Putting Prayer in the Closet
Sir:
I would like to take this opportunity to express my approval of the decision rendered by the Supreme Court [June 28] on the reading of prayers and the Bible in public schools.
I don't think anyone can argue with the fact that the state should be divorced from religion, since that was obviously the intent of our Founding Fathers when they spelled it out quite clearly in the First Amendment to the Constitution.
LILYAN SCHNEIDER
Bronxville, N.Y.
Sir:
I believe it is a most tragic and portentous decision. Our forefathers fought and died to give us the privilege of worshiping God in our own way, not of not worshiping.
EDITH H. GROFF
Princeton, N.J.
Sir:
The Lord's Prayer is not intended for public use. St. Matthew's instructions were to enter thy closet, shut the door, and pray to thy Father in secret. It is not a group project.
(MRS.) IRENE DWYER
Redondo Beach, Calif.
Sir:
Although one would not expect a decision of the Supreme Court to make a very profound impression on a twelve-year-old, last week one of my sixth-graders asked me: "Is it against the law to pray to pass my final exams?"
THOMAS A. PETRO
Syracuse
Politics v. Morality
Sir:
Legal equality comes from the laws of the land. The Negro now has the legal equality he has a right to expect. However, social equality he must earn. He will not earn it by violent demonstrations on the public streets; he will not earn it by pressuring the President into advocating laws that violate the rights of others; he will not earn it by forming gangs whose purpose is to intimidate white people.
If the Negro wants social equality, he may earn it by getting off welfare lists, by getting out of taverns, by staying out of jail, staying in school (even a segregated school is better than none at all), by being a responsible citizen.
Equality, yes! Favoritism, no!
WANDA L. EASLEY
Inwood, W.Va.
Sir:
As a Negro American citizen, I feel that along with freedom in any society goes responsibility. Our future freedom will be paralleled with grave responsibility from within the Negro race. As professional Negroes we do not stand blameless in view of widespread illegitimacy, misuse of housing by our lower classes, a low level of aspiration among our youth, a high percentage of school dropouts, and shame rather than pride in our ebony skins.
It is my hope that we will prepare our people by emphasizing the responsibility of freedom rather than the seizure of opportunities based on retaliatory objectives.
WILLIE MAE WHITTLER
Minden, W.Va.
Sir:
It is pitiful indeed when the President of the U.S. is delayed in doing "right" by the fearsome "might" of "practical politics" [June 21]. Like the child who knows but won't admit his error, the nation suffers the pain of inexorable guilt. Deep down it knows the Negro has right on his side. But, like the child, it needs help, moral leadership to assuage its pain.
(MRS.) VIRGINIA W. ROBINS
Wayland, Mass.
Sir:
The shame we feel in the present integration crisis should be tempered with the realization that progress--however painful--is now being made. The past 100 years have been more our disgrace than the past 100 days. We would do better to regret the past rather than forget it, and accept the "growing up" pains of the present. For however trite it sounds, the issue--in the long run--will only be resolved by the moral reckoning of each of us.
ROBERT A. SULLIVAN
Forest Park, Ill.
Sir:
As Peace Corps volunteers, we often wonder what our accomplishments are in this nebulous job. But every once in a while we satisfy ourselves by saying that we are at least giving an impression of what North Americans are really like. We then pick up an article describing our discriminations against the Negro and about our "democratic" Governors Barnett of Mississippi and Wallace of Alabama. Then we start believing that our work is in vain.
I am downright disgraced by the people who have praised the Peace Corps and its work and at the same time have slapped us in the face by their cruel treatment of their fellow Americans.
DAVID H. WESSEL
Antioquia, Colombia
Full of Heart
Sir:
In discussing the proposed NATO multilateral force [June 14], you state that I was charged with "the halfhearted mission of winning British support for the $5 billion multilateral force."
Please be assured that mine was no "halfhearted" mission. Recognizing that responsibility for the operation of such a force would rest upon Navy personnel, we of the U.S. Navy have made a very thorough analysis of this concept from every pertinent point of view. We have come to the definite conclusion that such a force is feasible, that it would be effective, and that its survival probability is such that its nuclear retaliatory capability could not be eliminated, or substantially reduced, by present or foreseen forces and tactics of an enemy.
CLAUDE RICKETTS
Admiral, U.S.N.
Vice Chief of Naval Operations
Washington, D.C.
Sex in Britain
Sir:
Re Christine Keeler. Ltd. [June 21]--worst mistake in years! This gal is as unlimited as anybody could get.
PAUL E. REED
Tucson, Ariz.
Sir:
It has ever been the practice of modest nations to award honors in the field of sexual contrivances to their neighbors. The British credit the French with certain inventions; the French applaud the British and the Russians; and all the world has immortalized the Dutch. The latest Latin American definition of hell is where the British are the cooks, the French the mechanics, the Germans the police, and the Americans the lovers!
