No Way to Tell

Sir: Until the Government appropriates sufficient amounts for welfare [Feb. 8], there will be no way to tell if poverty is a matter of inadequate funds or a matter of life-style and culture. Until the poor are given the opportunity to live and participate in the mainstream of American life, there will be no way to determine whether the poor are inherently lazy and unmotivated or whether a substandard environment and an inferior social position have influenced their actions.

MARC McKENNA

Hamilton, N.Y.

Sir: Your article on welfare was enlightening in several respects. However, a prevalent "myth" you did not dispel is this: so many families on the dole keep right on having children, thus abusing, complicating and perpetuating the deplorable welfare situation.

ALAN D. MURRAY

Piscataway, N.J.

Sir: You contribute to the hypocrisy of welfare by implying that Americans believe in the Protestant ethic. No one refuses or is ashamed to accept welfare if it is disguised by euphemisms such as "benefit," "grant," "loan," "subsidy," "tariff," "tax deduction," etc., etc. Every American and most industries are on one form of welfare or another.

The basic obstacle to the solution of the welfare problem is the conflict between those people who feel that the poor are at fault and should be punished for their misfortune and those of us who feel that society is at fault and should be held responsible for both creating and correcting the problem.

WILLIAM M. HENRIKSEN

Colorado Springs, Colo.

Sir: The poor who turn to welfare for help often do find the assistance that they were looking for. The Italian immigrant who with the help of her social worker is able to mobilize the responsive offices of Government to help reunite her family and leave the assistance rolls. The mother who with the encouragement of her social worker is able to complete her education and become a teacher in the local school system. The drug addict, the alcoholic, the people whom society and many other social agencies have given up on. The welfare rolls contain these stories also.

Public welfare has more than its share of problems, but for many it is the last place they can turn and the only place that will help.

JAMES W. PARKER

Supervisor of Social Service

Massachusetts Dept. of Public Welfare

Framingham, Mass.

Sir: What government, at all levels, needs to do is get off of this do-gooding spree and into a do-it-yourself line.

ALFA KENT

Austin, Texas

Sir: When we were growing up, my dad conceived a plan by which we children would have incentive to earn those things we wanted. Whatever money we earned or saved toward purchasing a desired object would be matched by him. Why not a similar plan applied to the welfare system? Anyone going off welfare by getting a job could have his first month's salary matched 100%. After that, his second-to sixth-month's salary would be matched 50%. From six months to a year, 10% of his salary would be matched. This money would be held in trust for him, and if he stayed off welfare for a specified period of time (say, three to five years), he would receive this money as a gift. If he went back on welfare the money being held in trust would be used to make his welfare payments.

(MRS.) BETTY RUBIN

Sherman Oaks, Calif.

The Simple Road

Sir: Thanks for returning the biker [Feb. 8] and his bike from the fantasies of being a neurotic, erotic, psychotic and of course quixotic animal to the simple road of reality on which he usually rides.

PHILIP C. PINKERTON

Gettysburg, Pa.

Sir: At long last someone has exposed the evil myth surrounding motorcycles. It is unfortunate in our society that people who rebel against conformity (in this case automobiles) must be looked down upon as degenerates. Mr. Hughes has accurately expressed the feelings of 3,000,000 people. To you, sir, I doff my helmet.

MARK W. SWANSON

West Hartford, Conn.

Sir: Friends had me convinced that 1 had a gear or two out of mesh when I developed a strong interest in motorcycles. Robert Hughes did a fine job of explaining what happened to me.

LOREN A. RADKE

Park Rapids, Minn.

Sir: Your Essay really turned me off on motorcycles. The truth is that motorcycles are horrendously loud and that most of the big-bike owners I know think this is a symbol of their masculinity.

Anyone who can have an "intimate relationship" with a machine needs help.

MARY ANN FLEISHER

Harrisburg, Pa.

Sir: "Myth of the Motorcycle Hog" was read with interest at the Naval Safety Center, where romance of the open road is not of the same concern as statistics.

