New Economists

To the Editors:

The elite newly minted economics profs [Aug. 27] are finally suspecting what average Americans have long known: that the taproot of economic woe is bloated Federal Government, in all its capricious, self-conflicting splendor.

Robert Nicholls

Newark, Del.

An economist named John Maynard Keynes

Was reputed to have lots of brains

But his theories quit working

And now people are smirking

And they're toppling his statue with chains.

Russ Genet

Fairborn, Ohio

As children of the free-spending 1960s and beneficiaries of an educational system fattened by large infusions of Government money, the new generation of economists benefited from the heavy Government spending that they now so fervently condemn. They are content to deny to subsequent generations similar opportunities to profit from such largesse.

Martin H. Rubin

Pasadena, Calif.

As long as politicians worry about the short-term effects of a sensible economic policy, such as loss of votes, we will still have our newly christened "Crisis of Confidence." I hope your article was well read, and understood, in Washington.

Stephen S. Green

Edina, Minn.

Yes, we are in deep, deep trouble when leading economists can do no better than to suggest that the poor and aged pay more. Not one mention of the contributions of capitalism to its own problems. No suggestion that military spending is the most inflationary force of all. No hint that physicians and the organization of medical care have anything to do with Medicare and Medicaid runovers--nope, it's those dumb people who "blithely" accept their physicians' recommendations. The solution? To blame the victims.

Beth B. Hess

Morristown, N.J.

St. Andrew's Finest Hour

Andy Young resigned [Aug. 27] with grace despite tremendous pressure. Two years from now when a battle-weary Israel finally sits down with the P.L.O. at the negotiating table, the framed picture of St. Andrew will beam down from the wall. People will then remember August 1979 and say, "Ah, that was his finest hour."

Moges Gebremariam

Columbia, Md.

President Carter's stature as a leader will be greatly enhanced if Andrew Young's replacement is chosen solely because of his competence, even if he happens to be a "traditional, white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, Foggy Bottom-type."

David Jinich

Mexico City

Surely the late, great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose credo was peace, love and nonviolence, would be appalled to see his disciples involved in discussion with an organization that espouses wanton violence as its modus operandi. Its covenant openly calls for Israel's destruction, and yet this is the group with which Israel is being pressured to deal. Israel has never rejected dialogue with Palestinians, but those who openly oppose the P.L.O. are assassinated. It is essential that the world recognize that the terms P.L.O. and Palestinians are not synonymous.

Billie Kozolchyk

Tucson, Ariz.

I don't understand the reasoning behind the black community's uproar over Young's resignation. This is not an issue of black and white, but of international policy. Young knew his limits and for whatever reason overstrided them. He then chose the only course he saw fit to take: resignation.

David Savage

Dallas

Andrew Young brought candor and a strong dose of integrity to his post. He refused to remain silent when the emperor had no clothes on.

Peter Brampton Koelle

Swarthmore, Pa.

Feminists and Porn

Up until now I have considered myself a feminist. But after reading about groups like "Women Against Pornography" [Aug. 27], I do not want to be identified as a feminist any longer. These women are undermining what feminism is all about: equal rights-which includes free speech.

Amy Korshak

Encino, Calif.

Susan Brownmiller and her cohorts do not threaten freedom of expression any more than those who espouse speed limits and pure food laws challenge our right to drive cars and eat dinner. When thoughtful people refuse to take prudent steps against social outrages they leave it to the crazies to make political capital.

William Muehl

Yale Divinity School

New Haven, Conn.

The Philadelphia Police Story

The photo caption "Philadelphia police in action" [Aug. 27] is misleading and unfair. Philadelphia-area readers may know that a police officer was shot dead only moments before; those in Des Moines or Seattle will think, "So that's the Philadelphia police."

Philip Wood

Oreland, Pa.

Connivers and Chiselers

The widespread disregard of income tax laws in the 1970s [Aug. 20] is reminiscent of the widespread disregard of Prohibition laws in the 1920s. In each case ordinary citizens rebelled against unreasonable laws. The "connivers and chiselers" are not the citizens who are striving for economic survival, but the politicians whose inflationary policies and unfair tax laws have eroded the real income of working people.

Robert D. Frawley

Chester, N.J.

