Talk About the Tower

Sir: It's not too difficult to understand why there are so many disturbed people like Charles Whitman [Aug. 12] in your technological society.

Education is geared to absorbing facts. Values are based on money, power and status. Life is ruthlessly competitive, yet morals rest on a Protestant puritanism demanding emotional restraint. Work and pleasure are largely directed by machines, and children are put into communication with machines too early, often as a substitute for human relationship. They may learn faster, but do they experience and feel more?

As for the American cult of the "mother" . . . ugh! No wonder some scientists seriously consider automatic incubators for future generations.

MRS. J. MARAIS Paris

Sir: When in doubt about personal motivation and/or lacking common sense, let us hastily draw our conclusions from the gospel according to Freud and rap "Mom" on the knuckles again.

Because Charles Whitman was male, the major motivation behind his psychosis is said to have involved his mother. Yet it wasn't his mother who trained him to handle guns as soon as he was old enough to hold them; it wasn't his mother who beat his father; it wasn't his mother who is described as authoritarian; it wasn't his mother he hated with passion.

Charlie Brown gets better "analysis" from Lucy, and she only charges a nickel!

D. KAY ROBINSON Arlington, Va.

Sir: The half-outraged, half-defensive statement by self-described "gun fanatic" Charles A. Whitman, father of Mass Murderer Charles J. Whitman, that "I raised my boys to know how to handle guns" echoes the plaintive wail of another father, Willy Loman, protagonist of Death of a Salesman, who in exasperation over his son Biff, cries out: "Why is he stealing? What did I tell him? I never in my life told him anything but decent things." Particularly in light of the Austin tragedy, Whitman's utterance seems just as hollow, counterfeit and pathetic as Willy's.

GEORGE S. DIAMOND Easton, Pa.

Sir: TIME calls Whitman "the perpetrator of the worst mass murder in recent U.S. history." What about the charmer who a few years ago put a bomb in his mother's airborne suitcase and sent 44 innocents to a terrifying death?

FRED WAYNE Los Angeles

Sir: We traveled the breadth of Texas last summer. Granted, everything is big, but when you say Charles Whitman carried a 35-mm. Remington, that isn't big; that's Texas.

RODNEY M. HEISEY, 16 DENNIS M. HEISEY, 13 Lancaster, Pa.

> TIME of course meant .35 calibre.

Sir: Your cover story and a current historical bestseller, Barbara Tuchman's The Proud Tower, share a leitmotiv from Edgar Allan Poe's "The City in the Sea": While from a proud tower in the town, Death looks gigantically down.

NANCY STALLER Glencoe, Ill.

Sir: The millions of guns privately owned in the U.S., and the care and restraint exercised by their owners, are a tribute to American democracy, for their very existence exemplifies the democratic system: the mutual trust between the citizen and his government.

If other countries have stringent laws restricting individual ownership of guns, it would be well to remember that their governments have evolved from a background of feudalism and/or dictatorship, in which rulers have had good reasons not to trust their subjects.

It would be no credit to our nation if a governmental lack of trust of its citizens became embodied in law by giving the police arbitrary power to license the right of self-defense. When a man can no longer obtain the means necessary to that most elemental civil and natural right, defense of his life and loved ones, he is no longer a free man in a free country.

J. NEWCOMER Kent, Ohio

Sir: The Dodd gun bill forbids the importation of surplus military weapons for sale to the general public. It is interesting to note that the following companies are located in Connecticut: Marlin, Colts, Ruger, High Standard, Remington, and the Winchester division of Olin Mathieson. With the supply of economical rifles stemmed, American shooters will be forced to buy expensive arms manufactured by Senator Dodd's constituents.

CHRISTOPHER C. COUGHLIN Burlington, Vt.

Good News Is Its Own Reason

Sir: In reply to Letter Writer Petersen's objecting [Aug. 19] to your cover story on Luci Johnson's wedding: Does good news, a happy occasion, need justification?

BETH H. PENROSE Lexington, Ky.

Sir: If Luci had remained an Episcopalian, she no doubt would have been married by Dean Francis Sayre Jr. of Washington Cathedral, son of Francis Sayre, who was married to President Wilson's daughter in the White House, and who is the son of Robert Sayre, after whom Sayre, Pa., is named.

PAUL E. SEIBEL City Editor Evening Times Sayre, Pa.

The Silencers

Sir: In an otherwise fine Essay, "When Noise Annoys" [Aug. 19], you forgot to mention the most unnerving of all noise--the overwhelming cacophony of banal gibberish emanating from Washington's politicians.

ROLLIN G. DOUMA

Ann Arbor, Mich.

Sir: On our otherwise peaceful island, day and night, the sensitive ear is bedeviled with the bzzz, bzzzzz, BZZZZ, BZZZZZZ of scooters; the brr, brrrrrr, BRRRRRR, BRRRRRRR of motorcycles; the growling to screeching of enormous buses; and the sullen roar of sports cars. The ear flinches, and sleep comes slowly if at all.

It is my suggestion that there be a national antinoise law which would force the manufacturers to install silencers at the factory.

Perhaps the ear will someday become atrophied from self-defense. If so, the memory may serve to recall the bird's song, or the flawless turn of a musical phrase. Until then, I guess it's earplugs for most of us.

VIRGINIA LEE BEARDSELL Martha's Vineyard, Mass.

