The Middle East
Sir:
Isn't it ironic to note that today's Middle East crisis revolves around the area of the Garden of Eden--the Biblical birthplace of mankind? As present situations indicate, this very same spot could be the beginning of the end of mankind.
JOEL D. ALTMAN North Attleboro, Mass.
Sir:
The events in the Middle East prove once more that the foreign policy of Secretary Dulles can best be characterized by the formula: playing both ends against the muddle.
FELIX ANSELM Evanston, Ill.
Sir:
While her father (Nuri asSaid) arranged a good marriage (with the West), Iraq eloped with her true love (freedom and Arab nationalism).
Shouldn't we make friends of the young couple?
WANDA EL SHAWI Drottningholm, Sweden
Sir:
U.S. occupation of Lebanon and Britain's occupation of Jordan cannot do any harm to Arab nationalism except delay the liberation of these two countries and arouse Arab hatred.
S. E. GERIES Jerusalem
Sir:
The U.S. troop movement in Lebanon showed the world we mean business. Europe has been weary of us for our defensive attitude in the past.
MARTIN KAPLAN Tarrytown, N.Y.
Sir:
For Man of the Year: Sir Anthony Eden, the only man in 1958 who knew how to solve the Middle East problem two years ago.
WILLIAM B. GORDON Placentia, Calif.
Norman Krasna
Sir:
TIME, being a written medium, surely realizes the importance of a writer. In reviewing Indiscreet [July 21] you toss kudos, deserved I'm sure, to Stanley Donen, the director; you do nip-ups over the magnificent performances of Ingrid Bergman and Gary Grant; but for some curious reason you neglect to mention the name of the author. It is Norman Krasna. I repeat his name is Norman Krasna. I only mention it twice because you failed to mention it once.
GROUCHO MARX
Old Saybrook, Conn.
Nixon Was Clipped Here
Sir:
As we all know, Vice President Nixon's trip through South America [TIME, May 26] was not all sweetness and light. However, the political climate was a little more agreeable in Ecuador. Here in Quito he took time out to enter a humble barbershop for a haircut. The barber has made use of his moment of fame [see cut). He stands in the doorway under his new sign. Nixon's name is flanked by Ecuadorian and U.S. flags.
GARRETH E. JOINER Quito. Ecuador
Bread Upon the Waters
Sir:
With regard to items from Mrs. Pat Cronin's letter that you printed in your July 21st issue: St. Philip Neri School is situated quite near to us, and we know parents who send their children there and have not mentioned complaints such as Mrs. Cronin brings out.
ELLEN C. COURTNEY Chicago
Sir:
After spending nine years in Catholic schools under four orders of nuns in three states, I don't feel that those grievances exist in most parochial schools. Regarding spending $26.40 for the school play, Mrs. Cronin got off easy. When I was in public high school, my next-door neighbors spent a minimum of $30 a year on costumes alone so that their daughter could appear in our annual band concert.
GEORGIA JASKOT
Pocatello, Idaho
Sir:
Mrs. James Cronin's insistence upon the primacy of parental authority in the education of children deserves praise by parents everywhere--both Catholic and otherwise. For a schoolteacher to ask the child itself to evaluate its home training in terms of "too strict" or "too lenient" is an absurdity whose only really efficacious result would be to suggest to the child that it had the wisdom and experience to veto its parents' home program. Both America and TIME have acted commendably in bringing to the public scrutiny this undermining of the rights of parents.
FRANK R. ELLIS St. Louis
SIR:
THOROUGH INVESTIGATION INCLUDING CONFERENCE WITH MRS. CRONIN SHOWS HER COMPLAINTS LARGELY RESULT MISUNDERSTANDING ST. PHILIP NERI SCHOOL POLICIES AND PRACTICES. EXAMPLES:
COMPLAINT: QUESTIONNAIRE RE CHILDREN'S APPRAISAL OF THEIR PARENTS; FACT: QUESTIONNAIRE WAS PART OF SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH STUDY NOT UNDER SCHOOL SPONSORSHIP. CONCEDE HOWEVER MISTAKE IN GIVING QUESTIONNAIRE TO PUPILS.
COMPLAINT: TEXTBOOKS UNDERPLAY JAMESTOWN AND PURITANS; FACT: MORE EMPHASIS AND SPACE GIVEN TO JAMESTOWN, ETC., THAN TO CATHOLIC SETTLERS WEST AND SOUTHWEST.
MRS. CRONIN WELL INTENTIONED, SINCERE, WRITING PROVOCATIVE ARTICLE. IN LETTER TO PARENTS SCHOOL INVITED PARENTS TO DISCUSS IN PERSON ANY COMPLAINTS OR GRIEVANCES. OFFER STILL STANDS.
MSGR. WILLIAM E. MCMANUS SUPERINTENDENT OF CATHOLIC SCHOOLS CHICAGO
Manna or Mammon?
Sir:
Your story on the poverty of pastors [July 14] is ecclesiastical propaganda and misleading. While the typical "Man of God" is reclining in his air-conditioned office mulling over a sermon that he has delivered a hundred times, the people financially footing the bill are hard at work in field and factory. Any resemblance between the modern preacher and the lowly Nazarene is accidental and incidental.
CLAYTON STEPHENS, D.V.M. Tupelo, Miss.
Sir:
Many ministers in this vicinity enjoy salaries of $5,000 to $10,000 a year and in addition have a free manse, car allowance, a portion of their retirement pensions, and other free rides. And one might add that there are many ministers who are not worth more than $4,500 a year.
C. A. JEFFERIS Media, Pa.
Crime: the Rate
Sir:
Your article listing certain major cities in the U.S., along with composite crime rate statistics, indicated the data were from ''the FBI list of felony rates in U.S. cities." The FBI has not published any tabulation of crime rates for individual cities. The only thing we show in the Uniform Crime Reports bulletins, for the cities that you listed, is the total number of offenses of each individual classification reported by the police agency represented. We do not convert those figures into terms of the number of offenses per unit of population for individual cities.
Another defect involves the use of 1950 census figures in calculating current crime rates for individual cities, which distorts the picture to the extent that the population of those cities has changed since 1950. Also, in calculating the rates, you grouped together in one figure all reported offenses giving, in effect, equal weight statistically to larceny and murder, and larceny offenses generally comprise over half of the total.
JOHN EDGAR HOOVER Director Federal Bureau of Investigation U.S. Department of Justice Washington, D.C.
P: TIME erred in attributing to the FBI a listing developed with the aid of FBI statistics.--ED.
Sweet (& Sour) Notes
Sir:
I don't often write a fan letter, but I'd like to congratulate whoever wrote the story in the July 21 issue of TIME on The Music Man. It was brilliantly done from start to finish, and the cover made me roar with laughter. The article was just as great Americana as is the play.
HEDDA HOPPER
Hollywood
Sir:
After excelling in Plain and Fancy, Candide and now the Meredith Willson hit, don't you think that wonderful Barbara Cook deserves at least one photograph?
MICHAEL L. LARSEN
San Francisco
P: Yes. See cut.--ED.
SIR: MY CUP RUNNETH OVER.
MEREDITH WILLSON WEST LOS ANGELES
Sir:
Please keep trombones, ropes and pictures of piano teachers off the cover at a time when our country is in an international crisis.
(S/ScT) CONRAD P. SMITH U.S.A.F. Washington, D.C.
Sir:
Let's have more of Bohrod--a worthy addition to your string of fine cover artists.
ALLAN Boz
Chicago
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