Forum: The Public's Economic Program

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You keep demanding solutions for a problem that no one has been able to solve. I think people ought to realize that the responsibility for solving these problems doesn't lie with the President alone. It's going to take all of us working together to stop this recession. Until people realize that and start to do something other than blame the President, nothing is going to be accomplished.

Kathy Vieregge Norwalk, Wis.

Recently, after I had made a purchase at a local store, the clerk offered to wrap it for me. I thought that they must have run out of paper bags. A day or so later, the gas-station attendant actually washed the windshield. Merchants are beginning to push common courtesy. I hadn't realized that things were so bad.

Edward Rogge Petersburg, III.

I welcome Ford's tax rebate. Now millions of us can buy new equipment for the corner apple stands.

John J. Lyons Chicago

Basic Stuff for Newsmen

The blame for the miserable record of economics journalism [Jan. 20] rests squarely on the shoulders of your intellectuals who "skillfully translate economic trends" into useless prose. The blame cannot be shifted to the shoulders of John Q. under the guise of public ignorance about economics.

Before you try to educate the public, take a healthy dose of that "basic stuff' you mention and heal thyself.

Charles R. Winfield Palacios, Texas

Your account of the dismal state of economics coverage reflected with great accuracy the concerns felt by professional economists (of whom I am one) as they read their daily newspapers or watch television.

Princeton University is seeking to be of at least some help in remedying the deficiency. We have just announced a fellowship program, to begin in the fall, carefully designed to provide eight journalists annually with a sophisticated knowledge of the tools and methods of economic analysis. The program, initiated and supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, will be housed at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. It will be a yearlong, highly structured program with much of the material particularly designed to meet journalistic requirements.

It is our hope that in a few years you will have a somewhat more cheerful story to tell.

William G. Bowen, President Princeton University Princeton, N.J.

Society's Advance Scouts

Mr. Griffith's Essay on what can rightfully be expected of politicians [Jan. 27] captured many of the frustrations I've felt and the lessons I've learned in 20 years of trying to lead.

Experience has taught me this: successful leaders are neither folk heroes nor mere managers. They carefully negotiate the void that separates the real from the ideal. They act as advance scouts for the wagon train of society without getting so far ahead that they are out of touch.

It takes some special qualities: the ability to laugh at oneself, the balance that allows one to enjoy great victories without being arrogant and suffer great defeats without crumbling. The job of society, rather than fitting aspirants into Superman's suit, is to pay close attention to the clothes they actually wear Rhetoric is no substitute for record, speechwriters for substance, charisma for character.