14
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, January 9, 1969
UDK News Roundup (Continued from page 1)
Firefighters battle bushfires
MELBOURNE—More than 100,000 firefighters Thursday battled scores of bushfire that devastated tinder-dry Victoria state for a second straight day. At least three major fires still raged out of control, threatening a whole town and thousands of acres of land.
Police said 19 were known dead and feared the toll could reach 25 in the first sweeping broad range and forest lands around Melbourne. Firefighters called it the worst bushfire disaster in 25 years.
Rate rise causes concern
WASHINGTON—President Johnson expressed concern Wednesday over the latest rise in the prime interest rate from $6\frac{1}{2}$ to a record 7 per cent. Administration budget drafters said the President was leaning increasingly to the idea of proposing an extension of the full 10 per cent surtax at least through calendar 1969.
Knowledgeable congressional sources said Johnson would have to keep the surtax if he has any chance of realizing his hopes of submitting a new budget with a small surplus.
Vandals burn US building
FRANKFURT, Germany-Vandals hurled two Molotov cocktails into a U.S. Information Service cultural center Wednesday, starting a fire in its library that destroyed books and collapsed part of the ceiling.
and collapsed part of the ceiling. The U.S. Information Service (USIS), which operates the Amerika Haus-American House centers in West Germany, estimated damage at $4,000.
Gold prices shoot up
LONDON - The price of gold shot up to an eight-month high on the free market today $42.45 an ounce
Dealers attributed the 35-cent-an-ounce jump partly to the rise in U.S. bank lending rates, Middle East tensions and seculation on possible moves on future South African gold sales.
Today's price level was the highest since May 21. At that time it was $42.60 an ounce as French disorders mushroomed and strikes put the franc in danger.
Draft call down
WASHINGTON （UPI）-The Defense Department Wednesday issued a March draft call of 33,100 men for the Army and the Marine Corps.
The total was slightly below the 33,700-man draft previously set for February. Inductions this month are scheduled to total 26,800.
The new draft schedules include provision for replacing the 48,000 reservists, called up
after the seizure of the U.S.S. Pueblo last January. These men will return to civilian life from five to twelve months before the expiration of their two year terms.
This program is expected to add 3,000 men a month to the draft quotas during the first half of 1969.
The department said that of the March draftees, 31,600 will go into the Army and 1,500 into the Marine Corps.
Guild officials announced no time for a walkout but the contract extension, granted while negotiations continued, was to expire at midnight last night. Negotiations, being carried on under federal mediator George Byrnes, broke off after five weeks of bargaining.
The Associated Press, with 1,300 editorial employees in the United States represented by the WSG, said it would continue to operate its basic foreign and domestic news services in the event of a strike.
KANSAS CITY-Members of the Wire Service Guild struck the Associated Press at 8 a.m. today. Although AP facilities from coast to coast were affected, the wire service will continue to provide its "basic services." AP foreign offices were not affected.
NEW YORK (UPI) Contract talks between the Associated Press and the Wire Service Guild (WSG) broke off Wednesday. A union spokesman said a strike is "imminent."
"We made a final proposal we believed to be in the area management said they would accept and when they came back to the table they reneged," said Robert Crocker, chairman of the guild negotiating committee. "We are calling the first strike in AP history with the greatest reluctance but are faced with a management which allowed no room for reasonable negotiations."
Newsmen strike wire service
The Associated Press said the final proposal made by the guild, which included a top wage of $264 per week in the third year of a three-year contract and provisions for a union ship, was
Deadlines for scholarship applications were announced Tuesday by Jerry Rogers, associate director of the office of Student Financial Aid.
Applications due
Feb. 1 is the deadline for scholarship applications for the 1969-70 school year.
In the category of National Defense Student Loans, the deadlines are:
May 1 for the 1969 summer session and April 15 for the 1969 Summer Language Institute and the 1969-70 Junior Year Aboard.
more costly than the guild had calculated.
AP management originally offered a starting salary of $145 per week and $250 for fully experienced newsmen. The guild had demanded a top of $280 per week but reduced it to $264 Tuesday night and asked that the 37½ hour week be extended to all employees.
Top scale newsmen at the AP earn $207 per week under the old contract which expired Dec. 31.
The guild represents U.S. employees of both the AP and United Press International. No strike was ever called by the guild against either wire service. The current UPI contract expires March 15.