Vaccine Snafu

Sir:

I suggest that the article on the mishandling of the Salk vaccine, under the heading "Medicine" [May 16], would have been more appropriate under "National Affairs," "Business" or "Theater"--for obvious reasons. Should not the whole tragic circumstance point a moral--that medical problems be handled by the medical profession and not by pressure groups, large organizations with axes to grind, or politicians who are always willing to "rush in"?

R. K. BEHRNS, M.D. Mount Vernon, Wash.

Sir:

... Is it not ironical that a few supposedly "intellectually acclimatized" politicians are able, in a few short weeks, to make a shambles of the painstakingly thorough job of research Dr. Salk and his staff conducted during the vaccine trials ?

As an educator, I feel that we face one crisis greater than the shortage of scientific personnel; that is a surplus of politicians.

ARTHUR F. STOCKS Rockford, Iowa

Knight Life

SIR:

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR MAY 30 COVER STORY OF CALIFORNIA'S COLORFUL GOVERNOR GOODWIN KNIGHT. TIME FAILED TO MENTION, HOWEVER, THAT HIS HAMMY ANTICS ARE JUST INCIDENTAL TO THE FACT THAT HE IS THE MOST CAPABLE GOVERNOR IN THE 48 STATES.

HAROLD F. EBERLE PRESIDENT

OAKLAND YOUNG REPUBLICANS OAKLAND, CALIF.

SIR:

I DISAGREE WITH YOUR STORY ON THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN CALIFORNIA. THE STORY WAS COMPLETELY WRONG IN SAYING "KNOWLAND IS ... LEAST FAVORITE SON." SENATOR KNOWLAND HAS HELD MORE PUBLIC OFFICES AND PARTY POSITIONS THAN NIXON AND KNIGHT PUT TOGETHER. HE HAS BEEN AN OFFICEHOLDER LONGER AND BY FAR THE BEST VOTE-GETTER, INCLUDING THE CHIEF JUSTICE, IN OUR STATE'S HISTORY . . .

ROBERT HUBBELL PRESIDENT

UNIVERSITY YOUNG REPUBLICANS U.C.L.A. LOS ANGELES

Sin in Galveston

Sir:

What does Stockholm have that Galveston [May] doesn't have? Why not legalize all crime and make Galveston the cleanest city in the U.S.--with no crime rate at all! Who are the prudish moralists who dare to deny Texans the right to rape and murder?

ROBERT W. HAUBRICH Pittsburgh

SIR:

GALVESTON IS ONE OF THE MOST COLORFUL CITIES IN THE U.S. BUT CAN HARDLY BE LABELED "CITY OF SIN" IN TRUE SENSE OF WORD.

C. E. MCCLELLAND GALVESTON, TEXAS

Sir:

Rarely has an article aroused so much public criticism as "Sin & Sweden" . . .

I wonder whether the American readers ponder as much about "Sin in Galveston." Or is this different since "sin is good for business," and since it is a "biological necessity" for some places . . .?

HANS-MARTIN BURKHARDT Pforzheim, Germany

Sir:

The sin-loving residents of Galveston who justify licentious behavior by discarding the basic precepts of morality can only be pitied.

Their double-standard democracy based on materialistic philosophy might be welcomed by our Communist neighbors but not by a Government and society that believe in the integrity of Christianity.

BARBARA R. SMITH Omaha

Ovid at the Polo Grounds

Sir:

I was especially interested in your May 23 review of Rolfe Humphries' translation of the Metamorphoses to see that Mr. Humphries is the son of a onetime player for the New York Giants. Though Ovid might have been a fan too, I suspected some prejudice on the translator's part when I read his story of Tiresias:

And Juno

Was a bad loser, and she said that umpires

Were always blind, and made him so forever.

MARIE WILLETT Washington, D.C.

Monstrous Practice

Sir:

TIME is to be commended for the space given [May 23] to the statement of Judge Jerome Frank in the Santo Caminito case regarding illegal and brutal police methods.

The apathy of the public toward this monstrous practice ... is frightening . . . Not infrequently people, especially those who have neither money, family nor influence, are killed as a result of "interrogations" by savage or, at best, callous police officers who work as though they had a quota to fill; these deaths usually being reported as suicides or "due to natural causes" . . . We should turn at least some of our concern toward the two things that present the gravest danger to the preservation of our civilization: the bewilderment of our youth in a world they never made . . . and the widespread, arrogant, contemptuous and too often sanctioned brutality on the part of a segment of our police officers . . .

