Rock 'n' Sock Sir:

I think your June 18 article on rock-'n'-roll music is ridiculous. This type of music is for young people to enjoy while they can, not for crusading adult hypocrites and pessimists to criticize and discriminate. The rock-'n'-roll fad is equivalent to the Charleston and its music of the '20s. There were people like you then to condemn this fad.

SKIPPY BROUSSARD Lafayette, La.

Sir:

How did you fuddyduddies feel about Dixieland when you were young? How many of you wore bell-bottom trousers and danced the Charleston? How many of you were juvenile delinquents? I wear blue jeans and dig rock 'n' roll. I am not a delinquent.

ROSEMARY CALDWELL Flora, Miss.

Sir:

Rock 'n' roll is doing no worse in making a virtue out of monotony than Mitch Miller and his big-time outfits have done in their attempts to make a virtue out of monopoly.

CATHERINE C. SWEENY Seattle

Sir:

I am an American girl who left the States to seek a career. It turned out to be singing. I was ready to head for America to try my luck there. But after reading your articles on Tennessee Ernie, Elvis Presley, and finally "Yeh-heh-heh-hes, Baby," I think I'll give up my citizenship. Not that I don't want to be an American, but I think the public would exile me anyway if I came back singing a square, old, lovely ballad or a song with clever lyrics.

NANCY HOLLOWAY Beirut, Lebanon

Sir:

May I praise the writer for his brilliant evaluation of "rock 'n' roll"? I am 14 years old and am no square and I hate every note of it.

EDDIE HARTER Corona, Calif.

The President's Health (Contd.)

Sir:

Congratulations to TIME for its accurate blow-by-blow reporting of what will remain the most-discussed medical operation since Hippocrates. It is a classic of journalism. It told the world just what it wanted to know about the physical welfare of one of the most revered figures in history. All honor to the remarkable group of medical men and nurses and the White House staff, who flew into action.

Courage, integrity and faith have supported our President at many grave moments in the past, and God has spared him now to carry on his idealistic career.

JAMES FRANCIS COOKE Philadelphia

Sir:

An alarming fact about President Eisenhower's recent illness is that its occurrence was inconsistent with the report on the President's state of health issued less than a month before his illness. As reported in TIME, May 21, doctors found: "Digestive Tract. Barium studies showed it functioning normally."

Is it not true that the President's disease does not develop suddenly? Further, is it not unlikely that an emergency condition requiring surgery could develop in less than three weeks after an examination showing the digestive tract to be in a healthy condition? And finally, would not a barium examination show the presence of the disease?

One can only assume that 1) the doctors had less than the necessary competence, 2) the report was not candid, or 3) the report was politically inspired doubletalk.

VIRGINIA S. THATCHER Chicago

Sir:

Stalin rewrote history, Hitler taught us black was white, but it has taken the doctors of President Eisenhower to prove that sickness is better than health.

HARRY B. CLARK, M.D. Saint Cloud, Minn.

Sir:

Your cover picture can not only be seen, but heard, just as surely as if Ike were laughing with sincere good humor in our living room.

MRS. NORMAN LA MOTTE Glendive, Mont.

Neutral Approach

Sir:

In your June 18 issue you accuse Mr. Eisenhower of a "slip" in his statement on neutrality. What the President did was recognize a fact that seems to have escaped his Secretary of State. The President realizes that there are a great variety of political views and differing geographic factors in the free world. While some nations believe it is in their best interests to join in collective-security arrangements, others have equally good reasons for not joining.

We cannot expect many of the young nations with past experiences of Western colonial rule to join with their former rulers in close ties for some time to come. Mr. Eisenhower's statement is merely an acknowledgment of the existing complexity of the political situation. Certainly it does not disavow the collective-security principle.

Mr. Dulles shows a lack of depth of perception in the situation. His speech smacks of the same old "black-and-white" approach to our foreign policy.

VICTOR A. KOWALEWSKI III New Haven, Conn.

Chilean Loan

Sir:

Our cover story on Eugene Black (TIME, June 25) said that "This week another new loan -$200 million to Chile -was approved, in Banker Black's biggest deal to date." I am informed by officials of the World Bank that, while Chile is discussing with the World Bank a long-range plan that would cost $200 million if fully financed, the World Bank has not made any loan of that size to Chile, nor is one contemplated at the present time.

