Nods & Becks

Sir:

Did John Milton (1608-74) in L' Allegro foretell the events in the Senate investigation of Dave Beck and racketeering in the labor unions?

Quips and cranks, and wanton wiles, Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles.

RUSSELL S. DOZER Greencastle, Ind.

Sir:

Beck and Hoffa are proof that the worker is still a peon to the union, and that the politician is far from a true American in allowing him to be exploited.

GEORGE MUNSON Garden City, N.Y.

Sir:

Teamsters can vote. Perhaps this is the cause of the disaster. Maybe enough of them haven't voted in the past.

RALPH F. CUSHMAN North Hollywood, Calif.

Sir:

They'll wonder where their money went If they re-elect Beck for president.

BENEDICT WOLFE Seattle

The Bird & the Watchers

Sir:

Since the future of our country lies in the capabilities of dynamic men like Air Force Major General Ben Schriever, I read with extreme interest your April 1 cover story. The Atlas ICBM will be successful for the simple reason that Ben Schriever and his associates possess a fighting will to win.

ROBERT J. KILEY Arlington, Mass.

Sir:

How about a missile (missal?) loaded with an anti-warhead of tranquilizing pills (or gas) appropriately named U4EA?

HYMAN SEIDEN Far Rockaway, N.Y.

Sir:

Your splendid article about Missileman Bernard Schriever is most inspiring and comforting for the free world -- in case trouble comes.

NILS B.. JOHANSSON Stockholm

Torture in Algeria

Sir:

I have just read your April 1 eye opener about France's barbarous activities in Algeria. It is disgusting that we are forced to ally ourselves with France against the free world's common enemy, Communism.

ARTHUR H. WESTING New Haven, Conn.

Sir:

The Communists used torture methods, or rather civilized torture methods, to make their "enemies" confess. The French torture methods on suspect Arabs in Algeria are worse, for they go back to the Middle Ages. There is no excuse for such tactics. France is a so-called Christian country--or is it?

MAY MANSOOR Dalton, Ga.

Frosting on the Quake

Sir:

Your fine coverage [April 1] of our earthquake helped to put us San Franciscans in a unique position: we can have our quake and read it too.

DON WARD San Francisco

The Billboard Battle

Sir:

Concerning your April 1 article on highway signs: 9,408 Maryland motorists may be against billboards qua billboards, but they are glad to see an "eat" sign when hungry, and a "motel" sign when tired. Most studies show distractions keep motorists alert on long drives, and parkways without signs are the deadliest.

JOSEPH T. ORCHARD Texarkana, Texas

Sir:

Cannot the voice of the people be heard by our lawmakers? A defeat of the Neuberger bill [calling for federal controls over billboards] will be another victory for the powerful lobby of national outdoor advertising. This interstate highway system will be another line in the aging face of America.

KATHERINE DARDEN LINDSAY Norfolk, Va.

Orpheus Ascending

Sir:

The picture accompanying your April 1 review of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending mistakenly labels Robert Loggia as Cliff Robertson. Robert Loggia was originally cast in the male lead and stayed in the Williams opus throughout the Philadelphia run.

BARBARA P. JAKOBSON New York City

Sir:

Inasmuch as I replaced the male lead prior to the New York opening, I suppose it's only poetic justice that he replace me in TIME'S picture.

CLIFF ROBERTSON New York City

P: TIME mistakenly used a picture of the play taken during an out-of-town tryout. For the Broadway Orpheus, see cut.--ED.

Inside the Heart

Sir:

Permit me to congratulate TIME, March 25, for its fine presentation and accurate and graphic reporting on our Dr. Bailey. He is an active member of our surgical staff, has performed several of his most recent heart operations here. He is a modest man, friendly too, and is admired and respected by his fellow staff members as well as our entire hospital family. We are grateful to TIME for telling the world about him in so grand a manner.

WM. H. MORRISON Administrator West Jersey Hospital Camden, N. J.

P: For further news of Surgeon Bailey, see below.--ED.

Death of a Man

Sir:

It was not Lael Wertenbaker's magnificent and moving Death of a Man that I found "painful and embarrassing." It was TIME'S review [April 1], reeking as it did of religiosity and rancor.

FRED RODELL New Haven, Conn.

Sir:

Your review of this book is disgustingly presumptuous. Wertenbaker didn't make it, says TIME'S Last Judgment Department, because he didn't see his "responsibility to God." What God? And much more to the point, who the hell is TIME to tell anyone what makes a good or a bad death ?

