The Upward Road

Sir: The events in Africa today [March 13] are not a new chapter in human history, and any attempts to depict them as such are unjustified, egoistical and malicious. Why should Africa be expected to possess a magic wand that the rest of the world never had?

Africa is only a fellow traveler on the road that points toward man's ideals. On this road--which transcends continental, political, racial, tribal and ethnic boundaries--both human virtue and wickedness are never far apart.

ERNEST A. MULOKOZI (Tanganyikan) Kingston, R. I.

Sir: African liberation came at least one century too early, and chaos will last until the poor Negro understands that welfare can only come from production, and production from the return and the safety of the white engineers and technicians.

JEAN ANDRE Brussels

Sir: It is interesting to note that in the photograph of Kwame Nkrumah he is holding aloft an egg. This is one of his favorite symbols, "the egg of power." If one holds it too lightly, it will drop and smash; if one holds it too hard, it will break in one's hand. Osagyefo, of course, says that he knows exactly how to hold it.

BILL RUKEYSER Pomfret, Conn.

Sir: Your picture shows Mr. Kenyatta with Kikuyu dancers and one gentleman who is not a Kenyan at all. At Mr. Kenyatta's side, with a short grey beard, stands Orlando Martins, a distinguished Nigerian actor who is here with me filming Max Catto's Mister Moses.

Thirty years ago, Martins and Kenyatta were actors in a British film, Sanders of the River. Your picture records the friends' first meeting since that time.

CARROLL BAKER Limuru, Kenya

An Obsolete Stick

Sir: I applaud your implication [March 13] that the big-stick policy has become obsolete, whether directly or indirectly used. If this feeling could only be sensed by the stubborn policymakers, the United States could well be on the road to regaining the respect and esteem it once enjoyed as leader of the free world.

FRANCO VEGA Bellingham, Wash.

Sir: Hurrah for former Under Secretary of State Robert Murphy. Respect is the magic word. And respect, sadly enough, comes to most mentalities through rough self-interest policies. Amazing? Yes, but unfortunately true.

EVA M. MICHALSKI Lima, Peru

Sir: U.S. foreign aid is sometimes sheer preannounced bribery to those whom you think you would otherwise fail to befriend. All those heavy loads of dollars are one thing, and the way you give them away is another.

HUSSAIN MOHAMMED AL-AMILY Baghdad

Ruby or Dallas?

Sir: The barbaric death sentence given to Jack Ruby in Dallas [March 20] was a vindictive act prompted by a vicious, small-minded local press and citizenry. Injustice cannot bring about justice, nor can it eradicate the errors of the police department.

ELISABETH HUPP Urbana, Ill.

Sir: A sense of justice that demands the death penalty for the slayer of an assassin is strange and bewildering. It must appear to the world that we had little regard for our late President when we demand the supreme penalty from the man who desired to avenge him, however mad and ill-advised the act was.

MRS. F. H. CRONAWERT Colville, Wash.

Sir: While Ruby's guilt for his insane and violent act should not be minimized, it is the police department of Dallas that should have been on trial for conspicuous lack of precaution resulting in the deaths of both the President and Oswald.

GEORGE TOPAS Lakewood, N.J.

Parochial Concerns

Sir: The National Catholic Welfare Council would do well to heed Mrs. Ryan's suggestion that parochial schools be dropped [March 20].

By choice, a large percentage of Catholic mothers and fathers now send their children to public schools because of their less crowded classrooms and their generally better-prepared and more adequately paid teachers.

Those children still attending parochial schools should not be penalized and deprived of an equal chance for a proper education, which cannot be had under existing conditions.

ARTHUR B. HEWSON Chicago

Sir: Millions of Catholic mothers will disagree with Mrs. Ryan and her view that religion is taught by rote in parochial schools. We send our children to parochial schools not as a defense against anything, but for the integration of attitudes and values that we wish them to possess with their academic education.

(MRS.) KAY FRANCES SCHMUCKER Syracuse, N.Y.

