The Economist & the Economy

Sir:

Tribute to TIME for reserving a cover and comments for a brilliant, highly respected, pragmatic economist, Professor Heller.

He was a truly dedicated college professor.

WAYNE A. VANDER VORT University of Minnesota ('59) Minneapolis

Sir:

Why should college professors such as Walter Heller and his cronies advise the President on what to do about the economy of our country? Do the majority of the business leaders of our country believe in Mr. Heller's philosophy? After all, their work keeps our economy strong.

WALTER HARNISCHFEGER II Milwaukee

Sir:

It was a relievingly objective account (for a "liberal" subscriber who reads TIME, sometimes angrily, as the best weekly newsmagazine around) of the general problems of the American economy and of the "pragmatists" who are dealing with these problems.

But haven't you overemphasized the point of the CEA's consensus? Indeed, broad problems, almost by definition, are usually broadly acknowledged; the differences between the goose and the swan are seen when they attempt to quickly cross the river.

G. L. ROWSEY

Cambridge, Mass.

Sir:

Heller may advocate lowering the top income tax rate from 91% to 60%, raising the interest-rate ceiling on long-term bonds, and may feel that wage increases can be economically harmful, and still call himself a pragmatist. Galbraith can call for sales taxes and call himself a pragmatist.

These men are semanticists, not economists.

JAMES H. WEAVER Oklahoma City

Sir:

Of all the answers to "How goes the recession?" the most reliable is the one by Professor Galbraith, who is not reluctant to admit that nobody "knows what is going to happen." All the others are based on "hope of a turnabout" as indicated by Stanley Ruttenberg. Economists have still not acquired an understanding of the functioning and faults of our economy.

FREDERICK SCHUMANN Long Island City, N.Y.

Oath of Office

Sir:

Re the discussion of whether President Kennedy put his hand on the Bible when he took the oath: Apparently Rutherford B. Hayes and Calvin Coolidge were sworn in as President without putting their hands on the Bible, as shown in Lorant's The Presidency .

HOWARD M. WOODS Rochester, N.Y.

P: Calvin Coolidge, in his Autobiography, recalls his taking of the oath of office at his father's home in Vermont after the death of President Warren G. Harding: "The Bible, which had belonged to my mother, lay on the table at my hand. It was not officially used as it is not the practice in Vermont or Massachusetts to use a Bible in connection with the administration of the oath." Whether Rutherford B. Hayes actually had his hand on the Bible is obscure, but the artist's picture of him at his inauguration done from a photograph by Brady shows his left arm at his side (see cut}.--ED.

Sir:

In the inaugural ceremony on Jan. 20, the Vice President's oath contained the words "without mental reservation." In the President's oath these words were not included. Why the difference in these two oaths?

ROBERT M. TANK Forest Green, Mo.

P: The Presidential Oath of Office as set forth in the Constitution does not contain that language. The Oath of Office for Vice President and other Government offices, as provided in the U.S. Code, has those words, but Vice President Lyndon Johnson did not use them. He took his oath "without any reservation whatever."--ED.

Brother-Sister Marriage

Sir:

Certainly the prize for the most fantastic phenomenon of life thus far revealed by TIME is the brother-sister vow of the Roman Catholic Church. The exercise of reading the story left me breathless and trembling for quite some time. I nominate the vow for the title of "Most Heinous Crime Against Nature."

JOHN P. PETERSEN Arlington Heights, Ill.

Sir:

"Claire McAuley" and her husband are to be sincerely praised on doing the impossible. Life is, after all, a short time as compared with the unending time of eternity.

I congratulate the McAuleys on their difficult, but courageous, voluntary choice.

MRS. S. FLYNN Abington, Pa.

Sir: TIME'S account of the brother-sister vow has strengthened my faith--Protestantism.

I can imagine no more insidious, obscene denial of man's essential best self and of the sacrament of love than this unutterable monstrosity masquerading as an act of faith.

DONALD C. FREEMAN Providence

Myth & Truth

Sir:

Thank the heavens for such a man as Episcopal Bishop James A. Pike with the courage to speak his convictions on the subject of religion.

We have often wondered if most of the good preachers really believe all of the things that they usually preach about.

L. NICHOLS Chuluota, Fla.

Sir:

It is unfortunate that the freedom of the Anglican Communion allows a "publicity hound" like Bishop Pike to give a completely erroneous impression of the church he supposedly represents.

RICHARD L. BROWNELL Arlington, Va.

Sir:

Let's hope that there will be more men like Bishop Pike who will speak up against the absurd supernaturalism and dogma of the Christian religion.

Bishop Pike, whether he knows it or not, is a good heretic. After the Episcopalians excommunicate him, the Unitarians will be glad to take him in.

R. CAMPBELL Berkley, Mich.

The Bear in the U.N.

Sir:

My congratulations to TIME for the penetrating cover story on the Russian offensive against the free world. I have not read, in all the long years of the cold war, a summary of the goals of the gangsters in power in the Kremlin more logically and frighteningly presented.

Even the politically infantile Stevenson was jolted out of his "conciliatory" attitude by the ruthless masters of Communist propaganda.

