You Really Did It This Time!

To the Editors:

Your cover story, "American Chic in Fashion" [March 22], threw me into a dilemma: the uncover number on the cover or new thermal underwear from Sears. I went with Sears again.

(Mrs.) Doris Ward

Haines, Alaska

Model Carol Gustafson turned women black with envy and men red with hot flushes. You really did it this time!

Gina G. Javier

San Jose, Calif.

Your cover girl has about as much chic as a plucked chicken.

(Mrs.) Winifred Newman

Winnipeg, Canada

Your cover did more to revive my 59-year-old arteries than anything else in recent memory.

Philip Schacca

West Hempstead, N. Y.

A more apt title for your cover picture would have been "Current American Vulgarity." I feel the way I would if one of my oldest friends suddenly and leeringly exposed himself at a party.

Sally Phillips

New York City

Your cover had to increase TIME'S circulation. It did mine!

Wilbur J. Peak

Geneva, Ill.

Are you quite sure that is an authentic De la Renta gown that Nancy Kissinger is pictured in? I swear it is the same dress my mother wore to her junior prom in Hoboken.

Kurt Gravenhorst

Los Altos Hills, Calif.

Your article says that today's clothes are a "sound investment at almost any price." Baloney!

The only sound clothing investment I know of is a pair of Levi's and a homemade shirt.

Diane Barton

Aurora, Colo.

Just who do you think you are? Do you realize that you have just taken ten giant leaps backward in the struggle of women to be recognized as persons? Please confine yourselves to issues you can handle.

Denise Jensen

Iowa City, Iowa

It's about time our designers were recognized for knowledge, creativity, flair, beauty and good taste. TIME has praised something all American women have known for years.

Delia Chodash

Cincinnati

Clothes for maniacs or Martians, not women.

Lisa Sue

Pittsburgh

Designers refuse to learn that not all women are flat reared, flat chested, six feet tall and weigh 95 Ibs. Millions of us are five-feet-two, weigh 110 Ibs. and have 34-24-34 measurements.

Elizabeth Kolezar

Tulsa, Okla.

Undoubtedly, an army of concerned mothers, irate women's liberationists, shocked clergymen, and uncloseted homosexuals will flock to assail the moral and ethical character of TIME for having the audacity to publish this cover.

Scott Buehner

Garden Grove, Calif.

We have enough magazines already that have fallen into the "lair of lasciviousness."

James L. Wing

Ann Arbor, Mich.

Claptrap.

Marcelle D. Bonzagni

Woolwich, Me.

Moving On

The poor were not in evidence among the 2.5 million people on the move [March 15] last year. They remain trapped in ghettos collecting their checks.

If we federalized and equalized transfer payments, they would be free to migrate toward the lower living costs, jobs and more equitable climes the big city does not provide.

Harry Weese

Chicago

You failed to mention court-imposed busing as one of the reasons that thousands are fleeing the cities. I now drive twice the distance to work each day, consume twice as much gasoline, and I'm twice as angry.

John M. Cinnamond

Crestwood, Ky.

Political Analyst Richard Scammon was quoted by Lance Morrow: "We have expanded the area in which civilized people can live."

To imply that television, community colleges and airports are necessary to support civilized people implies that neither Socrates nor Thomas Jefferson was civilized.

Robert J. Cosgrove

West Lafayette, Ind.

A chart shows Seattle second only to New York in living costs. That ranking is incorrect. Far from being second most expensive of the cities on the TIME chart, Seattle, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, ranks tenth.

Wes Uhlman,

Mayor

Seattle

The South Shall Rise Again

It is kind of nice that Jimmy Carter is doing well in the primaries [March 22]. It sort of indicates that the Civil War is finally over.

Robert Holdorf

Milwaukee

The stampede for the presidency by Frank, George, Jimmy, Hubert, Sargent, Ronnie, Jerry et al. reminds me of the words of Abraham Lincoln, who said that there is one sickness for which there is no cure and that is "presidential fever."

Evelyn Givant

Berkeley, Calif.

Happy Dog Days

I certainly hope that by the time I am Mrs. Ford's age I'll have had at least one day that is happier than the day my dog had puppies [March 22].

Kate Johnson

McLean, Va.

Heading for a Fall

If the world really cares to read about Lord George-Brown taking a tumble [March 22], as well as our President's occasional stumble, surely the toppling of a 27-year-old secretary from Houston will be considered newsworthy. I am tentatively scheduling a fall of my own on April 9 as I leave for work from my second-floor apartment. Please arrange for a TIME photographer to be present around 8 a.m. for coverage of this spectacular event.

Linda Burt Gill

Houston

Prove or Perish

I was interested in reading your American Notes item on Colorado's "sunset laws" [March 22].

The idea that regulatory agencies should have to justify their existence or go out of business is most commendable, but not novel. Congressman Abner J. Mikva and I have each introduced legislation to require major federal regulatory agencies to prove their worth or "selfdestruct" within seven years.

Joseph R. Biden Jr.

U.S. Senator, Delaware

Washington, D.C.

Lemmon Aid

Your lambasting of Lemmon's performance in The Entertainer [March 15] was hitting a bit below the belt. I was fortunate enough to have seen Laurence Olivier enact the role of Archie Rice, and it was an incomparably flawless portrayal. But because Olivier is an impossible act to follow, does that mean that John Osborne's play must be buried in a time capsule for several generations, awaiting another Olivier?

Fleur Tamon

San Antonio

IBM Doesn't Do It

Your article "The Big Payoff' [Feb. 23] correctly points out that IBM is among those companies that "are widely known for refusing to make payoffs."

However, elsewhere in the story, you report IBM and other U.S. corporations found their legal political contributions in Canada and Italy "embarrassing."

IBM initiated publicity last summer about IBM Canada's decision to forgo its legal practice of making political contributions (an average of $36,000 per year in the past five years). This decision to halt these contributions was made because IBM Canada concluded that it was important for IBM to have a worldwide policy on this matter.

As for Italy, IBM Italy did not, and does not, make political contributions.

IBM's policy on political contributions, payoffs, bribes, or any other questionable payments is clear: we simply don't do it.

Frank T. Gary

Chairman of the Board, IBM

Armonk, N. Y.

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