In Mourning

Sir: Dr. Martin Luther King was TIME'S Man of the Year in 1964. Considering the meaningful humanistic events of the last two decades, he will surely be recognized for his role as a leader of this century. I have no words for those who killed him. But as a father, I bleed for others' sons who may die in the streets, having hopelessly cast aside the idea of nonviolent attainment of the principles of our Constitution. King preached as a man of God, but men of conscience must remember him as a man of the people.

WILLIAM STEPHENS Arlington, Va.

Sir: I must express my outrage. Memphis now ranks with Dallas.

CHARLOTTE CARTER BECKETT Virginia Beach, Va.

Sir: Let us lower the flags of our country to half staff until there is liberty, freedom and justice for all.

SASHA VONSCHERLER MAYER Manhattan

Goodbye, Mr. President

Sir: To those of us who believe in the sincerity of his effort, the President's recent decision to decline nomination [April 5] has been a saddening blow. It is a most unfortunate world when a man must sacrifice the fulfillment of his great career in order to prove a point. In reality, however, I feel that in order to make his effort worthy of recognition in the eyes of the world, something drastic had to be done. The people of the U.S. are most fortunate to have him as their President.

JAMES M. COHEN, '70 Marquette School of Medicine Milwaukee

Sir: TIME'S "Election Extra" in 1964 featured a smiling, victorious Lyndon Baines Johnson in his hour of triumph after amassing the greatest popular vote in U.S. history; that, in awesome contrast to the agonized figure we recently viewed on TV. If ever we need to illustrate an example of America's ingratitude to an elected President (i.e., his achievements in behalf of civil rights, aid to education, the elderly and handicapped, Medicare, urban renewal, social security, conservation, etc.), this should certainly be unparalleled in its savagery.

CAROLINE SETTLES Lexington, Ky.

Sir: It is with almost unbearable pain that we have witnessed the end of the chase, a lion brought down by a yelping mongrel pack.

ROBERT PAUL ALBERTS Dallas

Sir: Would it perhaps be fair to say that, after running the ship of state onto the shoals of diplomatic, fiscal and military defeat, "Captain" Johnson was the first to board a lifeboat for the sunny shores of the Pedernales?

R. J. DURAN

Tulsa, Okla.

Sir: Ironically, L.B.J.'s withdrawal will hasten the peace he has so earnestly sought--the peace that his antagonists abroad have hitherto denied him and his detractors at home doubted he truly sought. Ironically, too, this greatest sacrifice by an American President was made by the President considered most consummately political.

F. JAY PEPPER, M.D. Omaha

Sir: Judging from Hanoi's past performance, I imagine that the Communists will reject Mr. Johnson's peace plan. They will interpret the President's withdrawal as a sign of weakness and an indication that the American people are nearly ready to give up. With these thoughts the Communists will step up their offensive. Americans, in turn, will be outraged at the enemy's acts of war and lack of humility. The criers will come to stand behind the President and go for a military victory. What politician would refuse an all-out draft campaign? Yes, I think that Lyndon Johnson continues to be the very shrewd politician that he has been for 30 years.

JEFF ATKINSON Evanston, III.

Sir: May the Lord bless (and forgive) L.B.J.

BILL EISEN, '70 Amherst College Amherst, Mass.

The Gene & Bobby Show

Sir: Senator Eugene McCarthy is neither exclusively courageous nor foolhardy. Rather, in his uncompromising and unselfish honesty, he transcends these rather theatrical concepts as both an American and politician. He is the only presidential candidate who vigorously and sincerely attacks, in depth and on all fronts, the evergrowing administrative moral-political dichotomy, which so greatly alarms the nation today.

J. B. Nicolls III

Ann Arbor, Mich.

Sir: Your implication that Minnesotans tolerantly and forgivingly accept Senator McCarthy's nonperformance in office is certainly subject to some extensive qualifications. People who have to call on our representatives for information, counsel and aid are not amused, and it goes beyond the affront of not getting responsive action to a request. What is most resented is that the work is shifted to already overburdened representatives--first Hubert Humphrey and now Senator Mondale. Considering McCarthy's undistinguished and largely negative record in the field of legislation, in comparison with the records of Mondale and Humphrey, we resent having to take the time of such men from more important tasks because McCarthy simply does not function. Minnesotans who have experienced this are neither tolerant nor forgiving.

