Eat, Drink and Be Somber

To the Editors:

All of us need to know and ponder the facts you present in such depth in your special section on the world food crisis [Nov. 11]. But I take issue with the crucial part entitled "What to Do: Costly Choices." You say, "The so-called less-developed countries will have to resist the temptation to blame the world's ills on the former colonial powers and the U.S." It is equally true that the U.S. and the former colonial powers will have to take much more seriously what the LDCs are saying to us.

The relatively free press in the U.S. reports international meetings such as Bucharest and Rome in such a defensive way that the average American cannot understand how American overconsumption and Mr. Butz's preoccupation with the profits of agrobusiness look to the rest of the world.

Your article further seems to assume that if the LDCs would learn to farm the way we do, the hunger problem would be solved. In fact, we are so profligate in our use of energy that we consume more calories of energy in input in our farming than the crops produce to be eaten.

Voluntary population decrease has never occurred anywhere in the world except as a result of prosperity, available health services, distributive justice and widespread education. Your article's emphasis on the costly sacrifices to be made will give comfort to those U.S. citizens who are beginning to say that there is nothing to be done--so eat, drink and be merry as long as we can.

(The Rev.) Eugene Carson Blake President, Bread for the World Stamford, Conn.

Dr. Blake was the general secretary of the World Council of Churches from 1966 to 1972.

A principal and persistent factor that has led to the international food crisis is the widespread failure to recognize that agriculture is the basic world industry and the major employer of labor. These facts have not been fully understood even though agriculture is the source of human energy and the building blocks of life and health.

A sound agricultural industry in most countries is basic to economic and social development, but often industrialization has been emphasized at the expense of agriculture in the belief that this was the most important pathway to national development.

Unless the agrarian nations of the Third World become convinced that agriculture must have the highest priority, the world food problem will not be solved. This requires a systems approach involving modern production technology and an infrastructure combining facilities for storage, transport, marketing and credit. Axiomatically, the continuing development of leadership in all sectors is fundamental to progress.

The notion that developed agricultural nations with excess production potential can buffer the hungry and increasingly populous nations through donations of food grains on an ever increasing scale has finite limitations. Already there is some evidence that the people of developed nations cannot indefinitely accept the progressively higher taxes and reduced living standards implicit in continuing large-scale and growing foreign aid.

We have learned that American technology cannot be transferred intact to other cultures and societies. We must adapt our experience to local situations and put together a package that would be welcomed and readily adopted. Developed nations must always be ready to cooperate with the Third World, but in the long run it is the leaders in the Third World who must accept the principal responsibility.

J. George Harrar, President Emeritus Rockefeller Foundation New York City

I wonder how many compulsive eaters became so upset after reading "The World Food Crisis" that they ran to their refrigerators to find solace?

Vicky Dingman Iowa City, Iowa

The demigods of rhetoric at the World Food Conference should try fighting their ideological battles before an audience of starving people from Asia, Africa and Latin America, rather than before their fellow champagne-fattened diplomats. Words satisfy the protein deficiency neither of diplomats' minds nor of peasants' stomachs.

Gary W. Graff South Charleston, W. Va.

Frustrating Campaign

Having suffered through another off-year political campaign, I ask: What specific solution has any candidate of either party offered to solve our biggest problem--inflation? Each candidate has said, "Something must be done," or "Reduce federal spending," but not even one can tell us how this is to be done.

How long will Americans be satisfied to listen to generalities? "I am for law-and-order," says one candidate. Who isn't? "The oil companies make excess profits," says another. So what? "The middleman makes a big profit, but the consumer and the farmer are losing money," we are told. We are aware of the problems. What we need is solutions.

Lewis A. Copenhaver Atlanta

I'm glad that America gave the Democrats a clear mandate--whatever it is.

Adam W. Couture Ashland, Mass.

Obviously the Democrats rode in on Nixon's court tales.

Joseph G. Mayo Cheshire, Conn.

Senator Kennedy Replies

In reporting on the Boston Globe series about the tragic auto accident at Chappaquiddick Island [Nov. 11], TIME said that "the biggest obstacle in obtaining [more] details was the continued silence of most of the ten men and women guests" at the 1969 cookout. Each of these innocent bystanders has testified under oath in court, and all this testimony is public. If they now choose not to be interviewed by Globe reporters, it is understandable. Their telephones have been tapped, they have refused huge sums of money for "exclusive" stories, Watergate "plumbers" planned to blackmail them, and even reputable newsmen deceived them. I have answered reporters' questions and shall continue to do so, but these private citizens are entitled to privacy.

In contrast, the Globe hides behind an unnamed informant whose uncorroborated, ugly and unfair speculations TIME incredibly identifies as "findings." The facts and sworn testimony refute clearly the groundless claims of an anonymous source that Joseph Gargan allegedly was to assume the blame for driving the car off the bridge. Ten men and women know that I left for Edgartown in my car with Mary Jo Kopechne while Mr. Gargan remained at the cottage. Several of them later saw and talked with him after his rescue attempts and after he drove me to the ferry landing.

TIME and the Globe ignore the fundamental contradictions in the testimony of Sheriff Look, who claims to have seen the car on the road more than an hour after the accident. Virtually ignored too was the Arthur D. Little study of Dike Road and Bridge, which ruled out negligent driving.

For TIME to state that I "stuck" to my "original story" suggests something sinister. This is grossly unfair. The facts as I have told them many times are harsh, complete and cold on their own. It is difficult enough for me to live every day of my life with these facts, with my personal remorse, regret and responsibility for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, and with my inexcusable behavior after the accident. I accept these with more pain than I can express. Concerning the TIME comment that "the full truth is obscure," I submit that the full truth has been told. But it has been obscured by the uncorroborated speculation of unnamed sources.

