Show I 1 II THE VOICE OF BUSINESS t Thursday r December B e 1977 1917 Vernal f 1 13 3 t The wisdom of big brother IV l lIy y Richard I L. L Leslier President Chamber of Commerce of United Slates States Opponents of ot age discrimination won a curious victory in Washington D D. D C C. C recently The city's Alcoholic Beverage Control Board Hoard ruled that restaurants featuring nude go-go go dancers must admit minors and may not prevent the minors from viewing the performances That outcome was the ur unforeseen result of or a provision in the Districts District's human rights law which forbids discrimination against restaurant customers on the basis of age and other things Charity Charily Begins The Department of Health Education and Welfare has lias discovered that over of its current employees are receiving welfare payments of one kind or the study that disclosed this fact covered only 20 sta states stales tes and the District of Columbia Maybe they need the money It turns out that more than HEW employees have defaulted on federally guaranteed student loans The pay of these employees ranges up to a year A Big Stink Last Spring those diligent guardians of the Nations Nation's health at the Environmental Protection Agency threatened severe penalties for cities and businesses failing to meet the standards of the Clean Water Act by July 1 1 They were somewhat red- red faced when the National Chamber pointed out that while fewer than 10 to percent of the country's Industrial plants failed to meet that deadline at least 25 23 percent of the Federal Governments Government's own facilities were In violation In October EPA admitted that 38 percent of the largest federal Installations Il are arc still polluting We await imposition of the penalties With Friends Like These According to the Detroit News the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Administration Ad Ad- ministration is so anxious to protect us from auto accidents with Inflatable air all airbags airbags bags that it tried to suppress a report indicating scat seat belts are arc more effective And according to the Wall Street Journal the Energy Research and Development Administration now part of the Department of Energy is so anxious to protect us from a shortage of natural gas that it suppressed a report showing there would be no shortage of natural gas at a aprice aprice aprice price slightly higher than President I Carter wants to allow Jer Us The White While House floated a trial balloon last summer proposing a youth corps of volunteer energy inspectors They would go from house to house checking the water level in toilet tanks and advising homeowners on energy conservation White House blouse idea man Greg Schneiders said he wanted to avoid the implication that an army of little uniformed inspectors are going out and checking on people Fortunately so did everyone else It Only Hurts blurts at atThe atThe atThe The Cash Register The Consumer Product Safety Com Com- which mission not long age declared the too tricycle unsafe at any speed is now fretting about the accident rate of or supermarket grocery carts Grocery carts Yes grocery carts A warning label is contemplated The Ultimate Solution So great is federal concern for the survival of ot the snail darter a small fish fishon on the endangered species list that completion of the million Tellico dam damin in Tennessee has been blocked until the feds fells find a way to move them to another stream for for which a House blouse committee has appropriated 9 million Meanwhile biologists of the US U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service managed to poison the first 98 8 th they tried to move A Word to the WIse The increase in taxation due to the accumulation of debts that arc are contracted one after another makes it necessary for forthe forthe forthe the government to have recourse again and again to fresh loans in order to defray extraordinary taxation is now not so much an incident as asa asa asa a principle Karl Marx quoted in in- in National Review |