Nixon's New Economics

Sir: I fear that President Nixon's new game plan for the economy [Aug. 30] will prove but another palliative, providing symptomatic relief only. Until something is done to limit the monopoly powers of labor unions, hack away at bloated budgets with their expansionary deficits and multiplier-effect powers, and restore market pressures to industries currently propped up by subsidies and tariffs, the pressures that created the present situation will persist.

The Government has unwisely, though presumably with good intentions, assumed control over economic matters best left to work themselves out. Good sense falls victim to expediency, charlatanry and paternalism--which is nothing new, but which should temper enthusiasm for this latest nostrum as time passes.

CLARK T. IRWIN JR.

Sunderland, Mass.

Sir: Once again we see an example of Nix-onomics: let the poor, the blacks, the students and the workers carry the burden for the rich.

Big business gets yet another huge tax bonanza while local discriminatory taxes are permitted to rise. Low-and middle-income people will pay more for the traditionally less expensive imported items, but the rich will no longer have to pay federal excise taxes on their new Cadillacs.

WILLIAM A. MCCALLUM

Tallahassee, Fla.

Sir: President Nixon's New Economic Policy--something that this country needed in 1969 and 1970--seems to me to be proof positive that his first term in office is being designed to prove to the American people that he deserves a second term.

One would like to know how Mr. Nixon will utilize his second term should he succeed.

JAMES ALOISI JR.

Boston

Sir: Re the fight to control inflation [Aug. 16], you have it all backward! Teacher organizations and other public-servant groups have only begun to strike and bargain effectively within the past decade. Industrial labor unions have been powerful for much longer. So when workers in private industry win substantial raises, civil servants "quite naturally feel an urge to match them." Not vice versa!

JUDITH KAURIC

North Versailles, Pa.

Lindsay's Switch

Sir: If John Lindsay [Aug. 23] does for the Democratic Party what he did for the Republican, then a moment's silence and a shed tear are most certainly in order for the Democrats.

CAROL McNALLEN

Hyde Park, N.Y.

Sir: At last sanity is beginning to appear on the horizon. The defection of Lindsay from the G.O.P. is a signal to the American populace that there is an alternative to the Democratic, the Republican and the Wallace groups.

Perhaps the time has come when all of us must cast off party affiliations and instead concentrate on the issues that concern us. If the two parties are unwilling or unable to accommodate us, then we must rally behind another alliance that can do our bidding.

WAYNE E. KYTOLA

Minneapolis

Sir: If Governor Rockefeller, Senators Javits, Percy and some other so-called Republicans would follow Mayor Lindsay, then we would know who was a Republican and who was a Democrat. To the Republicans, congratulations and good riddance; to the Democrats, condolences and welcome.

GALE H. SHACKELFORD

Canton. Ohio

Sir: The only thing dumber than a New York City taxicab driver is someone who would print any remark that a New York City cab driver makes on any subject other than how best to insult or vilify his customers. Remarks by cab drivers concerning the mayor are out of place in a national magazine. New York cab drivers are a burden that can be borne only by New Yorkers. No other city would put up with these morons.

JOHN R. MARTIN

Plainview, N.Y.

Jackson's Ideals

Sir: At a time when reflex anti-Communism is being replaced by reflex appeasement, it is heartening to learn of Senator Jackson's improving presidential prospects [Aug. 16]. He is nearly alone among likely Democratic candidates in supporting a strong policy of military aid to pur allies and a strong U.S. military force in the world. However, I believe it is wrong to say that this makes him anathema to the Democratic Party's young. I am a young Democrat (20 years old and just registered yesterday), and I see a substantial base of support for Senator Jackson's ideals among my contemporaries.

JONATHAN KATZ

Ithaca, N.Y.

Sir: TIME could hardly have been more correct on any political prediction than the one on "Scoop" Jackson in which it was suggested that he, if nominated, would of all candidates be "most likely to trigger a revolt, and hence a fourth party on the Democratic left."

Do we now want a Democrat Spiro conning the unthinks on law-and-order, frightening citizens with national disaster unless we yet again and again cough up more billions for "defense," while an important segment of our population starves? No, thanks.

RALEIGH DEPRIEST

Mansfield, Pa.

