Voice of the Angels

Sir: Hooray for Mayor Yorty and Los Angeles [Sept. 2]! Even during rush-hour traffic on a smoggy day, I think I'm lucky to live in this beautiful city.

(MRS.) FRANCIS A. BREIDENBACH Granada Hills, Calif.

Sir: Judging from Mayor Yorty's comment, "Any man who reads beyond the second paragraph of the city charter would be out of his mind to run for mayor," I conclude that Mayor Sam 1) has never read beyond the second paragraph of the city charter, or 2) is out of his mind. Considering his meaningless bickering with the City Council; his uncalled for, pseudo expert opinions on Viet Nam; and his strange proclivity for the word "plot," I incline toward the second possibility.

PAUL S. FINGEROTE Los Angeles

Sir: That was a splendid story on Yorty and our great city. As a former New Yorker, may I say that the difference between Watts and Harlem is the difference between limbo and hell. If Yorty is given half a chance, Watts may become a heaven, like the rest of our wonderful city.

ERIC SOKOLSKY Hollywood

Sir: I was highly pleased with the excellent job you did on Los Angeles. We are in similar businesses in that normally we hear the gripes, seldom do we receive kudos. I doff my hat.

PAUL H. LAMPORT Councilman, 13th District Los Angeles

Writing on the Wall

Sir: Many articles have been written about South Africa and apartheid, but none as searching and balanced as your cover story "The Great White Laager" [Aug. 26]. As a patriotic but very anti apartheid white South African, I hope your story will serve as the writing on the wall for the thousands of my fellow white South Africans who will no doubt read it. Perhaps the greatest tragedy in South Africa is that there are so many sensible white South Africans who turn a deliberately blind eye to one of history's saddest, most inhuman situations.

RICHARD H. BACKWELL Cambridge, England

Sir: Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd is not only the ablest white leader Africa has ever produced but the only white leader in the world with the guts to speak his mind.

H. A. BLUME Barrington, Ill.

Sir: I commend you for bringing South Africa's apartheid policies before your readers; those policies are a matter of grave international concern. My Subcommittee on Africa has been holding hearings on United States-South African Relations since March. While we heard considerable testimony from a score of expert witnesses, and extended an invitation to American businessmen and financiers, none of the latter seemed to think it advisable to testify, which I regret.

BARRATT O'HARA Congressman from Illinois Washington, D.C.

Sir: You have so frightened the South African government by your coyer story that they cannot make up their minds whether or not to let us read it. The censorship board will decide in three weeks, we are told. Though I have not been able to read the article, as a Canadian priest serving a "colored" community, I can affirm that apartheid is not only a delusion. It is a monstrous evil--blasphemous, antiChristian, immoral, inhuman and unjust. (THE REV.) R. L. W. RITCHIE Bloemfontein, South Africa

In a Cocked Hat

Sir: The inquisitional technique of the House Un-American Activities Committee [Aug. 26] is a naive approach to the problem of sedition. But I grant that the intentions of Chairman Pool and his subcommittee are generally admirable.

I cannot say the same for the witnesses and their lawyers. They injected into the proceedings enough sound and fury to turn an honest investigation into a mad, futile carnival. These unthinking exhibitionists have crippled the cause they so hotly championed. So costumed Jerry Rubin, an absurd symbol of the entire childish display, waved his cocked hat and bellowed, "I object! I object!" I hope he doesn't mind if his countrymen borrow this cry to voice their opposition to his and his fellows' truly un-American antics.

ROBERT W. LEBLING JR. Potomac, Md.

Sir: The publicity-hungry House Committee on Un-American Activities and the recently subpoenaed militant Communist leaders deserve each other. When I think of the way these hearings were conducted. I see red. If HUAC is the epitome of Americanism, then fly me to the moon! CHARLES G. WEBB

San Francisco

Blowing the Whistle

Sir: Failing to call the reserves for active duty [Aug. 26] is like training a pro football team all year for the big game and, when the kickoff whistle blows, benching your team and going up into the stands to pick out eleven spectators to do your playing for you.

