Notes

The Reason Foundation, REASON's parent organization, has gotten some nice publicity in recent weeks. REASON's 15th anniversary banquet prompted economist Walter Williams (one of the keynote speakers) to devote a syndicated column to our efforts on behalf of freedom. "If you attended the banquet blindfolded," wrote Williams, "you well might have thought the evening's assortment of speakers were Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, or George Mason." And on June 23, Congressman Ron Paul—our other keynote speaker—inserted a copy of Prof. Williams's column in the Congressional Record. Adding its congratulations on our anniversary was the flagship of the Freedom Newspapers chain, the Register, which featured an editorial, "Fifteen Years of Reason," on our event.

And two newsletters aimed at business leaders have recently highlighted the Foundation's work. In its May 23 edition, the Dean Witter Reynolds Research newsletter led off with a 4½-page condensation of my speech, "Rebuilding the Private Sector," which some of you may have read in its entirety in Imprimis last year. (Copies are available from the Reason Foundation for $1.00.) And the June issue of the Heritage Foundation's Policy Digest newsletter for executives featured a one-page write-up on our efforts at the Reason Foundation.

This kind of publicity all helps to build the Foundation's reputation and credibility. It's one of the reasons our budget for the first time passed the $1 million mark in the fiscal year ended June 30.

I'm pleased to announce two new features which are making their debut in REASON this month. First, we're expanding Trends with a new section called Global Trends (see page 16). We've always carried occasional reports on pro-freedom developments overseas, but from now on, our expanded network of foreign correspondents will be providing regular inputs from around the world.

The second addition is a new back-of-the-book feature—you'll find it at the very end of the issue (page 58). Called Further & More, it's designed to let you know what's become of interesting ideas and proposals covered in previous REASON issues. This month, for example, we follow up on an exciting proposal for partial deregulation of California's medical monopoly (shot down), on the effort to reform military testing (making real progress), and on further expansion of private airport control towers.

It's nice to see REASON contributors being published elsewhere. Long-time contributing editor Thomas Szasz was the subject of a thoughtful interview in The Sciences (July/August), adapted from a forthcoming book by interviewer Jonathan Miller. Dr. Szasz's most recent REASON article, on psychiatric wills (May), has been reprinted in condensed form as an op-ed piece by the Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun, among other papers. Contributing Editor Mark Frazier, with coauthor Dick Cowden, had an article in the May Reader's Digest—"Strong Medicine for Sick Cities: Cutting the Ties That Bind"—on urban enterprise zones. Our own Senior Editor Tibor Machan has had two recent op-ed pieces in the Orange County Register. Financial writer R.W. Bradford had recent articles in both Barron's and Personal Finance. And my own op-ed piece on bridge failures ran in the New York Times on July 9.

Two REASON contributors made TV appearances recently. Steve Hanke was on both the Today show and WOR-TV (syndicated on RKO cable), talking about privatization. And Dina Rasor, author of our much-publicized 1982 cover story on military weapons testing, was interviewed on the Bill Moyers Our Times program on July 19. Dina has put together an impressive anthology on weapons-procurement problems, More Bucks, Less Bang: How the Pentagon Buys Ineffective Weapons. Contributors include such people as our old friend Ernest Fitzgerald, Gregg Easterbrook, James Fallows, and other defense writers, and the book includes Dina's own "Fighting with Failures" from REASON.

The new name on our masthead this month belongs to John Northrup, who has joined the Reason Foundation as controller. John is a graduate of Princeton and a CPA. Besides having had a private accounting practice, he has taught accounting at Syracuse University. And last year he took time off to run for governor of New York State on the Libertarian Party ticket. John is the first of several additions we'll be making to strengthen the professional staff as the foundation moves into its second five years.