Savage Nature

Sir: Implicit in the whole ecological argument and in your cover article on Alaska [July 27] is the assumption that nature's way is the best way, that if man had never tampered with nature his life would have been much healthier and longer and his spirit would have remained free and uncorrupted. Nothing could be further from the truth. As your own article points out, the Aleuts, Eskimos and Indians of Alaska have only a life expectancy of 35 years, and most live broken, impoverished lives. Nothing is more savage, cruel or capable of breaking a man's spirit than unbridled nature. It is based on violence, with one animal eating another, and its quick violent storms can break a man in a minute. Not everything nature does is right or the best. Man must tame and change it if he is to survive. I think that it's good to remember that, with all our pollution, our life expectancy isn't 35.

JOSEPH RADINSKY Lafayette, Ind.

Sir: Congratulations on your excellent coverage of Alaska's environmental and development problems. It is one of the most comprehensive articles on this situation to appear in a national magazine to date.

There are many Alaskans who deplore the thoughtless rush towards resource exploitation. We do not object to carefully planned and regulated development, but we don't want to sell the last unspoiled environment for a handful of dollars.

RAY BANE Hughes, Alaska

Sir: The Senate offer of $1 billion to the Alaskan natives for 350 million acres is $2.82 per acre. What Congressman would sell his land for that when there is oil under some of it? Compare this to the revenue of the state of Alaska: already $900 million by leasing to oil companies the 434,000 acres on the North Slope (legally liberated from the natives) and a potential $200 million per year from pipeline oil royalties and taxes.

R. EDWARD BROWN Highland Park, Mich.

Sir: With its $900 million, Alaska's state government might well consider sending all its citizens on an inspection tour of the grimy and dreary industrial communities that adjoin Jersey City, N.J., or Gary, Ind. Such shock treatment, hopefully, might send Alaskans home more willing to resist the appeals of union leaders and Chambers of Commerce when they promise profits and progress, seemingly without cost.

DARRELL KRISTO Valparaiso, Ind.

Sir: First it was the Gold Rush, then it was the Copper Rush, now it is the Oil Rush. After we drain Alaska of all its natural resources, who are we going to sell it to?

KEVIN BOURQUE Boston

Sir: Trapper Joe Delia has only to look at himself to see why "people can't live out like they used to." Mr. Delia, who would trap wild animals for their pelts and who would net thousands of salmon "just to feed our teams," is no better than the oil companies who would ruin Alaska's fragile ecology.

SCOTT SWANSON Daly City, Calif.

Look Homeward

Sir: No one who has been laid off recently will be impressed by business's efforts as social activists [July 20]. Corporations are themselves societies and must behave responsibly to their own membership before Adam Smith's "invisible hand" will guide employees to optimize customer and stockholder interests. No responsible society from nation down to family ejects members to cut costs. To do so destroys loyalty and teamwork.

DR. WILLIAM M. WALLACE Buckley, Wash.

Sir: What more can business do? Instead of using money to duplicate Government programs such as Job Corps or Head Start, it can show Government how to reorganize existing agencies along a corporate model, so that results are more effective. Business and foundations should join to establish new models for welfare programs, without the drag of politics and often conflicting legislation.

Government has the funds to dispense, but does not have the money to change its structure, which is the greatest obstacle in solving the problems of poverty and urban ills. A tight corporate approach will serve a Government in disarray best because it will show what can be done. Adam Smith's "invisible hand" should lead business to reform the Government in "human profit" efficiency because effective government is the best way to cure a sick society.

DANIEL E. CHARBONEAU Annandale, Va.

Sir: Nothing short of a basic change in attitude--one that places the human condition above the G.N.P.--will suffice if we are to fashion a society attaching greater worth to quality than to quantity.

I have no sympathy for those corporate laggards who transact business as usual, waiting for the governmental whip to prod them into action. If big business needs guidance in formulating social acceptance programs, why doesn't it seek out political and social scientists and ecologists with the same zeal it displays in wooing accountants and engineers?

The consumer can do his part by consciously patronizing those firms which are not bent on a cleanup of the public but are making a determined effort to clean up their effluents.

There is one internal stimulus that industry does respond to most expeditiously: an unfavorable profit-and-loss statement. An enlightened buying public can help prevent America's socio-ecological crisis from becoming a fait accompli.

JOSEPH C. DAVIS JR. Norfolk, Va.

Hard Sell

Sir: I take issue with your ascribing an underlying motive to the President in refusing to consult Congress before ordering military incursions into Cambodia [July 13]. His answer, though unmistakably concise and logical, is dismissed as not "apt." A responsible Commander in Chief does not inform the enemy of the time and location of an impending attack. I think you will find that a decided majority of troops, officers and high commanders will bear me out on the efficacy and soundness of this policy.

HAROLD B. GREEN Garland, Texas

Appreciation of Artistry

Sir: Thank you for that fine article on Bessie Smith [Aug. 3]. Few white people appreciated her artistry while she was alive, and the black people with whom she communicated so directly in the '20s forsook her kind of blues as the Swing Era approached. The current black awareness includes a proud backward glance and an embracing by black people of their heritage. Miss Smith, too long an unsung musical force, is an important part of that heritage. Her rediscovery by black youth is, I believe, a factor that accounts for much of the current reissue's success.

I was bothered by the reference to me as a "Blues Expert." I have never considered myself a blues expert. In fact, I believe the only experts in that field are the performers themselves.

CHRIS ALBERTSON Manhattan

Foundation of the Problem

Sir: Nothing I've read recently has delighted me more than your article "Do Cities Really Need Dogs?" [July 20]. New York needs them the way it needs dirtier streets and parks. For years I've been crusading against this horrendous problem with virtually every department in the city. If something isn't done soon, we'll all wake up one day to a new foundation --made up entirely of dog dirt.

(MRS.) DORIS J. PEARSALL Manhattan

Sir: TIME's article suggests that city dwellers have taken advantage of man's best friend by forcing him into an environment literally not fit for a dog.

GEORGE E. TALMAGE Indianapolis

Sir: Would it not be more worthwhile to discuss the problems caused by (and the virtues of "curbing") the excessive human population and its incessant reproduction? Does the world really need people, or shall we begin shooting them? (PFC.) ROBERT B. KEISER Okinawa

How to Spike a Bike

Sir: How fortunate that cyclists in Manhattan can bring their bikes into their offices [July 27]. The insurance company I work for in San Francisco would not allow me to leave my three-speed Raleigh in the employees' garage overnight when there was a sudden rainstorm at quitting time. The company's reasoning was that the bicycle was likely to "fall over and damage an employee's automobile."

KAREN SMITH San Francisco

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