Word: draconian
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Last week, in another Draconian attempt to curb the pressure on prices, Castello Branco decreed that no union may be granted more than one wage boost a year-a blow to organized labor, which has been getting multiple raises yearly. By such stubborn measures, Castello Branco and his able Minister of Planning, Roberto Campos, at least hope to hold inflation this year to a mere 35%-which, if it can be done, will indeed be a miracle of sorts...
Indeed not; and suggestions echoed around London last week that raising the bank rate alone might not be enough. Apart from devaluation, which the government is desperately determined to avoid, there are two possibilities for further action: a politically risky wage freeze and import controls. Clearly, Britain will need Draconian measures-or miracles...
...major impetus for this Draconian doctrine traces back to 1911 when an upstate New York gravestone dealer named Donald MacPherson was driving his new Buick at 15 m.p.h. A wheel flew off, the car flipped, and MacPherson wound up in the hospital. He sued the Buick Co. for negligence in failing to inspect the defective wheel. Buick raised what was then a plausible defense: it had never sold MacPherson anything directly, since he bought from a dealer. Therefore, said Buick, it could not be held liable to MacPherson for negligence...
...discouraging degree of sameness." Commission investigators have been busy pinpointing the power over TV programming held by what the industry calls "the three men": ABC's Tom Moore, NBC's Bob Kintner, and until last week, CBS's Jim Aubrey. The FCC's Draconian cure: divest the big three of half their prime programming time (7-11 p.m., E.S.T.), hand the task over to sponsors and independents...
...piece is the devoted public prosecutor of Tangier, who presses for the execution of a bank robber, Sean McKenna, as a bonum exemplum of the power of the law even in that North African Gomorrah. Though only an accomplice in the crime, McKenna is condemned under the Draconian local statutes. As the hour of expiation nears, the distaste of prison wardens, lawyers, and even the firing squad grows rapidly...