Judging the Threat

Sir: TIME'S report, "Chile: The Expanding Left" [Oct. 19], has judged the Allende coalition prematurely. Prejudicial fears often become self-fulfilling prophecies. The surest way to force Allende into the Communist camp is to withdraw or withhold American capital and industry from Chile at this time. I hope we will not react in a manner that will make it imperative for Chile to seek aid from other (perhaps Communist) nations. If we do, we have no one to blame but ourselves. American industry may lose some of its grip on Chile's economy, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Economic interests have too often been our sole concern in Latin American countries anyway.

(THE REV.) JAMES BRAGAN Peru, Neb.

Sir: You say, "What is little realized is the extent to which Latin Americans themselves approve radical approaches, despite such egregious failures as Castro's Cuba." Apparently, what is little realized by TIME are the reasons for this approval. Many of us do not judge Fidel's government merely on its failure to attain the promised sugar-cane crop or on its harsh food-rationing measures. Castro's achievements in education, health and in the fight against poverty are an egregious success in comparison to the achievements of most Latin American governments. Far more Latin Americans than you seem willing to accept consider the Cuban revolution an event as important for Latin American development as the 19th century wars of independence.

ANTONIO UNGAR Princeton, N.J.

Sir: Who is threatened by Marxism in Latin America? The feudal landowners? The reactionary church? The rich American corporations? Surely not the great masses of workers and peasants.

GEORGE B. THOMAS State College, Pa.

Sir: I was in Santiago during the national election. Have you ever seen 40-or 50-year-old men cry because of a candidate's victory? I did. And they weren't tears of joy. Tears of despair and agony better describe the trickles of water from their eyes. Tears of realization of the new Communist footing in Latin America.

GREG R. WALTERS Northern Michigan University Marquette, Mich.

Sir: Now that Allende is about to take over in Chile, he will probably ask the Peace Corps to leave. I do hope it is politely, because for the last seven years Peace Corps volunteers have been living and working primarily in primitive, remote villages with Chile's poor, trying to help them obtain a bigger share of their country's wealth. The volunteers helped these people realize what a "screwing" they have been getting from their country's affluent. Now at last, with U.S. help, the poor have had the courage at the polls to let their country know how they really feel. Maybe Allende should politely say, "Thank you, Peace Corps. Stay and keep up the good work." Will he have the courage to?

RICHARD S. CROSS Peace Corps Volunteer. Chile 1966-67 Douglas, Wyo.

Sir: Chileans have a keen pragmatism, as shown by your story. A while back, a conservative Chilean cousin of mine was visiting in the U.S. His name: Guevara. When I asked him if we were related to "Che," he smiled slyly and quipped, "Aqui no; en Cuba, si."

LESLIE WATTS (GUEVARA) Reston, Va.

Myth-Created Martyr

Sir: Your commentary on the Ernesto Guevara myth [Oct. 12] charitably neglected to emphasize a most disenchanting fact: after the glorious days of the Sierra Maestra, he did not mastermind even one successful major undertaking, either inside Cuba or out of it. He was a flop as Minister of Industries, as key adviser to the Kinshasa rebels in the Congo, and--most spectacularly--as leader of the guerrillas in Bolivia. Ironically, Che's gravest failures were as strategist and tactician. The man who wrote the manual on guerrilla warfare seemed unable to follow his own basic rules.

In retrospect, it seems clear that Che Guevara never perceived the futility of his grandiose plans, for conditions surrounding the triumph in Cuba were unique, unable to be duplicated elsewhere. His only success in Bolivia was posthumous, as the myth created a martyr.

HUGH HAY-ROE Lima, Peru

The Saddest Words

Sir: To me, the saddest words that Janis Joplin [Oct. 19] ever sang are from Turtle Blues: "I'm gonna take good care of Janis--Yeah. 'Cause there ain't no one gonna dog me down." God rest her troubled soul.

BARBARA CORDES Bakersfield, Calif.

Sir: Like Jimi Hendrix, Miss Joplin made one meaningful contribution in her life: the manner of her death. Hopefully, the younger generation will get the message. HARRY PRESTON Hollywood, Calif.

Sir: Rock kings or queens in our freaked-out world are not new. Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix were a continuation of a blues tradition. Bix Beiderbecke and Billie Holiday are only two who chose a bottle or needle to amplify their feelings. It's unfair to make our younger generation feel that their lives are somehow more tragic than earlier ones.

BILL HINKEN Leadville, Colo.

