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I agree with you that Sam failed to arrest the Watts trouble at its inception. He could have become a national hero and saint if he had ordered or persuaded Chief Parker to issue a directive to his officers to shoot to cripple all looters, and shoot to kill anyone with a torch in his or her hand, regardless of color. Had he done that—which is what I would have done had I been the mayor—he would have stopped the riots cold, and it is my belief that all the other riots in other cities would never have taken place.
But Tom Bradley must be faulted, too, for not having flown home. With his immense prestige among his own race, he could have helped so much to "cool" the Watts riot. Instead he preferred to play safe and stay away (according to Yorty) for some 30 days, until the riots came to an end. I don't think this type of man would make a good mayor of Los Angeles.
RUDY VALLÉE Hollywood, Calif.
The High Cost of Confiscation
Sir: The most serious damage done by the Peruvian junta and by the Nixon decision to bypass the application of the Hickenlooper Amendment [April 18] has been missed by most news media. Despite Velasco's claim that the IPC is a unique case, no foreign businessman will want to invest in Peru, where at any moment a government may confiscate whatever it wants with only transparent rationalization.
My heart does not bleed for the unfortunate businessman whose investments are at stake; foreign investments are made only by capitalists aware in advance of the risks. But I do regret deeply the real victims in this situation, the masses of Latin Americans whose tomorrows are hopeless without increasing foreign investments to industrialize and modernize their societies. If no one protects these investments, the man in the barriada and the favela is the one most to suffer.
VAL CLEAR Lima
Food Fare
Sir: Mrs. Philip Hart must either be a lousy shopper or a pretty unimaginative cook if she can't feed a family of six for $33.86 a week and provide anything more interesting than beans, cheap vegetables, bread and old roosters [April 11]. I feed my husband, myself, our four children and a dog for that amount with very little diffi culty. We find some of the cheaper foods quite edible. We rather enjoy a big, thick, juicy, charcoal-broiled hamburger, or maybe Mexican tacos or meatballs stroganoff. Also, a two-dollar bottle of sherry will jazz up an awful lot of cheap meat.
What I was most interested to learn is that, as a college professor's family, we are living on a welfare budget. My sympathy for the impoverished diminishes rapidly.
MRS. WAYNE FALKE Oxford, Ohio
The Lawyer as Social Servant
Sir: I regret that space limitations did not permit quotation of my complete remarks concerning the judgment lawyers must exercise in choosing areas of social service [April 18]. Our firm encourages and supports community service as a meaningful and rewarding part of a lawyer's experience.
Since so many such opportunities are available today, it is important that the young lawyer be certain that the particular projects to which he devotes his time and effort will result in rewarding social service. That was the point of the one remark of mine that was printed.