meta keys?

[K. Richard Pixley]

In redhat releases and in other operating systems, a default xterm 
window will provide me with a shell wherein <alt>-<delete> will backward 
delete a word, <alt>-b, will move the cursor backward a word, <alt>-f 
will move forward a word, etc.  That is, emacs editing mode works and 
acts on the meta keys.

This doesn't work on fedora core 3, at least not out of the box.  Can 
anyone explain to me what I need to do to get my meta key editing back, 
please?  Or point me to relevant documentation that might help me figure 
out what's going on?

I'm going fugbuck trying to type whenever I sit down in front of a 
fedora box.

--rich