Pope John

Sir:

What a happy choice for Man of the Year! My congratulations on the splendid article, which did full credit to the outstanding Christian of the 20th century. I write as a Protestant with a John Knox background.

CHARLES S. DREW St. Louis

Sir:

John XXIII is a marvelous example of how the immensities of theological disagreement can be transcended by simple human warmth and love. He has, above all, obeyed his Master's command to love thy neighbor.

ROBERT L. CAPIZZI Philadelphia

Sir:

What a bad choice! Do you not know that we live in a post-Christian age? Neither Christianity nor the Pope moves human history. Moreover, in 1962, J.F.K. deflated both Blough and Barnett and checkmated Castro and Khrushchev.

DEAN W. KOHLHOFF

Jacksonville, Ill.

Sir:

Pope John dominated world Christendom, but John F. Kennedy dominated the world.

TERRY D. ARANOFF The Bronx

Sir:

Congratulations.

It is encouraging to note there is something left that Bobby can't manipulate.

If the White House cancels its subscription, I'll take two.

ROBERT M. CALVIN Chicago

Sir:

Pope John has neither begun a "revolution in Christianity" nor has he brought "Christianity to a new confrontation with the world." Rather the reverse is true--the world has brought Christianity into a new confrontation with its own outdated and archaic beliefs and customs.

It is the Marxist and non-Marxist left movements of this age that command the attention of the peoples of the world. It is the left movements and the non-left reaction to these movements that are the salient characteristics of the 1960s.

MICHAEL MCCRACKEN

President-elect

Young Peoples Socialist League Denver

Sir:

A most excellent choice.

One of the greatest aspects of this Council is not only the apparent freedom of the bishops in discussion and perhaps policymaking, not only the change in tradition and practice, but also--and more important--the as yet obscure but growing idea that God's truth may be found in many places, even outside the Church of Rome. Also, it is most encouraging to see the evident conciliation taking place in the Roman Catholic Church in regard to the "Separated Brethren." Now we Protestants must take a closer look at ourselves to see if we will use and have used the mind and spirit of Christ instead of narrow provincialism in our dealings with Rome and with one another. (THE REV.) RICHARD PARKER YAPLE

First Christian Church

Cimarron, Kans.

Ransom & Tribute

Sir:

Glad to see TIME [Dec. 28] call the Cuban ransom deal what it actually is: tribute.

I have never been so disgusted with my country as I am with it over this business of the ransom of the Bay of Pigs prisoners.

It is fine to give food and drugs to a needy nation, but please, not with the stigma of letting some rat like Castro force us to give it to him as tribute.

EUGENE E. CARLTON San Bernardino, Calif.

Sir:

President Kennedy's blundering attempt to make the American people believe that the supplies sent to Castro were voluntary contributions was a flagrantly dishonest act.

Those contributions were hardly voluntary when they were made in response to concealed but irresistible pressure exerted by the President's brother.

Drug manufacturers may quite properly claim millions of dollars in tax credits for their "charity," a loss of revenue that will have to be made up by all the taxpayers. Thus the ransom money is in fact being paid by the American people as a whole, and without their being consulted in the matter.

F. A. MEIGS

Roosevelt, N.J.

Rurals Respond

Sir:

I have no quarrel with Robert M. Myers and his business success in running the Lapeer (Mich.) County Press [Dec. 21], but when you reprinted his uncalled-for remark that the "American rural weekly is valueless, lily-livered and moribund," you did thousands of aggressive community weekly publishers an injustice.

Talk about courage? What about Horace Wells of the Clinton (Tenn.) Courier-News, who stood up to the ugly mobs of uncouth segregationists.

Or Hazel Brannan Smith, who runs a small weekly in Durant, Miss.? She knows what it means to attack a corrupt political machine, to have her shop bombed, to be shot at--to print the truth when a law man shot a Negro in the back at close range and then used the old alibi "he was trying to escape."

Or Samuel Woodring of the North Augusta (S.C.) Star, who tried to oust the corrupt machine bullies and was beaten up by a police sergeant, called a dirty Rumanian Jew, a Yankee and a Communist? They started a boycott and another newspaper against him --but he didn't quit.

