Billie the Kid

Sir: Ever since your first article on the Billie Sol Estes climb from rags to tatters [May 11], I have followed the newspaper and radio coverage quite carefully. To date, these media have yet to reveal as much as you did with what I would call an extremely well-timed story. Your follow-up cover story [May 25] was even more readable and literate.

My only criticism is that you make Estes out to be a complete crook. Certainly he didn't intend to end up $12 million to $20 million in the red. Many well-known U.S. businessmen who came up the hard way became saints only after they had it made.

SIDNEY H. NEWBURGER Atlanta

Sir:

That cover article should be required reading for all Congressmen so that other scandals may be avoided.

NORMAN ROBESON El Paso, Ill.

Sir:

I would strike a medal for Billie Sol if this mess will arouse the Congress to a realistic farm plan, thus saving the taxpayer billions.

JULIAN R. HILLER

New Orleans

Sir:

You reported that President Kennedy said that Orville Freeman, Secretary of Agriculture, "had most of his jaw shot off in Bougainville." From the way the Agriculture Department treated Billie Sol Estes, I think he had most of his head shot off.

MIKE GHOLSTON Indianapolis

Fun on the Frontier

Sir: Please keep up the excellent reportorial sketches of the Kennedy capers. Reading these accounts is about all that is left to us peasants in the way of recreation after paying our taxes to provide money to sustain "the bubbly, jovial atmosphere" of the New Frontier.

To quote a forgotten Democrat--"How long, O how long, America?" JOHANNA W. NELSON Gardnerville, Nev.

Sir:

It is easy enough to take potshots at the President and Mrs. Kennedy for the scope of their entertainments at the White House but do not forget, please, that they are bolstering the artistic and cultural reputation of the U.S. in the eyes of the Europeans, many of whom think that the U.S. is one vast area of ten-gallon hats and hamburgers.

TRUMBULL BARTON

Venice, Italy Sir: Your remark in the story about Washington parties [May 18], "The affair was mostly populated by people like the ambassador from Iceland," only exposes your inability to distinguish bigness from greatness.

The population of Iceland was even smaller than now (170,000) when the world's first parliament and the world's first supreme court--the cornerstones of democracy--were founded there over a thousand years ago.

The office of the President of the U.S. is not filled by the people but by one man.

You like to compare the number of Nobel laureates from one state of the U.S. with that of Russia. Compare Iceland's two Nobel prizewinners with that of any other nation and stop talking of the masses rather than of individuals.

DR. BJORN SlGURBJORNSSON University Research Institute Reykjavik, Iceland Bravo Malraux

SIR:

BRAVO MONSIEUR MALRAUX [May 25]. I HAVE BEEN WAITING 40 YEARS TO HEAR A DISTINGUISHED VOICE LIKE MALRAUX'S RECOGNIZE THE CONSTRUCTIVE EFFECT OF POPULAR COMMUNICATIONS ON THE WORLD. WHY DO SO MANY OF OUR OWN INTELLIGENTSIA CONTINUE TO ACT LIKE 18TH CENTURY OSTRICHES?

WALTER WANGER ROME

See the U.S.A.

Sir:

European criticism of our campaign to attract foreign tourists [May 18] concentrates on our statement that visitors can see the U.S. for $98 a week. The fact is that they can. Indeed, hundreds of European visitors are doing so this very week.

Hitherto, travel from Europe has been largely confined to businessmen and the very rich. It has become important to enlarge the market by attracting tourists with more modest means. The biggest single obstacle is the widespread belief that travel in the U.S. has to cost much more than it really does.

I submit that it is better for middle-income Europeans to visit the U.S., even if they have to economize, than that they should not come at all. They bring foreign exchange, and almost all of them go home with a more favorable attitude toward the U.S.

DAVID OGILVY Chairman Ogilvy, Benson & Mather New York City

Dormer & G.M.

Sir:

Your General Motors story [May 18] was superb.

When will the Government learn that it takes brains to run a successful business? Or, will the trustbusters saw and quarter General Motors into 100 blacksmith shops?

I vote for turning the farm problem over to Mr. Donner and his associates.

OSCAR F. MILLER Miami

Sir:

Your article on General Motors was a breath of fresh air to those of us who spend a large part of our time on endless government reports and inquiries.

I wish that J.F.K. et al. would take a long look at that excellent reporting. It is miraculous that such a business can exist under confiscatory taxation and government labor pampering. Are you not concerned, though, that such optimism might encourage more government tampering with business?

L. L. DRUMMOND Albuquerque

Sir:

I am still convinced of the superiority of Ford automobiles, but I'm glad there is a Frederic G. Donner and a very successful General Motors to provide thousands of well-paying jobs and to remind us that capitalism is a success.

CLIFFORD SCHMIDT Milford, Conn.

Sir:

The portrait of G.M.'s Mr. Donner, like Mona Lisa, can conjure up as many reactions as there are viewers.

LAXTON DAVENPORT Kent, Ohio

Sir:

I'm surprised that Donner's glasses are not chrome-framed with sweeping fins over the ear.

JOHN STALLINGS Anderson, Ind.

Sir: In the G.M. saga you twice used the word "pizazz." In the same issue in the book review on Jenny Lind, a similar word "bazazz" was used. Unfortunately I'm in a hospital bed with no recourse to a dictionary, but I doubt that either word is listed. Both words are very close to "pizazza," a word widely used in my post-puberty days at the local billiard emporium indicating an awful lot of stuff on the cue ball.

JIM MARTINDALE Hicksville, N.Y.

> Bucket seats Are pizazzy; While bazazz Is what a showman has.--ED.

Castro Cola

Sir:

Since your fine magazine is the current news of today and the history of tomorrow, we feel that the statement about our product in your cover article on Cuba [April 27] might be misleading. By saying that "Cubans are leery of the Coca-Cola they drink," the implication is that Coca-Cola is actually being bottled in Cuba today, which, in fact, it is not.

The present Cuban authorities confiscated all of our properties and facilities on the island in 1960. Of course, bottles were left, but if they are being filled and the contents sold as Coca-Cola, the operation is strictly without our sanction and authority.

No Coca-Cola syrup is sold to Cuba, and we make every effort to see that none reaches there from anywhere else where it is being legitimately bottled and sold.

ROY S. JONES Executive Vice President Coca-Cola Export Corp. New York City

The Dog & the Donkeys

Sir:

The highhanded action of the Presbytery of New York toward the Rev. Stuart Merriam and elders of the Broadway Presbyterian Church [May 18] illustrates a common failing of liberals: the inability to be liberal toward those with whom they disagree.

(THE REV.) HAROLD I. ALBERT First Baptist Church Fulton, Ill.

Sir:

True, a dog in the pulpit is a little unusual, but no grounds for ouster. My experience has led me to discover more jackasses than dogs on platforms.

LIEUT. COLONEL ANDREW C. GORDON

Chaplain Fort Gordon, Ga.

Major Course

Sir:

In regard to your article on the proposal to chop up retired professors and feed them to students for their RNA value: we must recognize how keen the Kennedys are about culture and organize a professor protection society right away.

(MRS.) MARY R. HOPKINS Hampden, Mass.

Sir:

Having been made professor emeritus a little more than a year ago, I have been wondering what to do. Now I know. Dr. McConnell shows that

Old professors never die

They just go to mem'ry pie.

MERLE L. PROTZMAN Washington, D.C.

Sir:

I am sure I must be mistaken, but it seems to me that Dr. McConnell is recommending Professorburgers.

RAUL C. ALVARES

New York City

Sir:

Jacques Barzun on the Rocks?

JULIAN SMITH New Orleans

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