Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Sir: May the hair on your toes grow ever longer. Thanks for the story on The Lord of the Rings [July 15]. And by the way, college students aren't the only ones who read about hobbits: I'm a sophomore in high school.

LAURIE CARLSON

Long Beach, Calif.

Sir: I have been reading Tolkien since I was ten, at a time when, as you say, it "languished largely unread." At that time, Tolkien came as a blessed and delightful discovery, unsullied by elvish slogans on subway walls, FRODO LIVES buttons, or campus societies. But now, everywhere one turns, gushing over-enthusiasts are to be found turning Tolkien into a common cult, with no recognition for the most ardent readers of all who, instead of joining the society, are keeping quiet. As for you, TIME, may the hair on your feet become mangy and fall out. You have done your bit.

JESSICA LOTTMAN

New York City

Defining Power

Sir: As a Negro, I regret that the term "black power" [July 22] has been introduced into the civil rights movement, because it has a detrimental and misleading connotation. The Negro wants power only in the sense of being represented, heard and accepted. Because of his lack of power, he has been stripped of human dignity. Even steel wears out: many Negroes are tired of being subservient. I have been taught to turn the other cheek, and I definitely believe in this philosophy. However, many Negroes are adhering to the natural instinct of man to retaliate before being mutilated.

ARCHIE W. BATES

Norfolk

Sir: It is time for honest whites to acknowledge that the concept of black power is necessary and long overdue. In New York, for example, despite a decade of peaceful civil rights protest, still another lost generation is growing up imprisoned behind ghetto walls. We cannot deny that white power is used every day to keep black New Yorkers in their place--in black jobs, black schoolrooms and black neighborhoods.

Now at last our black fellow citizens are telling us they are tired of begging. They are telling us that if we refuse to reckon with their humanity, we must reckon with their power. Let us not be surprised if their power proves to be almost as ugly as ours.

MERRILL MARTIN

New York City

Sir: "Whitey" is now offering the Negro the kind of power that really counts--the kind that builds self-respect, the power of knowledge, which is neither white nor black. This power cannot be donated; it demands something that the Negro as a group has not yet had the chance to demonstrate--learning power.

Until Negro leadership successfully directs the black American toward his only practical goal--knowledge--the power of the Negro will remain what it is today, a mere public nuisance. And Whitey is beginning to yawn at that.

N. HENRY

Yonkers, N.Y.

The Way They Feel

Sir: Your cover story on Indonesia, "Vengeance with a Smile" [July 15], was, I think, timely, educational and necessary.

NORM JONES

Vancluse, N.S.W.

Australia

Sir: The caption on your cover, INDONESIA: The Land the Communists Lost, is not complete. It should be followed by: Without American Troops, There is a moral to it.

HUGO VAN ARX

Patzcuaro, Mexico

Sir: Lynching is lynching, and I am against lynching. It makes no difference whether a white mob lynches a Negro in Mississippi or a black mob lynches a white man in the Congo, whether a Communist mob lynches an "exploiter" in China or a Nationalist mob lynches a "Peking dog" in Indonesia.

MARTIN BRONFENBRENNER

Stanford University

Stanford, Calif.

About the Madding Crowd

Sir: Re your Essay "In Defense of Privacy" [July 15]:

If one doesn't enjoy telephone conversations, who is preventing him from hanging up? If one doesn't like TV, why turn on the set in the first place? If one is saturated by printed matter, what statute binds him to peruse every word of it?

"Bugging" is morally wrong, but other complaints about a lack of privacy indicate that something is wrong with the complainer alone, not with our society.

AARON I. REICHEL

Hunter, N.Y.

Sir: It is a sad commentary on the times we live in that those who try to achieve some measure of privacy are usually looked upon as strange, conceited or even antisocial. But this is a small price to pay for something one cannot live without.

