Publisher's Notes

• The National Committee to Legalize Gold has reported that Senator Mark Hatfield has introduced a Senate bill to restore to Americans the right to own gold. The bill number is S2709. In the House, a third legalize-gold bill (HR 5978) has been introduced by Representative James McClure, joining previous bills by Reps. Crane and Schmitz. Rep. Crane is reportedly planning to attempt to attach his bill (HR 1258) to another bill as a rider.

• The national Libertarian Party has issued its second newsletter. Among other things, it reports the results of a membership survey to determine presidential candidate preferences. The leading five contenders, in order, were economist Murray Rothbard, financial consultant Alan Greenspan, tax-protester Vivian Kellems, ex-Pentagon cost-cutter Ernest Fitzgerald, and economist/former White House adviser Martin Anderson. Other well-known figures in the poll were Representative Phillip Crane, author Robert Heinlein, and economist Milton Friedman, all of whom finished in the top ten. The Libertarian Party has adopted a very well-thought-out temporary platform and plans to held a national convention in Denver, June 4-7.

• Alan Reynolds, whose "Economics, Ethics, and Epistemology" appeared in last month's REASON has been appointed Economics Editor of NATIONAL REVIEW. His first article in that capacity "Unions: Scapegoats for Inflation" appeared in the 31 December 1971 issue of NR.

• A reader has supplied the following list of recent journal articles which might be of interest to REASON readers:

Edwin G. Dolan, "Alienation, Freedom and Economic Organization," JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, September/October 1971, pp. 1084-94.

E.K. Hunt, "A Neglected Aspect of the Economic Ideology of the Early New Deal," REVIEW OF SOCIAL ECONOMY, September 1971, pp. 180-92 (shows similarities between the New Deal and Prussian policies; mentions Rothbard and Kolko).

James D. Bassler, "Individualism, Competitive Economics, and the Common Law," in Ibid., pp. 193-99.

George Foster, "W.E. Hearn: A Laissez-Faire Economist in Parliament," AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC PAPERS, June 1971, pp. 25-39.

• REASON author and McGraw-Hill World News correspondent Dennis J. Chase recently had an article published in the weekly "Speak Out!" column of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. The article "Air Pollution Crisis? Look at the Figures" referred to recent studies indicating that air pollution in Chicago has peaked and is now on the decline.