Ladies' Days
Sir:
Your Sept. 5 article, "As Maine Goes," recalled to me March 3, 1913 (the day before Woodrow Wilson took office), when several hundred women in Government service marched in a suffrage parade down Pennsylvania Avenue.
We were uniformed according to departments, in capes of different colors, and presented a well-organized parade until we approached the Treasury, where men from the sidelines ran forward and broke it up.
The Interior Department approved our marching and gave us time off for the parade (though charging it to annual leave), which was watched by many thousands.
FLORENCE P. WHITE Organton, N.C.
Sir:
In your splendid article on women in politics, you mention Rudd Smith, running for Congress in our 21st District. I think you will find she is Rudd Brown, wife of Harrison Brown of Caltech.
LAURA G. BENJAMIN
Los Angeles
Sir:
We were surprised that you did not mention the League of Women Voters of the U.S., the outgrowth of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and frequently the training ground of women in politics.
League members in 50 states and the District of Columbia (a singularly non-corsage-bearing group) work unceasingly on issues of government, and it seems to us that issues will elect the next President of the United States.
(MRS.) JEAN A. KEENEY President
League of Women Voters of Oak Lawn Oak Lawn, 111.
Billy on Religion & Politics
Sir:
I emphatically deny that I plunged into American politics as stated in TIME, Aug. 29 --or that I had Senator Kennedy solely in mind when I made my remarks. A reporter asked if I thought religion was a legitimate issue in a political campaign. I answered: "A man's religion cannot be separated from his person; therefore where religion involves political decision it becomes a legitimate issue. For example, the people have a right to know the views of a Quaker on pacifism, or a Christian Scientist's view on medical aid, or a Catholic's view on the secular influences of the Vatican."
Then the reporter asked if I thought the religious issue would be very deep this year.
I replied: "Yes. I have been informed by political experts that it will be deeper than in 1928, because people are better informed."
He further asked why Protestants are reluctant to vote for a Catholic. I answered: "Some Protestants are hesitant about voting for a Catholic because the Catholic Church is not only a religious but a secular institution which sends and receives ambassadors from secular states."
I am sure that in the context in which they were given, my remarks throw an entirely different light than the impression left in TIME. I might also add that I deplore all forms of religious bigotry!
BILLY GRAHAM
Basel, Switzerland
The Campaign
Sir:
By now it should be apparent to all that Kennedy's New Frontier is only the wilderness of more and higher taxes.
RUFUS AND THELMA MARTIN Wakarusa, Ind.
Sir:
Your mentioning that Senator Johnson may not be the darling of the South prompts me to send you the following:
First Southerner: Everyone knows that Lyndon Johnson is the South's favorite son.
Second Southerner: You didn't finish your sentence.
W. J. HARRISON
Willis, Texas
African Airlift
Sir:
How dare you practice your distortions so blatantly? In relating the African student incident you say Kennedy was motivated by his concern "about the wavering U.S. Negro vote." In every account to date it has been stressed that the Senator specified that any contribution made by the Kennedy Foundation be made without any publicity. The reason was obvious--to keep people like you from misrepresenting his intentions.
GEORGE WALKER The Bronx, N.Y.
Sir:
Bravo for your excellent coverage of the latest attempt by the Kennedy family to try and outbid the State Department. I am sure that many readers of TIME will echo Senator Hugh Scott's words concerning this matter of exposing the immature, hot-tempered, . glory-seeking actions of the junior Senator from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
BILL STEIN
Euclid, Ohio
The Olympics
Sir:
You deserve a gold medal for the moving and entertaining cover story on Rafer Johnson and tire 1960 Summer Olympics.
I read the article with pride, admiration and a lump in my throat. It convinces me more that only in America can the often pathetic trials of a common man lead so often to a tremendous success story.
KELSEY E. COLLIE Washington, D.C.
Sir:
As one who taught for 30 years in the high school and town of Kingsburg, Calif., which Rafer Johnson has now made famous, I am overjoyed at TIME'S recognition of this remarkably fine young man. However, lest one minor incident recounted in TIME'S story leave an unfair impression of the people of Kingsburg, may I testify that any drawing of a color line is most uncharacteristic of Kingsburgers generally. There Rafer has always been accepted on terms of his worth alone--as a responsible leader in grammar and high school, as an able and dignified president of the high school student body, as a welcome guest at social affairs of home, church and school.
(MRS.) PAULINE NORDSTROM Santa Monica, Calif.
Sir:
Your article on the decathlon star, Rafer Johnson, awakens issues more pertinent and basic to our national prestige, namely, that the U.S. is existing in a dangerously competitive world and that racial prejudice and bigotry cannot be tolerated if we want to continue to exist as a competitor and, possibly, a leader.
FRED R. POWELL Beacon, N.Y.
B.A. in Sandbox?
Sir:
I wish to correct impressions concerning your story, "Mud Pies & Water Play," in the Aug. 29 issue of TIME, as it does not give a complete story of the reasons for denial of a license to Mrs. Lila K. Joralemon to operate a day nursery by the California State Department of Social Welfare.
Mrs. Joralemon has been operating a day nursery for three-and four-year-old children for two years without a license, although a license is required by law. For the past eight months, we have been trying to help Mrs. Joralemon meet minimum standards for such an operation. We certainly have no objection to teaching ABCs or music in a day nursery. However, children of this age need facilities for play and rest periods to break the 2^2 hours they are at the school. We have suggested simple play equipment which should be available for the children, as well as facilities for adequate rest. Mudpies and water tables are not required.
Our standards have been developed after a good deal of hard work by experts in the education field, tempered by the practical experience of day-nursery operators. We are quite willing to issue a license to Mrs. JoraleMon if she shows reasonable compliance with our rather simple standards.
J. M. WEDEMEYER Director State of California Department of Social
Welfare Sacramento, Calif.
P:I The California State Department of Social Welfare included "dirt for mud pies" and "tubs for water play" in the "Lists of Minimum Equipment and Materials" it presented to Mrs. Joralemon.--ED.
Sir:
Children want and need to learn. If they are exposed to the best, they will learn the best. Exposed to mud they will throw it.
BETTY M. HAYES Tonawanda, N.Y.
Sir:
Given a choice for my children, I would take the alphabet over soft cuddly dolls, and even Beethoven over mud pies. Given a choice, I would take acne over the inept California Welfare Department. I shall be waiting impatiently for the news that U.C.L.A. is now offering a B.A. in Sandbox.
JERRY L. MILLER North St. Paul, Minn.
Tell Harold . ..
Sir:
Your magazine has hurled a couple of stones at a record called Tell Laura I Love Her. I'm not saying I like this song; I know lots of kids who don't, but even we are offended because we take it as a direct criticism against us all, not just the record.
Please remember that we are the people who are going to be obligated to put you unfortunates into old-age homes sometime.
HAROLD METZ III (14)
Greenwich, Conn.
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