Black & White (Contd.)
Sir:
Your June 1 article "Of Rabbits & Races" was well reported. Those of us in the South who still have control of our faculties are not responsible for the opinions of Mr. Balch and State Senator Eddins. It is unfortunate that many of your readers will identify this trite nonsense as the philosophy of all those south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
MICHAEL D. ANGLIN
Evangelist
Church of Christ Springfield, Va.
Sir:
The next thing you know, State Senator Eddins won't allow both salt and pepper on his table at the same time!
L. CAROL NATAL
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Sir:
No doubt the yellow dandelions the bunnies are eating symbolize the Chinese. Let's not limit this book's racial message.
MRS. BURNS NELTHORPE
Milwaukee
Sir:
How about penguins?
Luis ALVARADO
San Luis Potosi, Mexico
Sir:
Ordinarily, anywhere in this nation, this book would be accepted as having no special significance. These are, however, not ordinary times. Meddling by outside do-gooders has stirred racial tensions here in the South to an alltime high and damaged relations between the races to an extent that will never be undone. Despite Author Williams' naive and sarcastic assertion, I know, and you should know, that this book is readily adaptable to planting in the mind of a child receptiveness to the idea of marriage between white and black human beings. No responsible person will deny that just such use is being made of this type material today.
S. L. GENTRY
Sumter, S.C.
Sir:
If TIME really wants to shed some tears, how about the banning of Little Black Sambo and Tom Sawyer in New York City schools by the ever race-conscious N.A.A.C.P.?
Gus PAPPAS
Cleveland
P:After protests from the N.A.A.C.P. and others, the New York City board of education dropped Helen Bannerman's Little Black Sambo (TIME, Dec. 24, 1945) and Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from its lists of books "approved" for use in New York City's elementary and junior high schools. Tom Sawyer passes the board's muster.--ED.
Beauty in Concrete
Sir:
As a disciple and admirer of Eduardo Torroja, I congratulate you for your June 1 article and the superb photographs of some of his most beautiful structural achievements in concrete. I do not think the cheapness of steel in this country is a justification for the monstrosities we see every day, from fire escapes to some modern steel bridges.
ALBERTO BENITEZ
Chicago
Sir:
Will you please illustrate
(x2 -y2)2 = a2(x2 -y2)
`a la Bernoulli, as mentioned in the fascinating Torroja article?
MILDRED G. RADANOVICH
Los Angeles
P: For Torroja's application of the Bernoullian formula, see cut. The riblike shapes cover a pergola outside his Institute of Construction and Cement near Madrid. -- ED.
The Prudent Man
Sir:
Your June 1 article on mutual funds was of particular interest to us as we have founded the first mutual fund in the Philippines and perhaps the first mutual fund in all Southeast Asia.
WELLINGTON Koo JR.
Manila
Sir:
I wonder if anyone has ever replied to President Joseph Fitzsimmons' quote of Don Quixote with one by Mark Twain: "Behold, the fool saith, 'Put not all thine eggs in the one basket' -- which is but a manner of saying, 'Scatter your money and your attention,' but the wise man saith, 'Put all your eggs in the one basket and -- watch that basket.'
ROY E. BURBAGE
Cayce, S.C.
Sir:
As mathematicians, TIME et al. couldn't pass a seventh-grade arithmetic test. "Over the past ten years M.I.T.'s gain: 365%. Thus $1,000 invested in M.I.T. shares ten years ago would be worth $3,650 today.." You get zero on that one. My twelve-year-old says to tell you it's $4,650.
In the same sentence you state that if same amount had been in savings bank over same interim at 3 1/4%, it would grow to $1,417. Honest, boys, it wouldn't. The twelve-year-old volunteers that $1,000 at 3 1/2% compounded quarterly for ten years would hit $1,417. Maybe that's what you meant?
W.S. WURZBURGER
Scarsdale, N.Y.
