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STEVE MONROE: Minnesota Democratic Senator Walter Mondale was in Worthington yesterday for a fundraising luncheon to bolster DFL candidates standing in November's elections. These include Rick Nolan, who is vying for the sixth district congressional seat now held by the retiring John Zwach.

Nolan's Republican opponent, Jon Grunseth, appears to be fighting an uphill battle at this point. In launching an attack on the Republican Party, Senator Mondale referred to the Nixon-Ford administration.

WALTER MONDALE: They have given us the most disastrous economic policies since Herbert Hoover. They've given us the worst political scandal in American history. In just two years, they have given us two presidents and three vice presidents with only one election.

[LAUGHTER]

They gave us the first federal budget of $200 billion. And then they gave us the first federal budget of $300 billion. And the deficits accumulated in the first six years of the Nixon-Ford administration is greater than the federal debt accumulated in the 23 years of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson put together.

They have given us seven wage and price controllers. Six energy czars, five secretaries of the Treasury, two recessions, two devaluations, two freezes, four phases, five million unemployed, and they still don't know what to do about the economy.

STEVE MONROE: Mondale has still not announced his candidacy for the 1976 Democratic presidential endorsement, but says he is 99% sure he will run. In a press conference, Mondale held multinational oil cartels responsible for current US economic woes.

WALTER MONDALE: What we need is to deal with the things that are causing the inflation. It's not surplus demand. I know a few economists that I think there's too many dollars chasing to feel good. What's happened is that the oil cartels and the major multinational oil companies have jacked up oil prices out of all sight, and this is now working its way through the economy.

Fertilizer costs are a direct reflection of this same phenomenon. Oil or car prices have just been increased incredibly even though demand is down. Steel prices are up 44%. And you have to get to work on the real causes of inflation. And basically, I think it's to be found in monopolistic practices.

STEVE MONROE: When asked how his Minnesota constituents would view a two-year campaign for the presidential nomination in light of senate duties, Mondale stood by his senate attendance record.

WALTER MONDALE: I've made it clear from the beginning that effort has to be made in a way that's consistent with my senate responsibilities. And if you look at my record, I think I have a 90% voting record, which is high. I carry a full burden of legislative responsibilities, and I do this on weekends, and nights, and flying red eye specials.

And I believe what I'm doing helps Minnesota. Because the more I know about this country, the more I make a good presentation. The more I think I help my own state.

STEVE MONROE: That was DFL Senator Walter Mondale in Worthington yesterday for DFL campaign activities. This is Steve Monroe.

CONNIE GOLDMAN: The Minneapolis Fine Arts Park is a new kind of museum complex, both philosophically and practically. It's a unit of buildings that are designed to accommodate a burgeoning new public. It offers new ways of doing things and seeing things. Internationally renowned Japanese Architect Kenzo Tange has preserved and incorporated the original central structure.

The 60-year-old original Minneapolis Institute of Arts, a building of classical elegance and stature. Kenzo Tange has blended the new and the old. The interiors with the surrounding outdoor landscape, and the harmony of the Fine Arts Park is both preserved and created. Tange commented on his accomplishment yesterday.

KENZO TANGE: It's a great fortune to have this sort of marvelous site for this building. And the same time, as you mentioned before, to make some relation between existing building and new building, it's very exciting challenge for the architect. Not only the difficulties, but also very, very exciting, very, very important challenge. In any way, city should have some sort of mixture.

City is not uniform entity. City has various kind of character-- old one and new one. Even in the architectural complex, we might have new part and old one and new one. Or sometimes architecture should grow. In this sense, architecture should have old part and new part. So to create this sort of relation between old and new is very, very exciting challenge for architects.

CONNIE GOLDMAN: Dr. Edwin Stein, president of the Society of Fine Arts and chairman of the board of the Institute, also was on hand to welcome local, national, and international press. He spoke with pride as he said that people entering the museum complex will come into a place vastly different from the world outside.

EDWIN STEIN: I'd also like to say that this whole complex is to serve a region now, it's not merely a Minneapolis Institution. True, it is located here, but it serves the Twin Cities, the suburbs, and this whole region of the upper Midwest in its programs and all that it is about.

CONNIE GOLDMAN: The inaugural day celebration includes events from 12:30 this afternoon through 5:00 PM. Bands, fanfares, tours, and performances will highlight the public opening. All are invited for today and from this day on to enjoy the new Society of Fine Arts Park-- the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Children's Theatre Company and School. I'm Connie Goldman.