Cruel and Unusual--to Whom?

Sir / Thanks to the Supreme Court decision on capital punishment [July 10], we the people must provide free food, clothes, housing and medical care for creatures that have wriggled up out of earth's primal slime. Unless, as is likely, the parole boards turn them loose once again upon society.

Now that the perpetrators of these atrocities are to be pampered wards of the taxpayers, "cruel" and "unusual" are meaningless words.

JOHN E. VETTER McLean, Va.

Sir / So our Supreme Court rules capital punishment "cruel and unusual" for the murderer. I wonder how they view the murderer's victim. It's as if the Justices had given a license to kill to any and all who are so inclined.

God help us!

MILDRED EPSTEIN

Bayside, N.Y.

Sir / Our founding fathers never dreamed that five appointed Justices could make such a mockery out of the Constitution.

The sense of justice innate in every man is the sole protection that the weak have against the strong. Without that we would be in continual terror, a state that we are fast approaching.

K. MOUNTIFIELD TAYLOR

San Francisco

Sir / Where is the process of criminal prosecution going in this country? Have our moral standards and values changed enough to allow murderers to go free? What is one's moral commitment to his fellow man now?

Our illustrious Justices have just added No. 11 to the Bill of Rights: the right to kill.

DEBI MICKEY

Tucson, Ariz.

Fantastic

Sir / Re TIME'S cover story "Baseball's Best Catcher" [July 10]: Fantastic! Great! It's about time Johnny Bench got the recognition he deserves.

BONNIE K. HENDERSON

Lynchburg, Va.

Sir / A beautiful cover story about Johnny Bench. This is a refreshing detour around war, crime, drugs, etc.

F.TAYLOR ROOT

Buffalo

Sir / Wow! Did TIME really blow it. And we in Pittsburgh know it. Bench is something you sit on. Best catcher is Manny Sanguillen.

JAMES B. HANRAHAN Pittsburgh

Sir / If Johnny Bench is a better catcher than Manny Sanguillen of the Pittsburgh Pirates, then Fidel Castro works for Gillette.

DON SMITH

Pittsburgh

Why Live Longer?

Sir / Marshall Loeb's Essay tells us that "Americans can--and should--live longer" [July 10]. Live longer? In a society that places so much emphasis on looking youthful? That so casually ignores the elderly? No, thanks. The idea of spending an additional two to three years living in an old-folks home does not thrill me.

I think I'd rather smoke cigarettes, eat pizza, and drink the yearly per-capita average of 15 fifths of liquor.

KARLA GREENDAHL

East Grand Forks, Minn.

Sir / I enjoyed your Essay on living longer and was impressed with many of your suggestions for future changes. So long as we value our possessions more than ourselves, our addictions more than our food, our violence more than our tenderness, how can nature release to us the secrets of longer life? Perhaps we must first learn to be gentle with ourselves and each other.

JOHN M. DOUGLASS, M D.

Los Angeles

Sir / I was distressed to find that TIME in advocating laws that require the wearing of seat belts had joined the growing group that is anxious to protect man from himself.

If a man does not wear a seat belt, he risks nobody's life but his own, and a man risking his own life is not a legitimate concern of government. Implicit in the Constitution's guarantees is the right to risk one's life as long as one does not risk someone else's life in the process.

For all the good intentions of the Essay, it implies a terrifying philosophy: that man exists to serve the state, which has the right to regulate the individual so that he can efficiently fulfill its needs by paying taxes and fighting wars.

STEPHEN F. OWENS

Brooklyn

Sir / Your Essay says that regular hours and less tension allow Supreme Court Justices and clergymen to live longer, but might not the general superiority of persons selected for the Supreme Court and the general outlook on life of the clergy have something to do with their longevity?

ED HELVENSTON

Orlando, Fla.

A Polite Thank You

Sir / Must we now pay Americans to be honest? The Indiana farmer who found the skyjacking money [July 10] should expect and receive nothing but a polite "Thank you." Is it any wonder that our young people feel the older generation is two-faced?

MARY CATHERINE WEBER

St. Louis

Sir / If I haven't forgotten how to "point off," giving $10,000 to the finder of $500,000 is the equivalent of rewarding the finder of a $5 bill with a dime.

VERNA K. SMITH

Kilgore, Texas

Sir / Farmer Elliott's refusal of the $ 10,000 American Airlines elected to give him, in hopes of receiving 5%-10% of the ransom, puts him in my estimate in the same category as the skyjacker.

TOSCA E. KRAUSSE

San Mateo, Calif.

Smell of the Erie

Sir / You stated that Phoebe Snow was an advertising symbol to promote the Erie Lackawanna Railroad [July 10].

At the time that Phoebe Snow was first used, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (or Lackawanna) and the Erie railroads were competitors.

As a matter of fact, while the D.L. & W. did use Phoebe Snow to advertise its use of hard coal, the Erie Railroad was famous for its use of soft coal. People would associate any bad smell with the Erie and would say "It smells like the Erie Railroad."

MERRITT E. ROWLEY

North Miami

Beef or Cake

Sir / President Nixon's advice on how to hold down inflationary meat prices, "Don't buy meat" [July 10], might have been more helpful to Americans if he had added an alternative diet recommendation, like "Let them eat cake."

DOUG SMITH

Los Angeles

Sir / In your article in The Economy entitled "Nibbling at Food Prices" the writer makes several statements about "prices that farmers charge."

I wish that were true. In this modern age most farmers still follow the archaic method of taking their produce to market and asking "What will you give me?"

MRS. RONALD A. PIERATT

Tecumseh, Neb.

Fabulous Dresses

Sir / I was quite surprised to see that TIME goofed by not including the names of the designers of the fabulous dresses featured in the Modern Living article on summer fashion [June 26].

The fact that I am shown wearing one of the dresses is insignificant. What is important is that they were all designed by very dear friends of mine--Ray Aghayan and Bob Mackie, two of the most talented designers in America today. In addition to designing all of my clothes and those of many other celebrities, Aghayan and Mackie have a ready-to-wear collection that is carried by every major department and specialty store in the country.

CHER BONO

Los Angeles

Read to Your Child

Sir / From my personal experience, Raymond and Dennis Moore [July 10] are right about the dangers of too early schooling. My six-year-old did very well during two years of pre-kindergarten school, but by the time she reached kindergarten, she had had it with school and balked at going three mornings out of five.

A program for encouraging good readers that requires a minimum of preparation by the parent? Hold your child on your lap and read to him regularly.

(MRS.) MARIANNE DAVIS

Cypress, Calif.

Sir / Waiting until a child has developed "the ability to look, listen and absorb" might delay formal education as we know it until, say, age 28.

MARTHA BRICK

Madison, Wis.

Sir / I admired your alert report on Raymond and Dennis Moore's heretical case against early schooling. I have also long admired TIME'S policy of giving due credit to other publications. So I'm sure you meant to note that your story on the Moores was largely inspired by their own lengthy article in the July issue of Harper's. The omission, I know, was quite inadvertent.

ROBERT SHNAYERSON

Editor in Chief

Harper's Magazine

New York City

Stop Complaining

Sir / Your Essay on complaints [July 3] will please many irate consumers, but what about the guy on the other end?

I handle consumer complaints for one of the top five manufacturers in the U.S. and I guarantee you the consumer is no saint. I've been verbally abused beyond belief by angry customers, attacked as an individual rather than a company spokesman, and harangued for eight hours a day by screaming, irrational hotheads.

A customer with a legitimate gripe has got to realize that only a clear, rational approach will get satisfaction from the "big bad company." We're human beings, too.

ROBERT SEISER

Chicago

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