Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 37

tt i 4 4 0 0 19 SPORTS PEACH In This Section he iHmneapoh's tribune EDITORIALOPINION Pages 2-4 STOCK TABLES Pages 6-8 MINNEAPOLIS, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1 970 1 'fir iirMtfaniVlir; Wheat Prices Move Up in World Mart Jfr ptMfl ill Hi i. i ininmW i 111 ''w ifei Apache Mall, on Rochester's south side, will get Dayton's. lit Stevens Frutiger Lee Day Minneapolis Tribune Photos by Kent Koberstecn Dayton's department store dominates downtown retail scene in Rochester Dayton's shift inspires mixture of worry, optimism What Future tor Downtown Rochester? By DICK YOUNGBLOOD Minneapolis Tribune Staff Writer A tight world wheat market, the result of reduced supplies of both foreign customers and competitors, promises "much stronger" prices for U.S. producers in the current crop year, compared with a year ago. Upper Midwest spring-wheat producers, with a slightly larger crop than a year ago but virtually no surplus appear to be in one of the strongest positions to capitalize on the situation.

These are among the observations of Joseph Halow, Washington, D.C., the globe-trotting executive vice-president, of Great Plains Wheat, Inc. GPW is the industry's export-market development arm. Spring-wheat prices last week were running 15 to 20 cents a bushel over year-earlier levels, the result of both strong export demand and market concern over blight damage to the U.S. corn crop. If the bullish world wheat market can preserve even a dime of this increase, the region's spring-wheat farmers stand to pocket an additional $18.8 million this crop year.

The 1970 spring-wheat crop is projected at 187.8 million bushels, up slightly from the 187.2-million-bushel crop in 1960. Halow, in an interview last week, noted that exports of all U.S. wheat in July and August the first two months of the crop year were up 35 percent from a year ago, to 99.3 million tons. Spring-wheat exports climbed 25 percent in the same period, to 22.3 million tons. And foreign sales continued apace through September, Halow said.

The export market is a crucial one for U.S. wheat producers, because it Wheat Continued on Page Five DAYTON'S MOVE WILL LEAVE A VOID By FRED JOHNSON Minneapolis Tribune Staff Writer ROCHESTER, Minn. Two years from now barring unforeseen developments downtown Rochester will not have a major department store. Dayton's, the anchor of the downtown retail establishment, announced in August that it plans to replace its eight-floor store with a bigger facility in an outlying shopping center. Sears, Roebuck and Co.

and Montgomery Ward and Co. already have moved to the outskirts of town. And the J.C. Penney while it still has a store downtown, has its major retailing operation in an outlying shopping center. It had been no secret that Dayton's was considering such a move, but the announcement nevertheless was a blow to many people in this southern Minnesota community of 51,000 population.

Dick Frutiger, the owner of Monte's, an office-supplies and picture-framing business, said he is worried about what will happen when the drawing power of Dayton's is gone from downtown. A lot of people, Frutiger said, just couldn't believe that Dayton's would ever move. He clings to a hope that Dayton's will not move out altogether that perhaps it will leave a remnant of its business downtown. "As long as they had something here, they would be drawing people downtown, and it would definitely make a difference," he said. It might make a difference, but Dayton's currently has no plans for leaving anything downtown.

Rochester Continued on Page Five Dayton's decision underscores the fact that Rochester, while growing and prospering over-all, has a deteriorating core. Many of the downtown buildings are old; some of them are empty. And at the moment, there really is no plan to remedy the situation. There once was a plan to rejuvenate downtown Rochester through urban renewal, but that concept was rejected in an election in 1969. It's possible that urban renewal would have retarded the outward shift of retail facilities in Rochester.

For the present, urban renewal apparently is dead. Now the general hope here is that the downtown somehow will continue to function without a big, general-merchandise, retail establishment. i I "Can a downtown exist without a big department store?" wondered Frederick T. Hubbard, president of Northwestern National Bank. "I suppose that's going to be the crucial test." The downtown area does have some attributes, including impressive hotel and restaurant facilities and, most notably, the famous Mayo Clinic.

Many people here point to the huge number of transients attracted by the clinic, and speculate that high-quality specialty shops will be the mainstay of downtown commerce in the future. (Patient registrations at the clinic, which have been growing steadily, last year totaled 210,500.) That, however, Isn't necessarily an appealing prospect for every small merchant. '4 'PERPLEXING MIXTURE' Statistics Give Little Reason Dayton Hudson Gifts Total $2.36 Million Europeans Worrying BUSINESS in Over U.S. 'Stagflation' for Joy or Gloom By FRED JOHNSON Minneapolis Tribune Staff Writer By LEONARD S. SILK New York Times Service STOCKHOLM, Sweden The European financial community, not only finance ministers and central bankers, but also private bankers and businessmen, has a long list of anxie- Analysis: WHAT THE NEWS MEANS ties about the United States, starting with "stagflation" that perplexing mixture of economic stagnation and inflation.

reached a record $7.8 billion in 1969. The United States settles its payments deficits chiefly with dollars which are a reserve currency for other countries rather than with gold or special drawing rights, the "paper gold" created by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) early this year. The IMF managing director, Pierre-Paul Schweitzer, has suggested that the United States ought to settle its debts with reserves other than dollars. The U.S. secretary of the treasury, David M.

Kennedy has replied that the United States has in fact used gold and other non-dollar reserves to settle $2.5 billion in deficits last year which, the Americans Economy Continued on Page Five Dayton Hudson Corporation, casting aside its traditional reluctance to talk publicly about its charities, last week issued its first annual report on its corporate giving program. The company and its foundation contributed about $2.36 million to a wide variety of causes in the year ended last Jan. 31, according to the report. The report shows that the biggest share of the giving was provided by the Dayton Hudson Foundation. Other gifts came from the corporation itself and from its operating companies.

