Fine Grain Farmers Sir:
Congratulations to the farmers-- we didn't know they were of such fine gram.
THE LOUTZENHISERS Glen Burnie, Md.
Sir,
I am proud to claim common citizenship with the U.S. farmer. His referendum vote clearly demonstrated that the national backbone, though morally soft and pliable in most sectors, stands straight and strong in the agricultural area. We sorely need this "old frontier" independence; God forbid that the New Frontier plow it under.
MRS. E.H. TEMPEST Norfolk
Astronaut Cooper Sir, What a revealing comparison of the attitudes of the American and Russian space explorers: a cosmonaut cries out in space, "I am Eagle ! I am Eagle!" while our astronaut humbly prays, "Father, thank you."
MABEL M. MARTIN Wesleyville, Pa.
Push for Equality
Sir,
"Not one of the Chicago and suburban newspapers, nor any of the local radio and television stations, reported the Birmingham demonstrations as factually, sincerely, and with such profound respect as it was in the Nation section of May 17. I am convinced that irrespective of a subscriber's agreement with TIME, one must read it in order to be honestly informed.
CHARLES BROOKS TALIFERRO East Chicago Heights, Ill.
Sir:
The description of Martin Luther King as an "inspirational but sometimes inept leader was extremely unfortunate. As one who has represented Dr. King in the courts of Alabama and Georgia and who has had many opportunities to watch him directing the affairs of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, I think that the term inept neither fair nor accurate. It is unfair because it attempts to equate the leader of a great social revolution with a high-powered corporate executive. It is inaccurate because, with limited financial and human resources at his disposal, he succeeds in overcoming enormous odds.
WILLIAM M. KUNSTLER New York City
The calculated hate, planned unrest, useless destruction of private and public property and needless agitation between I colored and white races in Birmingham wei only made worse by your insidious reporting of this situation. Why, oh why, do you condone mob violence by the Negroes and yet deplore mob violence by whites? No reference was made by your reporter to the pillaging and looting of a private store by Negroes before they unmercifully burned this store and then stoned the firemen in an attempt to prevent them from controlling the fire. Mob violence under any guise or for any cause, just or unjust, is tragic and criminal.
DONALD L. COLLINS Birmingham
>The Saturday night rioting broke out after the May 17 TIME had gone to press, but an account was included in most copies: "Thousands of enraged Negroes surged through the streets, flinging bricks, brandishing knives . . . put a torch to a white man's delicatessen, fought off firemen as they arrived to put out the blaze."--ED.
Sir: I thought water cannons were used in East Berlin.
FAWZY RAHAMIM Teheran, Iran
Sir,
"(Congratulations! You scored a victory over Communist propaganda. Your article on "The Negro's Push for Equality will win a lot of readers for you in Asia. Reading the same lines from a Red magazine would have created a lot of ill feeling toward your great country in the minds of Asians. As such your article is worth its weight in gold.
RONALD M. D'SILVA Bombay
The Individual in America
Sir:
After reading closely your great conclusions on the state of man today [May 10], I am certain that here is one committee that could have written Hamlet.
MARY TAYLOR HALLAM Dallas
Sir:
The feature is one of your best, and a brilliant analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of modern America, and an indication of the elements needing development. Inis diagnosis shares none of the unrealism of classical individualism or of socialistic collectivism. In particular it reaffirms the basic principles of sound philosophy, the Judeo-Christian revelation, and American constitutional tradition. "
JOSEPH E. HALEY, C.S.L. University of Portland Portland, Ore.
Sir,
Many thanks for the thoughtful article, "Lincoln and Modern America."
Among many perceptive comments was a reference to depth psychology -Man is guided not by conscious will but rather by unconscious drives." This is a popular misconception about psychoanalytic theory.
Present-day ego psychology (of which the late David Rapaport is father and prophet demonstrates to many in medicine that individual "freedom" is really "guaranteed from any tyranny by the environment became of these drives. Similarly, man is no an automaton because of the impact of environment on the reality testing mechanisms: the memory, motor, perceptual and threshold apparatuses. The upshot of this is that man has the potential to find ways to satisfy his drives in constructive, nonaggressive ways which need not destroy him.
JOHNL. KUEHN,M.D. Fellow, Menninger School of Psychiatry Topeka, Kans.
Sir,
P:Wright Mills is described as an "angry, narrow sociologist" and Erich Fromm as "a Marxist culture quack."
I do not object to criticism of these distinguished thinkers; I do feel badly that no evidence or explanation supported lese statements. This is intellectual "dirty pool.
Fromm and Mills have made rather significant contributions to the quest to unravel the complexities of human society 11 these men have overstated their cases (the only real "sin" of which they might be guilty), the originality of their thought must partially exonerate them.
HOWARD KUTCHAI Birmingham, Mich.
Congratulations on your cover story on individualism. We debated the subject and agreed that no society, not even our modern one was, is, or will be able to destroy the principle of man's own way of thinking and acting according to his own private ideals. ST. ANDREWS' SCOTS SCHOOL DEBATING SOCIETY Buenos Aires
Lincoln's Eyes
Sir'
I have always been under the impression that President Lincoln had blue eyes rather than the grey that you show in the May 1 cover portrait by Robert Vickrey. Perhaps your sources would confirm this?
