Wednesday, February 10, 2007
[1868 - William Allen White, newspaper publisher, writer, born in Emporia, Kansas]
[1890 - Boris Pasternak, poet, writer, born in Moscow, Russia]
[1892 - Alan Hale (Rufus Edward Mackahan), actor, born in Washington, D.C.]
[1893 - Jimmy (James Francis) Durante, actor,
comedian, born in Brooklyn]
[1898 - Dame Judith (Frances Margaret) Anderson, actress, born in Adelaide, South Australia]
[1906 - Lon (Creighton Tull) Chaney Jr., actor,
born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma]
[1914 - Lawrence 'Larry' Cecil Adler, composer,
musician, born in Baltimore, Maryland]
[1920 - Alexander Comfort, medical researcher, pacifist, author, born in London]
[1960 - USS Sargo (SSN-583) surfaces at North Pole]
[1962 - American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers exchanged for Soviet Colonel Rudolf Abel]
More than four decades ago a youthful Ralph Nader appeared before Congress to expose the shameful safety practices of the Detroit automakers. Now that Mr. Nader has become an old curmudgeon, and a perennially unsuccessful candidate for high office, note that the Detroit automakers have marched in lockstep with him. Having resisted most safety advances in the intervening years, it was only government regulation and consumer oversight plus some healthy competition from the foreign manufacturers that made the US-produced cars now on our highway more protective of human life. Detroit built safer cars when they had no other choice.
A decade prior to Mr. Nader's appearance before Congress, William bought as his first car a used 1955 VW Beetle. It got 25-27 mpg around town, and 29-30 mpg on the highway. Today, over half a century later, the Detroit automakers are beginning to produce vehicles with comparable mileage and economy. They continue to resist the mandatory mileage requirements that government seeks to impose in order to reduce the USA dependence on foreign oil.