Letters

...Without a discussion of these economic schools, one cannot simply present Marx as the only rational alternative to the failed theories of the Keynesians, monetarists, and others now in fashion...

...We want to stop this selfdestruction...

...He slays his neighbor who takes away his living...

...Yes, the United States should join the Soviet Union and other governments in pledging "no first use" of nuclear weapons...

...The wire services, however, called us "guests of the company," which is hardly appropriate considering we slept on cold, hard floors and went without the facilities that corporate management takes for granted...

...has correctly reported ("Faustian Bargain," March issue) that UCS has called for some conventional improvements to accompany a no-first-use declaration...

...Member of Congress Washington, D.C...

...The old formulation is more powerful, and more accurate: "Scanty bread is the life of the poor...

...More information is available from the Honeywell Project, 3255 Hennepin Avenue S., No...

...What is in question with both that program and the attack on the World Council of Churches is the integrity of CBS...

...No-first-use is one among a host of good measures that would help prevent nuclear war...

...Margaret Boy ce Toronto, Ontario A Colonel's Revolt Your February Datelines item, "Back to Basic Training," reflects the strong bias of the author with reference to militarism...

...I quote from the liturgy for the evening service for Yom Kippur in the High Holiday Prayer Book of the United Synagogue of America...

...Nor has U C S sold its soul to the devil in the guise of the Pentagon...

...The following morning, when we blocked the doorways of the building, Honeywell management directed the police to arrest thirty-six of us, and later signed formal complaints...

...I invite comparison of murder statistics in the United States with those in countries either banning or severely restricting the ownership or possession of these weapons...

...Samuel H. Day Jr...

...John Conyers Jr...

...Director Nuclear Arms Program Union of Concerned Scientists Washington, D. C. The author replies: The "modest improvements in conventional defenses" suggested by Howard C . Ris Jr...

...That was about the Coors Brewery of Golden, Colorado, and its labor problems...

...Sterner Remple Pueblo, Colorado The New Resistance We are encouraged by and appreciative of Samuel H. Day Jr.'s article, "The New Resistance" (April issue...

...The Federal Government is like any other economic unit in our society, except that it is by far the largest...

...The "pre-positioned supplies and equipment" favored by the U C S are not just planeloads of duffel bags, G . I . boots, and mess kits...

...In times of emergency, a democracy needs citizens ready to bear arms...

...National Film Board films are available rent-free from public libraries: This film has been booked solid for months ahead, and has been widely shown by peace groups who have bought their own prints...

...Georgists maintain that the portion of production going to land rent should be the source of community or government services rather than the taxation of labor...

...When we staged that action last November, we asked Honeywell to stop its production of nuclear and conventional weapons, convert to peaceful activities without the loss of jobs, and give compensation to the victims of its cluster bombs in Lebanon and Indochina...

...And on the rubble that would be Germany, Europe, and perhaps the rest of the world, Mephistopheles would be dancing a jig...

...The Austrian economists further emphasize the need for a sound, free money system (such as gold) to prevent the state's manipulation and inflation of money and credit, while the Georgists emphasize the monopolization of natural resources, including land and its speculation, as a cause of economic injustice, inequality, and poverty...

...The level of Federal expenditures strongly influences the level of economic activity of the rest of the nation, and the rate of recovery from a recession...

...For historic and pragmatic reasons, Europe cannot be left defenseless...

...The community benefits as future leadership is improved...

...Or will the new sense of pride which Poles gained from Solidarity lead them to fashion positive opportunities from the current situation, and thus breathe life into the government's 'middle course...

...However, there's no need to demand actuarial tables of death rates to prove that economic repression is violence...

...The program, heavily slanted to show Coors's management policy as generous to employees, was also a platform for Joe Coors, the company's president and a notorious Far Right Reaganite...

...If the high Federal expenditures of the war years had been directed instead to building the domestic civilian infrastructure, the prosperity of the succeeding years could have been epochmaking...

...Their misuse is minimal...

...Many polls have indicated the public desires more effective controls but the few voices seeking this end have been outshouted and outspent by the gun worshippers...

...We occupied a vestibule adjacent to the corporate headquarters, but the management did not want us there and locked us out of the main part of the building...

...In fact, most of the improvements U C S has recommended (for example, construction of simple field fortifications, expanded prepositioning of supplies and equipment, and better organized reserve manpower) are defensive in nature...

...As we move from protest to resistance, we invite others from around the country to be our guests when we block the doors of Honeywell again on April 18...

...It is clear that establishment economics is a dismal failure, but it does not logically follow that Marxism is the alternative...