NAT HENTOFF New York City

Sir:

Thank you for your excellent criticism of Death of a Man. After reading this soul-baring book, I reached the same conclusions as did your critic. As active Methodist farmers, we thought our idea would be laughed at in more sophisticated circles, but we were glad to see that not all the clever TIME men are iconoclasts.

MRS. L. R. STREET Rupert, Idaho

Sir:

Congratulations on your very understanding review and on the way you have picked up the discrepancy between the way people feel and the way they think they should feel. Mrs. Wertenbaker and her husband actually were two little children playing house; they were totally unable to face the facts of the real world, in which death, and painful death, exists. I myself faced certain death from the closing of my aortic valve about three years ago. Through the miracle of modern cardiac surgery (performed by Dr. Charles Bailey) I was saved, but both my wife and I looked upon me as a dying man. I made no clever remarks; my friends said no witty things, though I published a book about it. My wife, who knows me very well, would not dare write what she thinks I thought.

GEORGE LAWTON New York City

P: Reader Lawton described his experiences--before and after heart surgery--in his book Straight to the Heart.--ED.

Sir:

This is to express my gratitude for a beautiful piece of writing--the review of Death of a Man. It is more than a review. It is a brilliant indictment of a hollow, barren approach to courage. I have reread it until I am convinced that it is perfect

BETTE CONROY Park Forest, Ill.

Switched Figures

Sir:

Your April 8 Press section refers to the "Seattle Times (circ. 190,789) and Hearst's Post-Intelligencer (circ. 208,224)." A bit of checking will reveal that you have switched the circulation figures. Come now, you know that the Times is Seattle's leading daily.

JOHN A. BLETHEN Vice President Seattle Times Seattle, Wash.

Help for Hildy

Sir:

Massachusetts, with its current persecution of the Ellises, is back in the Middle Ages. This kind and loving couple are threatened like ordinary criminals because they are Jews and had the temerity to adopt (in good faith) the child of an unwed Roman Catholic mother. Are we really in America, or is the ghost of Hitler now dominating the state's legal and ecclesiastical counsels?

LEONARD MONZERT West Newton, Mass.

Sir:

There are many Jewish orphans looking for a home. When people marry or adopt children, they should stick to their own religion.

EDWARD L. CLARKE The Bronx, N.Y.

Sir:

I trust Marjorie McCoy was as particular in asking the religion of Hildy's father. She should thank her God, whom I hope she will permit the Ellises to worship, that Hildy was lucky enough to be raised by two human beings who know what the word parent means.

PAT KELLOGG Los Angeles

Sir:

As a classmate of Marjorie McCoy, I am shocked and disgusted at her actions to take Hildy away from the Ellises.

M. N. SCOTT Santa Clara, Calif.

Sir:

As a parent of an adopted daughter the same age as Hildy, I cannot conceive of any law which could properly justify removing this child from the custody of the people who are as much her parents as they would be had she been born of their own flesh. If the authorities are serious about their responsibility to place a child with persons whose faith is the same as that of the natural mother, then they should know that the opportunity to do so in this case is past.

GEORGE D. ALLEY Minister Suffolk Christian Church Suffolk, Va.

Sir:

May I express the hope--which I know is shared by many others--that the Florida courts will help Mr. & Mrs. Ellis to keep the little girl Hildy. This child's life might easily be ruined if she is taken away from these people who love her, and whom she loves.

MADOLIN CERVANTES New York City

Thou Shalt Not

Sir:

Your April 1 article on the Rev. Robert Gingery, the Methodist minister who killed the bank robber, says he "made his peace with God and with the Fifth Commandment." I think you have your commandments mixed, as the Fifth is "Honor thy father and thy mother." I think you should have said Sixth, which says "Thou shalt not kill."

MARION RICHARDS Liberty Hill, S.C.

P: Various faiths place the same Commandments in different groupings and sequence. Most Protestants (main exception: Lutherans) consider the command to worship no gods before God the first, and the prohibition of graven images, the second. The Roman Catholics combine these two as the first. The Protestants' third to ninth correspond respectively to the Roman Catholic second to eighth, making "Thou shalt not kill" fifth for Catholics (and Lutherans), sixth for most Protestants. For Roman Catholics, the ninth forbids coveting one's neighbor's wife, the tenth his property. Protestants combine these two as the tenth.--ED.

Sir:

The action of the Rev. R. W. Gingery in saving his own life is typical of a minister of religion. They all preach of the wonders of heaven and everlasting bliss in the hereafter, but given the opportunity to go to heaven, they will fight like the devil to stay in this wicked world full of misery and sin.

P. STANTON London

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