Profit and Progress

Sir: Re your Ford cover [July 20], while business must concern itself in not thwarting the well-being of society, its social responsibility must not be expanded to include public policymaking and program implementation. We have no guarantee whatever that corporate leaders' personal values will be reflective of community or national values. On the contrary, it is likely that these values will be capricious, untested by the ballot box and, ultimately, subject to continuing firm profitability.

Mr. Ford's concern ("I think we have got to establish a list of priorities, and I am not sure exactly what those priorities should be") is well founded but misses the point. The real issue is whose priorities they should be.

STUART J. SAVAGE Chicago

Sir: I hope that when you next discuss social responsibility in business, you will include the other half of the human race and remember the ladies.

PATRICIA ANNE MATHEWS Albuquerque, N. Mex.

Sir: I read with great interest the article "The Executive as Social Activist." I could not help noting the parallels in ideas between your article and a speech given recently by General Motors Chairman James M. Roche.

One of the key points made in your article and by Mr. Roche is the interrelation between profit and social progress. In fact, Mr. Roche said, "business cannot fulfill its social obligations unless it makes a profit; it cannot earn a profit for long if it ignores its obligations to society."

DR. CHARLES J. FRANK Milwaukee

The 26th Street Shuffle

Sir: Cities need dogs about as much as farm country needs taxicabs [July 20]. Evidently, neurotic people need dogs and are bent on being cruel to them by keeping them captives in studio apartments. It is nauseating to see someone "disciplining" an animal for running or jumping, which is instinctive to it. As for the ecological aspect, in my area of Manhattan, we have devised a dance called the 26th Street Shuffle, which only results in keeping one's shoes presentable.

DOROTHY C. GRANT Manhattan

Sir: Dogs don't spit, drop cigarette butts, discard used gum, beer cans, candy and food wrappers, dirty Kleenex; they don't even use subways, where the stench is often not to be believed. As a Manhattan dog owner, I spend a good deal of each day looking at this city's streets and gutters. Most of the debris and filth is left behind by humans, not dogs.

DIANE HYND Manhattan

Sir: TIME, you can't opt for the demise of dogs and man's true friend. I have had in my lifetime three wives and 14 dogs. And guess what? I'll take the dogs any day. They are loyal, loving and lack the penchant for pollution that my three helpmates had.

JACK WILLIAMS San Francisco

Under the Gun

Sir: Your suggestion [July 13] that a federal law be enacted to discourage legal ownership of firearms would realistically affect only those who legally seek to own firearms, since criminals, by the definition, neither respect nor obey the law. The true issue is the prevention of the criminal misuse of firearms. I most strongly feel that your ill-conceived idea will never become law, but if it should, in my considered opinion, it would not be upheld by the Supreme Court, since some rather basic constitutional provisions would have been violated.

MICHAEL J. YATKEMAN Attorney St. Louis

Sir: As you note, in your fine article, until we systematically improve both our courts and our correctional institutions, eradicate the insidious evil of narcotics addiction and cure the pervasive underlying social maladies that engender crime, even the most efficient police force cannot be expected to prevent the crime now ravaging our society.

It is also clear, however, that so long as the basic causes of crime exist, we shall continue to rely heavily upon our police to serve as our front line of defense against the lawlessness. In this regard, it is imperative that we provide our police with the kind of support that is equal to the sensitive, complex and dangerous nature of this task. First, to support our local police, we must start controlling the guns of violence that are killing them. Second, we must also provide our police with much better education, training and pay. Finally, we must relieve them from the time-consuming task of attending to essentially nonlaw-enforcement problems, such as public drunkenness.

JOSEPH D. TYDINGS Senator Washington, D.C.

Recent History

Sir: As a fellow nonsmoking teetotaler, I read with interest your report of John Kaplan's findings regarding marijuana [July 20]. I agree with all the points mentioned, but I wonder if he has gone back far enough in his evaluation of the prejudice against marijuana and its users. The laws concerning its use were made in the 1930s when most users were black or Spanish-surnamed Americans. For some time I have viewed the marijuana laws as having been passed perhaps unconsciously as a way to harass these minorities.

Another facet that should be noted is our American passion for aggressiveness, which permits us to tolerate the alcoholic behavior of an aggressive type but not tolerate marijuana-induced passivity.

In my contact with marijuana users, I have yet to meet one who beat his wife or children while under the influence.

DENNY W. WALTERS, M.D. Butler, Pa.

Lost Laugh

Sir: The TIME Essay on our lack of laughter [July 20] is immensely cheering. I had begun to wonder if it were just me.

Recently I read of a pair of intense young parents who said that they take their leisure time with their children "very seriously." One wonders--suppose one of the children made a mistake and accidentally laughed?

So many children raised by deadly serious and overconscientious parents have had humor programmed out. Some of our young people do seem awfully dreary. Their bizarre mod costumes suggest the sad clowns of the circus.

(MRS.) NANCY A. Goss Forest Hills, N.Y.

SOS

Sir: "The Agonies of Acronymania" [July 20] are nothing new to the United States Navy. The rather familiar CINCPAC (Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet) came into existence only after Pearl Harbor. Prior to that the fleet had simply been known as the United States Fleet, resulting in the commander's rather embarrassing title: CINCUS.

QUINTIN F. KENNEDY White Bear Lake, Minn.

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