Page4-Sotur'dayMay 8; 1982-The Michigan Daily
Unemployment
rate reaches
9.4 percent
WASHINGTON (AP) - Unem
ployment climbed to 9.4 percent of the
labor foice in April, a postwar record,
and Democrats seized upon yesterday's
report as evidence that President
Reagan's economic program has
delivered nothing but "pink slip after
pink slip after pink slip."
Some 16.3 million Americans were
out of work last month as jobless-
ness among adult men, blue-collar
workers, blacks, and teen-agers was
the highest in modern times, the Labor
Department said..
SOME 453,000 people were added to
the unemployment lines in April, com-
pared to the previous month, when the
jobless rate matched the post-World
War II recession peark of 9 prcent in
May 1975.
The four-tenths of a percentage point
rise produced the higheat level of
joblesaneas since the government
began keeping monthly figures in 1948.
the all-time high was un annualized 24.9
percent in the Great Depression year Kennedy
of 1933.
On Capitol Hill, there were ... blasts economic policy
suggestions by Reagan's critics that the
nation is lapsing into a repeat of those by late spring-earlysummer,' hesaid.
grim times. The spokesman said that in the mean-
"RONALD REAGAN'S bread lines time "we're paying the price of years
grew longer by 450,000 people," Sen. and years of Democratically controlled
Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) fumed at a congresses, which have spent and
meeting of the congressional Joint spent."
Economic Committee. Since April 1981, when the unem-
Kennedy, who sought unsuccessfully ployment rate was 7.3 percent, ap-
to wrest the Democratic Party's 1980 proximately 2.4 million people have
presidential nomination'from incum- been thrown out of work, according to
bent Jimmy Carter, said the latest jobs th~e figures, which are adjusted to take
report shows that Reagan has only into account seasonal factors.
delivered "pinkslip after pink slip after Blue-collar joblessness reached 13.7
pink slip to millions of decent men and percent last month as the slump in the
women." construction and manufacturing in-
White IDouse spokesman Larry dustries continued, and black unem-
Speakes called the figures "disappoin- ployment climbed to a record 18.4 per-
ting" and said "we remain sensitive to cent.
"theplight of the unemployed." Adult men, the traditional family
SPEAKES SAID be could not predict breadwinners, suffered a record-high
how far unemployment would rise - or 8.2 percent jobless rate. And dearly one
when it might begin to wane. "We're in every four teen-agers - a record
looking for signs of economic recovery high-was unable to find work.
Business leaders see
economicw upturn soon
In Brief
Compiled from Associated Press and
United Press international reports
Hinckley's parents wanted
to institutionalize him
WASHINGTON- Two or three times John Hinckley's parents told a
psychiatrist they wanted to put their depressed son in an institution, and
each time the physician talked them out of it, the mother of the president's
attacker said yesterday.
"Dr. Hopper said, 'No, no, that will make acripple out of him. If you think
he's sick now, he's really going to be sick if you put him in a hospital," JoAnn
Hinckley testified at her son's trial.
Hinckley's mother, the first defense witness, was on the stand for six hours
in two days before she was excused at noon. She walked out of the court
without a glance at her son, who followed her with his eyes.
She testified that Hinckley was a patient of Dr. John Hopper in Denver
beginning Oct. 25, 1980. She recalled that on March 10, 1981, she told Hopper
that she did not think John would be in to see him any more.
During the time that John was seeing Hopper, singer John Lennon was
murdered in New York-an event that so upset Hinckley that he stood in the
same spot later with a gun in his pocket.
Graham crusades in Russia
MOSCOW- Evangelist Billy Graham opened a six-day peace crusade
yesterday in the Soviet Union, promising to respect his hosts and declaring
history and God will not be forgiving if religious leaders fail to avert a
nuclear catastrophe.
"I am convinced it is time for religious leaders to meet and make
whatever contributions (they can) to peace in our generation," the 63-year-
old Southern Baptist said in an airport statement.
