The Tension of Change

Sir:

TIME'S Man of the Year: Thurgood Marshall [Sept. 19], for sparking the successful "effort to remove from U.S. life a paralyzing sting in its conscience and the ugliest blot upon its good name in the world." (THE REV.) PHILIP KIRRANE, S.S.J. Baltimore

Sir:

South Carolina is proud to find you have assigned it a grade of "F" on desegregation. North Carolina! How she must be humiliated at receiving only "C minus!"

We hope you'll find it in your heart to give us the same or a better grade, maybe "Z" ten years from now. We can assure you we will do our best against the destroyers of the Constitution and States Rights.

You might tell Marshall he can expect a "Thoroughgood" time in our State.

C. F. BAARCKE Union, S.C.

Sir:

The "Negro problem" of the United States is really a white problem, and the sooner it is recognized by all as such, the sooner it will disappear. It is the problem of how are we to convince the "white supremacy" racists that the conclusions of common sense, the principles of Judean-Christian ethic, and the consensus of the vast majority of mankind all point to the fact that there is no superior race and that all men are essentially the same.

JULIUS GASSNER Lafayette, La.

Sir: What section does not make distinction between the whites and the Negroes? . . .

Northern people don't want the Negroes for neighbors! This thing called racial tolerance is supported in large degree vocally--but the practice of such tolerance is generally left to somebody else.

HERBERT U. FEIBELMAN

Miami, Fla.

Sir:

Muted huzzahs for the distinguished James Chapin cover portrait of Thurgood Marshall.

E. BROCKMAN BRACE Toronto

P: Reader Brace has plenty of company. Wrote Howard University's late Philosopher Alain Locke: "James Chapin has pioneered significantly in exploring the deeper traits and personalities of Negro subjects." His better-known subjects: Negro Boxer, Negro Girl, Blues Concert (of Actress Ethel Waters), and Ruby Green Singing (TIME, Sept. 28, 1953). Thurgood Marshall is Chapin's first TIME cover.--ED.

Above flie Knees

Sir:

Bravo to my fellow clergy in shorts! [Sept. 12] ... May I add an economic note? Since clergy salaries are traditionally mediocre, it may be that the Bermudas are made from an older pair of trousers, thus getting another summer's wear out of them. Being Episcopal priests, it is to be hoped that the knees would wear out of our pants long before the seat. (THE REV.) HERBERT BARSALE St. James Episcopal Chapel Berkley, Mich.

Space Man

Sir:

As I read your Sept. 12 success story of the skinny kid from Bahia, one of the most vibrant that TIME has ever published ... it suddenly dawned on me that Lieut. Colonel

John Paul Stapp is the son of my colleague, Missionary Charles F. Stapp. Knowing something of the joyous humor and the tenacious spirit of his good father, the character of his saintly mother, I could better understand the practical philosopher, the generous-hearted doctor and the scientist, who does not count his life dear unto himself, if only he can live up to his self-chosen ideals.

A. R. CRABTREE

Louisville

Sir:

. . . Your article has left me with two impressions of Lieut. Colonel Stapp. He is apparently a man 1) of exceptional courage coupled with a remarkable devotion to his work, and 2) possessed of shortsightedness nurtured by an emotional chip on his shoulder. Much of his Ph.D. training in biophysics has been wasted if he cannot see that without the basic research ... all of medicine and the applied research to which Lieut. Colonel Stapp is so dedicated would be so much shooting in the dark . . .

Stapp is, perhaps unwittingly, helping to foster an unfortunately prevalent anti-intellectual feeling in this country, one of the manifestations of which has been reallocation of funds toward support of all kinds of applied research at the expense of equally important fundamental scientific investigation.

EUGENE SPAZIANI Los Angeles

Sir: As much as I admire the great and very useful work of Dr. Stapp, I wonder where he feels the medical profession would be today without the pure scientists, the researchers in chemistry, biology, bacteriology, physiology, etc.--those "prima donnas in universities working in their nit-picking ways at academic doodlings to impress each other." Indeed, whom else can they impress? Few, except themselves, understand their work which frequently is at, or beyond, the frontiers of knowledge. Others usually are not interested in such doodlings until they produce results --then they accept these results and use them in very practical ways. The prima donnas then go back to their nit-picking until they nit another pearl.

MILO L. Cox

Lincoln, Neb.

Sir: . . . This country already faces a critical situation in the encouragement and training of future scientists. If Dr. Stapp's views are taken seriously by young men selecting-- a career, there may be no one to conceive and design the machines he is preparing mankind for. Nitpickers as well as guinea pigs are an integral part of the complex effort to send man into space.

THOMAS P. CLARK

Parma, Ohio

The Lady & the Jungle

Sir:

Re "The Image of the U.S." [Sept. 12]: I am certainly surprised at TIME'S defense of Ambassador Luce's questionable action concerning the film Blackboard Jungle. Deploring the production of such products for the sole reason that they tend to present a "repulsive picture of U.S. life" smacks of utter naivete. Let us rather turn our attention to eradicating these well-known American injustices no matter how distorted they may seem to the overcomplacent. In the long run, it is better to think well of yourself than to worry about what others think of you.

JACK KISNER Dorchester, Mass.

