Keep the Change, Comrade

Sir:

TIME [Dec. 19] reports Andrei Vishinsky giving three porters a $40 tip . . . Was Andrei just keeping up with the wicked, capitalistic "Joneses"? . . .

R. H. JAMES Rocky Ford, Colo.

Sir:

Thus Mr. Vishinsky proves himself the master agitator of them all . . .

J. A. SWARTZMILLER Glenwood Springs, Colo.

> "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" (Karl Marx, 1875).--ED.

Honors

Sir:

TIME HONORED ITSELF AND ITS THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF READERS BY FEATURING IN ITS CHRISTMAS ISSUE THAT VERY UPLIFTING STORY ABOUT THE SALVATION ARMY.

W. WALTER WILSON Milton, Pa.

Sir:

. . . The army's light, publicity-wise, seems to have been hidden under the bushel to which Christ alluded (Matthew 5:15).

If its work doesn't reach the news headlines, surely its services and spirit do reach needy hearts.

RALPH I. MILLER Long Island, N.Y.

Modern Churches Sir:

I was much interested in your Dec. 19 article on modern church architecture . . . Our new church is designed by Henry Steinbomer of San Antonio. We consider it to have "dignity, loftiness and reverence . . ."

SALLY RICHARDSON Raymondville, Texas

Sir:

You missed the finest example of 20th Century church architecture: La Purisima, the Catholic church in Monterrey, Mexico . . .

PAUL NUNEZ Mexico City

Sir:

One wonders why, from among the thousands of churches now being constructed and planned, TIME finds it newsworthy to publish pictures of the most freakish things built or planned.

During the past 24 months I have reviewed 400 sets of blueprints of Protestant church building plans of 30 denominations from every state in the U.S. Not six of them are of the type of outlandish "architecture" illustrated.

TIME quotes the ARCHITECTURAL FORUM . . . [which] is right in saying that simplicity is important. But there is more confusion than simplicity in the churches of Mackie & Kamrath, Raymond & Rado, and the Saarinens designs.

In the Episcopal Church of St. Clement, two halves of the congregation face each other while during the sermon the preacher faces the middle space between the two groups, so that they may gaze at each other, apparently ignoring the preacher. This is the opposite of functionalism . . .

By what churchly or architectural authority does the FORUM writer decide that wild and different design is an "advance" in accomplishing the function of church (exterior) design? The church is a continuing institution. Most churches (99% of them) are not eager to express in their design aberrations of the current fear and confusion and secularism which characterizes much of our current life . . .

ELBERT M. CONOVER Director

The Interdenominational Bureau of Architecture New York City

Slips & Changes

Sir:

Several errors slipped into your comment on the Nation in the issue of Dec. 26; or perhaps Mr. Rodell slipped them in . . .

Author Fred Rodell is quoted by you as saying "I made some changes [in the article] but I refused to delete any of my criticisms of [Justice Felix] Frankfurter." The fact is, he refused to make any but strictly verbal changes.

You quote Mr. Rodell further as saying: "Mr. Field said that Miss Kirchwey's personal relation with Justice Frankfurter is such that she cannot afford to publish such criticisms of him in her magazine." Mr. Field tells me that he did not say this, nor would it be accurate if he had. In the first place, the three or four remarks by Rodell which we considered unjustified and unfair were not all directed at Frankfurter; one at least was aimed at Vinson. It is true that Justice Frankfurter is an old friend of mine, but it is also true that he has been criticized many times in the Nation . . . What Mr. Rodell implies by the word "afford" I cannot easily imagine. Does Mr. Rodell perhaps think that Justice Frankfurter subsidizes the Nation out of his salary as Justice? . . .

To have printed Mr. Rodell's article without the changes we suggested would have seemed to us irresponsible. Certainly it is the job of editors to decide when any article oversteps the bounds of legitimate criticism and becomes slanderous or unjust . . .

FREDA KIRCHWEY Editor and Publisher The Nation New York City

Faith in Literature

Sir:

Three cheers and a rousing hooray! for TIME'S Dec. 26 story on Professor Frank C. Baxter of the University of Southern California. As my adviser during my student days at the university, Dr. Baxter taught me to have faith -- not only in the lasting quality of literature as a cultural influence, but also in the very real experience for self-cultivation that literature is . . .

L. M. COLLINS

Associate Professor of English Fisk University Nashville, Tenn.

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