The End of the Nose?

Sir: In the cover story on De Gaulle [May 31], you failed to adequately distinguish between the average Frenchman's acceptance of De Gaulle's policies (e.g., decolonization and national independence) and his corresponding rejection of De Gaulle's archaic governing methods (e.g., suppression of government criticism). Le Nez est fini because the French people desire an end to his particular liberte, egalite, senilite.

DAVID B. FUNDERBURK

Professor of History

Wingate College

Wingate, N.C.

Sir: Your excellent article ended with the open question "Can De Gaulle once again save France--this time from himself?" I sincerely believe he cannot, because the general has kept the reins of government too tight for the French people. They have no more respect for him, only disappointment and bitterness. This has led to hatred and anarchy, which cannot be stopped any more because it has gone too far. He did very much for France and for the world but he made one big mistake: he always thought of France, never of the French people.

ROGER DE BORGER

Antwerp, Belgium

Sir: Your cover portrait of De Gaulle is quite brilliant. All the disdain, pride, arrogance, intelligence and worry is perfectly portrayed.

EDMOND ORR

Dungannon, Northern Ireland

Of Beards & Mortarboards

Sir: I believe you have presented in one picture [June 7] the most eloquent portrayal of the U.S. today and the evolution of its citizenry. The big question: Which will win out--the robe of status quo, or the spirited cry for reappraisal evident in the beard, turtleneck, medallion and look of challenge on our graduate's face?

WILLIAM C. KEEN

San Francisco

Sir: Great and revolutionary things are coming about in America today prompted by youth's impatience, but nonetheless implemented by mature men who have something going for them--life experience. But the tender balance can be destroyed by even a noisy minority, whose credo is destruction for kicks rather than maturity gained through the creation of a family and doing one's "thing" for the betterment of society as a whole.

BETTY GRIMSHAW

Oswego, Ill.

Sir: You say: "The tone of these youthful voices--strident and self-confident, proud and often contemptuous--naturally grates on the ears of their elders.'' Not this elder. These courageous young men and women are in existential revolt against the WASP suburbanite society, whether its members style themselves "liberal," "conservative," or "moderate" (a blue-ribbon porker is still a pig). Gustave Flaubert put it this way: "Hatred of the bourgeois is the beginning of all virtue " Can you dig it? The kids can. I affirm their stand.

PAUL KALIN

Hollywood, Calif.

Sir: The question is raised as to whether or not anyone under 30 can be trusted. Perhaps the person to ask is General Hershey. He seems to trust the youth of America enough to have them defend the fortresses of democracy and the American way around the globe.

Professor Hassenger mocks the possibility of students running their own university, and concludes that "It would be a shambles." I am curious to know how he can be so positive of the negative results of an experiment without first putting it to the test. Wouldn't it be horrible if, by some fluke of course, the entire program worked? Think, for a moment, of the consequences of a microcosm that would be allowed to determine the proper path for itself. That would be a terrible thing in a democracy. Betsy Ross would probably have dropped a stitch at the mere thought, and that long-haired rebel George Washington just might have fallen out of his boat.

MAX W. GURVITCH, '68

Long Island University

Brooklyn

Human Potential

Sir: Your critical article on the Doman-Delacato program [May 31] brought my dander up. Our poorly coordinated son could only walk up and down stairs holding on for dear life and had balance so poor that he couldn't lift up one foot without falling over. He spent a year each in nursery school and kindergarten, only taking up space and not knowing what was going on around him. He started the Doman-Delacato program, tailored to his needs, the summer after kindergarten. It's true, he may always have some problems, and we are aware of this. But when my husband and I watched him make his first Holy Communion fully aware of the meaning of the event, and as we watch him trot off to a den meeting in his Cub Scout uniform or do math problems a mile a minute, we remember those dark days before the program. We thank God that Glenn Doman and Carl Delacato were able to develop the techniques that so obviously helped our son.

MRS. DANIEL J. DUGGAN JR.

Elmwood Park, Ill.

Sir: As a physical therapist who has worked exclusively with physically handicapped children, I have been continually aware of the influence of the press releases concerning patterning on the parents of my patients. To them it is "hope for the hopeless." Some brain-damaged children improve without treatment; some never improve, even with the most attentive therapy sessions, which is heartbreaking for all, but a reality. I have seen too many families frustrated and emotionally and financially burdened when the hope they purchased from the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential was without results. Hopefully with the professional viewpoints emerging, the layman will become aware that it's not the "miracle technique" its press-agents have made it seem.

CHARLOTTE M. O'TOOLE, P.T.

Albany, N.Y.

Sir: We did not "withdraw from one comprehensive, Government-supported study designed to test their theory." We have documented proof that this study was scotched by the others involved when it became obvious that we intended to go through with the study which we initiated and which we had so long sought. Indeed, the primary money spent in this study was money provided through the institutes from a foundation that had already supported us for years.

