THE
Michigan1Daily
Vol. LXXXIV, No. 36-S Ann Arbor, Michigan-Tuesday, July 9, 1974 Ten Cents Twelve Pages
City workers consent
to hold off on strike
Talks to go on through tomorrow
By GORDON ATCHESON - - -
A strike by nearly 300 municipal
employes was temporarily averted
late last night when the local union
representing the workers and the
city administration agreed to con-
tinue negotiations in a contract- z:
wage dispute. $
The American Federation of
State, County and Munciplal Em-
ployes (AFSCME) Local 369 repre-
sentatives d e c i d e d to continue -
talks through at least tomorrow
night, although there was no indi-
cation the two sides were any closer
to a final agreement.
EARLIER LAST night, rank and file
AFSCME members voted to reject the
administration's salary offer-and thus
to no out on strike-by a 141-40 margin.
Following the late night bargaining
session, the strike will not go into effect
until at least Thursday. It was scheduled .
to begin this morning.
Among those employes who would have w .
walked out today are refuse collectors,
other public works department workers,,r
and most city clericals.
THE CONTRACT problems arose over y
the level of salary increases in the new
two-year contract replacing the one.y
which expired earlier this week.
The administration has offered a 15 INK,
cent per hour hike, while the union has AP Photo
AFTE.u . mr.nours mrwin a torsenters theSupreme courtiousluing in near .pec-4-

See CITY, Page 9

Proseuto B LING for hours undeidetahattoneyJa ettCrairntrgnetherucae e CourtSeentorpa
Prosecutor Leon Jaworski and presidential attorney James St. Clair argue their cases before the Court, See story, page 10.

Supreme Court listens to
arguments in tape dispute

WASHINGTON (A)-President Nixon's
attorney told an extraordinary session of
the Supreme Court yesterday that it can-
not force the President to disclose Water-
gate conversations, even if they demon-
strate criminal acts.
James St. Clair argued that only the
Congress, through impeachment, has the
power to bring criminal charges against
Nixon. The judiciary, he said, must keep
out of that process.
ST. CLAIR and special prosecutor Leon
Jaworski fought for exactly three hours
over the President's power before eight,
black-robed justices and a packed court-
room.
"The President may be right in how
he reads the Constitution. But he may
also be wrong," said Jaworski. "And if
he is wrong, who is there to tell him so?

And if there is no one . . what's then
to become of our constitutional form of
government?
It was the -first time, in a case entitled
"The United States of America vs.
Richard M. Nixon," that the Watergate
scandal had reached the nation's highest
court.
IN THREE hours of debate, Jaworksi
cast the argument in the narrow terms
of a prosecutor seeking vital evidence
for trial, while St. Clair put it in the
broad scope of impeachment proceedings
with political overtones.
The court gave no sign about when it
will decide the case and its two key
questions: whether Nixon must obey a
lower court order to give up tape re-
cordings and other records of 61 presi-
dential conversations, and whether the

Watergate grand jury had the- ight to
name Nixon as an unindicted co-con-
spirator in the Watergate coverup.
Jaworski has subpoenaed the tapes as
evidence in the cover-up trial of six for-
mer White House aides, including Nix-
on's two closest advisers, H. R. Halde-
man and John Ehrlichman.
U.S. District Judge John Sirica has
ordered the President to turn over the
tapes for his private inspection to deter-
mine what should be provided to the
prosecutor for the trial beginning Sept. 9.
IN THE COURSE of the arguments,
St. Clair declared that no court can
force Nixon to give up records of presi-
dential communications, even if a crime
is involved.
Justice Lewis Powell, one of three
Nixon appointees hearing the case, noted

that the purpose of privilege is to guar-
antee the President candid advice from
his associates. The justice queried,
"What public interest is there in pre
serving the secrecy about a criminal
conspiracy?"
St. Clair replied: "A criminal con-
spiracy is criminal only after it has
been proven. We're not at that point vet
. . .You should not destroy the privslege
in anticipation of later criminality which
may not come to pass."
ST. CLAIR said the President must
preserve the confidentiality of his office
so he may receive "free and untram-
meled information" about, for example,
the selection of judicial nominees.
Justice Thurgood Marshall asked
whether St. Clair would claim executive
See HIGH, Page 9