"The Man Who . . ." Sir: The Republican hope lies in Goldwater as a candidate offering something other than an echo. Many misguided Lodge supporters should recall his lackadaisical performance in 1960, when, with just a little more effort, the Republican ticket would have been elected.

LEO TOCH Flushing, N.Y.

Sir: The delegates to the Republican Convention would do well to remember that those of us writing the name of Henry Cabot Lodge on primary ballots are the same people who will be asked to vote for a Republican President in November.

MRS. E. F. STOCKMANN Malvern, Pa.

Sir: While Mr. Goldwater has been pleading for a prehistoric party platform, while Mr. Rockefeller has been playing partisan politics, while Mr. Nixon has been pushing Pepsi-Cola, and while Mr. Scranton has been patiently standing pat in Pennsylvania, Lodge has been busy doing the job that must be done. He has been practicing Americanism in Saigon while others have been content merely to preach it in the suburbs.

JOHN R. ROBERTS JR. Washington, D.C.

Sir: The Republican Party delegates may well indulge themselves by nominating Goldwater. However, may they be forewarned that in November, when the G.O.P. goes down to defeat with 25% or less of the popular vote, history will note the ironic course of a political party, identified initially with the abolition of slavery, disappearing because a current leader denies the importance of national civil rights legislation.

HENRY G. MAGENDANTZ, M.D. Cleveland

Sir: You have stated that the Republican mock convention held at Brooklyn College nominated Barry Goldwater. As a delegate to the convention I would like to inform you that, though Senator Goldwater led in the first-ballot strength, Ambassador Lodge clinched the nomination on the second ballot.

JEFFREY DOUGLAS FRIEDLANDER Executive Secretary

Young Republican Club of Hunter College New York City

Rally, Don't Dally

Sir: The time has come (the Walrus said) for TIME to realize that there are other schools in Massachusetts besides the prestige schools. In your People Section [May 15], you stated that Harvard was the first to riot. We regret to inform you that you have been misled. There was a riot staged a week before the Sycamore outburst. This was called by some the worst riot that the state of Massachusetts has ever witnessed. The boys from Babson rallied; Harvard dallied.

SUSAN AUER CONSTANCE HESS PATRICIA PROUTY Pine Manor Junior College Wellesley, Mass.

Tax-Free Religion

Sir: I find myself in complete agreement with Atheist Madalyn Murray [May 15]. Organized religion is probably the greatest con game ever perpetrated upon the human race. Churches and synagogues will some day be regarded as monuments to the ignorance and fears of those who attended.

JOHN J. SODOFSKY Woburn, Mass.

Sir: America is God's country. If Mrs. Murray doesn't like it, why doesn't she get the hell out of it? But who would have her? Only a God-loving country like ours that gives her kind of people liberty.

DONNA PANGRLE Glen Ellyn, Ill.

Sir: Although it is obviously not her intention, Mrs. Murray has already done more for the cause of God, the Christian church and religion in America than the combined efforts of all churchmen since she declared war on religion.

Religion is often served best by those who imagine themselves to be in opposition to God when in reality they are being used by the very God they reject as instruments of purification and restoration.

(THE REV.) DON CREAGER Trinity Reformed Church Mercersburg, Pa.

Sir: The courageous and valiant attorney in your picture with the Murray family is Leonard Kerpelman of Baltimore. He is an orthodox and conservative member of the Jewish community who is devoted to the concept of separation of church and state--as any American should be.

MADALYN MURRAY Baltimore

The Governor's General

Sir: May I join you in your tribute to an outstanding soldier and great American, Lieut. General William C. Westmoreland [May 8]. Having served for more than two years as "Westy's" executive officer with the 34th Field Artillery, 9th Infantry Division, both at Fort Bragg and in North Africa and Sicily, I can testify to the fact that he is a leader who brings to our Viet Nam campaign soldiering that inspires the men who serve with him, and a wisdom in war which in my opinion is unsurpassed. In World War II, his officers and men called him "Superman." It was a title that he earned by his deeds and capacity for deeds.

OTTO KERNER Governor of Illinois Springfield

Samaritan Shortage

Sir: Your analysis of the situations involving Kitty Genovese and Olga Romero [May 15] may be quite accurate--that we have lost the sense of community (and all that this implies in terms of courtesy, thoughtfulness and responsibility) in the bigness and bureaucracy of big-city life. But I can't help wondering if the missing ingredient in both cases was leadership. Certainly, in the rape case, if only one leader-type had been present in the crowd that gathered, he or she should have been able to galvanize some of the bystanders into action.

ANNE M. FALLON New York City

Sir: Where in the hell are the good Samaritans who are supposed to inhabit our good land? Our people seem to have adopted an Oriental attitude when it comes to aiding their fellow man. This viewpoint is well known to men who served in the Orient and watched victims of accidents dying in the streets because an assister could become financially involved. It is time for the whole American public to get indignant about the criminal element that even invades our homes. Otherwise, we will end as a country without guts or Samaritans.

JACK A. MILLER Cherry Point, N.C.

