A Place in Aerospace

Sir:

Being on the cover of TIME [Oct. 27] is like facing the judgment of history while you still have to live with it. I must say that TIME has dealt fairly and intelligently with us.

You have successfully reduced to a clear and accurate statement a group" of complex concepts and data which we find very difficult to clarify. I would not have believed that it could be done so well without compromising accuracy.

I want to express my thanks for your insight and understanding. You are a tough-minded critic and a perceptive analyst. The amount of creative effort which you put into the story is a standard which the head of any company might envy.

THOMAS V. JONES President Northrop Corp. Beverly Hills, Calif.

Sir:

It is unbelievable that there was no mention of Bell in your otherwise excellent article on Tom Jones and the aerospace industry. An old-line aircraft company, known as Bell Aircraft until purchased by Textron Inc. last year, Bell directed energies and recognized talents toward navigation, space and new concepts of flight. Bell's Agena liquid rocket engine has put more payload in orbit than any other, has fired 33 times in Discoverer-Agena-Midas programs for 100% reliability record.

The Agena engine will send Ranger 685,000 miles into space, later to a landing on the moon.

W. G. GISEL President

Bell Aerosystems Co. Buffalo

Sir:

There is no doubt that Northrop--and Tom Jones--have accomplished much in this relatively new field, not the least of which is getting across to both Government and competition that space vehicles can be built, operated and maintained at a minimum cost without sacrificing performance or reliability. However, to my mind, the biggest miracle was moving Phoenix and Tucson to New Mexico. Does Arizona know?

BONNIE B. STANFORD Tulsa, Okla.

Sir:

Great God! Where am I?

THELMA DAVIS

Phoenix

>Back in Arizona.--ED.

Dynamism & Discount

Sir:

A lot of ordinary Detroit citizens as well as dedicated, progressive city leaders are up in arms about TIME's only part-true, negative reporting on Detroit [Oct. 27]. The postwar years have been used to reshape Detroit's downtown area with a beautiful civic center; and numerous other improvements are under way--all in a little more than a decade.

Because of the foresight of leaders like Cobo and Miriani, our city progress is emerging from stagnation to acceleration. Come and see for yourself--there's no fungus among us!

DOROTHY BLACKER Detroit

Sir:

Your article on Detroit was certainly a good appraisal of the serious problems facing a city that once was dynamic. Today, it is nothing but a discount house--everyone cutting each other's throats.

Our unemployment picture is terrible, but no one really sees its real depth.

All Miriani and his predecessor Cobo seemed to think about were monuments, apartments, shopping plazas, never thinking it takes money to use these dreams.

NED KRIEGHOFF President Krieghoff Co. Detroit

Contempt & Human Dignity

Sir:

The story about the Bowmans' ordeal in San Francisco [Oct. 27] is still another example of the moral decay that exists in our country today.

That the sons of a police officer and a fireman--young men who so flagrantly showed their contempt for the law--should have been aided and encouraged by an apathetic police force is frightening indeed.

What do the people of that community have to fear from an atom bomb? They seem to have already destroyed themselves by their indifference.

DOROTHY ROTHFARB Los Angeles

Sir:

Mayor Christopher of San Francisco should be blessed and congratulated for coming to the aid of the Bowmans.

If those young toughs do not receive a stiff sentence, then there is no justice. If I had them, I'd horsewhip them.

RUDY VALLEE New York City

From the Philippines

Sir:

I vehemently protest and completely deny your statements in your June 16, 1961, issue concerning my withdrawal as a candidate for Vice President of the Philippines.

SENATOR QUINTIN PAREDES Manila

>TIME accepts Senator Paredes' statement as truly reflective of the facts in the case and regrets any inconvenience to Senator Paredes, who has honorably served the Philippine government for 54 years in positions of trust and responsibility.--ED.

The Camel Driver

Sir:

It's fine foi". Vice President Johnson to make friends for himself and the U.S. in his travels, but isn't entertaining a camel driver going a little too far?

BRIAN CASS Golf, Ill.

Sir:

As one whose ears have often been perfumed by the wise and well-phrased utterances of the camel drivers of my native Iraq, I am pained by TIME's skepticism [Oct. 27].

