■ Tolling out the old, and in the new: facts significant, interesting, absurd. In 1974, the federal payroll hit an all-time high of $35.7 billion. … By the end of 1974, 50 per cent of the American people were paying more in Social Security taxes than in federal income tax. . . . Still incomplete figures from philanthropic organizations indicated Americans in 1974 may well top the record $24.5 billion in private giving set in 1973, despite economic woes. . . . Polls showed 70 per cent of the American people favored retention of the national 55 mph speed limit, 68 per cent said they had cut their own driving speeds (but not, said most state cops, to 55 mph). … As a new, younger, more liberal and feisty Democratic Congress took over, two Opinion Research polls showed 1) that 74 per cent of the population at large favored retention of Taft-Hartley’s 14 (b) clause—the right to work clause—and 2) that 60 per cent of union members felt labor leaders in America were too powerful. . . . The cost of living went up in 1974 approximately 12 per cent, but the cost of dying, that is to say funerals, went up only 6 per cent: cheaper caskets, fewer limousines, more cremations.
■ Henry Kissinger was voted the most admired man in the world in George Gallup’s year-end ratings for the second time in a row. Billy Graham placed second and Gerald Ford third. Richard Nixon was still on the list—No. 7. Republicans Nelson Rockefeller and Ronald Reagan (Nos. 6 and 9) made the top ten for the first time, replacing Ralph Nader and Pope Paul VI. . . . The Ladies Home Journal’s year-end most admired women category had Pat Nixon still on top as No. 1. … In the Communist World Magazine, the most admireds at year-end included Leonid Brezhnev, Hortensia Allende (Mrs. Salvador), Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut, and Yasir Arafat of the PLO.
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