Straight Eero

Sir:

What a clear, inclusive sketch you made of Eero Saarinen [July 2]! Having been told the details of that life by his father, when I did his biography for the University Of Chicago Press, I realized the skill of this drawing. I only wish that Eliel were here to see it, too.

ALBERT CHRIST-JANER

Director

School of the Arts

The Pennsylvania State University

University Park, Pa.

Sir:

Just finished reading the cover story on Eero Saarinen, and I'm on Saarinen's side! No matter the "wrath" of the purists, each building--both outside and in--must have its own personality, but must also be in keeping with the traditions and atmosphere of its locale. One point, though, that's troubling quite a few businessmen wasn't covered in the story. All isn't hopeless for the company with the desire for the dramatic and utilitarian, but finds itself in what may be considered antiquated quarters. Just as Saarinen remodeled his Victorian farmhouse, so commercial outfits can face-lift their current quarters to get the operational advantages from today's "mature" modern without having to start from the ground up.

BERTRAM S. SILVER

Brooklyn

Sir:

Your article on Architect Saarinen was very interesting. [But] what about the accomplishments of Frank Lloyd Wright? A home created by Mr. Wright gives the feeling of shelter and the outdoors. He has incorporated the house as a whole, instead of being chopped up into separate boxes. Through the correct use of the nature of materials, organic simplicity, good structure and no imitation, he has created some of the most beautiful buildings in the world.

MICHAEL I. ROEHM

Pittsburgh

P: For cover story on Frank Lloyd Wright, see TIME, Jan. 17, 1938.--ED

Left Turn

Sir:

In your June 25 Supreme Court story, you editorialize: "Chief Justice Earl Warren has plotted a deliberate course to the left, with far more emphasis on ever-changing conditions than on never-changing principles."

Warren sees the whole world picture, and since he became Chief Justice, he has an opportunity to be the real statesman. Present and past problems have been and are of such a nature that it takes some sort of left turn to meet them. I do not know of any such problem ever having been solved by a turn to the right.

LEWIS A. LINCOLN

Denver

Sir:

Do you admire Warren's propensity for "steering the law" instead of being steered by it? Would you approve of doing away with all troublesome lawmaking, and just let Warren dictate to the American people?

KATE M. SUMNER

Hartsville, S.C.

Sir:

The tendency of the Supreme Court to legislate as well as to annul laws because of alleged violation of the Constitution has in the past caused Congress to reverse decisions of that court many times. No wonder Jefferson predicted that we will be governed by a judicial oligarchy with the threat of impeachment a mere scarecrow.

WM. ROCKMORE

Cambridge Springs, Pa.

Backstop out Front

Sir:

I have just read "Afraid of the Big Bad Bear?" in your June 25 issue. I think with you that Dave Sime is one of the greatest of all dash men, but, would it not have been fairer reporting to have stated that "Backstop" Bobby Morrow defeated Sime in the 100-meter dash in this same meet prior to Sime pulling up lame in the 200, and that Morrow placed first in the 200, with a very good time. "I think you would find Morrow's record to be very impressive and that he is not merely a "backstop," and I feel certain Sime will agree.

GILBERT R. GRAIN

San Benito, Texas

Double Domes & Decolletage

Sir:

As one whose lifelong experience has been to encounter appallingly few thinking women, I was surprised to read in your June 25 Letters column a wail from one Terry Roberts of New York City, regarding the "unhappy plight of the intellectual American woman," whom she cites as "shunned by the American man."

Surely there skulks around Washington Square, in search of the ghost of Thomas Wolfe, an American male who "delights in thought and its communication and longs to take part in this great American Dream," and who would be delighted to exchange words with "a brain in combination with a low decolletage." If not, and Miss Roberts is ever on the coast, let her drop around for a little wine and cheese and conversation to dispel the "gradual loss of objectivity and a retreat into quiet reflection and neurotic loneliness" that seems to threaten her. I assure her a large and attentive audience of the opposite sex, especially if she brings that decolletage.

FRANK JENKINS

Long Beach, Calif.

