The Rule & the Rights

Sir: The peace marchers [April 21] present their cause and their country with a dilemma. They are citizens who must take an unpopular and seemingly unpatriotic stand; they are a minority who must dissent from the will of the majority. To blame this loyal, perceptive and somewhat vocal minority, however, for prolonging the war is nonsense. The dilemma of majority rule with minority rights is one that, fortunately, a democratic people must always face. Those of us who are opposed to the war in Viet Nam should abide by the will of the majority, but we should not forfeit our rights as a minority to dissent, to disagree or to question.

MAX D. BROWN Iowa City, Iowa

Sir: You failed to mention the participation of a sizable veterans' group (larger by far than the corps of cadets at West Point) or the 16 of us leading this contingent who have served in Viet Nam. I find this omission more damaging to "objective reporting" than the unofficial press censorship in Viet Nam, although I do thank you for stating that the peace demonstration "was as peaceful as its pacifist philosophy and about as damaging to the U.S. image throughout the world as a blow from the daffodils the marchers carried." This was the intention of the demonstration, and is more than I can say for the violent handful who tried to disrupt the "mobilization" with paint, eggs and steel rods--some of which hit disabled veterans of other U.S. conflicts quietly demonstrating their reservations on this one.

JAN B. CRUMB Manhattan

Sir: Everything you said was true: as a participant in the San Francisco march, I too saw the hippies and the boy with the fruit sticker on his forehead. I also saw thousands of others: large contingents of doctors, teachers, social workers, housewives carrying children on their backs for the entire four miles, old people--a cross section of the American people. Why didn't you take our picture? My husband and I drove 800 miles to say that the proper response to an improper war is not to win, but to say "sorry" and get out.

MRS. JEROME GRANT North Hollywood, Calif.

Sir: I am a tired American. I'm sick and tired of radicals justifying their actions in the name of peace and brotherhood. I'm sick and tired of having my country abused by people at home and abroad. I'm sick and tired of antiwar demonstrators bellyaching about something they know nothing about. I'm sick and tired of civil rights advocates who demand equality but cannot live like civilized human beings. I'm sick and tired of cowards who burn their draft cards to avoid serving their country in time of need. I'm sick and tired of having my flag mutilated by people not even worthy to hold it.

V. EGLIT

Captain, U.S.M.C.R. Jacksonville, N.C.

How Separate?

Sir: Your Essay [April 21] expresses the view that "The separation of church and state in the U.S. is so secure that for millions of Americans the question arises only in the limited context of education." I am one of millions who see the separation of church and state as something yet to be achieved. Religion, operating as a tax-exempt enterprise with some $77 billion in assets, has managed to inject its taboos and mores into statute and ordinance in every state.

In Florida, "to hell with it" is "open profanity," punishable by statute. Tennessee forbids teaching evolution as contrary to the Bible. Congress pays chaplains to intone superstitions at every session. Chaplains are paid handsomely by the military services, a situation of which Thomas Jefferson took a dim view. Practitioners of organized religion get special rates on transport, entertainment and in many other areas, which amounts to a subsidy from taxpayers. And now we have Dirksen, the Charles Laughton of the Senate, crusading to amend the Constitution in favor of school prayer.

JACKSON PARKS Dunedin, Fla.

Sir: If, as churchmen like Eugene Carson Blake say, churches may "properly influence political decisions," then the churches should also support the Government financially.

In The Church in the Next Decade, Blake himself states: "As Christians, we must question the justice of churches competing at an economic advantage against taxpaying citizens while availing themselves of all the benefits of government. We also must ask whether the churches' invasion of commercial arenas undermines the grounds on which their tax exemptions are based."

Before the Government taxes the public into depression with added taxes, surtaxes and higher taxes, these profiteering nonprofit organizations should be made to pay their share of taxes the same as any other business--which is what churches have become.

CHRISTINE NEIBERT Englewood, Ohio

Tall, Dark & Fearless

Sir: Paul Conrad's cover cartoon of the leading presidential contenders [April 14] does reward "a few moments of savoring contemplation," but the really intriguing figure is the horse. This mean-and unpredictable-looking animal probably symbolizes the electorate upon whose support each "jockey" must ultimately depend. Is there not, however, an outside chance that it represents a "dark horse" candidate? A Mustang for Ford Foundation President McGeorge Bundy? A symbol of the long-departed past for Barry Goldwater? Or perhaps it is not a horse at all, but a mule standing for George Wallace's stubbornness in the schoolhouse door.

EDWARD G. GALLAGHER Williamstown, Mass.

Sir: Ever since Romney visited our area, I've been wondering who he reminded me of. Thanks to Mr. Conrad, I have it: Fearless Fosdick.

BONNIE MCKEOWN Idaho Falls, Idaho

Sir: You note the unwillingness of Las Vegas bookmakers to offer any odds on the 1968 presidential election. An advertisement in the Irish Independent of April 22 reveals that Dublin Bookmaker Terry Rogers offers 5 to 4 against Lyndon Johnson, 5 to 2 Romney, 6 to 1 Nixon, 16 to 1 each Rockefeller, Reagan and Percy, 25 to 1 Humphrey and Robert Kennedy.

TONY SWEENEY Dublin

Hill Climbers

Sir: I was delighted to see the Essay on congressional ethics [March 31].

It has been an uphill fight, but we are making progress. There are now eight of us sponsoring the disclosure bill, and onetime opponents like Senators Morton and Cotton have publicly announced their support of such a requirement.