The big retailing operation devotes 5 percent of its pre-tax income (the maximum that can be deducted for charities for tax purposes) to what it describes as "contributions for community improvement." Robert MacGregor, vice-president and executive director of the foundation, said the national average for corporate giving is less than 1 percent of pre-tax profits. MacGregor, a former Minneapolis alderman, said Dayton's has become willing to publicize its charitable activities because: It is "a story that ought to be told" in light of the fact that there is "so much criticism of business today." The firm hopes to'influence other corporations to play a bigger role in meeting social needs. MacGregor noted that some students feel businessmen are "just out to make a buck," and added: "We've got to do a better job of responding to the questions people are raising about modern business." Plans call for issuing a report on contributions annually, he said. Gifts from the foundation and the Foundation Continued on Page Five American stagnation worries Europeans because they fear it will drag their own economies down. But present U.S.

inflation worries them even more. They contend it is being exported to Europe via the big deficits in the U.S. balance of payments. These deficits averaged $2.5 billion a year through the 1960s and By THOMAS E. MULLANEY New York Times Service NEW YORK, N.Y.

Recent statistics have not given any great comfort to those who have been ex- cessivciy opiim i i WEEK IN at)0ut prospects for the economy in the re-FINANCE maining months of the year. But neither have they dashed the widespread feeling that the worst of the business downturn has passed. The national economy now is moving essentially sideways across the trough of the. saucer, weighed down somewhat more than it might otherwise have been if a strike had not developed three weeks ago at General Motors, the country's largest automotive producer and contributor of about 3'2 percent of the gross output oi i.nc unueu ouiUs. The numbers that will be unveiled in the next few weeks on September's industrial production, personal income and employment will not make particularly pleasant reading, although they will depict an economy primed to climb the lip of the saucer in a gradual comeback from the mild 1969-70 recession.

It is quite evident now as third-quarter data become availa.ne that the hopes generated by July's upbeat economic reports were overly optimistic, due partly to the premature political heraldry accorded them by Washington officials. August, clearly, was a slightly weaker month, while September will probably prove to have had a little less economic zip as well. The lack of sparkle in the latest economic statistics dampened some of the enthusiasm in the stock market last week. Trading turned more hesitant and prices moved narrowly but held close to the recent recovery highs. This remarkable steadiness, however, encouraged the bullish contingent, on Wall Street.

It demonstrated the market's upward inclinations and its ability to resist a heavy quota of adverse news in the economic, political and international spheres. For the most part, stocks shrugged off the widening impact of the automotive strike, the discouraging report of the 0.4 percent rise in wholesale prices during September, and unsettling potential of the sudden death of Ganul Abdel Nasser, president of the United Arab Building Permits Decline Residential building permits issued in the seven-county Minneapo-lis-St. Paul metropolitan area in August totaled 559, slightly less than the 590 in the same month a year ago, according to a monthly report of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. The valuation, however, was up this year, $31,770,000 over in August last year. Residential permits for the January-through-August period numbered 3,631, compared with 5,221 in 1969.

The 1970 valuation was $183,627,000, down from in 1969. The number of non-residential permits for August was 2,466, about even with the 2,443 recorded in August 1969, but the valuation was almost double, $63,535,000 this year and $33,539,000 a year ago. For January through August, nonresidential permits totaled 15,777, with a valuation of $269,163,000, compared with 15,706 permits, with a valuation of $232,771,000, last year. The figures for residential permits apply to new buildings only, while the non-residential figures include additions and alterations. The Minneapolis-St.

Paul metropolitan area includes Anoka, Carver, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott and Washington counties. Politics Issue Raised A cut in the discount rate before the Nov. 3 election, a subject of widespread speculation, could expose the Federal Reserve to charges of political motivation, Washingtt-n analysts said. The sheer fact that speculation about a politically motivated rate cut is so rife, observers told the Dow-Jones News Service last week, could move the Reserve Board to hold off until after Nov. 3 to avoid blemishing its image of aloofness from partisan considerations.

'However, purely financial conditions could change enough in coming weeks, observers said, to induce the board to brush aside concern for its public image and approve a reduction in the (i-percent discount rale -the interest charged commercial bunks for money borrowed from the Federal Reserve. Through war and peace, depression and prosperity, 4 bear markets and bull i it i If A i I Medicare Complicates Some Tax Problems New York Times Service Anyone faced with the financial burden of taking care of I aging parents naturally wants to lighten the load. Some signifi- cant tax benefits are available, but the rules governing them are complex. Ironically, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has evolved some rules that could cut tax savings when an elderly parent receives substantial Medicare benefits. The reason is that some of these payments are considered to be "support." This makes it harder for the taxpayer to prove he provides i more than the one-half the sustenance "of an elderly dependent 'A, parent, as the rules for taking a $625 exemption for a parent require.

:1 As most elderly persons know, Medicare benefits are avail- able to almost anyone over 65 years of age. There are two parts to the program. The first is the so-called basic coverage that provides in- surance protection for hospital and other related costs. It covers a scmiprivate room, meals in the hospital, regular nursing care, drugs, laboratory tests, operating room charges and other re- latcd items. The second part of the program, offered at a small cost on a voluntary basis, is called the supplementary Medicare.

It Deductions Continued on Pago Five a 1 it 1920 1940 10 1970 for 75 years Piper, Jaffray ckHOPWOOD INCORPORATE.