The Real Mustang

Sir: You imply that Ford has kept its new model, the Mustang, under tight wraps, and that your publishing a picture of it [March 13] is somewhat of a scoop. I, with thousands of others, saw the Mustang exhibited by Ford at the Chicago Auto Show last month.

JOHN SHEAHAN Milwaukee

> The Chicago auto was not Ford's new Mustang but the Mustang II, a much photographed experimental car that contributed some features to the Mustang's styling but will not be sold to the public.--ED.

Fight for the Farm

Sir: I've read your March 13 report on congressional action on farm legislation with deep dismay.

The American farmer is fighting for his life on the farm. His battle is our battle. Either we understand his position and help, or we drift closer to sociological and economic disaster as a nation.

WILLIAM L. GUY Governor Bismarck, N.Dak.

For the Love of Art

Sir: Pierre Bonnard, you report [March 13], started the Hahnlosers' portrait in 1923 while sailing with them in the Mediterranean. You quoted Bonnard's "wife" at the scene of the sketchings. Bonnard had no wife in 1923. He married his model and mistress Maria Boursin, also known as Marthe de Melliny, in 1925.

PHILIP DE BEAUBIEN Ormond Beach, Fla.

> Mrs. Lisa Jaeggli-Hahnloser, who witnessed the scene, says that at that time Bonnard had already lived with Marthe for many years (since 1893) and always introduced her as his wife. Adds Frau Hahnloser: "They certainly used to argue with each other as if they had been married a long time."--ED.

Sir: In the painting by Vuillard, The Checkerboard, I was much more interested in the game the gentlemen were playing than in the rest of the picture. I am used to playing checkers on an "eight-by-eight" board; this one, however, seems to have ten squares in each row!

PETER WULKAN New York City

> The gentlemen are playing a popular European variety of checkers known as Polish or Continental draughts, first played in the cafes of Paris in 1727. It is played on a 100-square board, with 20 men on a side.--ED.

Before a Fall

Sir: English Teacher Thayer Warshaw (March 20) seems to be among the 88% of his students who flunked "Pride goeth before a fall." The correct answer is: "Pride goeth before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall."

RANDI PITTS Hartford, Conn.

Sir: Does it really matter who Sodom and Gomorrah were? Or what Isaiah said? It seems to me the schools should concentrate on more meaningful subjects and refrain from such trivia.

WALTER DUKE Alpine, NJ.

Muir's Masterpiece

Sir: TIME, true to its reputation for recognizing all who attain prominence in a particular field has given to the world a brief glimpse of the life and creative talents of the late William Muir [March 13 & 20]. In the opinion of those who knew Bill, his masterpiece, unknowingly molded and shaped by the friendly touch of his hands, the warmth of his smile, the dignity and courageous spirit expressed in tireless effort for good and right, and the comforting philosophy by which he lived, is the image of himself left in a small Maine coast community.

DANIEL H. CLARK Ellsworth, Maine

"Why Can't the English . . ."

Sir: We cannot expect marked improvement in English [March 13] as long as street signs read "Drive Slow," sports writers quote defeated contestants as saying "They played a real good game," and a not reputedly brilliant segment of university students becomes school administrators when too old to coach athletics.

J.V.K. WAGAR Fort Collins, Colo.

Sir: The poor English we speak is learned primarily from one source: our parents. The English teacher has little chance of success with a child who has heard nothing but grammatical errors and two-syllable words all his young life.

EILEEN O'SULLIVAN Sheboygan, Wis.

Flip-Flop

Sir: The delightful thing about this Julia Child [March 20] is that, for all her culinary skill, her approach seems as casual as that of us ordinary, often-harassed family cooks. Once she poured wine instead of oil into some dish and said, "Oops--wrong bottle." Another time she poured a dollop of wine into one of her concoctions, held the bottle up to the light, then put it to her lips, drained the last few drops and remarked in a pleasantly smug tone, "One of the rewards of being a cook!"

ANNA S. F. VOIGT New Castle, Del.

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