Fraeulein Furor

Sir: Last summer I was fortunate enough to be in West Germany. I found myself constantly distracted by the Fraeuleinwunder [May 8]. Since returning, I have been accused of "seeing things" or losing my perspective. Needless to say, I was glad to see your article.

JOHN MILLER Gambier, Ohio

Sir: Let me call your attention to what Madame de Stael said of German women 150 years ago: "German women have a charm all their own--a touching voice, fair hair, a dazzling complexion. They seek to please by their sensibility and to interest by their imagination. They are not frank, yet neither are they false. Even when it occurs to them to be gay, they still maintain a tinge of that sentimentality that is so honored in their country."

MORROE BERGER Professor of Sociology Princeton University Princeton, N.J.

Sir: Your photos of half-dressed, obscene women merely demonstrate the compromise and downright degradation of your magazine. You are willing to satisfy the common thirst for lust.

(MRS.) LAURIE FLINT Los Angeles

Sir: You do not seem to be aware of the fact that the days of the Anschluss ended with World War II, since you refer to Romy Schneider, Nadja Tiller and Senta Berger as "talented Teutons." The three attractive movie stars were all born in Austria and still carry Austrian passports.

KURT HAMPE Director

Austrian Information Service New York City

Relevant Methodists

Sir: It is not often that the so-called "secular" press is able to capture the mood and condition of a church body with the accuracy and feeling with which your writer handled the story on the Methodists [May 8]. It is honest, penetrating, accurate, and will stand as a real challenge to us all.

(THE REV.) ROBERT QUICK Waynesville Methodist Church Waynesville, Ohio

Sir: From this side of the world, the Methodist compromise on the race issue in the U.S. sounds like "a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." The ecclesiastical machine has been oiled for another four years, but the church has missed its chance to advance the Kingdom of God significantly.

GERALD H. ANDERSON Union Theological Seminary Manila, Philippines

Sir: The Methodist pastor who said, "Try and fill posts of leadership in any church with nondrinkers and still get capable people, you just can't do it," must be unaware of the leaders of the Mormon Church throughout the world!

WILLIS T. EICKE San Mateo, Calif.

Sir: With fidelity, your splendid panorama of Methodism shows us as we are: a yeasty combination of progressive and conservative, crusader and compromiser, pietist and reformer, critical and complacent, ecumenist and sectarian, liturgist and freewheeler, yet one in our desire to be relevant and redemptive.

ALBERT EDWARD DAY Founder

The Disciplined Order of Christ Falls Church, Va.

Sir: I love our church, and your article made me prouder than ever! You did a good job of explaining our flaws and weaknesses; and I would be willing to bet that every Methodist familiar with the inner workings of the church laughed his head off, just as I did, when he read, "It spends endless hours tinkering with its ecclesiastical machinery." How very true that is, and while it sometimes makes you want to give up Methodism, it is the very thing that makes us willing to strive for John Wesley's (and Jacobus Arminius') Christian perfection.

MRS. K. S. PETERSEN Doraville, Ga.

Rooting for Scrappers Sir: As a loyal Celtics rooter for the past 16 years, I resent your implication of "dirty" play as a method of Celtics play and a reason for their victory [May 8]. I remind you that pro basketball is not a noncontact sport. The Celtics hustled and scrapped like true champions and refused to let down despite the fact that they were overwhelming favorites. The Celtics reign supreme again, as they are the best team in every respect.

MICHAEL L. ALTMAN Framingham, Mass.

Ear for Sessions

Sir: Although "most audiences" may rarely seem eager to hear the works of Roger Sessions performed [May 8], the contrary was true in Aspen, Colo., last summer. Sessions, a composer-in-residence for the famed Aspen Music Festival, conducted his music in concert on several occasions and received a most enthusiastic reception. Perhaps your poignant article may supply some color to his "pallid acclaim" for future listeners.

CAROL ANN JACOBSON Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies Aspen, Colo.

Yo-Ho-Ho--Oops!

Sir: As a former passenger aboard Mike Burke's windjammer, the Polynesia, I was fascinated by your article about his cruises [May 15]. However, the Christmas cruise I took on board the Polynesia was more dramatic and stranger than fiction. It wasn't "a passenger who went berserk and jumped over the rail" but the captain of the accompanying ship, the Cutty Sark, who went overboard in the dead of night and was never heard from again! In the excitement, the engineer fell on a spear gun, which could not be extracted from his knee, so he was rushed in a helicopter to a hospital in Miami. After that, the 21-year-old first mate automatically became captain, and three of the crew promptly quit because of his Captain Bligh attitude.

MARY ANN McGOWAN Beverly Hills, Calif.

Basic Issue

Sir: The battle in the Magnolia School District [May 8] was a basic issue as to whether the teachers (public servants) or the board of trustees (the elected representatives of the people) controlled the district. All other issues were really secondary. However, I stated that atheists and Unitarians filed a protest against the distribution of monthly patriotic messages that I sent home to the children. I did not, as you quote me, describe anyone as an "atheistic Unitarian." I did not intend to teach religion--I only attempted to show the effect of religion upon the contributions of our American heritage.

CHARLES WILSON Superintendent Magnolia School District Anaheim, Calif.

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