Architect's Art

Sir:

We applaud your magazine for the great tribute you have paid to Minoru Yamasaki [Jan. 18] by adding him to your previous selections of Distinguished Architects Frank Lloyd Wright, Edward Stone and Le Corbusier. And thank you for placing it under Art, where architecture belongs, as it is and always has been a fine art. Mies van der Rohe and Bunshaft come under engineering and IBM machines. And I. M. Pei belongs under water.

HELMUT AJANGO Designer

Ajango & Butts

Fort Atkinson, Wis.

Sir:

I would like to add something that Yama once said about his profession: "An architect, to implement our way of life, must recognize those human characteristics we cherish most: Love, Gentility, Joy, Serenity, Beauty and Hope."

EARL L. PRICE

Managing Editor

Architectural Beacon

New York City

Sir:

It is good to see you give up your long-term "Hate Detroit" binge! We, too, are proud of Yamasaki, of the Wayne State University campus, of the new gas building, and of the booming auto business. Your excellent color shots of Yamasaki's new buildings in Detroit are much appreciated.

JAMES C. TRIMBLE

Boulevard Congregational Church of Detroit

Detroit

The Contributors

Sir:

What scares me about that $53 million ransom for the Bay of Pigs prisoners [Jan. 11] is not that Castro blackmailed the U.S. Government, but that the U.S. Government blackmailed U.S. corporations into "donating" the $53 million.

GILBERT CHAMBERS

St. Petersburg, Fla.

Sir:

In your issue of Jan. 4, you state in your lead story on the ransomed Cuban patriots that "they were particularly instructed to stay silent about the last-minute U.S. refusal to provide expected air cover," etc.

Where did that idea and order originate, and why was the dirtiest doublecross in the whole history of civilization so censored? It seems to me that the answer to these questions is an urgently important part of the reporting of the event, otherwise so capably handled.

STERLING BEESON

Toledo

> The order originated with Kennedy Administration staffers managing the ransom operation, and was delivered to the released prisoners, after they had boarded aircraft bound for the U.S., by men who had been freed from Cuban prisons earlier.--ED.

Twisted

Sir:

To your reviewer's "nothing painful, nothing real" about Oliver! [Jan. 11], I would add--thank goodness! When I attend a musical, I want light entertainment, not painful soul searching. After seeing Oliver!, I left the theater pleasantly entertained and in a far better, happier mood than before the performance. Oliver!, in my opinion, was twisted just right.

EDWARD A. ROSENBLUM

Cedarhurst, N.Y.

Tax Talk

Sir:

It is a sad thing that every American taxpayer will not read your cover article on Congressman Mills and taxation [Jan. 11]. It might serve as the stick that got the ball rolling for tax cuts and complete reform. For once the public becomes aware of the great inequities of our present tax structure, and encouraged by the work of men like Wilbur Mills, it might do enough patient pushing to achieve a just distribution of contribution for everyone.

LARRY D. SHUBNELL

Muncie, Ind.

Sir:

Let's not be naive. We all know that the taxpayers must pay the obligations that the Government incurs, and that taxes cannot be cut without cutting spending. Kennedy and his colleagues are kidding the public. They are talking about "tax-cutting" while meaning "tax postponing." Any amount that is cut from the nation's tax bill in the years immediately ahead will be added to the tax bills in some future years. To the deferred amount will then be added interest for the intervening years. These are facts that cannot be escaped. Kennedy wants to take credit for "cutting taxes" and will let some other President worry about paying the bill.

D. L. DARNELL

Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Sir:

You described President Kennedy's defense of his tax program as "sophisticated rhetoric." I call it a snow job.

BRIAN CASS

Golf, Ill.

Virus Attack

Sir:

Allow me to point out an error in the virology story in the Jan. 18 issue of TIME that I hope will be corrected. I refer to the statement that National Cancer Institute scientists have reported photographic evidence that a virus they have found in the blood of leukemic animals attacks cells in the manner of a bacteriophage.

What the scientific report states is that the characteristic form of the mature particle observed is reminiscent of the structure of certain bacteriophages. It reported no findings on the method of attack on cells that could be compared to bacteriophages, however. A study is in progress to determine whether the leukemia virus acts like the virus that attacks bacteria by attaching its tail to the single-cell organism and injecting it with the disease-causing nucleic acid. An understanding of how the leukemia virus does its work in animals would help investigators devise ways of proving the theory that viruses cause human leukemia.

The scientists have found only a superficial, though important, resemblance between the virus under study and certain bacterial viruses.

JAMES F. KIELEY Information Officer

National Cancer Institute

Bethesda, Md.

The Other Side of the Brain

Sir:

The extent to which man can learn to use the other half of his brain [Jan. 11] has been impressively demonstrated in the case of one of the best pistol shots of all times, Major Karoly Takacs of Hungary, who was born righthanded. At the Olympic Games in 1936, Takacs placed among the first ten in his event. Shortly afterward, he lost his right hand in an accident, but continued shooting with the left hand, which he had never previously thus used. He won gold medals in his specialty in 1948 in London and in 1952 in Helsinki.

A well-established physiological dominance of the left hemisphere of the brain had been transferred through training to the contralateral side, rendering possible the execution of an exceptionally differentiated performance of great complexity that involved maximal demands upon mental acuity as well as visual and muscular skill.

ERNST JOKL, M.D.

University of Kentucky

Lexington

In Rebuttal

Sir:

Of all the letters written in response to TIME's Man of the Year selection, I was most impressed by the Rev. Henry P. Van Dusen's [Jan. 18]. His observation that the Vatican Council has shown "little prospect of changes on the more intractable issues that divide Roman Catholics and their Protestant 'separated brethren' " is soberly accurate. It would have been perfectly accurate had he said that there is no prospect of such changes.

The matters he referred to are fundamental to Catholicism, and cannot be changed. Equally accurate is the Rev. Van Dusen's estimate that the most that Protestant's can hope for from the council is an enlargement of "fellowship, conversation, and possibly limited cooperation between Catholics and non-Catholics, but no more than that."

It is hard for a Catholic to put his church's case frankly without appearing to be intransigent and arrogant. But if Protestants could borrow some of Mohammed's philosophical attitude, they would realize that this particular mountain is immovable. It has to be. Mohammed will have to go to the mountain.

Incidentally, I am a writer of Catholic magazine articles.

JOHN H. JEWELL

South Hadley Falls, Mass.

Sir:

Those words of Reader Michael McCracken [Jan. 11] about the "outdated and archaic beliefs and customs" of Christianity dare not go unchallenged.

Does he know of the appraisal of Einstein, who is reported to have said:

"Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came to Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but no, the universities were immediately silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks. Then I looked to the individual writers, but they too were mute. Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing the truth. I never had any great interest in the Church before. But now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly."

(THE REV.) S. T. MOYER

Bethel Mennonite Church

Pekin, Ill.

Editor's Comment

Sir:

We should like to thank you for opening the columns of TIME for an extremely well-written presentation of the Danish press and for choosing the Berlingske Tidende as a focal point. We have evidence from many parts of Europe showing that the article [Jan. 4] has been widely read. It has given us confidence to tackle the next 214 years, even if it will necessarily mean a change of editors.

TERKEL M. TERKELSEN Editor in Chief

Berlingske Tidende

Copenhagen

The Governor's Lady

Sir:

Re your picture showing Governor Peabody serving his wife breakfast in bed: Is his first name Chub or Chump?

ARTHUR GLOWKA

Scarsdale, N.Y.

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