He came to the Soviet capital to participate in a May 10-14 conference of
religious leaders opposed to nuclear war, organized by the state-authorized
Russian Orthodox church. Twenty-five other U.S. clerics were also invited.
"The Gospel of Jesus Christ which I have proclaimed for many years is the
gospel of Peace. The God I serve is the God of Love, mercy and
forgiveness," Graham said.
Graham's visit has been criticized by some fellw U.S. clergymen and
Soviet religious activists who say he will be exploited by Sovietpropagan-
dists to blame Washington for the arms race.
Iran recaptures land from Iraq
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Iran claimed yesterday its troops have fought their
way to the pre-war border, recapturing more than 100 square miles of oc-
cupied territory from the Iraqi invaders in an eight-day offensive. Iraq said
it had "contained the Iranans," butfighting still raged.
If the Iranan claims are true, Iran's troopare within 15 miles - artillery
range - of Basra, Iraq's largest port with access to the Persian Gulf.
the 116-square-mile area the Iranians said they retook is a rectangular
patch just north of the Iranian port city of Khorramshahr, south of
Hosseinieh, bounded on the west by the Iraqi border and on the east by a nor-
th-south highway and rail line linking Khorramshahr with the Iranian city of
Ahwaz.
A late Iraqi communique acknowledged the Iranians were attacking in
southwestern Iran but said the new attack was "aimed at easing pressure on
Iranian forces trapped ina pocket of death."
Bush pays goodwill visit to China
PEKING - Vice President George Bush, warned by Chinese Communist
leaders of critical frictions over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, said yesterday
he was visiting to promote Washington's "good faith" in pledging strong ties
with China..
The Vice President also denounced what he called expansionism by the
Soviet Union and said the United States and China share "a common respon-
sibility" to maintain global peace.
But Bush did not announce any U.S. change of position on arms sales to
Taiwan, seat of the rival Nationalist government. Peking is demanding the
United States stop all sales to the island, which the Communists consider a
Chinese province.
Arriving after a day's rest in the Southern Chinese city of Hangzhou, Bush
was welcomed by a military honor guard and about 300 schoolgirls who dan-
ced and waved pompoms in the plaza in front of the great Hall of the People,
where officialsentertain foreign guests.
Nation's money supply drops
NEW YORK - The nation's basic money supply fell $4.9 billion in the final
week of April, the Federal Reserve Board said yesterday. The decline wiped
out much of a huge increase in the first week of the month.
Reaction in the credit markets was muted. Bond prices rose moderately
immediately after the report was released but later retreated and finished
the day with modest gains. Interest ratesedgedslightly lower.
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HOT SPRINGS, Va. (AP) - Despite
a national unemployment rate that is
the highest since World War II, the
nation is pulling out of recession, a
group of the nation's top corporate
executives said yesterday.
But they conceded that recovery
could be less robust than after most
recessions, particularly if interest rates
remainhigh.
ARMED BY a new forecast from
their own economists, members of the
Business Council said that they see bet-
ter times ahead and they still firmly
support President Reagan's economic
program as a way to get there.
The group, which includes the leaders
of about ,200 major U.S. corporations,
meets. twice a year at this western
Virginia resort town for high-level shop
talk and briefings by government 9f-
ficials on a wide variety ofitopics.
The council released its economists'
semi-annual report on the U.S.
economy yesterday about the same
time the Labor Department announced
in Washington that the nation's jobless
rate had hit 9.4 percent in April.
THE GROUP'S overall outlook
forecasting recovery beginning now
and accelerating this summer, predic-
ted a peak unemployment rate of 9.2
percent.
Specifically, the forecast says national
economic activity, as measured by in-
flation-adjusted gross national product,
will rise slightly in thetcurrent quarter
and then "accelerate to a 4.3 percent
annual rate during the second half" of
the year.
That is about what the Reagan ad-
ministration is forecasting, though its
officals say GNP may still be slightly
down this quaite'.
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