Mrs. McCarthy Has No Regrets

To the Editors:

I think that most political wives appreciate the sympathetic intent of TIME'S story [Oct. 7]. However, I would like to point out that my own experience and position are misrepresented.

First, it would have violated my concept of commitment and family -- mine both by religion and conviction -- to leave my husband as you stated. Second, I hold a much more positive view of the political life, which is hard but has many rewards. As I wrote in Private Faces/ Public Places: "Gene left our home in August of 1969 ... I do not regret that for 30 years, in the words of Simone de Beauvoir, 'I spontaneously preferred an other existence to my own.' I think I am a much richer person for having shared that existence . . . Despite the fact that the (1968 peace) campaign brought . . .

disaster to our family, I cannot wish that the campaign did not happen . . ."

Most political wives of my acquaintance are women of adaptability and resilience. They see their husbands' choice of life as an opportunity for growth. They also see politics as a way to be useful to society.

What most wives want, I think, is to have journalists, political supporters -- and their husbands -- recognize them as persons with varied talents. Some write, some speak, some excel in per sonal relations. Others have areas of competence quite their own, such as art, medicine or business, which add dimen sions to their husbands' career -- and all keep homes!

Abigail McCarthy Washington, D.C.

Eugene McCarthy, while a Senator from Minnesota, ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968.

-Your article on political wives made me weep. I left Washington in '65 -- physically and mentally torn. No one seemed to accept or understand the divorce. I'm still struggling to stabilize.

Patricia Udall Tucson, Ariz.

The writer was married to Congress man Morris Udall.

We put the politician who runs for the presidency in a near-impossible situation. We demand that he campaign exhaustingly around the country night and day, surrounded by advisers and designing women, and we then berate him when he does not turn out to be the world's most devoted family man.

We can appreciate the problems of the political wife, but we need also to be supportive of those politicians who get out there and take the abuse, the hate mail, the tomatoes, the threats and the bullets, and live somehow with all of the demands on their time and energy in order to get the issues discussed and the support developed to get legislation passed. We must stop demanding perfection or we will have no one who qualifies as a leader.

Joan G. Wolfe Vienna, Va.

Most men elevated to a position of power experience a change in outlook and attitude. With a promotion often come an increase in travel, dinner meetings and, perhaps, company memberships in sport or athletic clubs--all reducing the amount of time spent at home. None of these "obligations" include the wives. Unlike political wives, wives of corporate executives are not expected to know any issues or to express a desire to find out.

Even if she is fortunate enough to have an open dialogue with her spouse, the wife is made to feel it her duty to find an outside outlet of her own, not so much for her own development but as a means of ending her "interfering" with her husband's continued success.

Nancy Grove Lombard, III.

The Economy: Five Ideas

President Ford's economic package is a disappointment to anyone hoping for a sound game plan for attacking inflation and rising unemployment. Unemployment can be reduced only if aggregate demand is allowed to re-expand, and the Administration's proposals are carefully balanced between small pluses and minuses to avoid any net expansion. Inflation can be unwound only if we break the wage-price spiral in which past inflation gives rise to expectations of more inflation to come. That causes firms and unions to take defensive actions which only prolong inflation. Nothing in the package deals with the problem of inflationary expectations.

Our present troubles result in part from past mismanagement of the econ omy, and the new program prolongs the same policies. Until the economy starts to expand again, business will hold back on investment; hence we will continue to have inflationary capacity shortages in key industries. Tax gimmicks to encourage investment in the absence of demand expansion will encourage further unbalance between the labor supply and the economy's productive capacity by spurring labor-saving rather than capacity-expanding investment.

The present economic situation is unprecedented in the postwar period in seriousness and complexity. It requires bold and simultaneous steps: 1) monetary policy aimed at gradual expansion of the economy rather than managed recession; 2) credit allocations or other aids to specific bottleneck industries; 3) price controls and indexing of wages; 4) alertness to oligopolies which pursue a low-volume, high-markup strategy, with the Federal Government standing ready to undertake direct investment to expand capacity in bottleneck industries; 5) other action to increase competition and productivity.

Wilfred Lewis Jr.

Chief Economist and

Director of Research

National Planning Association

Washington, D.C.

Wrong Man, Wrong Context

The article entitled "Boston: Led by Children" [Oct. 7] contained a quote erroneously attributed to me. The statement, ostensibly made to "a group of mothers and students," read: "If you are fearful of putting your children's lives in danger by putting them on a bus, be my guest down at the beach."

