War? It's Just Good Economics

To the Editors:

How reassuring that we all "profit" from the arms trade [March 31; "A jet fighter can earn as much foreign currency as the sale of 1,000 autos." War? It's just good economics.

Joan Dargan Princeton, N.J.

Here we are spending billions on ways to kill one another with sophisticated weapons and getting upset about a doctor's allowing a fetus to die in Boston. We have no consistency.

Bill Gordon San Diego

Since the "merchants of death" are constantly spewing forth their lethal products in unchecked and unbridled quantities, in most cases for reasons of greed, in many instances to promote or advance wars, what purpose is being served by the United(?) Nations and its Secretary-General figurehead, who does nothing but uselessly flap about like a beheaded chicken?

Saul Block New York City

I gather from your article that Brazil, Chile and other Latin American countries are target customers of the gun merchants.

Considering that the worst problems challenging these countries are their underfed, underemployed and uneducated lower classes, and that the prodigal expenditures on weapons exhaust the already scarce means to buy agricultural machines, create new job opportunities and build schools, it is quite reasonable to anticipate situations in which the gun will be the only tool available to work on the problems.

Rafael Tramm Sao Paulo

Will everyone like so many gingham dogs and calico cats eventually eat each other up?

Virginia Oates Cates Paducah, Ky.

Martha Mitchell, Heroine

John Mitchell [March 3] says he could have been sentenced "to spend the rest of my life with Martha Mitchell." Methinks it's the other way round.

I believe that Martha is being spared from living with a bitter, vindictive person whose greatest mistake was that he forgot that he wasn't a notch up from his wife and the rest of us. Martha is a 20th century heroine.

Here is one sister who will not forget her honesty and integrity. I say, bravo, Martha.

Helen McCormick Jacksonville

Henry's Girl

I was just tickled pink to read that Henry Kissinger has pronounced Margaret Thatcher "quite a girl" [March 3].

Does a woman have to be elected Prime Minister or President (and have one foot in the grave) to be referred to as a woman?

S.D. Matheson Bedford Hills, N. Y.

Adlai, Scoop and Oil

Hooray for Adlai Stevenson III and Scoop Jackson [Feb. 24]! By proposing a federal oil firm, they've found a way to give the U.S. Post Office some competition in the matter of how to really raise prices.

H. T. Schassberger Evergreen, Colo.

Many people believe that the outer continental shelf, particularly offshore New Jersey, contains recoverable quantities of oil and gas. I am not unmindful of the need to develop new domestic sources of energy, because New Jersey is heavily dependent on imported oil and has suffered severe consequences as a result. But New Jersey will not sit by silently as the federal bureaucracy rushes headlong into a program that will benefit the oil companies at the expense of a state's priceless Atlantic coastal beaches and tourist industry.

New Jersey, in conjunction with several other coastal states, has submitted to the Federal Government a positive program calling for prompt exploration to determine the extent of recoverable oil and gas. To protect the public interest the exploration should be subject to thorough controls and be separated from the decision to extract the resources. Any development should be part of a national energy policy created in cooperation with the states and the people and should use methods least damaging to the environment. If the Supreme Court decides that the Federal Government is the proprietor of the offshore areas, then revenues derived from them should be shared with the coastal states to compensate them for unavoided adverse effects. This program, if accepted, would facilitate rather than delay the nation's quest for oil and gas.

Brendan Byrne, Governor State of New Jersey Trenton

The Victim Revictimized

The California schoolteacher who lost her class action against Standard Oil's clean air claims for F-310 gasoline [March 10] because she could not pay $42,000 to send notices of the lawsuit to 700,000 other Standard credit-card holders is not alone. Corporations are now consistently challenging consumer class actions to recover millions of dollars of illegal overcharges on the basis of the victim's shallow pocketbooks rather than on the merits of the controversies.

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision that every identifiable member of the class must be personally notified has created an impossible burden for injured plaintiffs attempting to assert their rights by means of class action.

