Voters and Taxes

To the Editors:

The problems of inflation and taxation [Oct. 23] are not things the White House can do much about. The source of the trouble is Capitol Hill, and as you say, in the coming election nobody expects any radical changes in party strengths. The voters keep mindlessly sending back to Washington the same people who have been in control for most of the past 50 years. In the absence of a one-term limitation on Representatives and Senators, who are more concerned with their perpetuation in office than with the public good, the best thing we could do would be to clean house in Washington at every election.

Richard F. Barrett

San Jose, Calif.

Tax cuts? That's nothing. They do it every year. Now let's put the grease where the squeak is. Let's see the politicians cut spending; the tax cuts will take care of themselves.

Jerry Sturdivant

Bishop, Calif.

Being students at a liberal arts college, we know procrastination. "All nighters" are often necessary to get papers out. However, these rarely result in first-class work. Was it necessary for Congress to pull an all nighter to get national legislation out? No! We therefore humbly award Congress a B--

Mark Collins

John Jacobs

Bill Emerson

Middlebury, Vt.

Sure, a $15 billion tax cut for individuals sounds awesome. However, when it translates into $5 a week for my family and this is more than offset by the increase in Social Security taxes, I am hardly pleasantly surprised. And the politicians wonder about the current mood of the people. I do not feel Congress got the message; apparently it got lost somewhere in the mail.

Sue Raby

Goode, Va.

Everybody worries about how big the tax load is. Isn't anybody worrying about how badly the tax load is distributed? Doesn't anyone think an unjust and unsound tax system might be the cause rather than the result of an economy sick with inflation and unemployment?

Lawrence D. Clark Sr. Medfield, Me.

Pulse of China

Congratulations on the brilliant special report on China by Michael Demarest and Carl Mydans [Oct. 23]. A perfect blending of the pictorial and reportorial, making one feel the pulse of modern China, whose doors are now being reopened to the rest of the world.

Kenneth Lagerstedt

Buzzards Bay, Mass.

Gosh! Gee whiz! Golly day! Now how about letting us hear from the thousands of escapees who risked their lives to leave Utopia.

Shari Myers Smyth

Etters, Pa.

I am a 5-ft. 8-in. blond" with a big nose. I feel, however, that I could endure the heckling about my appearance, the cramped CAAC flight and even the absence of french fries and Di-Gel if Mr. Demarest would take me with him to China the next time he goes.

Deborah Hite Todd

Meridian, Miss.

I'm awfully sorry to say so, dear gringos, but I'd a million times rather live in China than the good old U.S.A., with its crime, violence, pressures and Coca-Cola culture.

Frank Valerius

Guatemala City

Reflection of a Song

My client William Milligan [Oct. 23] informs me that it was Adelena, not Tommy, who wrote down the quoted poem, and that it was not an original. The lyrics were written by Bernie Taupin for an Elton John album Madman Across the Water. At no time did my client claim originality for the quote. Your reporter and, I must admit, I assumed that it was original, rather than a reflection of a song in a very disturbed young man's mind.

Gary M. Schweickart

Columbus

Prime Mover

John Denver? Sol Linowitz? Thomas Wyman? President Carter's Commission on World Hunger [Oct. 16]? Bunk! It was Singer-Songwriter Harry Chapin, who is also a member of this commission, who lobbied religiously for more than two years until the reticent Congress and White House finally agreed to its legal creation. If anyone is a prime mover in this effort, he is.

Peter Morton Coan

Eggertsville, N. Y.

Lack of Change

" 'Middletown' Revisited" [Oct. 16] reminded me of my own town. People seem to think that things have changed a great deal, but I can still enjoy the same things my parents did.

Susie Bragg Buckhannon, W. Va.

With all of the exaggerated, alarmist claims of rapid change overpowering our society, it is a pleasure to see controlled research on social change in the Middletown III study.

Richard S. Bobys

Sioux City, Iowa

I am a sophomore at Ball State University. We have a saying around here that sums it up in one sentence: Muncie is the armpit of Indiana. Case closed.

Lori Yeater

Muncie, Ind.

Wronged Grandfather

The generally excellent article on Hispanics in America [Oct. 16] was marred by an error that I must attempt to correct or my family would never forgive me. You have wronged my grandfather, who was not an illegal alien as you stated. He came to the U.S. legally in 1880, and settled in Brownsville, Texas, where he became a citizen of the state and the nation under the laws then in effect.

Leonel J. Castillo, Commissioner

U.S. Immigration & Naturalization

Service

Washington, D.C.

Positive Contributions

"Trying to Right the Balance," [Oct. 9] contains an assertion that U.S.-based multinationals, including General Motors, harm the nation's balance of trade out of a desire to protect their foreign operations from undue competition from American-made products. I disagree and feel that this statement is unsupportable.

A firm operating in more than one country will not deliberately choose unnecessarily costly locations to build its products. To do so would mean losing profits that could be made by manufacturing products at more efficient locations. In the intensely competitive worldwide market in which GM operates, such a patently inefficient procedure would probably make it impossible for GM to make any overseas sales at all. As you recognize, moreover, multinationals "benefit the U.S. because much of their profit is returned home in the form of retained earnings." In 1977 GM's total international transactions resulted in a net inflow to this country of $2.4 billion --certainly a positive contribution to the nation's balance of payments.

Tom Murphy, Chairman

General Motors Corp.

Detroit

Hefty Benefits

Marshall Loeb, eat your words, and if Martin Feldstein agrees, he may join you. I refer to "The Surest Social Security" [Oct. 23]: "it is now a good deal for beneficiaries because they paid in low taxes years ago and are now collecting hefty benefits." You do not consider the low salaries of the years in which many beneficiaries were contributing and the small benefits that resulted.

Leata M. Swanson

Omaha

Bravo, Martin Feldstein! It's about time Government left some of the banking to the bankers. Government is there to help the country, not to administer personal financing.

Ruby C. Lindner

Faribault, Minn.

Tribute to the Scrubs

So the Yankees "can field the most devastating starting nine in baseball but have few reserves to call upon when trouble strikes" [Oct. 23]. I'm sure Brian Doyle, Paul Blair and Jim Spencer--as well as the rest of the Yankee bench --would be pleased to know that they are considered scrubs.

James Robert Arnone

Buffalo

Haunting Rumor

San Diego suffered a terrible tragedy Sept. 25, when 144 persons died as a result of the collision of two airplanes [Oct. 9]. San Diego has generally been credited with responding marvelously on that dark day. However, a report of looting has haunted San Diego and marred that very positive story. It can't be determined where the original rumor started, but it apparently was repeated by police and news media alike. There is absolutely no evidence that any looting occurred at the crash site or in the immediate vicinity.

Some of our plainclothes officers--called to the scene to help the coroner's office--might have been mistaken for civilians.

William B. Kolender,

Chief of Police San Diego

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