The Assassin

Sir: I had hoped to save your excellent summary of the Warren report [Oct. 2], but I find that Artzybasheffs ghost is more than I can bear.

PAUL ANTHONY ROSS Lexington, Mass.

Sir: If it was the intent of Artzybasheff to convey the image of a man with a sick mind, he has succeeded admirably. The smirk, the dead color, the vacant eyes--he has painted a most penetrating portrait of Lee Oswald.

HAROLD R. SNYDER JR.

York. Pa.

Sir: To display the picture of "those who achieve importance by doing evil" might suggest to warped minds like Oswald's that they try to gain "importance" by committing more such crimes. People won't bother to read your explanatory apology for this mischief.

JOHN L. MOUSLEY

Hackensack, NJ.

Sir: Lee Harvey Oswald lived for only one thing: to commit a deed which by its very nature would place him far above the ordinary man. He gained questionable immortality last Nov. 22, and TIME compounds the dastardly act by using his repulsive likeness on its cover.

JOHN T. WHITEMAN

Lewisburg, Pa.

Sir: May I be among the first to congratulate the artist on a magnificent portrait. Its stark drabness makes one swallow and look again; Oswald's searching eyes reveal the madman he really was. Moreover, it is interesting to speculate on the meaning of the stained wall behind him.

HERBERT W. SWAIN JR.

Kent, Conn.

Sir: I believe you have written a concise and accurate synopsis of the Warren report and, as always, have done a magnificent job.

THOMAS F. CRONIN

Jersey City

Sir: Now that the Warren report is published, I am waiting for the journalists and television commentators to correct the gross errors that they made. Immediately after the tragic act, these opinion molders started a campaign trying to convince the public that the assassination took place because of the "extreme right-wingers" in Dallas. In fact, Dallas people put on sack cloth and ashes as if each and every one were partly guilty. Even university professors wrote books and articles about this guilt. The FBI and the Secret Service were criticized because they should have "rounded up" or done something or other with Oswald. But if the FBI and Secret Service were more reluctant to keep watch on extreme left-wingers than on ultrarightists, then didn't these breast-beating, so-called liberals help the assassin?

J. L. LEVKOFF

Miami

Sir: Along with thousands of other Americans, I am deeply disturbed about the generous and friendly, though carefree way in which our President Johnson is mingling with crowds. It isn't the 999 normal, friendly Americans, anxious to see our President, who worry me. It is that one psychotic, with hate in his heart and a gun in his hand, who frightens me.

HARRY B. CLARK

St. Cloud, Minn.

Broad Accusations

Sir: In your cover story about Charles Percy [Sept. 18], you say: "Into the race swept State Treasurer William Scott. 37, a strong Goldwater supporter, who accused Percy of everything, from being in cahoots with Chicago mobsters to being soft on Communism." I would appreciate it if you would correct this false charge.

WILLIAM J. SCOTT

Treasurer of the State of Illinois

Springfield. Ill.

> TIME should have attributed the accusation against Percy to "State Treasurer William Scott and his supporters."--ED.

The Bomb

Sir: It is time for Americans to become "struthious unbound." Your article on the nuclear issue [Sept. 25] was perceptive, frank, and frighteningly heartening.

SUSANNAH P. PERRY

Milwaukee

Sir: You are. I believe, quite correct in concluding that, in the event of nuclear war, it is the Government's responsibility to take appropriate preventive steps to reduce the death toll. There are prudent steps that our country can take to significantly improve our chances for survival. At the present time H.R. 8200, popularly known as the "Shelter-Incentive bill," is lying dormant in a Senate committee. The President, with the prestige and influence of his office, could make his current remarks much more credible by recommending immediate action on H.R. 8200.

GERALD J. BAZINET

Local Director

Office of Civil Defense

Plymouth. Conn.

Sir: The cover was a TIMEly contribution to pop art.

JEANNE C. WARGO

Stratford, Conn.

Sir: Now the Goldwaterites are calling foul! They don't like it when a TV spot spills out the horrible truth in vicious terms. So what! It's a vicious, scary subject. How can any intelligent, thinking American say that Goldwater will use these weapons with discretion? There is no such thing as a small atom bomb.

(MRS.) JOAN ASHMAN

Canoga Park, Calif.

Sir: Goldwater ought to counter with commercials showing schoolchildren being indoctrinated under Communism.

PAUL E. ASHLEY Phoenix

Sir: So now L.BJ. has nailed down the biggest voting bloc of all--the coward bloc.

JAMES D. HAMILTON Memphis

Sir: To deal with the delegation of nuclear authority as though it were the central problem of the "nuclear issue" is a clever dodge. Senator Goldwater has appeared to many to be a man with a chip on his shoulder and with a dangerous habit of leaping before he looks. He has condemned our preoccupation with a peaceful foreign policy and has demanded an aggressive "victory" policy. In these two respects the Senator's candidacy is different from any other presidential candidate of the nuclear age.

That is why the "nuclear issue" is the decisive issue of this campaign.

DONALD R. KOEHN Urbana, Ill.

The Balancing Dean

Sir: If the Very Rev. Francis Sayre [Sept. 25] was a write-in candidate for the coming election. I'm sure he would be elected President. I cannot, in good conscience, vote for Goldwater or Johnson, and it would not surprise me at all if a few million voters stay away from the polls.

