HP-Times.com

To the Editors:

President Ford's words comprise the most uncomforting assessment of the State of the Union that the American people have had to hear. Even during the Civil War, President Lincoln each year offered gratitude for the excellent health of the people and for abundant harvests. Even in 1814, when British troops had recently set fire to the city of Washington, President Madison felt that he could anticipate the expulsion of the invaders. Even in 1931, with economic disaster everywhere, Herbert Hoover promised that the value of traditional American virtues would soon prove itself again.

Ford's willingness to come to the people palms up is admirable. Still, he is in no position to offer soothing syrup. The spreading economic distress now reaches into every home daily, in living color, in living reality, or both. He cannot blink the fact that foreigners now hold significant strings, pulling on the nation's destiny.

In having to lay down a timetable that takes the U.S. well into the 1980s, he is seeking to undrape ready resignation in a notoriously impatient people. And he is the first President to report that America's beacon light to the world has dimmed. Above all, Ford could not help conveying what his countrymen also sense--that the way out of the maze is technological as well as political. That is a burden on presidential leadership no other Chief Executive has had to bear.

Henry F. Graff

New York City

The writer is a Professor of History at Columbia University who has written extensively on the presidency.

Economic medicine stronger than that proposed by President Ford is needed to cure our sick economy. Low-and middle-income families are most in need of a rebate on 1974 taxes and should be given a much greater proportion of this proposed tax break. Moreover, the entire rebate should be paid in May to maximize the help it would give to the economy.

Tax reform also is needed to sustain the upward economic momentum started by a refund of 1974 taxes. As a down payment on comprehensive tax reform, withholding tax rates should be reduced through a formula equivalent to the $70 income tax credit for each member of a family, up to a maximum of $375 per household, as suggested by the President's Labor-Management Advisory Council.

A five-year pause in the imposition of new emissions restrictions on autos must be accompanied by an ironclad commitment from the manufacturers --required by law, if necessary--to achieve fuel economy. Research by industry and Government must continue in order to avoid a standstill on improving air quality.

Leonard Woodcock,

President United Auto Workers

Detroit

The President made a forceful presentation for improving the American economy. Most farmers will appreciate the proposed tax cut as some relief in this period of high costs. The tax cut will also mean a reduction in federal revenue. If we continue to spend and increase federal deficits, farmers and all other citizens will be the losers.

The President's promise to veto new expenditure programs could well help set a tone in curbing expenses for such programs as Social Security, welfare, make-work public employment schemes and an expensive national health insurance plan. All of these programs are inflationary.

William J. Kuhfuss,

President

American Farm Bureau Federation

Park Ridge, III.

With 6 million unemployed we are bound to reduce demand for the supply we can so readily produce. So what do we do? Well, I suggest, first, that we put our workers on a 30-hour week. We are coming to that sooner or later. Why not begin now?

Then make it illegal to employ anyone to work overtime while unemployment exceeds 2 million. If we can black out a football game because all seats have not been sold, surely we can black out overtime when 6 million people are unemployed.

Next, we should restrict households to one job each until unemployment sinks below 2 million once again.

(The Rev.) W. Hamilton Aulenbach

Claremont, Calif.

I'm all shook up by President Ford's plans to conserve fuel by increasing the price. Why, it will mean that I'll have to cancel plans to go skiing in Colorado and stop commuting to New York City in my private jet.

Arline J. Guenther

Richmond

I am a retired person living on a monthly pension of $350. Inflation eroded that by 12% last year.

The President says that he wants to limit the cost of living increase in pensions to 5%. Therefore my pension will in fact be reduced by the difference, or 7%. Why does he not look for a more humane way to economize?

Fausto Balzani

Holyoke, Mass.

Addiction to Oil

Much credit is due Henry Kissinger for accomplishments for peace, but to even remotely contemplate using force against a sovereign nation [Jan. 13] over private property is to plan an immoral act. We are addicted to oil, not through any fault of the Arabs. Surely there are alternatives. Where is the imagination of our national leaders, not to mention their moral conscience?

Wendall W. Ogg

Concord, Tenn.

I am incredulous at the banter concerning the "remote possibility" that the U.S. would go to war for oil! Is oil so important to maintain this country in the style to which it has become accustomed that we would send our children to kill for it?

James B. Asmussen

Austerlitz, N. Y.

Kissinger is right in reminding the world that "economic strangulation" of the West could justify war.

