Who Has It?

Sir: In regard to your Soul listing in the story on Aretha Franklin [June 28]:

Soul Straight City William Blake Robert Burns Eliot Pound Picasso Matisse DONALD A. BROWN Hyattsville, Md.

Sir: Soul Straight City Nikita Khrushchev Aleksei Kosygin Russia France Volkswagens All American cars Arlington Cemetery Forest Lawn JAMES M. CURTIS Berkeley, Calif.

Sir: Soul Straight City William Jennings Bryan Jack Paar Woody Guthrie Bob Johnny Dylan Carson STUART LEVIN, D.V.M. hicago

Sir: Soul Straight City TIME Magazine U.S. News and World Report CHARLES SCHMIDT San Francisco

Sir: Soul Straight City Los Angeles Free TIME Magazine Press LIZA WILLIAMS Los Angeles

Of Guns & Ammo

Sir: I disagree completely with your article on The Gun [June 21], but I will defend unto death your right to say it with a rock, poker or some other hard object. FRED L. NORMANDIN JR. Forest Grove, Ore.

Sir: The main reason for the high crime rate in the U.S. today is the lack of law enforcement and the laxity and slow process of the courts in punishing offenders. The gun run now in progress is certainly not being carried out by potential criminals but rather by citizens who wish to protect themselves and their families, since they can no longer depend on the authorities to do this job. Before we do something foolish in a time when we are guided by our emotions rather than our reason, we may do well to recall the words of Benjamin Franklin: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

J. D. RUTLEDGE

Blackfoot, Idaho

Sir: As a longtime N.R.A. member, I view the forthcoming gun-control laws with much concern. Nevertheless, the statement of N.R.A. President Harold Glassen, "We don't tell anyone to write his Congressman," is an outright lie. I refer to a letter addressed to N.R.A. members from the office of President Glassen, dated June 14, 1968, in which he urges "sportsmen of America" to express their views without delay to their Senators and Congressmen. Glassen further states that the ultimate goal of said gun legislation is complete abolition of civilian firearm ownership.

If nothing else, friend Glassen clearly won the Loudmouth of the Week Award. I might even burn my N.R.A membership card.

W. T. MAURICE

Simi, Calif.

Sir: Your excellent article on guns referred to my study of homicide in Philadelphia in 1958 and quoted a statement the National Rifle Association has often used to suggest that I, as a criminologist, favor their position about gun legislation. You further indicated that "Wolfgang has since modified that view."

My views on guns have never been modified, for I have consistently favored the most restrictive gun legislation the Government can obtain from Congress.

My personal choice for legislation is to remove all guns from private possession. I would favor statutory provisions that require all guns to be turned in to public authorities. Citizens could be compensated for their loss at a standard rate based on the current value of the weapon. Hunting and sporting clubs could maintain depositories for guns. Members would be able to sign out for their weapons at stipulated times but be required to return them to the depositories.

Illegal possession would still occur, but availability of weapons would be so limited that to obtain a gun illegally would be a most troublesome and expensive task. The domestic quarrel born from the high pitch of passion is less likely to end in homicide when a gun is not near by. The annual 2,500 accidental deaths due to guns would be reduced to a negligible amount. Occasional governmental requests for voluntary submission of all unauthorized guns, under amnesty, would be made, as in England.

MARVIN E. WOLFGANG Chairman, Department of Sociology University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia

Defending Ma Bell

Sir: When considering the extent and desirability of the Government controls applied to A.T.&T. [June 21], let's compare changes in phone service over the last 20 years with changes in postal service. The price of a postcard has gone up 500%, the price of a first-class letter 100%. The number of mail deliveries has been decreased. Shortly after the change in rates from 5-c- to 6-c- for a first-class letter, my mailman stopped delivering the mail by foot and started driving a Jeep. We don't get the mail any sooner because of the number of starts and stops he has to make in this suburban neighborhood. Is this where the extra 1-c- went? Contrast this with the improvement in phone service over the last 20 years. Thank God that the Government does not run the phone company.

WEBB LINZMAYER Shrewsbury, N.J.

Love & the Pope

Sir: I have just finished reading the article on the latest developments in the judgments of the Roman Catholic Church on birth control [June 21]. As a young Catholic girl who looks forward to a home and family one day, I find the attitude of my church outdated, absurd and completely unacceptable. In this day and age, when the Roman Catholic Church could be a true leader of mankind rather than a follower, an aid to the spiritual problems of the world rather than a hindrance, it clings to attitudes and ideas that are centuries old. While the church teaches Christian love on one hand, it denies it on the other. No true adult Catholic can believe that Christ would condemn a man to an afterlife of suffering because he loved his wife, and chose to show it through the physical act of love. PATRICE LEONHARD Manhattan

Troubles with Toro

Sir: El Cordobes has dragged the art of bullfighting down to the lowest depths it could go. You pointed out the present sad state of taurine affairs [June 21] but in such a way that would only buttress the public's misconceptions about bullfighting. A bullfight is no more a sport than a ballet or a play, and should never be reported in the Sport section (unless the article deals exclusively with the clown El Cordobes). It was disappointing to see you deal so flippantly with the most technical, artistic and misunderstood drama in the world.

JAMES L. NAMMACK JR. President

North American Taurine Association Washington, D.C.

Sir: People who enjoy this cruel sport would probably have drooled over watching the early Christians being torn to pieces by wild animals.

(MRS.) L. TANJOY Coburg, Ont.

Art Appreciation

Sir: Your article, "Opening Eyes in the Ghettos" [June 21], was very interesting and one can heartily applaud these new and daring programs. The St. Louis public schools have used the City Art Museum extensively as a cultural resource. Ten years ago, only 2,000 children attended classes there; 39,000 attended in the '67-'68 school year and paid their own bus fares. The St. Louis City Art Museum is located in Forest Park in the center of the city. Barefoot ghetto children who fish in the many lakes in the park now leave their fishing poles in the bushes outside the museum while they slip in for the daily 2:30 p.m. lecture.

Recently, two so-called disadvantaged ten-year-olds were in a heated argument in school, where they were seated across the table from each other, drawing each other's portrait. One boy had drawn the other with an extremely long neck. When the art teacher inquired about the trouble, the irate youngster asked, "Who in the hell does he think he is, Modigliani?" MARIE L. LARKIN Supervisor of Art Board of Education St. Louis

It's a Bird

Sir: Reader T. Steven Lale [June 21] objected to the "bearded, psychedelic 'freak out' " on your cover, representing the class of '68 [June 7]. I have met many people like Reader Lale. And behind their defense of faceless conformity lies a paralyzing fear. Fear of change. Fear of humor. And fear of disturbing their comfortable, fuzzy thinking. I, too, deplore the self-indulgent hedonism and head-in-the-sand anarchy gaining ground among youth today. But an ostrich is an ostrich, whether a soft-brained young anarchist or a soft-living non-think suburbanite. These birds may look different. They may even fight each other. But they are different only like male and female. And together they will breed destruction.

COLEMAN L. COATES Wheaton, Ill.

Girls Are 3-D

Sir: That fellow who said, "No one is interested in the sides of a woman, for which, as far as I know, there is very little use [June 21]," doesn't understand what holds my left front to my left back and my right front to my right back. It's the sides, sir.

SUE SHAFFER TIHANSKY Tampa, Fla.

Sir: The bathing suits are much too suggestive--off with them!

MORGAN L. BALCH

Oswego. N.Y.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.