Ole Miss

Sir:

Hurrah for Ross Barnett!

I am not a segregationist, but, to use an analogy, I like to see a team that's sure to win the pennant lose at least one ball game.

THOMAS E. KLUNZINGER East Lansing, Mich.

Cheers to Governor Ross Barnett for his show of guts by standing up for his convictions, states' rights and the will of the people of the sovereign state of Mississippi. If there were more people like him in high positions in the Federal Government, would we have to worry about the "Cuban thorn" or similar situations?

WILLIAM W. CLARK Andrews A.F.B. Washington

Sir:

The Russian tanks rolled in on Hungary; the U.S. troops massed in Mississippi.

Freedom v. Communism: both used force. What's the difference?

MRS. JOHN HOUGH

Fortuna, Calif.

Sir:

Nothing has been funnier than your oh-so-objective reporters writing of Meredith as though he were something other than a dangling black puppet on an awful thin string.

Your story in this week's TIME [Oct. 5] reads as if you feel (or want to make somebody else feel) that Meredith is master, in control, of his own destiny, his own actions. Why, the fellow doesn't even have any idea what he's supposed to do tomorrow--beyond knowing he'll do whatever his N.A.A.C.P. lawyers, or John Doar or Burke Marshall, tell him.

CHARLES B. GORDON

The Enterprise-Journal McComb, Miss.

Sir:

Nowhere have I read or heard about moderates among the faculty and students of the university in today's crisis. Were they all asking "When will the nigger come?" Or is the climate in Mississippi presently such that a moderate dare not let his views be known?

BARBARA BALLOU Palo Alto, Calif.

Sir:

As a Baptist who lives in the North, I have only one question--why can't we hear the voice of the Baptists in Mississippi now that Governor Barnett and his crew are so blatantly trampling underfoot the principles of him of whom it was said: "He hath made of one blood all nations of men"''

Please, Mississippi Baptists, speak up.

GUNNAR HOGLUND Chicago

Sir:

I have no doubt that James Meredith knows that he could get a better education at Harvard or Western Reserve or California or any other university you care to name. But a question of principle remains: as long as he and other Mississippi Negroes pay taxes that help to support the state university, they have a right to enjoy its dubious benefits.

To those Mississippians who resent being dragged screaming into the 2Oth century, I can only say: Come on in; the rest of us have been here for some years, and it isn't as bad as you think.

RALPH BACKLUND New York City

Sir:

I disagree strongly with your statement that "the Administration appeared weak and hesitant." I think that President Kennedy and the Attorney General acted in a very positive manner.

GEORGE R. MATEYO, '65

Baldwin-Wallace College Berea, Ohio

Sir:

No American need be ashamed of the "Oxford incident." Political fascination and the shedding of blood have overshadowed the most overwhelming significance of this event: the basic rights of one American citizen--one quiet, unassuming citizen--were being infringed upon, and as a result of this infringement, the entire power, might and prestige of the U.S. Government went to his assistance.

In what other country in the world would this have occurred? Americans abroad and at home need not hang their heads in shame. This was a proud day for America. It reemphasized that which separates democracy from Communism: the sacredness of the individual.

PATRICK W. NEE Roslindale, Mass.

Moscow Glamor

Sir:

Although you painted a beautiful word picture of Galina Brezhnev [Oct. 5], you left us on tenterhooks with no photo of this glamorous daughter of the Soviet President.

WILLIAM LANE BAKER Belmont Shore, Calif.

None was available last week. Herewith Galina in Belgrade (left), with Khrushchev's daughter, Rada Adzhubei.--ED.

Gold Star for Goldwater

Sir:

Please give me back my star.

BARRY GOLDWATER Major General, U.S.A.F.R. Washington

TIME regrets its Oct. 5 reference to Reader Goldwater as a "one-star general." He was promoted to two-star rank in May.--ED.

Council in Rome

Sir:

Congratulations from a constant and critical reader of TIME. As a Catholic, I applaud your accurate appraisal of the Ecumenical Council [Oct. 5] and the tremendous task lying before it.

WILLIAM BEAULIEU Schcnectady, N.Y.

Sir:

I have read your magazine's flippant article "Council of Renewal." (THE REV. )PAULINUS CODY, O.F.M. Saint Anthony Shrine Boston

Sir:

It was surprising to read that an editor of the Vatican daily changed the Holy Father's words before printing them.

My Catholic friends have always told me that the Pope is perfect, infallible; so how could anything he says need to be edited by anyone, especially a lowly editor?

