In the Public Interest

The atomic power industry is crumbling—financially, technically and managerially. The evidence for this condition is obvious, diverse and overwhelming. Even Wall Street and the utilities themselves recognize the problems with their actions, if not their words. The money markets are turning off this hazardous and costly mode of boiling water to produce electricity. And the…

What started as a major motor vehicle lifesaving proposal in 1969 under the Nixon Administration was destroyed in one minute by the Reaganites Friday, Oct. 24, 1981. The tragic event took place at the Department of Transportation, where Reagan’s puppet traffic safety administrator, Raymond A. Peck, rescinded the crash-protection regulations which soon was to go…

Members of Ronald Reagan’s cabinet and sub­cabinet are busy telling business audiences around the country that the White House delivered the budget and tax relief that corporations have been clamoring for and now it is up to these corporations to produce this country out of the recession. There is more than an undertone of irritation…

If you try negotiating for a less-expensive insurance policy by asking your insurance agent to discount his or her commission, you’ll learn about the anti-rebate or anti-discount law. Those laws, enthusiastically backed by the insurance companies themselves, prohibit agents from discounting their commissions. On the books since the turn of the century, these anti-rebate laws…

The other day I came across a metal container which egg farmers used around 1920 to ship their fragile produce to consumers. This particular one, sold by Montgomery Ward, had separate pockets for two-dozen eggs. What was so surpris­ing about this container? Only that farmers sent fresh eggs by the U.S. Post Office which, for…

From ‘a Philadelphia newspaper: “Six children were killed and three other peo­ple were injured this morning when a one-alarm fire gutted a two-story home. A cig­arette carelessly left smoldering on a living room couch caused the blaze, which fire­fighters brought under control in only 16 minutes.” From a Boston newspaper: “A smolder­ing cigarette that may…

The forked tongue of the Reagan administration is now airborne. It belongs to Secretary of Tran­sportation Drew Lewis, who tells us regularly on the television screen that airline safety is his top priority even as he refuses to reopen negotiations with the air traffic controllers. He also adds that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is…

The multimillionaire, who owns several $1,000 cowboy boots, is the same man who wants to eliminate the minimum $122-a-month Social Security payment, cut school lunch plates in half and pre­vent aid to dependent children if families have more than $1,000 in personal prop­erty. The man, of course, is Ronald Reagan and he wants much more.…

General Motors pouted with denials this spring when I asserted in an open let­ter to GM Chairman Roger Smith that his company was producing a bumper lemon crop because of serious quality control problems. I specifically mentioned troubles that motorists were having with $20,000 to $25,000 Cadillac’s as indicative of a defect process plaguing other…

As organized labor moves toward what it hopes will be a large demonstration in Washington Sept. 19 against the Reagan administration’s policies, it is difficult to see any sector where union influence is not declining. Much of this decline is of the union’s own making and the rest reflects a major resurgence in the use…