Royal Visit

Sir:

A native of Milwaukee, I feverishly awaited your Oct. 21 issue, anticipating a cover story on the Braves' Lew Burdette. But instead of Burdette (entombed in your Sport section), there was Britain's Prince Philip smugly staring into antiquity. Anyone on Wisconsin Avenue for cricket?

HOWARD M. PAUL Park Forest, Ill.

Sir:

Thanks for Prince Philip on the cover. As much as I admire the Queen and follow her travels, I am usually disappointed to find there is very little mention of Philip. Thanks for not keeping in the same rut as the other magazines.

JEANNE KETTERER Bayside, N.Y.

Sir:

What's the matter with Eisenhower, wearing the British Order of Merit at the White House dinner for Queen Elizabeth? Isn't being President of the United States enough distinction for him? Then what's he doing wearing this dog tag from the late George VI? If George Washington heard about this, he would turn over in his grave--and Abraham Lincoln, too.

JAMES R. RANDOLPH Jackson Heights, N.Y.

Sir:

"Mousy" and "frumpy." How dare you? Her Majesty should ban the sale of your publication throughout Great Britain even if she should have to dissolve Parliament to do it.

DEXTER BARTLETT Midland, Mich.

Sir:

On reading of Britain's Prince Philip in TIME, one is struck by the many analogies between the job of consort to a reigning Queen and the vice-presidency of the U.S. "More than almost any other public office in all the world, the job of consort to a reigning Queen is what its holder chooses to make it." I am sure you will agree that Americans have seen our last two Vice Presidents make something of their office, in an office similarly flexible to individual expression.

TIME is to be commended for giving us the inside story of the royal couple, even inside the royal boudoir, where British journalism, it is believed, fears to tread.

RICHARD P. PETTY Detroit

After Sputnik

Sir:

I propose that the wrangling Congressmen who quibbled about the cut in the military budget be stuffed in the warhead of the first rocket making a trip to the moon.

MRS. F. E. HOBSON JR. Franklin, Mass.

Sir:

Historically, pre-Sputnikly speaking, hopefuls for the nomination to the presidency have been drawn from three principal sources: the legal profession, sundry political assortments, heroic military personages. Now as we enter into the active Sputnik era, with its many scientific ramifications, is it not wisely incumbent that we seek future presidential nominees from the ranks of the scientific professions ?

LEWIS NELSON Louisville

Sir:

The U.S. public can now reappraise the merits of the ''economy-minded" 88th Congress. Space satellites, B-52s, and vital foreign aid seem to have taken a secondary role to new Senate offices and pork-barrel legislation.

RONALD M. GEORGE Princeton, NJ.

Sir:

Our government officials and our press appear to be behaving like a pair of sulky boys who have been bested in a foot race. The moon race can teach us Americans a lesson in humility, which is probably more valuable than first place in a prestige contest.

ROBERT W. GARDNER Boise, Idaho

Sir:

We hold no admiration for a nation which launches a satellite at the price of mass human suffering. Our only fear should be that we lose sight of our own achievements in government, law and science, in the shadow of a single Russian scientific accomplishment.

DANIEL R. SHAWE Grand Junction, Colo.

The U.S. v. the U.S.

Sir:

The launching of Sputnik should do one thing if nothing else -- stun a nation that seems to be slipping bad, judging by the election of a gangster to the presidency of one of the country's biggest labor unions and the standing-by while race prejudice and bigotry run rampant in the South. Perhaps the grim reality that Russia shows no indication of lessening its plans for world domination will enkindle a new spirit amongst the American people. As a soldier, drafted by his nation to help preserve the freedoms we supposedly hold so dear, it is very disheartening to witness the senseless, ridiculous and downright sickening episodes of disgrace and degradation now occurring at home.

PFC. JERRY KERNS U.S.A.

% Postmaster New York City

Sir:

I find it hard to understand how the U.S. permits Beck and Hoffa to get away with it. I feel sorry for the fine, honest and skilled U.S. workmen who are forced to join such a union and pay exorbitant dues, with the thought that some of their money may be misappropriated.

FAY E. SMITH

Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Forever Anger

Sir:

After reading your Oct. 14 review of Leftover Life to Kill, I feel nothing but disgust. If this filth and debauchery comes under the heading of art, thank God I'm illiterate. Must people like Caitlin Thomas shout their wares to the world? And what of their children--especially her teen-age son?

