Nixon's Phase II

Sir: President Nixon stated that Phase II of his new economic policy would have "teeth" in it. After seeing a broad outline of Phase II, I think that they must be false teeth. Labor, business and public representatives will rule on wage increases, and labor will still have the right to strike. I would like to make a bet that labor will still be getting hefty pay increases and that this will force prices up. HAROLD B. JOFFE Baltimore

Sir: It appears that we have now crossed that ominous threshold and are on the road toward a progressively and indefinitely controlled economy. How much further these restraints on our lives will extend and to what ends remains to be seen. I suspect we will be apprised as to what the plummeting arrow on the emblem portends much sooner than we think.

IRWIN A. SILBERMAN

Lieut. Colonel, U.S.A.F.

Kirtland A.F.B., N. Mex.

Sir: If the President of the United States would get cracking and get out of Viet Nam, then follow up with currency restrictions on industry and tourism, the U.S. balance of payments would become favorable and the latest dollar crisis would disappear. Instead, President Nixon has chosen to commit economic aggression against the United States' closest friends, allies and, most importantly, its best customers. Why? Simple. We Canadians, the British, French, Japanese and others cannot vote, while U.S. industry greases the electoral machine with money and American tourists do have a vote.

Lou VOTICKY Montreal

Sir: Nixon's program of Phase I and Phase II actually contributes directly to the complete destruction of the U.S. monetary system and equally to that of the international monetary system.

The officials of the free world, including those of Japan, are wholly justified in their concern and in their outspoken objections to this Nixon doctrine.

HALLER BELT Alexandria, Va.

Sir: I am not concerned about Nixon's political intentions in initiating a program to save the economy. The fact remains that the support of the general public is essential in making this program a success. Those who are expecting a salary raise after the freeze should be reminded that we must all make sacrifices. A less inflationary practice would be that in which the employer could share both the gains and the losses of his business with the employee.

ROGER AMELUNG St. Louis

Sir: John Connally, Nixon's choice to negotiate the U.S. position in the most critical world monetary crisis in 40 years, is a man whose economic qualifications are the ability to add and unmitigated boorishness. God help us! Let us pray that another Keynes is waiting in the wings.

A.J. MCCARTHY Wellesley, Mass.

Sir: John Connally declined to run in 1968 not only because he was fed up; we, the voters, were also fed up. Texas politics is a cesspool, and John Connally is one of the biggest stinkers in it. Connally is the kind of man who could and would eat a deluxe meal in front of a starving child if it would benefit him politically.

SHERRI SOLTOW Killeen, Texas

Savior Complex

Sir: When will the allied victors of the second World War finally drop their saviors-of-the-world complex? After Viet Nam, what American can afford to condemn Japanese conduct during World War II? After Dutch treatment of Indonesians, what Dutchman can afford to throw a thermos bottle at Emperor Hirohito [Oct. 18]? The mentality behind such acts is the same as the arrogance that leads certain people to refer to policemen as "pigs." "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone" (John 8: 7).

(MRS.) ELIZABETH OKACHI Chiryu, Japan

Looking for Martyrdom

Sir: Your Essay on "Styles in Martyrdom" [Oct. 11] was timely and interesting. One point about martyrs seems to be ignored these days: the true martyr does not go around looking for martyrdom. Neither, as a rule, does he make dramatic, newsworthy gestures for their own sake.

This is one big difference between Sir Thomas More and the brothers Berrigan. One cannot read More's prison letters or the record of his trial without realizing that if it had been at all possible, he would have avoided going to the block. In contrast, the Berrigans seem to have relied primarily on dramatics, and I for one cannot help feeling that their despairing cries against the System evidence a subconscious desire for martyrdom.

JUDITH GUARR Kansas City, Mo.

Sir: It is an accepted fact that Che Guevara died while in captivity in Bolivia. This does not, however, entitle you to label him inefficient or picaresque.

Che was a dedicated leader who sacrificed everything--even his life--for the uplifting of oppressed people. That he died is not proof of his inefficiency. That he lived so long as a revolutionary is proof of his efficiency.

As to his being picaresque--a wilder statement will be hard to find. Would a rogue have given up power, position and hard-won laurels to fight in the jungles of Bolivia?

