The Roar of the Crowd

Sir: It must have taken something more than editorial candor to include the Essay on black magic in the same issue as a leading story on George Wallace [Sept. 27]. The increased attraction to irrational solutions to our current social problems so prevalent among the American electorate this year is nowhere greater than in the supporters of Wallace. It makes me shudder to think that a politician with his lack of originality could draw such a sizable following. Or perhaps 13.5 million adult Americans can't be wrong. Perhaps, as I enter the voting booth this November, I should close my eyes tightly and cry "Om!"

DOUGLAS STEVENS Pomona, Calif.

Sir: It is no more a sin to be born a white-skinned Southerner than it is for a Negro to be born black; to be called names as a result of our origin is an insult.

George Wallace is not a racist. He is a man who is determined to put our country back on its feet, and has the guts to step on toes that need stepping on.

If "Southern racist" is the only card people have to play against Mr. Wallace, they are losing the game. I expect to see him become our next President because the people of this nation know that calling a man a dirty name doesn't make it so.

MRS. M. E. ANGLIN Montgomery, Ala.

Sir: Thank you for the picture of George Wallace at Lincoln's tomb in Illinois. Nothing could more clearly point out the contrast between demagoguery and statesmanship than a study of those two faces.

CAROL VAN NOYES Three Lakes, Wis.

Sir: I would like to appeal to those well-meaning citizens who support Mr. Wallace to consider the following slogan: "Remember Hitler--Forget Wallace!" It makes sense.

DAVID B. WEROLIN San Mateo, Calif.

Sir: "A vote for George Wallace will in fact be a vote wasted."

I have voted many times for the losing candidate, but never have I considered my vote wasted. It has always counted as one vote for the man for whom I voted. There is one country where there are no wasted votes. Is TIME advocating that we hold our elections as they do in the Soviet Union?

T. BYRNE CARSTENS New Iberia, La.

Sir: Wallace may "tell it like it is," but his distorted views certainly do not represent "the way it oughta be." In short, rather than symbolizing rational solutions to the nation's problems, George Wallace serves as a genuine example of what is troubling American society.

JAMES HAIG Plymouth Meeting, Pa.

Sir: Aware of the current presidential campaigns, we feel that an amendment to the last line of our Pledge of Allegiance should be considered. It would read, "one nation, under God, indivisible, with law and order for all."

MR. AND MRS. GARY J. QUIGLEY Syracuse

Sir: Some people say that when Nixon and Agnew speak of law and order they are using code words for racism. I would like to suggest a phrase that is clear and unambiguous: "Equal Justice Under Law," These immortal words are chiseled in marble on the Supreme Court. But I forgot; Nixon doesn't like the Supreme Court and what it stands for.

CONNIE L. ROOP Falls Church, Va.

Sir: The wave of conservatism you say is making the election of Nixon very likely is appalling. No conservative nation in history has survived. Indeed, our mother country, England, died of it; there is no reason to think we are any different. The voters of 1968 may well go down in history as having preserved the state while destroying the nation.

MICHAEL A. POWE Seattle

Sir: Thank you for your sympathetic report on Hubert Humphrey. I should like to be counted for him.

WILL DURANT Los Angeles

Sir: Let it be known to the world that this faithful reader has made an epochal invention, the minus vote. In addition to the plus vote that every voter already has to vote for a candidate, he will now be given a minus vote to be used against a candidate. At the election, the total of a candidate's minus votes will be deducted from that of his plus votes. In this way, if a voter cannot favor any candidate, he can at least cast a ballot against the one he likes least. Too bad this solution comes too late for the November election.

HAROLD W. STRAUB Bethesda

Sir: The most tragic thing about the presidential campaign is that everything Nixon, Humphrey and Wallace say about Wallace, Nixon and Humphrey is true!

STEPHEN SHEAN Moline, Ill.

Spirit of the Man

Sir: Sincerest congratulations on your article about Russian Novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn [Sept. 27] and the plight of Russia's present generation of outstanding authors. Even under the most onerous of conditions the human spirit is capable of producing artistic works of outstanding merit. I hope that articles such as this one will help alert Westerners to the current deplorable situation in the U.S S R. and give a better understanding of the indomitable Russian spirit.

(SP5) MICHAEL E. AGNES U.S.A. Goodfellow A F.B., Texas

Sir: Your article on Alexander Solzhenitsyn was particularly enlightening. Wittingly or unwittingly, your writer pointed up the essential realities of this day.

