The Nation: Lincoln's Raiders

Consumer concern is filtering down ranks. A fifth grader at Lincoln School in Euclid, Ohio, ten-year-old Billy HanIon, blew 35¢ of his allowance on an eight-ounce package of Nestle's Quik. When he got home, he discovered that his mother had purchased two pounds for 79¢. Nader-sharp, Billy calculated and concluded: "Oh-oh, I shouldn't have bought that."

This precocious consumerism began after a group of Lincoln School teachers decided to make the curriculum more, well, relevant by starting lessons in comparative shopping. They found that the children caught on quickly. Now Lincoln has a newspaper called the Nader News, which features sulfurous exposés like the tale about the school store, where Mrs. Betty Davis tried to beat Susan Davidson out of a penny on her purchase of a paste brush. (Susan won.)

Even outside companies have been caught out by Lincoln's Raiders. Best Foods received a letter from Sixth Grader Brian Houser noting that "on the label of a jar of Skippy dry-roasted mixed nuts I noticed that cashews are listed first. But I found more peanuts. Our committee believes that you should correct the label." (The company replied that Brian's jar was "a poor representative of this line" and enclosed a coupon for another.) Next, some candy companies may have to recall their Euclid shipments because their product does not maintain the proper heft for Saturday-matinee chucking at the kid in the second row.