WHERE IS MR. SMITH?

To name Robert L. Bartley of the Wall Street Journal and Michael Novak of the American Enterprise Institute is like nominating an arsonist for fire chief.

This country is in an economic decline, our industry is debilitated and we face a crisis of the whole financial structure of the country; yet you cite two representatives of the puerile, discredited policies that have sold out our industrial strength for junk bonds, sentenced our taxpayers to losses of $500 billion (just for starters), all the while selling our cultural heritage for a mess of libertarian pottage.

Haven’t we suffered enough?

FREDERIC E. PAMP

Santa Ynez