Saint & Sinner

Sir: Thank you for a most informative and forthright account of the story of the Protestant Reformation as seen through the eyes of that intriguing personage, Martin Luther [March 24]. I am grateful that this generation is increasingly developing an appreciation for this remarkable German Christian who was both saint and sinner at the same time. Luther may have rediscovered the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but he belongs to the whole Christian Church and not to Lutherans alone. Your compelling article goes a long way toward making this clear.

(THE REV.) GEORGE F. SPIEKER

Robeson Lutheran Church

Mohnton, Pa.

Sir: Your Luther story is an incisive appraisal of the man and his dimensions. It will become part of the permanent collection in my parish library and required reading for my senior confirmands.

(THE REV.) JOHN M. BRNDJAR

Saints Peter and Paul Lutheran Church

Hazleton, Pa.

Sir: Your story about Luther is so intensely interesting and so wonderfully enlightening that I want to thank you for it with all my heart.

As a Lutheran and the author of Katherine, Wife of Luther, I spent many years studying the times and life of this great, God-sent man. The only thing I can't quite agree with, even though Roland Bainton has said it, is that Luther was by the time of his death "an irascible old man." The last two weeks before Luther's death he was obliged to spend in Mansfeld to restore peace between two quarreling brothers. During these two weeks he wrote five lively letters to Kate, telling her how much he loved her and extolling her to "pray, pray."

CLARA SEUEL SCHREIBER

Chicago

Sir: Those of us responsible for planning the Lutheran observance of the 450th Reformation Anniversary are deeply grateful to you for a superb cover story. It captures the rationale of the observance in a most thought-provoking manner.

DALE E. GRIFFIN

Anniversary Coordinator

St. Louis, Mo.

Harvest of Wrath

Sir: TIME'S Essay "The Mind of China" [March 17] is a masterly synopsis; this old China hand is happy to find such erudition coming out of the West. But I believe the present China turmoil to be more a political than a philosophical problem.

The cities of China have been traditionally governed by boards of elders, mainly local merchants. Emperors Genghis and Kublai Khan, and those of the late Manchu dynasty, accepted the system and financed their activities by levying tribute on the cities according to size.

There is a widespread belief in China that a national government is not only unnecessary, but all bad. After the collapse of the Manchu dynasty in 1908, Sun Yat-sen and Generals Wu Pei-fu and Chiang Kai-shek all tried to unify the country, but failed because the city fathers wouldn't cooperate.

Mao Tse-tung came to power in the traditional way, by slaughtering his enemies. By operating on a grand scale, he even gained temporary control of the cities. Now he is reaping his reward.

ROY DOOLAN

Heraldsburg, Calif.

Sir: Only a gentleman's C for TIME'S attempt to regurgitate in two pages all the current cliches about the Chinese mind. I was especially amused to read that "China failed for so long to develop natural sciences" because of a "mystical rather than analytical preoccupation with numbers": I had just demonstrated to my seminar on traditional Chinese science at M.I.T. how an interpolation technique developed in the 1st century B.C. had been applied to the solution of equations like 2x^3 -85x^2 -85x -87 = 0. Our next topic is the calculation of eclipses a century later. Please note that the first five volumes (five more are coming) of Joseph Needham's monumental Science and Civilisation in China contain 404 pages of bibliography.

N. SIVIN

Cambridge, Mass.

Sir: The impossibility of characterizing China and the Oriental mind is admirably documented by the seeming contradiction in your Essay. To point out both that one of the basic characteristics of the Chinese mentality is to submit to the omnipresent, inexorable power of the universe and that, at the same time, there is a persistent Chinese belief in the power of the human mind to "move heaven and earth" is perhaps intellectually abrasive to many of us here in the West; yet it is true. You have made a contribution to the elucidation of what you call "the idea of China." However, all of us ought to bear in mind the wisdom of the Japanese professor who said that it is only when you feel you know nothing about the Japanese that you begin to know something about them. That is equally applicable to the Chinese.

JERALD D. GORT

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Friends of the Family

Sir: Your piece on Britain's justly noted Redgrave sisters [March 17] was excellent, especially for its comments on the modern moviegoer. An increasingly educated and intelligent American public cannot accept the glittering bedroom farces and unreal gods and goddesses that Hollywood is, unfortunately, famous for. Let the American film industry take a cue from the realistic poignance of Julie Christie's Darling or Lynn Redgrave's Georgy Girl.

ALVIN CORDEAUX

Baton Rouge, La.

Sir: That the Redgraves "have been recognized on both sides of the Atlantic as the first family of stage and screen" is fine and dandy. But I find it absurd to honor them as "the nearest thing to the Barrymores that the era has produced." I have had occasion to see both Lynn and Vanessa perform, and have gone away unimpressed. The Barrymores' acting talent has left me a lifelong admirer of Lordly Lionel, Jovial John and Exquisite Ethel.

RICHARD WILLIAMS

Manteno, Ill.

Lemma Dilemma

Sir: Professor Bloom gets a zero on his "proof" that our math students don't total up [March 17]. A couple of left out lemmas: the U.S. is committed to educating all its students, believing, as Plato did, that ignorance of mathematics leaves a man ignorant indeed. Thus we have a far greater range of student abilities, motivation, and achievement, and would naturally score lower on the average than our European and Asian counterparts, who skim off their best students at an early age. It further follows that because of this ability separation, most foreign schools are able to offer both enriched and accelerated curriculums. When our funds permit greater provision for individual differences, and when teachers' salaries encourage skilled instructors to teach in the elementary and secondary schools, we'll narrow that gap.

