Timely & Inevitable

Sir:

May I congratulate you for "Land of Reluctant Sparrows" [March 14] ? The election of Mr. Hatoyama appears as timely as it was inevitable, for the Japanese are merely exercising an independence achieved a few years ago in San Francisco, and we would be wise not to try and pressure them with modern dollar diplomacy. Such policy has boomeranged before, and in Japan's case, particularly, would only create unnecessary antagonism. Japan will undoubtedly remain allied with the West, but we must first respect the nation's sovereignty . . .

MALCOLM F. REED

Director

Japanese Scholarship Foundation, Inc. Westfield, N.J.

Sir:

We have spent the past ten years cramming democracy down the throats of the Japanese with a G.I. boot, and have succeeded so well that they have mustered a 75.8% vote in the recent election. We should invite a Japanese democratization commission to the U.S. to teach us how we can boost our turnout from the puny 63% we mustered in the 1952 election . . .

D. R. CLAXTON

Ipswich, Mass.

Faith & Soap Operas

Sir:

As I read your March 14 account of the Rev. Listen Pope's attack on the modern mediums of peddling mass religion, I could imagine the looks of shocked indignation that passed over the pious and well-meaning faces of the Broadcasting and Films Commission of the National Council of Churches. His criticisms are long overdue. A basic misunderstanding of Christianity, which is a philosophy of life demanding fortitude and effort, has led to syrupy organ music, sweet-voiced heroes and heroines and gravelly-voiced villains, which put most religious programs on the level of moralistic soap operas . . . the casual listener is revolted by . . . sepulchral voices drumming out reworded platitudes (most of which are slowly but surely wearing the shine off the Golden Rule).

ANN M. STARK Aurora, N.Y.

Pills for the Mind

Sir:

Your most excellent article should result in bringing to the attention of physicians the wonderful results of the latest remedies being used for mental illness [March 7]. The average physician is contacted by so many detail men that these visitations become routine, but when the relative of a patient needing treatment calls his attention to it (as they sometimes do) and he reads and digests it, this added refresher may stimulate him to prescribe the newer treatment. . .

WILLIAM J. LOWRY

Baltimore

Sir:

. . . As I am a disabled World War II veteran, your article will make it much easier for me to understand the doctor who takes care of me. He is so busy, he would never have time to go into the complete "explanation" that your fine article gave . . .

FREDERICK A. RICHARDSON

Minneapolis

The Un-Brainwashed

Sir:

Re your March 14 political note on Massachusetts: the ingenious Kennedy brothers of little formal education are apparently the guiding lights of a new state being formed. The following supersecret report indicates the subversive nature of what is happening behind the pig-iron curtain. Name of state: "Massahamcut"; state symbol: "the buck"; state bird: "the robin"; state flower: "gold-enrod"; state motto: "Pardon our quirks, we're only jerks."

MAXWELL ADELMAN

Winthrop, Mass.

Sir:

Many thanks for publishing the story of the brothers Kennedy and brother-in-law Williams. These gentlemen have the advantage of never having been taught untruths in college. Having been brainwashed in false doctrines is no contribution to educational attainments . . .

PAUL T. BEARDSLEY

Lawson, Mo.

Onomatopoeia

Sir:

It occurs to me that in your search for variations on the commonplace words "fight," "quarrel," "argue" (so often needed in reporting the news of the day), you have now made almost equally commonplace your favorites "hassle" and "brouhaha." You may be interested in still another inelegant variation which I ran across in Webster's; namely, the word "fratch." Fratch, which is defined as "dispute; quarrel," and which is dialectal English in origin ... is used both as intransitive verb and noun. Finally, its onomatopoetic quality has much to recommend it.

MARVIN LASER Chicago

S: Natch.--ED.

The Analphabetics Sir: . . . TIME'S March 14 article on Rudolf Flesch's new book, Why Johnny Can't Read --and What You Can Do About It, was excellent and timely; another article in the Press Section furnished amazingly coincidental supporting evidence of what Mr. Flesch is talking about. It should come as no surprise that comic books are regularly read by 25% of high-school graduates, since comic books by their very nature are peculiarly well adapted to adolescents and adults who can't read very well. That 16% of college graduates read comic books regularly is perhaps disconcerting, but is again a fairly logical development. The conclusions to be drawn from the statement that 12% of U.S. teachers read comic books regularly is not merely disconcerting but downright disturbing . . .

JOSEPH E. HALL

Arnold, Md.

Sir:

. . . Being a parent and an ex-English teacher, Author Flesch's conclusions did not shock me. I have been in a state of shock for three years. I would like to say "bravo" to a brave man ... I had my boy tested at first-grade level; I mention this as proof that he has the ability to learn to read . . . Now, at third-grade level, this child cannot distinguish between "saw and was," "then and when . . ." If we returned to some basic teaching many of our so-called emotional problems would disappear . . . This eternal socialization and playing at learning may have its points, but the sooner children learn to work for self-improvement in the basic skills the better. My kid is bored silly in school.

