Letters: Sep. 21, 1962

The Senator

Sir:

As an independent voter, I was much impressed by your excellent article on Senator Dirksen [Sept. 14], and found myself leaning strongly toward him until I read his remark, “There was no Wall under President Eisenhower.”

Now 1 find myself wondering if I can vote for a man who represents such cockeyed reasoning. There was no Civil War under Buchanan; does that make him a better President than Lincoln?

LEONARD ROSENTHAL

Winnetka, ILL.

Sir:

A most excellent cover portrait of Everett Dirksen. My vote goes to our Senator from Illinois for President of the U.S. in 1964.

JAMES D.JOHNSON Wheaton, ILL.

Sir:

Even as a Democrat, I cannot help recognizing Dirksen as a great man. I even like his eccentric hairdo.

(MRS.) DORIS CONDON Rockford, ILL.

Sir:

Kudos to writer Jesse L. Birnbaum, who must have caught the Senator’s golden thesaurus as it was exhaled. His apt descriptive phrases rival the master’s.

ALMA G. WILLIS

Rochester, N.Y.

Smallpox Story

Sir: Re ”Jimmy Orr’s Fateful Journey” [Aug. 311: you say we visited a ranch where the children were ill with pox, “but nobody paid much heed or knew what kind.” Only Jimmy visited the ranch; and it was in another home, where Jimmy went to call, that they found the sick children. Jimmy remembered all this while on the train to Toronto, when he saw the spots beginning to appear. He knew he had been exposed to what is fairly common in southern Brazil, varicella (the Latin word for chicken pox).

In view of this, plus the outward appearance and the mildness of the case, many a less conscientious or less thorough doctor than our Toronto friend would have continued to think of it as chicken pox.

We are extremely sorry, and humbly apologize, for the inconvenience caused to so many along our route. We are thankful that apparently no one contracted the disease.

We hope that the Brazilian health officer who refused to vaccinate us be not blamed too harshly. Let the blame fall on us for not insisting. He is a man swamped with work (shootings, knifings, surgery) such as few North American doctors know about.

We also hope that no blame may fall upon the U.S. Immigration officer at Idlewild who accepted the certificates of immunity. For 27 years we have traveled back and forth and never heard of “international” certificates. We and others of whom we know have used simple vaccination certificates issued by public health officers.

(MRS.) MARY E. E. ORR

Spanish America Inland Mission, Inc. Toronto

Cuba Arms

Sir: First I read TIME’S article on Cuba [Sept. 14]. Then came the evening paper headlining the Soviet Union’s latest threat, and I have never in my life been so downright mad. Because of our President’s indecision and hesitation, the thorn in our side has become a boil.

My husband is a professional marine and I have two small children, so I have good reasons for not wanting a war. But—if our leaders do not now tell the Russians to get out of the Western Hemisphere and back up the words with action, then God help the U.S.—no one else will be able to.

MRS. C.V.LYNN

Minneapolis

Sir:

The blatant jingoism of your call to invade Cuba is shocking. You should at least indicate the many reasons why this would be an “ugly choice.” In fact, our current policy is doing very well; it makes it clear to Latin American countries just what the consequences of Communism are, and they are coming around to our point of view faster this way than if we made a stupid martyr out of Castro.

CHARLES PERROW Ann Arbor, Mich.

Sir:

The Soviet buildup in Cuba suggests that it is time for a Harvard undergraduate thesis titled Why Kennedy Slept.

M.H. BELL New York City

Author, Author

Sir:

Your reference to Representative Charles E. Goodell as “coauthor of the retraining measure” [Aug. 24] is not factual and should be corrected. In May of 1961, I introduced the Manpower Development and Training Act of 1961, and on the same day, Senator Clark of Pennsylvania introduced the companion bill in the Senate.

This particular piece of legislation is very important to me—for I have been trying to get such a program enacted by Congress since 1956 under Mr. Eisenhower’s Administration, but no help or encouragement was given by the Republican Party—or any member thereof—until early this year when it was apparent that the legislation would pass and President Kennedy would get the credit he so rightfully deserved for trying to start a long-overdue program, one that will help our unemployed who have seen their jobs eliminated with the increasing use of automation and other technological advancements by industry.

ELMER J. HOLLAND House of Representatives Washington, B.C.

Minister or Executive?

Sir:

TIME erred in the article “Pastoral Pay” [Sept. 14] in saying that the average minimum salary for a priest in the Diocese of Southern Ohio is $8,000.

I am sure that anyone who understands clergy salaries will realize what is involved in the $8,000 salary. It represents base salary plus housing, plus pension, and, on some occasions, a travel and utilities allowance.

(THE RT. REV.) ROGER BLANCHARD

Bishop

Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio Cincinnati

Sir:

I am unhappy with the morbid sort of pride that says, “I am proud to accept poverty for my Lord.” As far as it is possible, a minister should receive an adequate salary.

On the other hand, and more important, I protest against the viewpoint that establishes the worth of a minister by the amount of his salary and by the size of his church. I protest against the whole attitude that a pastor can “work his way up” in the ministry, meaning that his ultimate goal is to become a kind of top executive. I protect against the usual definition of a minister’s “competence,” meaning how well he can lead, organize, and raise money.

