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<PAGE> PAGE 10
SIGNATURE VINCENT P. CORTI
TITLE SECRETARY
INDEPENDENT AUDITORS' REPORT
American Mutual Fund, Inc.:
In planning and performing our audit of the financial statements of
American Mutual Fund, Inc. (the "Fund") for the year ended October 31,
1996, we considered its internal control structure, including procedures
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 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 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
and 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 October 31,
1996.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of management
and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
DELOITTE & TOUCHE LLP
November 22, 1996
Los Angeles, California
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