In the Public Interest

Business advertisements do more than sell; they also promote certain values, some of which reek with the stench of greed and exploitation. Two recent ads were quite in accordance with such exudation. In the pages of the New York Times, there has been a running commercial message by the Franklin New York Tax-Free Income Fund…

Last week in this column, I wrote about Alar — a chemical applied to many apple orchards in this country to make apples grow uniformly and become redder and firmer. Alar has been found to be an animal carcinogen by several competent studies which means that it is quite likely to be a cancer-causing agent…

It was the Twenty-Fifth Annual Banquet of the Golden Plate in Washington, DC, sponsored by the business-backed American Academy of Achievement on June 26, 1986. It was invited to attend by William McGowan, CEO of the MCI Company and wondered: “Could this be his wry retaliation for the chapter we wrote on his corporate career…

If you buy fresh apples, apple juice, apple sauce or other apple products rid apples, this campaign is for you. With relatively slight effort, you can help rid apples of a cosmetic applied to this fruit that has been shown to cause cancer in animals and therefore most probably in humans as well. The fall…

Here is a story of two Senators and a President at work. Multimillionaires Ronald Reagan and Senator John Danforth (R-MO) are upset at the verdicts and settlements which a few adults and children, badly injured by defective products and toxic chemicals, have been winning in lawsuits against corporations. Joining them in this worry is Senator…

An excess of concentration by the mercantile mind can lead to displays of genuine commercial derangement. Consider two recent episodes. The first is a report that talking and scented supermarket shelves may be tried on consumers in selected markets. The sponsors of this new marketing technique would place devices that trigger a taped selling message…

When the news broke last month that the Senate Finance Committee had agreed, by a vote of twenty to nothing, on a tax reform bill with a maximum personal income tax bracket of 27%, among other dramatic changes, editorialists erupted with awe and praise. The media relied for almost three weeks on a 30-page summary…

It took a high school student asking President Reagan a question about hunger in America at a White House meeting to put the subject on page one. Mr. Reagan replied: “I don’t believe that there is anyone going hungry in America simply by reason of denial or lack of ability to feed them; it is…

There is an interesting ideology maturing in Reagan’s Washington these days. It is best called “corporatism.” Here is an example. For years Ronald Reagan would speak against mandatory seat belt use laws and mandatory motorcycle helmet use laws. Long before he was president he would give these proposals as prime examples of a meddling Big…

Is this country serious about preventing cancer? Americans who stop smoking are serious. So are mothers and fathers pushing for school containment of asbestos that is exposing their children to risks of cancer later in life. So too are community groups fighting toxic dumps and emissions. But what about our national government and its helmsman,…