GEORGE DORSEY Eugene, Ore.

Better Awareness

Sir: We greatly appreciated the Essay on the foreign visitor in America [Aug. 26] and believe it will contribute toward creating a better awareness of this movement of people, so important to our domestic economy and to a fuller international understanding of this country.

I am quoted as saying that the cost of travel within the U.S. remains the largest problem we have in attracting more visitors. Let me clarify: it is the presumed high cost that creates the problem, not the actual cost. By and large, travel costs in this country compare quite favorably with those overseas.

JOHN W. BLACK Director

U.S. Travel Service Washington

Sir: My face reddened when I read that foreign visitors give the U.S. Customs a minus on courtesy. I got a feeling of failure. I knew the provocation was there, but not on such a scale as to make TIME.

The multitude of jobs we do for our own and other agencies is ever-increasing. The points of information a customs inspector has to keep in his head are so many, it is amazing that there is room for smile cells to operate. But we try to make room, and have never eased off the pressure on our officers to keep the smile side up.

When times are good, people travel, and the prestige of uniformed people like customs officers is low. This is reflected in the travelers' treatment of us, and in spite of orders, an occasional officer will rough back at it. We are educating our officers --but who is educating the public? Courtesy is a two-way street.

WILLIAM G. WALKER Operations Officer Bureau of Customs Ogdensburg, N.Y.

How to Contribute

Sir: In "Caution on Civil Rights" [Aug. 26], remarks attributed to me create an inaccurate impression of my congregation. Yes, many were upset when I responded to Selma, but 25% expressed appreciation. The church council commended my involvement by a 12-to-3 vote, and offered our facilities so that 16 of our members could tutor Negro children. Earlier, 26 members marched through Evanston urging freedom of housing. A good share of Immanuel's members expect forthright guidance on social issues from the Lutheran Church in America. I have interpreted Immanuel Lutheran Church as an encouraging example of how a congregation can contribute to the solution of racial injustice.

(THE REV.) NOAH M. INBODY Immanuel Lutheran Church Evanston, Ill.

Thoughts for Food

Sir: So Agriculture Secretary Freeman puts some of the blame for high food costs on the housewife because "she insists on buying such processed meals as TV dinners, where the same ingredients would cost her one-third as much if she were willing to cook for herself" [Aug. 26]. I saved 20 TV trays, spent a long, hard day refilling them with food on sale, then sat down to figure how much I'd saved. The total cost for 20 refilled trays was 30 less than the cost of 20 filled ones--an entire day to save 30!

NORMA ARCHBOLD Bellwood, 111.

Sir: Those who consider farm income high don't realize that this income is the profit on a large, risky investment. It is the year's pay for a 60-hour work week with no fringe benefits. If the shopper would separate the cost of cleaning supplies, cigarettes and other nonedible items from the cost of groceries, she'd find that the grocery bill wasn't so bad.

N. THORNTON Yamhill, Ore.

Action & Reaction

Sir: About "The Galloping Glacier" [Aug. 19], I didn't say, and it is not true, that "We just don't know anything about the actions and reactions of glaciers." The statement is both fatuous and a most demeaning comment on the achievements of the many scientists who, in the past couple of centuries, have learned a very great deal indeed about the behavior of glaciers. But it is true that sudden advances, or "surges," like the present two-foot-per-hour flow of the Steele Glacier, have been given only theoretical consideration. None have been thoroughly studied while in progress in the Western Hemisphere, and only one has been studied elsewhere, by Russian researchers.

SAM G. COLLINS Yukon Territory, Canada

Legend of the Crawfish Country

Sir: Fie on famous folk like Rodgers, Wayne, and Gig Young who attempt to gain Olympic croquet berths [Aug. 26] on strength of name only! I offer a real contender, D. Leon Turner of New Orleans, a prime team candidate who practically singlehanded transformed West New Orleans from a stickball hamlet into the Croquet Capital of the Crawfish Country, and became a livelier living legend than W. Averell in the Deep South. When regional tryouts are held, be sure to extend an invitation to this unsung hero of malleteers.

FRED BERNOS New Orleans

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