Making the Natives Restless

Sir: I wish to take issue with your Essay concerning Thomas Morton of Merry Mount and the Pilgrims [Oct. 12]. The implication was that the Pilgrims drove Morton and his merrymakers out because they disapproved of their fun-loving, frivolous activities. The real reason, however, as I understand it, was that Morton and his men were arousing the Indian tribes and provoking them to action against the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims simply could not allow a group of renegades like Morton and his men to undo all that they had accomplished by way of keeping the peaceful relationship with the natives. It was the Puritans in Boston who were the rigid, intolerant group, and it was these people who might well have been unsympathetic to the ritualistic proceedings at Merry Mount. People generally tend to confuse the viewpoints and philosophies of the Puritans at Boston with those of the Pilgrims at Plymouth.

CYNTHIA KRUSELL Chairman

Marshfield Historical Commission Marshfield, Mass.

The Other Mortons

Sir: I am one of the thousands of Canadian and American Mortons descended from Ephriam, George, Nathanial and our Thomas. They were not simply being "Puritanical" and self-righteous in their attacks against the scoundrel of Merry Mount. Perhaps one reason for their contempt of him was that he was not related to our "saintly" family. That he was well educated and an aristocrat may also have had some bearing on the fact that, with Governor Bradford, they drove him from the colony. Furthermore, trading booze with the Indians made him a total menace to the Pilgrims, who were heavy drinkers.

Perhaps it was in the spirit of Thomas Morton of Merry Mount that I, at 58, tried my damnedest to have the mayor of Toronto extend an official welcome to a rock festival held here just over a year ago. He chose to reject the young people, as I, of Puritan ancestry, did not.

PAUL MORTON Toronto

Dollard's Dilemma

Sir: The Rev. John Dollard's dilemma of declining attendance following his imposition of a liturgical tax [Oct. 19] is the epitome of the clerical cancer existing in the American Catholic church today. American Catholic families have grown weary of financially supporting churches and clergymen who do not in turn support their spiritual needs. Financial boycotting--called a "greenout" in this house --is a protest against preaching to and talking down to instead of communicating with and listening to; it is against the use of dogma and doctrine instead of Christ and scripture; against irrelevant Holy Name and altar guild societies; against wealth, affluence (and alcoholism) among the clergy.

Our only hope is the knowledge that the Father Dollards of this world, although still in the majority, are going to be overtaken by an enlightened clergy who are part of the 20th century and in tune with the needs of the flock.

DR. TOM HICKEY State College, Pa.

Sir: Dollard is unimpressed with the Lord's baptism-membership concept. Perhaps God is equally unimpressed with Dollard's ticket-to-Heaven concept.

GENE TARR Miami

Sir: As former parishioners of Father Dollard, we wholeheartedly support his position in establishing a compulsory church membership fee. Churches are no different from civic governments, schools, hospitals, etc. They all need money to render their services.

MR. AND MRS. FRANK F. MORIN Passaic, NJ.

Erratum

Sir: The article on the City University of New York [Oct. 19] was a fine piece of reporting and, from our point of view, an honest delineation of most of the problems currently being faced by C.U.N.Y. However, there is one factual error that I feel should be brought to the attention of your readers. As Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. receives a salary of $34,700, not the $50,000 mentioned in your article.

BERNARD MINTZ Vice Chancellor for Administration City University of New York Manhattan

Set in Concrete

Sir: The Commission on Obscenity and Pornography [Oct. 12] is made up of recognized professionals in their field, working with recognized and well-tested methods of investigation. But no one will even look at their findings. No one even thanks them for what was a tough job. Those who criticize them have no professional standing in the field they speak of. It is little wonder that the younger generation has to blow up buildings to get some of these people, who have minds like concrete --all mixed up and set solid--to listen. Most people over 30 were born with an open mind, and that was the last instant they had one.

WALTER F. CHAPPELLE JR. Rochester

Sir: I as a taxpayer demand that every cent this commission squandered in for mulating its fraudulent report be returned to the U.S. Treasury. And that the twelve who view pornography positively be made to eat their report, page by page, before the nation's TV cameras.

ROY D. DOERFLER Scottsbluff, Neb.

Factors in the Equation

Sir: In discussing national health insurance [Oct. 12], you help to perpetuate the naive assumption that American mortality and longevity statistics can be correlated entirely with inadequacy of medical care. Unless the significance of poverty, ignorance, violence, intemperance, malnutrition and child neglect are added to the equation, the assumption that improved medical systems would automatically place U.S. longevity in the first rank is bound to produce disappointment and recrimination.

GORDON E. MAXWELL, M.D. Salina, Kans.

Right On

Sir: I salute TIME for its editorial integrity in running an article highly critical of one of its advertisers in the very same issue [Oct. 26] that carried a full-page ad by that advertiser--even though that advertiser happened to be me.

RALPH GINZBURG

Editor-in-Chief

Moneysworth

Manhattan

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