Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR HERMAN KAHN I should like to challenge the assertion in Tris Coffin's April 3 "Washington-U.S.A." column that Herman Kahn believes that "nuclear war is good." I doubt that Coffin...
...In none of these situations is a permanent dole the real answer, whether it be in the form of subsidies for farmers or tariffs for industry...
...I make this assumption because of first-hand experience with political behavior in an analogous area—the depressed mining industry...
...In all cases, there is either a lack of customers or an excess of producers...
...Sihanouk ascended the throne in 1941 and remained King until his abdication in 1955...
...The farmers of this country do have disproportionate amount of political power, and it is possible to assume that they are using this power to increase their benefits at the expense of the rest of the population...
...How can you distinguish between the two...
...In short, any section of industry or agriculture (or any geographical area) in which a considerable number of producers are in difficulties would be included in the term...
...This necessitates many buses, and very uneconomical transportation...
...New York City Robert Lekachman I have been subscriber to the New Leader for 20 years and never in this time have I been so shocked by a piece of irresponsible journalism as when I read Tris Coffin's column in which he refers to "Herman Kahn as he details his weird philosophy that nuclear war is good...
...I am looking forward to seeing a fairer presentation of Kahn's views in The New Leader in the near future because I feel he offers some clear and honest thoughts on the most important problem facing humanity today—the problem of how to prevent thermonuclear war...
...I doubt that Coffin can substantiate this...
...At one point, it reads:" the French installed new administration in Cambodia and named Sihanouk . King...
...not to those who believe that ignorance is bliss...
...His work has inevitably led him to discuss dread possibilities that we all devoutly" wish will never become realities...
...My childless neighbor does not cry about "double taxation...
...This kind of aid, in the form of assistance in the development of new products, loans and relocation, should be given to any large group of producers in economic difficulty...
...Nothing is solved and no danger is averted by exclamations of horror and misrepresentations of scientists who, like Herman Kahn, possess the fortitude to analyze as well as feel...
...foreign producers starting in a field...
...If the assumption is correct, then Scott's final conclusion—that the most desirable plan would be the allotment of subsidies per farm family—is also sound...
...I now believe the problem of the sub-marginal farmers (as well as the sub-marginal miners) is merely a special case of what might be called "depressed economic sectors...
...Detroit, Mich...
...Seattle, Wash...
...yet tolerate sub-standard medical care in hospitals for lack of unskilled labor...
...Only pervert could regard nuclear war as good...
...This term is inaccurately used in connection with tuition payments which parents pay when they choose to send their children to any kind of private school...
...First, thousands of Catholics who could well afford the small fees for parochial schools deliberately send their children to the public schools...
...I originally wrote: "new administration under King Norodom Sihanouk...
...There are many small private schools, some denominational, some not...
...Furthermore, private or parochial schools are more likely than public schools to have these transportation expenses, since their children are probably drawn from a larger area...
...This was a printer's error...
...The answer is for the Federal Government to aid these producers to move into more appropriate fields with minimum loss of physical and human resources and a minimum of dislocation...
...I live in an area of similar homes...
...The preliminary to treatment in both instances is a thorough understanding of the facts and choices...
...Anyone who has read Kahn's work knows that he would consider nuclear war as much a calamity as Coffin presumably would...
...I would also like to take exception to Niebuhr's statement that "Only rabid anti-Catholics oppose support for school buses and school lunches or any benefit which goes to the child, rather than the institution...
...In 1957, I argued that the best help the Government could give to the owner or worker in a sub-marginal mine would be assistance in changing his field of endeavor, not a permanent dole in the form of import quotas or higher tariffs operating to support prices at the expense of the consumer...
...My neighbor on the left has no children...
...In addition, they could be given relocation aid and grants...
...If a school can get the government to take care of that item, it can use the money it would have spent on buses for some other part of its expenses—salaries, books, etc...
...The efforts that many states and localities make to attract and assist new industry should be coordinated by the Federal Government with its efforts to solve the farm problem...
...Woodside, N. Y. Albert M. Sanders...
...If we indulge ourselves in our own versions of Aldermaston marches we are more likely to hasten than to prevent the disaster that we all fear...
...Certainly in the case of school buses the child may benefit, but the cost of school bus transportation is an integral part of the budget of a school district...