Sir:

Your article struck a responsive chord. Pictures like The Wild One and Blackboard

Jungle should never have been made. Mrs. Luce showed good judgment . .

Hollywood has a grave responsibility, as have the press and TV, and if they don't like censorship, they had better show more interest in the fine and inspiring things in our American way of life, instead of being so overwhelmingly concerned with smut and violence and crime.

MARCELLA S. ERNE

Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.

Sir:

TIME made rather unfortunate use of the adjective "heavyhanded" in applying it to MGM's portrayal of teen-age brutality in big-city schools. It might better have been applied to both Mrs. Luce's decision to boycott the film Blackboard Jungle, or TIME'S defense of her act. Rather than be shocked ai American school conditions, be they typical or not, Europeans must have wondered at a humorless Government always ready to trumpet its virtues but equally ready with a whitewash brush for its vices.

GERALD D. NELSON Fargo, N. Dak.

Sir:

As an American living in Italy, I wish to express my gratitude and admiration for Mrs. Luce . . . We know of these frightful facts of juvenile delinquency in our country, but I seriously doubt the patriotism of men, who, in their hone of gaining a prize, would show a film exposing, even facts, which must lower the" respect and admiration for our country in foreign lands.

MRS. NICOLAS RAFFALOVICH Rapallo, Italy

Sidetracked Train

Sir:

The article "Revolt & Revenge" [Sept. 5] is a good treatment of the subject, but pour-quoi do you find it necessaire to interrupt your English-speaking readers' trains of thought every now and again with un mot franc,ais? The practice strikes me as a bit stupide.

Perhaps your writer wrote when the weather was taihen mushiatsui.

(Japanese for very close and sultry). I threw that in to add a touch of Oriental mystery.

FREDERIC B. LEACH Nutley, NJ.

Wouk's Star (Contd.)

Sir:

Reading "The Wouk Mutiny" [Sept. 5] was like feeling a cool breeze when the temperature hits 98DEG. Hurrah! Decency has a champion in modern literature!

... As one Christian (Southern Baptist) with a Bible Belt (geographically and disciplinary) upbringing, I'm humbly grateful to Herman Wouk for his mutiny against the filth, pseudo-realism, gutter-slanted "frankness," cynicism and foul language so common in "better" literature today.

ANNE SCANNELLY ABLE Charleston, S.C.

Sir:

He is fortunate indeed who delves no more deeply into Marjorie Morningstar than a reading of its able review. Not since Bernard DeVoto's The Year of Decision: 1846 has so much been said, by so few, about so little.

ROBERT S. SEESE

Higgins Lake, Mich.

Sir:

Here is one top author who is not "an angry man!" There is so much violence in the world from which we can find no escape; let us NOT have it in our reading.

You have given your readers a most satisfying glimpse of an author whose personal life is dictated by an active conscience.

HELEN S. ROSELLE Pueblo, Colo.

Sir:

The message I got out of Herman Wouk's Caine Mutiny is:

(a) Believe! (b) Work! (c) Die!

What a hell of a message that is.

PHILIP K. DICK

Berkeley, Calif.

Sir:

What an exquisite balance you achieved in presenting the life of Frank Sinatra one week, and that of Herman Wouk the next. I particularly enjoyed the juxtaposition of Sinatra's "Polo Grounds for a closet," and Wouk's "Possessions are disastrous," or again, Sinatra's "I don't need anybody in the world. I did it all myself," and Wouk, whose day "does not begin at his desk, but in prayer . . ."

CLAUDETTE DEENNAN

Los Angeles

Contraband

Sir:

So Nebraska has only elected two Democrats to state and federal offices in the past 15 years since the Omaha World-Herald has backed the G.O.P. candidates [Sept. 5]. If it really wants to test its power, it should try to elect a Democrat in this state, where it is practically a crime to smuggle a Democrat across the border . . .

JOHN C. KELLEY Lincoln, Neb.

Uncomplementary?

Sir:

Re "Theology and Jazz" [Sept. 5]: the Rev. Lawrence McMaster longs for the magnetism of jazz to fill our churches . . . But the danger of expressing religion through jazz is extreme because thereby religious emotion is emphasized to the total exclusion of religious intellect.

Worse yet, jazz is ultimately the musical (sic!) expression of coition. And while coition and religion in times past have not been totally unrelated, this relationship has found opponents (Hosea, et al.) and is still in some disfavor with the church.

Theology and jazz are opposing, not complementary terms. Theology is knowledge of God. Jazz does not contribute to this knowledge . . .

(THE REV.) GEORGE E. GOODERHAM

Rector

St. Mark's Episcopal Church Yreka, Calif.

Parental Pushing

Sir:

Too bad we have no way of knowing how many of Superintendent Smith's Kindergarten mamas are truly considering their children's best interests, and how many are just anxious to have a glorified baby-sitter for a few hours a day [Sept. 5]. Won't parents ever learn to stop pushing their children to satisfy their own selfish desires? Immaturity in a child meeting the school situation for the first time often means headaches for the teacher and parents, and sometimes develops in the child a dislike for school that can not easily be erased. Perhaps this incident will stimulate some work on a new and better standardized test.

I. N. SADOWSKI

Reading, Mass.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.