BETTY HANSON

Fort Worth

Sir:

The delicate, Da Vinci-like drawing of the Pope made me redden with embarrassment when I discovered it was executed by the same artist who had mutilated President Kennedy on TIME'S Man of the Year 1961 cover.

An artist myself, I had written in protest re the Kennedy cover. It is obvious from the soft, gentle lines articulating the Pope that Annigoni really is sensitive to character.

(MRS.) SUNNY JACOBSON

Westport, Conn.

Spray Fray

Sir:

Thanks for the space TIME gives to the pesticide controversy [Sept. 28].

It is fortunate that public attention can be focused on this business by Rachel Carson's dramatization of the facts. The author loses no stature for her "mystical attachment to the balance of nature."

C. M. KIRKPATRICK Professor of Wildlife Management Purdue University Lafayette, Ind.

Sir:

The sooner restrictive laws are placed on indiscriminate mass spray programs the better. The public has the right to demand careful and comprehensive research before any mass programs are instituted.

RUSSELL F. HANSEN Cleveland Museum of Natural History Cleveland

Sir:

I wish to compliment you for the straightforward and unemotional appraisal of Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring.

DALE F. BRAY Head of Department Department of Entomology University of Delaware Newark, Del.

Sir:

Kudos for the objective analysis of pesticides. Far too many book reviewers have been impressed by Rachel Carson's lucidity rather than the substance of her new book. Pests kill ten times as much timber as forest fires do. Civilization has to live with careful use of pesticides, just as we must live with the automobile and other devices that can cause their toll through improper use.

T. F. ARVOLA Deputy State Forester Department of Conservation Sacramento, Calif.

Sir:

As a professional zoologist, I have been profoundly disturbed by the disregard for the facts of the matter shown by so many other reviewers of Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring. I was heartened to read your discussion of this book, an outstanding example of objective journalism at its finest. JOHN C. FRANDSEN Auburn, Ala.

A Pride of Aggies

Sir:

The student body of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas read your article [Sept. 28] with considerable alarm. While your comments on the significant accomplishments of our former students reflected favorably on the quality of our graduates, your picture of our campus activities was, at best, rather distorted.

You specifically mentioned weaknesses in our School of Arts and Sciences, but failed to mention the fact that many of our graduates in these areas have distinguished themselves in graduate schools.

Although members of the Cadet Corps undergo rigid military discipline, our "fish" are not "mercilessly hazed," but live under conditions characterized by a spirit of friendliness, courtesy, and honor.

SHELDON J. BEST

Student Body President

WILLIAM D. Nix JR.

Cadet Colonel of the Corps

College Station, Texas

Sir:

As a former citizen-soldier with a lingering distaste for the attitudes of the professional soldier, I would like to add a footnote to your Texas A. & M. story.

After 20 years I am still grateful to A. & M. for the training of the officers under whom I was fortunate enough to serve. Men like Stephen D. Martin, who had the job of making schoolboys into soldiers and did it without foolishly trying to make basic training equivalent to military school; men with enough sense of humor to distinguish between the serious demands of that training and some of its more trivial side effects. Men like Charles L. Ricks, one of the 696 Aggies killed in World War II, who lives in my memory as the finest field grade officer I ever knew. A man who was as willing to die for his men as he was to live with them, an intelligent soldier and a kind human being, he would have been a credit to any school.

The Harvard lad mentioned in your other Education article may be right in saying that his school contacts will be the leaders of the country, but he should understand that the boys of the land grant colleges are providing the backbone for that country--and A. & M. turns out some of the best.

( THE REV.) HAROLD BRADLEY, SJ. Mexico City

A Little Humility

Sir:

The issue of merger among four of the major leading American Protestant churches [Sept. 28] is indeed a complex situation, but the obviously hasty words of Washington's John Wesley Lord, "Methodists have the least enthusiasm, and with good reason. We're strong; what do we need?," are a little hard for some of us Methodist theology students to take. "What do we need?"; well, brother, try a little humility.

CHRISTOPHER W. CRAIG BRUCE ROBERTS HENRY SCHERER JR. Boston University School of Theology Boston

Sir:

I am intrigued by the Rev. H. F. Law-horn's strange use of Scripture to justify division among Christians. He says: "We ought to remember what Christ said, 'Other sheep have I, not of this fold.' "

Christ also said--in the same sentence, in fact: ". . . them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd."

MARIBETH DWYER Missoula, Mont.

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