To the Editors:

As long as a dog has a bone, capitalism [July 14] will survive.

Lincoln K. Davis South Easton, Mass.

Capitalism has survived Nixon, Hitler, Marx. What more could one ask?

Charles Arndt Minneapolis

It is not, "Can Capitalism Survive," but can the consumer survive?

David Zap Bowie, Md.

There is no other conclusion. Capitalism appeals to those with a winner's instinct and socialism to the losers.

Robert E. Herrmann Los Angeles

It is a hopeful portent that TIME poses the issue of capitalism's survival and treats it seriously. But the alternatives of the future are not, as TIME thinks, a flawed but viable bumbling through as against failed socialist schemes. We must choose between the planned, corporate-dominated collectivism that capitalism is jerry-building to deal with its destructive contradictions ("socialism" for the rich) and a humane, democratic, freely created collectivism (socialism for the majority).

Michael Harrington, Chairman

Democratic Socialist Organizing

Committee, New York City

Michael Harrington's The Other America (1963) was one of the prime movers behind the Kennedy-Johnson War on Poverty.

How can we criticize capitalism when it has as yet never existed? Man has never known freedom from the smothering stranglehold of government.

It's time to return to Adam Smith, but this time let's go all the way.

JeffGalt Santa Ana, Calif.

When farmers are slaughtering calves because it is not profitable to raise them, and when oil companies refuse to drill because it may not be profitable, then we must seriously question whether the system based on the profit motive is meeting the needs of society.

Sanford Stein Chicago

Without profits there is no freedom.

Charles T. Clark

Tulsa, Okla.

Seeing Solzhenitsyn

President Ford's refusal to see Solzhenitsyn [July 21] is the refusal of a midget to see a giant for a very obvious reason. He would have to look up to him.

Leslie Juhasz Allentown, Pa.

If detente means that the President cannot freely talk with anyone the Soviets dislike, is it worth it?

Mania Schmemann New York City

You liken Solzhenitsyn's voice to that of an Old Testament prophet. I liken it to that of a dangerous extremist and warmonger. His contention that the U.S. should still be fighting Communism in Indochina is blood chilling.

John A. Malm Commack, N. Y.

A Plus from Bella

The International Women's Year Conference at Mexico City [July 14] was a historic plus for women. The official U.N.-sponsored conference unanimously adopted an excellent World Plan of Action addressed to the needs of the desperately poor and overworked women in the Third World as well as to Western women seeking equal rights and a share in political power.

Whether the plan really changes the lives of women depends on the women themselves, and I suspect they are determined to use the plan as a serious guide to action in their homelands.

One discordant note: the U.N.I.W.Y. conference also adopted a so-called Declaration of Mexico which asserted that Zionism must be eliminated along with colonialism and apartheid. As a congressional adviser to the U.S. delegation, I strongly urged them to vote against this declaration and was gratified that they did so. The gratuitous attack on Israel was an example of the anti-Israel bloc, with men in the leadership manipulating the women, who were there as instructed delegates from their governments.

Bella Abzug

Member of Congress

Washington, D.C.

TIME and Twiddle Heads

Sally Quinn is certainly not a loser [July 7]. The losers are the fine, competent, hard-working women in American journalism who slave to have themselves taken seriously and then watch supposedly responsible news mags like TIME turn a twiddle-headed meatball into a princess of the "mediacracy."

Zena Beth Guenin Iowa City, Iowa

Jews and Z.P.G.

Not too many years ago, when Zero Population Growth was first publicized, the black community denounced it as a racist policy. Now Rabbi Berman and Rabbi Lamm are making these same assertions on behalf of the Jews [July 14].

As a Jew and a father, I don't feel it is necessary to design my family around the needs of my religion but rather around the needs of my economic status and the world at large. Any attempt at equating Z.P.G. with anti-Semitism is a frightening Kafkaesque paranoia.

Barry Neidorf North brook, Ill.

Milo Mason for President

Who is Milo Mason [Forum, July 14]? Please, somebody, find him. Drag him off the farm. Run him for President. Lord, how appealing, how seductive it is to hear someone make sense, however common. It's about time farmers took a turn at running the place.

Lee Mueller Tomahawk, Ky.

Reason, Sweet Reason

It was a joy to read and reread Henry Grunwald's Essay, "The Morning After the Fourth ..." [July 14]. I can't think of anything the U.S. needs more on its birthday than a renewed respect for the power of reason, sweet reason.

Kathleen Amoia New York City

Orchids to TIME for delineating the meaning of the Declaration in a fair and thoughtful manner, and for daring to utter the words duties and responsibilities in this day when the word rights seems to be the only rallying cry.

(Mrs.) Effie L. Wilder Summerville, S.C.

After reading your Essay, I am moved to a sense of challenge and hope. I believe our country is in a crisis, especially of the spirit. Many are weary, many are worried. Inside most of us there must lie a sense of justice and decency. While it is true that we need unselfish, inspired leadership, we must also look to ourselves as responsible agents.

Lillian Laskin Los Angeles

If we are to survive as a free nation, Americans when describing their duties to and expectations from our democratic system must turn the M in "me" upside down and speak in terms of we.

Paul A. Grau Cleveland

The inequality of income and wealth discussed in your Essay presents a moral problem only when those at the bottom lack the things that most civilized people view as imperative: a nutritious and varied diet, a decent place to live and an environment in which to raise children, and medical care. If we worked on equalizing the distribution of these elements of life, unequal income distribution could serve its purpose of stimulating and rewarding innovation, initiative and risk-taking without nagging so much at our consciences.

Steven M. Kaplan Chicago

Mellow Wood, Warm Music

Unless the eye is deceived by the camera, the Great Barrington barn pictured [July 7] is none other than the arts center at Simon's Rock, a fine and so far unique Early College (it offers classes for high school juniors through college sophomores).

I had the pleasure of hearing Phyllis Curtin sing there and can attest to the visually pleasing use of this space and to the warm and vital sound of the music inside the mellowed wood.

Richard Dyer-Bennet Great Barrington, Mass.

Tenor Dyer-Bennet has long ranked as one of America's premier balladeers.

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