May 31, 2000
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, 2000, we considered its internal control, including control
activities for safeguarding securities, in order to determine our auditing
procedures for the purpose of expressing our opinion on the financial
statements and to comply with the requirements of Form N-SAR, not to
provide assurance on internal control.
The management of the Fund is responsible for establishing and maintaining
internal control. In fulfilling this responsibility, estimates and
judgments by management are required to assess the expected benefits and
related costs of controls. Generally, controls that are relevant to an
audit pertain to the entity's objective of preparing financial statements
for external purposes that are fairly presented in conformity with
generally accepted accounting principles. Those controls include the
safeguarding of assets against unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition.
Because of inherent limitations in internal control, errors or fraud may
occur and not be detected. Also, projection of any evaluation of internal
control 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 internal control would not necessarily disclose all
matters in internal control 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 one or more of the internal control components does not reduce
to a relatively low level the risk that misstatements caused by errors or
fraud 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 internal control and its operation,
including controls for safeguarding securities, that we consider to be
material weaknesses as defined above as of April 30, 2000.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of the Board of
Directors, management and the Securities and Exchange Commission and is not
intended to be and should not be used by anyone other than these specified
parties.
PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS LLP
Los Angeles, California