ANIL POOUADAN Bangalore, India

Sir: Your essayist, John T. Elson, surely chose a fine group of "martyrs." Why did he exclude "Dutch" Schultz? Schultz probably did less damage to society than Che Guevara. Elson's notion appears to be that anyone killed doing his thing is a martyr. The liberal-dominated press seldom speaks out now against the suppression of human liberties in countries like Hungary, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, but continues to blame the white race for being so long silent and inactive concerning the plight of its Negro brothers in the Old South and the new ghettos. Inconsistency, thou art a liberal virtue!

JOHN TREACY New York City

The Welch Report

Sir: "Opinionated" is the proper word to describe Dean Claude Welch's "critical appraisal" of graduate studies in religion [Oct. 18]. His categorization of the University of California, Santa Barbara program is based on prejudgment supplemented by flimsy, outdated, inaccurate and misread evidence. Dean Welch did not visit this campus, nor did he systematically discuss the religious studies program with anyone on this campus. Apparently he was content to fabricate his dubious thunderbolts while enthroned on Berkeley's Olympian heights.

ROBERT MICHAELSEN Professor

Dept. of Religious Studies

University of California, Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara

Sir: Please let the Rev. Dr. Claude Welch be informed that Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is not in the business of teaching religion; it prepares men and women to proclaim Christ. When one says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," and you believe him, there is little reason to get "hung up" on the religions of men. One "way" is enough.

TONY LATHAM Prince Frederick, Md.

Five Hints

Sir: I was terribly upset to hear that Mrs. Romana Banuelos was inconvenienced by a raid of the Immigration Department to look for illegal aliens in her tortilla factory [Oct. 18]. Whether she received a Government warning letter or not, I should think that five previous raids would have given her some "hint."

BILL REED Sparta, Mich.

Sir: Your article on Mrs. Romana Banuelos' employment of Mexican wetbacks is confusing because it does not make clear that it is not illegal, as I understand it, to give such employment. And were not those Mexicans producing something for us that we choose to buy?

ROBERT V. HORTON West Lafayette, Ind.

Sir: If an illegal alien can actually sneak in to work at the Western White House itself, with its elaborate screening and security procedures, it seems inevitable that they'd be working undetected in a large food factory.

The brouhaha over illegal aliens working for U.S. Treasurer-designate Romana Banuelos is just another petty political tempest in a teapot.

LUCY LEE SMITH Arlington, Va.

Sir: I agree with Noel Doran of the Immigration Service 100%. How else can this problem of wetbacks be made evident to all of us who have to pay income tax for these illegal aliens who work and then send their money to Mexico, who sometimes do not file income tax returns, who come and have children in our hospitals but often do not pay for medical care. I am sick of this laxity among our legislators. Why don't they pass a bill, whereby all these employers would bz fined for hiring wetbacks? Make it rough on these employers, who hire wetbacks for pennies, thereby allowing people like poor Mrs. Banuelos to amass fortunes.

BERTHA N. MORENO Placentia, Calif.

A Chicken Is a Miracle

Sir: Hey, wait a minute! I'm in the Army, I'm homesick and my home is Chicago. You mean that I can't go back and hear church bells ring, or hear a rooster crow [Oct. 11]? I've been gone a long time, and now they are taking away some of the city sounds I've been waiting to hear again. A chicken in a city is sort of a miracle; calling it "pollution" when there are so many more important things to be concerned about kind of shakes my faith. Tell me it's a joke.

SP4 GARY D. STOCKMANN APO New York

Sir: You failed to mention a most audible irony; the greatest single offender re noise pollution in the city of Chicago happens to be the Chicago Transit Authority, which is also exempt from prosecution. The screeching elevated trains that circle the Loop can reduce most living creatures to a quivering mass of frayed nerves and pounding eardrums. The sight of subway riders with fingers jammed into ears or sporting protective sound-muffling headsets is also quite commonplace. What the buses lack in noise they make up for tenfold in the choking, noxious fumes they exude.

TRUDY FAKLIS Mount Prospect, III.

The Brass Rings

Sir: My curiosity is aroused. In your article on the Tasaday tribe [Oct. 18] you state that these Stone Age people in the Philippines have no metal technology. Of what material, then, are the earrings that a tribesman is wearing in your accompanying photograph?

LINDA CITRO Secane, Pa.

>The Tasaday say that most of the brass wire used for earrings was given to them by the trapper who visited them. They claim that they inherited some from their ancestors who probably got it from outsiders also.

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