Good Men, Tried & True

Sir: Right in the middle of an emotional slump, when the world situation looks hopeless and the human condition looks hopelesser, I read "The Law--Juries" [Aug. 12], and all of a sudden the sky clears. I'm smiling. Those lovely, lovely juries, made up of lovely, lovely human beings. They combine compassion, sympathy, empathy, some intelligence, some perception, humor, wit, a smattering of ignorance, etc., and when it comes verdict time, they actually do temper justice with mercy, and do unto others as they would have others do unto them.

JANICE KNOWLTON New York City

Paradise Lost?

Sir: In "Civil Rights--a Modest Milestone" [Aug. 19], you write: "When Massachusetts' Attorney General and G.O.P. Senatorial Candidate Edward Brooke tried recently to move to Milton, a wealthy suburb of Boston, he was peremptorily turned away; now he lives in Newton, an equally swank suburb."

The facts are these: I bought my present house in Newton in early 1963. My family and I have been happy there, and we have made no efforts to make a change either to Milton or to any other community in the past four years.

When I was in the market for a new house in late 1962 and 1963, I encountered no difficulty whatsoever as my wife and I surveyed the suburbs of Boston trying to decide where we would prefer to live. We were graciously and hospitably received everywhere, and could have purchased a house in any one of half a dozen greater Boston communities.

Massachusetts, like most other states, still has problems to solve insofar as free access to good housing is concerned, but we have made giant strides forward. I know that my own experience is not an isolated one.

EDWARD W. BROOKE Boston

Sir: Newton the equal of Milton, you claim?

The Late George Apley, who lived here, said: "At any rate, it is no time for social distinctions. I am very glad to see both Catharine and Eleanor, while they are making bandages for the Red Cross, rubbing elbows and laughing with women from the Newtons. It is all a part of this new spirit of camaraderie."

As for Attorney General Brooke, he was always welcome here, and I understand that his sister lived in Milton for several years without any fuss.

MRS. C. WILLIAMS Milton, Mass.

Odd Part

Sir: So now the DJs are all in a dither because John Lennon of the Beatles [Aug. 12, Aug. 19] has been mouthing off again. You'd think people'd be used to his snickery, sneery philosophy by now. And anyhow, in this country we're supposed to have a traditional respect for people voicing their considered opinions. But that respect, like Christianity, is something we see very little of. The odd part of this story is that what the guy said is true. Of course the Beatles are more popular than Jesus. So are Volkswagens, golfing, blondes, politics, football, pop art, Batman, drag racing and money.

ANN BRENT Royal Oak, Mich.

Sir: Due to John Lennon's recent notorious comments, Beatle songs have been mysteriously vanishing from the broadcasting air. It is ironic that the church may soon be the only place to perform Beatle music. Christ Church Cathedral is the first to grant temporary sanctuary. This month cherubic choirboys will join The Sensations in a program entitled "Bach and the Beatles." Besides guitars, drums and boys' voices, we will be using organ, harpsichord and recorder.

GEORGE BENN Prefect of the Choristers Christ Church Cathedral Indianapolis

From the Sandbox

Sir: Exactly what are the preschool pushers seeking to accomplish by wrenching toys from children and thrusting books into their hands [Aug. 12]?

Isn't the average person subjected to enough pressure in the highly competitive adult world without being harassed as a child? It would seem to me that an emotionally stable, intellectually average child whose parents have maintained some balance in guiding his mental development is far better off than the neurotic quiz kid, all too often the victim of impatient parental tutoring. If that is not so, let us admit children to school at the age of one year. Better yet, perhaps a crash program in genetics would culminate in the elimination of childhood altogether. Then we would all be born adults, ready and eager to begin the rat race at the drop of a hat.

ROBERT RUBINOWITZ Phoenix, Ariz.

Sir: Status schmatus! One is either convinced of preschoolers' enormous capacity to learn (which Montessori demonstrated 50 years ago), or one accepts public-school educators' view of the child: i.e., at the age of five he can benefit from two hours of social sandbox, at six he is capable of intellectual achievement (which he often is expected to demonstrate by learning the alphabet the first week of school).

For those of the former who are prevented by distance, geographic or financial, from enrolling children in Montessori schools, there seems no alternative but to educate in the home. For my tads, the educational materials include a 2-ft. sign joyously inscribed MOMMY.

RUTH GEHRED NAPP Sun Prairie, Wis.

Queen of the Cowgirls

Sir: Discussing artists who added luster to the legend of Buffalo Bill [Aug. 12], TIME overlooked the most famous one of them all, the unusual Frenchwoman Rosa Bonheur, whose real name was Rosalie Mazeltov.

Petite as she was, Rosa was no sissy when it came to handling a paintbrush, guns or horses.

When Buffalo Bill took his Wild West show to Paris, Rosa was the first and most frequent visitor. Although she was already an old woman, the color and pageantry of American Indians and cowboys thrilled and delighted her. Buffalo Bill himself escorted her about the grounds and invited her to paint the Indians and cowboys in action. This she did, and everyday brought her new excitement. So engrossed was she with her painting of the show that she refused to take time out to eat. Asked by Buffalo Bill why she did not eat, she replied: "I can do that any time, but when shall I ever again find such splendid subjects to paint?"

Rosa did the now famous portrait depicting Bill astride his favorite Appaloosa. In return for the portrait, the King of Cowboys sent Rosa a pair of wild American mustangs. In no time at all, they were broken in and eating out of Rosa's hand, just as tame as kittens. They were the models for some of her most important pictures.

LYNN KEPMAN New York City

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