UPI Roundup
Girl becomes House page person
WASHINGTON — An attractive 18-year-old Oklahoma
girl broke the all-male page-bov ranks in the House Monday.
Speaker Carl Albert (D-Okla.) picked Felda Looper, a
constituent from Heavener, to break the all-boy tradition
largely because of pressure from the girl. “I’m not a
women’s libber but I’m for equal rights for women,” the girl
told reporters who delayed her first day on the House floor
with a series of news conferences. The Albert appointment
fully integrated the Congress. Sen. Jacob Javits (R-N.Y.)
appointed the first girl Senate page three years ago; two
others named shortly afterward started work on May 14,1971.
There are still three girls on the 30-page Senate staff, and one
on the four-page Supreme Court staff. Albert predicted that
Felda soon will have female company on the 50-member
House page staff. She has served as a page in the Oklahoma
state Legislature and has been “going to state legislative
hearings with my mother and father since I was five years
old.” Her father, Dr. O.J. Looper, is a general practioner,
and her mother, Maxine, is chairwoman of the Oklahoma
Commission on the Status of Women. Felda’s job—which
pays $500 a month—will be short-lived because of her plans to
enter the University of Oklahoma in September and because
there are only 10 weeks left before Congress.
Rogers asks Venezuela for more oil
CARACAS — The United States, in the midst of an energy
shortage, last week asked Venezuela to increase its crude
and fuel oil exports to America. “Petroleum dominates our
economic relationships,” Secretary of State William Rogers
told a luncheon here, “and prospects are good for Venezuela
in maintaining and expanding its substantial share of the
United States petroleum market.” Rogers made his remarks
in the first major address he delivered on his 17-day Latin
American tour ending this week.
Punch not juicy enough for FTC
WASHINGTON — The makers of “Hawaiian Punch”
have agreed to stop promoting the drink in a way that could
lead people to think it contains more fruit juice than it does.
The firm, RJR Foods Inc., and its advertising agency,
William Esty Co., both of New York, also will be forbidden
for one year to use any ad or label depicting fruit or fruit
juices unless the fruit juice content is clearly given or the
product contains 100 per cent single strength fruit juice, the
Federal Trade Commission said Sunday.
First Superman comic sells for $1,800
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The 18-year-old “King of the
Comics” has paid what is believed to be a record amount—
$1.801.26—for an original copy of the first Superman comic
book. “It’s the ultimate comic book,” said Mitchell Mehdy of
Carmichael. “I finally got my baby. Money is nothing to
me—it’s the comic book that counts.” Mehdy, crowned the
“King of the Comics” by his friends and fellow collectors,
said there were only nine known copies of the 1938 Superman
edition, Action Comics No. 1. Comic book stores in Hollywood
and Berkeley confirmed that $1,801.26 is a record price. The
comic book explains the origin of Superman and shows him
lifting his first car into the air. There originally were 500,000
of the edition, but most of them have been destroyed, Mehdy
said. “My copy isn’t perfect,” he said. “It’s used. But it’s still
beautiful.” He said he purchased the comic book from a
friend, Theodore Holstein, 26, who had bought it for $1,500
from Bruce Hamilton, 40, a Scottsdale, Ariz., collector. Meh
dy id he has a collection of about 2,000 comic books worth
$20,' D.
VOA tells it like
it is, may lose funds
WASHINGTON (UPI) — The
Voice of America is pulling no
punches in reporting the
Watergate scandal overseas, and
this has landed it in trouble with
some senators.
The Senate Foreign Relations
Committee voted on May 14 to cut
the VOA’s operating expenses
and salaries from $203 million to
$189 million for the fiscal year
starting July 1. The Senate is
expected to act early this week on
the authorization bill for the U.S.
Information Agency, the VOA’s
parent body.
Examination of news reports
and commentaries broadcast by
the U.S. government radio in the
past four months shows its
Watergate coverage has been
open and quick.
It has been carried regularly in
English on a service operating
around the clock and in 35 other
languages ranging from
Albanian to Uzbek.
VO A reports refer to “the
Watergate political spy scandal.”
Nathan Kingsly, VOA program
director, justifies the straight
forward reporting of the
Watergate scandal this way: “If
we don’t tell it like it is, there are
Clinics begin
drug testing
LOS ANGELES—Two clinics
here have cautiously begun
treating heroin addicts with a
drug the staff believes may be as
good or better than methadone,
the most widely used drug ad
diction treatment.
Unlike methadone, the new
drug appears to be nonaddictive,
according to Dr. Forrest Tennant
Jr., of the University of
California at Los Angeles School
of Medicine.
