(2 of 4)
Isn't it amazing how Gerald Ford would have managed the approval of the Panama Canal treaty more quickly, ended the Turkish arms embargo and sold planes to Saudi Arabia and, at the same time, would have moved ahead with a modest tax cut, kept the B-l bomber, gone ahead with the neutron bomb and the M-X missile and designed an energy policy to encourage new oil exploration and alternate sources without taxing them. All he needed was four more years. It seems that the poor little country boy from Plains, Ga., has managed to get some things accomplished without previous training in Washington's "big leagues."
Lorene Hassett
Chicago
Third-Class Travelers
First the airlines use all kinds of cut-rate fares [Oct. 16] to encourage us to travel with them. Then they turn around and tell us that we are third-class travelers and don't deserve all the good treatment we have been getting. The source of the complaints, we are told, is the "crowd-weary, briefcase-toting business man or woman." How many of these business men or women paid for their own tickets? And how many of them are on expense accounts?
Perhaps the airlines can make a profit from their first and business classes and don't need us after all.
William Biermaier
Minneapolis
When I bought an air ticket at the supersaver fare last month, I got a price break because I had to reserve and pay 30 days in advance. If the airlines are now going to impose additional service cuts (e.g., restriction to the back-cabin seats, fewer and slower refreshments), then I believe an additional fare cut is in order.
(The Rev.) David Gunderlach
Binghamton, N. Y.
Political Pariah
One wonders whether to be more surprised at the blatant hypocrisy of Strom Thurmond in going after the black vote in South Carolina [Oct. 16] now that they have some power, or the naivete of the black voters who intend to support a man who, for most of his public career, considered them a political pariah. If the blacks in South Carolina truly seek justice, let them begin by distinguishing, on election day, between true concern and absolute cynicism.
Richard W. Kelly
Allentown, Pa.
A Nurtured Monster
From your story "Lots of Smiles but Few Sales" [Oct. 16], it appears that the generous—but naive—foster parents have nurtured in Japan an avaricious monster. Perhaps it is time for manufacturers, labor unions and the "taxpayer revolt" to demand equivalent protective tariffs, import-license red tape, quotas, etc., for such a shrewd economic predator, who prospers hugely at our inflationary expense.
John Kulik
Keene, N.H.
In your article on the U.S. trade mission to Japan, there was a very clear error. The trip was not "paid for entirely by Washington." The American businessmen paid all of their travel expenses, plus a $1,000 to $1,800 fee to the Department of Commerce to help defray the costs of the mission.
Frank Weil, Assistant Secretary of
Commerce for Industry and Trade
Washington, D.C.
The Oldest Professions