I wonder, seriously, what many of us would do if our affluent society suddenly became nonaffluent and the people who pay our salaries suddenly became poor. Would we remain in the ministry ? (THE REV.) ROBERT W. DRECHSLER Pike Federated Church Pike, N.Y.

The Well-Drilled Student

Sir: Here at the end of another too-long school vacation, I find myself desperately weary of trying to interest my two children in anything mentally loftier than the average level of learning offered by our present-day school system.

I wholeheartedly agree with Reese Fuller and the Arizona Language School’s no-nonsense approach to teaching [Sept. 7]. In a country where education should be looked upon as the salvation and hope of a free world, we are too inclined to indulge our young minds in permissive learning, idle summer months, and a “just keep up to normal” attitude.

(MRS.) D. BARBARA BOLANDER Beverly Hills, Calif.

Sir:

“HardDriving” Teacher Fuller has activated his charges to that efficient, machinelike activity that produces good test scores and pleased parents. I hope their lives are never challenged by things more creative than copying reproductions of old masters or scraping plates.

I note some pages later in the same issue that John Dewey didn’t do too badly by Banker Rockefeller (even if he can’t spell or read too rapidly).

DONNA L. OKMISTON Lewiston, Idaho

The Well-Trained Banker

Sir:

Having taught three years in New York’s Lincoln School when your cover man, Banker David Rockefeller | Sept. 7!, was a student (I missed him by one year), I am grateful for his appreciation of the kind of education Lincoln sought to give.

He said, “The idea was to fire our imaginations, and I think it worked.” By my scale of values, that is worth more than speed in reading or infallible spelling, at which, he said, ”I’ve never been very good.” Even with this handicap, he seems to have made out pretty well.

(MRS.) MARTHA KELLY TIPPETT Chapel Hill, N.C.

Sir: One small error in your article on David Rockefeller: the Bank of The Manhattan Co. was not “an offshoot of a corporation founded with the help of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr to build Manhattan’s first water works.” The water works corporation was primarily the work of Aaron Burr. It became a banking institution because of Burr’s clever device of including in the corporate charter a provision for money dealing and financing.

JOHN R. FONSECA Department Head Banking, Insurance & Real Estate Mohawk Valley Technical Institute Utica, N.Y.

¶ Alexander Hamilton did help found The Manhattan Co. through a clever maneuver on Burr’s part. Ostensibly Burr set up the corporation to provide “pure and wholesome” water for New York City. During the previous summer’s epidemic, 1,524 people had died of yellow fever brought on by the city’s unsanitary water supply. In his fight to obtain a charter, Burr enlisted help from prominent citizens, including his political enemy Hamilton.

Hamilton public-spiritedly lent his name to the plan and used his considerable influence to help obtain the charter. The bill granting the charter, passed by the state legislature in April 1799, included a clause, written by Burr, allowing the company to invest surplus capital in “monied transactions.” At the time, New York City had two banks, both controlled by Hamilton and the Federalists, who had successfully blocked the establishment of any other banks. Four months after the corporation was formed, The Manhattan Co. opened its first office of “discount and deposit.” Hamilton had been tricked, and Burr’s ruse effectively broke the Federalist banking monopoly in the city.—ED.

Sir: When John D. Rockefeller Jr. first came to Williamsburg in 1926 to consider a proposal to restore it, he brought David and two other Rockefeller sons along. Young David, then eleven, liked the idea, and his enthusiasm endeared him to the sponsor of the plan, the Rev. W.A.R. Goodwin.

When Dr. Goodwin wired Mr. Rockefeller in 1927 for authorization to buy the first property with Rockefeller funds, the telegraphed permission from New York was signed ”David’s Father.” For more than a year the pseudonym “Mr. David” hid Mr. Rockefeller’s identity until the acquisition of key properties in the 18th century Virginia capital was safely under way. Only then did Dr. Goodwin reveal to fellow townsmen who “David’s Father” was.

PARKE ROUSE JR.

Director

Jamestown Foundation Jamestown, Va.

European Big Business

Sir:

I appreciate your including Société Génerale de Belgique among the companies that are playing a significant role in the new European market | Sept. 14!.

However, may I draw your attention to the statement that I am ”shifting Société Générale’s huge investments from the Congo to the Common Market.”

This is not the case. To this day, and despite great difficulties that our companies have experienced in the Congo since independence, we have maintained our investments there and in some cases have even increased them.

Our technicians have stayed on the job, and production and employment have been held at the highest level possible. We remain confident of the future of the Congo.

MAX NOKIN Chairman

Société Générale de Belgique Brussels

¶ TIME should have said that Chairman Nokin’s company is concentrating its new investments in the Common Market.—ED.

All Aboard Sir: In the Aug. 10 issue of TIME, a New York Central ”spokesman” was reported as saying that “people take trains because they don’t want to fly and that’s all.” I have no way of knowing who the “spokesman” is to whom TIME attributes this statement, but the statement is certainly contrary to the facts as well as to our company policy.

There is ample evidence that many people use our passenger services because they are comfortable, efficient and priced right.

DOUGLASS CAMPBELL Vice President New York Central System New York City

Radziwill-Go-Round

Sir: You mean Lee’s husband’s ex-wife’s husband’s ex-wife is Lee’s ex-husband’s wife [Sept. 14]? BARBARA BAILEY MARCUS Manhattan, Kans.

¶Yes.—ED.