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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 23, 1993                   TAG: 9303230381
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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CATO INSTITUTE'S MOTIVES ARE SUSPECT

STEPHEN Moore's March 8 commentary, "The costly myths of mass transit," is one more example of this newspaper providing a forum for the Cato Institute without explaining that the organization is a far-right lobby masquerading as a scholarly study group. Among other things, it is ideologically opposed to any form of subsidized rail-passenger service. During the past year, this paper also published a Cato attack on Amtrak.

During the Reagan-Bush era, the Cato Institute was in the forefront of the Washington political efforts to abolish Amtrak and to dispose of its taxpayer-provided assets to privatization - thereby enriching a few insiders and ending progress toward the expansion and modernization of rail-passenger service in this country. This at a time when our interstates are clogged with heavy-duty trucks, our airports are saturated and our air is increasingly polluted. PATRICK J. TRAVIS PULASKI

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