IRVING C. WEXLER Rego Park, N.Y.

Sir:

It appears evident that even Kremlin-conscious TIME has again aided and abetted Mr. K's propaganda mill. It's Russia this and Russia that, but very little space about what we in the West are doing to hobble the Bear.

Where is our propaganda campaign on the home front and abroad?

Isn't it about time we drove home to what's left of democracy the true significance of Communism, pointing out that what it says and what it does are two completely different things?

GEOFFREY H. LANE Sarnia, Ont.

Sir:

As TIME rightly points out, the assignment of Soviet Hatchetman Valerian Zorin to the U.N. is a clear sign of the Soviets' desire to wreck that organization. They know only too well that the U.N. is all that stands between them and the complete domination of the less well-developed nations of the world.

My memories of Zorin in Czechoslovakia in 1948 are still painfully clear. On temporary leave from his job as chief of the top Soviet intelligence organ, Zorin traveled to Prague on Feb. 19, 1948 in order to coordinate the efforts of the Czech Communists to depose the lawful Czech government. As chairman of the largest non-Communist party, it was my unpleasant task to deal with Valerian Zorin. I protested against the violation of the treaty on noninterference and asked him when this Soviet interference would end. He listened to my words and answered with the cynicism that has since become the earmark of the new Soviet imperialism: "When it will no longer be necessary."

PETER ZENKL Chairman, Executive Committee, Council of Free Czechoslovakia Former Mayor of Prague and Deputy Prime Minister Washington, D.C.

The Kid from Kalinovka

Sir:

You state that Khrushchev is "another peasant's son from the Ukraine." For your information, Khrushchev is not a Ukrainian. He was born in the town of Kalinovka, which is in the Russian Federated Socialist Republic.

BASIL TERSHAKOVEC New York City

P: Kalinovka is close to the Ukrainian border, and Khrushchev spent most of his early working life in the Ukraine. It was while he was working in the Ukrainian coal mines that he got his education at one of the Communist Party high schools, started his rise through the ranks.--ED.

Gung-Ho

Sir:

Re Brigadier General William B. McKean's assault on the United States Marine Corps: it seems that his pathological rhetoric is only surpassed by his ability to collect notes for his "term papers." For example: ''Eight marines helped 150 Greeks and Arabs capture the fortress city of Tripoli . . ." Well, this is very interesting really, but so what? Maybe the 150 Greeks and Arabs all had blisters. The Pittsburgh Pirates had nine men in the line-up on the final day of the '60 World Series, but it was Mazeroski's shot that won the Series.

THOMAS P. CROWLEY Utica, N.Y.

Sir:

The paragraph that notes that at Tripoli only eight marines helped 150 Greeks and Arabs capture a city from the Barbary pirates reminds me of another famous story about another famous outfit.

I'm thinking of the story about the Texas Rangers. When a certain town sent for the Rangers to help them quell a riot, one lone Ranger arrived. When the citizens protested to him that he was the only Ranger to come, he simply said: "There's only one riot, isn't there?"

ANGELINE PETTYS Portland, Me.

Sir:

As a former combat infantryman in World War II, I must admit I read with some tongue-in-cheek delight your report on Cavalier's article, which should lower a few noses and deflate a few chests in the Corps of Sea-Going Bellhops.

The Lejeune commander's remark that he has always believed there were marines at Tripoli so he is always going to believe it, whether they were there or not, reminds me of the classic remark, "My mind is made up; don't confuse me with the facts."

BING GRINDLE Lagos, Nigeria

Sir:

If Brigadier General McKean is worried about only eight marines being at Tripoli, and the desertions in a family war, and the other incidents that happened so long ago that no man can really judge what is fiction and nonfiction, he should push for a movement to change the words of the Marines' Hymn to more up-to-date lyrics, such as "From the beaches of Iwo Jima to the Chosin Reservoir ..." Then would the Marines' Hymn sound like the Parade of the Wooden Soldiers?

ROY C. MOORE JR. Rockport, Mass.

Golden Age

Sir:

I read with much pleasure and satisfaction your review of the new record album of my music for Exodus. But it seems that I have become a victim of time in a more literal sense as well. According to your statement, I am a "veteran of two decades" of film scoring. Since I am still in my thirties, this would mean that "I was a teen-age film scorer" when I first started.

I did start my present occupation in my middle twenties, but a victim of child exploitation I was not.

So please restore me to my proper age lest, my two small children feel justified in their insistence that their daddy is several hundred years old.

ERNEST GOLD Hollywood

P: Be quiet, you two. He's only 39.--ED.

"Also a Wonderful Thing"

Sir:

And what happens to a reader whose letter to the editor is not published in TIME? Also a wonderful thing. First he gets a printed, polite card, and then a nice, personal answer.

In this mimeographed, impersonal, form-letterish age, it is a pleasure to find that one's letter was really read and acknowledged.

How many persons do you employ to answer all the letters you get?

MRS. JOHN MORAN

Hingham, Mass.

P:Seventeen, plus a stenographic service.--ED.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.