Banner Graphic, Volume 21, Number 181, Greencastle, Putnam County, 5 April 1991 — Page 3

Admired by blue collars, Heinz looked patrician

WASHINGTON (AP) To many, especially those in western Pennsylvania, the name John Heinz meant royalty. With his glamorous good looks, Heinz was his state’s link to money, power and high society. Most Pennsylvania voters also thought he was a good U.S. senator. HEINZ, FIRST elected in 1976, was killed Thursday when a helicopter collided with his plane over a schoolyard at midday outside Philadelphia. With his patrician background, Heinz seemed an unlikely fighter for the nation’s steel workers and disabled and senior citizens. But in two decades as a Republican member of Congress from Pennsylvania, he pressed their causes persistently and often achieved striking results. “I THINK THAT’S a terrible tragedy. I felt he was one of our best reps, because he represented not only the worker, the average man, but he did an extremely good job for industry,” said Paul Fidel, 62, of Mt. Lebanon, a USX Corp. manager. Heinz’s family fortune was built on pickles and ketchup. He was the only son of HJ. Heinz II and a great-grandson of the industrialist Henry J. Heinz, who founded HJ. Heinz Co. in 1869. The Heinz family, through endowments, is credited with helping transform their native Pittsburgh from a smoke-shrouded mill town to a modem city. THE SENATOR’S net worth was estimated by the Capitol Hill publication Roll Call at SSOO million, wealth derived largely from trusts based on large blocks of stock in the family firm. Heinz spent heavily from his own pocket to win his first Senate term in 1976. But he was not eager to flaunt his wealth. He once confided to a reporter that he placed newspaper in his shoes to keep his feet warm when campaigning on cold days. He said he learned the trick from a homeless person. HEINZ CONCENTRATED in the Senate on issues involving the elderly and on protecting steel from subsidized, foreign competition. He helped persuade the Reagan administration in 1984 to negotiate pacts compelling steel-exporting nations to curb exports to the United

U.S. unemployment surged to 6.8 percent during March

WASHINGTON (AP) The nation’s jobless rate shot up to 6.8 percent in March, its highest level in more than four years, as the number of Americans joining the ranks of the unemployed since last summer swelled to 2 million, the government said today. The 0.3 percentage point rise in the civilian jobless rate, up from February’s rate of 6.5 percent, marked the fifth straight month the unemployment rate has increased, the Labor Department said. It was the second consecutive month that joblessness surged by 0.3 percentage point. SINCE UNEMPLOYMENT first began climbing last summer, when it was a relatively low 5.3 percent, about 2 million Americans have been added to jobless rolls. In March alone, about 410,000 people joined the unemployment line, the Labor Department said. Today’s report also showed that payrolls fell by 206,000 in March, marking the sixth straight month that U.S. businesses have cut jobs. It has been the worst stretch of mass layoffs since the 1981-82 recession. Since last September, the number of payroll jobs has declined by 1.3 million. The job loss number can differ from the number of newly unemployed because the two figures are derived from different surveys. In addition, the number of newly unemployed includes both people who were laid off in a given month and people who returned to the labor force but were unable to find jobs. THE LABOR Department also revised its February job loss number, saying that 290,000 jobs were cut, a far worse drop than the 185,000-job loss first reported. Analysts had been bracing for yet another bleak unemployment

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SEN. JOHN HEINZ Helped workers, steel States. Heinz, who campaigned for Bush in the last election, bucked his party when it suited his state or his politics. He told Bush on the campaign trail in 1988 that it would be a mistake if the president did not renew restraints on the volume of steel entering the nation from overseas. “I think it’s important for me to be candid with him,” Heinz said. Bush continued the quotas. HEINZ ALSO worked to create a program to help steel workers find new professions after losing their jobs because of imports. Heinz “was one of those good spirits who helped the Senate be a positive place. I can’t express it. He helped make the Senate work,” Sen. John Kerry, DMass., said. He was an advocate for the disabled, as well. As chairman of the Senate Aging Committee in the 1980 s, he held hearings that dramatized Medicare fraud and nursing home abuse, and worked to soften a Reagan administration policy that cut thousands of the mentally ill from disability rolls. “JOHN HEINZ GAVE his greatest commitment to America’s elderly,” said Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine. “His work and his example showed that there is no generation gap in the United States.” Heinz, is survived by his wife, Teresa Simoes-Ferreira, and three children, Henry John Heinz IV, Andre and Christopher.

