The Week

“I do not assume,” Walter Lippmann recently told a Time interviewer, “that I am writing for anybody of a lower grade of intelligence than my own.” Hmm.

When Lewis Strauss was head of the Atomic Energy Commission, the idea was that the government would build small prototype atomic reactors while private industry took responsibility for constructing—and paying for—any atomic power stations used to produce for the private economy. Now, with Strauss gone, the New York Times reports that a “compromise” has been reached: the government will not only take charge of the prototype reactor program but will also provide “liberalized assistance” for any and all private atomic construction. Suggested definition of “compromise,” to be inserted in all modern dictionaries: the art of making the other fellow go half way toward your goal.

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“I do not assume,” Walter Lippmann recently told a Time interviewer, “that I am writing for anybody of a lower grade of intelligence than my own.” Hmm.

When Lewis Strauss was head of the Atomic Energy Commission, the idea was that the government would build small prototype atomic reactors while private industry took responsibility for constructing—and paying for—any atomic power stations used to produce for the private economy. Now, with Strauss gone, the New York Times reports that a “compromise” has been reached: the government will not only take charge of the prototype reactor program but will also provide “liberalized assistance” for any and all private atomic construction. Suggested definition of “compromise,” to be inserted in all modern dictionaries: the art of making the other fellow go half way toward your goal.