What a Piece of Work!

Sir: The Moon--Shakespeare epitomizes this wondrous feat in those famous lines from Hamlet: "What a piece of work is a man! . . . how infinite in faculty ... in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god!"

GURNEY McCASLAND JR. San Gabriel, Calif

Sir: For the first time since creation itself, man stands upon another world, looks to the future and says: "This is a human place."

JAMES SAKLAD Houston

Sir: Walking on the moon seems pretty important to us right now. We had to do it, of course. But for quite a while, most of us have known, deep down inside, that man is universal--eternal, too. Finally we have a little physical evidence of it.

CLARK SLADE Columbus

Sir: Within the lifetime of one generation, science has realized and overpassed every age-old dream of humanity to which it has applied itself. Why are we so reluctant to use science to achieve a longer and healthier life; maybe to live for centuries, so that we can see all the wonders that we so glibly talk about? Who can say today that we could not do it?

STEVEN LUNZER, M D. Duke Medical Center Durham, N.C.

Sir: Unless we blow our chance, the landing of Americans on the moon might signal more than the dawning of a new era in just a scientific sense. This great day has united the human spirit and merged past dreams with present actuality,

Let us hope that politics can be surmounted both on earth and in space, Now is our chance to avoid a "space race" or "spaceship gap" What reasons can we give for not cooperating in the building of space stations, the staffing of research bases and the exciting exploring of stellar frontiers? (Sigh) No doubt we'll think of some.

FOREST GRIEVES Assistant Professor Department of Political Science Western Illinois University Macomb

Sir: Humanity is faced with three major problems. No. 1 is how to control the burgeoning population of our species. When we solve that, we may have a chance to lick No. 2--the eradication of hunger. Once that is accomplished, there is a possibility we might move on to No. 3--elimination of war.

When we get down to about No. 649 on the list, we can begin to indulge in space exploration.

RICHARD T. WALNUT Mount Holly, NJ,

Sir: Let me remind those persons who are beating their breasts about the money spent on the moon landing instead of on poverty and city slums that, had Isabella waited to clean up the slums of Palos, Columbus would never have discovered the Western Hemisphere. And that voyage did more to alleviate the suffering of the world's poor than anything that had come before it.

So let us not prejudge this first step into the new frontier.

MARY EVADENE MALONE Bel Air, Md.

Sir: Will someone please tell me which doddering, bumbling generation, what archaic educational system, and whose capitalistic tax dollars managed to put those men up among the stars?

ELDRED BROWN Big Timber, Mont.

Sir: From your predictions on the potential use of the moon, it seems that the moon could become merely a new addition to earth's commercial schemes. We are so damn practical. We always have to ring up a sale for everything.

I can just see Howard Hughes right now, cooking up a fantastic vacation for two to the newest resort--Lunar Las Vegas.

Can we ever explore without exploiting? Right now the lunar virgin is fertile soil for extensive scientific research. Let's leave it that way and, for once, be anti-utilitarian.

DOUG DEVRIES Gettysburg, Pa,

Sir; Even in the face of America's many social, political and economic ills, I can feel nothing but pride and gratitude toward a nation that will enable my children's children to abandon earthly strife in search of better worlds. I am only sorry that the generation of men and women who are making interplanetary travel a reality will themselves be confined to the boundaries of Mother Earth, thanks to Father Time.

MOLLY MACK Portland, Ore

Sir: May I be the first to nominate your Men of the Year, 1969: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins.

CAROL H. TORTORELLO Mount Prospect, Ill.

Matter of Perspective

Sir: You support the accusation of the Chilean Foreign Minister that "Private investments have meant and mean today for Latin America that the amounts that leave our continent are many times as high as those invested in it" [July 11].

Do the honorable gentleman and you expect investment to exceed ultimate dividends? In any event, the amount that leaves the", area is peanuts compared with what stays behind for payrolls, taxes, purchases of local supplies and services, etc. Let's keep the problem in its proper perspective.

