Home Free

Sir:

Outstanding, repeat outstanding, article on the return of heroes McKone and Olmstead. Congratulations also to the wives who stood by their country and their Government even though at times it was frustrating.

BERNARD J. KEEFE JR.

Poultney, Vt.

Sir:

The fine conduct of McCone and Olmstead while in Soviet custody is certainly praiseworthy. Unlike Francis Gary Powers, who at first opportunity convicted himself (and his country), McKone and Olmstead remained quiet, without committing our nation to resentment and abuse.

GORDON JON WINSLOW

Greenwich, Conn.

Sir:

Is the RB-47 crumb handed us by Khrushchev intended to cover up his attempt to destroy the U.N. and take over Cuba, the Congo, Laos and many others?

NATHAN D. SHAPIRO

Brooklyn

Sir:

In our growing uneasiness over the abridgment of free press and speech, we are grateful to you for your coverage of the RB-47 flyers and especially for the story of the strings attached to their release. How long is "Be Kind to Khrushchev Week" going to last?

DOROTHY KELLY

Philadelphia

State of the Union

Sir:

Along with about a million American self-employed salesmen, I vehemently object to Mr. Kennedy's woeful State of the Union message.

To hell with the grim, pessimistic facts! Let's all go to work and learn how to smile like we're the luckiest people on earth.

JAMES ROBERT BLUNT

Narberth, Pa.

Sir:

President Kennedy's statement to the effect that the size of the job done by a civil servant will be more important than the size of his staff, budget and office is a direct threat to all loyal bureaucrats. Arise one and all and prevent this wanton attempt to repeal Parkinson's Law!

R. D. VAUGHN

West Lafayette, Ind.

Sir:

Just for a while

Please, Editor, ban

Front cover pictures of

The Kennedy clan.

MILDRED WORFE

Clinchport, Va.

Sir:

Was there a legitimate reason why Mr. Kennedy did not have his hand on the Bible when he took his oath of office?

GRACE L. KLINE

Evanston, Ill.

P: Press Secretary Salinger says that President Kennedy "recalls placing his hand on the Bible, and then it dropped down." The Constitution provides that the President take the "Oath or Affirmation" of office, and cites the language, but does not specify the use of the Bible.--ED.

Change at Reid Hell

Sir:

My daughter Marianne, art student at the Sorbonne, lives at Reid Hall. She writes: "Ever since TIME printed that another art student, Jacqueline Bouvier, once too made her home at Reid Hall, this is what 4 Rue de Chevreuse looks like now."

F. VAN ROSSEN HOOGENDYK

Sharon, Conn.

Not Guilty

Sir: Your article of July 25 left your readers with a definite and correct impression that I was in the "soup." In view of the occurrence at Hermann, Mo., January 19, would appreciate getting me out of the "soup" for your readers' sake--and mine.

THEODORE C. LINK

St. Albans, Mo.

P: St. Louis Post-Dispatch Crime Reporter Link was charged with first-degree murder after shooting his part-time handyman during an altercation about the burning of his cottage. The Hermann, Mo. jury accepted his plea of self-defense, acquitted him.--ED.

The Cardinal & the Schools

Sir:

Re Cardinal Spellman's plea for federal aid to parochial schools, I noted with interest that his drive to raise $25 million for new Catholic high schools in New York was oversubscribed by $15 million.

We Catholics do not need federal aid. Every U.S. archdiocese has a treasury that could provide all the resources needed for school expansion. The big problem is how to get the church hierarchy to spend our money.

WILLIAM G. COURTNEY

La Mirada, Calif.

Sir:

As a Protestant schoolteacher in suburban Detroit, I view with alarm the rapidity being used by the Roman Catholic hierarchy in their forthright demands for federal aid to parochial schools. John F. Kennedy has promised that he will uphold the separation of church and state. With such men as Francis Cardinal Spellman picking away at him after less than a week in office, what will happen in the next four years?

DONALD A. HAYDEN

Detroit

Sir:

As a Catholic mother of two, with one on the way and further expansion definitely anticipated, I say cheers for Cardinal Spellman!