JAMES SINCLAIR SCOTT
Rio de Janeiro
Sir:
In your historical survey of sex in British politics, you refer to Mr. Arthur Balfour (Lord Balfour) as an "inveterate adulterer." You might do well to consider revising this estimate in light of Mr. A.J.P. Taylor's conclusions in his review (New Statesman, March 15, 1963) of Mr. Kenneth Young's authoritative biography:
"Balfour had a love affair for many years with Mary, Lady Elcho, later Countess of Wemyss. He wrote to her constantly, saw her often, experienced 'intimacy' with her (her word) occasionally. He brushed off sharply any suggestion that she might divorce her husband and marry him. Evidently he made love to Mary Elcho just enough to discover what other men made such a fuss about. He was content to be the only bachelor Prime Minister since the younger Pitt."
VICTOR W. GLADSTONE
Berkeley, Calif.
The Good Doctor
Sir:
I welcomed your article on Dr. Albert Schweitzer [June 21], for it presents his all too human side and enables one to penetrate the aura of saintliness built around him.
WILLIAM E. RUEHLING Pittsburgh
Sir:
Schweitzer is a competent doctor, no matter how anachronistic, who has an intelligent grasp of the realities of the rain forest--that the essential thing is to make the people come to the hospital.
When, because of lack of confidence, a child is entrusted to the local witch doctor and brought to the hospital only when dying, then gleaming walls and antiseptic nurses don't help. Upper-class Africans may feel humiliated in such a hospital, but Schweitzer has chosen to cater to the remaining 99% of the population.
J. PHILLIPSON
Montreal
Aboard
Sir:
TIME correctly reported [June 28] that Philip Morris Inc. continues to progress (now in its tenth consecutive year of improved sales and earnings), but a simple check would have prevented the error in assessing the performance of Philip Morris Commander. The brand is currently the nation's third ranking king-size non-filter--ranks 17th among the country's top 31 brands--and sells approximately five billion units a year.
JOSEPH F. CULLMAN III
President Philip Morris Inc.
New York City
Auto Philosophy
Sir:
Your [June 14] article about Citroen evoked in me nostalgic memories of a man and his epoch. As a junior executive of the German Citroen assembly plant from 1926 to 1935, I had frequent occasion of close contact with Andre Citroen and his collaborators. Felix Schwab, his trusted friend and general director, was my uncle.
Andre Citroen was a figure to inspire the imagination. His 25,000 workers and employees, as well as his dealers, adored him. When he lost fortunes in the casinos at the Riviera or in Deauville, and the continuation of his enterprise was at stake, he would rally his agents with emotional eloquence and they would provide yet another loan to save him. It was this gambling and his fantastic publicity expenses that contributed greatly to his downfall.
But when this finally came, the atmosphere, the enthusiasm, that particular spirit which bound us together, seemed to have left with Andre Citroen. Les mines on the Quai de Javel became sober--just like any other factory.
ROBERT HAINEBACH
Cape Town, South Africa
Strategic Bombing
Sir:
The statement in your review ot Hans Rumpf's The Bombing of Germany [June 21] that "strategic bombing was a tragic failure" is unfortunate and misleading. There is little quarrel with the fact that Allied bombing resulted in extensive non-strategic property destruction and loss of noncombatant lives. But that it was a "tragic failure" is in complete contradiction of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey as well as the postwar testimony of Nazi military and industrial leaders. Reich Marshal Goring, Field Marshals von Rundstedt, Sperrle, Kesselring, Generals Galland, Kolb, von Rohden, Jahn, and Hjalmar Schacht, Fritz Thyssen, Oskar Henschell and many others have eloquently attested to the effect of Allied bombing on production and communications. There is no question that the strategic raids on the huge oil refineries, ball-bearing works and great railroad marshaling yards were an unqualified success.
As General of Infantry Georg Thomas reflected, "Bombing alone could not have beaten Germany, but without bombing the war would have lasted for years longer."
W. G. LAPOE
Seattle
State of the Market
Sir:
I have read with interest your [June 21] article about the current art market.
However, your researcher made at least one error in the price of the Robert Indiana, the source of which was attributed to me. Actually my estimate [$3,200] was considerably higher than the figure [$2,500] you used.
JOSEPH H. HIRSHHORN
New York City
The Historical Jesus
Sir:
Your article [June 21] is a masterly tour de force.
The vice of Rudolf Bultmann and his disciples is the fallacy of misplaced concretion, disregarding evidence that will not fit into a preconceived thesis. An intelligent layman who examines the first three Gospels will recognize that they embody at least two distinguishable and contrasted types of material: kerygma, focusing on the Resurrection; and reminiscence of events, persons, and teachings attributed to Jesus, which no stretch of sound reading can account for as evangelistic preaching. The first Christians did not spend their whole time on the street corners of Athens and Corinth and Ephesus and Rome proclaiming their offensive gospel of a Risen Lord. They met nightly in intimate koinonia, re-enacting the Last Supper and retelling what they had known of a human comrade and Lord.
C. H. Dodd, of far profounder historical understanding than the Bultmannites, has consistently maintained a sound course through the swirling currents of New Testament interpretation that have swept so many others far off center. It is to Dodd and his pupils, rather than to Bultmann's followers, that we may look for a true recovery of the authentic historical Jesus.
HENRY P. VAN DUSEN
Sorrento, Me.
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