Nader scores 'primitive' concept of law violation in United States

On a day when Richard Nixon defeated Hubert Humphrey in one of the closest elections in history, Ralph Nader '55 gave the University a glimpse of the platform that he would run on in this year's presidential race.

November 7, 1968 - "We get excited about riots in the street because of the flames and press accentuation of them; but when a pipeline explodes, takes more lives than some 'riots' and costs almost as much, there's no excitement at all."

So said Ralph Nader '55 last night in an example dramatizing the contention that American response to the law violation is as unsophisticated as its technology is advanced.

In his talk before a capacity crowd in the Woodrow Wilson School auditorium, Nader maintained that such things as highway death and air pollution are the greatest sources of violence in America.

Nader contended that social protests over crime in the streets rather than crime in the corporations indicates that "the whole concept of violence and crime in this society is still in the most primitive stages."

Tracing the reasons for this "primitiveness" formed the core of Nader's talk.

He pointed out that there are organizations currently gauging the social costs of corporate production. He added that colleges, universities and particularly law schools rarely come close to dealing with the social aspects of corporate production.

"The leading cause of death in the next 20 years in this auditorium will be the automobile," Nader said. "Is there anything in Princeton University which even touches on this problem?"

Nader said after his talk that his criticisms of law schools for failing to break the mold of institutionalized thinking paralleled in some ways the Woodrow Wilson School, where he studied as an undergraduate and later taught.

"But I do think that the Woodrow Wilson School is probably more closely related to the real problems of society than many institutions."

Commenting on the Nixon election, Nader said he thought "we were in a for a 'bullish' period. I don't think the Republicans even know how to spell 'consumer.' "