Rights & Wrongs

Sir: The initial Los Angeles uprising [Aug. 20] may have sprung from racial grievances, but there is a difference between action to solve problems and action to relieve frustration. Burning white-owned businesses does not invite integrated existence. I am in favor of constructive demonstrations, but these riots constitute unadulterated defiance of law.

KARLA K. FARNADAY Los Angeles

Sir: What the Negro has done to himself was well expressed by French Moralist La Rochefoucauld: "The violence done us by others is often less painful than that which we do to ourselves."

ALBERT LEPAGE Attleboro, Mass.

Sir: As a white citizen born in Mississippi and raised in Georgia, I suppose I should tell my friends, "See, them damn niggers ain't fit for freedom." But I can't. Anyone with a shred of conscience cannot read your grippingly honest report without feeling, "There, but for the grace of white skin, go I." People so torn by desperation and racked by self-hatred, to a point where dignity no longer counts, need understanding.

RICHARD L. LEGAN Chance, Md.

Sir: Your assertion that the Police Department asked for the National Guard on Thursday and that I made no decision until Friday is an unadulterated falsehood. The Chief of Police decided Friday morning that we should ask for the Guard and I immediately concurred. Furthermore, when the Acting Governor signed the necessary proclamation at 5 p.m. Friday, I requested 15,000 men, though the Guard was planning on holding only 2,000 and permitting 7,500 to proceed to Camp Roberts. The Governor had no authority while in Greece. The Acting Governor had to sign the proclamation and order the curfew.

SAM YORTY Mayor Los Angeles

>> Mayor Yorty certainly "concurred" in the formal decision to request troops Friday morning. As he must know, however, it was on Thursday evening that Police Chief Parker told the California National Guard that the rioting might call for military intervention. In any case, the Guard was not actually called out until 5 p.m. Friday, after vacationing Governor Brown had given the go-ahead from Greece.

Sir: Must we disregard literacy qualifications for voting to prove ourselves nondiscriminatory [Aug. 13]? Wouldn't national standardization of registration tests be more desirable by helping Americans to realize that although voting is a right, it is above all a responsibility?

ABBA E. BOROWICH Syracuse

Shastri Impact

Sir: Allow me to congratulate you on the excellence of your Shastri cover story [Aug. 13]. You have done a valuable service by writing such an enlightening report on India. I may not agree with everything you have said, but I admit that reading your report is like looking at oneself in a mirror. I particularly appreciate the comment, "Indians have no will to work," and I am sure that every thinking person will take your comments in the right spirit.

K. V. SIVARAMAN Bombay

Sir: When one sees a great film, it takes some time to recover from its impact. Your story has just this effect.

ALFRED MARTIN Calcutta

Sir: Your panoramic article left me with the feeling that the only unbiased part was the map. I protest your dismissal of Indian philosophy in a few lines. It is a grossly inadequate representation of 40 centuries of thought. Philosophy that has inspired Westerners as different as Schopenhauer and Schweitzer, Huxley and Emerson, deserves more respect. Nevertheless, let me express my gratitude to you for drawing the attention of Americans to India's problems and the need to solve them.

NITIN R. PATEL Bellaire, Texas

Sir: Shastri deserves more than your faint praise for being cool in the clutch in the Kutch. From Agra to Aligarh, from Gandhian to guru, Indians must be wincing at TIME'S efforts to portray their homeland's poetry in packageable patois. To sexy Sindis in silken saris and anonymous bleeding Madrasis, your view of a nation going to Patna can only be a bit less irritating than your Punjabi style.

LEWIS MERKLIN JR., M.D. MARJORIE MERKLIN Bala-Cynwyd, Pa.

Sir: You state that Pakistan is linked to the People's Republic of China with a reciprocal defense agreement. This is totally inaccurate; no defense arrangement exists between Pakistan and China. Secondly, the map shows a portion of the state of Jammu and Kashmir as a part of India. As a matter of fact, the status of the entire state is still in dispute.

M. I. BUTT Embassy of Pakistan Washington, D.C.

The Johnson Visage

Sir: Boris Chaliapin's cover of President Johnson is better than Peter Hurd's [Jan. 1]. Chaliapin handles light and shade better, and Mr. Johnson doesn't look jaundiced. The eye is more intense, the hand excellent, and he appears ready to say "Good morning."

KATHRYN WEINDEL Marion, Va.

Sir: Two tourists are struck by the similarly perplexed expressions on the faces of President Johnson [Aug. 6] and Roman Emperor Vespasian (Bardo Museum).

ANN WOODS ROSANA ECKMAN Tunis

Viet Nam

Sir: Your Viet Nam maps [Aug. 6 et ante] are excellent and, together with the text, easy to follow.

THOMAS T. JONES Lieutenant Colonel, GS Washington, D.C.

The Rise of Pleasure

Sir: In the few months that the Essay has appeared, I have read each one, marveling at how the final punctuation mark never ceases to give me the same satisfying elation as a well-played billiard shot dropping cleanly and sharply into a pocket. It is the most consistently polished piece of professional journalism I have ever witnessed.

FRED KING London

Sir: I have just plowed through your uninspired Essay on summer reading [Aug. 13], and I am going back joyfully to Bleak House.

