December 14, 1975

ARMED with information gleaned from the “Madrid Codices,” Leonardo da Vinci's long lost notebooks which were rediscovered in 1967 in Madrid's National Library after three centuries of neglect, I embarked on a quest for Leonardo, that enigmatic, Renaissance man, inventor, designer and observer of natural phenomena—a quest that had its beginnings in the sunny Tuscan village of Vinci, proceeded la Florence and Milan and ended in Amboise in the Loire Valley of France.

Nancy Hanks, chmn of Natl Arts Endowment which recently recd appropriation of $82-million, int on her plans for endowment; Hanks has won reputation for submitting budgets that Cong passes; illus (L)

Proliferation of corp coms to solicit contributions from employes and shareholders for pol candidates described; Fed Election Comm ruling, that corp could pay expenses incurred by such pol action coms, recalled; ruling has set off sometimes bitter debate on wisdom of allowing such activity, and of possibilities of abuse in form of coercion on part of employer or weighting contributory balance toward conservative candidates; concern about potential for coercion caused comm to rule that cos may not publicize repts on totals of employes who contributed; comm has not ruled out setting of quotas or guidelines by mgt for employe contribution levels; ruling has met strong enthusiasm on mgt side; they note long-standing existence of such coms run by labor unions, most of which funds go to Dem candidates; Chamber of Commerce has disbursed special teams across country to advise businessmen on pol coms; over 200 coms have been formed so far by business, financial and professional assns, and another 120 by corps; drawing (L)

A DRAMATIC development in air travel is opening new vacation vistas for Americans. It goes by the name of O.T.C., for “one‐stop inclusive tour charter.” Essentially, it offers the individual, a bargain heretofore available only to so‐called “affinity groups”—lodges, professional societies and the like. Namely, the chance to fly on chartered aircraft at greatly reduced rates, with a minimum of fuss, to dozens of vacation destinations in the United States and abroad.

Retailers comment on Christmas buying patterns; retail sales are running well ahead of '74 near-disastrous pace and may exceed healthy level of '73; illus (L)