Exuberant Economy

Sir:

Thanks for the exciting, informative May 31 feature story on our "new and exuberant economy." I have just returned from Standard Jersey's annual meeting in Houston. Seeing Mr. Rathbone in action is an unforgettable experience. With men of his ilk at the head of U.S. business, we've got it made.

(MRS.) GLYNN M. JOHNSTON

Dallas

Sir:

TIME'S references to the chip off the old Block confirms that this Block isn't a square.

EDDIE SOLOMON

Miami Beach

Sir:

No picture on the cover, and only 5 1/2 lines about the biggest corporation in the world!

Without the famous product of my employer, the good, great and dynamic Bell System, all of the cover gentlemen would be in a pickle!

(MRS. ) MARY E. MARTIN

Beverly Hills, Calif.

Stand Up & Be Counted

Sir:

James Baldwin, the "professional Negro," needs an answer to his [May 17] attack on liberals, Chicago (and other Northern cities) and whites in general.

We were the only Negro family in the neighborhood during Chicago's race riot . I was a boy and didn't understand why my father had me piling rocks up in the hall by the front door. The curtain was down, and he stood behind the door with a rifle. If memory serves correctly, next to him, also with a rifle, stood his white neighbor and friend. The mob came--perhaps 50 or more. A woman neighbor from a block and a half down the street stopped them and, wagging her finger under the leader's nose, said, "Don't you dare bother that colored family down the street, or you are going to have trouble with all of us." Their answer: "No, we're going to the West Side to get some niggers." As they approached our house, the woman across the street ran out, telling them the same thing. They walked past our house without looking at it.

In high school I coached a girls' (white) basketball team, and the pastor of the church wanted me to join, but being a good Catholic (at the time), I refused. After high school I coached a neighborhood football team, and most of the crowd (white) rooted for us--I believe because the team was white and had a colored coach.

If I understand correctly, Mr. Baldwin does not like liberals. Well, I have news for him. There are thousands of radicals, liberals and just plain, ordinary white people in the United States who are people of good heart and have none of these prejudices he has taken his stake of land out in.

Finally, the next time I go to Chicago, I must go by way of Birmingham, or wherever else there is trouble, for I feel it is time for every man, woman and child of good will to stand up and be counted.

WILLARD MOTLEY*

Tlalpan, Mexico

Sir:

As a Negro, I object to James Baldwin's being used as a symbol of Negro hopes and aspirations. Human problems develop because of a general refusal to accept individual responsibility. Every person must fight his own private battle; search his own soul; practice the selfish principles embodied in the Golden Rule.

One hundred years of legal battles to put this basic idea into practice have not been lost. Without such a monumental effort, this nation would have suffered more.

SYLVESTRE C. WATKINS SR.

Chicago

Sir:

Like any man with human conscience, the Birmingham situation makes me feel sick every day, particularly here in Africa, where we feel that one black man's suffering is the suffering of all black men.

We in Africa admire America for the sympathy it has shown toward the black man in Africa in his drive for freedom and independence. We admire America more for its courage in supporting resolutions at the United Nations and in other world councils that Africans under colonial rule should be granted their independence. But each time an incident such as this one in Birmingham takes place, America loses some friends in Africa.

FRANCIS L. MANNAH

Monrovia, Liberia

Sir:

I wish to thank TIME for accurate and impartial coverage of the racial situation. I am a Southerner who now lives in the North, and my attitude toward this problem has undergone radical changes since I have been here in New Haven, Conn.

A note to my fellow Southerners: the Negro is just as discriminating as you are; he has no desire to marry your daughter. He merely wants to justify his rights, by virtue of being a U.S. citizen, and this is just and as it should be. As a Southerner, I can understand the intense resentment of the white Southerner to force and pressure, but if people are not amenable to logic and reason and let themselves be ruled by inherited prejudice, then what other alternative does our Government have?

DORCAS SAVAGE

New Haven, Conn.

Congratulations

Sir:

I say BRAVO and all my very best wishes to pretty Margaret and her husband, Stuart Fuller-Sandys [May 17] who had the pluck to brave the stupidity, ignorance and prejudice of people who, because of the accidental pigmentation of their skin, think themselves a better kind.

From the bottom of my heart, good luck to them both. They deserve it.

