LETTERS
LETTERS Filtering the dust I have just read the article on the M-1 Tank ["The First Chrysler Bail-Out," Richard Mendel, February]. I am terribly disappointed in my apparent inability...
...Variable compression diesel engines did have difficulties when first built but improved to the point that the Army was confident of their reliability...
...As a clinician, I can state that this approach will never solve the problem...
...All of the air required to run a turbine engine— both for combustion and for cooling—must be filtered, whereas for diesel engines only the air needed for combustion must be filtered...
...The lawyers in the county seat or state capitol, the construction workers building the new courthouse, the teachers at the state universities and in the public schools, the list goes on and on...
...During the second round of competition, for which there were no tests, Chrysler abruptly switched to a cheaper, severely flawed, air filtration system...
...And a German-designed diesel is being strongly considered by the Army for its next generation tank...
...Bill Kraft is either misquoted or was badly informed about Chrysler's readiness...
...Even if Felder is correct, it does not change the fact that the Army's expert evaluation team judged that GM had the superior tank...
...This design problem was remedied in 1979, but some tanks continue to have problems due to poor production quality...
...Teachers, librarians, accountants, social workers—we're all guilty of thinking of ourselves in terms of our professional function...
...Striking at...
...GM had potentially superior fire control in their dual axis sight stabilization...
...But to achieve that, our political leaders must learn that trusting physicians to direct national health policy is precisely like relying on garage mechanics to direct interstate transportation policy...
...Their line that civil service pay increases necessitated a cut in food for the poor is certainly predictable, given this administration's constant (and mindless) bitching about the federal bureaucracy...
...I'm handing in my resignation today, then I'll get a job at Burger King until I've saved enough to open a little boutique...
...I don't want to be a parasite on the body politic any longer...
...Do I suspect a "Dewey-Truman" or "Wilson-Hughes" cousin...
...LOUIS F. FELDER Merritt Island, Florida Mr...
...This was the basis for the Chrysler protest...
...Let me cite specific errors...
...In New York, the AFL denounced the WPA when it dared to train unskilled workers who might later compete in the labor market against union members...
...As .a first step in the right direction, I urge journalists to avoid using the misleading phrase "health-care system" and refer instead to our "sickness-care system" —the second biggest industry in the United States, now costing well over a billion dollars a day and still leading all sectors of the economy in inflation—that serves our health needs very poorly...
...It was the same mentality as that of the Davis-Bacon Act...
...Booknotes," March] that the original WPA died because of pressure from unions...
...Wooster notes why—the wage scales of public employee and •construction unions are threatened by a WPA that pays anything less than union wages, as any sensible modern WPA must (if only to preserve the incentive to look for private jobs...
...KIRK S. NEVIN Whitehall, Maryland Early confirmations In the March "Who's Who": "Robert M. Gates, the new head of the CIA...
...Had the Army been given its way, there would never have been a turbine engine on the M-1...
...Chrysler had completed assembling its turret seven months prior to the competition...
...He could get a grant from the Scaife Foundation, say, for a series of public service announcements...
...If Kaus wants to promote a boondoggle (to use a word coined to describe the original WPA), that's his privilege...
...voice: "I always thought of myself as a (muffled gasp) teacher, but then I realized, with the help of The Washington Monthly, that I was just a —a bureaucrat...
...When the M-1 began rolling off the assembly line in 1980 the Army found that the turbine engines were seriously deficient...
...He writes ["Tilting at Windmills," February] that "one reason there is such strong resistance to bureaucratic reform is that there are so many bureaucrats . . . there are now 16,690,000 Americans who work for federal, state, and local government ." Gee, that includes a lot of us who never thought of ourselves as bureaucrats...
...The problem with the engine in 1980 was production quality...
...Chrysler turret stabilization was equal to or better than GM's...
...I would, however, question the importance of a bailout to Chrysler as being a motivating factor...
...Unions loved the original WPA, provided that WPA workers were paid wages comparable to those paid union workers...
...it, included giving the contract to General Motors with the firm intent to install the turbine engine in the tank...
...Politicians have been trying for years, and we are no closer to a solution because there is still very little understanding of the real problem—that instead of a sensible and affordable health-care system based on prevention, we have a bloated sickness-care system dedicated to high-tech and headlines...
...Mendel missed a significant point with respect to the diesel engine GM employed...
...My point was that unions were the reason Democrats dropped the WPA idea from the liberal agenda in the decades after World War II...
...Many of their regular customers were the owners of local plants who farmed out dangerous work like cleaning out oil or chemical storage tanks to these independent contractors...
...Army tests showed General Motors had . . . better fire control and turret stabilization...
...Silly us...
...When Congress got fed up with the "prevailing wage" rule and abolished it in 1939, the unions struck again, but this time Roosevelt broke the strike...
...Customary help Charles Peters mentioned plant safety records in his squib on Consolidated Coal ["Tilting at Windmills," March...
...We're all addicted...
...A significant reduction in easily preventable diseases would save so much in terms of lives and money that those who really need medical care could have it fully paid for while overall costs are reduced...
...The air filtration system problems were completely solved in 1979 during the tests at Fort Bliss, Texas, long before any production was initiated...
...The air filtration system had two problems—design and quality control...
...In fact, they were never able to get the system working properly during the competition and Chrysler consistently outshot them...
...I am unable to refute the contention that the GM tank did not have better fire control and turret stabilization systems than the Chrysler model...