We are being bled to death. That the process is gradual makes it less dramatic, but no less fatal. This hemorrhage must be stanched by whatever means will be effective, up to and including war, if necessary. Though the medicine is bitter, should the patient procrastinate until he is terminal?

Laurence G. Hamilton

Prescott, Ariz.

Cold on Gold

I am delighted to read that Americans are less than enthusiastic about buying gold [Jan. 13]. I would prefer, and I believe the American people would prefer, to invest money in the hopes, dreams and aspirations of a vibrant America. For example, this can be done by people investing money in a company that manufactures tractors that will pull a farmer's plow, which will, in turn, produce grain that will, in turn, feed livestock and put meat on the table. Anyone who buys gold and stashes it away is by this action saying that he has no confidence in America and its resources and productivity.

A.A. Antoniou

Oak Brook, III.

Dealers like me are quite distressed by the media's implications that all of us expected a big rush by Americans into bullion. This is rather absurd. The true extent of the American market will not be shown for at least a month. I daresay that the greatest demand by the average citizen will continue to be in low-premium heavily traded gold coins. The buyer's anonymity can be preserved, and he can avoid such problems as high premiums, illiquidity and assay fees.

The desirability of holding gold will not diminish unless and until major governments decide to stop inflating the money supply.

Gregory C. Reeser, President

Hawaii Precious Metals Association

Honolulu

The Master's Fingerprints

After the Watergate trials, one is forced to recall the saying that "the fingers of the servants should leave the fingerprints of the master."

Ken Gene Jacobsen

Dunedin, N.Z.

Bald and Proud

Blessings on you for your "Bald Is Beautiful" article [Jan. 13]. I can now face the hairy ones, the wig sellers and the pitying barbers with my polished pate held high to reflect back into their eyes the shining light of self-respect.

Sheldon Silvers

The Bronx

Actually, the new acceptance of the bald man as sex symbol is simply a catch-up job to coincide with the belief that any bared flesh (no matter what part of the anatomy) is provocative. My husband, bless his receding hairline, gets more provocative every day!

Kathy Diekemper

Bauer St. Louis

There is another distinctive feature of baldness; the bald-headed man is the first to know it is raining.

Edward G. Greenberger

Coral Gables, Fla.

It is obvious: baldness is a sign of evolutionary advance--we are that much farther away from being apes than all those hairy folks.

John Wai burn,

M.D. Omaha

Award for Jungle Services

Teruo Nakamura, "The Last Last Soldier" [Jan. 13], may have decided that he was better off hiding in the Indonesian jungle, especially if the total back pay coming to him, as reported by TIME, had amounted to the "princely sum of $227.59."

Actually, on Jan. 7 Nakamura was awarded about $11,200 by the government of Japan for his services. That may not make him a prince, but might keep him out of the jungle.

Daniel Westberg,

Information Officer

Consulate General of Japan

Toronto

Beyond Brooklyn

Moving to Albany looks to be the first in a long series of surprises for the family of Governor Carey [Jan. 13]. It seems that they are just now finding out that there is more to New York State than Brooklyn.

Debra S. Deans

Ithaca, N. Y.

A few days ago, 3,600 friends--the largest crowd in Albany's history--welcomed our new neighbors, the Carey family, at the Governor's open house. We are glad that they are here. They brighten our lives. The Mansion has been in the shadow of a muddy construction site, the South Mall, for ten long years. Soon, however, as the Empire State Plaza, it will be an exciting place for people--with one of the world's great museums, a magnificent library, skating facilities in the winter, restaurants and meeting halls all year round.

I believe that our Brooklyn neighbors will learn to love the ancient and unique city that is Albany.

And by the way, yes, we do have ice cream parlors.

Erastus Corning

Mayor

Albany, N. Y.

Ghosts on the Low Road

President Idi ("Big Daddy") Amin of Uganda may be upset at the phraseology of your People item [Jan. 13], which Scottish purists could interpret as a report of his death. The "low road" of the Scottish folk song Loch Lomond on which you had him traveling is the route the soul of a Scot takes in returning home when he dies abroad.

The song Loch Lomond itself chronicles one side of a conversation between two Scottish soldiers--captives of the English at Carlisle Castle in 1745. One is to be set free, the other executed. It is the condemned man who will return to Loch Lomond via the low road of death and reach the beautiful slopes of Ben Lomond before his friend, who must travel the earthly high road.

Gerald McDonald

Commander, U.S.N.

Orange Park, Fla.

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