Letters, Aug. 12, 1974

Leaders and Followers Sir / Your recent examination of leadership [July 15] was in itself an example of leadership at a time when many Americans have begun to wonder if any institutions—and those who are responsible for the leadership of them—can survive this decade. I commend TIME for drawing attention to excellence and achievement.

ROBERT MORRIS

Sudbury, Mass.

Sir / The special section on leadership is magnificent in concept and monumental in enlightenment. You have made a stimulating contribution to the ongoing progress and future necessities of our nation.

RAYMOND M. VEH

Thiensville, Wis.

Sir / Your article on leadership left out a vital element—followers. Good leaders will always be needed if ends that will serve most of the people are to be achieved. But with nearly 200 million Americans in pursuit of about as many transitory causes, what this country now needs most is long lines of dedicated and trustworthy followers.

QUINTON J. NIXON

Virginia Beach, Va.

Sir / You are to be commended for your excellent article on leadership in America. One cannot quarrel with the list of 200 potential leaders you have selected. I’m sure that a great deal of research and soul searching went into your selection. One cannot help wondering, however, if this list had been drawn up five years ago, would we not have seen on it such names as John Dean, Jeb Magruder, Charles Colson, Frederick C. LaRue, H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman?

DAVID I. EPSTEIN

Northbrook, Ill.

Sir / Congratulations on your selection of rising leaders and an excellent research job, with one exception. My colleague and ex-partner, Ivan Chermayeff, was credited with having “conceived the symbol and identity program for the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission,” when in fact I was responsible for conceiving and designing the Bicentennial symbol and identity program during the time I was with Chermayeff and Geismar Associates.

I am certain that you, as well as Ivan, will want to set the record straight.

BRUCE BLACKBURN

President Danne & Blackburn Inc.

New York City

∎Some of the projects credited solely to Chermayeff were created by him and by other members of the design firm he heads with Thomas Geismar.

Nixon and the Court

Sir / If, as St. Clair argued before the Supreme Court [July 22], the Watergate grand jury’s mention of Nixon as an unindicted co-conspirator made him “an 85% President,” we should be pleased, since that clearly indicates at least a 40% increase. But ah, for the day of 0%!

DAVID RIDGELY

Columbia, Md.

Sir / Your article mistakenly describes Justice William J. Brennan Jr. as 74 years old and a Republican. He is neither. A lifelong Democrat, the Justice is presently 68 years old. Given the depth of understanding and wisdom so often displayed in the Justice’s opinions, it is not surprising that TIME might have thought that the Justice had served on the court an additional six years. However, as his past law clerks can readily attest, the Justice s remarkable physical vigor belies even his 68 years. Few other men—regardless of their age—begin each day at 5 a.m. with a hearty walk of an hour or more.

TOM JORDE Law Clerk to Justice Brennan 1973 Term Washington, D.C.

Double Standard

Sir / It is remarkable to note that when John Mitchell was acquitted. President Nixon spoke glowingly of the American jury system and expressed his profound belief in it; but when Ehrlichman was convicted by jury trial [July 22], Nixon called it a “blot on justice,” according to Rabbi Baruch Korff.

JOHAN HANSELER

Stamford, Conn.

Sir / Judge Gesell’s charge to the jury in the Ehrlichman case would put all 200 million of us in jail. We have all had evil thoughts against our neighbors.

CORNELIUS C. FELTON

El Cerrito, Calif.

Slim Pickings

Sir / Regarding the verse Sam Ervin quoted before the news conference: God, give us Men! [July 22]. The poem might have had more significance if it had been paraphrased to include the female half of the population. As it is, if the call for people of strong minds and great hearts is limited to men alone, the pickings will be slim indeed.

JANET PARTLOW

Olympia, Wash.

Sir / Had you included the four final lines of Josiah Gilbert Holland’s poem, you might have affronted a quibbling press and that faultfinding, do-nothing Congress whose principal aim is to get reelected. I dare you to quote these lines, which apply to Democrats as well as to Republicans:

For while the rabble, with their time-worn creeds, Their large professions and their little deeds, Mingle in selfish strife, Lo! Freedom weeps, Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps.

DORIS D. SCOTT

Chicago

Spoiled Illusions

Sir / You rats! You told how to do the magic tricks [July 22]. The fun in magic is to be stumped and just wonder how a trick is performed. It works because of “magic.” When once you know the secret, the illusion is spoiled. You’ll never be invited to my magic shows.

MARVIN D. COHEN

Akron

Sir / Thank you for explaining the “Levitation of the Lady” trick in your recent article on the boom in magic. When I was a little girl, my father took me to see Blackstone the Magician, who performed the trick, hoops and all. I’ve always wondered how he did it.

JUDITH DILLON

Chadron, Neb.

Warren: Justice or Fairness?

Sir / Earl Warren [July 22] may be remembered by some as a great man of justice, but I cannot help feeling that those who became victims of his court could also ask “Is it fair?”

Perhaps this country’s bleeding-heart liberals should review Miranda and his record after 1966. I personally credit Earl Warren and his court not only for the breakdown of morals but also for the rise in crime in this country.

DAVID MOORE

Sherman, Texas

Sir / Chief Justice Earl Warren will be greatly missed. In the critical years ahead, America will need all of the Earl Warrens it can find if our constitutional American way of life is to survive.

The courts and the press are two of the few defenders still standing against the growing assaults on the guarantees of our constitutional form of government.

ROBERT H. HOFFMAN

Philadelphia

Scream Fire

Sir / The suggestion in “Revolt Against Rape” [July 22] that women in danger should scream should be carried one step further. Instead of screaming “rape” or “help,” they should scream “fire.” Unfortunately, many people within earshot may hesitate to respond to the screams of some one in danger unless they feel that they personally share that danger.

MERLYN WHITAKER

Salt Lake City

Sir / It is not the medical community, the courts or the law-enforcement agencies that have declared war on rape—it is women themselves. Women should demand that their daughters receive courses in self-defense in junior and senior high school and that local governments and private industry provide adequate lighting at night, especially near schools, churches, hospitals and factories that employ women. Concerned women will continue to demand that their communities fight the conditions and attitudes that nurture rape.

DEBORAH L. CAZZELL JILL LENK SCHILP

Dallas Women Against Rape, Inc. Dallas

Sir / Napoleon knew that man can’t thread a moving needle. When a woman complained to the Emperor that she had been raped by one of his officers, he handed her his sword and asked her to sheathe it while he moved the scabbard.

The woman said she could not as long as he was moving the sheath. Napoleon replied that if she had done the same thing, she never would have been raped.

D. PEELEMAN

Antwerp

In Sinatra’s Wake

Sir / Henry Kissinger’s next mission should be a good-will trip to Australia to calm the wake left by the spoiled and ill-mannered Sinatra [July 22]. Do us all a favor, Frankie. and return to retirement.

KENNETH G. LEMMER

Madison, Wis.

Sir / The arrogant Mr. Sinatra doesn’t like the press, just as his friend the arrogant Mr. Agnew didn’t like it, or the arrogant Mr. Nixon. What this shows is how ungrateful these people are for the very institutions that enabled them to climb to social, political and economic heights in the first place. If it weren’t for the free press we would have long since had a ruling class in America, and these men would certainly have been peasants, not aristocrats. The self-made man is a phenomenon possible only in a free society. How pathetic it is that so many self-made men seem to forget the debt they owe to those institutions that make that freedom possible.

JOHN A. REEDER

Buffalo