First, I emphatically deny ever making such a statement. Second, if it was based upon hearsay, TIME should have checked the story with me. Third, I resent the tone of the portion of the article that implies that I encouraged pupil absenteeism. Such action would make me liable to court sanction and would be contrary to my professional principles.

An objective appraisal of my statements and activities related to the implementation of the federal court order [on school desegregation] would indicate that every effort has been made by me to obey the letter and spirit of the law, to provide for the safety and welfare of Boston's students and teachers, and to promote a climate in the city conducive to sound education.

William J. Leary

Superintendent, Boston Public Schools

Boston

TIME regrets its error. The remark attributed to Superintendent Leary was in fact made by another official in another context. It was aimed at encouraging those who were staying out of class to keep away from a particular school in order to prevent trouble.

The Game in Green Bay

In the ongoing battle between the people of Green Bay and Coach Dan Devine [Oct. 7], I suggest that the casus belli can be found in the murky depths of the town's collective subconscious.

Vince Lombardi, supercoach, Superman, the Zeus in the NFL coaches' pantheon, had the audacity to do two things, quit Green Bay and die. When Superman walks out on you, especially after you've helped make him super, you're angry. And when gods die, you grieve. It's a risky business to get mad at Superman and it's sacrilegious to grieve for a god. So let's turn our anger and our grief into a hammer and beat this new guy's brains out.

James Price Los Angeles -If football is a game in Green Bay, I would hate to see these people at work! What would Vince Lombardi say about his Packer fans now?

Charlotte Kelly Grafton, Va.

The Value of Sexology

The pseudo review of More Joy [Oct. 7] is in reality an attack not only on Dr. Comfort as a respected medical man and on his books but on the whole field of sexology.

Sexology is a recognized and respected term in Europe and elsewhere and is coming to be so here in the U.S. Almost all American medical schools now teach the subject to medical students, residents and often to graduate physicians. Dr. Comfort's books have been recognized as having significant value in marital and sex therapy.

Mary S. Calderone, M.D.

Executive Director Sex Information and Education Council of the U.S.

New York City -In a society permeated with sexual fantasy and pleasure, it is of no great wonder that another "expert" would come out with another professional book on how people can become more "fully human" sexually. To find the dignity of the human being exploited in such a manner affords me little joy and great discomfort. We would probably do best not to take the words in the book to heart.

"O heart! O heart! ... You'd know the folly of being comforted" (The Folly of Being Comforted; Yeats, 1904).

Peter Bednar Cleveland -Is Alex Comfort his real name, or is it a cleverly chosen pseudonym? After all, "comfort" has been one of the many British slang terms for sex for hundreds of years. More than 350 years ago, Thomas Campion wrote:

Her when we court and kisse, She cries, Forsooth, let go: But when we come where comfort is She never will say, No.

John Burnham Denver

Comfort is the author's genuine, as well as apt, surname.

Dead Artists1 Rights

I appreciated Robert Hughes' article that called our attention to Clement Greenberg's posthumous modifications of Sculptor David Smith's work [Sept. 30], but cannot understand how Mr. Hughes could be so mild about the whole thing. Will it be considered only an "arrogant intrusion that borders on vandalism" if somebody comes along and repaints the Mona Lisa?

As a screenwriter, I have twice removed my name from the credits of motion pictures which ended up far different from what I had written.

What kind of an option does a dead artist have?

Jeffrey Bloom Sherman Oaks, Calif.

-Since Clement Greenberg considers his mutilation of David Smith's work an improvement, presumably Mr. Greenberg is willing to purchase the sculpture from the estate at more than their valuation prior to desecration.

Ralph Kratz Seattle -It is difficult to believe that anyone who knew David Smith did not know how passionate his feelings were about his painted sculpture. I was married to David from 1927 to 1952.1 saw him often up to the time of his death, and during all of that time he spoke frequently of his painted work, and his studies of paint techniques that would ensure maximum permanence. He also said that he did not intend that his sculpture be placed in unprotected areas for extended periods, although he put pieces in the fields as he made them.

His Interest in painting his sculpture began in the Virgin Islands when he made his very first three-dimensional work in 1932. It was the head of a Negro, which David had carved from a chunk of white coral and then painted a dark purplish brown. I think he would be furious if he knew that alterations had been made that distorted his original concept.

Dorothy Dehner New York City

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