Page 12-Saturday, May 5, 1979-The Michigan Daily Prime minister's husband: Silent, reserved From AP and UPI LONDON - In the heat of the election campaign, Denis Thatcher, a tall, graying retired oil executive, wa always a few steps behind his wife. He let her do all the talking then and does not appear eager to change that style now that she is prime minister. Thatcher, 63, was sometimes unrecognized by the hosts at campaign gatherings but that probably will not continue, especially since he is the first man in Europe to be married to a prime minister. Thatcher's comment in 1975, when the possibility first arose that Ms. was the best indication he was the man for the job: "I am sure women are as good as men ... sex makes no dif- ference. It's ability that counts." IF" HE DISLIKES his backseat role, he hides it well behind a huge smile, and declines to answer reporters' questions. He never says anything controver- sial. Publicly, at least, he hardly says anything at all. When Ms. Thatcher wrested the Con- servative Party leadership from Ed- ward Heath in February 1975, Thatcher made a statement he has lived by ever since: "They say I am the most shadowy husband of all time," he said. "I intend to stay that way and leave the limelight to my wife." Thatcher generally avoids discussing his feelings about the male-female roles, but appears proud of and devoted to the politician who became his second wife in December 1951. THE CONSERVATIVE Party, which has spent large sums on public relations agents to improve Ms. That- cher's image, professes not to even have biographical details of Thatcher, who would only say he will be 64 this month. Thatcher comes from a prosperous background. He was educated at a private school, reached the rank of major and was decorated as a gunnery officer in World War II. After the war he took over the paint firm, Atlas Preservative Co., founded by his gran- dfather. The firm was bought out by Burmah Oil in 1965, and Thatcher was a director of the conglomerate until his retirement in 1975. He and the prime minister have 25- year-old twins; Carol, a newspaper reporter in Australia who came home to help with the campaign, and Mark, a London accountant. THATCHER MET Margaret Hilda Roberts when she was running for Parliament in 1950 in Thatcher's home electoral district of Erith and Dartford, Kent. "I didn't ask him to vote for me. I assumed he would," Ms. Thatcher is quoted as saying. She lost that election. Thatcher defeats incumbent Callaghan; Conservatives gain control of Britain (Continued from Page 1) foregone conclusion this morning, Callaghan went to Buckingham Palace to tender his government's resignation during a 25-minute audience with the Queen. The 67-year-old Labor leader then retreated to his farm in Sussex in south England. The Conservative victory came as no surprise. Following a winter of in- dustrial unrest, the Labor Party had appeared destined to go down to defeat. With a heavy turnout of voters - as high as 90 per cent in some areas - the swing to the Conservatives averaged more than four per cent. THE RESOUNDING Conservative victory ended the reign of the Labor Party, which had ruled Britain for 12 of the last 15 years, but whose last year in power was marked by a wave of labor unrest that paralyzed many of the nation's most vital services. Vowing to stem the "tide of creeping socialism," Thatcher had pledged during her campaign to curb labor unions, cut income taxes and strengthen Britain's armed forces. But the tough-minded, 53-year-old blonde lawyer and chemist, dubbed the "Iron Lady" by the Soviets for her staunch anti-communist stand, could find herself at odds with the United States on her plans to take a harder line with Moscow on strategic arms limitation. Her historic audience with the queen came 40 minutes after Callaghan han- ded in his resignation at the palace. In Des Moines, Iowa, President Car- ter said yesterday he had spoken with Thatcher and "we just made plans on how to consult very rapidly and how she and I will communicate." He said he would be seeing her "no later than next month," apparently referring to the economic summit in Japan in June. SHE SAID she would be working through the night to form her Cabinet - but without her longtime right-hand man and close friend Airey Neave, the Tory spokesman on Northern Ireland who was assassinated outside Parliament March 30 by Irish guerrillas. Britan's new leader quoted St. Fran- cis of Assisi to the assembled reporters, "Where there is discord, may we bring harmony . . . where there is despair, may we bring hope." THE OTHER big election losers were the separatist-minded Scottish Nationalists, who lost all but two of the 11 seats they had held, and the middle- road Liberal Party, which had hoped to pick up as many as 50 seats but instead ended up losing three of its previous 