Newspaper Page Text
— Griffin Daily News Thursday, January 17,1974
Page 6
Dairy
Editors Note: This is the
fourth in a series of five
dispatches this week about
where the Watergate case
stands and where it is heading.
Today’s story, about the 1971
milk price supports decision
and subsequent dairy industry
contributions to President
Nixon’s re-election campaign,
was written by Wesley G.
Pippert of the UPI Washington
staff. Pippert has been covering
Watergate exclusively for more
than a year.
By WESLEY G. PIPPERT
WASHINGTON (UPI) -
President Nixon prolonged the
news conference to volunteer
an answer about his controver
sial 1971 milk price support
decision, because, he said,
“some awful nice people are
getting a bad rap about it.”
Since that remark at his
Florida news conference Nov.
17, the White House has issued
a 17-page statement in defense
of the price supports decision.
Still the controversy goes on.
At issue is whether Nixon
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Milk price supports
and campaign gifts
raised the milk price support to
85 per cent of parity in
exchange for milk producers’
contributions to his campaign
that eventually totaled $437,000.
Then Agriculture Secretary
Clifford M. Hardin set the
support price for the year
beginning April 1, 1970, at $4.66
a hundredweight, and on March
12,1971, “after careful review,”
refused to raise it further.
Milk producers began an
intensive lobbying effort. On
March 23, Nixon met with top
dairymen, and two days later,
on Nixon’s orders, Hardin
reversed himself and raised the
support levels again.
The outcome depends on
whether there are discrepan
cies in the following state
ments:
—The White House said in its
Jan. 7 White Paper that the
administration raised the price
support, among other reasons,
for “traditional political con
siderations.” Hardin said in a
deposition in a suit brought by
consumer advocate Ralph
Nader that he raised the
support for economic reasons.
—The White House White
Paper repeated Nixon’s Nov. 17
declaration that the Democratic
Congress put “a gun to our
heads” in demanding an
increase. The paper also said
there were “political advan
tages” in not alienating the
farmers, whom it called “an
essential part of his political
constituency.”
—The White House said
Nixon “had been informed of
the dairy industry’s intentions
to raise funds for the 1972
campaign.” Nixon had said at
an Oct. 26, 1973, news confer
ence that he “did not want to
have any information from
anybody with regard to cam
paign contributions.”
—The White House said
Nixon opened a controversial
March 23, 1971, meeting “by
thanking the dairy leaders for
the support they had given to
administration policies.” A
Nader lawyer has questioned,
on the basis of his understand-
ing of a subpoenaed White
House tape recording of the
meeting, whether Nixon might
have been thanking them for
their financial support.
The Senate Watergate com
mittee, Special Watergate
Prosecutor Leon Jaworski, and
Nader all are involved in
investigations of the dairy
controversy.
According to a source close to
the investigation, the Senate
Watergate committee staff has
sufficient evidence to warrant
public hearings, perhaps start
ing Jan. 28. The decision must
await a vote of the senators
when they meet, probably next
week.
William A. Dobrovir, the
lawyer for Nader, is scheduled
Friday to take the sworn
testimony of Rose Mary Woods,
Nixon’s private secretary. U.S.
District Court Judge William B.
Jones and the U.S. Court of
Appeals this month turned
down Miss Wood’ motion to
quash the subpoena.
Nixon’s twelve crises Clearing wall
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The Forbidden City, Chou En-lai, and "The week that changed the world."
In the first half of 1972.
President Nixon made two
visits that seemed to ensure
his reputation as one of
America's most creative
presidents in the field of
foreign policy.
On Feb. 21. the President
arrived in Peking for an
eight-day visit to the People’s
Republic of China. Bringing
to an end 23 years of official
hostile silence between the
two countries. Nixon and Pre-,
mier Chou En-lai hammered
out an 18.000 word communi
que which agreed that
neither country would seek
hegemony in Asia. While the
agreement was notably weak
regarding the status of
Taiwan, it did include prom
ises by both countries to ex-
Nader filed suit more than
one year ago to roll back the
increased supports “on grounds
they were influenced by im
proper political activity.”
