875–2

Conversation No. 875-2

Date: March 9, 1973
Time: 3:17 pm - 3:53 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with William E. Simon, John T. Dunlop, John D. Ehrlichman and Herbert G.
Stein.
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 875-2 (cont’d)


Wage and price controls
-Peter G. Peterson
-5.5 percent wage settlement [?]
-Ehrlichman’s press conference [?]

Economy
-Latest figures
-Pressure for administration action
-Administration policy
-Quadriad meeting
-Political pressure
-Response to wage settlements
-Labor demands
-Impact on prices
-Prices
-Need to moderate
-Possible actions
-Gimmicks
-Impact on wages
-Wage increases
-Rejection
-Labor reaction
-George Meany
-Resumption of freeze
-Latest figures
-Labor reaction
-Gimmicks
-Price freeze
-Conversation with Peterson
-Problems
-Food supply
-Beef, poultry, pigs
-Food prices
-Farm prices, earnings
-Decline over past year
-Non-food prices
-Industrial products
-Lumber, oil
-Phase II price freeze
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 875-2 (cont’d)


-Impact on supplies of petroleum

Administration policy statement on energy
-Impact of Phase II on price freeze [?]
-Preparation for President's review
-Camp David meeting
-Energy
-Phase I August 1971 precedent
-George P. Shultz’s attendance
-Trade
-Session for policy advisors
-Outside advisors
-President's dinner conversation with unnamed oil businessman
-Private sector input
-Libya
-John B. Connally
-American Petroleum Institute [API]
-Connally
-Independent refiners
-Max Fisher

Wage and price controls
-Labor
-Reaction to price increase
-Food prices
-Meany
Cost of living
-Views of other labor leaders
-Administration policies
-Possible actions
-Return to Phase II price controls
-Oil action
-Industry-specific controls
-Cigarettes
-Canning
-Fertilizer
-Lumber
-Seriousness of problem
-Interior, Agriculture, and Labor Departments
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 875-2 (cont’d)


-Earl L. Butz
-Forestry Service
-Butz, Bill Brown [?]
-Food prices
-Increased supplies
-Price controls
-Meat
-Labor reactions
-Impact
-Support for freeze on food prices
-Labor agreements
-Labor-Management Advisory Council meetings
-Adjustments
-Cost of living escalators
-Deferments
-Settlement costs
-Cost of Living Council [COLC] meeting
-Latest trends
-Need for publicity
-Price increases
-Food prices
-Labor reactions
-Symbolic action [?]
-Shultz
-Stein
-Need to reassure unions
-Psychological effect of food price increases
-Stein
-Publicity for programs
-Visibility
-Examinations of industries
-Controls
-Explanations
-Public reaction
-“Food story”
-Butz’s speech
-White paper
-Food problem
-Agriculture Department
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 875-2 (cont’d)


-Butz’s role
-Agriculture compared to price control
-Speeches
-Farmers, meat processors, ranchers
-Prosperity
-Use of rhetoric
-Middlemen
-Tilt away from farmer, processor
-Value
-Reports
-Actions
-Lemons
-Resistance to President's policies
-Butz’s role
-Bureaucracy
-Surplus grain disposition
-Auctions
-Reports
-Subsidies
-Butz
-Blame
-Railroads
-Grain sales to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
-Meeting
-Statement by President
-Transportation secretary
-Railroads
-Meeting
-President’s attendance
-COLC
-Agriculture department
-Talking paper, report, presentation
-President’s role
-Need for publicity
-Symbolic action
-Need to appear active
-Excuses
-Food shortage
-Household budget
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 875-2 (cont’d)


-COLC
-Work with Agriculture department
-Butz
-Problems
-Meeting on grain surplus
-Other commodities
-Cheese
-Meeting with President on railroads
-Scheduling
-Meeting with Congressional leaders
-COLC
-Lumber issue
-Lumber supply
-Forrest Service
-Criticism of release of timber for sale
-Prices
-Commodity stockpiles
-War contingencies
-Bomb shelter
-Release for sale
-George A. Lincoln [?]
-Agriculture Department
-General Services Administration [GSA]
-Bureaucratic congressional reluctance
-Copper prices
-Need for legislation
-National security arguments
-Oil stockpiles
-Imports
-Oil producers
-Supplies
-Excess consumption
-National security arguments
-Secondary consideration
-Release
-Impact on prices
-Departmental authority
-Treasury Department, Council of Economic Advisors [CEA][?]
-Wheat subsidies
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 875-2 (cont’d)


-USSR
-Extension
-CEA[?] study
-Release
-Food
-Levels
-Wheat bushels
-Defense Department surplus
-Sale
-food
-Elliot L. Richardson
-Government hoarding
-Land
-Stockpiles
-Impact on prices
-Agriculture department stockpiles
-Meeting on grain, lumber supplies
-Hard-line stance
-Impact on other departments
-Agenda
-Stein
-Shultz’s, Roy L. Ash’s attendance
-Office of Management and Budget [OMB] role
-White House staff compared to agencies
-Frederic V. Malek
-Stockpiles
-National security arguments
-President’s role
-Wage demands
-Problems
-Food prices
-Government efforts
-Milk producers
-Congressional relations
-Wilbur D. Mills
-Relation with the milk producers
-Pet projects [?]

Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT]
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 875-2 (cont’d)


-President's meeting with U. Alexis Johnson

Simon, Dunlop, Ehrlichman and Stein left and Ronald L. Ziegler entered at 3:49 pm.

Meeting with Henry A. Kissinger [?]

People's Republic of China [PRC]
-Release of John T. Downey
-John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson
-Ziegler’s press statement
-William Downey [?]
-Downey’s mother’s illness
-Chou En-lai
-Downey’s release
-President’s appreciation
-Hong Kong, PRC border
-Robert J. Flynn, Philip E. Smith
-Release from PRC

Henry A. Kissinger entered at 3:50 pm.

William P. Rogers
-Presence

COLC

The President, Ziegler and Kissinger left at 3:53 pm.