GEORGE BOOKMAN TIME Correspondent Washington, D.C.

P:TIME erred (through no fault of Correspondent Bookman). -ED.

Martyrs' Words

Sir:

It was most gratifying to read your review on Dying We Live in your June 18 issue. The feeling and understanding with which it was written stand in sharp contrast to the usual complete ignorance and lack of understanding which I find prevail on the matter of the German resistance. And yet it is hardly possible to overrate the courage it took to choose the bitter, lonely road of the dissenter in Hitler's Germany.

I well recall the anguish of that day when we in Germany who prayed for the success of the resistance movement received the crushing blow to all these hopes with the failure of the plot. Nor can I forget the agony of the terrible days afterwards when name after honored name was added to the list of "traitors," when people we knew personally or by name were among those receiving death sentences, when the bravest, the best and the noblest died at the hands of Hitler's executioners.

HILDA SIMON New York City

Sir:

I find the book review of the 57 martyrs extremely interesting. However, it should be noted that Moltke in his letter to his wife ("They may take my goods, my honor, my child and wife," etc.) was quoting from Martin Luther's famous hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.

MALCOLM SHUTTERS Pastor Wicker Park Lutheran Church Chicago

Kennan's Views (Contd.)

Sir:

With the weasel-words translated, George F. Kennan's formula for a Stevenson foreign policy [TIME, June 4] reads:

1) Abandon Soviet-conquered satellites; give them not even words of encouragement.

2) Arms aid to Western Germany, feeble trickle though it is, should be stopped.

3) Red China, aggressive and bloody-handed, still at war with the U.N., should be added to the Communist fifth column already present in that body.

4) Assist Russia's propaganda by approving colonialism -presumably including the Russian variety.

The words might as well be those of Khrushchev. And with all of this, Kennan (as quoted in a later issue of TIME) can still moan bitterly that the "intellectual" is not properly esteemed in American life. If the above policy is the best that the cream of America's brains can do, our intellectuals should be smart enough not to be surprised by the consequent reaction.

CHARLES H. CHANDLER Princeton, N.J.

Legion of Decency

Sir:

I have read with interest your article on Avery Dulles [June 11] and have been enlightened in some respects, if not in others. As I understand it, the Legion of Decency is trying not only to protect its own interests, but that of all the American people. Perhaps they would like to have absolute control of business so that our minds may not be poisoned by films, books, or any other medium of communication that is not in sympathy with the Catholic clergy's ideas.

It seems to me that the individual is capable of determining in his own right whether or not something is immoral. I sincerely hope that the time will not come when anyone will tell me exactly what I can read, see or think.

JOSEPH E. LAVOIE Norfolk, Va.

The Third R

Sir:

TIME [June 18] pinpoints a growing worry among serious educators, businessmen and industrial leaders: What is being done to stimulate an interest in the study of mathematics on the high-school level?

The Manlius School, a boys' college-preparatory school near Syracuse, N.Y., four years ago started an annual mathematics tournament, open to high-school students in upstate New York. Thought behind this project is to extol mental prowess in the same spirit that usually prevails on the athletic fields. Students from ninth to twelfth grades are eligible to compete. This year 801 high-school students, representing 73 high schools, took part in the tournament. High-school teachers, who laud the experiment, say that many of their students "aim for" the tournament throughout the entire year, whetting their interest in the subject.

HENRY A. Rosso The Manlius School Manlius, N.Y.

The Boss Hurrah

Sir:

As California Democrats who fail to see why being "boss" of a corporation is estimable, while being "boss" of a political party is reprehensible, may we say (re "Democrats, Decisive Dozen," June 18) we wish that Mr. Paul Ziffren would somehow contrive to become a "boss." With one lone. Democratic governor during this century, it is obvious that the California G.O.P. has a most effective organization, while we California Democrats have idealistically avoided any sort of similar autocratic controls -hence the GOPers have won the elections. Hurrah for intelligent bossism!

MR. & MRS. WILLIAM ROTSLER Camarillo, Calif.

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