Everybody's Subject

Sir: I tore up the Modern Living section about sex in the U.S. [Jan. 24] before I read it.

MRS. AL SCHRAMM

Dubuque, Iowa

Sir: Your article concerning everybody's favorite subject was timely and enlightening. As a member of the reputedly fast-moving, carefree college set, I was pleasantly surprised at your objectivity.

THOMAS E. WERMAN

Columbia University

New York City

Sir: Although I disagree with numerous points raised, I admire your ability to feel the pulse of a nation on this controversial subject. You may be assured that your article will be read, debated, passed on, underlined, argued about--in general, will add to the confusion you report.

SALLYANNE NOEL DEIMANTAS ('66)

Salve Regina College

Newport, R. I.

Sir: The article raises the issues so clearly that it will make excellent background reading for my students as a basis for discussion of the whole question of sexual morality today.

(THE REV.) ARTHUR T. LUTTON JR.

Chaplain

Hebron Academy

Hebron, Me.

Sir: So now you've researched it to death and spoiled the fun. I hope you're satisfied!

CHARLES E. HILLS

Weston, Mass.

Sir: Too infrequently does the reader encounter such an intelligent presentation dealing with love and sex in our society.

T. J. HILTY JR.

Xavier University

Cincinnati

Sir: The college male is not disrespectful of social and legal consequences that he may incur as a result of premarital sex. But the traditional values that place sex within the moral and religious sphere are what he generally resents and condemns.

Quite common on campus is the conception of the sex act as the natural consummation of what one regards as "love." Unfortunately, a fallacy lies here in the young man's perfectly natural rationalization of his romance, which is often little more than a strong physical attraction. Thus, obviously what results is a "distorted" relationship that, by mature standards, is unfulfilling.

MARK ZAUDERER

Union College

Schenectady, N.Y.

Sir: I wonder if all the stress on sex might not spell ruin to the Republic. History has demonstrated quite clearly that civilization and empires are destroyed, or at least weakened, by sexual depravity, especially among the "elite."

I don't know about the next guy, but I am worried about America's future. God save us!

SAUL MONTANEZ

Flushing, N.Y.

Sir: If you keep on talking about ice cream, the child will eventually want some.

LEIGH M. SHERIDAN

New York City

Sir: Now that you have presented the general picture of sex in college life, how about a word of confidence for the parents of those who consider themselves to be in the minority? We would like to reassure our parents that we are still the "nice girls" who "don't."

ANN SWANSON

JOAN FUETSCH

SUSAN SEIVER

BARBARA BULLOCK

Elmira College

Elmira, N.Y.

Sir: For the very first time, I'm tempted to slide your magazine to the bottom of the pile so my teen-agers and their friends won't see it, but they'll probably come across it in the school library anyway.

JEAN P. FITZGERALD

Rowayton, Conn.

Sir: I am a college student who has recently become seriously interested in one girl; because of this I have come to find that sex is not the most important association between a man and a woman.

I feel I had to find this for myself because adults (parents, church and teachers) today seem afraid to speak seriously about sex, and only give enough knowledge to force teen-agers to find information wherever they can--usually in cheap books and films, or with each other, which only warps the ideas pertaining to sex and love.

Whether a girl is experienced or not does not interest me any more. It is my feelings for her as a person and my appreciation of her that is important to me now.

To make love or not to make love is of secondary importance.

LEON J. MOHN III

Westport, Conn.

Sir: After reading your cover story, my wife concluded that I'm a rooster.

RONALD JAKARY

Detroit

Divided Isthmus

Sir: What is surprising is that violent disorders have not occurred more often in Panama. As a former Canal Zone resident, the pseudo patriotism of Canal Co. employees is still vivid in my mind. Their special American citizen "status" and Utopian living standards make our standard of living in the U.S. seem miserly.

Generations of these canal employees have cultivated an American type of "blimpism" so blatant that even their idol, "Old Roughrider" Teddy Roosevelt, would blush with shame.

D. MOREHOUSE

Albuquerque

Sir: By the treaty of 1903, Uncle Sam took advantage of a helpless baby republic just separated from Colombia. Secession was backed by the U.S. because the Colombian Senate had rejected American terms for a canal. The U.S. then took "in perpetuity" Panama's natural patrimony and most valuable natural resource and turned it into a state monopoly and a colony, splitting the new country in two.

Now the baby is growing, and crying foul. The U.S. waits for riots and violence before recognizing his rights, and then calls it "concessions." Why not plan for an orderly transition? It is a mistake to discard the whole affair as a Communist maneuver. We have our share of Communists--but don't prove them right.

FRANCIS ESCOFFERY JR.

Panama City

Sir: Your sensation-seeking misrepresentation of the news has just about destroyed what reputation we North Americans had in Panama for integrity and fair play. As a Canadian living in Panama, I object to your distortion of the facts.

MARGUERITE KENNEDY DE GARRICK

Panama City

Sir: I would like to express my satisfaction with TIME's fine job of reporting of the Panama Canal crisis.

Unfortunately many Americans and especially Panamanians were duped by the local press and radio releases into believing many untruths that were not substantiated by fact.