FREDRICK S. GRAM St. Paul

Sir: The candidacy of Robert Kennedy is an effrontery to thinking Americans. But it is also much, much more than this. It is a menace to us and to the entire world, free and chained alike. Consumed by an inner hunger, this grotesque shadow of his dedicated and martyred brother aspires to our highest office, the earth's most awesome responsibility. An awkward, ungainly member of an attractive family, he nevertheless generates a perverse sort of magnetism and hypnotism on those who have forgotten or never knew. Obsessed yet pitiful, cynical yet credulous, intense yet coy, this distorted Kennedy may succeed in his warped crusade, but if he wins, we shall all lose.

PHILIP HOLBROOK VIVIAN JR. Cape Elizabeth, Me.

Sir: Now--having been one of the Viet Nam instigators--when it is getting really quite horribly dangerous, Bobby advocates pulling out, sans honor, sans all those lives, just like the Bay of Pigs.

MRS. O. H. BARNES Urbana, 111.

Sir: The spectacle of Robert Kennedy constantly disparaging his country's motives in public is amazing. I have a son fighting in Viet Nam, and downgrading the value of his fight for freedom is a deep insult. Kennedy's bid for the White House, based on this type of vilification, his father's money and Sorensen's brain, is, in my opinion, immoral, intolerable and infantile.

ERROL VANGUARD Sydney, Australia.

Sir: Recently, after a 25-day fast, Cesar Chavez took Communion beside a Bobby-come-lately, "who later climbed onto a flatbed truck to address the crowd [March 22]." Bobby Kennedy's concern for us Mexicans came too shortly before the announcement of his candidacy. Bobby invokes the image of his dead brother, uses gratis the new paths opened by Senator Eugene McCarthy, and now comes to harvest the Mexican-American votes from a venerable man when he is too weak to walk. Poor Bobby, do you have anything to offer of your own?

E. PORRAS San Diego

History-makers

Sir: Your article on the contribution of the Negro to America [March 29] is a great service to black and white alike.

The Negro's current emphasis upon his African roots, the manifestations of which are sometimes bizarre, might be traced m part to his lack of knowledge concerning the significant role of Negroes throughout every period of American history. The suppression of so many facts about the Negro contribution has caused great damage to our society and has brainwashed us all. One can hardly doubt that it has been deliberate, and the sooner the situation is corrected, the better.

S. T. SCHOLTEN

Pastor ,Reformed Church of Keyport Key port, N.J.

Sir: If Matthew Henson "actually [beat] Peary to the Pole" then the lookout in the maintop of the Santa Maria who first sighted the New World actually beat Columbus to the discovery of America. Matthew Henson was not "Admiral Robert Peary's only companion when he first reached the North Pole." Four members of yet another race were also there: the Eskimo hunters Ootah, Egingwah, Seeglo and Ookeah.

Nor was Matthew Henson any more an "explorer" than were the Eskimos. He was, in fact, Peary's personal servant--an odious phrase these days but a respectable fact of life in 1909--selected by Peary as one of the party to make the final dash to the Pole because of his courage, loyalty, physical stamina, and ability to handle a sledge and a team of dogs and to get along with the Eskimos in their own language. But Matt, who through no fault of his own was barely literate, could not have known when or whether he was at the Pole unless Peary told him.

The phrase "actually beating Peary to the Pole by 45 minutes" makes the final and successful polar expedition sound like a race between rival explorers. It was in fact the culmination of a careful and detailed plan prepared, commanded and executed by one man, Robert E. Peary (my grandfather), drawing on the experience of almost a quarter of a century of Arctic exploration and utilizing the best equipment, the best dogs and the best men available for the final push. Matt Henson, Ootah, Egingwah, Seeglo and Ookeah were those men.

EDWARD PEARY STAFFORD Commander, U.S.N. Waimanalo Beach, Hawaii

Sir: It's articles like this that will help make the invisible man visible.

GERALD LUNDY

Detroit

Who Needs to Understand Whom?

Sir-Your penetrating Essay "Criminals Should Be Cured, Not Caged" [March 29] vividly describes the appalling tradition of man's inhumanity to those fellow men who have been labeled criminals. You close with a plea for the "law-abiding public" to understand the offender's basic human needs. The President's Crime Commission reports that 91% of Americans have committed acts for which they might have been imprisoned or jailed. Must we not then ask: Where shall we find the law-abiding public? And who needs to understand whom?

