The New Leader The New Leader

Dear Editor On Betrayal In his review of Russell Eraser's A Mingled Yarn The Life of R P Blackmur ("Blackening a Critic's Reputation," NL, February 8), Robert Gorham Davis said something very...

...Dear Editor On Betrayal In his review of Russell Eraser's A Mingled Yarn The Life of R P Blackmur ("Blackening a Critic's Reputation," NL, February 8), Robert Gorham Davis said something very valuable that as far as I know, no other critic thought to mention Even after a friend is dead, one ought not betray him by retailing all the secrets that friendship inevitably puts at one's disposal, though it may mean producing a less striking and scandal-filled biography These days we are surrounded by new-fledged moralists, many of whom think nothing of the betrayal Davis so rightly excoriates in this particular case That Blackmur was far from a pleasant man?at least that was my impression at my one and only meeting with him—doesn't exculpate Fraser There ought to be some way for those in the intellectual and writing community who feel strongly about such matters to make their condemnation felt There isn't, so the most to be done is to write a scathing review Davis did it beautifully Bravo' New York City RAYMOND ROSENTHAL Brockway It is difficult to disentangle sense from nonsense from anachronism in "Productivity The New Shell Game" by George P Brockway (NL, February 8), but let me try anyway Brockway's central point is basically right It is unfair and one-sided to blame the decline in imperfectly-measured American productivity growth on the American worker Somnolent management has done its part, and so have high interest rates, as he points out So has whatever lies behind them, from nepotism and MBA programs to inflation, past, present, and anticipated The prospect of Reagan's failure, followed by Democratic victory and "The Teddy Kennedy dollar," is paradoxically a major factor keeping interest rates up and Reagan's life difficult But it is also a fact, surely more significant than Brockway cares to admit, that it would help to get Joe Sixpack, Pete Pothead—yes, and Muggsy the Militant too—out of Ford and GM as effectively as the Japanese keep their equivalents out of Nissan and Toyota (In Britain, it would seem, such types become shop stewards) Incidentally, the Japanese practice is to investigate, test and interview—unhindered by Affirmative Action—and then reject undesirables in advance, rather than trying to fire them after they have joined the union Brockway's main obsolescence lies in his use of an outmoded measurement Like the national income or product, productivity is a complex animal Like GNP and the national income, we now have families of productivity indexes, among which angels should not rush in without looking where they tread Let me mention two developments in particular One, associated especially with Edward Denison of the Brookings Instiluleand the Department of Commerce, is an elaborate breakdown of the indexes to isolate and compare such complications as labor force composition and education, industrial structure, operating capacity, technological structure, and other things that concern Brockway John Kendrick of George Washington University is working with another new concept called generator total factor productivity, a*, a supplement or replacement for the labor or man-hour productivity Brockway doesn't like General factor productivity tries to measure output divided by total factor input {A "unit of capital input" should have a rental value equal to a man-hour of average labor—the denominator of the general-factor-productivity index takes account of capital as well as labor) For many years, development of these indexes was held back ideologically as anti-labor, because general factor productivity was rising less rapidly than conventional man-hour productivity Now the shoe is on the other foot, and ideological opposition seems to be decreasing Durham, N C MARTIN BRONFENBRENNER Kenan Professor of Economics Duke Umversity George P Brock way replies Professor Bronfenbrenner is of course correct that there are many and various models of productivity Without exception, however, they are ultimately simple fractions subject to the sort of manipulation I described, and most of them concern problems of the individual firm, not of the nation It might indeed be good for General Motors to get the workers the professor so nastily names off its employment rolls But adding them and 10 million others to the relief rolls is not good for America My point is simply that national productivity—which is what you and I as citizens are concerned about—is not improved by fixing matters so that 10 million potential workers produce nothing at all Budget Made Clear Although Sidney Wemtraub ends his blast at the Reagan deficit with a few optimistic words about the good sense of the American people, little in the preceding pages offers much ground for hope ("The Budget Guns Up, People Down," NL, February 22) The gloom of the facts he cites notwithstanding, Weintraub did an exemplary job of analyzing the economic mayhem being meted out by our current country-clubbing Administration With the spread of disillusion over Reaganomics, other articles have raised some of the same points he does None of them, however, have done the job with Weintraub s flair and grasp of detail Boston WILLIAM BERGER Second City I'm glad to see Marvin Kitman has gotten around to applauding the only reason for watching television these days ("A Tale of Second Cities," NL, March 8) Still, I disagree with his assertion that "Nothing in their gags prevents" the Second City troupe "from coming on at 8:00 p.m...