LETTERS

At the Summit

Sir:

TIME'S July 25 story on Premier Bulganin was most entertaining reading. "A splendidly caparisoned beefeater," "a Soviet Schweppes-man, peddling bottled charm" was top-class light reading . . . One impression I got . . . there seem to be human beings . . . in Russia at the moment . . .

F. M. SLATTERY

Asdee, County Kerry, Ireland Sir: With regard to the statement that Khrushchev "seems not to have suffered for making a drunken spectacle of himself in Belgrade:" . . . The choice of Mr. Khrushchev as an "ambassador of good will" is downright Machiavellian on the part of the Politburo. Mr. K., in his cups or otherwise, talks and sounds remarkably like a human being. He invites everybody home with him; he cavorts like a Legionnaire at a department convention (but never really forgets the business at hand); he lowers his voice discreetly when he fears his remark may be a little off-color for the ladies present. For the first time in memory, the Politburo has presented a living, breathing character to our gaze and, from what has so far been revealed to us, one could lose him any day anywhere between the Atlantic and Pacific at a businessman's luncheon, a political rally or a baseball game . . . The best way to disarm an American is to make him laugh . .

N. C. GUERRA San Antonio Sir: TIME . . . pictures all the Soviet leaders as "stone-faced," angry and cruel ... I think the expression on Bulganin's face, as drawn by Boris Chaliapin, is not fair! Bulganin looks to me like a most lovable, goodhearted . . . grandfather.

AVIK GILBOA Los Angeles

Amid the Alien Corn Sir: I do hope someone tells the visiting Soviet farm delegates about the agricultural subsidies here. It would be just too much to send them away thinking that all this came from untrammeled, unsubsidized free enterprise.

Besides, the rest of us ought to get some credit for helping to buy all that beautiful machinery.

JACK LAWRENCE South Bend, Ind.

The American Desert Sir: Congratulations on your excellent July 25 spread of pictures and story on the Pacific Southwest . . . Never was a truer word written than your assertion that ";water has always been the limiting factor to the desert's growth" . . . When federal western reclamation was authorized in 1902, some critics labeled it unnecessary, impractical and visionary ... I heard the same cries of "visionary" and "impractical" when I was on the . .. survey party which fixed the location of Hoover Dam in 1929. The growth and prosperity of the Imperial, Yuma and Coachella Valleys and metropolitan southern California would not have been possible without this dam . . . Now history is repeating itself . . .

W. A. DEXHEIMER Commissioner Bureau of Reclamation U.S. Dept. of the Interior Washington, D.C.

Sir: . . . My native state of Arizona is very colorfully portrayed, both in picture and in word, in your well-done story of this fast-growing area . . . Once thought of as useful perhaps only for scenery, this area now has an additional value in that our American industry can move to the wide open spaces where there is excellent climate and room for proper planning . . .

BARRY GOLDWATER United States Senate Washington, D.C.

Sir: Your article was good, but why do you suggest that all of the people moved out there to escape the smog and traffic here in Los Angeles? You know darn well that New York City has as much smoke and traffic as we do. And when you wrote of the desert, why didn't you tell about the sand storms and the wind that blows and blows each night, and that terrible heat--like a blowtorch, huh?

RUSSELL MAHAFFEY Los Angeles

SIR:

THE U.S. CENSUS BUREAU RECENTLY PREDICTED A 500,000 POPULATION INCREASE IN ARIZONA BY 1965. THE BUREAU DID NOT ANTICIPATE YOUR VERY FINE ARTICLE AND WHAT IT WOULD DO TO THEIR CALCULATIONS . . .

STANLEY WOMER

PHOENIX, ARIZ.

Sir:

... I am sure that every Arizonan will be grateful to you . . . Your commentary on the balance that Arizona is attempting to achieve between industry and other phases of our economy is most interesting.

JOHN J. RHODES

House of Representatives Washington, D.C.

Shrimp `a la Mode

Sir:

About The American Shrimp Girl [TIME, July 25]: I should like to suggest to Painter Philip Evergood that he concentrate on painting sea gulls, shrimp and fish and that he leave the painting of typical American girls to artists more capable than he. For TIME to mention his kindergarten canvas in the same breath as Hogarth's masterpiece [see cut] is nothing short of sacrilegious. Before Evergood can be a good painter, he will have to learn the meaning of humility.

ONEIL J. RICHARD Ruston, La.

The Bear & the Goat

Sir:

Your July 18 article on Afghanistan was a welcome break in the journalistic boycott of this very interesting and important country . .

ARNOLD FLETCHER Los Angeles

Sir:

Most people know very little about this very strategic country ... It is most important that it shouldn't be lost to the "terrible bear."

R. R. STORER

Covington, Ky.

Sir:

Thank you for giving my country, Afghanistan, some of your space. I laughed with a noise like a church bell when I read that you called it "The Poor Goat" and Asia's "tortoise shell" ... I keep the article in an envelope in my desk, and I will show it to people who say: "Afghanistan? Where is that?" . . .

IBEN KASHAR New York City

Phantom Stands

Sir:

Neither Don Newcombe nor anyone else ever hit a home run into the right-field stands at Ebbets Field [TiME, July 25]. Why? 'Dere ain't no grandstand in right field.

JOHN J. FOSTER

Schenectady, N.Y.

Sir:

. . . Your sports editor should be punished by writing "Bedford Avenue Special" a hundred times and then by banishment to the farthest seat in the Polo Grounds

(M/SgT.) KENNETH J. CHASTEEN

U.S. Army Paris

P:TIME'S Sports Editor has been sentenced to call Coogan's Bluff.--ED.

New Air Academy

Sir: It is indeed a sad commentary on the future of federal buildings if their design is to be dictated by the Washington lobbies of building-materials trades. Imagine the final structure--a composite of Indiana limestone, California redwood, Vermont marble, Montana copper, Oregon Douglas fir and Rhode Island brick. Add one flight of New Hampshire granite steps so that the whole may be recognized as "monumental.". . .

ELIZABETH C. WHITMAN Honolulu, T.H.

Sir:

. . . The Air Force's idea to use un-American steel and un-Christian glass in their new academy, instead of Greek pillars cut from Indiana limestone, certainly shows poor taste. Their use of electricity instead of oil lamps and their failure to put Gothic windows in their jet bombers are equally deplorable.

HANS KLEEFELD Toronto

A Slight Case of Virginity

Sir:

Thanks for your July 25 fragment on the Virgin Islands problem . . . The first governor, Paul M. Pearson, given the right support, would have made the best governor the islands ever had. He was followed by governors of lesser stature, a motley procession of uplifters, do-gooders, pseudo socialists, New Dealers and Fair Dealers . . .

WILBUR D. ROBBINS

Charlotte Amalie, V.I.

Pascal's Will

Sir:

In your July 18 issue there was an item concerning the estate of Gabriel Pascal. My firm represents Eugenio Lehel, brother of Gabriel Pascal, in the probate proceeding. You stated that the New York Court of Appeals held that the will "was valid" and "ruled out contesting claims of Pascal's brother and second wife" . . . The Court of Appeals ruled only that the widow and brother of Gabriel Pascal who were contesting the probate of the will were not entitled to have the will thrown out without a trial. No decision has been made as to whether the will is to be probated or not . . . that depends upon the decision after trial.

LIONEL S. POP KIN

New York City

Off-Day for Venus

Sir:

It was unjust, unfair and unkind of you to print that unbecoming photograph of Miss Garbo in your July 25 issue. Even Venus had her off-days . . .

ROSE T. GOGGIN Milwaukee

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