In the Public Interest

McGovern on Monopoly

To his credit, Senator McGovern is the first serious Presidential contender in decades to associate himself with the historic concern over monopoly in our economy. Last September he co-sponsored a bill with Senator Fred Harris (S. 2614) to break up giant corporations in monopolized markets. McGovern stated in January that “the accumulation of corporate power…

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Cheaper than Wholesale

Should schools, colleges, hospitals and other recipients of federal grants be allowed to purchase or use needed equipment from the federal government’s property supplies, or should they be required to buy these items on the market at much higher prices? This is the question that has pitted the Nixon Administration and a powerful coalition of…

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Opening Jaycee Doors to Women

Young Men Can Change the World” is the motto of the new Junior -Chamber of Commerce. With 6,366 affiliated local Jaycee organizations and a membership of 307,092 young men between the ages of 21 and 36, the Junior Chamber prides on promoting civic improvement projects in towns and cities throughout the country. But ever since…

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Legal Door Opens Wider

Washington—The latest right-to-lawyer, decision by the Supreme Court last week should remind Amer-loans that having legal rights is not sufficient without also having legal representation to enforce or defend those rights, regardless of the ability to pay. What the court decided was that a person is entitled to a free lawyer, even in relatively petty…

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Free Lawyers

The latest right-to-lawyer decision by the Supreme Court last week should remind Americans that having legal rights is not sufficient without also having legal representation to enforce or defend those rights, regardless of the ability to pay. What the Court decided was that a person is entitled to a free lawyer, even in relatively petty…

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Cheap Insurance

The Pennsylvania insurance commissioner, Herbert S. Denenberg, is shaking up the insurance industry with his recently published Shopper’s Guides to Life Insurance and Auto Insurance. His objective is simple. He wants to give consumers more and more facts about individual insurance companies doing business in Pennsylvania so that they can choose bargains and save millions…

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A Campaign for Pollution

Alongside Geroge McGovern and Hubert Humphrey on the June 6th California Primary ballot is Proposition 9, an anti-pollution measure that has sparked a pot-boiling assault by big business lobbyists. Known as the Clean Environment Act, Proposition 9 qualified for the ballot when the People’s Lobby, an army of volunteer citizens, collected the signatures of more…

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Your Really Shouldn’t Be Drinking That Water

The quality of our drinking water is finally an urgent consumer issue. And not a day too soon. Why the delay? For decades, the public has known of the pollution of our lakes, rivers and streams from industrial, agricultural and municipal wastes. Recently, reports have detailed such dangerous contaminants as lead, mercury, pesticides, hormones, detergents,…

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Falling-Apart Houses

Shoddy housing construction is a national plague. Homeowner complaints are inundating local, state and federal housing officials. Cheated homeowners in various new housing developments are organizing to press their demands. My mail from new homeowners shows the problems are pervasive and that shoddiness is a pattern, not just an occasional lapse in workmanship. Complaints range…

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Death in the Mines

With more casualties to be counted, the Sunshine Silver Mine disaster at Kellogg, Idaho is already the country’s second worst non-coal mine catastrophe in this century. The fire which swept through this silver mine — the largest in the US — and entombed anywhere from 50 to 90 men is under investigation by the US…

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