MRS. MERLE ELLIS

Kalamazoo, Mich.

Sir:

. . . Ability to spell a word, or to pronounce a word, is no guarantee that the child can get the meaning, of the word. Unless the child is taught to recognize words as meaningful concepts, he will not read if we accept the correct definition of reading. Author Flesch apparently is not even conversant with the content of primary readers of the present decade. As a teacher ... I protest against this criticism of present-day reading methods . . .

SISTER M. IRMINA, O.S.B. Covington, Ky.

Sir:

Your fine report should help accelerate the downfall of progressive education, which for too long a time has been selling the American youngsters short . . . Here at Baghdad College (a secondary school run by American Jesuits) we have young Arabs, after a year or two, reading English stories on their own with ease and delight. Favorite authors are: Zane Grey, Mark Twain, Dickens and Stevenson.

EDMUND F. KELLY, S.J. Baghdad, Iraq

Sir:

All the bitter frustration I felt ten years ago was vividly resurrected by the comments of Rudolf Flesch. My son, now 21, was the victim of Los Angeles' "regressive" education. At the age of eleven he could not "sound out" the simplest unfamiliar one-syllable word. Now, when he writes that he has read a full-length novel, I couldn't be any more astonished if I had heard that he removed his own appendix with a butter knife.

HELEN R. UHL

Sunnyvale, Calif.

Sir:

. . . Parents should be cautioned to study carefully the method Mr. Flesch attacks from superficial knowledge; they should also demand that the conventional methods be properly applied. For the small percentage of children who have a real reading handicap, his book is a disaster, but kids are tougher than anybody, and they will sweat it out.

KATHARINE TAYLOR WILLIAMS Winnetka, 111.

The Army Way

Sir: Re your March 7 article "Coffee Ranks Tea": at the present time Congress, the Department of Defense and all levels of command in each of the services are most concerned about incentives to get and to keep promising young men as officers. At one fell swoop Mrs. Dorothy Irwin has undoubtedly lost 22 possibilities by her speech on etiquette for the serviceman's wife . . . After 14 years as the wife of an officer, I have never been faced with the necessity of knowing that "coffee ranks tea." We live in a fluid community, with a normal maximum of three years in one place; therefore, we do not wait to be called upon by our neighbors; we call on them and on the commanding officer and his wife. We leave cards because it helps them to get to know us and our name more easily . . .

Life is changing in the service as well as out. In very few places can any of us afford a maid, let alone a manservant . . . We have buffet dinners, barbecues and carry-in dinners --just as the people in your home town do.

As for serving coffee in the living room, we usually do--for the simple reason that we rarely ever have a dining room.

MRS. EDWIN J. WITZENBURGER % Postmaster San Francisco

SIR:

COULD IT REALLY BE TRUE THAT ARMY WIVES SUBSCRIBE TO SUCH PUERILE PROTOCOL AS MRS. IRWIN MENTIONS TO THE 22 R.O.T.C. OFFICERS' WIVES AND FIANCEES? ARE ARMY WIVES REALLY THAT RANK CONSCIOUS? MUST OUR EPAULET AUTOCRACY INCLUDE WIVES ? HOW ABOUT CHILDREN ? DOGS ? WOULD THE COLONEL'S CANINE RANK THE PRIVATE'S POOCH FOR USE OF THE TAXPAYERS' TREE?

BERT WHEELER HOUSTON

Mission to Moscow

Sir:

In your March 14 article on the expulsion of Father Bissonnette from Moscow you state that "no [U.S.] Protestant groups have ever sent ministers." The Church of England, which considers itself Catholic as well as Protestant, is regularly represented in Moscow. The Anglican chaplain in Helsinki goes to Moscow once a month for services in the embassy chapel. The Bishop of Fulham, the Rt. Rev. George Ingle, whose continental jurisdiction includes Moscow, goes there once or twice a year . . .

(THE VERY REV.) STURGIS L. RIDDLE Dean of the American Cathedral Paris

Rocky's Road

Sir:

Re Rocky Graziano's autobiography Somebody Up There Likes Me [March 14]: your youthful readers must be quite impressed with his backroom endeavors, childish revolt against authority and ultimate (socalled) success ... To this senile man of 34 years, "Somebody Up There" must, indeed, be very tolerant . . .

DONALD G. LARSEN Milwaukee

Sir:

The Graziano story proves again that you can always write a book about what you get away with in America.

WALTER E. HUELLE Croton Falls, N.Y.

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