liOITCJRrnThomas FlemingrnMANAGING EDITORrnTheodore PappasrnSENIOR KDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, jr.rnEDITORIAL ASSISTANTrnChristine UaynesrnAR’I DIRECTORrnAnna Mycek-WodeckirnCONTRIBUTING EDIIORSrnJohn W.Aldridge, Harold O.].rnBrown, Katherine Dalton, SamuelrnFrancis, George Carreit,rnE. Christian Kopff, Clyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrnJanet Scott Barlow, Bill Kauffman,rnJohn Shelton Reed, David R. SlavittrnEDITORIAL SECRETARYrnLeann DobbsrnPUBLISHERrnAllan C. CarlsonrnPUBLICAI ION DIRECTORrnGuy C. ReffettrnCOMPOSITION MANAGERrnAnita FedorarnCIRCULAIION MANAGERrnRochelle FrankrnA pLihlication of The Rockford Institute.rnEditorial and Advertising Offices:rn<-H4 North Mam Street. Roekford, 11. 6110^.rnEditorial Phone: (815) %4-5l)54.rnAdvertising Phone: (815) 964-5811.rnSubscription Department: P.O. Box 800,rnMount Morris, IE 61054. Call 1-800-877-5459.rnVol information on advertising in Chronicles,rnplease call Rochelle Frank at (815) 964-5811.rnU.S.A. Newsstand Distribution b’ Eastern NewsrnDistributors, Inc., 1150 Cleveland Road,rnSanduskv.OH 44870.rnCopyright © 199? by The Rockford Institute.rnAll rights reserved.rnChronicles (ISSN 0887-5751) is publishedrnmontblv for $24 per ear b The RockfordrnInstitute, 954 North Main Street, Rockford,rnIE 61105-7061. Second-class postage paidrnat Roekford, IE and additional mailing offices.rnPOSTMAS PER: Send address changes tornChmmcles, P.O. Box 800, Mount Morris,rnIL 61054.rnThe views expressed in Chnmicles arc thernauthors’ alone and do not iicccssanly reflectrnthe views of ‘I’he Rockford Institute or of itsrndirectors. Lfnsolieited nranuseripts cannot bernreturned unless accompanied by a sclf-addrcssedrnstamped envelope.rnChroniclesrnVol. 17, No. S M.iy 199^rnI’riiitai 111 Hic luikd St.itcs DI ,nicrlciirnPOLEMICS & EXCHANGESrnOn ‘Banding’rn”Banding” as a successor to race-normingrn(Cultural Revolutions, January 1993)rnis even more pernicious than RobertrnG. Holland suggests. Proponents ofrnbanding make it sound benign enough.rnRather than pretend we can rate peoplernwithin 100 gradations, we use fewerrngrades. Schools frequently use lettersrn”A” through “D” for grading, movie reviewersrnaward up to four stars, and menrnin singles bars rate women on a scale ofrnone to ten.rnWhat the banders don’t want us tornknow is that they borrow from the graderninflation endemic during the VietnamrnWar that kept men in school and safernfrom the draft. In this case thev hyperinflaterngrades so that almost any minorityrntest-taker can get a high score. Thisrnsystem was actually used in an examinationrnfor police officers in New YorkrnCity, supposedly to satisfy the state constitution’srnrequirement that the meritrnsystem determine civil service eligibility.rnPrior to this the city had spent overrn$100,000 to develop a test that was “culturallyrnunbiased.” The results of thatrntest were no more favorable to minoritiesrnthan the old “biased” variety. Onernhigh-ranking civil service official wasrnfired for having testified before the cityrncounsel that even illiterates could passrnthe test.rn—David KahnrnNew York, NYrnCULTURAL REVOLUTIONSrnR O N B R O W N was recently blasted byrnan organ that is usually quite friendlyrnto Democrats, the New York ‘Times. Itsrneditorial page blasted Brown’s confirmationrnhearing for Commerce Secretaryrnas a “bipartisan disgrace,” claimingrnit “amounted to an open declarationrnthat companies with strong Democraticrnconnections reserve the right to continuernthe attitude of greed that prevailsrnin Washington.” The key issue wasrnBrown’s and other appointees’ businessrnties to Japanese corporations. Clinton’srneconomic team has the duty to promoternAmerican business interests, even thoughrnmany of its members have made theirrnfortunes doing just the opposite.rnRepublican members of the committeernmight have grilled Brown tornstrengthen the ethical standards of thernnew administration or to at least scorernpartisan points. But they didn’t. ThernReagan and Bush administrations hadrnbeen shot through with the sairie kindrnof foreign connections. Though the twornparties may not be able to agree on therncolor of the sky, their leaders all knowrnthe color of the money that saturatesrnthe capital.rnThis is not the first time Americanrnleaders have been under heavy foreignrninfluence. During the RevolutionaryrnWar, the Continental Congress was underrnthe thumb of the French ambassador.rnThe Chevalier de la Luzernernsupplemented his persuasive skills yvithrnlavish parties, gifts, and loans. Congressrnwas mesmerized into granting Francernthe right to negotiate the peace terinsrnwith England. As the eminent diplomaticrnhistorian Sainuel Flagg Bemis putrnit, “Never in history had one peoplernmore trustingly or innocently submittedrnits fate to the disposal of a foreignrnpower.” Corrgress did not realize thatrnAmerica’s ally was willing to sacrificernthe United States for its own interests.rnHad negotiators John Adams andrnJohn Jay not suspected the danger andrnignored their instructions from Congress,rnthe French might have gottenrnaway with penning the United Statesrnbehind the Allegheny Mountains. Instead,rnAdains and Jay focused on therncountry’s needs, took matters into theirrnown hands, and thus gained a line onrnthe Mississippi River, opening the entirerncontinent to eventual American expansion.rnTheirs was one of the greatestrntriumphs of American diplomacy,rn4/CHRONICLESrnrnrn