McNamara

Sir: Your cover and cover story of Feb. 15 show much understanding and feeling for the man, Secretary McNamara, and the job. I do not envy Secretary McNamara--decision making for the nuclear security of the world must present a tremendous burden--but I applaud him for his firmness and foresight.

THOMAS W. HAWKINS Harbor City, Calif.

Sir: Secretary McNamara should be reminded, before it is too late, that some problems are too complex and ill-defined for the electronic computer. In meteorology, for instance, we do not have sufficiently valid and powerful theoretical concepts to make the use of the computer meaningful, so it helps very little in weather forecasting.

The computer is only a very rapid calculating machine--it is not a substitute for artistic genius, scientific understanding, or informed judgment.

JOHN C. TALBOT Los Angeles

Sir: At a time when a "balance of terror" is, sadly, the only realistic solution to the problem of keeping the free world out of the shadow of Communism, each of us must surely sleep more easily knowing that McNamara is at the helm of the Defense Department.

EMILY COSTELLO ('65) The College of St. Catherine St. Paul

Le Grand Charles

Sir: There seems to be a little confusion about De Gaulle.

In 1940 everybody fought to save his own skin: the English to save England, De Gaulle to save France--his alter ego. I can see nothing reprehensible today in his desire not to let himself and the French be pasteurized, sterilized and homogenized. Anyway, that's the way they feel about it.

OLGA GANNON Van Nuys, Calif.

Sir: Grandeur? What grandeur? M. De Gaulle mistakes height for depth. TIME confuses egomania with character.

De Gaulle's is the "greatness" of all petty and myopic troublemakers who can't see beyond their personal ambitions and/or the absurd glories of some manmade, artificially delineated space-on-a-map to the genuine glory: the ultimate unity of mankind. Spare us such self-appointed saviors.

CONRAD ROSENBERG Philadelphia

Vim & Vigah

Sir: We now know [ Feb. 15] that U.S. Marine officers are as good men as their predecessors were in Theodore Roosevelt's day. But are Presidents?

Let's see whether President Kennedy can, in 20 hours, find forceful, effective means to: bust the trusts whose monopoly of labor threatens shipping, the space program and freedom of the press in the U.S. today; enforce the Monroe Doctrine; protect U.S. citizens who are kidnaped or robbed by foreign bandits, in or out of office. Teddy Roosevelt could have handled all three jobs in the allotted time and had eight hours left to go fishing.

MILTON H. ANDERSON New York City

Sir: I am amazed by the amount of publicity given to the announcement that Attorney General Robert Kennedy and some others managed to walk 50 miles. In December 1925, Miss Eleanora Sears walked from Providence to Boston, a distance of 47.8 miles, in 10 hrs. 20 min.

I know because I walked with her. Miss Sears entertained me for dinner that evening, and I took her to the theater. Miss Sears knows her age better than I do, but she was then in her 40s at least, and could probably outwalk the New Frontiersmen today.

ALBERT P. HINCKLEY Orlean, Va.

>Sportswoman Sears, 81, hiked from Providence to her home in Boston five times in the 20s and 30s. Her record: 9 hrs. 55 min. in 1926.--ED.

Sir: Switzerland has no Marine Corps, but every Swiss soldier has to prove his physical fitness before his promotion to second lieutenant in a 65- to 70-mile hike up and down hill, carrying 35 pounds.

ROBERT U. VON ARX Chicago

Bobby in Court

Sir: I was plaintiff's counsel and argued for him in the Georgia County Unit case heard in the Supreme Court on Jan. 17. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy did not read a prepared brief when he appeared before the court in the case, as stated in your issue of Jan. 25. The Government's brief had been filed with the court in advance, as customary. The Attorney General delivered an oral argument without any notes, and responded to questions from the court.

MORRIS B. ABRAM New York City

Defense of the Academies

Sir: A few hours prior to reading your Feb. 8 article concerning David Boroff's blast at service academy education, I attended a luncheon for U.S. Naval Academy classmates in the Washington area, my last such reunion before leaving for naval-attache duty in Moscow. I came away from this luncheon very much impressed with what my classmates had accomplished and become since graduation. Almost without exception, we have done postgraduate work in subjects ranging from naval ordinance to international relations, and we occupy positions of responsibility both ashore and afloat. Judging from this sampling of men subjected to an education "so full of 'narcissistic preening' that it may be too unreal for the real world," I would venture to say that were the products of our civilian educational institutions as aware of the political, economic and sociological realities of today's world, we might not have to keep leaving our families to put out fires all over the globe.

SUMNER SHAPIRO

Lieutenant Commander, U.S.N. Kensington, Md.

Sir: As arrant knaves, my fellows and I grovel between earth and heaven in search of le juste eguilibre. The late William Faulkner told me last year that to learn about people and life and oneself, one must not close himself in a tower of pure concepts, but must walk in the marketplace among the realities of existence. A noble goal, and a difficult one, necessitating much preparation. West Point has prepared me, as could no other institution, to walk in that marketplace with dignity and courage and honesty and pride, with compassion and with humility.

CADET JOSEPH C. ZENGERLE III U.S. Military Academy West Point, N.Y.

"Rather Boring"

Sir: As students of Clemson College, we would like to commend TIME Magazine on its handling of the integration story about Mr. Harvey Gantt [Feb. 8].

