Measuring the Military

Sir: It seems tragically ironic and somehow grotesquely paradoxical to juxtapose the pictures of General Eisenhower's burial and the cover story on the growing influence of the military [April 11]. Ike's entire career, both as military man and as President, was a tacit denial of the monolithic attitudes as presently displayed by those who now wield the clubs of nuclear power. Perhaps, in the inexorable march of history, his passing marked the end of military men who are able to be as constructive in peace as they are in war. General Shoup's description of professional soldiers reminds me of a finely tuned car that sets records at Indianapolis but is inept in traffic.

PETER W. STINE Assistant Professor of English Gordon College Wenham, Mass.

Sir: Our military career people must feel pretty frustrated to find themselves blamed for failures that are manifestly the result of political constraints. The ironic part is that if we neglect our defenses and spurn our defenders, another Pearl Harbor may occur. Then public feeling will well up, and courting of our soldiers will once again be in style. As Rudyard Kipling wrote of the peacetime military man nearly 80 years ago:

It's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an'

"chuck 'im out, the brute," But it's "Savior of 'is Country" when

the guns begin to shoot.

JOHN W. KERSTETTER Apollo, Pa.

Civility Above Stability

Sir: I wouldn't normally quibble about one word; however, this one word is very important. In your cover story on "Rage and Reform on Campus" [April 18], you quote me as characterizing the style of the university by rationality and stability. Actually, the wire services earlier made the same error in reporting a press conference here. Probably it's my own fault for not enunciating more clearly. The word I actually used was civility, which is much more important for universities today than stability. Civility becomes increasingly vital if university people--faculty, students and administration--are to discuss instead of demand, reason rather than shout, mutually respect rather than mutually recriminate, depend on ideas for persuasion rather than four-letter words, and confer with rather than confront each other.

Stability is something else, probably unlikely as universities face a changing world they have helped to change and must change yet more, and themselves, too, in the process. Rationality and civility--these are the great university virtues at the heart of our problem. If they are lost, we are lost.

(THE REV.) THEODORE M. HESBURGH President University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Ind.

A Modest Proposal

Sir: Noting your article, "Sad Sam," on Mayor Yorty [April 11], I seriously considered running for the office of mayor of Los Angeles but decided against it, particularly as I would be running against my friend Sam Yorty, for whom I have a high regard both as a man and as the mayor of our city.

I agree with you that Sam failed to arrest the Watts trouble at its inception. He could have become a national hero and saint if he had ordered or persuaded Chief Parker to issue a directive to his officers to shoot to cripple all looters, and shoot to kill anyone with a torch in his or her hand, regardless of color. Had he done that--which is what I would have done had I been the mayor--he would have stopped the riots cold, and it is my belief that all the other riots in other cities would never have taken place.

But Tom Bradley must be faulted, too, for not having flown home. With his immense prestige among his own race, he could have helped so much to "cool" the Watts riot. Instead he preferred to play safe and stay away (according to Yorty) for some 30 days, until the riots came to an end. I don't think this type of man would make a good mayor of Los Angeles.

RUDY VALLEE Hollywood, Calif.

The High Cost of Confiscation

Sir: The most serious damage done by the Peruvian junta and by the Nixon decision to bypass the application of the Hickenlooper Amendment [April 18] has been missed by most news media. Despite Velasco's claim that the IPC is a unique case, no foreign businessman will want to invest in Peru, where at any moment a government may confiscate whatever it wants with only transparent rationalization.

My heart does not bleed for the unfortunate businessman whose investments are at stake; foreign investments are made only by capitalists aware in advance of the risks. But I do regret deeply the real victims in this situation, the masses of Latin Americans whose tomorrows are hopeless without increasing foreign investments to industrialize and modernize their societies. If no one protects these investments, the man in the barriada and the favela is the one most to suffer.

VAL CLEAR Lima

Food Fare

Sir: Mrs. Philip Hart must either be a lousy shopper or a pretty unimaginative cook if she can't feed a family of six for $33.86 a week and provide anything more interesting than beans, cheap vegetables, bread and old roosters [April 11]. I feed my husband, myself, our four children and a dog for that amount with very little diffi culty. We find some of the cheaper foods quite edible. We rather enjoy a big, thick, juicy, charcoal-broiled hamburger, or maybe Mexican tacos or meatballs stroganoff. Also, a two-dollar bottle of sherry will jazz up an awful lot of cheap meat.

What I was most interested to learn is that, as a college professor's family, we are living on a welfare budget. My sympathy for the impoverished diminishes rapidly.

MRS. WAYNE FALKE Oxford, Ohio

The Lawyer as Social Servant

Sir: I regret that space limitations did not permit quotation of my complete remarks concerning the judgment lawyers must exercise in choosing areas of social service [April 18]. Our firm encourages and supports community service as a meaningful and rewarding part of a lawyer's experience.