J. S. VANDERPLOEG Toronto

Erroneous Impression

Sir: Having just read your article on Nixon's upcoming visit to Asia [July 25], I am distressed to see that both the article and the accompanying photograph give the erroneous impression that General Praphas Charusathien is Thailand's head of government. The Prime Minister of Thailand is, of course, General Thanom Kittikachorn. General Praphas is Deputy Premier and Minister of the Interior.

HUGH D. S. GREENWAY TIME-LIFE Bureau Chief Bangkok

> Our apologies for the implication. We did not intend to convey that General Praphas is head of government but simply that he is an important Asian statesman.

Mayor Malaprop

Sir: Here are two more Mayor Daleyisms [July 18], told to me years ago by a member of his city council at that time: He told about being with Dr. Paul Dudley White and riding a tantrum bicycle with him. He spoke about the garbage situation here in Chicago and said that the refuge collection was going along well.

KATHLYN ANDLER Chicago

Sir: Was it not Mayor Daley, master of the paraphrase, who also said, "Progress is our most impotent project?"

JOHN L. WEST JR. First Lieutenant, U.S.A.R. North Truro A F S , Mass.

Late Returns

Sir: Your account of the Irish elections [June 27] gave disproportionate space to my candidature but neglected to mention the relevant fact that I was elected.

CONOR CRUISE O'BRIEN Dublin

Here Are the Villains

Sir: Why do researchers make such a confounded mystery of modern man's deteriorated capacity for interceding in the affairs of his neighbors [July 18]? Any adult over 30 knows most of the answers. The obvious villains are civilization, urbanization and specialization. Since the disappearance of the frontier, we have become a race of emasculated, unarmed, untrained, helpless nonfighters, who live in a "packaged" mass-media dream world and have been brainwashed to leave the dirty work to trained professionals: police, doctors, lawyers, soldiers, firemen, plumbers, etc. We have seen too many heroes and do-gooders get shot, knifed, beaten, insulted, embarrassed, inconvenienced --and would you believe sued--to have much stomach to intrude into the lives and crises of that mixed bag, the urban and unwashed public. Unless the role of the good Samaritan receives the full honor and protection of our laws, customs and mores; until young Americans are re-taught honorable self-defense and the morality of involvement, our streets will be unsafe.

ROBERT C. CURREY Larchmont, N.Y.

Numbers Game

Sir: The figures quoted from the National Transportation Safety Board on the relative safety of riding big airlines v. little airlines [July 18] appear impressive at first glance: the "bigs" kill only .25 people per 100 million passenger-miles while the "littles" kill 7.65 people per 100 million passenger-mi les.

We can make a ridiculous example of the Safety Board's statistics by converting their figures to fatalities per 1,000,000 flights. We can say, within reason, that the average flight for the bigs nets 50,000 passenger-miles and that the average flight for the littles nets 100 passenger-miles. The bigs then fly 2,000 flights for 100 million passenger-miles, and the littles fly 1,000,000 flights for 10 million passenger-miles. The bigs are therefore killing 125 people per 1,000,000 flights while the littles are killing only 7.65 people per 1,000,000 flights.

Accordingly, any fool can plainly see that the U.S. trunk and regional carriers are dangerous to ride and that the commuter and taxi services are safe to ride.

I. D. QUILLIN Camp Springs, Md.

License Revoked

Sir: "The Sex Explosion" article [July 11] revealed the childish and unsophisticated attitude of many people today regarding sex. Preoccupation with sex goes hand in hand with advanced civilization. Actually it is one of the facets of permissiveness. When the Roman Empire really got ripe with decadence and permissiveness, the emperors themselves practiced extreme licentiousness, including incest.

Even savage tribes, and in fact the lower animals, have strict sex regulations. This is necessary, as human experience has demonstrated. Now we have partially educated smart alecks who seem to feel that they have discovered sex. Their cry for emancipation from what they term prudery shows their stupidity and lack of anthropological perspective. We don't need more license; we need more common sense, restraint and decency.

PAUL A. H. DE MACARTE Dublin

Sir: Your fig leaf cover carries the encouraging business note that even if the movement toward disrobing finally catches us all, there will still be a useful purpose and market for the products of Textron's Talon division.

R. S. EISENHAUER Vice President Textron Providence

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