<PAGE> PAGE 1
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012 A00AA01 AMERICAN FUNDS SERVICE COMPANY
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<PAGE> PAGE 10
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SIGNATURE HOWARD L. KITZMILLER
TITLE SR. VICE PRESIDENT
August 29, 1997
To the Board of Trustees of
The American Funds Tax-Exempt Series I
In planning and performing our audit of the financial statements
of The American Funds Tax-Exempt Series I (the "trust") for the
year ended July 31, 1997, we considered its internal control
structure, including control activites 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 internal control.
The management of the Trust 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 control activities.
Generally, control activities 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
control activities include the safeguarding of assets against
unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition.
Because of inherent limitations in internal control, errors or
irregularities 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 the 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 specific internal
control components 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 internal control,
including control activities for safeguarding securities, that we
consider to be material weaknesses as defined above as of July
31, 1997.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of
management and the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
/S/
Price Waterhouse LLP
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