Two Amnesties: Ford's. . .

To the Editors:

Turkey attacking Cyprus. A U.S. ambassador assassinated. Greece abandoning NATO. One hundred twenty thousand coal miners on strike. Inflation killing the economy. And the President makes a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars supporting amnesty to deserters and draft dodgers. Ridiculous.

Richard Nidever Los Angeles

I was disappointed, but not surprised, at the reactions of various veterans' groups to President Ford's consideration of amnesty to draft evaders. We were outraged when the Germans did nothing to show their disapproval of Hitler's action against the Jews. And yet, when people of conscience refuse to participate in what they feel is a morally equivalent action, we condemn them.

Michael J. Stimson Chula Vista, Calif.

I see President Flivver has proposed that draft dodgers and deserters be allowed to work their way back into American society. I agree. May I suggest 20 years' hard labor with time off for good behavior, and for the men responsible for their plight may I suggest burning in hell forever?

Ben B. Cobb, M.D. Monroe, La.

... and Nixon's

When the words "leniency and mercy" appeared in President Ford's speech to the V.F.W., it was obvious that if he gave amnesty to the deserters and draft dodgers he could give immunity from any sentence Nixon might receive. A bad start for such an honest man.

(The Rev.) Henry Mason Evanston, Ill.

Amnesty for Nixon would weaken America's ability to protect itself from corrupt officials. If he is guilty he should be convicted of his crimes, not only to provide a deterrent example and emphasize that no man is above the law, but also so that historians can never portray him as a martyr hounded out of office by political enemies.

Amnesty for draft evaders would weaken the power of the country to draft in any future emergency. They refused to accept responsibility for their decisions. Perhaps if they had remained in this country and refused to serve, their public example would have shortened the Viet Nam War. As it was, they fled, abandoning their birthrights. They cannot now reclaim them.

Mike Simpson Cottondale, Fla.

To those who say we should prosecute Mr. Nixon, I say that the man is not an "ordinary" citizen. He has been subjected to the largest torrent of criticism and hate ever directed at one individual. We should not extend the Nixon family's agony. Mr. Nixon has had punishment enough.

Debbie Lathrop Canoga Park, Calif.

Damnable Lie

Your assertion that I was "distressed" over President Nixon's taped conversations of June 23, 1972, was a damnable lie. I reaffirm my unequivocal support of President Nixon, and I utterly disavow your suggestion that I found fault with his course of action.

Your habit of quoting comments that were never made again illustrates the media misconduct that the National Citizens' Committee for Fairness to the Presidency has been exposing. Your sorry tactics will only add fuel to the fire of public hostility against you.

Rabbi Baruch Korff National Citizens' Committee for Fairness to the Presidency Washington, D.C.

A Fundamental Soundness

The longer our Government lasts, the more stable it is. The recent events bolster my faith in it. I don't think any damage has been done, apart from the damage caused by lost time. Future Presidents will be very cautious about taking the law into their own hands.

When the events of these past weeks sink in, the people's mood is going to be "Thank God it's all over." But if the new Administration is unable to check inflation and people are suffering more and more from the rising cost of living, then they will think of that. It is a very dangerous situation, the kind of thing that might alienate large masses of people. Napoleon came in on top of the inflation caused by the French Revolution; Hitler, on top of inflation in Germany.

Nevertheless, I think that the U.S. is strong enough to resist anything like a coup. I do not say we will not have demagogues offering an easier way out. But I do not think they would be strong enough to upset the Government. There is a fundamental soundness.

Samuel Eliot Morison Cambridge, Mass.

The writer is a Pulitzer-prizewinning historian of the sea (Admiral of the Ocean Sea) and of the nation (The Oxford History of the American People).

"A triumph for the system"? Come off it. How can Americans be so exuberant over a triumph that has taken more than a year and cost colossal sums on nothing more than the replacement of a discredited head of government? Mightn't such a process more easily go in other Western parliamentary democracies? So the American system works. Splendid. So does a wooden plough.

A.J. Barnas Leiden, The Netherlands

A Surfeit of Godliness?

I am profoundly disturbed by all this "godliness" in our capital. Former President Nixon turned the White House into a chapel and look what happened.

President Ford, Senators Hatfield and Hughes, Congressmen Rhodes and Quie can do all the praying they wish in private, but I object to these religious exhibitionists' using public facilities for their sanctimonious antics. Our do-gooders have set up an unofficial "establishment of religion"--not any particular creed, but a conviction that God is an American and if our public servants will pray hard enough, wars, the energy crisis, inflation and other ills will take care of themselves.

Waldo Zimmermann Memphis

Domestic Details

David Broder's admonition to his fellow journalists to let the First Family live like people instead of public property deserves to be seconded. The press would surely accede if it felt the public was willing to do without all the Ford family's "intimate domestic details." Here's one of the public who is.

Linda R. Christenson Arlington, Va.

I'll promise not to tell you my mother's dress size if you'll promise not to tell me Betty Ford's.

Hanna Burger Mattawa, Wash.

"Dust" Serum

In your article, "Valley of Horrors," the reference to me is inaccurate and suggests that I am engaging in a practice of medicine that is below recognized standards. This is not the case.

First, the article says "According to the former head nurse, Esther Johnson Snow, another consultant, Dr. Sol Klotz of Orlando, Fla., told her to inject a student with his own urine as a test for allergy." I did not tell Mrs. Snow to do this, nor have I done so myself, nor have I advocated doing so.

Second, the article continues: "Klotz also made a serum of dirt, dust and other substances and told the nurses to inject it into students as an allergy treatment." When I treat a patient who has allergy problems, I use FDA approved sterile extracts made of dust, ragweed, air molds and other inhalant pollens that I have determined to be causing the condition. The use of the word dirt is both nonscientific and derogatory.

