The 64 Ruble Question
Sir:
Will success spoil Nikita Khrushchev?
RALPH HERRERO
Los Altos, Calif.
Souls in Space
Sir:
Dr. Lee DuBridge's logical, down-to-earth views in your March 31 Science section will, I hope, enable Sputnik-frenzied Americans to return safely to reality. The several billions required to finance a wasteful moon voyage could be expended more profitably for cancer research.
ALBERT M. GROSSMAN
Philadelphia
Sir:
The purpose of space exploration should be to find livable land and atmosphere for this ever-growing population of ours. In a couple of hundred years, this planet is going to be loaded. (Bumper-to-bumper freeway traveling is here already.)
Let's develop a rocket-liner to take some of us off into space, rather than a bomb to blow us into eternity.
JANET BELL
Los Angeles
Sir:
Physicist DuBridge should have been around to discourage Edison. Then we wouldn't have disk jockeys. If he could have told Columbus that a round world was loose talk, we wouldn't have California. Heaven knows what we'll get from Mars or the moon.
RUSS WINTERBOTHAM
Lakewood, Ohio
Sir:
C. S. Lewis' remarks in "Faith & Outer Space" prompt me to wonder if the serpent in the Old Testament might not have been a visitor from outer space.
HERMAN M. HEYN
Baltimore
Sir:
All people on all planets must confess that Christ is Lord. This includes any creatures created by God in space.
MRS. MALES
Zion, 111.
Sir:
Any time now I expect to hear an earth-bound mother talking to her space-bound daughter thusly: "But dear, you simply cannot do it. You just cannot marry out of your planet."
NOLA ROSENBERG
Brooklyn
Colonialism & the U.S.
Sir:
Congratulations on your fine article [March 24] on colonialism and the U.S. I hope a lot of the leaders in Asia and Africa read it. But why doesn't the U.S. give the lead in an area where it is still practicing colonialism itself--letting Hawaii and Alaska be exploited by outside interests and not allowing self-government.
MARJORIE ANTHONY
Denver
Sir:
Your article shows a new stage in the maturity of U.S. attitudes.
W. M. BARCLAY
Port Moresby, New Guinea
Sir:
The gallant fight of U.S. against colonialism is most interesting. I suggest that the U.S. return Louisiana to France, Florida to Spain, and Alaska to Russia.
I. H. DUCKWORTH
Batang Malaka, Malaya
Sir:
The realistic colonialism of the British had benign effects. The idealistic stupidity of the Americans caused only trouble in the world. Politics is not a question of benevolence and popularity; it is one of intelligence and prudence.
L. SZALATKAY
Winnipeg, Man.
Digging the Farmer
Sir:
After reading your article on the growth and wealth of the National Farmers Union [March 31], I find it very evident that the Government farm-price supports have been adding to the riches of the farmers and their union at the heavy expense of the taxpayers of this country. Why should the farmers have such a subsidy when all other classes of business and professions survive or perish on their own expense and efforts?
RAYMOND A. TUCKER
Pittsburgh
Sir:
Old friends of Jim Patton will thank you for your recognition, even if unenthusiastic, of the N.F.U. president. I am sure your Ivy League, Rockefeller Plaza editors did not mean the snide subtitles and innuendoes of resentment against the wealth and success of the N.F.U. and the man who has had the vision and integrity to fight for them, and whose only sin is that he has been steadfast to democratic ideals.
L. W. SLEDGE
Los Angeles
Sir:
One fact omitted from your article is needed to explain how the business affiliates of the N.F.U. organization have accumulated so much money so very fast. The answer is that the $33 million Farmers Union Grain Terminal Association, the $75 million Farmers Union Central Exchange and other cooperatives wearing the N.F.U. label pay little or no federal income tax. Other businesses of similar magnitude pay 52%.
GARNER M. LESTER
President
National Tax Equality Association
Washington, D.C.
P: True. Any farm cooperative is tax exempt if it qualifies for eight intricately legal requirements, chief of which is that it must pay out all profits or proceeds to members (who of course pay taxes on their cooperative income). Most (62%) of all farm cooperatives so qualify, including all branches of the Farmers Union.--ED.
Sir:
Is there any way to make your article required reading for subsidy-happy Congressmen ?
MRS. E. W. HARMER Salt Lake City
J. Edgar's Book
Sir:
It has just been my pleasure to read the review of Masters of Deceit, which appears in the March 31 issue of TIME, and I want you to know how much I appreciate this frank appraisal of my book. It is my earnest hope that it will assist in alerting some complacent Americans to the real threat posed by the atheistic Communist movement.
J. EDGAR HOOVER
Federal Bureau of Investigation Washington, D.C.
Dewey-Eyed Educators
Sir:
Your article "The Long Shadow of John Dewey" ought to be emblazoned on the walls of every academic institution cursed with the pseudoscientific, anti-intellectual invention of this age: the department of education. Having been educated in a school system of this otiose type, I now look forward to the day when I shall receive my B.A. degree from Texas University. Then I can satisfy myself that I have received the equivalent of a good high school education.
JOHN PRICE
Austin, Texas
Sir:
I agree that there must be drastic upgrading of our educational level, but I doubt that education will be improved by talking as if Dewey and his followers were a pack of morons solely responsible for our present difficulties.
WAYNE C. BOOTH
Richmond, Ind.
Sir:
You criticize education for not having enough discipline; try disciplining a child when the parent constantly sides with the child and fights the school.
H. S. ROWE JR.
Superintendent Farnam Public Schools Farnam, Neb.
Sir:
Why can't we hit a happy medium in education without mottoing "Excelsior Dewey" or "Hi-Ho Science"?
EDWIN HAMMER El Paso
Optics v. Art
Sir:
You commented in the March 3 issue upon my recent lecture analyzing the various ways in which eye diseases might affect an artist's use of form and color. As your readers have pointed out, the primary objection to any such mechanistic explanation is that, however distorted the individual's perception, subject and rendering ought to tally. Yet this self-correcting effect does not always seem to operate. Tests have shown that a circle, viewed through an astigmatic lens, will be seen and reproduced as an ellipse; further evidence can be found in the practice and comments of various artists known to have been astigmatic or colorblind.
PATRICK TREVOR-ROPER
Caracas, Venezuela
Stone & Grille Work
Sir:
Let me offer my sincerest congratulations on a thoroughly competent analysis of Ed Stone and his place in architecture today. TIME'S support of the arts, with a special emphasis on architecture, is a wonderful thing.
NATHANIEL A. OWINGS
San Francisco
Sir:
That is quite a story on Edward Stone. From the raves of Wright and the squawks of Saarinen and Johnson, it would seem Ed Stone has broken the international style barrier. More power to him.
T. H. ROBSJOHN-GIBBINGS
New York City
Sir:
Just take off the grille fac,ades and goodbye to Architect Stone's architecture. The U.S. Pavilion at Brussels is weak and frivolous and is in no way superior to the Soviet ''refrigerator."
JOSE FIRPI
Santurce, Puerto Rico
Sir:
It would appear that Stone's finding beauty and success was nothing more than taking a short step from the bar to the grille.
KATHERINE M. HEGARDT New York City
Sir:
Architect Stone customarily extends his works of art into congruous surroundings of plazas and pools. What isolationism inspired him to louse up the restful mellow of a row of brownstones?
CAROL KASPER San Francisco
Sir:
Stone's wife Maria is as beautiful and interesting as his architectural designs.
W. E. MATTHEWS Houston
Sir:
I like Architect Stone's grille work. The pigeons like it. The starlings are crazy about it.
BERT ELLIS Cleveland
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