Edward M. Kennedy U.S. Senator, Mass. Washington, D.C.

Palestinian Passions

Your cover story on the Palestinians leaves no doubt that we are racing down the road to Armageddon. Drunk with oil, money and the triumph of terror from Munich to Ma'alot, the Arabs have brought the entire U.N. and the Western world to their knees. The striped-pants diplomats have learned nothing from Neville Chamberlain and the Munich sellout of 1938. Now our totally amoral world community is about to demand that Israel commit suicide for the sake of "business as usual."

Henri Temianka Provo, Utah

I am pro-Israel, a Zionist in my heart and soul, but I have never been so appalled as I am by this paramount display of asininity shown by my fellow Jews in New York City concerning the P.L.O.'s arrival at the U.N.

What of Rabbi Hillel? To deny someone the opportunity to state what he thinks--is there any greater injustice? I won't agree with or like what the P.L.O. says, but I welcome them with open arms, mind and heart, and I'll try to hide my shame at having to claim these foolish Jews as my kin.

Lauren L. Isaacson Minneapolis

Your story glorifying the murderers of Munich, Ma'alot and Kiryat Shemona fills me with rage and disgust. You glibly pass off the killing of children, athletes and pilgrims. You exalt those whose aim is the destruction of the Jewish state. You repeat and dignify all the old Arab lies. I doubt that the Arab Information League itself could have done better.

Jacob R. Sherman Rutland, Vt.

It was tear-tugging to read the poetry of the displaced Palestinian. Also very interesting was the consensus at Rabat that the Arabs are again one nation. Strange, is it not? The "Arab nation" has unity of religion, custom, language and heritage, with billions of excess dollars and millions of square miles of unused land, and the only place a Palestinian Arab can feel at home is in "the orange groves of Jaffa."

Aron Lustiger Philadelphia

Significantly, the Palestinians have returned to and demanded recognition from the same two institutions that in 1948 disenfranchised them and took custody of their cause: the United Nations and the Arab governments. It is an eloquent statement about the capacity of a people to suffer, endure, survive and regain their sense of national worth.

Barbara R. Zimbel Cambridge, Mass.

You state that the West Bank is the most prosperous part of Jordan, that without it King Hussein presides over a minuscule kingdom and that the East Bank is not as economically viable as the West. In fact, the area of the West Bank is 5,000 sq. km., and that of the East Bank is 96,000. Most of Jordan's agricultural produce comes from the East Bank. Its huge mineral deposits will make it a prosperous country within the next three years.

The East Bank has been subsidizing the West Bank ever since Israel's occupation in 1967. As for what you describe as King Hussein's defeat at Rabat, I assure you that Rabat was a victory for Jordan and the Arab world in the face of Israeli intransigence. Only the media refer to the outcome of the Rabat conference as a defeat for Jordan.

Zaid Al-Rifai, Premier Amman, Jordan

Mistaken Identity

In reporting the reactions of many Americans to Richard Nixon's speech of resignation [Aug. 19], TIME said: "Jannuzi still believes, as he has from the beginning, that Nixon was destroyed by his enemies." In fact, I believe no such thing. Nor did I make such a statement in my conversation with your correspondent. What seems to have happened is that TIME attributed to me remarks made by someone else.

Eugene F. Jannuzi Beaver Falls, Pa.

Mr. Jannuzi is correct. TIME regrets both the error and the delay in setting the record straight.

Sesame Street Gets an A

The college professors blame the high school teachers who blame the middle school teachers who blame the elementary school teachers who blame the parents who blame the teachers. . .

When the educators of the '60s turned their backs on traditional scholastic programs and sought new methods, they made one horrifying mistake: they allowed students to dictate the needs. Sesame Street may be America's last vestige of fundamental learning. The ivory towers have been razed and replaced by Towers of Babel, where the Lucas Tanner Method of Unstructured Free Expression holds sway.

Maxine Berman Southfield, Mich.

We are currently attending Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge and would appreciate a follow-up article dealing with too many Cs.

L. Samuels, J. Orfila, F. Phares, S. Orfila Baton Rouge, La.

Why don't you submit a 25-page paper on "The Role of 'Miasma' in Greek Tragedy" and see if you can earn a "rubber-stamped A" too? Isn't it possible that students may be working harder today to earn those A's, that actually "studying inflation" is to blame?

Lee Hanson New Haven, Conn.

Major illiteracy in our colleges is generally caused by "educators" who nicely accept from their students opinion instead of research, psychotherapy instead of logic, flak instead of depth.

So why you proffesors should like sortof mess up what the realy right ON student's are, I mean, in toll you know.

E.N. Genovese Associate Professor of Classics San Diego State University, San Diego

Hunting for Hunt's Facts

In TIME'S story about E. Howard Hunt's testimony at the current Watergate trial [Nov. 11], I was quoted in regard to Hunt's admissions of his previous deceptions. The remark attributed to me--as an executive of the firm publishing Hunt's autobiography--was that the lies and inaccuracies amounted only to "tiny, nitpicking things."

If that was the inference drawn from the interview with me, then there was an important misunderstanding. Of course I was aware, on the basis of news accounts of the trial, that a major contradiction existed between Hunt's most recent testimony and his previous statements concerning possible Executive clemency for him. Prior to Hunt's appearance at the trial, we were unaware of this significant fabrication.

Edward T. Chase Vice President, G.P. Putnam's Sons New York City

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