...Do you think we might have a "mole" in the U.S...

...101, Minneapolis, MN 55408, (612)827-5362, extension 24...

...These improvements were specified in the literature Day received and in a study of the feasibility of no-first-use made public on February 1, 1983, here in the United States and in Europe as well...

...However, the Washington action has given priceless publicity to all three films, which are now showing commercially for the first time...

...In simple terms, the profligate growth in military expenditures effectively drains money from social programs and takes away school children's milk to buy nuclear weapons...

...And the righteous posturing of men like Morley Safer and Mike Wallace suddenly seems not only absurd but nasty...

...The article utterly ignored other non-establishment economic theories, in particular the Austrian and Georgist schools of economics, which also suggest causes for the current and past economic disasters...

...We want peace...

...Not in My Backyard Trying to imagine a 10,000-year safe storage strategy for nuclear waste is the epitome of technological arrogance ("Not in My Backyard," by Carol Polsgrove, March issue...

...But in doing so we do not need to buy into a fallacious "deterrence theory" which for thirty-five years has rationalized both the nuclear and conventional weapons buildups and brought the world ever closer to a bloodbath...

...I merely translated his euphemisms into military specifics...

...Santa Barbara, California Author's Conclusion With regard to my article, "The Road Not Taken: Can Poland Steer a Middle Course" (February issue), readers should know that the concluding sentences were written as follows: "Will Poles withhold support from the government's 'middle course' and scorn those who back it as 'collaborators...

...There is, of course, a tradeoff in declaring no-first-use...

...Restrictions on trade, sanctioned monopolies, and the taxation of labor deprive both capital and labor of their rightful product...

...Murder is committed with other weapons, of course, but handguns remain the favorite tool...

...Madison, Wisconsin Priceless Publicity No doubt you will be commenting on the Reagan Administration's restrictions on the three Canadian films...

...The trouble is not the large deficits of the Reagan Administration but its spending priorities...

...The National Defense Act establishing Junior R O T C reflects the national purpose of offering a high school student the opportunity to engage in military leadership activities...

...Howard C. Ris Jr...

...Contrary to Day's reporting, our assessment of the conventional balance in Europe leads us to conclude that no major conventional buildup is necessary to support a shift in policy to no-first-use...

...Is this any way to treat guests...

...Carl Eggers of Ashland said, "The concept may catch the imagination of many and more cities, states, and countries until we have reduced the number of nuclearized zones to two, Moscow and Washington, D . C . Perhaps then they will get the message...

...Justice Department...

...The Faustian bargain was made when the atom bomb was created...

...Clarence R. Meltesen Lieutenant Colonel U.S...

...Only that possibility—and several victories by moderates over the party hard-liners— can save Poland from descending again into the socialist dark ages...

...They won't serve to foster the imposition of American geopolitical interests in Europe or the rest of the world...

...The deficit in 1982 was 3.6 per cent of the Gross National Product compared to 22.4 per cent in 1945, and the national debt was 37.6 per cent of G N P in 1982 compared to 122.5 per cent in 1945...

...Of course, both scientists and technicians are enamored of their nuclear findings...

...However, we would like to clear up a misconception about the Honeywell action to which he referred...

...My point is that temporary high deficits can be the prelude to a period of great prosperity...

...and a bloodshedder is he that deprives the hireling of his wages...

...A different version which was not my own appeared in its place...

...Putting such a philoso^ phy into action has always been the moral equivalent of murder...

...Richard D. Erlich Oxford, Ohio Faustian Bargain Since the inception of the atomic bomb, the United States and its N A T O allies have mortgaged their defense to the use of nuclear weapons...

...This comment is not in praise of war as a route to economic prosperity...

...With every new nuclear-free zone and the cooperative effort expended in establishing it, we come closer to eliminating the fuel of the arms race and learn something about living together and interacting peacefully on this planet...

...Paul M. Craig Northampton, Massachusetts Righteous Posturing John Wicklein's "The Gospel According to '60 Minutes' " (April issue) recalls another program aired by "60 Minutes" a few weeks previously...

...Inflation in 1945, kept in check by price controls, was a low 2.3 per cent, compared to the "reduced rate" of inflation of 6.1 per cent in 1982, and unemployment in 1945 was a mere 1.9 per cent, compared to last year's 9.7 per cent...

...Boycott of Coors beer by Chicano drinkers dates back to the early 1970s...

...For this reason, the Union of Concerned Scientists (among others) has advocated a declaration of no-first-use of nuclear weapons in Europe and around the world...

...they would also include conventional weapons such as napalm...

