The Catholic Issue

Sir: Your April 18 article on "The Catholic Issue" was most discouraging. You seem to fan the age-old myths of separation of church and state to the point where the problem is distorted beyond its original intent. If Kennedy is to be barred because he is a Roman Catholic, I suggest we throw out all Roman Catholics from those governmental agencies where Roman influence conflicts with Protestant ideas (i.e., Health, Education and Welfare).

As a Protestant minister, I would rather see our Government headed by a man who holds to the religion of Rome than by one who holds to the religion of expediency. Christianity is not addenda to one's life, but rather the basis of it.

( THE REV.) JOHN R. YOUNG High Bridge Reformed Church High Bridge, N.J.

Sir: One can write off the exorcistic rationalizing of a Pike or the pointed viciousness of a Blanshard, but Father Connell [who said that it is a sin to vote for a Roman Catholic just because of his faith and that it might be detrimental to the church to have a Catholic President--April 11] cannot be ignored.

The danger about which all voters might justly be concerned would be the possible election of a Catholic unsophisticated in his faith. The church holds no binding political power over its members, nor does it enjoy impeccability in this sphere. Certainly an educated Catholic is aware of the narrow scope of the Pope's infallibility and of how seldom he speaks ex cathedra. A great concern of the truly enlightened electorate ought to be the possibility of a candidate lacking in religious convictions.

Until such unfortunate time as we might cease to be a believing nation, we should have the right to expect political leaders to believe in God and in some framework surrounding this belief. This is not to deny the unbeliever his political due, but demands that he be extremely capable and honorable to merit consideration. BOB COONS Chicago Heights, Ill.

Sir:

Here is my opinion to serve as a footnote to Father Council's: anyone who votes against a Catholic candidate because he is a Catholic is also guilty of sin.

REGINALD'COFFEE, O.P. Dominican House of Studies Washington, D.C.

Trouble in South Africa

Sir:

For some time I was getting most annoyed with TIME'S reporting of events in South Africa, as I felt a tendency generally to blame all white men for the present trouble.

Then, while the whole world's press has gone mad in sensationalism after the unhappy events in Sharpeville, you come out with a sober, factual, well-written article of what really went on in this hectic week.

E. NORGAARD Cape Town

"Worthy to Suffer"

Sir: Re your March 28 story on the 20-year prison sentence handed Roman Catholic Bishop James Walsh by the Chinese Communists: it might interest your readers to know whom Bishop Walsh is showing a page of his Bible to and what the verse of Scripture reads. I know--I took that picture of the saintly Maryknoll missioner in Shanghai in 1953. The verse he is pointing to is from The Acts 5:41: "And they indeed went from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus." And to whom is the bishop showing the page of Scripture? To the grandnephew of Bishop Chu, a baby carried in the arms of his father.

(THE REV.) CHARLES L. MEEUS Auxiliary Chaplain U.S. Army Service Clubs Taegu, Korea

The Habit

Sir:

Re Reynolds' Tobaccoman Gray's "People smoke for fun and the simple pleasure of it" [April 11]: Let's be honest! How many of us smoke because we are hooked by the habit and are just too ashamed to admit we haven't got guts enough to quit!

ORMOND S. DANFORD Municipal Judge Traverse City, Mich.

Sir:

Kudos and a round of salvos for the snappy article about the growth and development of the cigarette; read good, like such an article should.

JEANNE O. POTTER Encinitas, Calif.

Sir:

My grandfather said when I took up the habit, since discarded, "Fire on one end, fool on the other."

PETER T. KENNEDY Mill Valley, Calif.

Sir:

Deadliest enemy of tobacco was Murad IV (Ottoman Sultan--1611-40), who roamed in disguise the dark streets and coffeehouses of Istanbul looking for smokers. The man he found was smoking his last pipe.

E. S. TURAN West Point, N.Y.

P: But Murad IV died, at the age of 29, of acute gout--brought on by excessive drinking.--ED.

Sir:

Not so hard to give up smoking: eat an apple each time you desire to smoke. You won't grow fat, you won't have that awful smell around you, and you would add precious foodstuffs to your daily diet.