Associated Milk Producers
Inc., Mid-America Dairy Inc.,
and Dairymen Inc. were the
three milk-producer coopera-
change artists, scientists and
journalists on a regular basis
and paved the way for a
series of trade agreements
between China and the U.S.
The overwhelming Ameri
can reaction to the China trip
was perhaps best expressed
bv Sen. Edward Kennedy,
who called the communique
"one of the most progressive
documents" in the history of
American diplomacy, and
hailed "the bridge that has
now been built to Peking."
Three months later. Nixon
met Soviet Premier Aleksei
Kosygin and Communist Par
ty Secretary Leonid
Brezhnev in Moscow for a
spectacular summit meeting,
heralding an era of detente
between the U.S.R.R. and the
U.S.
fives whose political arms—
made the contributions. AMPI,
covering 14 states from border
to border and headquartered in
San Antonio, Tex., is by far the
largest
AMPI president John E.
Butterbrodt contends the contri
butions were legally made—
“No one denies this.”
“Yet there may well have
been impropriety or illegality in
the use of these funds by the
recipients,” he said.
David L. Parr and Keifer
Howard, former officials of
AMPI’s Arkansas division,
pleaded guilty several days ago
to making illegal campaign
contributions in the 1968 Demo
cratic campaign. They had
been indicted in September on
charges of making illegal
contributions of $22,000 to the
Humphrey-Muskie ticket.
The Justice Department has
filed antitrust suits against
AMPI and Mid-America. The
more recent suit was filed last
month against the latter, which
has 19,000 milk-producer mem
bers in 10 states and had $535.2
million in net sales in 1972.
The National Farmers Organ
ization (NFO), politically a
liberal group which is com
posed of generally small
farmers, also has filed an
antitrust suit against AMPI. All
the suits have been consolidat
ed into one suit in U.S. District
Court in Kansas City, but no
trial date has been set.
Four Justice Department
teams are taking depositions
throughout the nation. Dr.
George Mehren, AMPI execu
tive director and an assistant
agriculture secretary in charge
of supervising milk marketing
orders during the Lyndon
Johnson administration, will
resume his deposition in a few
days.
The White House said that 29
senators and more than 100
representatives — including
Aides say
he didn't
erase tapes
WASHINGTON (UPI) -
White House officials say
President Nixon did not erase
18-Vz minutes of a key
Watergate tape, but beyond
that they had virtually no
information to offer on what
happened.
Presidential spokesman Ge
rald L. Warren Wednesday
denied that Nixon himself had
erased the tape, either acciden
tally or deliberately.
But beyond this, White House
officials, both publicly and
privately, declined to comment
on the disclosure by a team of
experts in U.S.. District Court
that a critical portion of a
recording of Nixon’s conversa
tion on the Watergate burglary
with his former Chief of Staff,
H. R. Haldeman, apparently
had been erased.
“It hurts, it hurts,” said one
middle level presidential aide.
Others solicited for comment
simply shrugged and said
nothing.
Despite a barrage of ques
tions, Warren declined to say
anything beyond issuing a brief
statement from Nixon’s lawyers
saying that other technical
testimony has not yet been
heard and that “premature
judgments ... are altogether
unwarranted.”
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The summit began with the
signing of treaties by the two
heads of state pledging
mutual assistance in the
areas of space, health and en
vironmental protection.
Four days later, on May 26,
Nixon and Brezhnev signed a
historic arms limitation
treaty, limiting the prolifera
tion of antiballistic missiles
and offensive missile
launchers.
For Richard Nixon, the
spring of 1972 was a period of
exhilarating success.
Does this mean that the
man who spent so much of his
political life fighting com
munism suddenly lost all
suspicions about the interna
tional conspiratorial commu
nist threat'.’
Democratic Sens. George S.
McGovern and Hubert H.
Humphrey, both presidential
hopefuls at the time; House
Speaker Carl Albert, and Rep.
Wilbur D. Mills, chairman of
the House Ways and Means
Committee—all sought an in
crease in the price of milk
supports from 85 to as much as
90 per cent.
“The President himself con
cluded that the final decision
came down to the fact that
Congress was going to pass the
higher support legislation, and
he could not veto it without
alienating the farmers—an es
sential part of his political
constituency,” the White House
said.