...But what if nuclear science is bad science...

...Deficits of the World War II magnitude could not have continued indefinitely, but the nation did not go into an economic tailspin...

...Paul Bernstein Boston, Massachusetts...

...in his fund-raising letter for the Union of Concerned Scientists were his selections, not mine...

...I am, however, much concerned about the easy availability of handguns, both legally and illegally...

...Army (Ret...

...he that deprives him thereof is a man of blood...

...The "better tank defenses" to which the U C S gives its blessing would most assuredly include cluster bombs...

...A doubling of the J R O T C program at this time would be a sounder investment than the alternative elimination of the program based on the specious argument that the thrust of the ROTC is toward militarism...

...Our lawmakers have been outrageously intimidated by the National Rifle Association and others of the gun lobby...

...The Reagan budget deficits are the result of declining Treasury revenues because of the recession, aggravated by the large tax cuts targeted to big corporations and the wealthy...

...Fred E. Foldvary Berkeley, California Reaganomics Kills You performed a useful service in providing statistical proof that "Reaganomics Kills" (Comment, April issue...

...My concern is not with rifles and shotguns, esteemed by many as "sporting weapons...

...Reaganomics is simply the latest form of the perennial economic philosophy of "I got mine...

...The World War II years were succeeded by a long period of relative prosperity...

...So we suggest the trade of a dangerous and suicidal nuclear defense for a credible conventional deterrent...

...The portion of the product that goes to the owners of capital constitutes interest on capital invested or a reward for entrepreneurial labor, both legitimate...

...The student benefits as individual motivation leads to achievement of individual goals...

...Their costs are minimal and within the spending levels already agreed upon (in principle) by N A T O nations...

...That is a longer time than our human species has lived in cities, known how to write, or had skills in human history...

...Drew Cherven Bay City, Michigan Economic Alternatives In "Making Marx Respectable" (February issue), Sidney Lens wrote that traditional economics has been a flop, giving Marxist economics, a "new respectability...

...Coors has fought labor organization for years...

...But I think with a little effort we can get the people of Moscow and Washington to tell their governments, "Not here...

...You should know that though the acid-rain films have received most attention, the third film has been most important and most widely viewed here in Canada (though I'm not for a minute minimizing the importance of the acid-rain issue...

...Fair enough, except that Coors has dominated a section of television advertising for years...

...Both the Austrian and the Georgist theories agree with Marxism that workers have been deprived of the full product of their labor...

...JROTC is an elective subject, normally offered in lieu of compulsory physical education...

...Technological developments of recent years have brought conventional weapons capable of producing visceral fury in any sane person...

...In doing so, he has crossed the line from selective detail into defamation and slander...

...Walter F. Hess Aptos, California Nuclear-Free Zones Thanks for " A Message from the Siskiyous" (Datelines, February issue...

...U C S is not recommending, for example, a reinstitution of the draft, nor any increases in the size of our standing army in Europe...

...I'm grateful to the people of Ashland, Garrett Park, Sykesville, and all the others who are working for nuclear-free zones throughout the world for contributing to a most worthy cause...

...Then, instead of rushing forward with its technological offspring, we should be doing all in our power to banish these monstrosities...

...However, it takes wild and malicious imagination to have translated "pre-positioned supplies and equipment" into napalm and "better antitank defenses" into cluster bombs and nerve gas...

...That mortgage carries a clause which risks the destruction of the world: the commitment to use nuclear weapons first if necessary...

...If the Warsaw Pact were tomorrow to cross the Central Front in Europe and threaten to defeat N A T O (an unlikely but not impossible scenario), the United States and its NATO allies would, under the present policy of first-use, be forced to start a nuclear war in Europe...

...While it is folly to attempt to turn back the findings of science, it is the ultimate in responsible public policy to attempt to limit the technological expressions of scientific advance gone astray...

...Richard Seymour Marv Davidov The Honeywell Project Minneapolis, Minnesota Justice by the Numbers Francis J . Flaherty's "Justice by the Numbers" (The Last Word, April issue), is fortunately not the last word on gun control...

...In perspective, last year's deficit is puny in comparison with those of the World War II years...

...Day, in the service of his personal aversion to the modest conventional improvements U C S has recommended, has colored his opposition with things that produce visceral fury in persons of a progressive frame of mind: napalm, nerve gas, and cluster bombs...

...Samuel H . Day Jr...

...Since it appeared about a year ago, it has been the most important tool for consciousness-raising about the nuclear arms issue...

...But instead of blaming the capitalist, they ARNOLD ROTH place the blame on government intervention and taxation...