Letters, Jun. 8, 1959

Kennedy & Catholicism

Sir:

Re your May 18 story on whether a Roman Catholic can win: if only 47% of all voters are aware that Kennedy is a Catholic, it should be the patriotic duty of every newsmagazine to see they are made aware of it! I believe a Catholic President would show his loyalty to his faith by appointing fellow Catholics to high places in our Government just as the Catholic voters frankly admit they would jump the party line to vote for a Catholic.

MRS. M. W. ANDERSON

Oxon Hill, Md.

Sir:

How can we be sure that a law—such as the law in Connecticut banning the sale of contraceptive devices and publication of birth control literature—won’t be passed throughout the U.S. if a Catholic becomes President? It frightens me to think that even one state can be dictated to by a Roman Catholic majority.

BETTY THOMPSON

Pittsburgh

Sir:

I think a Roman Catholic can be elected President. When the right man comes along —no matter what his religion—the American voters will vote for him. Let’s not only preach democracy, but let’s live it. Senator Kennedy is the right man; he will be our next President.

ANITA M. RIPP

Madison, Wis.

Sir:

The controversy over Kennedy reminds me of the Irishman, weary of the long feud between Catholics and Protestants in his country, who cried, “Would that all Irishmen were atheists so that we could live together like Christians.”

JACK WRIGHT Nampa, Idaho

On the Road

Sir:

I read with interest your account of the trip down through Central America by the two representatives of the American Automobile Association [May 18]. I really felt sorry for those two poor men having such a hard time.

We made the same trip last summer—during the rainy season, not the dry season as did the A.A.A. men—my husband and I with our five small children all under seven years of age, including a baby daughter just ten months old, and our boxer dog.

It wasn’t a lark by any means. No question but that the road was rough at times, and we did ford a few streams (this was the rainy season). But we have encountered plenty of rough road during construction right here in Connecticut and up in New Hampshire.

The best indication of how little trouble we had was the total car-repair bill for the trip through Central America and back: it came to just $6.75.

(MRS.) CONSTANCE STOCKDALE

Putnam, Conn.

Merritt Parkway—Extended

Sir:

In the May 18 issue, TIME ran a reproduction of De Kooning standing in front of one of his recent paintings, the caption reading: “De Kooning and Merritt Parkway.” In the plate, TIME somehow expanded the original painting by adding a foot or more to its top and sides. Under the circumstances the caption might have read: “De Kooning and Merritt Parkway Extension.”

SIDNEY JANIS

Sidney Janis Gallery New York City

<) For Merritt Parkway, before an injudicious retoucher undertook to extend it, see cut.—Eo.

Nautical & Nice

SIR:

YOUR MAY 18 SPOTLIGHT ON “THE NEW BOOM IN BOATING” WAS NAUTICAL AND NICE AND RATES A 21-GUN SALUTE FROM THE INDUSTRY.

ROY E. HUGHES GENERAL SALES MANAGER LONE STAR BOAT CO. GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS

Sir:

Chris-Craft admen’s search for a word to replace “head” can now be ended by employing that grand old title of “privy.”

JIM PATRIQUIN Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Sir:

The word Chris-Craft is looking for is “toupee.” It covers the “head” very nicely.

H. C. MOELLER Boonville, Mo.

Sir:

Why no mention of the choicest boating of all—in watery, wonderful Minnesota, where the weekending boatniks far exceed our 11,000 lakes?

THOMAS G. MATTHEWS Minneapolis

Sir:

All those Sunday drivers everyone is trying to get away from are now on the lakes.

E. HARMON Detroit

Sir:

The two happiest days of a man’s life—the day he bought the boat and the day he sold the boat.

LESLIE D. MAURER San Antonio

Silenced Voice

Sir:

Re your article about Voice of Firestone probably being pushed off the air by the Pelvis: the lights are going out all over

America, and when such a thing can happen it is just a question of a short time until we follow the Roman Empire.

MAURICE ADAMS York, Pa.

Sir:

There is an old historic maxim: “It takes a thousand years to make a gentleman.” We have been proud to look back over the path beaten by primitive man to attain the road of the barbarian, then to the highway of early civilization—on and on he has gone with culture and morality as his attainment.

But alas and alack he is stopped by a force that is driving him back, not by years but hundreds of years. It is time to rally against the breaking down of many of the best programs on television.

ADAH M. FREEMAN Chillicothe, Ohio

To Tax or Not to Tax

Sir:

With regard to your May 18 article on parochial schools: When are all of us—strong-willed Roman and weak-willed Protestant alike—going to realize that the public school is every bit as much a public service for the entire community as are our fire and police departments? If we want to pay for our own private school system, we may; but we still must support the public school system that serves and strengthens the entire community. (THE REV.) JAMES M. ANDERSON

Trinity Lutheran Church McPherson, Kans.

Sir:

What bedlam would result if Catholic institutions were to close, with the public school system trying to handle the children of Catholic taxpayers entitled to public schools. A tremendous tax hike would be the only answer. Wouldn’t at least a tax deduction for those supporting private institutions be reasonable? The existence of these schools directly relieves the tax burden of the general public.

MRS. JOHN Di VITTORIO

Chicago

Sir:

I’ll promise my Roman Catholic fellow citizens this: just as soon as you induce the Vatican to see that Protestant, Jewish and agnostic schools are given tax aids in Italy, Spain and South America, I’ll support your stand on parochial schools in the U.S.

RICHARD M. LEMMON Berkeley, Calif.

“More”

Sir:

While we are in an inflation-conscious mood, we might as well decide to be realistic about the current labor-management negotiations in the steel industry. As long as management is free to set its own prices, why should they bother to do anything else than follow the time-honored pattern of putting up a noisy but purely token fight? All they need do is haggle awhile and then give in. It is the public’s money that they are bargaining with.

D. A. Ross Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Sir:

As I see it, the higher profits of U.S. Steel require one of two actions—either lower prices to discourage inflation or increase wages to encourage inflation.

Gus MANTHEY

New Orleans

Sir:

U.S. industry cannot pay from three to eight times the hourly wages paid abroad and compete with foreign manufacturers. Let U.S. labor leaders in their endless quest for “more” chew on this hard, inescapable fact.

JOSEPH H. COURTNEY Morgantown Glassware Guild, Inc. Morgantown, W.Va.

Ice Troupe

Sir:

Can you tell me the name of the little girl from the U.S. ice troupe whom Khrushchev is holding and everyone is looking at admiringly [May 18]? Could this be pretty little Robbi La Londe, the youngest American professional ice skater, who has been skating since she was 19 months old?

MRS. MURLE TEZCAN

Istanbul

¶ It is.—ED.

Baptism on the Beach

Sir:

Your May 18 article on the tragic death of Albert Kogler was saddening and inspiring. Unfortunately, the shark became the instrument of death; fortunately, Miss O’Neill’s presence of mind turned a tragedy into a successful spiritual venture. It’s incidents like this that make life worth living—and heaven worth dying.

(THE REV.) A. J. MCMAHON Boys Town, Neb.

Sir:

To what insane indoctrination has Shirley been subjected, that in her moment of truth she turned to the futile rite of baptism?

WINSLOW PALMER Amityville, N.Y.

Sir:

Miss O’Neill’s tremendous courage is most commendable, but her bigoted zeal robbed the effort of its meaning. A plague on divine lepidopterists who pursue souls as though they were butterflies.

J.A.C. COVERT O’BRIEN

Twinsburg, Ohio