CentenniAL

Coming in the November 2007 issue, we've got a piece from consumer advocate Ralph Nader. To preview, his article is a remembrance piece, recollections of the role of books and libraries in his childhood.

Nader returns to AL's pages after a 34-year absence (apart from a couple news briefs and incidental mentions within other stories, and a 2003 1-page story introducing his D.C. Library Renaissance Project). In 1973, "Ralph Nader called up and invited himself to the wake for libraries at ALA's midwinter meeting in Washington," as the introduction to his May 1973 (p. 275–278) article explains.

Ralph Nader and an unnamed delegate at the 1973 Midwinter Meeting

His speech and article addressed the federal budget, which threatened to zero out the Library Services and Construction Act for 1974 and cut other education programs that provided library funding. But much of his text could have easily been written today.

Take, for example, Nader's explanation of why LSCA was in danger. "The cutting in this area is not a reflection of any reflection. It's a reflection of the belief that there will be no real yelling as a result... Politicians were the first to realize that: they will cut in those areas where they will get the least defiance and the fewest repercussions." Indeed, concerns over the librarian image—and calls to change it—are nothing new.

More chillingly familiar are Nader's comments on the growth of presidential power, echoing modern-day concerns about the Patriot act, National Security Letters, wiretapping, and presidential powers generally. "Building on his predecessors' more modest usurpations, the President can now do the following things in contradiction of the fact that these powers belong to Congress: the President can make war; the President can impound or refuse to spend funds appropriated by the Congress; the President can reorganize the Executive Branch very fundamentally without obtaining the approval of the Congress; the President can unilaterally change the tax system particularly in areas such as depreciation ranges for corporations; the President can sweep up the powers of the Cabinet secretaries, put them in the hands of presidential assistants, who are neither confirmed by the Senate nor subject to hearings and interrogations by the Senate or the House because of the doctrine of executive privilege; and the President can make foreign commitments without seeking the advice and consent of the Senate by calling his treaties 'executive agreements.' "

—Greg Landgraf, American Libraries editorial assistant.