(MRS.) Lois D. PHEMISTER Chicago

Sir: My vote for delightful dinner-table conversation for any season is, in contrast to Richard Armour's theory, a discussion of your best-yet Essay on summer reading!

CELIA MARKS Chattanooga, Tenn.

Sir: You quote Walter Kerr's The Decline of Pleasure. Your Essay stimulates The Rise of Pleasure. How to find time for other pleasures after reading all TIME'S pages? Shorten the magazine during vacation for the sake of your readers.

DIETRICH GURLITT Freiburg, Germany

Platitudes or Profundities?

Sir: Congratulations! You have succeeded in degrading the name of one of the few beautiful poets of our time. Kahlil Gibran [Aug. 13] has no cult, just thousands of readers who seek a bit of tranquillity in the midst of the hate, sex and cynicism one finds in literature today.

ALEXANDER E. KURJACK Eau Gallic, Fla.

Sir: Gibran's masterpiece was the hottest item under the Christmas tree at my sorority house last year. If Knopf wants to meet Gibran readers, he can find 85 in one house at Bowling Green State University.

CHARLOTTE LIND Wauseon, Ohio

Sir: Re The Prophet: so I'm part of a cult and "somewhat immature," "vaguely well-meaning" and I "think religion is a misty feeling." How nice to be analyzed so neatly and for free! But I wonder if the reviewer read the book? There is no mysticism there -just simple thoughts stated beautifully and movingly.

TERRY CAIRNS Lawton, Okla.

Sir: Congratulations on your Gibran story. For too long we have had to listen to the meaningless, mystic platitudes of that Lebanese mental five-year-old.

FRED GALLAGHER Wood-Ridge, N.J.

Good-Humored No

Sir: Your article on the ubiquitous Good Humor men who plague us during the summer [Aug. 13] shows only too well that the complaining parents are willing victims of our child-oriented society. One word would alleviate their troubles if they would use it on their offspring: No.

ELIZABETH N. RAI Sparta, N.J.

Popsicles & Fudgsicles

Sir: The Joe Lowe Corp. of Englewood, N.J., has had the trademarks Popsicle and Fudgsicle registered for more than 30 years, and has spent millions of dollars advertising and promoting them, with the result that today such confections outsell all others. Your use of these valuable marks in a generic way [Aug. 13] does injury to the trademark rights of the Joe Lowe Corp. I trust you will appreciate our indignation.

RICHARD J. COWLING Attorney Tenafly, N.J.

Girard's Will

Sir: Letter Writer John V. Smith [Aug. 13] is wrong in saying that the controversy over Girard College's admission policy involves an attempt to break Stephen Girard's will. To remain viable, any will must be reinterpreted from time to time. The Girard trust has not been inflexible in the past. Property was sold despite the will's prohibition against sale. Boys have been admitted who were neither poor nor truly orphans without protest. It is only when the racial restriction is challenged that the cry to preserve the will is heard.

But Girard's purpose was to serve Philadelphia orphans, in 1831 primarily white. Today, in the heart of a Negro ghetto, Girard College still serves only whites, although the need of the Negro cries out for help.

JOHN W. PURDY Arlington, Va.

The Spirit of Salzburg

Sir: Your article on the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies [Aug. 13] catches the spirit of this extraordinary experiment in international understanding. Twice I have given a course at Salzburg on American motion pictures; I have never, taught more eager students. I am glad you recognized a seminar by product the opportunity for students from various countries to meet on a common ground and in a common language, English.

BEAUMONT NEWHALL Rochester, N.Y.

The World of Fashion

SIR: THE ARTICLE ON FASHION IN TIME, DATED AUG. 13, DISPARAGES MY WINTER COLLECTION. NO PERSON FROM TIME'S ORGANIZATION HAS SEEN MY COLLECTION, AND I THEREFORE QUESTION TIME'S RIGHT TO HAVE ANY OPINION, EITHER FAVORABLE OR UNFAVORABLE. THE STATEMENT THAT I "FLED" BEFORE THE COLLECTION HAD BEEN COMPLETELY SHOWN AND THAT THERE WAS NO APPLAUSE IS SIMPLY FALSE. IN FACT, THE MODELS WERE GENEROUSLY APPLAUDED SEVERAL TIMES.

HUBERT DE GIVENCHY PARIS

>> TIME stands by its story as printed.

Sir: Re Mademoiselle Editor Kerr's remark about fashion editors who "can scarcely read" [Aug. 13]: Edith Raymond Locke, Mademoiselle's fashion editor, both reads and writes. Mrs. Locke is frequently called on to write copy and always writes her own. Shopping bags of reading material are brought home nightly, and her first book will be published this fall.

RALPH LOCKE New York City

The Fortas Appointment

Sir: As a witness at the Abe Fortas nomination hearing [Aug. 13], I did not make the charge you attributed to me that Mr. Fortas had withheld from Senate investigators information about a Communist at the State Department. I stated, among other points, that Fortas had "deliberately withheld pertinent data of a Communist source," and I supplied the Senate with documentation of this allegation.

CHARLES CALLAS New York City

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