Hollow Ring

Sir: In response to Margaret Chase Smith's "Call to Center" [June 15]: It is sad that an overwhelming majority of Americans don't believe that:

Trespass is trespass--whether in the U.S. or abroad.

Violence is violence--whether in the U.S. or abroad.

Arson is arson--whether in the U.S. or abroad.

Killing is killing. Period.

I'll bet Senator Smith's words would ring a little hollow in the ears of several thousand Cambodians or Vietnamese.

ROBERT L. BANKS Los Angeles

Sir: We cannot continue to send American young men to other countries--either uninvited or invited by a government that probably does not represent the majority of the people--to commit violence against those people, to burn down their homes and to kill them, without the young beginning to wonder how adults in power can prate moralistically about trespass, violence, arson and killing.

(MRS.) JANIS D. COOLEY Rochester, N.Y.

Good News Is No News?

Sir: You seemed to imply that Vice President Agnew was a bit naive, to put it mildly, for taking Wanger's note seriously and actually believing that he wanted to publish a newspaper consisting only of "good news" [June 15].

However, the idea of publishing such a newspaper is not as laughable as Mr. Wanger might think. It has been tried here in Colorado. The Colorado Graphic published only good news. No crime. No wars. Just news about people who were taking positive action to solve some of the seemingly overwhelming problems that confront us today.

Unfortunately, the Colorado Graphic folded after only about four months of publication. I guess there isn't much of a market for good news.

CYNTHIA MORGAN Boulder, Colo.

Testimony to Attitudes

Sir: It is sickening testimony to the attitudes of many Southern whites that a running-scared George Wallace [June 15] can resort to overt racist scare tactics and win an election from a man with the capabilities and stature of Albert Brewer. This malignant politics of hate has no place in any public office.

ROGER F. MOXON Detroit

Day Without Pay

Sir: In describing the construction workers' rally to support the President, you claim that the workers attended the rally "at full pay" [June 1].

I attended the rally on that day, and I enclose the voucher stub for my paycheck. As you can plainly see, I received no pay for that day. Furthermore, none of my co-ironworkers were paid for that day either, and we were well aware of the fact that we wouldn't be paid before we went.

KEVIN O. BRENNAN Island Park, N.Y.

P:K TIME did not mean to imply that all marchers were paid; many were.

Exposed Nerve

Sir: Where can the nerve gas be stored? On Guam, says TIME [June 8], "out of sight and out of mind!"

We may be out of sight, but your 100,000 soulmates on this 30-by-7-mile rock in the Pacific have arms, legs and nerves as tender as yours. And out of mind we'll not be for long if any attempt is made to store the nerve gas on Guam. A howl of protest would be heard from Agana to Washington D.C. And is this how America treats her country cousins who suffered torture and death at the hands of the Japanese in World War II, and who are dying in the jungles of Viet Nam today to preserve the American way of life?

Guam has been called the window of American democracy in the East. But with the U.S. Navy's present attempts to condemn the most valuable part of the island, upon which the people depend for economic development, and the proposals to store the nerve gas in our backyards, Guam should more accurately be identified as the showplace of American military aggression in the western Pacific.

AUDREY W. CAMBA Agana, Guam

Just an Acting Hackie

Sir: Your otherwise excellent story on Mike Nichols [June 15] contains a slight misstatement of fact. The producer Saint

Subber is quoted as saying that Nichols cast a real cab driver in the phone man's part in Barefoot in the Park and that the cab driver, Herb Edleman, became an actor as a result.

Having been a friend of Mr. Edleman's in college, I can vouch for the fact that he was a professional actor when Nichols cast him and, like so many other thespians (myself included, at one time), drove a cab to make ends meet.

SAMUEL L. LEITER Brooklyn

Sir: The famous-name game devised by Mike Nichols asks the intriguing question, "Do you think Natalie Wood?" I think Elaine May.

In turn, there are some salient questions for Mr. Nichols. Is Sara Allgood? Is Shirley Temple Black? Is Linda Christian? Moreover, does Elisha Cook? If so, is Irene Dunne? Isn't Bobby Darin? Why must Fredric March? Isn't Victor Mature?

Finally, do you know where Larry Parks? Is Ann Sothern? Is Dame May Whitty? Is Cornel Wilde? Isn't Billy Wilder? Is Teresa Wright? What did Keenan Wynn? Isn't Loretta Young?

LEO F. SCHNORE Professor of Sociology University of Wisconsin Madison, Wis.

Victorian Gimcrackery

Sir: Your article on the American artist Charles Burchfield [June 15] was of great interest to me, as I am a native Salemite (Ohio) and knew the Burchfield family.

Also, I knew the Baptist church tower, theme of the artist's Church Bells Ringing, Rainy Winter Night. That church tower was a masterpiece of Victorian gimcrackery. It was so downright, honestly ugly that, like George Arliss, it was positively beautiful. The sound of its bell, to paraphrase Poe, was "In the startled ear of night/ How it screamed out its affright!" I think that old tower perhaps may have had a soul, and Burchfield, like William Blake, was able to commune with such spirits.

In the latter days of its existence, the tower got rather grandiose ideas and started to assume the same posture as its friend in Pisa. The Salemites, not so tolerant or brave as the Pisans, had the poor old thing razed, and its tenants went to Post's Woods to live, from where at dusk Charles often "fled in terror of mysterious presences."

ALBERT ALLEN Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

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