Hand to Mouth

Sir: Indeed, I admire President Eisenhower.

But I was surprised to see the President's hand over little David's mouth [Jan. 4]. In front of a public camera, I don't think that the great Calvin Coolidge would have cupped his hand over a child's mouth to prevent him from expressing mild gossip.

PAUL W. SCHNASE Twin Falls, Idaho Favorite Gals Sir: Two of my favorite "gals" made TIME [Dec. 28]: Grandma Moses, who causes the question to be asked, "Are you related to Grandma Moses?" (I'm somewhere on the family tree) ; the other -- Clementine Paddleford, who keeps me behind the range from morning to night.

MRS. H. E. MOSES Lafayette, Ind.

Grandma Moses is a great, even a fabulous personality. Just look at that life beaming from your cover portrait. But her paintings are trash. The boys in the galleries are having great fun cashing in on a lucky winner, while the "discriminating" collectors have nothing to lose but a few greenbacks for the ride. She is a sweet old lady, as you say, whom "no one could possibly have invtented" therefore that much more have in commercializable on a jaded, novelty-hungry public . . .

The issue is not at all whether hers is great art . . . but whether or not she is a great artist. I agree that she is ... There is greater value in painting a painting, to society as well as the artist, than there is in either the subsequent purchase or sale of it. The real question is: How can a great artist produce trash? Answer: lack of training or undeveloped skill.

R. S. BARRIO Alhambra, Calif.

Sir: Your article . . . refreshingly presents one of America's most interesting artists . . .

Grandma Moses has done much to bring good art into our national life ; she dispeis the myth that art is the province 01 the wealthy and the eccentric -- it belongs to all of us. Perhaps her greatest contribution is to show the value of creating. Although un trained, Grandma Moses has no need for numbered paints, but rather, paints what she feels . . . She serves as an inspiration in this age of tension and fear . . .

JONATHAN MARSHALL New York City Further Four-Letter Words Sir: Your Jan. 4 article about radio stations . . . sent me rummaging through lists ... I came up with what I was looking for -- a station I hope to visit some day: KNOX, Grand Forks, North Dakota.

ROBERT S. KNOX Rochester, N.Y.

Sir: . . . Why not come to Santa Barbara and get KIST? (Owned by Harry Butcher, former aide to General Dwight D. Eisenhower.)

FRANK ROWLEY Santa Barbara, Calif.

Sir: May schools' I add . . . those of the Wabash city schools' educational radio station WSKS? These call letters stand for Wabash School Kids' Station."

Pete Jones Wabash, Ind.

Royal & Friendly Feelings

Sir: . . . TIME should be congratulated for an excellent article [Dec. 28] on Queen Elizabeth's recent visit to the Friendly Islands.

Moreover, you should be lauded for devoting space to the gracious Queen Salote and her happy-go-lucky subjects.

I was stationed near the Tongan capital, Nukualofa, during the war. My artillery outfit was part of a task force consisting of Naval and Army units . . . and your fine account revived many pleasant memories.

Tonga was (and is) a soldier's paradise I recommend it as a haven to ... nonartistic escapists.

JAMES A. SPRUNGER Falls Church, Va.

SIR:

PROTEST NO MENTION OF THE ROYAL VISIT TO FIJI. THE COMMONWEALTH'S MOST LOYAL SUBJECTS GAVE IMPRESSIVE AND SINCERE WELCOME.

BOB HOWLETT FIJI VISITORS' BUREAU SUVA Extravagant Devotion? Sir: The Church of England Newspaper has labeled as "rank heresy" the implications it found in our Holy Father's prayer [com posed for the opening of the Marian Year --TIME, Dec. 28]. If the implications were true, it would be heresy. The Pope himself would be the first to denounce idolatry of Mary.

The Virgin Mary remains dear to the hearts of most Christians (well, some) and all Roman Catholics, who regard her as our strongest intercessor before God.

We attribute no divinity to Mary. Prayer for her intercession does not "transplant faith from Christ . . ." nor does it "displace the Third Person of the Trinity." Any Roman Catholic holding that it did would be liable to excommunication . . . The last paragraph of the article is not only unintelligent but a little degrading -- to accuse men who have dedicated their chastity to God of substituting in their imaginations the Virgin Mary "to occupy the place of a wife."

JOHN J. PHILLIPS, C.S.SP. Pittsburgh Sir: . . . The Virgin Mary is not a Freudian hook to hang a frustrated hat on. She simply is the Mother of God, and will, with her open arms, accept and receive even those who despise her, acting as Mediatrix, advocate and helper. As a lawyer, I know the value of a good advocate ; as a married Catholic man with a happy home life, I know the value of a good wife and helper; but ... a man still needs God, and without Mary there is no God the Son . . .

