Starting the Debate Sir:
The test ban treaty that was negotiated in Moscow is a rare achievement in human history. Although limited in scope, when compared with the unlimited dangers of uncontrolled nuclear explosions and nuclear war it is an important step toward peace.
THOMAS TSAKANIKAS JR. Yonkers, N.Y.
Sir:
Lest we forget: on May 17, 1933 Adolf Hitler delivered his famous "Peace Speech," a masterpiece of deceptive propaganda that proclaimed Germany's wish for disarmament. There was great rejoicing throughout the Western world at this unexpected reasonableness, but in reality Hitler's plan was to give the world a false sense of security while secretly building up Germany's forces.
Let us hope that history is not repeating itself in our new-found Russian "friends."
JAMES W. BROWN Chicago
Sir:
In the President's TV report on the test ban treaty, he used Mr. Khrushchev's own words to emphasize a point, saying that in case of a nuclear exchange, "the living will envy the dead." This not only qualifies him as Fright Peddler No. 2, but also effectively scuttles his own fallout shelter program. The pitch now is that in case of attack, we should all run out and get all the radiation we can, since the survivors will be worse off than the dead.
ERNEST R. RECHEL Huntingdon Valley, Pa.
Sir:
The treaty may be far from perfect, but it can hardly hurt us. Failure of the Senate to ratify the treaty would hurt us, badly and permanently.
JACK MCKAY West Berlin
Barry & Rocky
Sir:
The voting public should look long and hard at Senator Goldwater [July 26]. It is obvious that the top job should go to a man with his conservative vision. After all, the major issue in the operation of our Federal Government is fiscal sanity versus Harvard economics. Because of this, the Republican Party should lean to the conservative side and dare to be different. A choice between Jack and Rocky, come Election Day, would be like flipping a coin with two heads.
DONALD D. SHOOK Tampa, Fla.
Sir:
Whether Senator Goldwater can beat President Kennedy in the next election is an open question, but there is little doubt that Goldwater can carry the South and--win or lose--can break the chains with which the Democratic politicians have bound that section for so long. A Republican who can revive the two-party system in the South will deserve the everlasting thanks of the Republican Party and, indeed, of the nation.
ROBERT C. LINDEN Pensacola Beach, Fla.
Sir: I do not know whom I am for, but I do know whom I am against. Nelson Rockefeller is drowning, and in order to save himself is using McCarthy-like tactics.
MRS. DENNIS H. STILES Amherst, Mass.
Sir: Wait until the women of the country zero in on Governor Rockefeller in 1964.
RUTH CLARK North Shore Republican Club Milwaukee June Jensby's Jam
Sir: The Peace Corps story [July 5] says that June Jensby in North Borneo taught the natives how to make jam from bananas. I have never heard of a banana jam but it sounds good. May we have the recipe? THEO. SLADE St. Petersburg, Fla.
sbSix bananas, two cups sugar, one-half cup lime juice, 1 1/2 cups water, plus the grated rinds of three limes. Peel and chop bananas, place in saucepan and add sugar, lime juice and rind. Boil until color changes to pink, which should be after about two hours. Store in clean dry jar and seal tightly. Use when cool.--ED.
Read It Your Way
Sir:
The story on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision [July 19] upholding the Mercury in affirming that news is the property of those who gather it was fine.
The decision, I am sure, will be welcomed by all newspapermen in the nation.
I was impressed with the fabulous TIME treatment of the story. You fellows certainly do a complete job. Your thoroughness awes us country folk who really don't know anything about digging! SHANDY HILL Managing Editor Pottstown Mercury Pottstown, Pa.
Sir: The Pottstown Mercury has been harassing this station since its very inception--twelve years ago. Is it because WPAZ is first with the news in many instances? Or is it because the Pottstown Mercury cannot stand local competition? Your supposedly efficient staff has certainly botched this particular assignment --either through malice or plain inefficiency. In either case, you certainly owe the cause of truth an apology for maligning it.
WPAZ has only begun to fight.
HERBERT SCOTT President Pottstown Broadcasting Co.
Pottstown, Pa.
Controlling Device
Sir: I was amused to read [July 26] of the new concept in children's toys--controlling Mama and Papa dolls with a magnetic wand.
A mother of two, I suggest another essential aid to child development: that Mama and Papa really control a real child with a real rod.
MRS. RICHARD E. TURNER Housatonic, Mass.
Stalag Luft
Sir:
In the [July 19] review of the movie The Great Escape, you mention that there . were 76 escapers from the tunnel at Stalag Luft III. Of the 76, only three were successful in reaching neutral countries. One of the survivors, Bram Vanderstok, has lived in this mountain-resort community for the past twelve years, and is a highly respected physician and surgeon. He was a fighter pilot for both the Dutch and British air forces, and is referred to in Paul Brickhill's book as Bob Van der Stok.
ROY A. BAKER Ruidoso, N. Mex.