Since so many such opportunities are available today, it is important that the young lawyer be certain that the particular projects to which he devotes his time and effort will result in rewarding social service. That was the point of the one remark of mine that was printed.

HAMMOND E. CHAFFETZ Kirkland, Ellis, Hodson, Chaffetz & Masters Chicago

Impurity Quotient

Sir: Re the article "Intelligence: Is There a Racial Difference?" [April 11]: Most American Negroes are at least 60% Caucasoid, regardless of skin color. Anyone with even a smidgin of intelligence himself plus a knowledge of genetics and U.S. culture patterns (among them sex) would realize that after over 200 years with a negligible number of African immigrants to augment the gene pool, there could be very few if any "pure" Negroes here at this time.

Dr. Terman (pere), father of many of our present testing concepts, was emphatic about not taking intelligence tests too seriously. He said, "Only through repeated tests of the same individual over periods of time can any reasonable norm be established. No one knows just what physical or emotional problems the testee may be laboring under . . . plus a possible unrelated background to the culture on which the tests are based. There is also a considerable learned facility in taking tests by those familiar with them, which places at a disadvantage those who are new to the game."

If someone wants to make valid tests why doesn't he go to Africa, where he may encounter "pure" race or stock and give the tests in their language and based on their culture?

KARENA SHIELDS Associate Professor of Anthropology-Sociology University of San Diego Alcala Park, Calif.

Keeping Their Marbles

Sir: We enjoyed your commentary on the World Marble Championship [April 11]. The "upstart colonials" are, in fact, a group of stockbrokers who found themselves in the same pub during the recent New York Stock Exchange Wednesday closings. The transition from elbow bending to shooting marbles was a natural. While it is true that we failed to appear at the championship this year, we had good reason: the application form we requested last October arrived April 2--just two days before the contest. In any event, unless we lose our marbles, we will be there next year.

CHRISTOPHER J. WHYBROW President The Tower Club Chicago

Stanley's Sturdy Boiler

Sir: Thanks for the news of the Lear Steam Racer, and for the comments on the old Stanley Steamers [April 11]. Allow me to correct one such: no Stanley boiler ever has blown up. Attempts were made to do this at the factory, and all that happened was the collapse of one of the 600 or so tubes with a big leak, but no disaster. This is of more than historic interest since a surprising number of old Stanleys have been lovingly restored, and are in use at antique car rallies and the like. It would be a pity if the admiring public should flee away thinking one of them might go boom! It won't. I have owned and driven ten different Stanleys since 1930. I survive, unscorched and unblown-up.

(THE REV.) STANLEY W. ELLIS East Orleans, Mass.

Hitting Hard

Sir: I certainly would not have recognized Al Capp from your article about his campus tours [April 11]. I was lucky enough to have the chance to judge for myself when Mr. Capp appeared at Southern Illinois University, where I am a student. Did you ever wonder why a millionaire cartoonist spends six hours trooping all over a campus to talk with over 6,000 students? Surely you don't believe it is for the $3,000. Those students whom he calls S.W.I.N.E. were the first to jump up for his autograph and a chance to pat Mr. Capp on the back. Indeed he does hit hard with most of his comments, but I feel that those students need to know that it is a hard world out there.

MARGIE A. WATSON Carbondale, Ill.

Sir: It was inevitable. Sooner or later some bitter, commercially motivated has-been was bound to discover a way to make money off student dissent.

We young "Nazis" are truly indebted to your generation. After all, didn't you furnish us with the prototype?

JOHN FORD LEON Pelham Manor, N.Y.

Only a Gift

Sir: Please watch mixing Christian doctrine with Greek philosophy. You say, "To the believing Christian, death is a moment not of annihilation but of resurrection, when a soul's turbulent earthly journey comes to a happy end in eternal life" [April 11]. The concept of soul is good Greek philosophy but not theologically sound; nor is it true to the Bible to speak of some sort of indestructible inner core that lives on after death. Christians confess the resurrection of the dead and thereby acknowledge that life is a gift from God--and only a gift. We cannot claim it as a right, which is exactly what we do with this concept of soul, "whose earthly journey comes to a happy end in eternal life." This statement sounds like one of those "unctuous funeral parlor euphemisms" that tries to avoid mentioning death at all!

(THE REV.) GEORGE B. BRUNJES Richmond Hill, N.Y.

High Overhead

Sir: A footnote to tax revision [April 4]: pity the plight of the single person who has no advantage comparable to "income splitting" of the married couple. The unmarried are entitled to only one exemption of $600; yet overhead costs are the same and living expenses are much more than half those of childless married couples. Unmarried people supporting others not closely related have no "head of household" status. It's enough to make a gal consider matrimony!

MARGARET PROUTY Madison, Wis.

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