Contrary to the Communist and Western myths, the struggle of the 20th century is not East v. West, Communism v. the Free World, Democracy v. enslavement, "people's paradise" v. "capitalist imperialism," but the intelligentsia and oppressed against the worldwide Establishment, liberty and freedom v. suppression. The differences between the Soviet's suppression of literature and "normalization" of Czechoslovakia, Peking's Cultural Revolution, and the Wallace-Nixon-Daley concept of law and order are very slight. Their purposes are the same: the suppression of dissent and meaningful dialogue, and the expunging of opposition.

With such intellectual cretinism and moral depravity ruling this world, it is a bleak future we face.

WILEY NEWBOLD Fribourg, Switzerland

Challenge in the Chair

Sir: Your article, "Academe's Exhausted Executives" [Sept. 27], left me with feelings of mixed emotions. Their frustration is understandable. Someone has realistically said that a college president constantly walks a picket fence, not knowing when he will fall and be impaled. The dangers of the job and the limitless hours it demands have always existed. But when students protest against war, racism and poverty, they expouse concerns which are basic to our existence. Our task becomes that of channeling their convictions into constructive action. As one who has sat in the chair for 25 years, I contend that the opportunities of the hour far outweigh its sacrifices and offer an exciting challenge unequaled in the past.

WEIMER K. HICKS President Kalamazoo College Kalamazoo, Mich.

Objection Upheld

Sir: Re your story on the two recent balls in Portugal and Soraya's comment on them, I would like to transmit to you the feeling--as a reader and subscriber-that TIME can err as an unusual consequence of work, but should apologize whenever necessary for the errors, especially if personal images are involved. It is a fact that Soraya did not attend any of the parties, and I'm afraid TIME can't be sure of her having made the referred-to statement. So, TIME should loyally apologize, and not just "note the demurrer."

ARMANDO F. MARQUES Cascais, Portugal

> TIME agrees, and apologizes to Princess Soraya.

Measure for Measures

Sir; Referring to your article "A Severe Case of Angst in Europe" [Oct. 4]. I should like to state that the events in neighboring Czechoslovakia and particularly the presence of Warsaw Pact troops in that country have understandably received utmost attention by the Austrian government. But I would like to make it absolutely clear that at no instance and from no quarter whatsoever any threats have been uttered against Austria which would have justified fears as to an eventual violation of Austrian neutrality. The measures taken by the Austrian government during the present crisis were primarily designed to maintain order and security at the common frontier with Czechoslovakia. It has never been envisaged to move the government from Vienna to any other place.

For the sake of accuracy, I should like to add that Austria's status of permanent neutrality is not based on the State Treaty of 1955 as you mention in your article. Our neutrality has its foundation in a constitutional act of the Austrian Parliament which was passed in October 1955.

DR. KURT KREJCI Press Attache Austrian Embassy Washington, D.C.

Market Uplift

Sir: No wonder the hordes of Wall Street throb over Francine Gottfried [Sept. 27]. She is an obvious drug to their subconscious qualms about depression. With their incessant search for affluence they're bound to discover that Mother Nature owns a few shares.

ERIK M. TEN KATE Somerset West, South Africa

Sir: Now really! Women and girls of Francine's proportions are so commonplace over here in Deutschland that it's the 34-24-35 figure that causes the males to do a double take.

ELIZABETH S. POTTER Morfelden, Germany

Never-Readies

Sir: Re your article "They'd Rather Sue Than Fight" [Sept. 27]: the U.S. Army should file a countersuit against the reservists who refuse to ship out. The charge? For openers, why not try fraud?

Certainly, these wretched excuses for soldiers have misrepresented themselves to the Army not only as "ready" reservists but as responsible citizens. The only ready thing about them was their acceptance of a monthly check and the protection from the draft offered by the reserves. In return, they put in a token tour of active duty and promised to serve if called. Now they have decided that they'd rather bitch than fight.

WARREN R. STANDLEY Captain, U.S.A.R. North Coventry, Conn.

Make It Human

Sir: I am interested in a statement in your review of NBC's Julia [Sept. 27]: "Some of Julia's problems are black, but her aspirations and life-style are white." Are a woman's efforts to practice in her profession, provide for her son and live in a pleasant apartment "white aspirations?" Really. I prefer to think of these as human aspirations.

PATRICIA OUIMETTE Washington, DC,

Directionally Directed Directive

Sir: Talk about Baffle-Gab [Sept. 13]. By your simplistic application of minimized provisional specifics, along with your cavalier use of inverted postural approximates, you have openly committed yourselves to quantitative fiscal polarization. This is wrong. Very wrong. Anyone with even the flimsiest knowledge of America's monetary feasibility potential will tell you that our very own directionally directed directives are much in line with Red China's tactical orientation machinery.

In short, you are guilty of ignoring the classically recurrent unilateral stability factor. This is patently ridiculous!

SHELLEY HERMAN Beverly Hills, Calif.

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