Word: modeste
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Smithsonian has never had Government support; it was launched on a $50,000 contribution from an anonymous donor. With this modest nest egg, and the Institution's credit as backing, Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley hired Edward K. Thompson, managing editor of LIFE from 1949 to 1961, to head the new venture...
...Modest and unimposing in speech and stature out of court, the 5-ft. 6-in. jurist towered and glowered from his bench, openly indignant at what he considered evasions and deceptions in testimony before him. He simply did not believe that the seven lowly burglars who had wiretapped Democratic National Committee headquarters at Washington's Watergate complex in June 1972 were a self-starting team working alone. Injudicially, some have argued, but undeniably in the higher national interest, as others would insist, he applied pressure until he got a scandal-bursting response. Once James W. McCord Jr. began...
There are other easier, less abrasive, ways to save. Schools all over the country have set their thermostats as low as 66° in classrooms and 60° in gyms, halls and dormitories at night. Many have sealed off unused spaces and consolidated activities. Such modest conservation steps are saving New York City's schools 500,000 gal. of fuel oil every month. Other simple steps achieve more savings: as many as 78 fluorescent tubes have been removed from some large halls at Georgetown University without dropping lighting levels below acceptable minimums. Windows and the tops of elevator shafts...
...survivors, disability, and health-insurance program," popularly known as Social Security, has long enjoyed an almost sacrosanct status with politicians and the public. Basically a Government-administered plan under which retired workers receive as a right financial benefits paid for in taxes by employees and their companies, the once modest program has developed into a mammoth system that touches the lives of practically every American. Despite the program's undiminished popularity, however, payroll deductions to pay for rapidly growing benefits have soared in recent years, with the most painful burden falling on low-income workers. That trend...
There is a legitimate question, though, whether that spirit can be extended. In Germany itself, labor peace was shattered late last summer by a series of wildcat strikes. Having a voice in company planning did not soothe workers who were unhappy about rising prices and the modest wage hikes negotiated by their unions early last year (worker-directors stay out of pay bargaining, which is conducted by regional unions and federations of employers). And would the cooperative attitude of Germany's soberly capitalist labor leaders be matched by representatives of strike-happy British unions, or Communist-led French...