Having been in a position to personally observe what actually happened, I can attest to the veracity of your report.

JAMES SHAW

Lieutenant, U.S.A.F.

Canal Zone

Sir: I am neither American nor Panamanian, and while I do not condone killing, burning or looting under any circumstances, my sympathies in this affair are with the Panamanians and with the U.S. residents in Panama who strive to disassociate themselves from U.S. and Canal Zone policy.

MICHAEL ADLER

Panama City

Sir: Disturbances in Central and South America, with increasing hatred of the U.S., though alarming, are to be expected. We did not invoke the Monroe Doctrine when Russia started arming Cuba. This, followed by the Bay of Pigs, has established an enemy armed camp in our midst. If we give up control of the Panama Canal, we will lose prestige, endanger our country, and alienate all of our friends to the south of us. Let's not have to bow our heads in shame because of another "Bay of Pigs." Russia, the greatest hater in the world, is on the march. The Panama Canal is in its line of march.

MALCOLM L. DINWIDDIE

New Orleans

Texas

Sir: It is most interesting to read about Governor Connally and Texas, and we have gained much geographical knowledge of Texas. We hope you will give us to read in the future stories of other U.S. Governors and the states they govern. We have learned much in such a short time.

U ARIFF

Rangoon, Burma

Sir: Thank you for the enlightenment--I'd say give Texas back to the Indians or the Mexicans or to anyone who would be willing to take it off our hands!

Why should we subsidize, to the tune of $4 billion, these gun-toting wild men?

ARTHUR J. SCHALLER

Cranston, R.I.

Sir: In all my 28 years of existence, this is the first time I've ever read in a national publication anything that I felt told the true story of Texas.

DONALD CLEVELAND

Brownwood, Texas

Sir: I never was impressed with the state of Texas and find myself less so after reading your cover story on it. For a state that produces so many well-heeled businessmen through an accident of a superabundancy of natural resources, it seems ludicrous that so much federal aid is poured into it.

I wonder if L.B.J.'s economy drive will proportionately affect some of the 43 military installations throughout Texas.

CHARLES M. MURTAUGH

East Meadow, N.Y.

Sir: Johnny Connally and my brothers used to play together when they were boys, but after Connally left to go to the University of Texas and subsequently into his career, folks like us lost touch, except to hear about him occasionally.

I'm reminded of what my father, an old "Floresville Texan" himself for most of his 76 years, said when Mr. Connally was a candidate for Governor: "Johnny's a good boy; come from a mighty nice family. And I think he'll make a fine Governor--that is, if the politicians haven't learned him to be crooked."

VIRGINIA BAKER GILBERT

Austin, Texas

Sir: You have ingeniously conveyed the complexities of this massive state. One can easily understand that Texas encompasses many cults: the radical right, the untutored rich, and the confused Negro. However, it is important to note that these individual groups are minor compared with the boundless and unified enthusiasm that prevails in Texas.

ROBIN BRENT CLARKE

Rocky River, Ohio

An Anti-Communist

Sir: In your March 23, 1962, issue, you ran an article about politics and business in Guatemala that contained innuendoes about President Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes. I am writing you now because of the impact of that article upon this leader, whose recent publication My War with Communism I have just read.

I think you were unkind and unjust to a leader who, long before the rest of the hemisphere, recognized the malignancy of Communism, and at considerable risk to his own political future allowed Guatemala to be used as a training base for the Bay of Pigs invasion. In the common effort to resist the spread of Castro Communism in Central America, the U.S. had and has no stronger supporter or firmer friend than President Ydigoras Fuentes.

ROBERT KING HIGH

Miami

> TIME, which recognizes a journalistic duty to report the favorable and unfavorable in every country, willingly salutes the anti-Communist efforts of former President Ydigoras Fuentes, wishes him success.--ED.

Those Fast Foreign Makes

Sir: Regarding new imported-car registrations in your table headed "How They Sold" [Jan. 17], we of the British Motor Corp. have been decidedly pleased with our pace in the past year but did not realize it was so rapid as to be completely invisible.

Had we been included, our M.G. mark would be in third place (ahead of Triumph and just behind Renault).

H. J. L. SUFFIELD

President

The British Motor Corp./Hambro, Inc.

Ridgefield, NJ.

Sir: The statistical figures in your chart seem to imply that the five European makes mentioned therein represent the 1963 top sellers. For your information, the estimated Fiat registrations during 1963 in the U.S. are higher than Mercedes-Benz.

V. GARIBALDI President

Fiat Motor Co., Inc.

New York City

Courageous Concierges

Sir: Something is missing in your story about concierges [Jan. 17]. During the war, concierges saved people and property. They would run up the service stairway to warn a tenant when they realized that his callers were the Gestapo coming to arrest and deport or execute him (after torture generally, if he was in the Resistance).

When the tenant was away, often the concierge would say that he hadn't left a forwarding address when she knew where he was. Then she would manage to warn him and, moreover, would move by night the valuables in the apartment, hide them at the risk of trouble for herself, and give them back after the war. I know. It happened to me--and with two concierges.

RENEE GESMAR

New York City

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