J. H. JENNINGS San Rafael, Calif.

A Relative Question

Sir:

The Protestant stand on the "brethren" of Jesus [May 23] is as amusing as it is illogical . . .

Carried to its proper conclusion, Our Lord would have come from a large family indeed, if we follow their interpretation that "brethren" signifies actual brothers and sisters: "Then was he seen by more than five hundred brethren at once: of whom many remain until this present, and some are fallen asleep." (1 Corinthians 15:6) . . .

J. L. MORGAN Denver

Sir:

Your article dealing with Jesus and His brethren is another crude example of how the Roman Catholic Church bases her questionable doctrines on weird assumptions and sinful speculations rather than on the revealed Word of God.

BEN E. VEGORS Pastor Bible Baptist Church Astoria, Oregon

Sir:

... If churchmen would love Mary more, and fight over her less, I believe it would please her. The whole controversy smacks of bad taste and childishness.

If the authors of Family Portrait call themselves Christians, they never should have written the play in the first place, as it is an insult to Catholicism. By complaining, Catholics likewise insulted the convictions of their brothers . . .

NANCY SMITH Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Balanced Diet

Sir:

In noting some recent remarks of mine about the rewards of reading [May 23], you seem to have opened a veritable sluice gate of correspondence . . . Many of those who wrote appear to think that I was denouncing television . . . This would put me in the unhappy position of the man who was allergic to his own liver . . . There are many programs on television today from which any man can draw profit and delight . . . My plea was for selective viewing and for that sort of balanced intellectual diet that would not forget the essential proteins and vitamins that can be found on the printed page and nowhere else . . .

FRANK C. BAXTER University of Southern California Los Angeles

Prose & Poetry

Sir:

If Hollywood is not already bidding for the "Dylan Thomas Story," it will be after your review, "The Legend of Dylan Thomas" [May 30].

Poets are read so little nowadays that a good movie about a great poet might let the public know that there is still magic in words . . .

JOHN K. MACKENZIE Golden Valley, Minn.

Sir: . . . Rarely have I read such a vivid delineation of an author--poet or otherwise ... I have long disliked "modern poetry" and have avoided it like a plague--prejudiced beforehand, I admit . . .

Thank you for giving a dyed-in-the-wool antimodernist a chance to reassess something she might have missed--and been sorry for later!

HARMON TYLER Cambridge, Mass.

Sir:

TIME'S persistent attempt to bring out something "new" about a well-known personality . . . has reached a low point in your reporting on Dylan Thomas. Surely it was unnecessary and uncalled for to state that he died of excessive alcoholism, even if it were true. You have encouraged thousands of people to buy his books for the wrong reasons . . .

DONALD DOUGHERTY Washington, D.C.

Sir:

The sight, sound, taste and perfume of your "Legend of Dylan Thomas" have a true splendor . . . How Poet Thomas would have enjoyed it ...

MARGO M. GILDEA San Francisco

The Congo

. . . Your readers should feel under an obligation for your excellent May 16 story on the Belgian Congo. In these days when Communism is seeking to dominate the world, this story is a successful illustration of how one nation is meeting its responsibility as a colonial power . .

A. F. HOFFSOMMER Harrisburg, Pa.

Sir:

Your story is, for the most part, an excellent summary of conditions in Belgian Congo . . . But Protestant missions also play a highly significant role there. At least 1,500 missionaries (more than half of them Americans) serve a rapidly growing Protestant Christian community numbering 1,600,000. One-third of all the pupils are enrolled in Protestant schools. Their medical centers gave over 5,000,000 treatments last year . . .

GEORGE W. CARPENTER Executive Secretary Division of Foreign Missions National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America New York City

Sir:

Allow me to congratulate you for your brilliant article on Belgian Congo. A few years ago I was lucky enough to go and work and get acquainted in the "timeless jungle" with those "dwarf antelope," and in "Black and White Leo" with those "highly trained business executives . . ."

C. R. DE LANNOY Isle Maligne, Que.

Tax Burden

Sir:

... I was offended by the illustration [May 16] of the 43.7 million taxpayers in the under $5,000 category. Such a healthy, strong and disgustingly carefree American I have never seen portrayed--in relation to taxpaying, that is. And such an oppressed, burdened and overweary Atlas was the 1.8 million group sharing the $10.2 billion load . . .

Don't let anybody be misled by the vigorous appearance of the lightly burdened 43.7 million. That average $205 is like blood out of a turnip. Quite often it's more than that. It's a matter of skimping on the milk bill and skipping a pediatrician's appointment. MRS. E. B. SHEARBURN JR. San Antonio

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