Temporary Patchwork

Sir: Re your cover story on the French monetary crisis [Nov. 29]: more important, perhaps, than an overhauling of the world's monetary system is an overhauling of the nationalistic attitudes toward international economic policies. Germany refuses to revalue the Deutsche Mark, and Germans applaud the victory over France. France refuses to devalue the franc, and De Gaulle envisions the nation's return to the head of the pack. If forced to devalue. France threatens a devaluation of such magnitude as to pull down other currencies with the franc. The U.S. dogmatically upholds the value of the dollar. The world has suffered three major monetary crises in the past year; yet nations still attempt patchwork measures that only temporarily ease their ills and then only at the expense of others.

EDWARD J. POWERS Marquette, Mich.

Sir: Your excellent coverage of the monetary crisis shows the disastrous effects of fear and confusion. Let us hope Mr. Nixon learns the lesson. He must take positive steps to build a healthy monetary system the first few weeks he is in office. If he resorts to more self-defeating gimmicks, as the present Administration has, we shall likely have the worst recession since 1929.

DOUGLAS A. MAZZOTTA Detroit

Sir: I have never been exactly what you would call an admirer of France's Charles de Gaulle, but now that I learn the poor man is so out of step with the 20th century as to think that the way to solve his country's financial difficulties is to reduce expenditures below income, I must really despair of his ever restoring his beloved country to its former glory. Hasn't the dummy ever even heard of refinancing?

WILLIAM I. SMITH Denver

Sir: TIME has perpetuated one of America's greatest fallacies in its Essay "Of Truth and Money" by referring to money as "one reliable means of keeping score on the accomplishments of a person, a company or a country."

By reducing the individual once again, as the American language does in its epithet "a $X-a-year man," to his income-generating abilities, TIME has put down the contributions of the Platos, Aristotles, Kants, Pascals, Salks of this world in favor of the measurable but more ques- tionable contributions of this world's Onas-sises and Gettys. Money does not mirror reality; it provides a market value. To use it as any indication of intrinsic worth is as fallacious as the notion that the artistic value of an entertainment is reflected in its box-office returns.

EVELYN KONRAD Manhattan

Sir: There is an immutable law that says extra wealth can only be produced by each person exceeding his own needs in whatever he produces. Just as a farmer must grow more than his family eats in order to have something to sell, so must the factory worker turn out more value every hour than his hourly wage amounts to. The solution to the problems of rising costs and falling productivity is to put everyone back on either piecework or commission. This will eliminate featherbedding, slowdowns, etc., and at the same time raise our productivity nationwide.