Like methadone, it seems to
enable addicts to function nor
mally but without methadone’s
objectionable side effects, such
as male impotence, Dr. Tennant
said in an interview.
The Drug is propoxyphene
napsylate, the trade name for
which is Darvon-N. Darvon-N is
similar to Darvon. A commonly
prescribed pain killer whose drug
name is propoxyphene
hydrochloride. However, ac
cording to Tennant, confusing the
two drugs can have disastrous
results because dosages are very
different.
The physician emphasized that
200 addicts on the new drug have
been followed for only four
months—too short a time to make
a comprehensive evaluation.
Women’s bank to open in New York
New York — A group of leading feminists plans
to open a special bank for women here next year.
Although male customers will be given equal
service, the First Women’s Bank and Trust Co. aim
is to treat women depositors with a concern and
trust that is rarely shown them in American
. banking circles.
Discrimination against women by banking and
credit companies has been a persistent complaint of
the women’s movement in the United States.
Feminists are infuriated about the difficulty a
working woman has obtaining credit in her own
right once she is married, and the greater difficulty
if she is a widow or divorcee.
(The Oregon Students Public Interest Research
Group (OSPIRG) released a study earlier this year
documenting instances of discrimination against
women in credit policies and practices of Oregon
banks, savings and loan institutions, department
stores and credit card companies.)
Eileen Preiss, vice chairwoman of the New
York State Democratic party, and Betty Friedan,
founder of the women’s liberation movement in
America, announced their plans for the bank last
week. Both said they had no difficulty in raising the
money to start it from investment companies that
deal with large numbers of women. They said three
fourths of the starting capitalization of $3.75 million
already has been pledged.
Young women coming out of college have a
tremendous problem, Preiss said. They often need
loans to pay off tuition fees or to get established in a
profession, but while banks will help out young men
..in this situation, they feel women are too high a risk
because they may soon marry.
"We feel that women should be evaluated with
different criteria from in the past. As banks we shall
assume that they are as financially responsible as
men.”
Services offered by the new bank will include
financial counseling for women about to start their
own businesses, and for widows and divorcees
suddenly faced with handling money matters to
which they are unaccustomed. Preiss hopes to
attract special investment from foundations to
provide loans for needy women usually written off
by conventional banks as high-risk cases.
plenty of people who will tell it
like it ain’t.”
Kingsly told UPI in an in
terview that the hundreds of
foreign correspondents in
Washington and the voluminous
reports distributed by the in
ternational news agencies could
effectively destroy the credibility
of the VO A if it tried to “sugar
coat the pill,” or ignore
significant developments.
VOA tries to add its own per
spective.
“It is being said that the
political system has failed the
American people,” one VOA
commentary said early this
month.
Bakers claim
they need
more bread
WASHINGTON (UPI) — The
baking industry says it is now
losing money on bread. It wants
the Cost of Living Council to
permit industry-wide price hikes.
Richard Daspit, president of
the American Bakers
Association, Monday reported an
industry survey showing that the
average firm was losing about
one-tenth of a cent per loaf in
January because of rising costs.
The survey showed that the
wholesale value of a one-pound
loaf of bread during the month
was 2>.P7 cents, while costs added
up to 25.16 cents. The survey
covered commercial bakeries
excluding those owned by
supermarkets.
In 1972, prices averaged 24.73
cents, and costs were 24.06 cents,
leaving a pre-tax profit of nearly
seven-tenths of a cent for the
wholesale baker.
“We are dismayed but not
surprised at these latest figures.
We saw it coming last September
when we asked the Cost of Living
Council for relief. It is imperative
that we get some response from
them," Daspit said.
Agency gets word
from outside
WASHINGTON (UPI) — The
National Transportation Safety
Board, supposedly an in
dependent agency to investigate
accidents and recommend safety
measures, was the center of a
controversy today on just how
independent it is.
Sen. Warren Magnuson, (D
Wash.) says he has been told the
board’s chairman, John Reed,
was ordered by an ad
ministration official “to cease
issuing such reports which might
in any way be construed as
critical” of the Transportatpon
Department and the Federal
Aviation Administration.
Magnuson did not name the
official. Congressional sources
said it was Assistant Transpor
tation Secretary William Hef
felfinger. He denied the charge. _
charge.
The Senate Commerce Com
mittee, headed by Magnuson,
held a hearing Monday to look
into the report.
Reed, a former Republican
governor of Maine, was alleged to
have informed other members of
the board that they would be
“disciplined” by the ad
ministration unless they con
formed.
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