WILLIAM H. MAIER Rochester, N.Y.

Sir: Why must the Anglican publications lean so heavily upon the crutch of criticism of Rome -- especially if they do not have even an elemental understanding of Roman Catholic beliefs such as the place Mary occupies in Catholic dogma? . . . From some of their more recent railings, it seems their publications have degenerated into a hodgepodge of misguided attacks on certain facets of Catholic belief.

Why this unadorned negativism ? Why these attacks? Does it fill a hungry feeling for something a little more substantial than what they have ? . . .

JOHN B. DOUGHERTY Hibbing, Minn.

Sir:

This Anglican and a good many others repudiate wholeheartedly the vulgarities of the Church of England Newspaper ... If this publication had confined itself to a theological critique of Pope Pius' Marian Year prayer, noting how prayers couched in such terms seem to us to upset the balance of Christian devotion, we should have been in complete agreement . . . PROFESSOR EUGENE R. FAIRWEATHER Trinity College Toronto, Ont.

Sir:

... I accuse TIME of a calculated attempt to keep alive and foment religious discord and animosity . . . between Protestants and Catholics, and between Protestants and Protestants . . . This is tawdry and despicable . . .

(THE REV.) ROBERT J. MURPHY, C.S.P.

St. Andrews Church Clemson, S.C.

The Boy Who Read Dryden Sir: Your closing sentence in the Fraden murder story, "Harlow was reading Dryden" [TIME, Dec. 28], may or may not come to have classic rank with "Veni, Vidi, Vici" or "Damn the torpedoes," but it will have at least as much effect as your suggestion (after last year's election) that the "eggheads" voted readers' for respect for Stevenson, in intellectual undermining effort your and our cultural heritage.

I can see thousands of your readers saying: "Who is this guy Dryden? Has he ever been investigated?" Another few thousands "Thank heaven, I never wasted any time on Dry den!" And a few dozens: "Oh dear, perhaps I'd better give Milton instead next semester !" WILLIAM F. MARQUARDT Wichita, Kans.

Death of a Unionist Sir: Bully for you, for publishing the Rev.

Jack Hesketh's words at Jimmy Alcock's funeral [TIME, Jan. 4]. They should be en grossed on deathless parchment, and a framed copy presented to every legislator and judge in the land.

J. H. COMPTON JR.

Westfield, N.J. >> The Hidden Problem Sir: Your Dec. 28 Medicine Section makes a refreshingly clear and honest presentation of a difficult problem. Too long we have banished from society and thrown into prison the homosexual, rather than treating him as what he is: a medical problem. Too long have we blamed these helpless unfortunates for a personality that is not of their own making, but the natural result of their unhappy home life. Thanks to Dr. Kinsey, and the lifting of taboos on discussing the subject, we are making progress . .

It ill befits civilized people to relegate the sexual deviate to the unhappy position of the outcast and the criminal . . . Articles such as yours will go a long way to help us face the problem squarely and thereby to assist the unfortunate individuals caught . . . in the mesh of their own emotions . . .

HERBERT L. CAMERON Charlottesville, Va.

Overstreet on Deck Sir: Thank you for your report, in your issue of Dec. 21, on the recent experience of my wife and myself in Tucson, Ariz. We do feel that we were able to carry through our work there unsinged by the flames of the "burning deck" and reassuringly warmed by the support of press and public . . . Out of fairness to Congressman Velde and his com mittee, we are trying to keep straight the fact "cleared" that by we his were letter not, to in us. any The legal commit sense, tee, as we understand it, is not set up with any authority to give anyone a technically definitive "clearance." What we had from Mr. Velde was a letter to the effect that a sworn affidavit which we had voluntarily provided, because we wanted to straighten out once for all any ambiguities about certain tenuous "affiliations" of years past, was acceptable to the completion of committee the as a record . . "clarification." Again, to say that we personally received a citation from the California American Legion for our anti-Communist activities rather overstates the case. The citation was given to a radio series ... to which I contributed, thus I was included within the citation -- but it was not to me personally.

Perhaps I ought to hang my head a little and make yet one more qualifying remark: Some of my vague "affiliations" with groups whose Communist tie-up or Communist leanings I learned about later were scattered here and there through the 1940s; not all were as long ago as the 1930s. My wife, by the way -- as Mr. Velde has reported to us --has never been listed by the committee at all, and I do not think that any member of the Legion in Tucson claimed that she had been. Her "crime&" is that of associating with me ! H. A. OVERSTREET Mill Valley, Calif.

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