No doubt your writers labor long and hard in their man-made skyscraper to achieve a fine turn of phrase. But those who live with wind, sand and stars have only to translate the wisdom of Allah, which is written in his works. They have the true eloquence of the TIMEless.

HIND RASSAM CULHANE Rockford, Ill.

Sir:

You should not have emphasized Bashir's first pair of shoes or his vow on the Koran. You would do the same before flying to Venus, if you held the Bible sacred.

(MRS.) IFTEKHAR BANG Karachi, Pakistan

Sir:

One is prone to think, over here in Pakistan, that if Johnson's invitation has done little good to the impression of Pakistan abroad, it has certainly provided practical humor in the otherwise cold-war-torn diplomatic circles in Washington and other American cities--at the expense of Pakistan.

ZAFFAR HUSSAIN MIRZA Hyderabad, Pakistan

Sir:

Who paid the expenses of the camel driver?

E. G. McCORMICK San Francisco

^ Most of the primary needs of Bashir Ahmad were donated. Pan Am, transportation to and from Pakistan; Waldorf-Astoria, Bashir's room in New York; his host, Vice President Johnson, the expenses in Texas. The People-to-People program paid for such things as his meals. No public funds were spent.--ED.

And the Girl

Sir:

I wonder how many of your readers mused, as I did, over the contrast in your juxtaposed stories between 1) the comments and general effectiveness of a middleaged, illiterate camel-cart driver from Pakistan and 2) the comments of a young Smith College honor graduate and Peace Corps member during her short tour of duty in Nigeria?

Are the Pakistanis better at training their representatives than we are? Is the experience of middle age of more value than a degree from one of our better colleges? Was it to the advantage of the camel driver that he was unable to write a postcard home ?

J. SAM MEWHINNEY JR. Arlington, Va.

Sir:

I feel that the incident regarding Miss Margery Michelmore's postcard has been blown up out of true proportion. I have heard many African and other foreign students, as well as visitors, giving talks to American church people and other groups regarding poverty in their countries.

I believe many Nigerians and Americans should and would congratulate Margery for her concern for the Nigerian people and for her attempt to inform her American friends with the purpose of securing help for less privileged people of Nigeria.

SAM IFTIKHAR (Overseas student at Syracuse University) Syracuse

Sir:

What was the name of Florence Nightingale's young assistant who wrote the shocking letter home from the Crimea?

Let us hope that Miss Michelmore's letter becomes just such an unimportant detail in the history books of 100 years hence, and that the Peace Corps becomes as important a power for good in our lives as the institution of nursing.

JULIE KEMPER GALLAS Los Angeles

> Nurse Elizabeth Wheeler wrote letters home describing joul conditions in the hospital wards and criticizing the doctors. One such letter was passed along by a relative to the London Times, which published it Dec, 8, 1854 as part of its antigovernment campaign. Upon investigation, Elizabeth Wheeler's evidence was found to be inaccurate, and she was asked to resign.--ED.

Sir:

Miss Michelmore should not feel ashamed for writing what she did, but only for referring to a primitive land as primitive. The word, of course, is "emerging."

BURT PRELUTSKY Los Angeles

Sunday School Rubbish

Sir:

Thank you for your honest review of the blasphemous King of Kings Oct. 27]. Casting blue-eyed Jeffrey Hunter as Christ is like casting a certain French femme fatale as the innocent Snow White . . . UGH!

JOHNATHON TODD Baltimore

Sir:

Three cheers for your movie reviews, King of Kings in particular. We would like to nominate your reviewer for "Man of the Year" for his efforts in unmasking Hollywood's multimillion-dollar Sunday school for what it is: historical rubbish!

BRUCE BABCOCK '65 PAUL WEAVER '65 Yale University New Haven, Conn.

The Orphans

Sir:

Congratulations and thanks for the cogent article calling attention to "that phenomenal revolution in society, the foster home" [Oct. 27]. The Hebrew Orphan Asylum is one of six child-care institutions merged during the past two decades to form our agency.

While by today's standards the orphanages were dreadful, it is to their eternal credit that for the most part it was their own dissatisfaction and constant search for better ways of caring for children that led to the modern foster home system.

JACOB L. TROBE

Executive Director

Jewish Child Care Association of New York New York City

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