Reagan's Residence

Sir: I found your inclusion of Ronald Reagan among the possible running mates for President Nixon in 1972 interesting [Aug. 16]. Doesn't the Twelfth Amendment require the President and Vice President to be residents of different states?

GREG FELDMETH

Los Angeles

> The Twelfth Amendment says that the members of the Electoral College in each state must vote for one man--for President or Vice President--who is an inhabitant of another state. The amendment has never been put to a test, but it does not seem to be an absolute barrier; one of the candidates, for instance, could change his legal residence before the electors meet.

Abzug's Demand

Sir: Rhinoceros-like she may be at times, but Bella Abzug [Aug. 16] is a real fighter for humanitarian democracy. She has everything it takes to expand a local constituency into a national following: education, professional expertise, an intense personal commitment, courage, integrity and, finally, something there has not been enough of in Congress for decades --a demand to be heard that cannot be denied.

More power to you, Bella Abzug!

LAWRENCE H. BERRY

Denver

Sir: The fishwife Solon, Bella Abzug, is not a figure of fun but a frightening symbol of what political standards in this country have declined to. This rude, raucous and profane woman debases the democratic process and brings home to us the truth that what is popular is not necessarily palatable.

It has long been felt in America that the blueblood should not be permitted to dominate the society in which he is merely one member. Must we go to the opposite extreme and decree inverse standards of snobbery that will in time elevate the vulgarian to King?

EUGENE S. COOPER

Los Angeles

Sir: In your story you told your readers that Bella is "the Latin for wars," but you neglected to inform them that Abzug is the German word for "retreat," "departure," "withdrawal" or "removal." Nomen est omen indeed. Abzug from bella is one thing the Congresswoman from New York stands for.

HARRY ZOHN

Professor of German

Brandeis University

Waltham, Mass.

Who Is the Predator?

Sir: Why are Interior Secretary Rogers C.B. Morton and Wyoming Senator Gale McGee so shocked over the deliberate slaughtering of eagles [Aug. 16] when the Division of Wildlife Services, an inconspicuous branch of the Interior Department, has been putting out "predator poison" for many years?

The DWS's eradication program results in indiscriminate deaths among all wildlife in the areas where poison is spread. In addition to poisoning, snaring and trapping, DWS's hired wildlife killers are skilled in shooting coyotes from helicopters.

It is appalling to know that this program is supported by taxpayers.

STEVE BRANUM

Birmingham

Full-Fledged Eco-Centric

Sir: TIME implied in its story on unusual environmental activism [Aug. 9] that Henry Gibson of Laugh-In fame, has only recently come around to being "a full-fledged eco-centric."

Long before ecology became a fashionable word, Henry Gibson, without benefit of Hollywood pressagentry, was on the firing line, making his poetry, posters and personality available in the struggle to save our environment. His work was sufficiently distinguished much more than a year ago for him to be tapped as unofficial adviser to the Environmental Teach-In and unofficial spokesman for Keep America Beautiful.

MORRIS H. RUBIN

Editor

The Progressive

Madison, Wis.

Get Cracking, Doctors

Sir: Back to the drawing board for Unsworth, Dowson and Wright [Aug. 16], who speculated that cracking knuckles are caused by popping of gas bubbles in the joint fluid after the finger has been stretched.

Their theory certainly does not apply to the many persons, like myself, who can go on indefinitely and continuously cracking their knuckles without any waiting period in between.

R.G. ROLFINI, M.D.

San Antonio

Natural Anger

Sir: Your Essay [Aug. 16] helps to continue a centuries-old failure to understand anger, for which we recurrently pay and pay. The ancients had a more realistic view of this natural emotion. In the Bible, there are abundant references to anger and "wrath." Some of our modern-day views are distortions, viewing anger only in extremes: something pathological and "dehumanizing" to be legislated out of existence, or something to be worshiped and encouraged. Ignoring, denying or trying to contain this natural emotion only results in an accumulation of stress. The opposite extreme, expressing all anger, is equally destructive.

We have forgotten the admonition to practice moderation in all things. Anger is as natural as tenderness, sorrow, fear or joy. It is a form of energy that has natural and constructive uses if it is appropriately employed.

DONALD AKUTAGAWA

Bellevue, Wash.

Sir: No thanks for your highfalutin Essay on anger. There is nothing wrong with anger at any place or any time.

FREDERICK W. WILLWERTH

San Francisco

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.