The White Paper said that
Nixon’s veto of such legislation
“could well be over-ridden” —
despite the fact that at that time
Congress had over-ridden no
Nixon vetoes.
First Monday, the official
publication of the Republican
National Committee, said this
Consolidated Report of Condition of
"THE BANK OF GRIFFIN"
of Griffin in the State of Georgia and Domestic
Subsidiaries at the close of business on December 31, 1973.
ASSETS
Cash and due from banks (including SNone
unposted debit5)724,087.12
U. S. Treasury securities77B,364.4o
Obligations of other U.S. Government agencies
and corporationsloo,ooo.oo
Obligations of States and political subdivisions 1,873,502.33
Federal funds sold and securities purchased
under agreements to resell re5e11950,000.00
Other 10an55,768,615.99
Bank premises, furniture and fixtures, and other
assets representing bank premises24B,B43.oo
Other assets .63,677.89
TOTAL ASSETS 10,507,092.73
LIABILITIES
Demand deposits of individuals, partnerships,
and c0rp0rati0n52,479,497.68
Time and savings deposits of individuals,
partnerships, and c0rp0rati0n53,743,975.53
Deposits of United States Governmentl77,29s.6o
Deposits of States and political subdivisions ... 1,869,321.38
Deposits of commercial bank 5302,500.00
Certified and officers' checks, etc 480,955.36
TOTAL DEPOSITS $9,053,545.55
(a) Total demand dep05it553,384,133.24
(b) Total time and savings deposits $5,669,412.31
Other liabilities .559,129.32
TOTAL L1A81L1T1E59,612,674.87
RESERVES ON LOANS AND SECURITIES
Reserve for bad debt losses on loans (set up pursuant to
Internal Revenue Service rulings) 88,067.95
TOTAL RESERVES ON LOANSAND
SECURITIES 88,067.95
CAPITAL ACCOUNTS
Equity capital, total 806,349.91
Common stock-total par value3oo,ooo.oo
(No. shares authorized 50,000)
(No. shares outstanding 30,000)
Surplus2oo,ooo.oo
Undivided pr0fit5306,349.91
TOTAL CAPITAL ACC0UNT5806,349.91
TOTAL LIABILITIES, RESERVES, AND
CAPITAL ACC0UNT510,507,092.73
I, Ron J. Franklin, Cashier, of the above named bank,
do solemnly swear that this report of condition is true and
correct, to the best of my knowledge and belief.
Correct—Attest: < s ’ R « n - Franklin, Cashier
(s) D. Bartlett Searcy, Jr.
(s) R. P. Shapard, 111 Directors
(s) J. L. Savage
State of Georgia, County of Spalding, ss:
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 11th day of
January, 1974, and I hereby certify that I am not an officer
or director of this bank.
My commission expires July 12, 1976
(s) Sherry S. Waller, Notary Public
M.I.T. historian Bruce
Mazlish suggests not. But he
adds, “The basic context for
Nixon’s foreign policy is his
dedication to peace " As Nix
on told Walter Cronkite back
in 1960, "the major role (of a
president) is to contribute
toward building world
peace," an overriding con
cern which Nixon attributed
to the Quaker values of his
mother and grandmother.
When Nixon called his visit
to China "the week that
changed the world." he
surely must have viewed the
crisis as one of the "mountain
top" moments of his entire
life.
Next: Watergate
month that the milk producers
actually contributed more to
Democratic candidates than to
Republicans in 1972. It said the
four milk producer political
organizations gave $613,000 to
Democratic presidential and
congressional candidates and
$577,000 to Republicans.
Meanwhile, the price of milk
for the consumer rose. It went
from 47.3 cents for two quarts
in 1965 to 57.4 in 1970 and 59.8
cents last year. Prices range
now about 77 cents a half
gallon.
Said the White House: “The
price of milk to the consumer
did not skyrocket, as some
feared. Rather, the price of
milk to the consumer in the
year in question rose at the
lowest rate of recent years. It
also rose at a rate significantly
below the general rate of
inflation.”
But the investigations con
tinue, and the controversy still
rages.