The Consumer: Loaded Odds

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Needed Advocate. Altogether, more than 30 departments and agencies and some 260 federal programs are now involved in consumer protection. Although President Nixon has said little on the subject so far, he has disappointed consumer advocates by not naming Republican Mary Gardiner Jones, the leading consumer champion on the FTC, to replace Democrat Paul Rand Dixon as chairman. Last week, however, Nixon chose a new consumer assistant, and the reaction was almost entirely favorable. He picked Mrs. Virginia Knauer, 54, director of Pennsylvania's Bureau of Consumer Protection. A Republican stalwart, Mrs. Knauer probably could do without her new $28,000-a-year salary. She and her husband, Attorney Wilhelm Knauer, 75, live in a large 19th century house with two servants—though she does her own shopping.

Mrs. Knauer, a grandmother, was responsible for fair-trade-practices legislation in Pennsylvania. Promising to concentrate on programs for poor, uneducated and elderly consumers, she said that she will "go popping into supermarkets or anywhere else where consumer interests are involved." That, presumably, means that Mrs. Knauer will also be a frequent visitor to gambling-oriented gas stations.