The decade of the 1960's was a tumultuous period for the American polity, and thus far the 1970's have been equally so, if for different reasons. During these same years network news programs emerged as America's most used and most trusted source of information about national affairs. Taken together, these news programs have given us a dramatic and interpretive record of our time. Strange as it may seem, until 1968 no one—not even the networks themselves—maintained an archive of television news tapes. While an interested person could have reviewed past editions of newspapers and magazines at a local library, past television newscasts were not available for study until Vanderbilt University acted.

The Vanderbilt Television News Archive has videotaped the three networks' evening news programs off-the-air in Nashville since August, 1968. The archive has also taped other historic public affairs programs, including presidential nominating conventions, the Senate Watergate Hearings, and the Judiciary Committee's impeachment proceedings.

From the beginning Vanderbilt informed the networks that it was archiving this material because the public interest required that it be saved and made available for research.

In December, 1973, CBS brought suit against the university to stop the Vanderbilt effort. A trial may occur in the near future.

Chicago is Richard J. Daley and Richard J. Daley is Chicago—puckish, often provincial, mostly pragmatic, and above all—fiercely proud. As Len O'Connor observed of the Mayor, “Surely the nation has never seen his like before—nor is it likely to see anyone quite like him again.” The same may be said of Chicago, which Carl Sandburg called, “The City of Big Shoulders.” “Chicago has never been a genteel town,” notes political scientist Milton Rakove, author of the most recent haiography of the city's politics. “It has always been, and still is today, a lusty, brawling, sprawling city.” It is appropriate that political scientists gather in Chicago during our bicentennial celebration. Chicago is not only a significant link to our nation's past, but may well be our window to the future.

Where Chicago's toughness, unsophisticated and unreformed demeanor may offend some, the city's abundance of excellent restaurants will quickly disarm even its most vehement critics. The city is unique and perhaps unparalleled among convention cities with respect to culinary offerings—variety, ambiance, price, and accessibility. For those more timid souls whose range of gastronomic inquiry is limited to within eight blocks of the Palmer House, let me suggest three mainstays of downtown dining. Berghoff, 17 W. Adams, is a traditional favorite of convention goers. It is an inexpensive German restaurant and brauhaus which specializes in Hungarian goulash, sauerbraten, and schnitzel. The Blackhawk, 139 N. Wabash, is another favorite of Chicagoans for luncheon and dinner with excellent prime beef and the house specialty, Boston scrod. For greater variety and a touch of French cooking, I suggest you try Binyon's at 327 W. Plymouth Court, located across the street from the Dirksen Federal Office Building.

The Political Science Program of the National Science Foundation is the primary source of support for basic research conducted by university-based political scientists. While the scientific progress of the discipline depends on what happens in the minds, the fields, the laboratories, the libraries, and the typewriters of scholars across the country, there is little question that the size of the Program budget and its usage affects the type and quality of research done by political scientists.

This article offers a public accounting to an interested clientele. In no way is it an officially sanctioned statement from NSF. It is a set of personal reflections with some analysis, parts of which my superiors at the Foundation find objectionable. Some of the arguments will not please important sectors of the discipline's intellectual and political leadership as well. I offer it in hopes of stimulating reaction and change. It is limited to basic research support, primarily through the Political Science Program, and does not extend to support for applied research funded typically through RANN-NSF. Finally, the Foundation is effecting a major reorganization which may have far-reaching consequences for the Division of Social Science of which the Program is a part; thus what is said here is subject to change over the next few years.

In 1973 a research project was initiated by the American Political Science Association to investigate problems surrounding the establishment and maintenance of confidential relationships between scholarly researchers and research subjects. The effort was funded by the Russell-Sage Foundation and co-sponsored by all the various national social science associations.