WEEKLY COMPILATION OF PRESIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS, SEPTEMBER 4, 1972 1305

Bill To Restore the Postal Service 

Seniority of Elm er Erickson

The President9s Memorandum of Disapproval.

August 29,1972

I have withheld my approval from S. 889, a bill “ To 

restore the postal service seniority of Elmer Erickson.55

Under this bill, Mr. Erickson would receive special 

benefits denied other postal employees who lost seniority 

rights under similar circumstances or who made decisions 

and choices based on then existing rules. Such action by 

Congress would be discriminatory and without 

justification.

The seniority rules in question here represent the result 

of bargaining between the postal unions and postal management. They are not a matter on which Congress has 

legislated in the past. The seniority involved has to do with 

preferred assignments, eligibility for promotions, and 

similar matters covered by agreements between the Postal 

Service and the postal unions. Employees displaced on the 

seniority list by Mr. Erickson certainly would have good 

cause to complain if this bill were to become law.

In my opinion, if seniority rights are to be retroactively 

restored to postal employees, it is for postal management 

and the postal unions to negotiate an equitable solution 

which covers all employees similarly situated.

R ichard Nixon

The White House 

August 29, 1972

note: The memorandum was released at San Clemente, Calif.

Inspection of T a x Returns

Executive Order 11682. August 29,1972

Inspection by th e D epartm ent of th e T reasury of

Tax R eturns Made U nder th e I nternal R evenue Code of 1954 for E conomic Stabilization

Purposes

By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 

6103(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 (68A 

Stat. 753; 26 U.S.C. 6 1 0 3 (a )), as amended, it is hereby 

ordered that returns described in section 6103(a)(2) of 

the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 shall be open to inspection by the Department of the Treasury as may be 

needed in the administration of the provisions of the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970 (Public Law 91-379, 

84 Stat. 799), as amended by the Economic Stabilization 

Act Amendments of 1971 (Public Law 92-210, 85 Stat. 

743). Such inspection shall be in accordance and upon 

compliance with the rules and regulations prescribed by

the Secretary of the Treasury in a Treasury Decision, relating to inspection of returns made under the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 by the Department of the Treasury for 

the purposes of economic stabilization, approved by me 

this date.

R ichard Nixon

The White House 

August 29, 1972

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 4:43 p.m., August 29,

1972]

n o t e : The Executive order was released at San Clemente, Calif.

Farm fest, U .S.A ., 1972

Proclamation 4148. Dated August 28,1972.

Released August 29,1972

By the President of the United States of America

a Proclamation

Farmfest, U.S.A., an exposition to be held near Vernon 

Center, Blue Earth County, Minnesota, from September 11 through September 17, 1972, will depict the story 

of agricultural progress and will feature numerous displays and demonstrations focusing on how our farmers 

help to feed America and the world.

As part of the weeklong festival the United States will 

host the Nineteenth Annual World Ploughing Contest. 

Homage will be paid to the humble plough, the oldest 

known tillage tool and worldwide symbol of agriculture, 

through ploughing matches which represent an agricultural tradition of more than two centuries. They will help 

to dramatize the advances in farming from days of hard 

manual labor and animal power to our vast technological 

capacities.

Farmfest, U.S.A. and the 1972 World Ploughing Contest will provide an appropriate opportunity to salute 

worldwide agriculture and will promote foreign and 

domestic trade and commerce in farm commodities.

Now, T h erefo re, I, Richard Nixon, President of the 

United States of America, in consonance with Senate 

Joint Resolution 182, do hereby invite the States of the 

Union and foreign nations to participate in Farmfest, 

U.S.A., to be held in Blue Earth County, Minnesota, from 

September 11, 1972, through September 17, 1972.

In Wit n e ss Wh ereo f, I have hereunto set my hand 

this twenty-eighth day of August, in the year of our Lord 

nineteen hundred seventy-two, and of the Independence 

of the United States of America the one hundred ninetyseventh.

R ichard Nixon

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:00 a.m., 

August 30, 1972]

n o t e : The Proclamation was released at San Clemente, Calif.