However, it was not the presence of "150 law enforcement officers in the area," nor was it President Edwards' plea to the students to avoid "Ole Miss hooliganism" that brought about peaceful integration in South Carolina's first integrated public school.

It was simply a case of college students, men and women, realizing their responsibility to themselves, their families, South Carolina, the United States and the free world in general, that made this move possible, peaceful and, as one news commentator said, "rather boring."

JOHN F. SCARLETT FRED L. WALLACE Clemson College Clemson, S.C.

Florida Package

Sir: For your information. Northeast Airlines has not canceled its package-tour program to Florida as reported in your Feb. 8 article on the New York newspaper strike. On the contrary, our sunliner holiday package-vacation program is enjoying unprecedented success, and this winter's sales should set a new record high.

JAMES W. AUSTIN President & Chairman of the Board Northeast Airlines Boston

>TIME should have said that Northeast canceled its most ambitious package-tour idea. Since the strike cut off advertising, the plan was put off.--ED.

Einstein on Taxes

Sir: I was interested in the article on taxes [Feb. 1] in which it was pointed out that "the late great Albert Einstein once admitted that figuring out his U.S. income tax was beyond him--he had to go to a tax consultant. 'This is too difficult for a mathematician,' said Einstein. 'It takes a philosopher.' "

From the time Professor Einstein came to this country until his death, I prepared his income tax returns and advised him on his tax problems. However, contrary to the statement that you quote, at no time did he allude to me as a philosopher.

One year while I was at his Princeton home preparing his return, Mrs. Einstein, who was then still living, asked me to stay for lunch. During the course of the meal, the professor turned to me and with his inimitable chuckle said: "The hardest thing in the world to understand is income taxes." I replied: "There is one thing more difficult, and that is your theory of relativity." "Oh, no," he replied, ''that is easy." To which Mrs. Einstein commented, "Yes, for you." LEO MATTERSDORF New York City

Homecoming

Sir: In a time when so many unkind (perhaps both deserved and undeserved) things are being said about Mississippi, I welcomed your coverage of Miss Leontyne Price's homecoming concert in Laurel [Feb. 8]. I wish you could have given it more space, because it was one of the finest examples of love and fellowship ever expressed among the races. We white people were only too glad to sit on the aisle floor to hear this gifted and great person return home and sing to us all. She not only received ovations; she brought tears to our eyes, and none of us, either colored or without color, could care less about Miss Price's color or her fame.

(THE REV.) HOWARD B. KISHPAUGH Rector The Episcopal Church of the Mediator Meridian, Miss.

One Man's Religion

Sir: In the Jan. 18 issue you listed the religious affiliations of the members of the 88th Congress. You cited that there is a "Schwenkfeldian" in Congress.

I am the member to whom you referred. However, we are usually referred to as "Schwenkfelders." As a matter of interest, we have a monthly publication that is called the Schwenkfeldian.

The original Schwenkfelders were a group of religious exiles who were greatly influenced by the writings and teachings of Caspar Schwenkfeld, a contemporary of Martin Luther. They moved from Germany to Holland at the time of the religious persecutions in Germany. After spending some years in Holland, the group decided to go on to America to obtain their freedom to worship God as they pleased. They sailed across the Atlantic on a ship called the St. Andrew in 1733 and landed in Philadelphia. The Schwenkfelders disembarked and subsequently settled in that area. Our Schwenkfelder Church now has about 2,000 members, with five separate churches all located in the Montgomery County-Philadelphia area.

RICHARD S. SCHWEIKER House of Representatives Washington, D.C.

Annabella

Sir: I want to thank you very much for the nice words you had for me in the Feb. 8 issue of TIME (I never miss one).

But there are two little "items" I want to bring to your knowledge.

I never gave up my real, legal name of Annabella Power. That name meant a lot to me 23 years ago, and it still does, just as much, today.

And I think that 51 years old is more than enough . . . without adding two more years!

ANNABELLA POWER Paris

Baby Boxes

Sir: No "box-bred babies" for us [Feb. 15]. Our nine-month-old son is exceedingly active in spite of his "confining" clothes, and he rather enjoys playing and pulling himself up on his "prisonlike" crib bars.

What happens when, at the age of two, a child has to come out of his box and face a world of clothes, germs and biting winter winds? Will it not be a great psychological trauma? And will a mother suddenly stop loving her child when, after two years of little work, she must start washing and ironing his clothes?

I admire Mr. Skinner as an experimental psychologist, but he should confine himself to rats and pigeons, and leave children to their mothers' care.

MRS. JAMES J. O'ROURKE Atlanta

Horrorshow Kniggy

Sir: Your translator makes one error in nadsat (i.e., teen) jargon in his review of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange [Feb. 15], when he explicates the lewdies as the old.

As any student of nadsat (or of Russian) should recognize, the lewdies are simply people; the old are starry.

Otherwise, a horrorshow review of a more than horrorshow kniggy [book].

ANTHONY BOUCHER Berkeley, Calif.

A Dog's Life

SIR: LAST NIGHT I DROPPED WOODY ALLEN [FEB. 15] INTO A BOWL OF WATER AND MY CHIHUAHUA DRANK HIM. PLEASE ADVISE.

JACK DOUGLAS NEW YORK CITY

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