Spiritual Beggars

Sir / Alexander Solzhenitsyn's forced exile to the West is a tragedy [Feb. 25]. Once again the government of the Soviet Union has succeeded in its tyranny. They gave a man his freedom and placed chains on his soul; Solzhenitsyn is above all else a Russian. To take citizenship from such a man and banish him by force from the homeland he so dearly loves is the crudest blow of all. Those spiritual beggars whose greatest fear is truth, however, should know that such a man will not be silenced so easily.

(MRS.) NIJOLE SALKUNAS Los Angeles

Sir / Solzhenitsyn's arrest seems to have been inevitable to many people throughout the world, a fact that makes it no less outrageous. It is a sad day indeed for man's ever-increasing struggle for truth. I commend the news media of this country for their coverage of Solzhenitsyn. This man must not be lost to history.

DAVID A. BERO McKinleyville, Calif.

Sir / TIME'S photographs of Solzhenitsyn [Feb. 11] disclose a face like those icons of old Russian saints: full of sorrow, pity and love, but beneath that a vein of iron, a burning conviction and vast inner resources. The Soviet government will exhaust itself in trying to break his spirit.

JUDITH ANNE TESTA DeKalb, Ill.

Sir / After attempting to make heroes of such American complainers as Ralph Nader, Cesar Chavez, Daniel Ellsberg and the late Dr. Martin Luther King, the Eastern news establishment now seeks to deify Alexander Solzhenitsyn, formerly a complainer in the Soviet Union.

Freedom of the press, so widely misused in this country, is not the way of life in the Soviet Union. Solzhenitsyn's behavior was understandably judged there by Soviet standards. We should not try to tell the Soviets how to judge their citizens, any more than they should tell us how to judge ours.

BERNARD T. MAUTZMANN St. Louis

Sir / I am reminded of a Dutch joke: In the year 2000, a schoolboy was asked who Brezhnev was. After a pause, he answered: "An unimportant Russian statesman in the time of Alexander Solzhenitsyn."

VALCHAIRE DE VILLENEUVE Rotterdam, The Netherlands

From the Oil Throne

Sir / At first reading, I got mad as hell at you for parading the long Exxon ad as a cover story [Feb. 18]. But on second reading I realized that your own words and facts straight from the oil throne did more to convict Exxon than perhaps any congressional investigation ever could.

DANIEL O. TODD Mountain Rest, S.C.

Sir / Your article on Exxon is outstanding. Thank you for your fairness and objectivity in allowing a segment of big business to present its side of the energy shortage.

MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM CULVER Waukesha, Wis.

Sir / Exxon Chairman John Jamieson's salary and bonus were reported to be $596,666 in 1973, not to mention his fringe benefits, which probably amount to plenty. Add to this the earnings of Exxon's other top executives. It appears that the increased fuel prices are necessary to maintain these ridiculous salaries, which the public is paying indirectly. Congress ought to stop this public gouging.

RAY W. BRACHER Granger. Ind.

Sir / The energy shortage can possibly be corrected in time only through worldwide cooperation in natural-resource pooling. There will always be those looking for someone or something to blame for any sad situation. Bertrand Russell once said: "We do not like to be robbed of an enemy: we want someone to hate when we suffer." I blame, instead of an oil company, only my own unrestrained desires for material comfort.

DON MESSERSCHMIDT Nacogdoches. Texas

Madam Executive

Sir / Regarding "Madam Executive" [Feb. 18]: I work in an organization with several female executives and many female employees. I note several common factors among the successful ones: they are highly competent in their jobs; they are extremely tough-minded; they do not express ambitions for the very top levels of management but they clearly enjoy power where they get it; and, finally, they are paid as women, not as men.

DAVID C. MESSER Tarzania. Calif.

Martinis and Role Reversal

Sir / Being laid off after working 20 years and reduced (raised?) to househusband status [Feb. 18] has certainly created new habits in me. I empty the garbage even if the bag is empty, look for the mail several times before the mailman arrives, and raid the refrigerator when I'm not hungry. It's just ridiculous, but as the attitude improves so do the habits. I really pushed the study habit. I have already earned a B.S. degree, and I expect to receive an M.S. this summer.