Working Over the Railroad
Sir: That was an enlightening cover story [July 26] on featherbedding.
I would not think of boarding a train knowing there was only one man in the cab--the engineer--just as I would never board an airliner knowing there was only the pilot in the cockpit. The risks are far too many to list.
I do agree with management in its efforts to rearrange the wage-base formula.
I hope America will continue to prove to the world that railroads can operate at a profit under private enterprise without nationalization.
JAMES D. WINSLOW New York City Sir:
Yesterday my husband made $42.08 working 13 hours on a run from Roseville to Fresno, Calif., approximately 220 miles. All this without stopping to eat, and requiring expenditure for hotel room in Roseville (waiting for call), meals away from home, etc.
My brother-in-law, a truck driver, would have received $68.11 for the same work (eight hours' pay, $32.16; five hours' overtime pay, $26.45; half-hour lunch pay, $2; and a day's away-from-home pay, $7.50). We would be happy with pay comparable to other skilled workers.
LEILA RINALDO
(Wife of Mario J. Rinaldo,
Engineer, Southern Pacific
Railroad)
Tracy, Calif.
Sir:
I assume that Old Fireman Gilbert has an assistant driver for his coral-colored Cadillac who collects a day's pay every hundred miles and watches out for stop signs, etc.
JAMES K. GOODWINE JR. San Rafael, Calif.
Sir:
I am so sick of that old canard, "Unions represent people while management represents money." The fact is, unions represent people (their members) and bargain for money (their wages), while management represents people (the stockholders) and bargains for money (their profits). It's exactly the same thing.
WILLIAM KLEIN Whitestone, N.Y.
Pennies to Heaven
Sir: With the money the space department has spent rushing to be first to the moon [July 19], it could already have made five stacks of pennies that would reach it.
RICK AYERS Glen Ellyn, Ill.
sb That's exactly $12,107,183,616.--ED.
Of Tarts & Men
Sir:
That typically male remark by Prime Minister Macmillan [July 19], "I was determined that no British government should be brought down by the action of two tarts," annoyed me exceedingly. That male arrogance of Unflappable Mac's is annoying and can't be allowed to pass unchallenged. Men were involved in the scandal, as I recall, but Mac blames all on the women.
MRS. ESTHER WILBUR East Stroudsburg, Pa.
Sir:
I should like to put on record some facts about Lord Astor that are relevant to the suggestion that he "was never really intellectually attuned to his sophisticated circle" [July 5].
I first met Lord Astor at a dinner party in London a good many years ago, when I was little known in my own country and not at all outside it. He showed the most sensitive and delicate appreciation of my books, which he knew intimately. It was not patronage that he offered me, but the kind of support, steady and discriminating, that a writer most appreciates when he is feeling discouraged. Since that meeting we have been friends, and, at least on my side, will remain so.
It is for others to speak for themselves, but I know that he has given generous and selfless help, financial and otherwise, to a good many writers and artists who were in need.
C. P. SNOW London
$5 a Day?
Sir:
As a student traveling throughout Europe this summer, I have found Mr. Frommer's book to be the wisest purchase that I have ever made. Your article in the July 26 issue was an excellent review of this practical guide. I have done Europe on $5 a day so far.
JOHN BENNETT IV Madrid
Sir:
Nobody but a dyed-in-the-wool beatnik can live anywhere on $5 a day, much less in New York City on $3.50 a day, as another of Frommer's books proclaims. A good many of the pensions and hotels he recommended are decidedly fourth-class, if not unfit for human habitation. So, too, about half of the restaurants he recommends serve poor food not worth the price paid for it.
FRANK CASSERLY Luxembourg
Sir:
Rucksacks of orchids to TIME for titillating transatlantic travelers-to-be with its bright story on Mr. Frommer's paperback. It rings cash registers for Michelin, Fielding's, and all of us peripatetic toilers.
But one question: Could Fireman Gilbert's coal-car "bed" on the cover of the same issue suggest Mr. Frommer's grisly $5-a-day "amenities" for innocents abroad?
TEMPLE FIELDING Formentor, Majorca
Sir:
The shower was two flights down, but at Paris' Hotel des Deux Continents last summer I first met my European wife. How did I find hotel and bride? Guided by Arthur Frommer's book! Even those who can afford Europe on $10 or $20 a day shouldn't travel without the Frommer. Fielding is for people over 65.
F. D. DOERR Glendale, Calif.
Oh, ZIP!
Sir:
ZIP, schmip.
I'm so mad I can't find the numbers to express myself.
J. PAUL HUNTER 208-24-6254 (Social Security) 413-4583560 (Telephone) 319 (College) 01267(ZIP) Williamstown, Mass.
sb Reader Hunter is also 038-516292 to his bank, 7K-3598 to the New York Public Library, 26-HT-5556 to the Diners' Club, while TIME fondly thinks of him as 000007771T342014.--ED.
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