...Felder served as Chrysler's M-1 project manager...
...The air filter system etc...
...Add every worker at every factory that manufactures weapons for the "Defense" Department, and every worker in every industry that supports that huge industry...
...General Kraft was not misquoted...
...I used to represent a temporary help company...
...DAVID STEINBERG Mason, New Hampshire The mechanics are in charge Janet Hook's article on medical expenses ["Catastrophic Insurance for All," February] asks, in essence, Who Shall Pay How Much For What Services...
...This was done in part because that sort of work is sometimes sporadic, but also because accidents did not blemish the plant's safety records and make their insurance premiums rise...
...The AFL only really got on board after it struck the WPA in 1935 and forced FDR to pay "prevailing wages" (at great cost to the program's efficiency...
...The 1360 Variable Compression Piston engine was never a success...
...Add the CPAs who have jobs only because their brethren inside the beltway manage to create incredibly complex tax formulas that in turn create the need for an army of interpreters...
...So, if Charles Peters is serious, how about a little consciousness raising...
...The central fact of the M-1 story remains: the M-1 tank we got is not the M-I tank that army engineers selected...
...inspirational music up) an entrepreneur...
...Well, now I know the only decent thing to do...
...As I told him, I was not involved in the political aspects of the decision-making process and therefore did not feel qualified to comment on them...
...Add the old folks, and every individual who collects any kind of pension or Social Security payment or medical assistance...
...The WPA died because Congress didn't think it a good idea to promote jobs programs in the middle of World War II...
...boondoggles Mickey Kaus claims ["Political...
...But of course that's not going to happen, given the sacred cow status that military expenditures have in Washington...
...The list is endless...
...Pulling herself together...
...I suggest he reread his sources...
...He told me on two occasions that Chrysler's tank prototype was unfinished...
...LETTERS Filtering the dust I have just read the article on the M-1 Tank ["The First Chrysler Bail-Out," Richard Mendel, February...
...Fade, cut to address card, voiceover) "Kick the bureaucrat habit—write to The Washington Monthly (etc...
...In fact, the turbine is much more forgiving than a diesel in dust ingestion...
...MARTIN MORSE WOOSTER Washington, D.C...
...As a result of congressional direction, the Army was forced to waste $10 million to qualify that engine as a backup for the turbine...
...Serious compromises were required in Chrysler's tank design to accommodate the turbine engine's much larger and more sophisticated filter system...
...Richard Mendel replies: I was sorry to read of Lou Felder's disappointment with my recent article on the M-1 tank...
...Monroe by the Army—found a number of advantages for diesel engines over turbines...
...emphasis supplied...
...I was left to report the remembrances of expert sources...
...I am terribly disappointed in my apparent inability to provide Mendel with factual data to prevent the errors in his article...
...P.K...
...There were accidents aplenty, many of which arose from using unskilled laborers who were in poor physical condition...
...When one is withdrawn or not confirmed, we are embarrassed of course, but we try to report it in the next issue...
...The project was finally abandoned when the manufacturer, Teledyne, was unable to qualify the engine...
...Mickey Kaus replies: Unions obviously weren't the reason the WPA was ended during World War II, and I didn't say they were...
...Memories may lapse over time, while data remains classified...
...He shouldn't distort history merely to score debating points...
...STEVEN TIGER Monroe, New York Kicking bureaucrat kickers If Charles Peters's greatest windmill gets much larger, I'm afraid he'll need Paul Harvey as his Sancho Panza...
...Picture this: sobbing young woman on screen...
...RON GRIMES Silver Spring, Maryland Peters comments (with commendable lack of emotion) on one reason for the strong resistance to bureaucratic reform—that, according to the Census Bureau...
...Unlike diesel engines, all of the air required to run a turbine must be filtered...
...A recent study—conducted at Ft...
...Even in the Depression, this inherent threat left many unions ambivalent about the program...
...The original decision by the Army, as I understand...
...OMB would have been a lot more honest if they had explained that, given the exorbitant costs of such technological wonders as the B-1 bomber and the Bradley Fighting Vehicle (mentioned earlier in the same column), there simply isn't much money to spend on the poor...
...The idea of putting the turbine on the GM tank was a fallback position adopted by the Army in response to powerful—yet unexplained and unjustified—pressure for the turbine from political appointees in Donald Rums feld's Pentagon...
...C. R. EBERSOLE Houston, Texas No surplus food from sacred cows I was amazed that Charles Peters bought OMB's rationale for cutting the surplus food program in the March "Tilting at Windmills...
...I want to be...
...The Army was not confident of the reliability of the Chrysler turbine...
...The air filters on Chrysler's initial prototype—while far more bulky, expensive, and sophisticated than the diesel air filter—actually performed well in army tests...
...there are now 16,690,000 Americans who work for federal, state, and local government ." Add the military, and the dependents of everyone on the payrolls, and "we must be talking about 40 to 50 million people who have a personal stake in preserving and expanding the functions of government ." Please don't stop there...
...I very much appreciated his generosity in answering my questions and in allowing me to tour the M-1 tank plant There may be validity—technically speaking—in at least some of the points he raises, but some of his points are misleading...
...All of the air to run a diesel engine must be filtered...
...SEIDMAN Memphis, Tennessee The editors reply: Our policy in the "Who's Who" section is to report nominations, because they are rarely withdrawn and are almost always confirmed...
...Felder's comments on the GM diesel are misleading...
Vol. 19 • May 1987 • No. 4