...With modest investment in relocation and rehousing, the surplus labor could be matched to the unfilled jobs...
...Second, parochial schools are much cheaper to run than public schools...
...I wonder, however, if the reasons given are not merely rationalizations for something politically expedient...
...Clifton, Va...
...And all of them are as much entitled to tax aid as Catholic schools...
...In fact, children may come from all over large city to attend just one school...
...changes in consumer taste...
...At that time, I heard no mining-state politician claim that miners had better moral standards or that mining imparted a stabilizing conservatism, as apologists for farm subsidies do...
...Their board, room, clothing, medical needs, etc., are supplied by religious orders, which are themselves tax-free...
...If he cannot, he owes Kahn an apology for malicious allegation...
...But the book examines in close detail the technical as well as the ethical issues involved in survival during the nuclear age...
...I challenge Coffin to point out where and when Kahn said that nuclear war is good...
...All depressed sectors of industry and all chronically depressed areas would be eligible...
...Scott made the explicit assumption that a, large number of independent farmers is desirable, for which he offered a number of reasons...
...Why must we subsidize farmers to produce food which society doesn't need...
...They restricted themselves to a plain "we need help" basis, without any of the rhetoric...
...New York City M. A. Lerner CORRECTION Ambassador Nong Kimny of Cambodia has called my attention to an inaccuracy in my article "Cambodia's Prince Sihanouk" (NL, March 13...
...Nor is the answer to let these producers drop out "naturally" as they go bankrupt...
...Roland Graves As Tris Coffin must by now have heard, Herman Kahn is neither political scientist nor an advocate of thermonuclear war...
...For example, sub-marginal farmers could receive special training to qualify them for positions to be filled elsewhere in the state in new factories...
...These sectors would also include industries like millinery, which suffered merely because hats went out of style, as well as coal-mining areas which can no longer find a market for their coal...
...I can expect to see personal vilification of Kahn coming from the Nation, but I expect more from the pages of The New Leader...
...Some of them, especially farmers, never do drop out...
...While in a public school system the salaries of teachers and administrators amount to 75 to 85 per cent of the total annual school budget (exclusive of construction costs), in parochial schools most of the teachers and administrators are priests and nuns who receive small tax-free salaries...
...my neighbor on the right has 5; I have 2. We all pay the same taxes on our homes, much of which goes for school support...
...Agree with Kahn or not, there can be no disagreement that he has explored the complex problems of nuclear deterrence with great originality and insight...
...These depressed economic sectors arise for variety of reasons—technological change...
...People who have no children at all pay the same taxes for the support of schools as those who have school age families...
...But these possibilities cannot be conjured away by a refusal to study them or by willful ignorance...
...Even where nuns teach in public schools and receive salaries from the public treasury, their wages are turned over, tax-free, to their religious orders...
...Kahn is fond of nuclear warfare in approximately the same way as a surgeon is of cancer...
...John P. Armstrong 'DOUBLE TAXATION' While agreeing with the stand taken by Reinhold Niebuhr against tax support for parochial schools, in his article, "School Aid, the President and the Heirarchy" (NL, March 20), I would like to register strong objections to his repeated use of the expression "double taxation" for Catholics who send their children to parochial schools...
...or, as in the case of my miner friends, opening mines when the world metal price is high, then having it drop at some later date...
...They keep up the hopeless struggle but reduce their living standard to a shameful level...
...I do not agree with everything that Kahn says in On Thermonuclear Warfare...
...But if such a war never occurs, the nation will owe a debt of gratitude to those like Kahn who have contributed to our knowledge...
...a large number of producers, some of whom are bound to be submarginal (the farmers...
...The mining industry had political representatives who pushed through a quota system in 1957, restricting zinc and lead imports...
...R. J. McGee ENDING FARM SUBSIDIES Robert Scott's article "How to Solve the Farm Problem" in your December 19, 1960 issue was a clear explanation of difficult subject...
...The cost would be small in comparison to the expense of subsidizing farm family for another few decades...
...Kahn's ideas may be controversial and Coffin has every right to disagree with them, but I think The New Leader has a responsibility to see that the facts of the controversy are more clearly set forth...
Vol. 44 • April 1961 • No. 15