CLIFFORD P. CASE Senator from New Jersey Washington, D.C.

Third Man Theme

Sir: Here's a way to apply pressure on labor negotiations [April 21] that critically affect the public:

1. Admit public interest as a third party to every dispute, not only in lost goods and services but in lost tax collections.

2. For every week of lockout or strike, tax the ultimate victor 10% of the annual value of net concessions won over pre-strike position. Nonpublic-service industries might be allowed a two-week exemption.

What better way to dramatize the law of diminishing returns, so often overlooked in the heat of controversy?

P. S. BARROWS Del Mar, Calif.

Confession Is All That Counts

Sir: In "Hanoi's Pavloyians" [April 14], you miss the point. Lieut. Commander Tanner's confession that two fellow pilots, Ben Casey and Clark Kent, refused to fly bombing missions was in violation of our code of conduct, which requires a soldier, on capture, to give no information except his name, rank, service number and date of birth.

Tanner did not "beat the system." He let it beat him. The Asian peasant, without access to television or comic book, will know nothing save that an American officer has admitted that some of his fellow pilots have refused to perform certain acts because they consider them criminal. For North Vietnamese propaganda purposes, a fraudulent confession is as effective as a real one, a phony pilot as useful as a genuine aviator.

I do not condemn Tanner; no one who has not himself beaten his captors at this ugly business is in a position to do so. I do condemn thoughtless journalism that depicts this unfortunate occurrence as one worthy of emulation.

MICHAEL R. GARDNER Captain, U.S.M.C.R. Carlisle, Pa.

Double Standard

Sir: A Viet Nam veteran stationed at the Army's main pilot-training center, Fort Rucker, I am one of those Army chopper jockeys feeling the "pilot pinch" [April 14] --in the paycheck. The Army can afford up to $245-a-month hazardous-duty pay for commissioned officers, but the maximum it can muster for its growing corps of warrant-officer pilots is $165 a month. My present hazardous-duty pay as a chief warrant is a whopping $115, compared with the $180 a captain with equal time in service would draw flying the same aircraft on the same mission with equal responsibilities.

Equal pay for equal risk?

CHARLES T. McNAiR Fort Rucker, Ala.

Granted

Sir: In "Here's Johnny" [April 28], you quote me as referring on the air half-facetiously to my attorney, Arnold Grant, as "Louie the Shyster. He used to be prosecuting attorney in the Mafia's kangaroo court." You are wrong, and you owe an apology to one of the most respected attorneys in the profession. I have never mentioned Arnold Grant by name, or referred to him indirectly, on my program.

The joke was made on a broadcast Jan. 6, before I was involved in any negotiations with NBC. I was not represented by Mr. Grant at that time and, of course, could not have referred to him. The jest was made in the following context: I was about to leave on my vacation. I said: "Although I'll be off for a couple of weeks, part of me will remain here . . . my ulcers, my headaches, etc. NBC has been very generous in giving me time off during the year. Of course, it pays to have a good lawyer . . . you've heard of mine, 'Tony' [not Louie] the Shyster. He used to be prosecuting attorney in the Mafia's kangaroo court." This was not said "half-facetiously." It was obvious farce, having no relationship to any person.

JOHNNY CARSON Manhattan

Execution in California

Sir: How ironic! One convicted murderer is executed [April 21]--the first in a year--for killing a policeman doing his duty to protect the public, and tear-stained protesters mourn, an Episcopal bishop asks that church bells be tolled to show penitence for this "legal murder," and the American Civil Liberties Union charges that this is cruel and unusual punishment. In this same period of time, how many innocent people lost their lives through the actions of criminals who feel they have the right to rape, mug, steal and kill without consideration of what happens to their victims and without acknowledging that they deserve any punishment?

JANE ANN CUNNINGHAM Ardmore, Pa.

Sir: Just what indications does Governor Reagan need to be "able to recommend" clemency? Is not the fact that Aaron Mitchell's was a human life enough? To refuse clemency, to decide to kill a man, and then to kill him in a way that takes twelve minutes would seem inhumanly cruel were it not for the fact that it was done by human beings. Cruel it remains. Yes, "the law is the law," but God also made a law that applies in such a case. Or is God's law not as worthy of being upheld as that of California?

CARLA L. GIBSON Madison, Wis.

How To Tell Time

Sir: John Turner may be rich, intelligent and Catholic, but he isn't in the photograph with Prime Minister Pearson [April 14]. How can I convince my Canadian friends that Americans are knowledgeable about their politics when TIME can't tell a Turner from a Chretien?

CLAIRE STURDLEY Garden City, Mich.

Plucking the Ostrich

Sir: Stop! There must be some limit to your literary critics' worship of ersatz "intellectualism." Your real intellectual recognized the need to oppose the Prussian jack boot in 1914, just as he recognizes today the debt owed by us all to the American fighting man for checking the Red menace in Asia.

Bertrand Russell [April 14] was a conscientious objector when far better men were giving their lives in defense of their country. Bertrand Russell has preached that Englishmen should peacefully welcome invaders who might come to take over the land for which their fathers and their ancestors fought and died. I can think of a far more appropriate term than "intellectual" for this kind of man.

However, you are to be congratulated on the illustration included in your review --the finest photograph of an indignant ostrich ever taken.

ADRIAN CONAN DOYLE Lucens, Switzerland

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