14. Thatcher has pledged to rebuild Britain's defenses, which were cut back under Labor, and strengthen this coun- try's commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization - moves that will be welcomed in Washington and Western Europe. But she is expected to approach the delicate question of East-West relations, particularly President Car- ter's bid to secure a new strategic arms limitation treaty with Moscow, with a tougher line than Callaghan. That could cause some strain in Lon- don's relations with Washington. The Conservatives - echoing the position of some West European governments -- have expressed concern at the growing threat of long-range Soviet SS-20 missiles and believe this can be coun- tered only by building up a nuclear deterrent force. TIh(ltcI'r ... keeps his profile low Faulty pedals cause recall by Cadillac DETROIT (AP) - The Cadillac division of General Motors Corp. recalled 372,000 cars yesterday to fix accelerator pedals that allegedly caused accidents in which three per- sons were killed and 46 injured. Pedals on the affected models have a rubber extension at the bottom that could be "inadvertently repositioned by the floor mat and wedged under the pedal. This could affect the pedal position and increase the engine idle speed," GM said. If that should happen and the car be shifted from park or neutral, into reverse or one of the forward gears, the ca ould lurch - or, as Cadillac put it, "the increased engine speed could produce more vehicle movement than anticipated by the operator." MODELS RECALLED were the Coupe de Ville, Sedan de Ville, Broughams, and limousines of the 1977 and early 1978 model years. Models with fuel injection were not affected. Spokeswoman Pat Montgomery said Cadillac had received reports of 124 ac- cidents that killed three persons and in- jured 46 "in which it is alleged that the cause was unwanted acceleration. "While some of the accidents may have been caused by the rubber pedal extension" Cadillac said it believed many were the result of "the driver mistakenly pressing the accelerator pedal rather than the brake pedal." Shp did not say,how many, pedal.aca cidents Cadillac believed had oecUrred. Is your family 'typically American?' (Continued from Page6) a blue-collar or service worker. Earnings often are linked to education. Half of the families headed by someone over 25 with less than eight years education had incomes of under 19,606. The median income for families headed by someone who had graduated from high school, but had not gone to college, was $17,110. And the median for families headed by a college graduate had a median income of $24,852. Where does the money come from? For most people, salaries are the prime source of income. But more than three families out of four now have some in- come other than earnings - from stocks, bonds, annuities, interest on savings accounts, Social Security, pen- sions, or welfare. MORE THAN one family in 10 has no wage earner at all. Only about five per cent of families in the top fifth - the ones with incomes over $26,000 - were headed by people who didn't work; almost 65 per cent of the families in the bottom fifth were headed by non- workers. Over half of the families headed by someone 65 or older had no work ear- nings -Fourteen per cent of #elderly fainilies had incomes bel6w the poverty level in 1977, compared to 25 per cent in 1969 and 35 per cent in 1959. FAMILIES "Today's high median-income level wouldn't be where it is ,were it not for the earning contribution of wives," says Citibank. As of January of this year, almost one out of two married women held a job outside the home. More than 60 per cent of women bet- ween the ages of 18 and 49 were in the labor force. FAMILIES ARE having fewer children. As of 1977, 43 per cent of all married women age 20to24 had not had a child. In 1960, only 24 per cent of the women in the same category were childless. Fewer children means our median age is going up. In 1977, the median age of Americans was about 291z years; in 1970, it was just below 28. HOME OWNERSHIP Sixty-five per cent of all U.S. households - almost two out of three - live in owner-occupied homes. Most of the rest of the households are renters, although two per cent live, without paying rent, in a home owned by someone else. The median income of people who bought new homes between July 1977 and June 1978 was $24,730. The median price of the houses was $51,523 during that period , it's almost $4,000 more today - and the median age of the head of household was 33. SPENDING After adjustments for inflation, con- sumer spending has grown fastest for new cars and other motor vehicles - up 39 per cent from 1974 to 1977; for radio and television - up 30 per cent; and for dental services and spectator sports - up 29 per cent each. ENERG*Y. Wne can't aford t. waste it.