But this ruling applies only to class actions in federal courts, while the F-310 case was brought in state court. If the federal notice requirement is not followed by the California appellate courts, the F-310 case may proceed through notices published in newspapers at a cost of only $1,500 to force Standard Oil to credit its customers' charge accounts with refunds. However, this class is limited to eight California counties. Hundreds of thousands of F-310 consumers residing elsewhere will remain deprived of their rights. Moreover, in most large but legitimate consumer class actions, courts eagerly manufacture other grounds to deny justice even if the plaintiffs come up with the cash to notify all class members. Until Congress passes new legislation, corporations will continue to exploit their judicially granted advantages.

Ralph Nader Washington, D.C.

Kennerly's Culpa

Your paean to the White House photographer [March 3] overlooks an insidious aspect of the operation Mr. Kennedy runs: news management.

A vast flow of "White House photographs," selected to show a thoughtful and very human President in firm command of the nation's problems, floods the media. At the same time, access to the man is blocked by the White House Press Office.

Of course the lure of an exclusive, intimate photograph is one few editors can resist. But its use is as irresponsible journalistically as running handouts from show-business promoters without further investigation.

Burton Berinsky New York City

Amitay's Physiognomy

TIME'S picture of I.L. Kenen, chairman of AIPAC [March 10], was incorrectly captioned as that of Morris J. Amitay. While Amitay has succeeded Kenen as the executive director of AIPAC, it will nevertheless be many years before he will also acquire Kenen's physiognomy.

Leonard J. Davis Director of Information American Israel Public Affairs Committee Washington, D.C.

Rail Revival

Recommendations in the report of the U.S. Railway Association [March 10] will produce more jobs for Pennsylvania because they call for widespread track upgrading for which Pennsylvania will be the major steel supplier--and this is indeed good news. However, I regret that U.S.R.A. calls also for an inordinately large abandonment of trackage that should and must be preserved.

It is essential that our railroads be revitalized, and I recognize this important first step by U.S.R.A. in identifying some of the problems. But I believe additional consideration must be given to new ways for bringing our railroads back to life. Perhaps we could enlist the U.S. Travel Service to encourage rail use by foreign travelers during the Bicentennial period. This, of course, would mean that rail improvement must involve local planning, rather than leave the burden solely to federal and state assistance.

I would not contemplate nationalization of our rail system, because throughout the world where this has been done the result has been a reduction from a premier and highly regarded effort to second-class service. Nationalization is also too expensive.

We have a long way to go before we have truly quality rail service. I especially hope that some of the assumptions which have led to mass-abandonment proposals will be questioned in upcoming regional hearings, six of which will be in Pennsylvania.

Hugh Scott

Minority Leader, U.S. Senate Washington, D.C.

No Good Death

We did not, as you reported [Feb. 24], call the Army's blackbird-killing campaign "a form of mass euthanasia," which would imply a good death in the victims' interest.

The killing is as senseless as the method is cruel. If the birds had been permitted to migrate as they soon would have, a serious study could have been made of the humane and effective means of preventing their regrouping. The Army's impact statement reflected a greater interest in killing them than in problem solving.

Helen E. Jones, President Society for Animal Rights, Inc. New York City

Casseroles and Hair Shirts

Hugh Sidey's comments concerning the week's activities at the White House [March 3] sickened me. Does Mr. Sidey suggest that the President, Senators, Congressmen, economists, et al., subsist on tuna casserole until solutions to the nation's economic ills are found?

Does he also believe that wearing hair shirts by these men would expedite matters?

Edward B. Parran Hamilton, N. Y.

What Wayne Hays Did

In your article "Dissension Among the Democrats" [Feb. 3] you said that Congressman Wayne L. Hays "used his chairmanship of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ... to reward friends and browbeat enemies" and that "he misled the 75 incoming freshmen by implying that he alone had been the source of the funds that helped elect them, even removing names of other party leaders from the letterhead of the campaign committee's stationery."

As one of the newly elected Democratic members of the 94th Congress, I was the recipient of aid from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. My financial assistance was accompanied by a letter on committee stationery stating that it was being given through the efforts of the "Democratic leadership and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee." I was in no way coerced by anyone for my votes during the Democratic caucus, and I was one of the freshmen voting for some needed changes in Congress.

As chairman of the 75 Democratic Party new members, and yet commenting individually, I can,assure you that Hays did not mislead the 75 incoming freshmen in any manner.

Carroll Hubbard, U.S. Representative First District, Kentucky Washington, D.C.

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