Payola, Golden Eggs and Greed

To the Editors:

A big bravo to those business executives who bring in profitable orders from abroad [Feb. 23]. And if the bribe is tacked onto the selling price, further kudos are in order.

I'll opt for high employment, growth and prosperity any day.

William T. Cuddy Jr.

Calabasas, Calif.

Everyone thinks he can get away with anything. If some of those conspirators went to jail and spent the full sentence there, the world might not have as much moral corruption.

Steven Kuensting

St. Louis

Payola is the name of the game in business. The company that doesn't "bribe" its customers in one way or another is probably a statistic in bankruptcy court.

Ronald G. Birnback New York City

The profit motive is the catalyst of our free-enterprise system. It "leads us into temptation," but the system corrects itself. Let's not knock "the goose that laid the golden egg" too hard, or we will end up with a dead goose on our hands.

Glenn Wm. Simmons

Atlanta

I was raised under the impression that capitalism was a system of the people, by the people and for the people. The greed and graft demonstrated by Lockheed and other corporate giants has led me to believe that they have one overriding ambition: to take from the people and from the people and from the people.

Conrad J. Buehler

Fremont, Ind.

It is only one step from awareness of Lockheed's self-serving to questioning whether free-market advocates have Adam Smith in mind or the lucrative-ness of their veiled misdeeds.

Kenneth Cooley

Berkeley, Calif.

What's all this "scandal" fussing about? Bribery has been a common (and timehonored) practice as far back as Marco Polo and even before that. I find it surprising that Americans still cling to illusions of innocence after the years of Viet Nam, Watergate and intelligence investigations. Won't this country ever grow up and realize there is rottenness in the world?

Clay Rooks

St. Paul

News of bribery causes no surprise here in Brazil, where "special payment arrangements" are routine in all deals with government departments. In Rome, you must do as the Romans. Your multinationals are right.

Paulo Moreira Dias

Rio de Janeiro

Thanks for telling us about the graft in Colombia. Now we want the names of the grafters for our tribunals.

Alfredo Vanegas Montoya

Medellin, Colombia

What is needed now is a bipartisan congressional committee headed by individuals whose honesty is unquestioned, like Senators Hugh Scott and Hubert Humphrey, to ferret out those in Congress whose campaigns have received illegal corporate financing.

Penny K. Alden Key Biscayne, Fla.

When Woman Is Like Man

Re "Culture and the Curse" [Feb. 23]: someone told me that when a woman is premenstrual, her hormone level is similar to the hormone level of a man. Which means that during her irritable days a woman may act the way men act all the time. It makes sense.

Mildred Kavanaugh

Olympia, Wash.

Just as we are not inferior to men because we menstruate, neither are we superior. Women should accept it and forget it. It's not that big a deal.

Janice Torbet

Bryn Mawr, Pa.

I wish someone would find a "taboo-hut" where a handful of sick feminists could be detailed permanently. While they could massage backs, sip tea, sniff blood and celebrate their reclaimed menses, the rest of us could go about as usual and do what most women have been doing for thousands of years: define for ourselves how we feel about it.

Lotti S. Tobler

Shaftsbury, Vt.

I like the idea of a hormonal cycle that enables me to predict when I'm going to feel down. Think of the advantage to a President: summit meetings could be scheduled only on the up days. Down days could be reserved for the CIA cleanup.

Margie Townsend

Arlington, Texas

Paula Weideger implies that Jewish mothers pass on "self-hatred and worthlessness" by slapping the face of the daughter at the onset of menstruation. Actually, this practice, part of a rich folklore, is designed to restore color (blood) to the cheeks of the menstruating girl and has nothing to do with self-deprecating, debasing or shameful beliefs.

Dr. Michael G. Axelrod

Amy Snyder Axelrod

Shreveport, La.

I swear that I never took advantage of menstruation to keep any woman from equal status. Frankly, I find this dabbling in one's secretions, excretions or exudations in the name of self-knowledge and dignity unproductive and unnecessary. Messy even.

William Plank

Billings, Mont.

Publish a List

Angola is now all but taken over [Feb. 23]. The U.S. should publish a list of the countries that would be defended by us against Communist aggression. The remaining countries could then be taken over by the Communists without suffering the senseless wastes of war.

Ben H. Cornell

Colonel, U.S.A.F.

A.P.O., N.Y.

Those who view America's decision not to fight in Angola as cowardice or lack of commitment are those who persist in measuring-greatness with a military yardstick. For once we have exhibited the courage, the moral strength to keep ourselves out of a conflict in which we have no legitimate interest. Let the world judge who the imperialistic warmongers are now.

Gary Hamel

Berrien Springs, Mich.

Nobody Shoots Santa

Why are journalists regarding Nixon's trip to China [Feb. 16] as a mystery? Nixon will emerge as a lobbyist for China to plug for such things as "most favored nation" status, huge loans and all the other sweet deals that ultimately bilk the U.S. taxpayer.

I wonder why he needed all those Secret Service men on the trip. Nobody shoots at Santa Claus.

Leo Leslie

Waynesville, N.C.

While you scorn former President Nixon at home, he is honored abroad as the able statesman he was (and is).

Carlos A. Grieco

Buenos Aires

Why Speer Was Spared

In the review of Albert Speer's new book Spandau: The Secret Diaries [Feb. 23], Stefan Kanfer writes: "Speer, who displayed no discernible sympathy for workers during the '30s and '40s, grows hungry."

Having done extensive research in the Nuremberg Trial documents, I tend to concur with Speer that he did numerous things for the workers. He increased rations, provided clothing and relieved overcrowding. This was one of the reasons his life was spared.

John Phillip Dixon

Claw son, Mich.

Kanfer mentions that "some 5 million slave laborers" were "employed" by Speer and calls his Russian captors "harsh and arbitrary." For stealing a cauliflower, Speer gets one week of solitary confinement.

My uncle, Leo Kohn, was one of Speer's "employees." For picking up a carrot to ease his hunger, he did not get one week of solitary confinement but was beaten to death with a shovel.

Samuel Kohn

Canoga Park, Calif.

Question of Taste

Your reviewer charges me with bad taste in using Dr. Josef Mengele, late of Auschwitz, as the villain of my novel The Boys from Brazil [Feb. 23]. I must concede that what I have done is almost on a par with putting a would-be assassin on the cover of a national magazine or publishing a list of a dead President's rumored mistresses.

Ira Levin

New York City

The Hartman Addiction

Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman [Feb. 23]--the funniest show on the tube; the cultural and emotional mishmash of life in our bizarre and beloved America. I am addicted to Mary Hartman just as I am to eavesdropping on conversations in public transportation. Both are biographies of human affectations, human error and the strange sweet tangents of human love. Like the rest of the species, Mary Hartman is lovably low--and respectably high.

Libbie Gottschalk

Denver

Any connection between Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and the real thing is utter nonsense. I know.

Mary L. Hartman

East Windsor, N.J.

No Heavenly Aida

Note for James Levine (rhymes with divine): your new Aida [Feb. 23] stinks (rhymes with sphinx).

George J. Longo

Newark

Excessive

Re "The Good Life" [Feb. 2]: I wish you had asked me directly for my projections to the present period of the income levels required for each of the categories uncovered in my research. Most of the income levels you cited exceed my figures by 20%.

Richard P. Coleman

Senior Research Associate

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cambridge, Mass.

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