Khomeini's Iran

To the Editors:

Iran is well rid of the Shah and his imperial trappings, but can it afford Khomeini [Feb. 12] with his illusions of an Islamic republic? Current relief and revelry over the dethroning of an imperial despot could easily turn into despair, frustration and bloodshed under a politically naive religious zealot.

Peter Castellino Oberursel, West Germany

What makes you fear the Islamization of the oilfields? Islam is the faith of pragmatism, mercy and equalization, and does believe in development. An Islamic government in Saudi Arabia allowed the flow of oil to the U.S., despite the U.S. Administration's resistance to a settlement with the Palestinians.

Burhan A. Sibai Banias, Syria

If I were to paint a picture of the devil, I would use the eyes of Ayatullah Khomeini. They are cold, calculating, cruel, cunning, void of love and honor. I'll take a big toothy smile any day to this man's hard expressionless stare.

G.L. Brown Oklahoma City

The Shah wanted to bring Iran into the 20th century, to grant equal rights to women. Khomeini and his political leaders will take the country back 100 years, which for Iran is virtually a return to the 13th century.

Paula Twelker Seattle

Cold and Hungry at Home?

The cost of heating my house and putting food on the table goes up. The price and interest rate for my new fuel-efficient, no-lead-gas-burning car go up, then the availability of that gas is questionable and increased cost of it certain, and you ask,

"Lines at the Pumps Again?" [Feb. 12]. It sounds more like "sitting home, cold and hungry."

Todd Fedoruk Pilot Knob, Mo.

The workaday John and Jane should not have to endure the earthbound hassles of gas rationing in order to get themselves to their underpaid jobs. Nor should they have to give up the occasional weekend trip to the beach, etc., while airlines continue to burn their gas guzzlers to accommodate myriad flights for the benefit of tourists, all in the name of keeping the U.S. economy alive. There has to be a more equitable way.

Emily Langford Bennett Princeton, N.J.

Ridiculous Rules of the Road

One needn't be a brilliant economist to realize that if the ridiculous rules regulating the trucking industry are abolished [Feb. 5], shipping costs will fall, and as go shipping costs, so goes the price of goods shipped.

Leslie G. Mitchell Newton Center, Mass.

If our Government goes through with deregulation, some time in the 1980s you will see the end of a self-sufficient industry, and we will have a trucking industry subsidized by the taxpayers.

James L. Burns Charlotte, N.C.

I take exception to your closing comment: "Since trucks haul just about everything that Americans buy or sell..."

Because we are not subjected to reading their bumper stickers, breathing their fumes and being blown off the roads by them, we seem to think railroads don't do anything.

Linn W. Moedinger

Enginehouse Foreman, Strasburg

Rail Road, Strasburg, Pa.

Carter's "Foundation"

Carter's "New Foundation" [Feb. 5] could just as well be called an "Old Girdle"--weak, confining in the wrong places and not much use to anyone.

Robert Emans Williamsburg, Va.

Waughing on Wilson

In your article on Evelyn Waugh [Feb. 12], you mentioned Edmund Wilson's 1944 judgment on Waugh, but you didn't quote Waugh's reaction when in 1962 the interviewer for Paris Review asked him if he found Wilson's criticism helpful:

Waugh: Is he American?

Interviewer: Yes.

Waugh: I don't think what they have to say is of much interest, do you?

That just about sums up Waugh: The essential stage-Tory, at heart afraid of his own shadow, a maggot in the rotten core of English literature in the first half of this century.

Tristan Jones New York City

Many Religions, Many Creations

Why does Mr. Morrow equate religion with Christianity in his Essay "In the Beginning: God and Science" [Feb. 5]? The human race has many religions, many stories of creation and many "holy books," the Bible with the Book of Genesis being only one of them.

Rosemary Smith St. Paul

This synthesis of science and religion is taking place not only between science and Judaeo-Christian theology, but also between science and traditional Eastern cosmologies, such as Buddhism, Taoism and Shintoism. The greatest challenge now is to discover a unifying principle operating in both the material and spiritual domains.

Edward Esko Kyoto, Japan

Comic Creators

It is well known in the comic-book industry that Captain America was created, originated, authored and drawn by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and not Stan Lee as your article [Feb. 5] suggests.

Joe Simon New York City

Unpaid Productivity?

When they disparage the productivity of the American worker [Feb. 5], do the economists give consideration to the following weighted factor?

In an inflationary economy, the employer who raises his prices and fails to give his workers a wage increase equal to the cost of living rise has, in effect, increased the workers' productivity.

Fred O. Bliss Needham, Mass.

The Hippie Bus

Your article on the hippie bus [Feb. 12] sparked my own memories of such a trip. The bus was yellow and gray and prone to mechanical problems. Thirty of us and a dog lived for two days (it seemed much longer) on wall-to-wall mattresses, sleeping feet-to-feet.

If I had it to do over again, I'd fly, but the experience is one that I'd be disappointed to have missed.

Robyn L. Mockrik Millersville, Pa.

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