MRS. E. A. MYERS

Bern, Switzerland

Grateful Survivors

Sir:

Three years ago this May 21, the most terrible earthquake in the history of Chile devastated its southern region and killed many people [June 6, 1960]. At that time we received prompt and important help from almost every country in the world. However, the aid we received, and are still receiving from the U.S., is so disproportionately large that I feel someone has to speak for all the Chileans who have silently received and benefited from it. Thank you once again. It will not be quickly forgotten.

ANDRES ALCALDE D.

Santiago, Chile

Individual Effort

Sir:

I wish to congratulate you on the education story about Mr. Dillard A. Mallory [May 17]. Would that we had more such dedicated teachers; our educational system would be much better.

(MRS.) MARCELLA B. MURPHY

Buffalo, N.Y.

Rest in Peace

Sir:

As usual, TIME has expressed the exquisite sentiment to end all in its superb description of the molding of Marilyn Monroe [May 31]. I knew Marilyn well in those days when she looked like "nothing much at all, a glass of milk with some lipstick near the rim." I knew her not as a worshiper but as an aspiring fellow artist who had the rare pleasure of sharing her joys and woes and wistfulness, and who saw beyond the glass of milk, deep into its nourishing contents.

There was nothing accidental about Marilyn, not even her death. It was all ordained. No one ever worked harder, or planned more meticulously to please her worshipers. Why the wailing over her "untimely" departure? She packed a more lasting wallop in her short span as a star than most of us will if we live to be 100. She needed the rest, and God knows she had earned it; let's let her have it.

HAL GOULD

New York City

Drawer Drawing

Sir:

Ellsworth Kelly's "hard edge" picture in your May 24 issue should be titled "My Auntie's Red Panties."

MRS. LEONARD M. SCHIFF JR.

Sinking Spring, Pa.

Sir:

After studying your "Calm Calculators" I submit this advertisement from the Kansas City Times as a fitting companion to Kelly's shape.

MRS. TRUMAN GREEN

Jefferson City, Mo.

Piggyback Discounts

Sir:

Your otherwise excellent article on New York newspapers [May 24] contained a misleading reference to the Herald Tribune's "piggyback" retail advertising plan.

This plan, which started May 5, is a special promotion applying to Sunday retail advertising only, for a limited time. Existing advertisers who repeat ads in the Tribune that they have run elsewhere have been offered a discount from their contract rate. We allow no corrections nor provide proofs of these ads -- and pass the resulting cost savings on to the advertiser.

ROBERT T. MACDONALD

Vice President New York Herald Tribune New York City

Poached Fish

Sir:

The tuna industry is understandably upset at Ecuador's interference with American fishing vessels in international waters.

We can fashion sensible new tactics to deal with harassment by nations that unilaterally extend their territorial limits beyond three miles. Such tactics could consist of affirmative recompense to wronged fishing vessels and withholding of foreign aid to nations, such as Ecuador, that employ jingoistic gunboat tactics.

American vessels should be compensated on the basis of a reasonable dollar amount per tonnage capacity per day that the vessel is unlawfully restrained.

Conversely, the offending nation should have its foreign aid reduced by a substantial multiple of this amount. We ought to deny entry of fish products from that country for one year for each incident.

WALTER WENCKE

President

United States Tuna, Inc. San Diego

Said Tom Readily

Sir:

After sampling the Tom Swifties [May 31], my husband was "simply beside himself," he said disjointedly.

THERESA GALLAGHER

Wallkill, N.Y.

Sir:

"We got the contract," said the general dynamically.

STEPHEN F. AYRES

Washington

Sir:

"I have just had a complete gastrointestinal resection," he said gutlessly.

DAVID I. EPSTEIN, D.V.M.

Evanston, Ill.

Sir:

"I dropped my toothpaste," said Tom, Crestfallen.

BERT ROSENFIELD

Troy, N.Y.

Sir:

"I'm glad I'm married again," said Rockefeller happily.

MICHAEL M. SHAPIRO

Hempstead, N.Y.

Sir:

"TIME is the greatest," he said lucidly.

JOHN CONNORS

Williamson, N.Y.

Sir:

"I did not invent the airplane," said Tom wrighteously.

FRED BENNIGNUS

Cincinnati

Sir:

"Why was there no art color May 31?" the reader asked artlessly.

G. L. WONDRA Tarzana, Calif.

Sir:

"I've been looking forward to this ride," said Lady Godiva shiftlessly.

WHITEY MITCHELL

Hackensack, N.J.

Sir:

"Good night, Jack," said Jackie pregnantly.

BAIRD CAMPBELL

New York City

* Author of Let No Man Write My Epitaph.

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