How can you say it is a "troubling shift in American attitudes" when people get fed up with inflation and high taxes? Barter is the most ancient of economic systems. If it is indeed an "underground economy," I hope it takes root and becomes the start of a moral and economic revolution.

Steven T. Jessop

Storden, Minn.

Hupersons?

I accept the fact that Benji is not a Doberperson pinscher or a Gerperson shepherd [Aug. 20], but your chauvinism is revealed when you say he is named "co-chairperson of a humans' charity committee." Humans? Shame on you. Why not hupersons?

Ray Hultperson (ne Hultman)

Woodburn, Ore.

Abortions, Gays and the New Right

Your article describing the New Right [Aug. 20] portrayed the conservative as being antihomosexual and antiabortion. The conservative doctrine, however, emphasizes: limited government, fewer handouts, incentive through private enterprise, a strong defense and a diplomatic policy whereby we stick by our friends.

It just so happens that many conservatives belong to an older generation that cannot accept some of the new trends; as a result many conservatives are antiabortion and antihomosexual. But those views are not prerequisites in the qualification of a conservative.

Brad Wixen

Los Angeles

Terry Dolan is absolutely right when he describes the G.O.P. as a place where rich people pick their noses. The Republicans and the rich really don't care whether or not America remains democratic or goes totalitarian. What support there is for the New Right comes from white- and blue-collar middle-income Americans who are fed up with federal regulation of their lives and the sellout of our nation by the liberal machine.

John Williamson

San Diego

After reading your article on the New Right, I came to the conclusion that they don't know right from wrong, and that a new dirty tricks department is in the making.

William L. Rogers

Brevard, N.C.

Of Physicians, Bedpans and Nurses

The question is not whether nurses [Aug. 27] should be directly supervised by physicians. The question is: When will physicians acknowledge that nurse and physician share a collegial relationship between two separate professions?

Jesse Hathaway, R.N.

Monterey Park, Calif.

Let those who feel it is beneath their dignity to give a person a back rub or remove a dirty bedpan find some other name for their profession. Leave the nursing of the sick to nurses.

Suzanne W. Haley, R.N.

Bradenton, Fla.

You have thrown yet another overflowing bedpan in the face of nursing. I did not enter the field seeking to make big bucks or to become a pseudo physician. Most of my fellow nurses and I wish only a wage scale in line with our training and responsibilities and the opportunity to practice the most basic human care services we have been trained to deliver.

Lola Lauricello, R.N.

Louisville, Colo.

The Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing shutting down for lack of students and money? Well-qualified applicants are still plentiful here. We are simply moving with the times to change our 106-year-old diploma nursing school into a three-year master of science program for non-nurse college graduates. Anticipated result? The theoretical strengths of university-level instruction plus the solid clinical experience we have traditionally offered.

Charles A. Sanders, M.D.

General Director

Massachusetts General Hospital

Boston

Coppola's Apocalypse

Maybe Director Francis Coppola should not have bragged to everyone that he was making the definitive film of the Viet Nam War with Apocalypse Now [Aug. 27]. Maybe he was his own worst p.r. man. But what he did do was create one helluva tremendous cinema experience that stunned me and many others into silence. The film, like the war, is overpowering, brutal, unrelenting, spectacular. Who cares if Coppola had second thoughts about the ending? Did the war itself end as we Americans planned it?

David St. Clair

Westport, Conn.

Musical Dolls

Back in 1973 I was an inner-city kid going to high school and as far as rock 'n' roll was concerned, I was bored. Then came the New York Dolls [Aug. 20]. They were all decked out in platform shoes and tacky glitter and they played with an energy I had never heard before. Their music was straight off the street, and I loved it. It's good to hear that David Johansen is keeping it alive.

Chris Nyholm

Chicago

Bordering on Insult

Your gratuitous insult to 18th century British Surveyor John Collins in your story on the community split between Canada and the U.S. [Aug. 13] and, by inference, to the profession of surveying is clearly out of bounds.

Given the relatively poor quality of surveying instruments used in 1774 and the common practice of basing astronomical observations on the moons of Jupiter rather than the star Polaris, it is amazing that the boundary between Derby Line, Vt., and Rock Island, Que., is as close to the "true" 45th parallel of latitude as is the case.

William M. Schreiber, Commissioner

International Boundary Commission

United States and Canada

Washington, D.C.

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