The Thundering Herd

Sir: Now that you have covered the small minority of U.S. tourists who will vacation abroad this summer [April 9], I trust you will turn your attention to the vast majority of U.S. tourists who will spend their vacations touring these United States. EUGENE H. O'NEIL JR. Arlington Heights, Ill.

Sir: Having lived in Europe for the past eighteen months I am prepared to duck from June until September as the thundering herd of tourists (probably quite a few as a result of your article) sweeps through Europe this summer. JAMES M. KYLE Lieutenant, U.S.A.F. c/o Postmaster New York City

Sir: You certainly give a comprehensive explanation for the fact that most native Parisians are already making plans to leave that city during the month of August. American tourists and their dollars are needed in Europe, but they are not welcomed. LOUISE GUINEY Paris

Sir: What about one of the most beautiful tours in the world? The Dalmatian coast. George Bernard Shaw, whose compliments were rare, referred to the shining city of Dubrovnik as the closest place to heaven on earth. For the traveler who warms to the thought of wine, women and song--the wine is varied and plentiful, and the women of the Konavle Valley are said to be the most beautiful in Europe. ANN LIPOVAC Chicago

Sir: Allow me to point out that Las Palmas and Tenerife are also delightful spots for vacationers. T. BULCHAND Las Palmas, Canary Islands

Sir: It's too bad that American Express's President Reed doesn't read his own pamphlets on tourist etiquette. He advises tourists to be "ambassadors of good will" and, you say, realizes that Americans do not endear themselves to foreigners by spending money. Yet he rollicks through Germany and Italy in a plush, private railway car, and tries to prime the British economy with his lavish gratuities. MAURICE H. OPPENHEIM Mannheim, Germany

Sir: Delighted to read your fine article. The travel industry has been one of America's greatest aids toward good will and fine relations between the U.S. and various countries outside the Iron Curtain. Our association of more than 3,000 members is composed of 1,100 of the best travel agents in the U.S. and Canada, including American Express, plus the best travel agents in other parts of the world. THOMAS J. DONOVAN President American Society of Travel Agents New York City

Sir: Your color photograph of a London scene is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Congratulations! ERNST HARTMAN Vice President Frames' Tours Ltd. New York City

Sir: You say, "In July Australia's South Pacific Airlines will start twice-weekly nights from Honolulu to Papeete." South Pacific Air Lines is an American company owned by Dollar Associates, Inc., and will be the first scheduled American airline to fly between Honolulu and Tahiti. ROBERTA GERKE The Robert Dollar Co. San Francisco

The Campaigners

Sir: Your April 9 News in Pictures about "Tireless Estes Kefauver: Campaigner on the Road" depicts a man who is common. If he were elected President, he would be for the masses and not for the favored few. The results of the Minnesota primary show he is the choice of millions of voters. ELMO MENETRE Oklahoma City

Sir: Tireless Estes, our clowning campaigner, has restored my faith in human nature and my fellow men. Seldom does a candidate advertise his weaknesses so candidly as the sign on the old lumber wagon ["Please Help a Poor Candidate"]. May not a poor candidate be a poor President? FLORENCE M. FLYNN Pepperell, Mass.

Sir: Those were mighty fine pictures of Ed Wynn, "The Perfect Fool," in your News in Pictures. C. W. CARROLL Rochester

P: For a comparison of Comedian Wynn and Campaigner Kefauver, see cuts.--ED.

Sir: It would seem that campaigning for the Presidency is degenerating into a contest for the "personality kid"--Ike's smile and Dick's boyish charm v. Keef's handshake and something homespun. However, there are some of us who live with grass, dandelions and pigweed, who drive second-hand Chevvies and read such unintellectual things as TIME magazine, but think that Stevenson is terrific and wish Kefauver would go stick his head in a bucket of the corn he's been slinging around the country. WILLIAM D. NICHOLSON New Castle, Pa.

Teacher's Troubles

Sir: What an extremely sad commentary on our culture is shown in your article about Paul Richer and his teaching experience in Riceville, Iowa [April 9]. If many could have their way, they would undoubtedly keep our culture stagnant and static. MORTON DECORCEY NACHLAS Allentown, Pa.

Sir: Having had the privilege of sitting in for a day on Paul Richer's classes early in the school year, I can feel only pity for the muddleheaded burghers who fired him. Dismal, hopeless mediocrity is the most serious menace to present-day primary and secondary education in America. There is no room in Riceville for originality, no tolerance there of intellectual inquiry. If this sordid phenomenon were limited solely to Riceville, Iowa, Americans would have small cause for worry; unfortunately, it is not. The real reason Paul was dismissed is that his students were beginning to think for themselves--not just during classtime, but after school as well. JAMES H. RANSOM Stanford, Calif.

Sir: The troubles of Teacher Richer offer eloquent testimony to our growing tendency toward a sterile conformity of thought and behavior. Richer was born 30 years too late because the school system now is interested in only making plowboys or well-oiled cogs in the social machine. As to the teaching of the study of Communism in the school system, it is scant wonder at the success of brainwashing in Korea, when a high-school teacher is not permitted to discuss capitalism v. Communism . . . ROBERT D. BEACH Carmel, Indiana

Phog in Kansas

Sir: Most Kansans love "Phog" Allen, and will strongly resent your summary description of him as ''the loudmouthed osteopath" of whom we have "at long last apparently tired" [April 9]. Phog is undeniably outspoken and loquacious, but his forceful hammering has been responsible for, among other things, the presence of basketball on the Olympic program, the N.C.A.A. basketball tourney, and for putting the spotlight on basketball gambling long before anyone else recognized the evil, let alone had the courage to publicize it. STEWART NEWLIN Publisher The Wellington Daily News Wellington. Kans.

The Jungschlaeger Case

Sir: Thank you for printing the story of the Jungschlaeger case [April 9]. What a shame that it took a full year to get through to the American people. BERNARDINE Y. AKKERMAN Canton, Ohio

Sir: You are the first American news source to give ample and thoroughgoing consideration to this farce of justice. H. J. THEULINGS Oosterhout, Holland

Sir: I wonder whether this case is another sample of that Indonesian ''patriotism and wisdom of leadership" which Mr. Dulles was loud in praise of at his press conference in Djakarta. A. BERT VAN ASTEN Oak Park, Ill.

Brutal Buffets

Sir: That review of Serenade [April 2] in which Mario Lanza appears is brutal. I got a laugh out of it, but a man must have a thick hide to be able to take such blows and keep any kind of self-assurance; a deep-seated inferiority complex must be at the bottom of all Lanza's troubles, and your verbal buffeting does not help. M. L. OLNEY San Francisco

Sir: Your movie critic pans a beautiful picture and human voice in Serenade, but extols mechanical substitutes for human beings in Forbidden Planet, which just goes to prove that the guy is anything but a human being himself. M. L. AHNER Buffalo

Sir: I can't seem to find the pan for the pun in your movie reviews. Even your book schnooks seem took with this folly of jollies. SHIRLEY REYNOLDS Bloomington, Ind.

Sir: I like your movie reviews better than the movies; your book pages, too, are terrific--except on sex day. T. D. KENNEY Orange, N.J.

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