P: TIME, zero; twelve-year-old, 100%.--ED.
Catholic Growth
Sir:
You quote the growth of Roman Catholics in population of the U.S. according to The Official Catholic Directory [May 25]. If the 140,411 reported converts for 1958 are deducted from the increase of 3,481,498 for the same year, we still have an assumed "natural" increase (including immigration) of 3,341,087, or a total larger than the entire population increase for the nation.
JOHN HARDY
Cambridge, Mass.
P: Catholic Directory statisticians last year decided to include 2,000,000 hitherto uncounted Catholic armed forces members and their families stationed in the 50 states and abroad.--ED.
Sir:
We Protestants should request equal TIME. If my information is near correct, our growth will probably outstrip the growth during the same period of the Roman Catholic Church.
C. S. CRAMPTON
Wilmette, Ill.
Fulbright v. Reid
Sir:
Re your June 1 article on Senator Fulbright and Ogden Reid, it appears that the main object of the piece was to have an excuse to indulge in name-calling. To save me, I could not find anything improper in the questions the Senator asked the aspiring young man. And, pray tell, what did all this have to do with segregation?
NORMAN T. VICK
Pasadena, Calif.
Sir:
I have often wondered how a man in his early 30s (I am 31) would stand up under such intensive grilling, and I was heartened by Reid's sensible, forthright answers to difficult questions. Young Ogden Reid should do well in young Israel.
RICHARD E. PEARSON
Washington, B.C.
Sir:
Bravo to you for exposing and unfrocking Segregationist Fulbright. He remained in Europe while the Little Rock episode raged, being so veddy, veddy busy bringing "democracy" overseas.
HERMAN HILL
Los Angeles
Wonderful Soma
Sir:
Your exposition [of a new muscle relaxant to be marketed under the name Soma--June 8] leaves me with no recourse but to admit that my life is momentarily complete. To envision N-isopropyl-2-methyl-2-propyl-1,3-propanediol dicarbamate narcotized people running around chanting Soma, delicious Soma, is to my mind just about the end.
JOHN SOMA
Brooklyn
The Making of Airmen Sir:
The Air Force Academy is beautiful [June 1 but why has it adopted the silliness of West Point and Annapolis? Eating at attention, formations for showers, $690.10 for DeMille uniforms--when will the armed services realize that finery and absurdity don't make a soldier, sailor or airman?
LARRY FEINBERG
Long Branch, N.J.
Sir:
Re your color photo of the Air Force Academy: May I suggest the title "Man's Monstrosity in God's Mountains"?
DAVID S. KEN YON
Winnebago, Wis.
Sir:
I am not the head of the English department. That honor belongs to Colonel Peter M. Moody of Cooleemee, N.C.
WARREN C. THOMPSON
Lieutenant Colonel USAF
Associate Professor of English
U.S. Air Force Academy, Colo.
The Jagged Trail
Sir:
A ray of hope came through my cell upon reading your story, "Prescription from the Bench" [June 1]. Another intellectually prominent individual (Judge Murtagh) joins the list of unheeded authorities on the controversial drug addict problem that is merely sloughed off like the deuce of diamonds when clubs are trumps.
Of course, my prejudice may come from the fact that I was an addict when arrested. I kicked my habit cold turkey. After waiting three months for trial, I was physically shed of my habit before trial (mentally shed is questionable yet). I was arrested (for possession) with 17 1/2 grms. of heroin, tried in federal court, and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Vito Genovese, who possibly oversaw the distribution of 17 1/2 Ibs. of heroin, who was only commercially interested, when tried in April received 15 years. (Harsher penalties only get the applause of the "big city boys" who distribute narcotics, because the stiffer the penalty the higher the price.)
I'm paying the price, and will until 1999, but perhaps some day someone now following the jagged trail that brought me before the court will get a break--instead of broke.
R. EUZIERE
County Jail
Oklahoma City, Okla.
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.