In the Public Interest

WASHINGTON–Picture the scene: Harsh arguments and fights are breaking out at congested gas stations and between shivering tenants and landlords around the country. Workers are losing their jobs. Small businesses, including the independent gas stations who provide about the only retail competition to the big companies, are being severely squeezed or put out of business.…

Washington–An industry just isn’t with it these days if it cannot announce a “shortage.” Without a “shortage” there is no corporate chic. For how else can a self-respecting corporation, working with its confreres and trade association, get higher prices, weaken pollution standards, loosen antitrust constraints, drive small business out of business and demand even more…

WASHINGTON–Those political antennae known as Senators and Representatives are mostly back home in their districts presumably sounding out the voters for their opinions. Until Congress reconvenes on January 21, the members of this leaderless branch of government will be sampling public opinion. Here are a few questions to put to your Congressional representative if you…

WASHINGTON–If there is anything that can match the corruption of the Nixon Administration, it is the incompetence and captivity to the big oil companies that have characterized its mishandling of the energy problem. Quite apart from its Congressionally documented refusal to stand up to big oil in past years and months, the White House is…

WASHINGTON–When Richard Nixon was promoting the safety of nuclear power plants before the Associated Press editors last month, he asserted reassuringly that his San Clemente residence was only a few miles from one such nuclear facility. What he didn’t tell the editors is that this plant at San Onofre, California, had closed down for several…

One of the benefits of the present short term energy shortfall is the attention it throws on the enormous waste of energy by suppos­edly cost-conscious industri­al and commercial firms. Many corporate executives will have to explain why and how they dissipated corporate resources over the years while holding out to shareholders and con­sumers an image…

WASHINGTON–President Nixon’s statement on the energy situation placed far more burdens on consumers than on industry. Together with his legislative proposals on the energy problem., the message adds up to a windfall for booming corporate profits and a shortfall for the consumer’s health and pocketbook. To start with, one would never learn from the President’s…

WASHINGTON–“Mommy, what’s going on in there?” asked the little girl as she waited with a group of tourists about to be herded through the Congress. That’s a good question and neither she nor most of the 1.2 million Americans who are guided through the U.S. Congress each year will get much of an answer. Instead,…

WASHINGTON–“Keeping the Church in its place” has long been the objective of business men who control the investment committees of religious institutions. Since the late Sixties, a growing number of clergy has been challenging the position that the Church’s ethical and moral posture should have no relevance in determining the criteria for investment and shareholder…

WASHINGTON—Since January of this year, millions of airline passengers have had their hand baggage and personal carry-on articles physically inspected as part of the government’s anti-hijacking program. There has not been a single domestic hi-jack since these procedures were put into effect. Now the airlines are installing x-ray inspection systems, mainly at the nation’s 30…