report, and said it would deal a blow to hopes for a speedy end to the recession, despite more favorable data from last week showing a rebound in consumer confidence and the housing market. “It carries a heavy psychological punch ... If unemployment is high, people are worried about their jobs and then it takes longer for a boost in confidence to be reflected in higher spending,” said David Jones, an economist with Aubrey G. Lanston & Co., a government securities dealer. WASHINGTON policy-makers have been hoping that the quick end to the Persian Gulf War would spell a quick end to the recession by boosting consumers’ confidence. However, private analysts say that even if that does occur, businessmen won’t start rehiring workers for several months, until a recovery is well under way. Unemployment could hit well over 7 percent and put another 500,000 Americans out of work before the economy turns around, these analysts predict. The bulk of last month’s job losses came in manufacturing and construction, where there has been a steady erosion in recent months. In March, factory payrolls fell by 92,000, bringing the total job loss in that sector to 1.2 million since January 1989, the Labor Department said. CONSTRUCTION jobs dropped by 72,000 in March, as the number of jobs lost in that sector since last May reached a half-mil-lion, the government said. But the job losses were widespread, hitting the serviceproducing industries as well, where payrolls tumbled by 40,000. Employment in retail trade fell by 50,000 in March, while wholesale trade jobs dropped by

House Democrats would suspend excise tax cut to help education

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Hoosier citizens would pay about SBO million more a year in auto excise taxes under Indiana House Democrats’ plan to rescind a tax cut approved last year and use the money gained to aid public schools. On a party-line vote Thursday, the House Ways and Means Committee voted 14-9 for the proposal by Rep. William Cochran, D-New Albany, as an amendment to Senate Bill 287. The measure now goes to the full House. REPUBLICANS, who voted as a block against the measure, argued Democrats were proposing a tax increase, something they and Democratic Gov. Evan Bayh had vowed to oppose. “What we’re doing is taking back the tax decrease we gave them this year,” said Rep. Woody Burton, R-Greenwood. “We’re raising taxes on automobiles next year.” “No, we’re suspending it,” replied Ways and Means Chairman B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend. LATER, AS THE vote was cast, Rep. Patrick J. Kiely, R-Anderson, told the committee, “I’m going to vote no and hope the governor keeps his promise to veto a tax increase.” Bayh, who has made a no-tax pledge a central theme of his administration, wouldn’t respond in person to reporters’ inquiries about

Other bills pass

Panel approves life without parole term

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - ndiana juries considering a sentence for murder would have a third option life imprisonment without parole under legislation approved by a Senate committee. Under current law, people convicted of murder with aggravating circumstances can be sentenced either to death or 40 to 60 years in prison. The jury usually offers its preference in a non-binding recommendation to the judge. UNDER HOUSE Bill 1802, juries also could choose to send the murderer to prison for life. The only chance for release would rest with the governor, who has the ability to grant clemency. “This is something we think is neither pro- nor anti-death penalty,” said Larry Landis, director of the Indiana Public Defender Council. “It will give the jury op-

