Dear Editor

...All historians assume as a matter of course that the tint step m charting the tuture is an exThe New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words...

...Dear Editor Reaganomics I have always believed that a good article should have a definite position on an issue, an argument making the case for the author's point of view When this is done well, even those in opposition can appreciate the position George P Brockway's 'Trickle-Down Greed" (NL, January 11), ostensibly about Reaganomics, takes a definite position But unfortunately his article is not an argument Rather, it is a polemic attached to a simple list of assertions, followed by a vague (very vague) parallel with the political-economic debacle in Germany after World War I Brockway never really establishes a parallel to the German experience Yet via his vague allusion he attempts to criticize the Reagan Administration's economic policies with the dramatic description of the economic horrors in Germany At no point in his discussion does Brockway demonstrate logically how any element in the Reagan program will create the economic problems to which he alludes with his German illustration This sort of nonsense discredits all attempts to counter the current Administration's policies It is an insult to anyone who has reached beyond the easv phrases of a political (or a football) rally NewTtorkCuv MILTON J. EZRATI George P Brockway replies I'll try to restate my argument It goes something like this If there is any sense to the idea of an elite, then the corruption of the elite (in Reaganomics' case, the rich) at least threatens the corruption of the society As an example of how this can work, I cited Weimar Germany, but I specifically warned against the Santayana-esque notion that history is relived Nevertheless, Germany seems to me particularly relevant because we have been told by eight Presidents, from Truman to Reagan, that inflation is our great danger My points (no doubt cryptically stated) are that (1) inflation is the result ot the corruption of society and not, as is commonly thought, its cause, and (2) Reaganomics is corrupting the rich 'Charting America's Future' Could someone catch Gus Tyler and turn him about in time...

...tensive exploration of the past Why, heaven only knows But an effort to break awav from conventional garbage, which is what the advertisement for your series on "Charting America's Future" proclaims, is not well begun by adhering to the same old rituals The past is important if it influences where you can go, but the doc doesn't really care how the social disease was acquired if he knows how to deal with it, and if he doesn't, he is better advised to experiment with treatments than to search for origins—American historians notwithstanding To put it more bluntly, one does not create the future by challenging conservative concepts or examining the liberal litany If escaping from slavery by studying the chains is Tyler's notion of how to go about the task, get a new oracle To be "positive"—since the tradition that suggests the point of departure tends to regard "negative' criticism as carping (wrongly)—the future is one of the available options lying between the unavoidable and the impossible Why not get on with it and let us find out which options Tyler sees, how they might be produced, and why they ought to be preferred to others, including the drift course of events St Louis EUGENE MEEHAN Professor of Political Science University of Missouri First Amendment Robert Asahina, reviewing Absence of Malice, makes a statement that prompts me to wonder where he has been living for the past few vears "In the wake of repeated First Amendment decisions allowing newspapers to print virtually anything, Luedtke and Pollack [the filmmakers] would have us swallow a whopper—that an ordinary citizen can triumphantly counter a superficially accurate storv having unfortunate consequences in his private life " On the contrary—press freedoms are being steadily whittled away these days, whether through stricter interpretations of the laws shielding reporters' sources, or the federal government getting awav with classifying everv piece of paper that passes through it, no matter how trivial In fact, mis perceptions ot the obstacles to a tree press are a prime source of comfort to the forces that are assailing the First Amendment Boston MARTIN CONNOLLY...