India & Shastri

Sir: I greatly admire your Shastri cover story [Aug. 13]. Thanks to you, Americans will learn a great deal about India, especially about Prime Minister Shastri's ability to lead his country.

BILL DESHPANDE Oklahoma City

Sir: I was horrified to "learn" that Nehru "could barely speak Hindi." Nehru could speak Hindi as barely as Winston Churchill could speak English.

GAUTAM N. SHAH Cincinnati

^ TIME should have said "rarely spoke."

Sir: Please accept my congratulations. It is good that you have neither spared criticism nor yielded to any temptation to exaggerate some of our minor successes. I must, however, disagree with your statement: "India without Nehru stands dispirited and disillusioned." After the death of a dynamic Prime Minister or President, it is not unusual for a country to feel orphaned and disillusioned for a short time. But there has been a tremendous release of pent-up energy in India that will carry it forward for years, and the cause will find its leader. A temporary food shortage and a border invasion do not change the pride or mental attitude of a people with 5,000 years of civilization behind them. British rule in India was punctuated by periodic famines. Conditions are better today, although no one has any illusions about the size of the tasks ahead.

B. MRITYUNJAYAN Boston

Nuclear Proliferation

Sir: I have read with great interest your Essay on nuclear proliferation [July 23]. You are kind enough to refer to my novel, Commander-1, which sets forth a ploy by which Red China could destroy the U.S. and Russia. The Essay is beautifully written and extremely thoughtprovoking. It is important that a magazine of your status should devote space to the world's greatest problem. Your Essay presents, without bias, the arguments of both sides in the world dilemma. I lean heavily toward the U.S. views, but it is encouraging to see this matter discussed without prejudice. This is journalism at its finest. PETER GEORGE Sussex, England

The Writing of Secret History

Sir: Reading from the works of Presidential Pundits White and Schlesinger [July 30], I find that, like Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's Travels, I have "discovered the roguery and ignorance of those who pretend to write anecdotes, or secret history; who send so many kings to their graves with a cup of poison; will repeat the discourse between a prince and chief minister, where no witness was by; unlock the thoughts and cabinets of embassadors and secretaries of state; and have the perpetual misfortune to be mistaken."

EDWARD E. VAILL Washington, D.C.

The Right to Work

Sir: As one of the 21 Republican Congressmen who voted for repeal of Section 14(b), permitting states to enact right-towork laws, I disagree with your statement that as a result of our vote, "in any firm where a union persuades--or forces--management to agree to a union shop, a worker who does not join the union within 30 days can be fired" [Aug. 6]. What Senator Taft proposed in 1947, and what Congress did in the Taft-Hartley Act, was to permit unions and management to negotiate (if they desired) for a contract clause requiring all employees to pay fees and dues to the union for services rendered. This provision was designed to take care of the "free rider," i.e., the employee who accepted union benefits and services without paying his share of union costs. I hope this will help explain the House vote to repeal Section 14(b), a vote which will lift the right-to-work prohibition against free bargaining by management and labor to require employees in an organized plant to pay their fair share for the benefits won by majority action.

THOMAS M. PELLY House of Representatives Washington, D.C.

Retaliation Promised

Sir: TIME, along with about 90% of all news media, appears to be pulling down the paper curtain on the murder of a fine young white man by Negro hoodlums in Americus, Ga. [Aug. 6]. If he had been a black or white agitator, the bloody shirt would have been waved from cover to cover. Although I know not a single citizen of Americus, I resent your calling them "raucous rubes." Why don't you characterize the troublemakers as "the motley mob"?

We are fed up with their antics in disrupting traffic and restraint of trade, but this senseless murder is the last straw. Do you damyankees think we are a bunch of vegetables to lie down and take this invasion of our homeland without retaliating? If so, you might be in for a rude awakening. For all their hypocritical preaching of "nonviolence," violence is all they understand, and they just might get more than they are barking for some day soon. MARY HAMMOND Atlanta

Books, Summer & Otherwise

Sir: Some reflections on your telling Essay [Aug. 13]: Could it be that the "heavy" reading taken on vacations is a subconscious reaction to the trivia bombarding Americans daily through the mass media? Does this daily diet of "light" entertainment dull--or prevent the develop ment of ability to read thought-provoking literature, thus accounting for the few great books finished on vacations? MRS. DAVID L. THOMAS Urbana, 111.

