Excuse for Banditry

Sir / Heaven help, our country if the Symbionese Liberation Army is allowed to succeed in this terrible Robin Hood effort to force the rich to share with the poor. The Hearst kidnaping is a gross crime and the ransom merely an excuse for a revolutionary group of pitifully misled people to take the law in their own hands. Why can't they see the far-reaching effects of their revenge? Without obedience to law there can be no order or justice in life.

MARTHA GROWNEY

Roeland Park, Kans.

Sir / The appeasement of his daughter's kidnapers by Randolph Hearst is, in a word, appalling. The example set by the Hearst kidnaping can only result in more of the same. The U.S.: North America's first banana republic.

EDWARD SAXON

Kirkwood, Mo.

Sir / When dissent becomes barbaric it is the duty of all men, whether they be rich and powerful or poor, hungry and oppressed, to preserve civilized life and insist upon justice. The people should demonstrate their true fortitude and humanity by refusing to accept any food or money from the People in Need program or any other criminally sponsored operation. Mr. Hearst and the authorities are powerless to stop this crime, but the people can.

JOSEPH W. DAY

Palo Alto, Calif.

Sir / While not in agreement with kidnaping, violence and threats to the sons and daughters of the rich, I do agree that it is about time someone did something for the poor people of the world. In this day and age, it is beyond all reason for individuals to own vast amounts of money.

A law should be passed that no person may have more than $150,000. Anyone having more should have the money confiscated and used to help the poor of the world.

W.A. MORRIS

Ottawa

Sincerity Is Not Enough

Sir / That Vice President Ford is "a politician who projects complete sincerity" [Feb. 25] seems a harmless enough statement to me, but I think it somewhat blindly contributes to overlooking other characteristics of Mr. Ford's that may finally add up to be more pertinent.

Mr. Ford is completely sincere about sitting on the fence until somebody who he thinks knows something dislodges him. How sincerely he might make the most likable, ineffectual and dangerous President of them all!

JACK COLLISON

Larkspur, Calif.

Sir / It looks like the position of U.S. Vice President is due for a new job description. I suggest: liaison official who brings football to the rescue of Government. Expert on defense, any line.

JIM NOLAN

Guadalajara, Mexico

Live Spirit

Sir / In reading about Alexander Solzhenitsyn's present confrontation, I am reminded of Pasternak's words: "In every generation there has to be some fool who will speak the truth as he sees it." A prophet has always been considered a fool by his own. Nevertheless a prophet has always been and will always be a spokesman for God or for his people. Would that we all had such fools in our midst!

The Russian spirit still lives despite 60 years repression. BROTHER R.O. DUFORT, S.C.

Malole, Zambia

Postal Rates

Sir / I am torn between my dedication to the U.S. Postal Service (now serving my 27th year in its employ) and TIME (as a faithful subscriber for over 20 years).

Neither the Publisher's Letter nor the article about postal rates [Feb. 25] can sway my opinion: TIME can afford to pay its share for our service to bring the public better service.

RAYMOND F. CLARKIN

Enfield, Conn.

Sir / I'm sick of hearing that those who use the Postal Service should bear the entire cost of its operation. We all benefit from the system, even those of us who never mail a letter. Consequently, we all ought to pay for it.

If the cost is frightening to the tax payer, remember that many taxpayers read hobby magazines, trade journals, and a host of other small publications that could be squeezed out by postal rate increases much more quickly than the mass-circulation "slicks."

A self-supporting Postal Service is a noble goal, but it's not worth the strangulation of the American press.

GRAHAM N. SMITH

Austin, Texas

Sir / No doubt Congressmen would be more sensitive to the publishers' postal plight, as well as to the public's, if they had no franking privileges.

RONALD J. ADAMS

Tucson, Ariz.

French Sour Grapes

Sir / French Foreign Minister Jobert's accusation that the U.S. is attempting to dominate Europe both politically and economically [Feb. 25] is typical French sour grapes.