Death rate of naval personnel in motorcycle accidents increased by 29% in 1970. The cyclist is more vulnerable in collisions because he does not have the protection that an auto affords. Road conditions, skills, reflexes and operator training are all more critical in driving a two-wheel vehicle. As you say, it may be antisocial. We wish it were safer.

W.E. SIMMONS

Captain, U.S.N.

Naval Safety Center

Naval Air Station

Norfolk

Matter of License

Sir: Let us clarify the statement in your story on the tanker collision [Feb. 1] that "the Standard tankers had no pilots."

The fact is that both vessels had licensed pilots aboard. The masters of Standard's seagoing vessels entering and leaving San Francisco Bay are qualified, experienced and licensed San Francisco Bay pilots, holding federal pilotage licenses issued by the U.S. Coast Guard. This license qualifies the holder to navigate a ship on the waters of San Francisco Bay and the San Francisco Bar in compliance with state and federal laws.

Your statement that "most other shipping had been suspended during the fog" is not factual. During the period of fog, a total of seven other vessels entered or sailed from San Francisco Bay. There were no other vessels scheduled to sail or arrive during that period.

L.C. FORD

President

Chevron Shipping Company

San Francisco

Laser Off the Beam

Sir: As one of the Wasp group that Norman Mailer [Feb. 8] has attacked with such venom, may I say that I resent being lumped into a segment of society that is so widely diversified that it links the richest with the poorest and the sometimes not-so-saintly with the so-called very angelic crowd.

I resent his narrow-minded attack and I suspect that Mr. Mailer may belong to a group known as BLAH. The acrostic for this is Bigoted Liberal And How. Now this is no reflection on the honest liberal who thinks for himself and allows others that privilege, but only applies to the type of thinking that Mr. Mailer has projected, which in itself is barbaric and profoundly nihilistic.

Mr. Mailer's laser is off the beam.

(MRS.) NAOMI H. BARNARD

Augusta, Ga.

Sir: These days we give center stage to anyone who will kick us in the teeth, nationally speaking. If this is an age of awakened soul-searching, it is also an age of masochism. Hence vicious opportunists and sadists like Mailer become the golden boys of the age.

(MRS.) PATRICIA ATKINSON

Seattle

Sticks in the Mind

Sir: In your story "Lemon-Aid, Nader Style" [Feb. 8] there is a reference to Road & Track publishing a story of a man's 14-month diary of his "lemon."

We appreciate the apparent fact that Road & Track sticks in the minds of your staff to a degree that would cause our name to be used instead of the correct one, but we resent the implication that we were a part of this particular event. Road & Track has consistently criticized the auto industry when we thought it deserved it, but we don't want credit, or blame, for someone else's objections.

JOHN R. BOND

President

Bond Publishing Co.

Newport Beach, Calif.

Jellied Thigh

Sir: The hot pants design [Feb. 1] is an obvious and frenzied subterfuge on designers' part, aimed at further discrediting short fashions and finally establishing the stillborn midi, thus maintaining fashion's faltering and sweaty grasp on the American dollar. Even TIME'S pictorial couldn't save the attractive girls from the jellied-thigh look. The love for the greasy till has produced yet another fumble.

FRANK and BONNIE WHIGHAM

San Diego

Sir: Heaven help us of the Then Generation, for obviously the fashion designers will not. Have they forgotten that we Thens still wear clothes and pay real money for them? The consensus in the world of designers seems to be that if you are over 25 (or, alas, over 50) you might as well assume a horizontal position and shut your mouth--you're dead.

(MRS.) EVA WATSON

Golconda, Ill.

Sir: Now that we've seen the hot pants, could we please have a second crack at the midi? It makes more sense now.

BETTY CURRY

Wiesbaden, Germany

Sir: Well really! Hot pants have been the cool thing in New Zealand for at least 20 years.

DIANE GREIG

Gisborne, New Zealand

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