A Man With Spine

Sir:

I have just put down your tribute to the late John Foster Dulles [June 1]. The way in which you told the story of this great man was truly gratifying.

KIM MORAN Flushing, N.Y.

Sir:

Mr. Dulles is gone, and all America will miss him. But most of all, he'll be missed by those of us who I know are many--ex-Marines--who saw in him a man with spine, guts and self-respect. This was an American. This was a man.

BILL GRAVES Levittown, Pa.

Sir:

It was with much regret that the free world heard the sad news concerning the death of the late and certainly great John Foster Dulles. Of all the many volumes that have been and could be written complimenting this great person, the highest praise I can think of is that the whole world, East and West alike, respected him.

D'ARCY K. BANCROFT Winnipeg, Man.

Sir:

The genuine sorrow over the loss of Mr. Dulles and the general recognition of the wonderful job done by him for his country is a striking contrast to the sorry spectacle of some people in public life who continually sniped at him and made his work harder.

RAYMOND H. SMITH Mount Vernon, N.Y.

Democratism?

Sir:

If we have "democratism" [May 25], is it not because Congress has so persistently lost face with us by enforcing the will of minorities, at our expense? We have inflation because Congress insists on spending, spending, spending, to gratify special interests. We have billion-dollar mountains of farm surplus because that woos the farm groups. The Solons are afraid to curb the corruption of labor leaders because they control votes. Firm civil rights legislation can and would be talked to death by minority filibustering.

We need not fear "Caesarism"; there are ample checks against it. What we do need to fear is incompetence.

WALTER S. MAPES Philadelphia

Artzy's Bowl

Sir:

As an antique dealer and longtime advocate of mutual funds, I wondered whose good taste was responsible for using what looks like an old Staffordshire sugar bowl on June 1 cover. If it belongs to Artist Artzybasheff, I'd like to buy it.

HARRY HARTMAN Mount Yernon, N.Y.

P:The sugar bowl is indeed a Staffordshire (see cut). It is part of a 20-piece tea set given to the late Mrs. Artzy-basheff's great-grandmother as a wedding gift. The set survived three ownerships and remained intact until the Artzybasheffs moved from New York City to Connecticut when one cup was broken. If Dealer Hartman has a matching cup, Artist Artzybasheff would like to buy it.--ED.

Out of God's Hands

Sir:

The Rev. Dr. Leslie Weatherhead's statement [May 18] that death, like birth, need not be left to God, seems to overlook the fact that God never issued a commandment, ''Thou shalt not assist at birth." I'm scurrying now to my Old Testament to reread the commandment I once misread--you know, the one that goes, "Thou shalt not kill, without the help of a government-appointed, medically qualified referee."

(PVT.) JACK RILEY Fort Bliss, Texas

Sir:

It is amazing the distorted beliefs a man of the cloth such as the Rev. Dr. Leslie Weatherhead has in relation to the questions of birth and death. He asks for legislation for mercy killing. We have the greatest legislation of all, divine legislation, "Thou shalt not kill," and no man has the right to amend this law.

BEN STABILE Houston

Sir:

Medical science is using many recent discoveries to prolong the period of dying. Therefore, how can anyone who believes that "God is love" and "God is merciful," argue that it is necessary to be actively suffering rather than in a state of medically induced sleep at the time of death?

EILEEN B. GRONSETH Okemos, Mich.

The Endless House

Sir:

Is the crust of this old earth ready for Kiesler's structures such as "Endless House" [May 25], which are not premeditated by the prerequisites of conventional planning to secure the bank loan and a dogmatic facade for thy neighbor's sake? American suburbia still says no, I'm afraid.

DONALD BAKER Los Angeles

Sir:

Architect Kiesler's "Endless House" is neither revolutionary nor adventurous; it is merely a Stone Age cave turned inside out. WILLIAM LAGES Torrance, Calif.

G for Galveston

Sir: Your article in the May 25 issue regarding Galveston should have been captioned "V for Vicious" instead of "V for Vice." By stating that Galveston is having a wide-open bonanza in gambling and prostitution and that Galveston is the shame of Texas you are not reporting the facts. Also, you commit a gross injustice against our city by spreading such rot all over creation. There are plenty of cities in Texas and in the nation that make Galveston look like Orphan Annie's doll's house.

JAMES G. LA COUME JR. Galveston, Texas

Sir:

You failed to mention that the city also showed a voting preference for the city-manager form of government. We are all hoping for a brighter tomorrow.

ELIZABETH S. HEAD Galveston, Texas

Sir:

Why couldn't TIME publish articles about our great Galveston wharves, the lifeline of our city, or about the tourist attraction, which is a beautiful, 32-mile public beach with hotels, motels and recreational facilities? Galveston is also the favorite convention spot for many nationwide organizations.

MRS. R. HARRINGTON Galveston, Texas

Views of Trujilloland

Sir:

Your associate editor's report on the Dominican Republic [May 25] is insulting to my country and unfactual and contradictory in its appraisal of the progress that we have achieved without any foreign help. Mr. Daniels must have spent his three days in my country soaked in Dominican rum and blinded by the tropical sun if he didn't see the many large beautiful public schools, the big modern hospitals, the new university city, the newly constructed and well-paved roads, the ports, and the hundreds upon hundreds of public facilities built by my government.

J. B. CARRI Consul of the Dominican Republic Houston, Texas

Sir:

I, too, have just returned from a vacation in the Dominican Republic. My husband listed his occupation as "Radio and TV"--and nobody followed us. We saw the troops drilling, the homes of all the Trujillo relatives and the poverty. However, contrary to your report, no one fixed the slot machines or the gambling tables in our favor. As Americans we find the doctrine of dictatorship hard to take under any circumstances, but we could not help noticing that our own Puerto Rico was embroiled in a violent telephone strike, with communications cut by unthinking "free" citizens, who apparently only know one way to gain a point: the means we say we deplore in dictatorship.

BRENDA R. TANGER Newton Centre, Mass.

The Great White Goof

Sir:

Alas for the Great White Goof [the Senate Office Building fiasco, May 25]. We Britons are acutely aware of our awful blunders of inefficiency, such as the Preston Motorway and British Railways, and I have for quite a time used examples of American efficiency to great effect in grammar-school debates. This powerful and humiliating weapon is now useless. You Americans are fatheads too.

RICHARD G. SAXON Manchester, England

Reform in Pakistan

Sir:

Regarding your May 18 article on Pakistan: In a country where 85% of the people are illiterate, and with enormous problems to grapple with to rapidly raise the economic standards of the general public or else succumb to Communism--dictatorship is the ideal form of government. General Ayub Khan is out to do for Pakistan what Ataturk has done for Turkey. Give him ten to 15 years, and he will make a new nation out of it.

MOHAMMED Aziz H. DOSSA Karachi

Black & White

Sir:

Things have sure come to a pretty come-off when adult minds have to pick up The Rabbit's Wedding [June 1], a book intended solely for children, to try to gain a point in biased thinking.

PAULINE B. POWERS Miami

Sir:

Those among our fellow citizens of Alabama who get hot under their galluses about the marriage of a white and a black rabbit in a children's fairy tale might profitably turn their attention to the nearest liquor store. The label of a widely sold brand of Scotch whisky shows two little dogs, black and white, and, moreover, the product is described as a "blend."

CHRISTOPHER TIETZE New York City

Sir:

Excuse my laughter, but will somebody please inform the Alabama public libraries that all of their books have to be placed on the reserved shelf? Don't they know that all their white pages have black print on them?

EARL E. SMITH, Rochester

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