Notes
– Our May lead story on the privatization of airport control towers has generated a lot of interest. Author John Doherty was invited to attend the June 8 convention of the American Association of Airport Executives in Orlando. He reported back that association members'"operators of smaller airports'"seemed to be quite interested in the idea. John has also been asked to contribute an article on the subject to the Air Line Pilots Association magazine. Meanwhile, at press time, Newsday had slated for June publication a feature story on air traffic control privatization, mentioning both Doherty's REASON article and my own privatization proposal (published last year by the Heritage Foundation). And Tom Morgan's "Moneytalk," syndicated on 75 radio stations, discussed Doherty's article in a May broadcast.
– Leonard Read, one of the pioneers of 20th-century libertarian thought, died May 14 at the age of 84. One of my very first exposures to free-market thinking came about when I discovered the Freeman while in college. This little monthly magazine made economics crystal-clear and helped me survive two semesters of Paul Samuelson's neo-Keynesian economics at MIT. The Freeman is still published by the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), the organization Read founded in 1946. Over the years thousands of thinkers, writers, and business leaders discovered the free market thanks to FEE seminars and publications; many of them went on to start think tanks, write best-sellers, or become important educators in their own right. Long after most men retire, Read continued to write and lecture'"the last of his 30 books was published just last year. REASON was proud to publish an interview with Read in April 1975.
– Two of our recent articles on education continue to attract attention. Samuel Blumenfeld's October 1982 article, "The Victims of Dick and Jane'," has been reprinted once again, this time as a handsome pamphlet. Copies are available, at four for $1, from America's Future, 514 Main St., New Rochelle, NY 10801. Large-quantity discounts are available, too. And our April cover story, Gerald King's "Home Schooling: Up from Underground," is being distributed by the National Association for the Legal Support of Alternative Schools (Box 2823, Santa Fe, NM 87501). Incidentally, one of the leading researchers on home schooling quoted in the article'"Raymond S. Moore of the Hewitt Research Center'"recently had a long article on the failings of public schools in Columbia University's prestigious Teachers College Record. Titled "Research and Common Sense: Therapies for Our Homes and Schools," it appeared in the Winter 1982 issue.
– Free-market environmentalism is getting increased exposure these days. REASON contributors and Advisory Board members John Baden and Steve Hanke had virtually back-to-back articles on the subject'"Baden's in the May 2 Barron's and Hanke's on the op-ed page of the May 6 New York Times. And William Tucker, author of "Conservation in Deed" in our May issue, has an article on free-market environmentalism in the June issue of Inquiry.
РOur award-winning expos̩ on the Love Canal incident (February 1981) is being reprinted once again, this time in a textbook edited by Prof. Wayne Hamilton of the University of Maryland. And Prof. Bernard Siegan's January 1981 article on the rise and fall of "economic due process" has been reprinted in pamphlet form by the International Institute for Economic Research (1100 Glendon Ave., Suite 1625, Los Angeles, CA 90024), headed by Reason Foundation Advisory Board member William R. Allen.
– The free market produces both winners and losers. And, unfortunately, sometimes outright frauds. In our April issue, we reported in Trends the startup of an ambitious jitney service in Los Angeles called Express Transit District. But the company ceased operations in April (after our issue came out), amid charges by the district attorney's office that its founders may have operated a pyramid scheme, bilking investors by selling the same minibuses to several different people. (Those founders were believed to have fled to Mexico.) In May, however, a court-appointed receiver approved a plan under which the investors would put in additional funds to enable the company to resume operations. Thus, Express Transit District may ride again. We'll keep you posted.