fewer than 14,000 NYC munic employes believed to have been removed from payroll in econ drive that began nearly 2 mos ago, when Mayor Beame said in 'crisis' budget message that 67,000 jobs would have to be abolished; total number dismissed is approximately same as that decreed in Beame's alternative 'austerity' budget; total of 13,966 persons have been firmly ordered off payroll; 15,955 more employes in city schools, colls and hosps can expect to lose jobs by next fall; how many of 13,966 have actually left desks or other duty stations in doubt; Budget Bur is conducting in-depth audit of layoffs and Mayor Beame has ordered city agencies to make pub no specific figures on how many have been cut from payroll pending completion of audit; munic bureaucracy makes it difficult to tell at any one time how many people are receiving paychecks; some dept heads and personnel assts have been counting retirements as layoffs; Beame angered by practice, since retirees have already been discounted; near-total freeze on hiring has been in effect since Nov; Beame has authorized restoration of 10,538 more jobs, leaving net layoff figure of 29,921; more than half of these are in pub school system, CUNY and munic hosps; educ bds have given no acctg of layoff intentions; munic hosps say that they will have eliminated 2,000 jobs by end of July, but figure includes more than 400 jobs vacated through attrition; table of announced layoffs of NYC employes, by agency (L)