There are thousands of good, aggressive, honest, hard-working publishers who are faithful mirrors of the happenings of their communities. They are the ones who lose business and friendship because they hold true to their obligation to print the truth without favor for friends or business.

ALAN C. MCINTOSH

Editor and Publisher Rock County Star Herald Luverne, Minn.

The Mormons

Sir:

You are to be congratulated on your benevolent article [Dec. 21] regarding President David O. McKay. As members of the church, we admire President McKay greatly for the Christlike and ascetic life that he lives, and we hold him in the same respect that we do a prophet like Moses.

ELDER MILAN D. SMITH JR.

Buenos Aires

Sir:

As a Mormon, and former church editor for the Salt Lake Tribune, I would like to point out that in your story on the testimonial for President David O. McKay that McKay does not rhyme with eye. It rhymes with yea.

HAROLD SCHINDLER Salt Lake City

Sir:

Being one of the many Mormon missionaries, I am somewhat acquainted with the doctrine of our church. I would like to know where you got the statement "new converts, for example, no longer have to give up smoking." This is absurd. The Word of Wisdom, as the Mormons understand it, prohibits any use of tobacco, and is a commandment from God given through Joseph Smith at Kirtland, Ohio, on Feb. 27, 1833.

ELDER GALEN W. NIXON

Concepcion, Chile

At one time a smoker was considered beyond redemption by the Mormon church. Now he can be brought into the church, given useful assignments and, if he breaks the habit, be fully accepted.--ED.

Close Friend

Sir:

Your reviewer of Politzer's book, Franz Kafka, Parable and Paradox [Dec. 21], mentions Kafka's closest friend and refers to his "good sense in preserving the records of a genius" by which "the generation that has passed since then has been deeply marked." Why keep anonymous this friend who has rendered such far-reaching service by his power of judgment and foresight, and who is indeed one of the most interesting figures in the history of contemporary literature? This friend is the author-philosopher Max Brod, who has also launched other writers on their way to fame, notably Franz Werfel, and Heinz Politzer himself, who as a young man listened reverently to Brod.

ERNEST STERNE

Vancouver, B.C.

Big Sur

Sir:

I wonder how long it has been since the author of the article on Big Sur [Dec. 28] has visited San Luis Obispo. I take exception to his statement that ''San Luis Obispo is a well-known eyesore."

There may have been some truth to this statement 15, 10 or even 5 years ago, but it certainly does not hold true today. During the past four or five years nearly every store on Higuera Street (the main street) has been either rebuilt or remodeled, all the old property around our Mission has been razed and a new mission garden laid out.

(MRS.) ETHEL W. SCHNEIDER San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Help for Illiterates

Sir:

We are doing something about the frustration of pioneers like Raymond W. Hilliard [Dec. 14] as he tries to teach "little-red-hen" materials to adult illiterates.

At Syracuse University's School of Journalism, we are writing and publishing adult reading materials--but on second, third-and fourth-grade reading levels.

News for You is the world's only weekly paper for semiliterates, is now used in 44 states and 17 foreign countries.

ROBERT S. LAUBACH-Lecturer in Literacy Journalism Syracuse University Syracuse

Older Men?

Sir:

Stanley Dancer is without question "top man in U.S. harness racing" [Dec. 28] but hardly "in a stodgy sport dominated by older men."

Ranking immediately behind Dancer in money earnings in 1962 were Bill Haughton, 39, George Sholty, 30, Del Insko, 31, and John Chapman, 34. The national race-winning driver, in 1961 and 1962, was Bob Farrington, 33. New England's champion is Tug Boyd, 26. Chicago's leader in 1962 was Gene Riegle, 34.

STANLEY F. BERGSTEIN Director

Harness Racing Institute Chicago

TIME'S Sport writer and researcher, still in their sos, naturally look up to older men in their 30$.--ED.

* Son of Literacy Pioneer Frank Laubach, who in 30 years has taught 100 million adults in 100 countries to read.

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