19,000. Since last summer, the trade industries have lost a total of 460,000 jobs, the government said. Health services, which has been about the only industry booming in recent months, added 38,000 jobs last months. LABOR COSTS, which had been holding relatively steady for the past few months, increased in March as average hourly earnings rose to $10.25, a 0.5 percentage point increase over the 510.20 the average hourly worker earned in February. In another sign of economic weakness, the average manufacturing work week fell in March, down to 40.1 hours per week, rather than the 40.3 hours per week recorded in February. Manufacturing overtime dropped, too, falling to 3.2 hours, rather than the 3.3 hours recorded in February. Total civilian employment was down slightly to 116.8 million, compared with the 116.9 millionstrong work force in February, the government said. " THE JOBLESS numbered 8.6 million, a 410,000 increase over the 8.2 million unemployed Americans in February. The number of discouraged workers persons who want a job but don’t bother looking because they don’t think they could find one was 1 million in the first quarter of 1991, the government said. Though little changed from the final quarter of 1990, it was an increase of about 210,000 over the past year. In a separate calculation of unemployment that counts members of the armed services stationed in the United States, the March jobless rate was 6.8 percent, up sharply from February’s 6.4 percent to hit the same level as the March civilian rate of 6.8 percent.

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REP. PATRICK BAUER Not Bayh’s solution

his reaction to the House Democrats’ proposal. But a spokesman said the governor opposes suspending the tax cut. “The governor is opposed to delaying the auto excise tax cut because he doesn’t believe it to be necessary,” said Fred J. Nation, Bayh’s press secretary. NATION SAID Bayh plans to announce next week new proposals for supplementing education funding. If those are approved, “that would make use of money from the auto excise tax delay unnecessary. If it passed and he does see it as

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SEN. ED PEASE Bill’s author tions.” The measure, sponsored by Sen.

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unnecessary, he would veto it,” said Nation. However, Bauer had a different description of the governor’s reaction after emerging from a meeting with Bayh shortly after the committee vote. “The governor’s reaction was mild,” said Bauer. “He’s saying, ‘Well, it’s on the table and let’s see how it flies.’ “He neither condoned nor derided it,” said Bauer. BAUER QUICKLY added, “This was not his suggestion. This was not his solution. This was ours.” House Democrats said they proposed rescinding the excise tax cut in response to criticism that the two-year budget they pushed through the House cuts about $206 million in state aid to public schools. Under Cochran’s proposal, a big chunk of that loss would be made up by doing away with the excise tax cut on a temporary basis. The amended bill, now on its way to the full House, would raise next Jan. 1 the auto excise tax rates that were lowered at the beginning of this year. THE SBO MILLION a year in lottery revenues scheduled to be used to make up for the reduction in excise tax revenues, which go to local governments, would instead

Edward A. Pease, R-Brazil, was approved 9-0 Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Already approved by the House, it now goes to the full Senate. VAUGHN OVERSTREET, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Correction, said Indiana has 54 people on death row. The population grows by about five inmates each year, he said. However, he cautioned the committee that the bill probably would not reduce the number of people sent to death row. Overstreet predicted the bill would be used instead to increase the sentences of murderers now receiving the prison sentences thus leading to more prison crowding. In other business, Senate committees voted to: • Penalize people who copy video and audio tapes with the in-

April 5,1991 THE BANNERGRAPHIC

be devoted to public education for kindergarten through 12th grade. “People I have talked to have felt much stronger about funding education than getting a tax break,” said Rep. Sheila J. Klinker, a Lafayette Democrat on the Ways and Means panel. The suspension of the cut would remain in effect until economic statistics showed two consecutive quarters of 5 percent growth in non-farm personal income of Hoosier citizens. The reduction in rates would be reinstated at the beginning of the next year after that economic growth was charted. COCHRAN AND Bauer estimated that the lower rates could be reinstated in a year or two at the most, if economic experts are correct about how quickly Indiana will recover from the current recession. Cochran indicated House Democrats, like Bayh, may have other ideas before the legislative session is over for supplementing education funding. He said use of money in the state’s rainy day fund something Bayh has also opposed may also be discussed at some point. “This is not intended to be all we will do for education,” said Cochran. “The governor has made a move, and before the end of the session, we’ll do more.”

tent to resell them for profit. • Provide 13 weeks of additional unemployment benefits to people who are unemployed as a direct result of a tornado or other disaster.

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