MRS. GEORGE A. STEFANI

Chicago

Sir:

As a member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and a Lutheran seminarian, I might say that the Rev. Dr. Oswald C. J. Hoffmann does not speak for "us Lutherans." Many seminarians and, I'm sure, many pastors in parish work feel that our parochial schools should receive federal aid. Since we support public education with our tax money, it is only fair that the federal government aid our church schools.

WAYNE MONSKE

Concordia Theological Seminary

St. Louis

Sir:

As a Lutheran, I believe that the separation of church and state is a necessity in our heterogeneous society. However, I also believe it is unfair to tax those persons as heavily for the support of public schools who, through their own convictions, are spending considerable sums to send their children to private schools. Therefore, I would propose that federal aid to education be made only to the public schools but that those parents who send their children to private schools receive a federal income tax reduction equal to the amount per child of the federal subsidy to the public schools.

H. J. WlTTROCK

Spokane, Wash.

Schools & Denominations

Sir:

Your article on the development of Methodist colleges and universities in America was by far the most effective presentation of the subject we have seen in brief compass. Incidentally, if there have been "meddlesome bishops" in Methodist education, they have not been encountered here. On the contrary, these enlightened leaders of the church have set an example of statesmanship for our trustees.

WILLIS M. TATE

President

Southern Methodist University

Dallas

Sir:

The TIME article in the Feb. 3 issue is splendidly written and gives excellent interpretation of Methodist educational work. I have been a reader of TIME for many years, and I have observed that frequently it can insert some devastating phrases. This article is remarkably free from them.

JOHN O. GROSS General Secretary

The Methodist Church Division of Higher Education

Nashville, Tenn.

Sir:

As a man who has taught in three Methodist schools, let me say that what is chiefly wrong with higher education in the U.S. is that so many of its colleges are under denominational control. Such institutions tend inevitably to become second-rate. And how could it be otherwise when the essence of the educative process is the search for truth without regard to dogma or superstition?

JAMES S. CHURCHILL

Stamford, Conn.

Smoke Signal

Sir:

As members of the Kickapoo Tribe, Lighthouse Y.M.C.A. Longhouse, Tucson, Ariz. Indian Guides, we protest the ignorance of your white-eyes Cinema editor in his review of the movie Facts of Life. In the movie, Bob Hope attended an Indian Guides meeting, not a Cub Scout meeting.

The Y.M.C.A. Indian Guides program nationally boasts many hundreds of tribes and tens of thousands of big and little braves. Correct this error or risk the wrath of many braves taking the warpath. Ugh!

STRAIGHT ARROW

DAVID REES (AGE 8 1/2)

THUNDER CLOUD

PAUL G. REES (AGE 31 1/2)

Tucson, Ariz.

P: How! TIME erred, proffers peace pipe to Indian Guides. -- ED.

Chin Up

Sir:

In your article on A. C. Gilbert, you state that he once broke the world chin-up record, which was at that time 63. Could you please tell us what the current world record is, and who is the current world holder?

JOHN HARTRANFT

JOHN KEEFE

Cambridge, Mass.

P: A. Lewis, with 78 chins, in England, in 1913. -- ED.

Sir:

May I add a footnote to your excellent account of the life of A. C. Gilbert, Yale 1908. Walter Dray and I had pole-vaulted against Gilbert for the last time at Franklin Field in 1908 at the Olympic tryouts. Dray held the world's record at the time. Gilbert established a new world's record and took from us about four gold medals that hung on that event.

FRANK THAYER NELSON

Detroit

His Geisha

Sir: Your statement that My Geisha is a "byproduct of one of Hollywood's oddest marriages" is obviously a byproduct (by which I mean illegitimate offspring) of odd reporting and tasteless editing. Two years of time, effort, near heartbreak and $2,000,000 devoted to My Geisha does not add up to a byproduct. If all marriages in Hollywood or on Park Avenue or Main Street, U.S.A.--were as soundly based on honesty, hard work and understanding as Shirley MacLaine's and mine, there would be far fewer divorces for you to record.