MRS. HARVEY D. BROWN Kansas City, Mo.

Sir:

About your Oct. 14 Books Section: I'm tired of that endless volume from the women writers who emphasize sex. It should be entitled: Forever Anger.

FRANCES STERLING

Placentia, Calif.

Sir:

For these unhappy heroines who are alternately drowning their sorrows or filling their cups at the bed spring, I strongly recommend a rib-tickling session on U.S. Lovelornist Ann Landers' couch.

MRS. LAWRENCE NICKLIN Royal Oak, Mich.

Arkansas Revisited

Sir:

Congratulations to TIME, Oct. 14, on its splendid article on Editor Harry Ashmore of the Arkansas Gazette. I recently heard him on Face the Nation, and he held me rapt. I thank our lucky stars that men of Ashmore's caliber still emanate from the South.

KITTY COXE Roanoke, Va.

Sir:

I fail to see why Ashmore is being hailed as such a clear-thinking person. He backed Faubus and also backed his efforts to postpone desegragation by "moderate" legal means. Personally, I am tired of so-called heroes who emerge from a battle they have helped create.

SYBIL MOORE North Hollywood, Calif.

Sir:

Orval Faubus is all right, but I wouldn't want him marrying my sister.

BARBARA DAVIS Berkeley, Calif.

Built to Wear Out?

Sir:

"Buttonhook Service" in the Pushbutton Age was indeed a great service to your readers. However, I wonder if we were not closer to "the perfect, unbreakable machine" back in 1950 than we are now. Are we not losing ground? Is progress in reverse gear? As Groucho Marx once said to the woman who was approaching 40: "From which side?" The only dependable gadgets in my home are the old ones. Why could we build such quality in years past and not today? Who sabotaged us, and why?

WILLIAM CARTER

Denver

Sir:

As a representative of the appliance industry, I wish you had added to the stature of your report the obvious need for adequate, authorized, qualified schooling in our high schools to train service people. I think it is a crying shame that some of our schools today continue to teach our youngsters such outmoded activities as setting type by hand, for instance, when there is such a desperate need for trained people in the mechanized, automated, electronic world.

SOL POLK Chicago

Sir:

Your Oct. 14 cover showed the U.S. repairman astride a snail; maybe you should have had another cover showing a genuine scientist sleeping next to a hare while a tortoise was in Siberia launching his Sputnik.

D. C. BERGMAN Grand Rapids, Mich.

Sir:

I just wish you could have covered more facets of the plumbing and heating business: poor construction, mistreatment of fixtures by do-it-yourselfers, and the penalty the "good" customer has to pay in overhead added to the bill because of the many customers who don't pay.

JANE RILEY E. R. Abrott (Plumbing & Heating) Hayward, Calif.

Sir:

After living in what a real estate agent called a "luxury home," I have a new version of my dream house: a log cabin on a wooded lot in a moderate climate.

MRS. PHILIP JOHNSTON Skaneateles, N.Y.

Sir:

A teleech in this town, on a TV repair bill, not only itemized charges for the call, the repairs and parts--but also listed a charge for "technical knowledge."

DOROTHY D. SEEBOLD San Diego

Sir:

Your article neglected an important source of the repairman's business--the continued cheapening of American products. "Built to wear out" could be a motto for many modern gadgets; this is the sand on which the American economy seems to have built its Sputniked spiral.

JAMES L. BREWBAKER Yaphank, N.Y.

Sir:

The successful TV technician is likely to be a college-trained mechanical wizard, a businessman and something of a psychologist. He spends his days rushing about to meet the demands of an infantile public that can't face the day without its favorite soap opera or wrestling match.

ALLEN J. LOEB Loeb Bros. TV Service Brooklyn

Sir:

As nonowners of a washer, TV set, refrigerator, etc., my family and I are free souls and glad of it. I suspect other struggling young college couples may join us in feeling decidedly smug towards the poor gadget-ridden middle class. I am beginning to firmly believe that poverty is bliss.

PATRICIA CALDWELL Berkeley, Calif.

Sir:

I believe half the responsibility for our appliance repair problems rests on the American housewife. Unlike her grandmother, who could work off her frustrations on carpet beating, bread kneading, clothes rubbing, floor scrubbing, today's woman doesn't have such safety valves for her pent-up frustrations. Consequently, she takes them out on her work-saving appliances, most of which are not built to withstand the general abuse she inflicts on them.

EDNA COOPER New Hope, Pa.

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