Sir:

Terry Roberts has convinced me that a girl with a broad inquiring mind and a low decolletage is just the thing. How do I meet her?

DAVID R. WONES

Middlefield, Mass.

P: Let Reader Wones meet Reader Roberts (see cut).--ED.

Sirs:

Why the fuss over intellectuals? Most of them are laggards who think the world owes them a living. I am just a diecaster who owns a $14,000 home with a swimming pool in the backyard and a new Buick. Who's smartest--me or them?

JAMES NORMAN

Waukegan, Ill.

World Banker

Sir:

Your wonderful cover story on Eugene Black [June 25] makes only a passing reference to his love for Shakespeare. We at Yale have special reason to admire Mr. Black's scholarly bent toward the bard. Last summer Mr. Black spent three weeks of his vacation as a student in the Yale University summer Shakespeare Institute. He was by far the hit of the session, competing favorably with schoolteachers and actors from the Stratford (Conn.) Shakespeare Festival Theater. We need more bankers like Mr. Black.

STEVE KEZERIAN

Yale University News Bureau

New Haven, Conn.

Sir: With all due respect to the "elegant dresser's" qualities and achievements, I was genuinely appalled by the picture of Mr. Black shaking hands with a sovereign nation's top executive while his other hand was disrespectfully deep in his pocket. Even being no tight-collared protocol man, Mr. Black might have known this vulgarity almost anywhere in the world, especially in a European area, equals a personal offense.

MARGARET SADLIK

Washington, D.C.

The President's Health (Contd.)

Sir:

Is the U.S. in the grip of a personality cult? Judging from your June 18 edition, this is so. Seven pages of an international magazine devoted to the illness of one man! I admire Ike tremendously but . . .

M. G. BLOOMER

Lagos, Nigeria

Sir:

It's good to know that you are finally realizing that Ike is one of the poorest excuses for a President that we have ever had. Our prestige in the world has never been as low as it is now.

MRS. E. W. EINHELLIG

Greeley, Kansas

Sir:

I very seriously considered not renewing my subscription solely because of your completely prejudiced noncritical "hurrah" approach to the Eisenhower Administration.

ERNEST C. TWISSELMAN

Cholame, Calif.

Sir:

Have the Democrats an aspirant who can promise that he will not be sick for a four-year period ?

JOHN J. SEARY

Tuscola, Ill.

Polio Progress

Sir:

Regarding the A.M.A. resolution demanding that the U.S. Government get out of the business of distributing free polio vaccine [June 25]: I am delighted that M.D.s have the courage to pick up a political hot potato like the free Salk vaccine and carry on the fight against socialism. Appropriating $57 million of the taxpayers' money for free polio vaccinations is socialism pure and simple.

SHIRLEY A. KODET

Shafter, Calif.

Sir:

Although a staunch supporter of the free-enterprise system in other businesses and professions, TIME apparently feels that the professional practitioner of medicine should be excluded. There is no more reason that the profit motive should be divorced from the distribution and administration of vaccines than from the production and distribution of foodstuffs, clothing or essential weekly newsmagazines.

JOHN E. HAMPTON, M.D.

Washington, N.J.

Embraceable Hew

Sir:

Dr. Hewlett Johnson certainly drew a prejudiced moral from his own story of being accosted by a prostitute [June 18]. In defense of his partner in the encounter, it should be pointed out that a cleric who embraces Communism might be expected to embrace almost anything.

E. F. JOHNSTON JR.

Dayton, Ohio

What the Museums Bought

Sir:

Concerning your article "What the Museums are Buying" [June 25]: To think that "art" has come to this incredible vice--which reminds me of Alexander Pope's poem:

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,

As to be hated, needs but to be seen;

Yet, seen too oft, familiar with her face,

We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

ANN COCHRAN

Sherman Oaks, Calif.

Sir:

I know of but one person more confused than the present-day interpreters of abstract art. That was a little boy who accidentally dropped his wad of chewing gum on the chickenhouse floor.

FREDERICK THACKSTON

Bristol, Va.

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