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EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION* The responsibility of Government to protect the public interest at all times is a clearly recognized principle, particularly so when a new frontier is being opened. The shameless exploitation of natural resources in-the opening of the Great West demonstrated the result of governmental ailure to protect the public interest. Mountain ranges demuded of timber and the blank openings of abandoned mines are mute evidence leading us in a later day to wish that governmental leaders had earlier exhibited more foresight. Likewise, the concern of the National Government in protecting and furthering the cause of education goes back to our national beginnings. Even before the Constitution of the United States of America hed been written, the precedent was set. In opening the Northwest Territory, the Congress of the Confederation adopted an ordinance which reserved part of the public lands for educational purposes, thereby establishing a precedent which was followed without deviation in the subsequent admission of every one of the States into the Union. There is, of course, a difference between setting aside capital assets such as land to endow education and reserving channels of communication for use by educational institutions and systems; but both actions rest on the same fundamental notion that the public interest is best served when the need of the people for uni- versal access to good education guides governmental action. The point can be sharpened further. Education depends upon *By Earl J. McGrath, U. S. Commissioner of Education, Federal Security Agency, Washington, D. C. published in State Government, Angust 1951, Vol. XXIV. No. 8, pp. 209-211.