Balancing the Budget

Sir: Your Essay "How To Cut the U.S. Budget" [Dec. 8], in the paragraph on Agriculture, raises some questions that cast doubt on the amount of research done by your writer. You claim the farm to be the home "of the nation's most coddled minority"—coddled by whom? Certainly not by the U.S. Department of Agriculture whose planning and continual changing of the Feed Grain Program has brought the price of corn down again this year. You blame rising food prices on Government subsidies—how about the fact that the U.S. housewife today wants her food completely prepared for her before she buys it, does not this add considerably to the cost of food in the supermarket? Furthermore, as a nation, we still enjoy the lowest food costs (in terms of annual income of consumers) of any industrial nation. True, hunger stalks half the world, but the U.S. farmer will not gain much by giving food away—the good feeling one gets from acts of charity will not help pay off the implement and fertilizer companies. Perhaps what concerns me the most is that a city slum dweller with an income of less than $3,000 a year becomes a prime target for the War on Poverty; but a farmer with a net income of less than $3,000 a year is part of a "coddled minority."

JOHN D. UPFIELD Editor

The Villager Lake Village, Ind.

Sir: By supporting appropriations for the SST, TIME has demonstrated a research incompetence exceeded only by that of the Federal Aviation Administration.

You would be hard-pressed to find a competent acoustician, heart specialist or surgeon who would find the startle of the sonic boom acceptable to society. Air routes that avoid populated areas and economists who agree with the FAA are equally rare.

DR. ALAN RHODES

Willoughby, Ohio

Sir: Thank you for a bold and enlightening perspective on economics. Also, thanks for such a wisely proposed allocation of our American funds.

JOHN MAHANNA

Chicago

Three Cheers for Mac

Sir: Robert McNamara's accomplishments [Dec. 8] will live long after his littie hecklers are forgotten. One may not agree with all of his policies or actions, but in this complex world he had the courage to try. In this hour, which must be painful to him, the American people should give him a rousing cheer for a job well done.

JOHN J. GIBA

Rosemont, Pa.

Sir: In lamenting the departure of Mr. McNamara, my boss for the past two years, I should like to make a few observations on our era: glamour and personality, petty and inconsequential qualities seem to play much too great a role in the selection of our national leaders. Mr. McNamara, with his drab, oldfashioned, almost spartan public image, has proved a welcome and competent exception to the rule. His unquestioned integrity, coupled with his demonstrated ability, loyalty and courage, mark him as one of the truly unsung heroes of our time. It is regrettable that such enormous talents are to be relegated to the second-class showcase of the World Bank presidency.

FRANK S. JAMES III Second Lieutenant, U.S.A. 25th Infantry Division Viet Nam