D. THOMAS KING

Mathematics Chairman

James Madison Memorial High School

Madison, Wis.

Sir: I heartily agree that teachers colleges are to blame for the distressing lack of competence of teachers, not only in mathematics but in all subjects.

A clue to this decline in the quality of teachers is hinted at by Dr. Zacharias when he states that most teachers fail "to make math exciting." The educational system has unfortunately tried to make subjects "exciting" to the extent that nothing is being taught but the exciting aspects of subjects. Abstractions are presented before basics are mastered. The system has lost sight of a basic principle: learning is a discipline, a matter of hard work.

We must change our philosophy of education. This is almost impossible, because those in charge of our teachers colleges are bred on educationese, a term implying minimal knowledge of subject and maximal knowledge of "techniques."

J. V. HINDS

Hightstown, N.J.

Sir: The cure for mathophobia is one soroban (or Japanese abacus) per pupil beginning in the third grade. Western curriculum-smiths use the soroban as an instructional gimmick to teach place value and numbers; but there they drop it. Teach a child to play chopsticks on the piano--never, never teach him to play a sonata! If these gentlemen would cease looking down their noses at the soroban as a calculating tool without peer in the world and develop its full potential on this side of the Pacific, then Japan might have some fierce competition in arithmetic achievement. There is nothing wrong with American teachers or with American pupils.

ROBERT H. RUSHER

Hyannis, Mass.

Nothing Granted

Sir: Perhaps the most vexing, disappointing, frustrating and discouraging situation facing undergraduate students in the U.S. is the neglect we suffer because of the nonfulfillment of the university in its task of educating the undergraduate. We are indeed the "victims of grantsmanship." Our thanks to TIME for articulating this sentiment [March 17].

DEBORAH A. GANO, '68

Indiana University

Bloomington

Sir: "The Fine Art of Grantsmanship" omits some important points about university research.

Much of our basic understanding of man and his world has come from just such research. There are valid philosophical and practical reasons for searching the unknown, and once we know more about particular phenomena, we must share these findings with the world. It is convenient for the university to do this.

Admittedly, there are many instances where irrelevant, costly investigations have been conducted owing to a selfish motivation of the scientist. But the responsibility for the pursuit of questionable research does not rest solely upon the grant seeker: the sponsor plays a key role. There are people in key positions who are not qualified to make the impartial and tricky decisions needed in the selection of sound research programs. Casting the egghead as the villain in all instances is incorrect. The quotes from individuals who boast of their ability to "snow" the sponsor are unfair to the majority of scientists, who are dedicated and strive to present the sponsor (and mankind) with tangible, significant results.

JOHN B. GALIPAULT

Worthington, Ohio

Time to Check

Sir: Relaxing with TIME, I came upon the headline "Limits on Children's Aspirin" [March 17], and was reminded that it was time to check my two small girls. I found the two children hiding in their room, the 3 1/2-year-old doling out flavored aspirin to the two-year-old. Of the 50 1 1/4 gr. tablets, 18 were left in the bottle. We left immediately for the hospital emergency room, where the youngster's stomach was pumped.

ETTA FRINK Yuba City, Calif.

Sir: The drug companies need to change the packaging of children's aspirin. They could seal each tablet in a cellophane or aluminum square, in the same way in which some other pills are packaged. It would take a child quite a while to tear these open.

MRS. CARL BAKER

North Aurora, Ill.

The Good Books

Sir: Reading that more and more ministers are turning to secular sources to illustrate their sermons [March 10], I am moved to pay tribute to a wise and witty teacher, Dr. Halford E. Luccock of Yale Divinity School. Thirty years ago in homiletics, he was teaching us not only the Scriptures but also Grapes of Wrath and Scarlet Sister Mary. From William Dean Howells and Henry James, we plunged into the broader deeps of modern writing. Many ministers, I'm sure, will remember the day they walked into Halford Luccock's class to be introduced by so knowledgeable a man to the terrifying varieties of man's ability to sin or be saintly, through the works of the writers of our time.

ALBERT CHRIST-JANER

Dean

Pratt Institute Art School

Brooklyn

Raising a Dart

Sir: Come now, isn't it about time you stopped quoting Sir Thomas Beecham's hackneyed old remark that Seattle was once a "cultural dustbin" [March 10]? Your story might give readers the idea that we in Washington are still riding around in buckboards, way, way out in the boondocks, accompanied by a tune played on a musical comb. This impression is tiresome indeed, and as asinine as our assuming that all the residents of New York City live in tenements and are switchblade artists.

RICHARD H. CAMBRIDGE

Tacoma, Wash.

> Apologies, and a promise to change our tune.

The Whole Picture

Sir: Your coverage of the Henry R. Luce story [March 10] was so complete that I am requiring students in my History of American Journalism course to read it. Mr. Luce was the ideal journalist--curious, interested, filled with plans. You have captured the man's ability and talents and expressed it all excellently.

RAYMOND L. LEVY

Director of Journalism Studies

University of Toledo

Toledo, Ohio

Sir: The cover sketch of Henry R. Luce is as realistic as life. But "A Letter from the Staff" is the real picture, not of the face, but of the heart, spirit, soul and mind of an editorial genius.

LEWIS T. APPLE

Clayton, Mo.

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