GERHARD BUNEMANN Hannover, Germany

Sir:

Smoking is nothing but the introduction of a poisonous foreign substance into the bloodstream, and the lift one gets is the satisfaction of the body in its operation to get rid of the poison. There are other means of accelerating the bodily functions without taking poison. Falling in love is one.

PAUL C. BRUHL Detroit

Sir:

In a civilized society it seems to me that the real odium in smoking lies in the infringement of the rights and feelings of nonsmokers.

Because of nonsmokers' strange sense of courtesy and hospitality, even educated smokers seem never to realize the maneuvering nonsmokers must do to minimize their nausea--the rush to empty ashtrays, open doors and windows, air their clothing, after exposure to what to them is considerably worse than esthetically repulsive.

JOHN H. BLACK Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Sir:

It would be interesting to know whether Peyton Gray, aged 9, has emulated his father. Bowman Gray, R. J. Reynolds' board chairman, in starting to smoke also at the age of nine.

RICHARD C. CALLAHAN San Francisco

P: Not to his father's knowledge.--ED.

Tennessee's Inferno

Sir:

Regarding your April 11 article on Tennessee Williams, long may Tennessee's disastrous influence reign, and long may his virile brain continue to create mightily and prosperously.

Who knows, he may turn the more whole-minded of us to realizing that the "child is father of the man," and inspire us to acquaint ourselves with Freud's voluminous works to perhaps correct our "innocent bungling" so that we may not forever keep breeding disaster on the human race.

Perhaps if more people were acquainted with Freud (as Tennessee so obviously is), we could smell out Hitlers and other such types before they got started. At least we might acquire the depth not to create similar monstrosities or varying degrees of such from our own cradles.

ELIZABETH EVANS Euclid, Ohio

Sir:

Granted, Tennessee Williams' plays are objectionable and shocking to those critics who have forgotten their college literature. I suggest they reread Dante's Inferno or Voltaire's Candide. Anyone familiar with these masterpieces could hardly be shocked by anything as mild as Suddenly, Last Summer.

DEAN MILLER Boulder, Colo.

Bonzer Blokes

Sir:

Congratulations for your courage in printing your April 4 cover, a picture that has caused much controversy in Australia.

I also appreciate the bonzer (good) reporting and especially the whacko (enjoyable) picture of Chloe; I must say your TIME men must be real bonzer blokes.

G. GOWER GOST Richmond, Victoria

Non-Paartisan

SIR:

COME ON, FELLOWS, YOU'VE MADE IT APPEAR THAT I SIGNED AND CONTRIBUTED TO AN ADVERTISEMENT IN THE NEW YORK "TIMES" ON BEHALF OF FIDEL CASTRO. YOU KNOW I DID NEITHER. I NEVER SIGN ANYTHING BUT DEPOSIT SLIPS, AND AS FOR JOINING A GROUP--I EVEN RESIGNED FROM THE AQUA VELVA AFTER-SHAVE CLUB BECAUSE OF THE DISCIPLINE.

JACK PAAR NEW YORK CITY

P: TIME'S story didn't make it appear that Paar signed the advertisement; it just said that he went to Cuba and praised Castro.--ED.

To Have or Have Not

Sir:

Your report on pregnancy control, and especially the boxed-in column on contraception, in the April 11 TIME issue shows how far Americans have come in considering the problem of birth control and family planning.

When I first heard Margaret Sanger in Portland, Ore. in 1925, she was arrested after her lecture on the great human need for birth control. Americans have moved far in half a century.

MRS. G. J. WATUMULL Honolulu

Sir:

I am a physician, specifically a urologist, and don't qualify as a "prude." Nonetheless, your rundown on contraceptive techniques was to my mind unnecessary and showed very poor editorial judgment.

WILLIAM W. HOFFMAN, M.D. Dallas

Sir:

I have always considered myself an open-minded person, but I find it most difficult to accept the article on contraception. Did you stop to consider that TIME goes into practically every high school in America? Will the millions of parents appreciate TIME'S spelling out for their children all the methods used to prevent conception?

ROBERT S. HICKS The American Institute of Family Relations Los Angeles

Sir:

Your article will produce a lot of criticism. But it is better to know than to ignore.

ANTONIO RIGAU San Juan, P.R.

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