Editing 75-12-B5 (section)

=== Transcript ===
There's a young public interest legal group that has some powerful axe grinders on the run. I'll be right back.

Some time ago I talked about an organization called the Pacific Legal Foundation. It's a non-profit public interest law firm which dedicates itself to upholding the Constitution and protecting the public interest against such special interests as the so-called welfare rights groups, government bureaus and those ultra-environmentalist organizations which would deny you and me the right to swat a mosquito. The P.L.F. is involved in defending the right of the U.S. Navy to build on Puget Sound, a base for Trident submarines which are vital components of an advanced missile system, essential to our national defense. Hyper-environmentalist groups in the state of Washington oppose construction of the Trident base on the grounds that it might harm the ecology of the area. Their real reason seems to be resistance to change of any kind. It's strange but true that such people sometimes forget that man is also a part of the environment and they seem conveniently to overlook the fact that freedom is every bit as fragile and irreplaceable as any given ecological system. The Trident case is now awaiting a federal judge's ruling, but the P.L.F. lawyers are optimistic they'll win their case. But Trident is only one of many areas in which the P.L.F. has been involved in the last two years.

A recently published report shows a long series of P.L.F. successes as it has intervened in cases involving actions either by special interest groups or by the government. The foundation's criterion for getting involved is simple, is it in the public interest? As a result, P.L.F. can and does find itself defending government action in one case and protesting it in another. It intervenes on behalf of groups or individuals wherever the broader public interest lies.

Take for instance, the case of the Tussock Moth, a nasty forest pest that in 1973 destroyed seven hundred thousand acres of prime forest in the Northwest United States. Now there's only one sure control for the Tussock Moth-DDT. As you know DDT has been banned by the Environmental Protection Agency and despite pleas for a limited lifting of the ban, the E.P.A. stood firm as the Tussock Moth chewed up all that valuable timberland. Finally the P.L.F. filed an action demanding the DDT be used to end the destruction. Reluctantly the E.P.A. finally agreed. The result was a 100 kill of the Tussock Moth and as far as has been determined, no significant damage to the forest environment.

Remember when the E.P.A. wanted to ban autos from downtown? Was deliberately going to cause traffic jams to discourage people from using their cars? Well it was the Pacific Legal Foundation that led the fight to stop that nonsense and force the E.P.A. to back off.

Then there was the case of Linda Taylor, the champion welfare cheat of all time. She belongs in the Guinness Book of Records. She used 80 aliases and 50 addresses to defraud 13 states of more than a half a million dollars. It was the P.L.F. that trained the Illinois investigators who uncovered the case of Linda Taylor.

In its first two years of existence the P.L.F. has intervened in more than 20 cases on behalf of the public interest. It's good to know that you and I no longer are entirely at the mercy of those special interests who seek to spend our tax money and bend and interpret the laws for their own special points of view.

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.

</TD>
<TD WIDTH="10%" ROWSPAN="2">&nbsp;</TD>
<TD VALIGN="TOP" HEIGHT="250">