I am a specialist in allergy and clinical immunology who has practiced medicine since 1937, a member and past president of the Florida Allergy Society and the Southeastern Allergy Association, a Fellow of both the American Academy of Allergy and the American College of Allergists.

S.D. Klotz, M.D. Orlando, Fla.

Mrs. Snow did not state that Dr. Klotz ordered urine injections, and TIME regrets the error. She said: "Dr. Klotz ordered me to have students at Green Valley collect dirt and dust from the school grounds. From this, Dr. Klotz prepared a serum and instructed the nurses at his clinic to inject a small amount into every Green Valley student sent to him ..

The Cyclamate Ban

Dr. Jacqueline Verrett's version of what precipitated the cyclamate brouhaha of 1969-70 is not correct. Like other scientists, Dr. Verrett likes to think it was she who sank cyclamate.

Dr. Verrett's chick-embryo work, and the publicity she obtained for it, were not a factor in the decision to restrict, and later ban, the use of cyclamate in the U.S. An official of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, in explaining HEW'S action, said, "It has nothing to do with previous studies of the effect of cyclamates on chick embryos or on studies of rat chromosomes in tissue culture."

The restrictions came as a result of an Abbott-sponsored study in which a few rats fed vast amounts of a cyclamate-saccharin mixture, plus added cyclohexylamine (a breakdown product of cyclamate), showed some bladder tumors. Since that first study, other scientists have conducted studies on cyclamate in an attempt to duplicate those results. None of these studies show any cancer-causing effects from cyclamate. Although none of these studies were requested or paid for by Abbott, they are the studies that Abbott has submitted to the Food and Drug Administration to support its food-additive petition, which, if approved, would again permit the use of cyclamate in this country.

Yes, Dr. Verrett's book is outspoken. But it speaks nonsense. While Dr. Verrett acknowledges in her book that chick-embryo studies "should be considered in conjunction with tests on mammals," she fails to note that mammalian studies refute the teratogenic effects (birth defects) suggested by her work. The FDA and the National Academy of Sciences accept the more important mammalian studies as conclusive.

R. W. Kasperson Vice President Corporate Regulatory Affairs Abbott Laboratories North Chicago, Ill.

Tipper's Revenge

After reading "Tipper's Revenge," I felt I had to defend my sister and other waitresses. She is paid only 85-c- per hour. She greets her customers cheerfully, and checks back after their food is served to make sure things are all right. Yet I have never seen her come home with tips totaling more than 10% of business done.

When will someone form a "Waitresses' Revenge"?

Cindy Billisits Erie, Pa.

I just came in from my 5 p.m.2 a.m. waitress job for which I'm paid $1 an hour--plus tips, of course. What a night!

I ran my tail off. At times I wouldn't have felt like tipping me either. Some didn't. But man, there's no way I could possibly please 19 people at one time.

Now it looks like I'm the focus of the revenge of Tippers International. Well, I guess I'm the logical one. I'm the most visible, accessible link in the restaurant's organizational bureaucracy.

Johanna Fisher Roanoke, Va.

In Favor of the '50s

Count me among the admirers of Stefan Kanfer's Essays. But in "Back to the Unfabulous '50s," he has gone too far! When he says that "it was rather like taking a walk in a fog," he misses the point entirely.

The 1950s in the U.S. were as close as this nation is likely to come to happiness. There was a tranquillity (at least in my small Appalachian home town) that has not been matched, and won't be. There was a trust (unlocked doors, nighttime walks, gentle camaraderie) that has disappeared. And there was a social movement (the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, public schools desegregation) that was challenge enough for an entire nation.

The Silent Generation was as dopey a myth as any foisted on us. Adlai Stevenson, Paul Douglas, Harry Truman ... they may not have talked in gusts of 350 words a minute, but they spoke intelligently. Record one vote in favor of the '50s.

Reg Murphy Editor, The Atlanta Constitution Atlanta

Help for the Havasupai

Your story, "Indians and the Canyon," did not mention our major concern about the national parks: that the Havasupai tribe settled their claim to the Grand Canyon country in 1969. They were paid $1.24 million. Many other claims for national parks and national forests have been similarly settled. There are still claims for at least 18 other national parks. If one tribe can break its agreement, why cannot all?

I am uncomfortable in this position.

I also believe that Indians need assistance. But there simply are not enough lands in the national park system to right all the ancient wrongs. We can guarantee traditional use and access without turning over precious park land.

Brock Evans Director, Washington Office, Sierra Club Washington

Forum--Bore 'Em?

Forum--bore 'em.

I always poured a cup of coffee, settled at my desk, opened to Letters and had a delightful read. Now, instead of listening in on the untrammeled thoughts and wit of my fellow "otherwises" (your term), I must lend my mind to the dull mouthings of the "prominents," who dominate the section.

I miss the froth, the antics, the viewpoints, the meat (you can cut the letters of us otherwises to the bone with no complaint), and I gag on the lard of the prominents. The prominents have many forums; we don't.

I have to protest having the wild and green growth of opinions of people like me covered by concrete.

M.J. Carney Kankakee, Ill.

I couldn't help noticing the relish used in footnoting a couple of snob-appeal letters in your new Forum section.

If you see fit to print the opinion of a "writer," it is just as significant, important and as democratic to note the experience and occupation of a cotton-mill worker in South Carolina or cowboy in Wyoming as of a former Justice Department official or retired businessman.

John V. O'Neill Ware Shoals, S.C.

The writer describes himself as "an unemployed journalist, unpublished writer of fiction and sometime freelance writer of little note."

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