The Papal Encyclical

Sir: Pope Paul's latest encyclical vetoing birth control [Aug. 2] is offered as a reaffirmation of the sacredness of human life as based on truths of divine and natural law. Though very reasonable in tone, there are moments in the document when a faint note of hysteria can be detected. The pill, writes the Pope, might lead to infidelity, loss of respect for women, and could even precipitate political anarchy. However real this social danger may be in the modern world, it is a mistake to make discussion of it depend on teachings of divine and natural law about the sacredness of life. How the holiness of human life can in any way be abrogated by a mere technology (the pill) is very unclear in the encyclical. Is fear for the stability of a social structure, the family, in any way the same as fear for one's salvation? The latter is a true religious question, while the former is not.

JUDSON J. EMERICK

Philadelphia Sir: What Pope Paul says, in effect, is that if a family has the affluence and physical stamina for child after child, why, let them enjoy reproducing themselves. If, however, a family is poverty-stricken, living in desolation and illness, where a new life might face starvation, why, just add "no sex" to its already deprived existence. However, do not abstain for too long. Duty binds to take yet another whack at producing yet another malnutrition victim!

MRS. A. J. VECSEY

Rye, N.Y.

Sir: The ban on contraception is, in effect, an ironical move to weaken further a basic principle of the Christian faith: that every human life has worth. It has always been the tendency (whether sound or unsound) to value items in proportion to their multiplicity or scarcity--value increasing with the rarity of the object and decreasing with its abundance. Thus the explosion of the population has tended to cheapen human life in the eyes of many. It becomes increasingly difficult to say "thou" to a mass of flesh that bumps and pushes and encroaches more and more on free space, sacred privacy and a diminishing food supply. I fear that the Pope cannot see the flesh for the spirit.

DAVID B. MYERS Graduate Student University of Texas Austin

Sir: The reconfirmation of the age-old Catholic stand that no one has the authority to deny the continuance of life is refreshing in the days made easy for everything else in America. And in the areas of our world where population in crease is an alarming concern to science it is reassuring to know that God alone gives the test of faith. Pope Paul stands with every Pope before him to remind the world that to live, no matter what the circumstances, brings honor and glory to the Creator. Perhaps if all Catholics were really Catholic, there would be less of a problem with population scare, for in conscience they would be directed to wait until they were capable of caring for offspring before they enter into holy matrimony: a simple solution for a lot of problems in any church.

James J, Kunz Cape Coral, Fla.

Sir: How can we raise the dignity of man when the very conception of human life is to be given less forethought than buying the family car? Children who are desired, loved and cared for surely become more secure, loving people than do mere byproducts of a couple's love relationship for whom provision is somehow managed. Do we really expect couples to follow the rules set forth by a man who has never played the game?

MRS. WILLIAM W. CLEMENTS JR.

Devon, Pa.

Convention Challengers

Sir: I enjoyed your cover article on "The Challengers" [July 26], but I was infuriated at Governor Rockefeller's appraisal of Richard Nixon: "That's right, he's the one. He's the one who lost it for us in 1960." Every intelligent Republican in the country knows damn well that it was Rockefeller who lost it for us that year, by closing down Republican campaigning in New York and delivering the state's 45 electoral votes to Kennedy.

PATRICK MORRISON Philpot, Ky.

Sir: McCarthy's appeal to the college student arises from his reasoned questioning of the assumptions upon which American life is based: the increasing power of the President; the top-priority importance of G.N.P. growth; and the increasingly evident errors in the dirty-Commies foreign policy game. A President who can understand moral assumptions that are implied by political action--and vice versa--is what we, the university-educated young people, first-time voters who have never really known war and who do not accept its inevitability, are searching for. McCarthy says that reason can govern power.

ISABEL MAGIDSON, '68 University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee Milwaukee

Sir: All my life I've dreamed of getting my name in TIME Magazine. So imagine my delight when the joke I told your correspondent--about the pollster getting clobbered when he asked the man whether he was going to vote for Nixon or Humphrey--turned out to be the lead to your cover story. And then, just a line about this being a gag that is circulating in the Middle West. Tarnation!

RICHARD MAYER JR. Editor

The North Vernon Plain Dealer and Sun North Vernon, Ind.

Senatorial Calendar

Sir: I read the article "Fortas at the Bar" [July 26] with a mixture of shame and sadness. Shame that a great jurist and American was submitted to a modern-day McCarthy verbal witch-hunt; sadness that there are still Americans (especially in positions of power) who look upon every Supreme Court ruling that clarifies and strengthens individual rights as Communist inspired. For too long we have used Communism as a scapegoat to hide our deficiencies in civil and individual rights. This neurotic obsession with Communism has got us into the moral and economic abyss of Viet Nam. It is a shame that a U.S. Senator would ask such a question as, "What difference does it make if there is a lawyer present or not?" While we are at it, let's dispense with search warrants and other inefficient barriers in the realm of criminology.

Justice Fortas deserves the moral support of every thinking American. Senator Thurmond deserves some advice: get a new calendar--this is not 1952.

LESTER GUYSE San Diego

Where Did Everybody Go?

