‘Kicking the Consumer’

How noble and high-sounding the almost full-page advertisement plea from the textile unions in The Times (April 10).

How about a little truth on the matter? Those unions, trying to justify their existence and dues over the past couple of decades, pushed wages so high that foreign goods, now often better made as well as cheaper, are a far better buy to the American public.

The unions state in their plea that the poor foreign workers receive “pitifully, indecently low wages.” What a twisting of the truth! Those wages aren’t so bad when one realizes that the same worker doesn’t have to pay prices reflecting inflated American union wage levels for all his necessities. The unions bemoan the fact that other countries don’t want to buy their overpriced goods. Would Americans stand still for being told by our government that we had to buy a foreign product at twice the price?

The unions forget to mention that the ultimate victim of the restrictive legislation that they propose to save their own existence is every American consumer. In addition, they would limit our choice to buy a foreign product, now usually better made, if we choose. And it will hurt the poor, whom they claim to so steadfastly champion worst of all.

FRANK W. HEISER

Riverside