Sir: Your summer reading game lacks the fun of those created by Parker Brothers, since the price of victory is too high. As I understand it, anything merely enjoyable is out because one should get points only for hard work--that is, for a long-winded book on a long-dead subject. Also keeping me awake nights is this puzzle: How can I find a copy of Doctor No with thick enough pages and big enough print to hide my Doctor Zhivago? As of now, I see no way out; I intend to tackle Pasternak right out in the open, breeze through a few Bonds even though I think they've been discovered, maybe read that point-losing Michener book, and ignore Life History of the Striped Bass (Roccus saxatilis).

FREDERICK R. GAENSLEN Milwaukee

Sir: I am enormously grateful to TIME for its generous allotment of space to Dante and me [July 9], and I thought the story came out beautifully. Heartiest congratulations to whoever wrote it.

TIME, in its passage, brings all things Nor is its measure scanty; Mark how melodiously it sings Of our great master, Dante!

THOMAS G. BERGIN New Haven, Conn.

Words & Music

Sir: I read with interest your article on Wieland Wagner's work [Aug. 6]. Wie-land's productions are stripping away the excess fat that has worked its way into Wagner's work since his death. Wieland's productions of Parsifal have been the most impressive and moving ever mounted. Wieland's scenery is in keeping with Wagner's own philosophy that darkness offers comfort, peace and rest, while harsh light is to be feared. It is quite possible that when Wieland finishes at the Met in 1966, American audiences may finally abandon the fluffy Italian monstrosities in favor of Wagner's masterpieces. Then the critics who have been screaming about a "Wagnerdammerung" will be reminded that Dammerung also means dawn. JAMES W. SCHMIDT Woodbury, N.J.

Absolution by Telephone? Sir: For goodness' sake, tell your Religion editor that not every whimsical rumor circulated among Catholics need be lublished. Catholics know they do not iave to confess every time they receive ommunion [Aug. 6]. The majority have 10 serious problems of conscience as to tie gravity of this or that sin, but if hese so-called "deep thinkers" continue heir delight in breaking down accepted jractices of the church, we priests will et up a telephone exchange or a tape o reel off the absolution.

COMMANDER H. T. LAVIN Catholic Chaplain J.S. Naval Amphibious Base Slorfolk, Va. 3relude to Action

Sir: TIME is to be congratulated for its coverage of the White House Conference on Education [July 30]. More than one news magazine failed to see the forest for

he trees; critics expected immediate results. TIME properly saw the conference as a "prelude to a new push."

A. G. BARBER JR.

History Department Perkiomen School Pennsburg, Pa. Sir: In your picture of the White House conferees, you identify the second man from the left as Eli Ginzberg. When this man was born, in 1919, I named him Lyle Morgan Nelson. GUY C. NELSON Chicago A wise father.

Young Dr. Cureton Sir: You failed to mention that Dr. Thomas K. Cureton Jr. [Aug. 6], pictured running on his powerfully built legs and calves, is 61 years young. ROBERT S. DAVIS Los Angeles

Hostile Hostels Sir: Hotel Designer William Benjamin Tabler and his moneysaving ideas [Aug. 6] intrigued me. Permit me to suggest a few more such economies. Instead of a bed, supply a cot 3 ft. by 6 ft. suspended from the wall. The room need then be only one foot wider and longer than the cot. Instead of linen, disposable paper sheets, pillow slips and towels. A stall shower supplants the tub, and a faucet on the wall of the compartment replaces the lavatory. The room may be illuminated from the hall via a transom. Properly placed, four rooms may thus be illuminated by one lamp, thereby effecting a considerable saving.

S. W. BURNETT Chicago

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