March 16, 1985

Gov. Richard Celeste of Ohio today ordered 71 state-chartered savings and loan institutions closed for three days after other efforts failed to stem a multimillion-dollar run on deposits at several of the banks. The emergency action is believed to be the most extensive closing of financial institutions in the United States since the Great Depression. The run on deposits followed the collapse last Saturday of one of the state's largest savings and loan institutions, the Home State Savings Bank, which threatened to wipe out the private deposit insurance fund covering state-chartered savings and loan associations in Ohio. Bid to Restore Confidence The Governor, using his emergency powers, ordered the temporary shutdown through Sunday to give officials time to formulate a plan to restore confidence in the institutions.

The Environmental Protection Agency's relationship with the nation's largest disposer of toxic waste is becoming a matter of contention within the Government. Two agency officials who have long been critics of the agency's efforts to clean up toxic wastes said in interviews that the agency was showing a pattern of favoritism toward the company, Waste Management Inc., whose leadership and legal counsel now include former officials of the E.P.A., the Justice Department and the White House. But the agency says that, far from showing favoritism, it is concentrating some of its strongest enforcement weapons against Waste Management because it is the giant of the waste disposal industry. Agency officials said they were now looking at all of the company's facilities, not only to bring them into compliance with the toxic waste laws but also to compel the company to permanently adopt sound environmental and public health policies. The company also said it was being singled out unfairly for enforcement action and had been subjected to excessive penalties. Waste Management officers further maintained that the company's environmental record was better than those of almost all other companies in the business.

The nation's Roman Catholic bishops sent a letter to all members of Congress today urging them to vote against funds to produce the MX missile. The letter from the United States Catholic Conference, copies of which were dropped in Congressional post offices this afternoon, was timed to reach members of Congress before the first of four votes on the intercontinental missile beginning Tuesday. The Catholic conference, which consists of about 285 Roman Catholic bishops in the United States, said its opposition to the missile was based on these two considerations: ''the potentially destabilizing impact of this weapons system on the nuclear arms race,'' and ''its cost, viewed in light of pressing human needs here and elsewhere in the world.'' Most Specific Opposition The letter was clearly the most specific and firm opposition to the MX missile expressed by the Roman Catholic Bishops. A Catholic official who is informed on the drafting of the letter said there was little or no opposition to it among the bishops.

A State Supreme Court Justice yesterday refused to dismiss larceny and fraud charges against Secretary of Labor Raymond J. Donovan and nine other men. ''The evidence in this case, if proved and believed, demonstrates a carefully contrived scheme to steal property,'' the justice, John P. Collins, said in ordering the men to stand trial. ''There is no justification warranting this court to dismiss the indictment in the interests of justice.'' Shortly after the ruling was issued at noon in State Supreme Court in the Bronx, Mr. Donovan announced his resignation in Washington. He had been on a leave of absence since shortly after his indictment last September. The charges involve events that took place before Mr. Donovan became Secretary of Labor.

The British Government raised serious questions today about the technical feasibility and the strategic desirability of President Reagan's proposed system of missile defense in space. Sir Geoffrey Howe, the Foreign Secretary, asked in a speech at the Royal United Services Institute whether the system envisioned in the President's Strategic Defense Initiative could be put in operation ''without generating dangerous uncertainty.'' He described that as only one of the ''complex and difficult questions'' raised by the project , which is popularly known as ''Star Wars.'' Maginot Line Recalled While paying tribute to what he called ''the enormous technological expertise and potential of the United States,'' Sir Geoffrey asserted: ''There would be no advantage in creating a new Maginot Line of the 21st century, liable to be outflanked by relatively simpler and demonstrably cheaper countermeasures.'' The Maginot Line was a system of fortifications built before World War II by the French that proved almost useless when the Germans swept around its northern end into the heart of France.