Color Country Spectrum (Newspaper) - January 20, 1977, Saint George, Utah Local forecast Cedar Generally fair through Friday little temperature overnight low high Friday 53 St Generally fair through little temperature change low tonight high Friday 63 Color Country Spectrum Volume 13 Number 238 The printed voice of Utah's booming Thursday January Carter assumes presidency Asks Americans to search for humility mercy and justice Chief Justice Warren Burger administers the oath of office to Jimmy Carter right as the United States 39th President today as Mrs Carter watches wire photo farewells WASHINGTON UPI President Ford reserving his final hours in office for those closest to him and his successor said farewell to senior aides and Cabinet members today with a forecast that history will treat their record kindly I've enjoyed the White House mainly because of the fine people Ford told about 75 outgoing officials at a final fast gathering The days were long but they were lightened by the people You all contributed to an administration I think was good and which history will treat kindly I hope to see you all again I believe the friendships we made here go well bevond Jan 20 Ford speaking in the State Dining Room then waved as he said Goodbye everybody Thank you all very very much and made his way back to the Oval Office to tend to some last-minute business His other plans for ending years in the presidency were simple welcoming Jimmy Carter to the White House w ith a cup of coffee at and then joining the Presidentelect in a traditional motorcade to the U.S Capitol for the noontime inaugural ceremonies Ford was scheduled to leave immediately afterward for California with his wife Betty to resume private life for the first time in 28 years Cold wave strikes Poor and elderly Group wants tax removed SALT LAKE CITY UPI Utah's poor and elderly want the cent state sales tax removed from food but grocers farmers and rural city officials think the move would result in confusion and higher prices The food sales tax is the most regressive and harmful to people on fixed incomes that I know of former Utah Democratic Party Chairman John Klas told a hearing before the House Revenue and Taxation Committee Wednesday Removing this tax will not really help the taxpayer countered Jack Olsen executive secretary of the Utah payer's Association It just out of a different pocket On an otherwise slow day at the legislature the House committee con- ducted a lively hearing on six bills that would either remove the sales tax from food items or give Utahns a rebate of the food levy on their state income tax return Representatives of several senior citizens groups and poor people's organizations said they favored removing the tax Spokesmen for the Utah Food Manufacturers the Utah Farm Bureau and Roosevelt City opposed the tax repeal but said they had no objection to a rebate which would probably go to all taxpayers and not just to those on fixed incomes The committee listened to arguments for an hour and a half but took no action on the proposals The most popular with the poor and elderly is a measure introduced in both the House and Senate that makes food tax-free and replaces the lost revenue by raising the state sales tax to 6 per cent on other items Rep Steve Holbrook Lake introduced the measure in the House and Sen Frances Farley Lake sub- mitted it in the upper chamber Simply eliminating the sales tax on food items would lower state revenue by about million a year a step few legislators are willing to take But the Farley would replace make up all but million of the funds WASHINGTON Jimmy Carter assumed the awesome burdens of the presidency of the United States today and asked Americans to join him in a renewed search for mercy and justice The Georgia dirt farmer who rose from political obscurity a year ago to the nation's highest office became the 39th president in a simple ceremony almost as old as the In a populist inaugural speech to a crowd of nearly 150.000 jammed in front of the Capitol and a national television audience the year-old President said his administration and the nation's third century would be marked with a new new new spirit A President may sense and proclaim that new spirit he said without the famous Carter smile but only a people can provide it Chief Justice Warren Burger administered the oath to Carter at p.m EST just minutes after House Speaker Thomas P O'Neill swore in Minnesotan Walter F Mondale as the nation's 42nd vice president His right hand on the Bible given him by his mother the first Democratic president in eight years intoned the same oath of every chief executive since George Washington in 1789 swearing to preserve protect and defend the Constitution of the United States Although forecasters had predicted clouds and possible snow flurries it was a brilliant winter day and a bright sun shown on the white marble Capitol and colorful throng outside Carter wore a topcoat to guard against the chilly temperatures but outgoing President Ford and Vice President Nelson Rockefeller were among the few wearing only suits Ford joked good naturedly about wearing long underwear Ford who was by Carter in his speech for all he has done to heal our land flew off to California and retirement im- mediately alter the ceremony Despite the cold thousands packed along Pennsylvania Avenue to watch the new President return to the White House and witness the hour inaugural parade with its 400 horses floats from every state in the union and 15.000 marchers Carter was surrounded by his wife his mother Miss brother Billy three sons and daughter Amy members of the clan who campaigned for a year on his upset road to the White House They arranged to watch the parade from an enclosed solar heated reviewing stand in front of the White House Four years ago when Richard Nixon took the oath for a second time Carter was an obscure governor of Georgia and Mondale a junior senator As such they had seats far back in the inaugural platform Today Carter stood at the front of the podium where he could see what harried Capitol Police called a crowd of at least 150.000 The Georgian elected by the incongruous coalition of southerners and blacks the nation over broke no new ground in his speech He outlined goals and hopes but did not suggest specific solutions to the multitude of domestic and international problems facing the new administration We cannot afford to do everything he warned Nor can we afford to lack boldness as we meet the future He rattled no sabres and sent no open messages to America's allies and foes overseas saying simply that U.S military strength must be so sufficient that it need never be proven in combat I join in the hope that my time as your president has ended people might sav this about our that we renewed our search for humility mercy and justice Carter said And that we had enabled out people to be proud of their own government once again True to his informal nature he was sworn in as President