It appears that two crucial factors are required to accept this role reversal: a good attitude and an understanding wife. I have found that an occasional double martini doesn't seem to hurt either.

MARLON D. DYKAS Milwaukee

Sir / Although modern civilization has made it just as easy for a wife to obtain food for the family as the husband, the need to provide the family support is as strong in modern man as it was for his ancestors. The subjects mentioned in your story need help, and not just with cleaning their floors.

SAMUEL HARRISON. M.D. Boston

Sir / They certainly are exceptional men who are willing to test a role reversal. They should be admired and not chided.

CATHERINE HAWLEY BLECKINGER Meriden, Conn.

Sir / I am curious. Has the househusband tried "Honey, can you help me with the dishes tonight?"

CAROLYN SHOOK Minneapolis

Sir / We were very disappointed in your reporting of our role reversal. The truth is that we are both extremely satisfied and happy.

We feel that our marriage has been strengthened and that we define our marriage not in terms of artificial sex roles but in terms of our own personalities.

I chose to quit my job as a social worker and stay at home. I am not "forced to sublimate my success drive." I am not especially "sensitive about my stay-at-home status." I am tired of having to explain and defend my position to people whose closed minds can't tolerate change.

KEN (AND SUSAN) ONAITIS Cincinnati

Sad Comparison

Sir / Watching a desperate, frightened, lonely little man claim identical stature with the Great Emancipator who overshadowed him on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial [Feb. 25], I had no feeling of anger but rather one of sadness for Richard Nixon, my fellow Americans and myself. We are responsible for his being there.

We tend to forget that this is a Government of the people, controlled by our ballots, and those whom we elect to represent us are only as good as those whom they represent.

A more perfect democracy cannot be attained by default.

JOHN W. COMFORT Hager City, Wis.

Sir / Does he really think Tricky Dick can be compared with Honest Abe?

H.J. JACKSON Spokane, Wash.

Grant's Three Fights

Sir / In his The Presidency piece "Trying to Get Right with Lincoln" [Feb. 25], Hugh Sidey wrongly ascribes to Abraham Lincoln the phrase about "fighting it out on this line if it takes all summer." The phrase was Ulysses Grant's; the then ex-President made it in 1884 as he was struggling to get his memoirs into shape. At that stage.

Grant was "fighting it out" with penury, cancer and the English language--and he lost to all three.

JOHN L. PHILLIPS New York City

Reader Phillips is correct--but only up to a point. The coinage was Grant's. The general first used the line in a wartime letter written from Spottsylvania on May 11, 1864: "I am now sending back to Belle Plain all my wagons for a fresh supply of provisions and ammunition, and purpose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer."

Amateur Plumbers

Sir / I ask the genuine plumbers [Feb. 18], where is your sense of humor ? Is it not fitting that amateur "plumbers" assembled by the White House failed to plug their assigned leaks and consequently released the flood of Watergate?

DARYL SCHMIDT Oakland. Calif.

Expensive Job Search

Sir / In the name of sweet reason, let's not have "public financing" for election campaigns [Feb. 18]! Not only do we pay very high salaries to those gentlemen who represent us in Washington, but now they even want the taxpayers to pay for their job hunting too.

Anybody who thinks letting the taxpayers pay for campaigning is somehow going to keep politicians honest is manifestly out of his mind.

F.L. GREAVES Solana Beach. Calif.

Serpents' Source

Sir / It is interesting to observe that the Symbionese Liberation Army [Feb. 18] did not invent its symbol, the seven-headed cobra. This is an old symbol of Hindu mythology, representing first a Naga, a sacred serpent born of Kadru and the sage Kasyapa. then the serpent-king Sesha, who is usually associated with the god Vishnu in the creation of the world. The picture of this symbol is probably taken from an esoteric book by James Churchward, The Sacred Symbols of Mu (1933).

P.R. CREN L'Arbresle, France

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