‘Endowing the Future’

Let me congratulate you on your editorial (Oct. 21), “Endowing the Future.”

As a college president, I am very much aware of the need that is evident in both public and private education for both public and private support. Sometimes it seems our society is shortsighted when it questions the validity of allocating large resources for the development of human beings--our greatest natural resource.

In recent trips to Japan, Taiwan and other Southeast Asian nations, I have become very aware of the importance placed upon the human resource by leaders in those economies. This is attested to by the fact that they spend a great deal of money sending their young people abroad to study in many places, including the United States.

Is it possible that some of the problems we are having in the international trade area are because we are overlooking the importance of developing the human resource? I believe that in the information age, the human being, not natural resources, is the most important element in the economy.

WAYNE L. MILLER

Los Angeles

Miller is president of Woodbury University.