Jimmy Carter not James Earle Carter Jr as he was born He thus became the first American president not to use his formal name Ninety minutes before the ceremony Carter walked across Pennsylvania Avenue from Blair House to the White House and had a cup of coffee with Ford Then the victor and the vanquished of the 1976 election rode together in a closed limousine to the capitol Following protocol Ford came out on the inaugural platform first He joked with those around him many of them his colleagues during a quarter-century career in the House The Carter family arrived about 10 minutes before the official procession Miss Lillian was applauded by the on the platform when she arrived She stood bareheaded her white hair waving in the breeze She was greeted warmly by Sen Hubert Humphrey DMinn who wore a tall fur hat At the other side of the podium the Mondale children gathered Eleanor Jane and her brother Teddy stood at the front admiring the view together Mondale's wife Joan dressed in a brilliant red coat and hat stood beside her husband as he repeated the oath of office dressed in a bright blue coat buttoned to the neck kissed her husband after he was sworn in The Marine band broke into Hail to the Chief for the first time for Carter Carter skipped the opening event of inauguration day 8 prayer service at the Lincoln Memorial conducted by Dr Martin Luther King Sr father of the slain civil Carter's oath administered by Chief Justice Warren E Burger followed the of Walter as vice president administered bv Speaker Thomas O'Neill Carter chose the Bible given him a few months ago by h-s mother Miss Lillian one of the more colorful members of the Carter clan who campaigned throughout the country for the new President's election Mondale selected his father's Bible After the ceremony the new President was to head a hour parade back down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House while Ford boarded a helicopter on the Capitol grounds for nearby Andrews Air Force Base and a government jet to California and retirement Tonight the Carters and the will attend seven gala parties expected to draw celebrants Carter's people's inauguration is financed by a million budget funded through the sale of souvenir items and the tickets sold to the various official events In addition is appropriated by Congress for the ceremony and the District of Columbia government spends million for police and garbage collection and hopes to be reimbursed eventually by the federal government The budget is lower than that of Nixon's second inaugural and unlike any other the five day celebration has featured hundreds of free events for the public There were almost 200 free musical events that extend through Saturday Florida's crops left in shambles An Arctic cold wave today left Florida's citrus and vegetable crops in shambles Frost glazed auto windshields and slicked streets in Miami and temperatures tumbled to recordbreaking lows across the South including an low of 27 at West Palm Beach Light snow fell across much of the Midwest Great Lakes states the Ohio and the southern Appalachians A slight warmup spread through the midlands but thousands of locked communities were hit by fuel and power shortages Parade watchers lined up along Washington's Pennsylvania Avenue and on the frozen Capitol inaugural grounds in heavy togs blankets and even sleeping bags to see Jimmy Carter become president and ride in triumph to the White House Early morning temperatures in the capital were in the 20s Why don't they hold it in the football stadium or why don't they change it to the fiscal year and hold it in June when it's grumbled Sam DeFantis of Monongahela Pa one of the arrivals Florida Citrus Commissioner William Edwards estimated the state was losing 40 per cent of its orange crop in the January blast that put snow on Miami Tuesday The Sunshine State had record lows of 23 at Ford rejects amnesty offers deserters honor WASHINGTON UPI President Ford in one of his last decisions in the White House rejected request from the widow of an old friend for amnesty to thousands of Vietnam War resisters But in a move that brought as much criticism as praise he offered an honorable discharge to several hundred deserters who were wounded or decorated for valor in Southeast Asia Ford had promised Mrs Jane art that he would consider her for blanket amnesty as a memorial to her late husband Sen Philip Hart DMich However Wednesday's limited response was anticipated Mrs Hart called the action a step in the right direction but unhappily a small one I am disappointed with his decision and disappointed too that he seems to have met only with those who opposed unconditional amnesty and never with those who supported she said Beach 26 at Tampa 31 at Miami and a chill 48 at Key West Orlando tied its low with 20 degrees The crop disaster threatened to push prices for citrus fruit and juices sky high Fishermen feared the cold wave also might doom much of Florida's inshore fish and marine animal population New Orleans also had a breaker for date 24 The Coast Guard officially closed the Mississippi River to navigation from just below St Louis to Cairo 111 for the first time since the Peoples Gas Co in Chicago made new reductions in natural gas deliveries to business firms forcing new layoffs Two southern Louisiana com- panies warned consumers to turn off electric dishwashers clothes dryers and other nonessential appliances or face blackouts More than 120.000 persons were out of work across the South The Federal Power commission warned six pipeline firms tremendous demand for fuel threatens natural gas shortages in highest priority categories private homes hospitals and small businesses unless something is done Canada's National Energy Board Wednesday approved the export of 250 million cubic feet of gas a day to bolster dwindling supplies in Ohio Kentucky West Virginia Virginia Maryland New York Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia Jim Heckler 14 watches the Missouri River Ice has formed on both banks and In some places they are only a few feet apart UPI wire photo Floods swamp Indonesia JAKARTA Indonesia UPI The worst floods in nearly a have forced 100.000 people from their homes and swamped nearly of the capital officials said At least one person was reported killed Wednesday in high water spanned by two days of heavy rain Police and health officials said the waters which they described as the worst in nearly 100 years covered almost two-thirds of Jakarta with one to iO fees of w ater Officials said 100.000 people from the lying areas in northern and eastern Jakarta were evacuated although many returned to their homes as the water began subsiding by nightfall The swirling waters flooded city hall and forced hundreds of offices to close along the city's main streets Officials said the flood conditions were aggravated by the city's poor sewer system built prior to World War II for a population of The same system today 5.5 million