GLENN DOMAN

Director

The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential

Philadelphia

Yurupmanship

Sir: Tears were in the eyes of this sentimental old codger (74) as I read the poem about Belmont [May 31]. It was absolutely wonderful.

ROBERT W. WOOD JR.

Princeton, N.J.

Sir: Just a word of thanks for the poem by Rolfe Humphries. His verse on the opening of the new Belmont was delightful and, to my somewhat ancient mind, good. I recognized all of the colors--Whitney, Morris, Colonel Bradley, King Ranch, Alfred Vanderbilt, et al. But I wonder if he didn't cheat a little bit on some horses' names. Invent, perhaps, rather than cheat. I'd like to know where Co-Educator, Petrotude and Yurup raced. I would not want to bet, you understand, Mr. Humphries has very evidently been there. But this is a good excuse to thank him for stirring the breeze of memory so that it moves a few lovely leaves on the old trees.

ROBERT F. KELLEY

Manhattan

> Poet Humphries has not only been there; he and his brother picked the name Co-Educator (by Campus Fusser out of Teddy Martin) and won bets on her at Longacres and Playfair in Spokane. Petrotude ran at California's Pleasanton Track, in the Alameda County Fair. Yurup, a grey mare, was a fast stepper at Golden Gate Fields, Vallejo and Bay Meadows in California. The two fictional horses in the poem--Right Royal and Red Ember--ran in "Right Royal," the work of another poet, John Masefield.

Creeps & Cheers

Sir: There is no item which has ever appeared in your magazine that infuriated me more than your article "Reporting" [May 31]. To interfere with a policeman doing his job by impersonating his superior officer is certainly unethical and should be illegal. But impersonating a lawyer in talking to a criminal's mother is despicable. Newsmen at the slightest pretext always spout about dedication to getting the truth to the public. How can one have any confidence in the truth of articles written by men who stoop to the rawest deceit and fraud in obtaining their stories? Do these crawly creeps become noble persons of great character and impeccable honesty when they report their findings to the public? I, for one, seriously doubt it.

EDWARD LYSEK

Chicopee, Mass.

Sir: Cheers to the reporter who gets his story, even with a bit of misrepresentation. As if he doesn't have enough problems with his overly sensitive news sources, he also has to battle the brass--especially on medium-sized dailies. The city editor says get the story, and after it's printed, the executive editor takes it on the chin from a drinking buddy up at the country club, then vents his ire on the reporter. It's enough to make a reporter leave the business. I did.

S. E. ANDERSON Monmouth, Ill.

Scorpion's Sting

Sir: The U.S.S. Scorpion tragedy [June 7] will certainly bring about a plethora of conjectures, investigations, proposals, charges and defenses. I fail to comprehend why there cannot be installed on the exterior of all submarines a relatively unsophisticated detection system that would automatically release and float to the surface if some function were not performed periodically within the submarine. The system might include such devices as moored and unmoored floats, dye markers, automatic radio transmitters, gauges indicating the depth at the point of release, and some equivalent of an aircraft flight recorder. Such devices might enable a timely rescue to be made, facilitate search efforts and provide invaluable answers to otherwise unanswerable questions.

ALAN J. PREIS

Atlantic City, NJ.

Progress v. Stagnation

Sir: The notion that many dissenters ignore history [May 31] is rather incredible in view of the fact that dissent is often the result of history and that pacifism is the logical result of the cold war's reality. The argument that if dissenters "only understood how much conditions have improved since the Great Depression, they would be less dyspeptic today" is tantamount to saying that they would also be less "dyspeptic" in understanding how much conditions have changed since the Boston Tea Party or Attila's rape of Europe. C'mon fellows, you surely know that progress is no excuse for stagnation.

PAUL F. MILLER

Niagara Falls

Anarchy Defended

Sir: Few anarchists [May 24] want purposeless disorder; rather, order without control is their aim. This is essentially similar to Lenin's hopes for Communism: that the dictatorship of the proletariat would gradually fade away, leaving an ordered but not oppressed people. Democratic capitalists also envision that order without control will result from their rule, given universal education and moral responsibility. Traditional anarchism has believed that the first step is to eliminate control rather than to achieve order, showing a different value orientation. Obviously, both Communism and democratic capitalism have devoted such energy to industrial and national growth, which pace could be accelerated by control, that they let the vision drift to barely a theoretical wish. This dichotomy of means and ends has led college students both to disillusionment and to worldwide action reawakening the desire for freedom. They now serve as a natural and important spur to end the negligence and forgetfulness of established government, reminding it that its goal is to work itself out of business as quickly as possible.

STEWARD K. EASTMAN

Zenoian Anarchist Party

Sarasota, Fla.

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