In the Public Interest

The big rush is on for obtaining cable TV franchises throughout the country. With nearly 20 percent of the homes possessing TV presently wired, the cable in­dustry expects that, during the next 10 years, most of the remaining homes will be connected. The major cable companies, busily wooing local governments in state after state, are…

Though it might have amused Karl Marx, a recent story with the headline “Soviets Could Crush West With Debts” startled Toronto Star readers: “The Kremlin can take over the world simply by defaulting on colossal loans it has had from the West. International bankers and Western diplomats see the scenario, which sounds -like a plot…

He had been in elective office for 50 years and, for Sen. Warren Magnuson, D-Wash., this was his last evening. He sat in his Appropriations Committee office, sipping Washington State wine with a staff member and an old friend. They were watching on a television monitor the House of Representatives’ deliberations on the continuing budget…

The reporter from a national-chain of newspapers sounded astonished last April. He had just called Irving Shapiro, head of the giant Du Pont company, to ask his reaction to the Big Business Day coalition of consumer and labor groups citing Du Pont for what the coalition called harmful business practices. Coolly and with smooth confidence,…

TORONTO–The words of the Big Oil man in New York City came back quickly to this bustling metropolis: “If the proposals are translated into legislation as presented, they will affect every aspect of Canadian economic, political and social life and stretch beyond Canada’s national borders.” Thus spoke Alex Massad, president of Mobil Oil Corp.’s exploration…

Postmaster General William Bolger must have been watching the Big Oil companies operate. He’s learned that really higher price increases bring less public resistance than modest increases. And besides, demanding an outrageous increase gives him an opportunity to compromise down to only a shocking increase. I am referring of course, to the 33.1 percent increase…

Incredible! After supposedly campaigning against inflation, both the winners and losers have returned to a lame-duck congres­sional session where they quietly plan to raise their salaries $10,238 to a level of $70,900 a year. And that’s not all. They also are moving to give the defeated legislators a last-minute 7.7 percent increase in the lifetime…

The election is over and so is the national Democratic era in American politics. The pundits and the pollsters are analyzing the voters who rejected the Carter administration after having brought it to power in 1976 in order to find out why. Brock Adams, former secretary of transportation, came closest to the reason. He told…

ATLANTA, Ga.—Billy Lovett could scarcely believe what he was reading. Here was the state com­missioner of natural resources, Joe Tanner, telling a civic club in Tifton, Ga., “If we are going to continue enjoying anything resembling the lifestyle you have today we are going to have to have nuclear power in this country for the…

As the presidential election campaign comes to a close on decision day, Nov. 4, one point stands out clearly. Campaigns are not run on more than two or three substantive issues, and even they are pursued at a vague level of generality. Military defense, inflation and unemployment, of course, are the current issues that provide…