The Automakers

To the Editors: I was disappointed that your cover artist Richard Hess didn't put blindfolds on the three auto executives [Sept. 8]. They must have been around in the late '50s, the '60s and the '70s and observed the trend and need for small and efficient cars. Their foreign competitors did.

Harold H. Bach Sun City, Ariz.

If the Detroit worker had done better when he had a job, he would not now be looking for a job.

Virginia B. Thomas Alexandria, La.

Let the Government buy every household a new economy car every two years. This would 1) revive the auto industry, 2) cut unemployment, 3) continue highway construction, 4) reduce imports and 5) stop the rush to push mass transportation down an unwilling public's throat.

George Strahan Fort Worth

It is not un-American to buy a foreign-made car, and it certainly is not anti-American, but if it seriously hurts the American economy, can it be right? Thinking Americans can change their habits--if they want to.

Harold G. Hartgerink Phoenix

Debate About the Debates

It is high time that the League of Women Voters instructed the candidates about the debates [Sept. 8] as follows: "The American voters are going to conduct job interviews for the post of President, at such-and-such places, dates and times. Serious applicants will show up for these interviews. Others need not show." Perhaps this will indicate just who's supposed to be doing the hiring around here.

Lee W. Douglas Germantown, Md.

Carter is the recognized champion, and he has agreed to defend his title against major challengers, one at a time, in the TV ring, starting with the top contender. To keep his title, must the champ simultaneously confront and overwhelm all the opponents who can be crowded into the ring?

David B. Gary Jacksonville, Ala.

The real question is not whether John Anderson should be included--he should --but why Libertarian Ed Clark hasn't been invited as well. An open political process in America should not be dictated by Jimmy Carter or the League of Women Voters.

Mark A. Larson San Diego

Why not have debates just between Reagan and Anderson? Carter's record speaks for itself.

Tom Evans Acton, Mass.

Back to Main Street

People are moving to smaller towns and cities [Sept. 1] in record numbers seeking not only intimacy and peace, but a place where their actions count. They are fed up with ineffectual, unresponsive Big Government interfering with their lives and no longer able to solve the problems it has created.

Anne Steely Fort Collins, Colo.

Small-town life produces achievers. A large proportion of the men and women in Who's Who came out of small towns. Count 'em.

Lucia Meyers Madison, Miss.

Perhaps these ambitious native sons from such small towns as Plains, Ga., and Tampico, Ill., have an urge to overachieve so that they can compensate for their feelings of provincialism and insignificance.

Mitchell Winthrop Chicago

My mother's advice: If you ever decide to practice medicine in a small town, drive in in a Cadillac if you have to beg, borrow or steal every cent it takes to buy one. Because if you don't, and you buy one at the end of a year, everybody will know you paid for it with money you made from them.

Charman F. Palmer, M.D. Napa, Calif.

Married Priests

The "startling decision" of the Vatican to permit Episcopal clergy to become Roman Catholic priests and remain married is not so startling [Sept. 1]. Heck, nothing startles us Catholics any more. By now we're even conditioned to accept the ultimate about God--maybe she's not a Catholic.

(The Rev.) Edgar Holden Newark

How strange. I came from a staunchly Catholic German-Irish background and endured all the rigors of the pre-Vatican II church, including twelve years of serious seminary life and ten years as an active priest. Now married, I can only look on in astonishment as former Episcopal priests are welcomed to the active ministry in my church though married, while I and hundreds like me have been denied this same privilege of service.

Benno Bartemes San Juan

Bilingualism, ?Si?

Bilingualism [Sept. 8] should be junked at once! Whatever the badly spoken language--Spanish, Haitian Creole or the nonstandard English of many blacks--the result is to condemn participants in these programs to poorly paid, less desirable jobs. Only the teachers will benefit.

Milton Barall Washington, D.C.

If all these immigrants wanted to come to America because of its ideals and traditions, let them at least learn its language--English.

Beth Mapes Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

As a student from a bilingual program, I found it helpful in learning English and in keeping from falling behind in other subjects. Bilingual programs should also help future relations between minority groups and other Americans by showing students that their language and culture are equal to English and thus ease the resentment that was created by the old way in which anything other than English was considered inferior.

Carlos R. Rodriguez Miami

Doughnut Diplomacy

Once upon a time there was a country into which Western tastes were introduced--hamburgers, Pepsi, jeans, disco music, side-by-side refrigerators, pizza, hot-cross buns, white bread and doughnuts. The country? Iran. And now we are going to introduce some of these "delicacies" to China [Sept. 1]? Perhaps after eating jelly doughnuts, the wise Chinese will return to their own pastries and be "filled." God, I hope so!

David H. McBride Boston

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