World Economic Policy Sir: Re the Dec. 13 article, "New Front in the Cold War--the U.S. Searches for a World Economic Plan": no mention is made of the only realistic way to strengthen the economy of other nations and to raise their standards of living. The answer is price. Without encouraging other peoples to raise their price levels, increase their workers' wages, utilizing their own raw materials for their own betterment rather than dumping them upon nations that already have abundance, there can be no lasting improvement in their standards of living . . .

JOHN O. KNUTSON

Glendale, Calif.

Sir: The danger of the New Front--the economic front--undisputedly lies in the fact that the Communists simply wouldn't stand for it very long. . . . The danger of a Pearl Harbor would grow very fast with any kind of success of WEP . . . With the Communist world it is always the political question which takes the front seat. Before starting WEP, we must destroy the enemy's war potential, no matter what the cost may be to us.

J. GOLDHABER Jackson, Miss.

Sir: It is good to see the Government considering "positive" action to stem the Communist threat. The Communists have had the initiative long enough . . . Let's call their bluff and go on to show these people of underdeveloped countries that our way of life is far superior to anything the Russians could ever think of . . .

J. HART Toronto

Papa's Prize

Sir:

. . . The Hemingway cover [Dec. 13] is a work of art of high value. Bravo !

NATALE CASTELLI Rome

Sir:

Re your caption: The publicity, she is running very damn silly.

CHARLES T. KIRK

Brooklyn, N.Y.

Sir:

How right is your cover caption, "The luck, she is still running good." It is outrageous for anyone to get consideration for anything as dull, poorly written and all-around uninteresting as The Old Man and the Sea . . .

CLARK J. WELLS Coolidge, Ariz.

Sir:

Ernest Hemingway's plea for Ezra Pound showed more guts than 20 safaris into the blackest jungles of Africa. The plea also demonstrated a real sense of decency . . .

MICHAEL MAHON

New York City

Sir:

Why look for symbols, moral or religious, in Ernest Hemingway's literary works? For me, Hemingway is the foremost outdoor existentialist of the New World.

V. A. BREINDL Bogota, Colombia

Sir:

Since Hemingway has criticized my book about him rather publicly ("How would you like it if someone said that everything you've done in your life was done because of some trauma?"), I'd like a chance to reply: It makes a lot of difference how you say a thing, and that is not quite what, or all, I said. The book was written in an attempt to understand Hemingway's work and to praise it. Almost everyone else has seen it that way, and I wish he could too.

PHILIP YOUNG Manhattan, Kans.

Sir: . . . Thought you might like this verse which ran in a recent issue of Punch: Now, as I bear away the most desired Of literary palms, I pouch the dough and televise my hail And my farewell to alms.

Wealth in the afternoon is fine, and better Is immortality ; So never send to know for whom Nobel tolls--This time it tolls for me.

JOHN ADAMS London

Concern for Mt. Dora Sir: Your Dec. 13 report on the Platt family in Mount Dora, Fla. ... is both a document on the murky mind of the South and a well-deserved tribute to the courageous Christian lady, Editor Mabel Reese [of Mt. Dora's weekly Topic] who came to the family's defense . . . A newspaperman--or woman--who insists on decent and democratic treatment of the downtrodden, in the face of threats and violence by law officers and protected agitators, makes a Pulitzer Prizeworthy contribution of the greatest merit.

CARL KERN

West Lawn, Pa.

Sir: I would like to take exception to the closing statement: "The Platt's . . . children were out of school and as far as anyone could tell, no one besides Editor Reese seemed to care." Other people do care--very much so. The St. Petersburg Times has roasted Sheriff McCall with a series of three front-page stories on his relations against Negroes, Editor Reese and the Platts in Lake County . . . Many private citizens who realize the terrible danger of tolerating such flagrant violation of democratic principles have also taken up the banner. I'll grant you that their efforts seem puny when compared to the massive reaction and bigotry so prevalent in the more rural parts of the South, but we must remember that they are speaking out when previously no one would have dared to speak at all . . .

MARTIN DYCKMAN Tallahassee, Fla.

Sir:

. . . Race Relations Expert Sheriff McCall needs a lesson in Christian living. And this is the U.S. that is trying to teach other nations how to live and not to discriminate. What wonderful propaganda!

(THE REV.) JAN SCHMUTZ St. John's Episcopal Church laeger, W.Va.

Letter to the Editor Sir: Congratulations to TIME at year's end on its "Letters" having supplanted the traditional Letters to The Times (London) as a world forum. Thus the famous 230-year-old prophecy of Bishop Berkeley of Cloyne--"Westward the Course of Empire," in his observations "On the Prespect of Planting Arts and Learning in America"--has again been fulfilled.

E. L. McCOLGIN Detroit Judgments & Prophecies Sir: The quote from Franz Borkenau's article in Commentary [Judgments '& Prophecies--Dec. 6] on Mao Tse-tung is quite ridiculous . . . How can Mao be said to be "playing for the leadership of the whole Communist movement," when 100,000 Russian military and technical advisers are pulling the strings behind the Chinese scenes, when China is completely dependent upon Russia for all her airplanes, tanks, and heavy armaments (not to mention industrial machinery), and when China has not even begun to enter the arena of atomic accomplishments? To have been delegated with the responsibility of expanding Communism in Southeast Asia with Russian help is something quite different from trying to snatch the leadership for world Communism from the hands of Russia . . .

HAROLD H. MARTINSON Missionary from China Northfield, Minn.

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