Sir: I read your article regarding the Russian-Czechoslovak [July 26] crisis expecting to hear about the mass demonstrations of support for the Czech cause across America. Czechoslovakia needs to be bolstered by a display of world public opinion. Where are all the students and professors who protest America's "colonialism in Viet Nam?" Where are the supporters of "national self-determination?" Where are the anti-colonialists? Where is the United Nations? Where did everybody go?

HERBERT P. DOOSKIN Melbourne, Australia

Sir: You say that Dubcek is trying to combine Communism with freedom. Jan Masaryk said in 1946: "Czechoslovakia must work out the synthesis between Russian socialism and Western liberty. I'll go all the way with Russia up to one point: socialist economics, O.K. But if anyone tries to take away our freedom--freedom to think and say what you believe--the right to your own thoughts, your own soul . . ." Let's pray that Dubcek does not have to "jump" or "fall" from a window in a few months.

E. RAVINET

Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Miro on the Wall

Sir: I thought your article on Joan Miro [July 26] was very good. I know that the article and the color-spread will please Miro immensely. I am sorry that such a Pleasant article should nevertheless contain a misquotation from me. You have me saying that Miro's Birth of the World was the point of departure for modern painting. Not even in my sleep could I lave said that. The tradition of modern painting is around 100 years old and its point of departure is certainly not after Cubism, Fauvism, Cezanne, Manet and Impressionism (to scan various points of departure looking backwards). What I did say, of course, was that the Birth of the World and pictures related to it were a point of departure for a direction in modern painting that ultimately led to Abstract Expressionism.

WILLIAM S. RUBIN Curator of Painting and Sculpture The Museum of Modern Art Manhattan

Aeroflop

Sir: I feel there is no challenge to the West from Aeroflot's much ballyhooed service [July 26]. Having recently spent five weeks flying across Russia and Siberia, I am not singing their praises. What with sloppy, indifferent, Amazonian stewardesses who disappeared completely during flights, seat belts that didn't work, heavy luggage stowed overhead, either suffocation awaiting takeoff, or chilly drafts, it does not seem likely anyone who had a choice would consider their airline. Granted they went all out to make an impression on their inaugural flight, but I for one would never book with them.

WANDA MARLOW Calistoga, Calif.

Cue Ball

Sir: It's hard even to say the word baseball without stifling a yawn [July 26]. Snow to snow, it's the best mid-afternoon sedative going. The majors ought to take a cue from pro football and trim the schedule to the point where it doesn't take 30 days to alter the standings. My bet is that the gate would even out or advance. You can tell the bosses of the majors to watch out for soccer, too.

DON NORTH

Vienna, Va.

Sir: Baseball could be made much more of an action game by one simple change in the rules: three balls walks the batter instead of four. This would shift the advantage from the pitcher to the batter, probably lead to more hits, and certainly put more men on base. All this would mean more runs, more excitement.

CHARLES WALLACE PACKER Winnetka, Ill.

Dream House

Sir: Long live 35 Heathcote [July 26]! The "robust posterior" of Mr. Pleuthner's house is most appealing to me. Every time I go by it, I have to stop myself from driving into the yard, knocking on the door and asking to see the rest of the house. For me, it is a dream house. It reminds me of the wicked witch's house in Hansel and Gretel. How happy I am to learn that the house is not owned by a mean old lady but by a fine man who is imaginative and creative, has a strong mind and who, at 83, still has the spirit of usefulness and youthfulness. Shame to those who would destroy a work of art--Mr. Pleuthner's inspiration and my dream.

CONNIE HENDERSON Scarsdale, N.Y.

No Man Is an Islander

Sir: Claims to "islander" status by mere residents of the island of Nantucket [July 26] seem to be at variance with the views of the real natives who are fond of a story that in essence runs as follows: A man was brought to the island from "overseas" (the nearby Massachusetts coast) when he was three months old. When he died there ninety-three years later, the inscription on his tombstone read: "Goodbye, Stranger."

G. N. TSANDOULAS

Stoneham, Mass.

Sir: Woe is me, woe is me.

Here comes Walter Beinecke.

The wharves are his,

The sidewalks too,

Most all the buildings, old and new.

Poor Nantucketers, once quite content,

Now see their island being spent.

One must wonder why they wail,

All they need say is "Not for sale!"

GRETCHEN T. DUCE Bay Shore, N.Y.

The Light Fantastic

Sir: Whoever it was that caught the "dizzy spell" suffered by Laurence Olivier during the filming of the National Theater's production of Strindberg's Dance of Death [July 19] missed the point (by a mile). The script not only "called for him to launch into an energetic dance," also required that he collapse as a result of the forced effort.

Evidently Sir Laurence's acting was more convincing that we thought or even he could have hoped.

DAVID PALMER Public Relations Officer National Theater London

Graven Idol

Sir: I was overcome with a fit of nostalgia to read that John Wayne was back winning the wars as a Green Beret [July 19]. I was never happy with him in all those westerns. Those shared hours at Wake Island-Guadalcanal-Bataan had created a vision of sweat-stained jungle kit, tin hat at a rakish angle and clenched teeth never to be forgotten.

I must own to a secret wish as a teen-ager that we British had been left in slightly direr straits so that Mr. Wayne would have perforce crept up our beaches and liberated our hamlets; what ecstasy the idea gave me! I shall see the film with all speed.

(MRS.) M. SULLIVAN

London

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