HANNA HOCHFELD

San Francisco

Sir: Your allegation that an Internal Revenue employee wore a transmitter in her brassiere is preposterous. When I put my head on a girl's bosom, I rarely feel inclined to discuss my income taxes.

IRA S. LOEB

Lexington, Mass.

For the Recorder

Sir: Your excellent story on the recorder [July 15] was incomplete. Many Americans, including me, heard their first recorder played by the Trapp family in the late '40s. The impact of that group continues to be felt in many recorder groups now playing. What a pity that Sound of Music ignored the recorder completely.

JOHN BIXLER

Music Teacher

University of Iowa

Iowa City

Significant Achievement

Sir: As the one American on the jury of the international Tchaikovsky Vocal Competition in Moscow, I share the feeling of pride that TIME demonstrated in its story [July 8] on Winner Jane Marsh, who displayed vocal beauty, technical skill and flawless musicianship.

TIME's piece would have made me even happier had it referred also to the winner of the second prize, Veronica Tyler of Baltimore. Miss Tyler is a superb artist and was a very special favorite of the Russian audiences. Her achievement is a significant one.

GEORGE LONDON

Vufflens-le-Chateau (Vaud)

Switzerland

Party Line

Sir: In "Thriving Independents" [July 8], TIME notes that "to many a telephone user, it comes as a surprise to learn that even small independent companies have modern equipment and first-rate service." To enlarge upon this: the independents are responsible for most of the innovations and advancements in telephone exchange facilities. The dial telephone was developed and in general use among independent companies long before it was adopted by Bell. Another feature in general use by independents for half a century (but not yet used by Bell) is full selective ringing on rural multiparty lines. Independents introduced the handset or cradle-type telephone, the ringer in the telephone base, the colored telephone, conversation timing and other features.

H. M. STEWART

President and General Manager

Standard Telephone Co.

Cornelia, Georgia

In Solomon's Footsteps

Sir: I cannot see that the number of wives Justice Douglas [July 22] has had has anything to do with his ability as a judge. King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 lady friends, and the wisdom and justice of his legal decisions have made them valuable models for all judges in all ages.

VICTOR B. BROWN

Vancouver, Wash.

No Ties to Bind

Sir: "A Riot in the White House" [July 22] omitted one significant point in its summary of the Women's Wear Daily scoop on the Luci wedding fashions. Though the White House has banned WWD from the wedding for publishing the news in advance, the White House well knows no release dates were broken by WWD, which refused to attend off-the-record briefings and, therefore, bound itself to no release dates. The White House ban comes under the heading of retaliation for offenses uncommitted.

JAMES W. BRADY

Publisher

Women's Wear Daily

New York City

Mr. Somebody v. Mr. Anybody

Sir: With the CAB's Bureau of Enforcement filing formal complaints against airlines for maintaining VIP lounges [July 15] for selected customers, Big Brother takes another giant step forward. I am one of those ordinary, plebeian air travelers, "jostled about and sweating around a crowded airline counter" (which is hog-wash), and I am not infuriated that another passenger should get special treatment by having access to the VIP lounge. It is, after all, the privilege of the airline to favor whom it sees fit to favor, whether he contributes to international understanding or to aviation, or flies a lot, or just plain knows somebody who knows Somebody. But Mr. Anybody, who contributes nothing to nothing, just can't stand it. He wants in, so he cries the magic and feared door opener of our age, "Discrimination!" And the Government, slobbering like Pavlov's dogs, leaps to his defense. Where does it all end? Well, no matter; but Mr. Orwell's estimate was optimistic.

J. T. MILLER

Honolulu

Sir: As an ex-stewardess for one of these lines, I have seen these card-holding members in action. Many of them, boasting of their club membership, seem to think this card entitles them to extra service, both on the ground and in flight. The poor lonesome G.I. is just to be served and then ignored. We don't know what the VIP does or who he is, but we sure know who the G.I. is and what he is doing.

JEANETTE DODGE

Foxboro, Mass.

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