STEVE PARKER

Tokyo

Sounds of Music

Sir:

You had a most welcome paragraph on Samuel Krachmalnik, surely one of the most gifted of our young conductors.

Permit me please to comment on one statement: "From Juilliard, where his early attempts at conducting were roundly panned . . ." The facts are that Krachmalnik not only held a scholarship at the school, but earned the special distinction of having been awarded a teaching fellowship.

Last season he and a fellow graduate were chosen for the honor of conducting the Juilliard Orchestra in a full program. It was as a result of having attended this concert that Dr. Herbert Graf, director of the Zurich Opera, engaged Krachmalnik.

WILLIAM SCHUMAN

President

Juilliard School of Music

New York City

P:Conductor Krachmalnik recalls that his teacher said of his early attempts: "You know the Pastoral, but you're a fraud."--ED.

Judaism & Zionism

Sir:

Americans of all faiths should take the present opportunity to press for the elimination from the American scene of all mechanisms advancing Zionist ideology, because Zionism's nationalism is inimical to the best interests of Americans of Jewish faith, eroding their citizenship status and distorting the spiritual quality of their religion.

RABBI ELMER BERGER

Executive Vice President

American Council for Judaism

New York City

Sir:

You stated that following the recent Zionist Congress held in Jerusalem I stayed on and settled here because I was "stung by Ben-Gurion's reproaches."

Please be informed that my hope to establish a home in Israel was formulated eleven years ago after I had served here for a year as Treasurer of the Jewish Agency and that my decision to settle in Israel was made more than a year ago when my Congregation B'nai Jeshurun of New York agreed to my retirement as Rabbi Emeritus.

I deplore the suggestion of Dr. Prinz that the time has come to dissolve the Zionist Organization. Indeed the time will never cease to be when a World Zionist Organization will have to be engaged not merely in mobilizing funds for Israel but in building and strengthening the cultural-spiritual bridge between Israel and the Jewish people for the sake of both. An organization built on a sense of Jewish peoplehood alone will not accomplish it.

DR. ISRAEL GOLDSTEIN

The Executive of the Jewish Agency

Jerusalem, Israel

The Brush

Sir:

Thank heaven the talent and technique displayed in the Sistine Chapel was not limited to I.K.B. (International Klein Blue) and a 4-in. brush. Painter Yves Klein's ludicrous declaration that the "true painter creates nothing visible" may explain his void --but not his presumption. Using nude women as paint brushes smacks of a more serious derangement than a casual Freudian slip.

MARION WINSLOW

Sacramento

Sir:

I took off all my clothes, smeared blue paint over my body, and crawled back and forth over my portable typewriter. The typewriter is a mess but look at the magnificent poem I produced. I call it simply "hors serie" (whatever that means).

k pn T 6

ghg

dw -c- ?

VIRGINIA DANIELS

Albuquerque

Sir:

Keep the paintings but please send me some of his used "brushes."

DON HUNT

Sherman Oaks, Calif.

Sir:

TIME, you dear old thing! How is it that you always manage to surpass the unsurpassable? Your "Voyage Through the Void" was the most amusing thing I've read in years!

May your art reviewer continue to discover these "dandies" like Klein, and may you, with equal diligence, continue to publish their pranks.

JOHN W. PAGE

Toledo

Disarmament & the Bomb

Sir:

In your Jan. 2 issue Professor Harold Urey argues for world government and for a real unity of the Western democracies. He states that this question rather than the question of disarmament should occupy the center of our attention. As in many other instances I agree with Professor Urey most wholeheartedly. In fact, one of the greatest dangers of the futile disarmament negotiations may be the fact that these negotiations tend to deflect our attention from the most important issue: to work toward a supranational authority that wields moral power and physical power.

I am arguing and I will have to continue to argue about the technical aspects of disarmament. Some questions connected wi-.h disarmament are of a technical nature, and these technical questions require the knowledge of the specialist. On the other hand, when I argue for a world authority, I can speak only on the same basis as all of my fellow citizens. It is my hope that we shall as a nation tackle this problem with the same determination and success with which we have attacked so many great problems in the course of history.

EDWARD TELLER

University of California

Berkeley, Calif.

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