JOSEPH R. PALMER Member, Ohio Parole Board Columbus

SirI will readily admit that there must be numerous men in supervisory or administrative positions in our prisons today who got there only because of political affiliation and who are far from being trained for the jobs they hold. But I do sincerely believe that the major factor in the ever-growing penal problems of today stems from the complacency and apparent unconcern of the voting public and inefficiencies of the duly elected legislators. If only a small percentage of the funds used for all of the surveys and publications stressing "needed reforms" could be siphoned off and diverted to the institutional officials responsible, so that they could incorporate some of their well-thought-out plans and programs, I'm sure the results would immediately justify the efforts and money spent. But until some realistic action replaces theoretical talk, the problems and needs will continue to snowball.

MARVIN H. VETTER 27306

Arizona State Prison Florence

Sir: As one of those "ill-trained, ill-paid guards who are so concerned with security that treatment staffs can barely function," I object to your implication that the custodial function is antithetic to the good cause of social rehabilitation. Most criminal psychologists agree that a "sense of being punished" is a necessary precedent to true rehabilitation. In view of the trend to establish "country club" prisons, the only way the felon can gain a sense of punishment is by frequent sight of uniformed "keepers." Far from opposing or inhibiting rehabilitation, the custodial staffs are more responsible for eventual rehabilitation than any number of care-and-treatment specialists. The inmates themselves relate to their guards and keepers, not to the necktie brigade, whom they seldom see. The clincher might be that without custodial security, there would be no inmates left for the treatment staff to work on. All the care and treatment in the world will not prevent an inmate from walking away from confinement, or bring him back when he does walk off.

WALTER F. CALMUS

Soledad, Calif.

Mad Money

Sir: The suggestion was once made that "foreign exchange)' is a topic similar in a way to the Apocalypse in the Bible: "Excessive study of it either finds one mad initially or drives one mad very quickly." Nonetheless, recent events have moved international financial affairs to the forefront of our current concerns. Before proper remedies can be instituted for our present financial difficulties, it is essential that the American people comprehend the problems faced by our nation, the inter national financial structure within which we operate, and the alternative solutions available to us. Your coyer story on the current monetary situation [March 29] has, I am sure, contributed mightily to public understanding of these issues, and for this I commend you heartily.

SEYMOUR HALPERN, M.C. House Banking and Currency Committee Washington, D.C.

Sir: The answer to the U.S. gold imbalance is so simple that one must assume that a simple solution is not palatable to the fuzzy-duzzies. All that need be done is: 1) abrogate the hallowed but foolish Kennedy Round of import-tax reductions; 2) adopt a single import-duty rate for each country that varies automatically up or down, depending upon whether or not each country has a surplus or deficit of dollars.

As for our gold--let's sell it all to De Gaulle just before we put the described system into effect.

GILBERT SHAW President Polymers, Inc. Middlebury, Vt.

Sir: You refer to "the tyranny of gold." Now is that really necessary? Gold is an international device that establishes a common denominator for all paper currencies so that international trade can continue smoothly. To call this tyranny shows a failure to grasp the fact that there must be some relationship between the amount of paper money and a nation's wealth. Could the U.S. run its printing presses indefinitely right now? Of course not, because gold would stop it. Is that tyranny?

JAMES DINES President

James Dines & Co. Inc. Manhattan

Sir: On glancing through your cover story, the initials IMF attracted my attention: the first thing that came to mind was Impossible Mission Force. Upon reading the article with more care, I find my first impressions weren't far wrong.

PAUL R. BECK Baltimore

Existentialists

Sir: Hurrah for TIME! For the past two years we've been trying to tell our classmates that a place like the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy couldn't exist. Unfortunately, it was difficult to explain why we spit-shined our shoes, arose an hour before the coed-ets from PMC, and lived in mortal fear of the Demerit-Dragon. Now our formerly deluded friends are finally realizing that we are right--we need only exhibit TIME to show that Kings Point is neither one of the "four service academies" nor one of the "all-male institutions in which every student must be a cadet" [March 29]. One die-hard cadre of midshipmen wanted to march on the Time-Life Building to protest our exclusion from your list of military schools, but we managed to convince them that, since we don't exist anyway, it wouldn't do any good; besides, they couldn't get liberty.

TERENCE FOLAN Midshipman

United States Merchant Marine Academy Kings Point, N.Y.

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