WASHINGTON, Jan. 23--Seventeen ways to strengthen the nation's defenses against Russia were marked out today by a Senate committee which declared: "We are engaged in a race for survival."

The recommendations included a speeded-up missile program and reorganization of the defense department.

They came from the Senate Preparedness subcommittee, which has spent more than 100 days inquiring into the U.S. defense situation.

Chairman Johnson (D-Tex.) said the testimony by leading U.S. scientists and military men was that the Soviet Union now leads in the development of ballistic missiles and in numbers of submarines which can attack this country with nuclear weapons.

Hoffa Victory

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23--A compromise court settlement today permitted James R. Hoffa to take the presidency of the Teamsters Union, with a board of "watch-dogs" looking over his shoulder.

U.S. Dist. Court Judge F. Dickinson Letts approved a settlement worked out by attorneys for the Teamsters Union and dissident members who had brought suit to block Hoffa's accession to the presidency.

Jimenez Flees

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan. 23--Dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez fell today and fled into exile. Angry crowds beseiged secret police headquarters and 60 bodies were reported found in the building after a ten-hour fight.

More than 100 persons previously had been reported slain since a general strike and uprising that began Tuesday.

Union Safeguards

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23--President Eisenhower today called on Congress to pass a 12-point program to guard against union fund pilfering and keep labor organizations out of the hands of dictators.

The President said most union officials are decent, honest Americans but nobody can ignore recent "disclosures of corruption, racketeering and abuse of trust and power in the labor-management field."

Scientific Translations

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23--The Commerce Department today announced plans to create a central clearing house for the translation and study of foreign scientific and technical publications.