August 16, 1975

assessment of impact of '71 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act on Eskimos, Indians and Aleuts, or 'natives' as they are legally known under state and Fed law; Roy Huhndorf, pres of Cook Inlet Region Inc, has mixed feelings about settlement that was widely cheered little more than 3 1/2 yrs ago; monies recd under act are rapidly being drained by adm costs, legal and consulting fees and inflation; investments have not all returned hoped-for profits; native leadership is spread desperately thin; selection of lands provided under law has consumed endless hrs in negotiations and bargaining; settlement, largest by far ever made with any North American aborigines, called for payment over 11 yrs of $962.5-million and return of more than 40-million acres of land; for this, natives agreed to relinquish their ancient claims to remaining 355-million acres of Alaska, effectively clearing way for building of Alyeska oil pipeline; law also estab 12 native regional corps, divided geographically on roughly ethnic lines, to distribute and invest money and to oversee selection of land that in total area will be about size of Maine, Mass, NH, Vt and Conn combined; illus (L)

Fed Reserve Bd repts indus production index rose 0.5% to 110.8 in July on basis of preliminary figures; revises percentage rise for June to 0.5%; revises May production index to 109.6; July data indicate worst postwar recession has ended, and econ has started to recover; M Katherine Eickhoff, vp and treas of Townsendd-Greenspan Inc, says July data indicate slower rise in production than had been anticipated, but confirms that gen upturn is under way; July data may intensify debate within Adm about need for additional stimulus to speed econ growth during '76, when Pres Ford plans to run for re-election; chart showing total indus production, seasonally adjusted, '71 to July '75 (M)

US Appeals Ct for DC Circuit on Aug 15 upholds all major provisions of '75 Fed election law; holds that whatever 'incidental impact' new regulations have on freedom of speech, they are fully warranted by history of big-money abuses in Amer pol; deals harshly with challengers' contention that law constitutes 'massive intrusion' into pol process; under law, individuals can give no more than $1,000 to a candidate in any 1 campaign and no more than $25,000 altogether in any calendar yr; candidates for HR are limited to spending about $9,000 apiece in primary and gen election campaigns; Sen candidates are held to proportional limits, varying with voting population of their states; Pres candidates are held to number of ceilings--$20-million on final election campaigns, $10-million on pre-conv primaries, and state-by-state primary limits; ct found unconst disclosure provisions that ranged beyond candidates and their coms to virtually any orgn that spent money to influence election; Human Events Inc and ACLU had objected that law threatened to interfere with groups like theirs that are pol but not partisan; coalition of challengers of law, ranging from Sen Buckley to ex-Sen McCarthy, indicates it will press for Sup Ct rev in fall (M)

NYC financial officials are split over whether eventual savings or net deficit will result from recent economies in city's $12.028-billion expense budget; Mgt and Budget Office officials predict surplus; Controller's Office and some Estimate Bd members regard predictions as unrealistic; Deputy Budget Dir John J Lanigan and Manhattan Boro Pres Percy E Sutton comment (M)

Munic Assistance Corp completes modest public bond sale that assures NYC of meeting cash needs in Aug; is laying plans to convene meeting of top-level bankers from across country within next 2 wks in attempt to persuade out-of-town banking insts to invest in Sept issue of corp bonds; Wall St Journal on Aug 15 repts that Fed Reserve System Chmn Dr Arthur F Burns had decided that Fed Reserve 'should stand ready to give last-ditch financial support to NYC'; Burns's office issues statement holding story has no basis (M)