Spreading Things Out Sir:

After the Christmas spending spree, we're confronted with income taxes, auto licenses, real estate taxes--all at a time when fuel bills are large. What better cause for a slump? Spreading these out would leave us less vulnerable.

GUTHRIE B. STONE Honeoye, N.Y.

Sir:

One of the factors that has contributed to the recession is the effort by dress manufacturers to sell American women on the sack dress. There must be millions of middle-aged women who feel as reluctant to buy this hideous garment as I do.

MRS. E. WILLIAMSON

Clayton, Mo.

Fallout & Freedom

Sir:

Supporters of the Sane Nuclear Policy declaration [calling for cessation of tests--April 21] could next be expected to suggest shooting mothers to keep down the birth rate.

J. KESNER KAHN Chicago

Sir:

Dr. Linus Pauling and I are on opposite sides regarding the nuclear tests, but this does not detract from our respect for each other. I am enraged by your footnote re him. It is in keeping with McCarthyism.

W. MANSFIELD CLARK

Member, National Academy of Sciences Baltimore

Sir:

It is a shame that your discussion of these issues includes offensive epithets against the sincere men whose ideas ought to be respected with clean debate.

NORBERT WIENER JOHN E. BURCHARD WALTER H. STOCKMAYER HERMAN FESHBACH GEORGE SCATCHARD DAVID H. FREEMAN Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Mass.

Sir:

Is Communist domination truly preferable to the prospect of nuclear war? Has the freedom for which we live suddenly become a thing not valuable enough to die for?

CHRISTIAN SEGER New Haven, Conn.

Saludos for the Marquesa

Sir:

The Goya [Portrait of La Marquesa de Santa Cruz) looks more magnificent than ever in its proper place in the "softly lighted Spanish Gallery," and, of course, we are all very proud to have her. It was wonderful to be able to give her the kind of debut that you made for her [Los Angeles' Goya--April 14]. The article is excellent, and evidently is having an electrifying effect on friends and colleagues. The Marquesa even got a telegram of saludos and welcome from her three blacksmith countrymen in the Frick's Forge.

RICHARD F. BROWN Chief Curator of Art Los Angeles County Museum Los Angeles P:For the three Spanish blacksmiths who greeted the Marquesa, see cut. -Ed.

Boards & Boors

Sir:

Mr. John Keats [Schools Without Scholars --April 14] makes many pungent comments on education with which I agree, but I deplore his dismissing school boards as "frequently too secretive" and suggesting "citizens' grand juries." Such groups can be pernicious, since they pass judgment without carrying any responsibility. Also, having no authority, they tend to aimlessness.

MARGARET FLAGG

Blanchester, Ohio

Sir:

What Rudolph Flesch (Why Johnny Can't Read) and John Keats both know: the quickest way to make a fast buck is to write a book criticizing education.

JESSIE D. OLIVER Redlands, Calif.

Sir:

I, as a teacher, agree that public schools are in a mess. I do not think, however, that some of Keats's suggestions will do anything but add to the confusion. Teachers are forced to associate with and educate every book-forgetting, homework-lacking, work-hating, pleasure seeking, mealymouthed, amoral offspring of TV-watching, cocktail-mixing, car-buying, money-hungry, culture-barren, immoral, crude, boorish parent.

THOMAS E. McDONOUGH West Babylon, N.Y.

Inside-Outside

Sir:

Thanks for your story on "Insider" Gunther. Re your prediction of his coverage of outer space travel: we are looking forward to reading Inside Outside by John Gunther.

E. WILLARD PENNINGTON Cleveland

Sir:

You have managed to make your story sound exactly like one of Gunther's books: interesting--and oh so superficial!

HANS RUESCH

Klosters, Switzerland

Sir:

Gunther's verdict on Earl Warren: "He will never set the world on fire or even make it smoke." No, but he has caused plenty to do a slow burn.

C. G. ELLIS

Elsinore, Calif.

Trouble in the Philippines

Sir:

The article on the Philippines appearing in TIME, April 21 [violates] the unwritten law governing Gridiron affairs, capitalizes on a skit presented in fun by jesting, newspapermen and distorts conditions in the Philippines. It presents an honest and faithful public servant like President Carlos P. Garcia in a manner that, according to reports from Manila, has aroused the indignation of all elements of our population.

Dollar remittances abroad against pesos are exclusively under the jurisdiction of the Central Bank governor, who has the full confidence of the American business community. The President cannot "sign chits on foreign reserves." Only the governor can validate such requests, and he can even veto any item before it comes on the agenda of the Monetary Board.

Whoever is President and whoever inherits the basic economic difficulties facing every newly independent country emerging from colonial economics, the Philippines has a vast reserve of hard-working and able labor, vast mineral resources that can be tapped as soon as this mushrooming world economic recession is over. If my country is given the capital that it needs in the form of development loans--and this is one of the reasons for President Garcia's forthcoming trip to Washington in June--its economic downdrift will be arrested.

May I not ask that you give President

Garcia the opportunity to develop his program and cooperate with us to strengthen our economy and not wreck it with articles which undermine confidence in our economic and political stability.

CARLOS P. ROMULO Philippine Ambassador to the U.S. Washington, B.C.

Sir:

The story was grossly unfair and certainly unethical, considering that not a line about the skit roasting officials appeared in the Philippine press.

FRANCISCO C. DIPASUPIL President

National Press Club Manila P:TIME knows of no journalistic rule against publication of Gridiron skits, does recognize a journalistic duty to report that the Philippine Republic is in serious financial trouble and the air is filled with charges of corruption.--ED.

Picasso's Lulu

Sir:

Picasso's mural for UNESCO as shown in TIME is an affront to intelligence. I've known the Daedalus and Icarus legend since I was 14 years old, but this hodgepodge gives no clue to it--with or without Picasso's explanation. Pablo burnt his wings on this one.

LAWRENCE A. MEEHAN Kearny, N.J.

Sir:

It clearly represents the fact that you can get by with a fraud if it is big enough. Pablo's is a 32-by-29-ft. lulu.

WILLIAM BUNION Harrington, 111.

Colonialism v. the U.S.

Sir:

Aren't you being somewhat overgenerous to yourselves in your article on "Colonialism & the U.S."? Your phrase "devotion to principle" as a description of the U.S. attitude strikes this reader as a hilarious viewpoint.

B. M. POSTILL Vancouver, B.C.

Sir:

Your systematic anticolonialism which has cost so much blood and suffering in Indonesia, your meddlesome politics and, above all, your sickening smugness are costing you many, many friends.

MARCEL VAN DIEREN Brussels, Belgium

God & Man at Harvard

Sir:

Harvardman Bartley's stand against the religious dogmatism of President Nathan Pusey [April 14] and his band of idealists is heroic. Better one humanist steadily working to ameliorate the evils that afflict mankind than 100 men of religion insisting that each has a monoply on the truth.

B. J. BECKWITH Neches, Texas

Sir:

TIME does well to display the extracurricular 8,000-word fizzle on the Harvard apron. Throwing stones at church windows is no more becoming with a Harvard accent than it is when done by the kid across the track. Bartley should be spanked.

LAWRENCE D. GRAVES Minister

Eden Congregational Church Muncie, Ind.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.