Jobert's obstinacy illustrates a French habit of creating diplomatic disturbances in order to be noticed. France could not have survived World War II without U.S. military aid, and today France is still dependent on our nuclear umbrella.

For decades the French have been devoid of meritorious accomplishments and must take advantage of diplomacy to voice their contempt.

LISA COUNCIL

Panama City, Fla.

Sir / Our allies and partners seem to forget that France is not the sick man of Europe any more. Since 1958 we have had real leadership under General de Gaulle and President Pompidou. You forgot to say that the Nine had agreed upon the French position toward Kissinger's proposals. It turned out differently in Washington, and only Mr. Jobert represented the Community's former decisions. Can you call nationalistic an attitude respecting the agreements held among nine nations? France does not want the Community to become a U.S. satellite. It is David defending his people against Goliath.

CHARLES STANKIEWIEZ

Savigny-sur-Orge, France

Wrong Island

Sir / Correction: the picture is captioned "Indonesia's Sungai Gerong Refinery on the River Musi at Jakarta" [Feb. 25]. Anyone who has lived there knows that Sungai Gerong is on the Musi River near Palembang, on the island of Sumatra. Jakarta, on the island of Java, is far away.

MRS. W.K. MCOWEN

Hamburg, West Germany

Healthy Inactivity

Sir / In the discussion of Henry Kissinger's meeting with the Latin American Foreign Ministers [Feb. 25], TIME incorrectly characterized U.S. inter-American policy as "near-total neglect." The Nixon Administration has worked carefully to avoid a chronic flaw in previous U.S. policy: the idea that all development in Latin America should be according to U.S. formulas. The result is the "low-profile" posture, in which the U.S. would not dominate but rather wait for Latin American initiatives.

This reversal of the traditional roles caused a period of inactivity, not neglect. Now the Latin Americans are taking the lead for better relations with the U.S.

MAUREEN C. SULLIVAN Washington, D.C.

Gas and the Four-Day Week

Sir / I am appalled at the let's-feel-like-we're-doing-something solution to the gas shortage of even-odd days [Feb. 25]. That approach does absolutely nothing to create a single extra drop of gasoline or to reduce the amount needed. Whatever happened to the four-day. 40-hour work week that everyone was talking about a short time back? It seems to me that if we spend Saturday looking for enough gas to get to work Monday and cannot find it, we are going to have to take Monday off anyway to go out looking for gas.

WILLIAM H. COLBERT

Long Beach. Calif.

Sir / Nowadays we're so liberal that we don't deem it necessary to celebrate holidays on their anniversary, but we "modify" them to give more people more time to go places.

Go places? Why. in the face of gasoline rationing and prohibitive prices, do we continue to encourage holiday outings by creating three-day weekends?

JONATHAN R. GALLANT

Rangeley. Me.

Donating $1.25

Sir / Jean Paul Getty (worth $4 billion) giving $50,000 to conservation [Feb. 18] is like John Doe (worth $100,000) giving $1.25. Big deal!

M.H. BECKMAN

Rockford, Ill.

Strange Reversal

Sir / A strange reversal is taking over our country. As more prisons are being abandoned, bars removed, paroles granted, our citizens are of necessity making their homes personal prisons. Barred windows, double locks, watch dogs, patrolled neighborhoods. It is horrifying.

Then Clifford Irving [Feb. 25] makes the amazing statement upon parole: "Prison is a farce . . . If you are treated as an untrustworthy person, you become one." My God! Who is imprisoned because of honesty, trustworthiness, kindness?

(MRS.) SU SU B. PUCKETT

Houston

Triple Perfection

Sir / Your article on Exxon [Feb. 18] prompts me to tell you a saying that was current in Europe before 1914: "There are three perfect organizations in the world: the Catholic Church, the German army and the Standard Oil Co."

LEONORA HERING

Saratoga, Calif.

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