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SIGNATURE HOWARD L. KITZMILLER
TITLE SECRETARY
<TABLE> <S> <C>
<ARTICLE> 6
<MULTIPLIER> 1000
<S> <C>
<PERIOD-TYPE> YEAR
<FISCAL-YEAR-END> APR-30-1997
<PERIOD-END> APR-30-1997
<INVESTMENTS-AT-COST> 19455860
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</TABLE>
May 30, 1997
To the Board of Directors of
Washington Mutual Investors Fund, Inc.
In planning and performing our audit of the financial
statements of Washington Mutual Investors Fund, Inc. (the
"Fund") for the year ended April 30, 1997, we considered its
internal control structure, including procedures for
safeguarding securities, in order to determine our auditing
procedures for the purposes of expressing our opinion on the
financial statements and to comply with the requirements of
Form N-SAR, and not to provide assurance on the internal
control structure.
The management of the Fund is responsible for establishing
and maintaining an internal control structure. In fulfilling
this responsibility, estimates and judgments by management
are required to assess the expected benefits and related
costs of internal control structure policies and procedures.
Two of the objectives of an internal control structure are to
provide management with reasonable, but not absolute,
assurance that assets are appropriately safeguarded against
loss from unauthorized use or disposition and that
transactions are executed in accordance with management's
authorization and recorded properly to permit preparation of
financial statements in conformity with generally accepted
accounting principles.
Because of inherent limitations in any internal control
structure, errors or irregularities may occur and not be
detected. Also, projection of any evaluation of the
structure to future periods is subject to the risk that it
may become inadequate because of changes in conditions or
that the effectiveness of the design and operation may
deteriorate.
Our consideration of the internal control structure would not
necessarily disclose all matters in the internal control
structure that might be material weaknesses under standards
established by the American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants. A material weakness is a condition in which the
design or operation of the specific internal control
structure elements does not reduce to a relatively low level
the risk that errors or irregularities in amounts that would
be material in relation to the financial statements being
audited may occur and not be detected within a timely period
by employees in the normal course of performing their
assigned functions. However, we noted no matters involving
the internal control structure, including procedures for
safeguarding securities, that we consider to be material
weaknesses as defined above as of April 30, 1997.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of
management and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Price Waterhouse LLP
