In the Public Interest

You won’t find the energy corpora­tions beating a path to Prof. Otto J.M. Smith’s door, but he believes he has designed a way to harness the sun economically to generate elec­tricity. A hard-headed electrical engineer at the University of California, Berkeley. Smith calls his mirror-tower plan “a practical solar­thermal-electrical power plant that can be built…

Here comes the “activated pa­tient” — the latest erosion of what some call “mediococentricity,” or the monopoly over health care by the physician. Although many doctors now recog­nize the value of having nurse practi­tioners and physicians’ assistants handle some routine medial proce­dures, only a few are heralding health education programs centering on the self-care idea.…

Soon the spring-summer mass advertising campaign for the Shell no-pest strip will be urging consum­ers to hang these silent insect hunt­ers in their homes. Don’t buy — unless, that is, you be­lieve a product which vaporizes a nerve poison 24 hours a day in your bedroom, living room or family room is a necessary ingredient…

A looming and ominous discovery affecting the major flame retardant in children’s sleepwear may be the impetus needed to get the House of Representatives moving behind the Senate-passed Toxic Substances Control Act. The flame retardant is called IRIS (2.3-Dibromopropyl) phosphate (TDBP) — or “TRIS” for short. This substance was freely chosen by the chemical companies,…

W.T. Slick Jr., senior vice-president of Exxon Company’s calling for higher profits, lower taxes, and less government involvement in the oil industry. In a recent speech before business economists, he declared, “Government policy needs to make a turn back to the kind of economics that helped build our country — a turn back to market…

Early in our country’s history, fire was a major threat to whole towns and cities. So citizens got together and formed effective volunteer fire departments. Other citizens worked to establish public libraries because they be­lieved books and publications should be accessible to all. Like educational Johnny Appleseeds, farsighted pio­neers gathered funds to establish colleges throughout…

What’s that old saying about not seeing the forest for the trees? Well, look again. An old form of energy — waste wood — is coming back as a. signifi­cant, renewable and relatively clean source of heat. Both utilities and industrial plants now are showing keen interest in utilizing woodchips, sawdust and bark discarded by…

Wright Patman, the great Texas populist, represented the people of his East Texas district for almost half a century in the House of Representatives before pneumonia claimed him at Bethesda Naval Hospital early last Sunday. He also spoke for all consumers, homeowners and tenants who needed a champion against the power of big money and…

Ohio State University, na­tionally known for its foot­ball team, may soon receive national recognition for its remarkably easy success in reducing its fuel and elec­tricity consumption. In fact, the Ohio State story, and others like it, may finally bring Washing­ton around to giving energy conservation top priority as the way to make the econo­my more…

All the presidential candi­dates are talking about big government. They want to make it more efficient. Some want to decentralize federal power to the states and a few would use big government to tame big business. What they all want us to believe is that, if elected, they would use presidential power to serve the…