PAYNE THOMAS Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
> Lincoln himself provided a color guide when in 1859 he sent an autobiographical sketch to Jesse W. Fell describing himself as "in height, six feet, four inches, nearly; lean in flesh weighing on an average, one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with coarse black hair, and grey eyes--No other marks or brands recollected."--ED.
The Divorce
Sir:
It disgusts me to see prominent clergymen take issue with Nelson Rockefeller [May 17] The Protestants in particular sang so loudly the song of division between church and state when Kennedy was elected, and now refuse to support Rockefeller politically because he has offended their religious beliefs. I say congratulations to Rockefeller for finding personal happiness. He should be commended for his courage and judged only for his political qualifications.
MRS. GERALD TOMORY Bloomington, Ind.
Sir:
Bishop Fred Corson is a graduate (1917) of this college. The editors of our student newspaper here read his comments concerning Rockefeller with great dismay. Constant confusion of men's personal lives with their political lives is indeed a sorry facet of our system.
I was glad to see TIME state that the bishop was "stepping out of his field" in making such comments. Our editorial of May 10 stated a similar position.
ERIC J. GROVES Editor The Dickinsonian Dickinson College Carlisle, Pa.
Sir:
I wish I could rejoice in the happiness of Nelson Rockefeller and his new wife.
However, we remember that to achieve this happiness he must have cheated on his first wife. Therefore we have to assume he would as willingly cheat on his public.
MAE F. BAILEY Roseburg, Ore.
Sir:
I am a married woman aware of the stresses under which people today marry, and aware of the plain fact that people do not always get along. I am not aware of the needs of any of the people involved in the Rockefeller-Murphy divorces, and I'm sure the learned clergymen aren't either.
(MRS.) ELLEN FINGER New York City Blithe Spirit
Sir:
Thank you for your fine and all too brief article on Margaret Rutherford [May 24].
Miss Rutherford is one of the most completely delightful and capable actresses active today. While Liz, Brigitte, Tuesday and many others are busy proving publicly that their only real talents are nocturnal, Margaret Rutherford is proving what real acting can be.
ROBERT L. STROHMAN Louisville
Sir:
Bravo for a sparkling story covering one of the brightest character actresses of our time.
If anyone could feel the leg of a ghost, Margaret Rutherford would be the one.
ALDO GALLO New York City
^ The leg belonged to John Buckstone, an actor-dramatist turned manager who took over the Haymarket in 1853, remained in the capacity of manager until three years before his death in 18-79. He called on Margaret Rutherford, or so she affirms, last year, when she and her husband were staying overnight in the theater during her appearance in School for Scandal.--ED.
Tasty Tidbit
Sir:
Do my eyes deceive me, or is the soldier in your May 24 color spread on U.S. guerrillas eating raw snake? I cannot permit my self to believe that guerrilla training of G.I.s includes such a dietary horror.
MEL BERK New York City
>The snake, a small boa constrictor, was not eaten raw but skinned and cooked over a charcoal fire. It tasted fine, although a bit gamy. The snake's head was bitten off to demonstrate that a soldier can live off the land if necessary without the aid of knives or guns.--ED.
Jewish Senecas
Sir:
In your "Resorts" story of May 24, about Paleface Sam Banowit's Palm Springs springs, one of the Agua Caliente Indians stated that Mr. Banowit was "the first Jewish Indian in the country."
I know two who preceded him: my husband, Ray Evans (lyric writer), and his collaborator, Jay Livingston (composer), who wrote such un-Indian songs as Mona Lisa, Buttons and Bows, Tammy, and Que Sera Sera. Lined up with their three Oscars are two peace pipes which they smoke after they argue about their pentameters and their pianissimos. They were taken into the Seneca Tribe of New York State about twelve years ago as Chief Words-Come-Easy and Chief Flowing Rhythm.
SQUAW WYN EVANS Beverly Hills, Calif.
Fancy Cussin'
Sir:
In your Cinema review "God's Great Outdoors" [May 24], you mention "fancy cussin'"; but the form quoted is not the same one I was taught years ago by an authority on the subject. For your information, here is my version, which rhymes, incidentally, and has real movement and Anglo-Saxon alliterative coloring:
Damn, damn, double-damn, triple-damn, bang I
Gee whiz! Golly I Gosh! The deuce! The Devil! 0 hell! Hang!
WILLIAM BOYCE WHITE JR. Rock Hill, S.C.
Stan the Man
Sir:
Amen to your belated recognition of baseball's Mister Most, Stan Musial [May 17]. But what mortal (even Grandpa Musial) could have played in 23 All-Star games after only 21 major-league seasons, unless he happened to be the incomparable, switch-hitting George Herman Ruth Mickey Mantle Mays Ty Cobb Gehrig?
BOB MAYER Riverdale, N.Y.
For the past four years there have been two All-Star games per season, making 24 All-Star games during Musial's 21 major-league seasons.--ED.
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