P. M. FRAGOLA

Staten Island, N.Y.

Sir: Amen, Brother Sayre, amen! Anyone for a strong third party?

GERTRUDE DE GROOT

Grand Rapids, Mich.

Sir: This is a presidential election year in which I miss the name of Norman Thomas. This time I would give him equal consideration.

JOSEPH A. SIEFKER

Quincy. Ill.

Sir: Ministers and priests should stick to saving souls and leave politics alone.

JANE S. CLEMENTS

Baltimore

Sir: Dean Sayre's statement is the most timely, accurate and eloquent I've read anywhere. Huckster characteristics and all. Johnson is still preferable to the amateurish arm-flingings of Gary Boldwater. The possible spectacle of Miller as President strikes me as the depth of absurdity.

G. R. KlNSWORTHY Middletown, Ohio

Sir: I must disagree with the Very Rev.

Francis Sayre. Senator Goldwater is a man whom God has raised up to redeem the Republic from the evils of dialectical materialism. I shall cast my vote on Nov. 3 for Truth, for Honor, and for Freedom.

WILLIAM B. COLLIER Santa Barbara, Calif.

Western Prejudice Sir: Once again TIME hit the nail of bigotry right on its head. Your piece on Proposition 14 [Sept. 25] correctly positioned the fight over anti-discrimination in housing as California's most important political battle. Other states with fair housing laws take note--you are next!

ELSIE HAAS

Hollywood

Sir: If the "Yes on 14" backers succeed in passing the proposition, they will prove that people value property rights over human rights. They could then form a "No on U.S. Constitutional Amendment 13" movement, and if that succeeds, restore Negroes to the Southern families who lost their slaves in 1863.

R. N. PERKINS

San Jose, Calif.

Young Drinkers

Sir: My sympathy really goes out to Mr. and Mrs. Hitchings and to those people in Darien who were arrested [Oct. 2]. I was brought up in Darien's society and am proud of it. We have two daughters, and if we lived in Darien now, I would much prefer to teach them how to drink at home and with friends in the area than have them drive to New York State, or worse--try dope as an alternative.

(MRS.) DIANE C. LANE

Flushing, N.Y.

Sir: As a teen-age resident of Darien, I am familiar with the drinking problem to which you refer. Many parents and adults applauded the arrests of their fellow residents. Yet these same parents are perfectly willing to supply their own children with beer and liquor for parties. The parents of Darien are to blame--not for bad intentions but for their apathy. Until they develop a concern, this problem will continue to plague Darien.

JOSEPH P. STEVENS

Dickinson College Carlisle, Pa.

Custody Advice

Sir: Your summary of my recent article in the Yale Law Journal about the care of children of divorced and divorcing parents [Sept. 18] in most respects is accurate.

But it erroneously implies that the committee that I propose would have custody of the children. My article points out that joint custody remains with the parents and that the committee that they set up is advisory to them and sometimes to the court.

LAWRENCE S. KUBIE, M.D.

Towson, Md.

Big Ad Cat Sir: Madison Avenue is a feeble glow compared to the bright burning of the tigers [Sept. 25] in Malaysia. We drink Tiger beer. We fly by planes bearing the tiger symbol of Malaysian Airways. The shield of the University of Malaya has three tigers--far superior to the single-tigered institution for the production of advertising executives in Princeton, N.J.

Confrontation, anyone?

HECTOR G. KINLOCH University of Malaya Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Sir: Your story missed Schmidt's "Tiger Head" Ale. The rest of these people are late comers. Tiger Head was originally brewed in 1774 at the Robert Smith Ale Brewery in Philadelphia, and continues to be brewed today for ale consumers by C. Schmidt & Sons, Inc.

WILLIAM T. ELLIOTT

Philadelphia

Sir: I saw a touching tribute to American advertising competition. It was a sign outside a non-Esso station that read, "We take the tiger hairs out of your tank."

NANCY FIGGINS

Delaware, Ohio

Princeton's Prexy Sir: I did a double take when I read about "Princeton's Robert F. Cohen" [Oct. 2]. Either ivied walls will come tumbling down or the name should be Goheen.

EUGENE M. DAVIS Manchester, Conn.

>Let the walls stand; TIME'S proofreaders erred.--ED.

Weedy Gardens of Academe

Sir: It's pure hypocrisy for college presidents and deans to talk about morality to the new freshman classes [Oct. 2]. Those students were admitted on the basis of grades and test scores, and they will pass or fail on the same basis. The student does not "demand facts, facts, facts." His instructor demands them, neatly played back from a term's subject matter. Let the deans weed their own gardens before looking across the fence.

MILTON S. HESS Long Island City, N.Y.

An 'Istoric Article

Sir: Re your "An historic deal" footnote [Sept. 25]:

All 'ail the famed 'istorian

(A. Toynbee is his name)

Who silences the letter h

(And TIME, which does the same)!

And 'ail the 'appy anglophiles

Throughout the U.S.A.

Whose prefatory article

Is an and never a.

And curse the 'apless Yankee types

Who claim, exasperated,

That 'istory's h in 50 states

Is always aspirated!

GORDON C. THOMAS

Sudbury, Mass.

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