No Freedom from Religion
Sir:
When Richard Nixon said that religion could be a legitimate issue in the campaign if one of the presidential candidates "had no religious belief," it evidently slipped his mind that the Constitution of the U.S. nowhere disqualifies an atheist or an agnostic from holding office.
CHALMERS S. MURRAY Edisto Island, S.C.
Sir:
It seems that we have freedom of religion in the U.S. but not freedom from religion. CARMEN C. CALESCIBETTA Syracuse
Sir:
The current rhubarb over religion relative to the presidency reminds one that most of the discord and turmoil and inhumanity among humans originates with religious people. On the average, the skeptical and the pious seem equally to have failed to emerge from their primitive caves; as to human qualities, there seems to be but little choice between them.
FRED N. KERWIN Grand Rapids
Sir: The more I read of Americans, the more I am convinced that George Bernard Shaw was right, when he said: "The Americans are the only nation to leap from barbarism to decadence without becoming civilized." Today the great Statue of Liberty is just a mockery because you are undoubtedly the most bigoted, narrow-minded and sadistic race in the world, both in your intolerant and unjust attitude toward the colored race in your midst, and your intolerance toward any religion except the one you think is right--self-worship.
AILEEN CONNOLLY
Dublin
"Unpack"
Sir:
Thank goodness for your April 18 article, "The Defeat of the Happy Warrior." It's about time someone dispelled the popular belief that Governor Smith's Roman Catholicism alone caused his defeat. I agree wholeheartedly that no Democrat, Franklin D. Roosevelt included, could have won over Hoover. The Republican Party at the time was riding the crest of the prosperity wave which would have swamped any opposition.
RALPH WATERS Floral Park, N.Y.
Sir:
When Alfred E. Smith acknowledged his defeat for the presidency in 1928, he immediately, so the story goes, cracked that he would send the Pope a cable: "Unpack." MRS. RICHARD MANAHAN
Rochester, Minn.
P:Says Emily Smith Warner, daughter of Al Smith, who campaigned with him in '28: "I know that when I used to ask him whether certain quotes were correctly attributed to him, he'd say, 'How was it received?' I'd say, 'Oh, wonderfully.' He'd say, 'Then I said it.' " Whether he said this one or not, he probably would have claimed it.--ED.
Grading in Alaska
Sir:
The May 2 article "Upgrading in Alaska" presents a very inaccurate picture of the University of Alaska and does us a great disservice. I am sorry that your writer sacrificed factual information for sensational statements.
ERNEST N. PATTY President
University of Alaska College, Alaska
Sir:
President Patty may feel that beards, Levi's and mukluks are out of place here, but here are a few of the unquashed beard wearers on campus. Civilization, with its group conformity, has not taken over this campus yet, and we are neither shaving nor going to Point Barrow.
EUGENE M. WESCOTT University of Alaska College, Alaska
Sir:
Besides watching Maverick, the boys spend the long 30-below-zero nights dreaming up tall tales to intrigue the tourists, come summer. Choice tales of yesteryear, apparently now out of circulation, related how much we relished ice worms for breakfast, how we mined gold with aureal (aurora borealis) energy, and how our engineering students built the Klon Dike.
One of my own stories, vintage of '35: here we use "Eskimo p," numerical value 3,0000, somewhat smaller than elsewhere because of cold-weather contraction.
WILLIAM R. CASHEN (class of '37) Professor of Mathematics University of Alaska College, Alaska
The Execution
Sir: It is certainly an incredible sign of the times when such value is placed on the life of one such person as Chessman. The hue and cry that has blasted up over the fate of one who is little more than a mad dog, by nations all over the world whose all too recent pasts produced no protest over the torture and imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of innocents--leaves one pretty disgusted at the state of affairs. Has sensationalism so completely taken over in the world that we have so quickly forgotten the hateful, drawn-out agonies of the Jews in Europe or the blacks in Africa and can get so excited over one despicable criminal?
ELISE SWARTZ Albany, N.Y.
Sir:
Nothing since the end of World War II has smeared the U.S.'s name more than Chessman's twelve-year-delayed execution. V. E. RAGONESI Valletta, Malta
The Full Nelson
Sir:
Re your May 2 story on Mary Todhunter Clark Rockefeller's success in getting a contribution for Wellesley's fund-raising campaign from husband Governor Nelson Rockefeller: we are an illustrious, independent school educating kids aged 4-17, one-third on scholarship, all colors and creeds. We are busily engaged in raising $2,000,000 for a desperately needed new school. We love Tod, and submit our bid:
Dear Tod, we like your savoir-faire Direct and deft and debonair. No pitch, no plaques, no benefits, No Ladies' Aid, no worker kits. Half-Nelson tactics aren't your dish You twist your ring and state your wish. The genie hears: Voila, a champ. The oil doth pour from Nelson's lamp!
And so, dear Tod, we ask you please To join the ranks of our trustees, So you can use the wifely bite Which leads to Nelson's Kindly Light. E. M. RAY
Francis W. Parker School
Chicago
Fee Vee
Sir:
The article in the issue of April 25 concerning pay television has finally evoked from me a comment. There is no such animal as "free" television. The differences of opinion will be resolved if Americans are asked to choose not between "free" and "pay-as-you-watch" television, but between sponsors paying and the public paying directly.
H. JACKSON DORNEY Miami
A Question of Stature
Sir:
Your Press editor refers to Harry F. Reutlinger of the Chicago American as a ''middle-sized (5 ft. 6 in.) man," while your Music editor says that Pianist Shura Cherkassky is "short (5 ft. 6 in.)."
How come this conflict of definition? Is the Press editor a middle-sized, 5-ft. 6-in. man? Or is the Music editor a six-footer who looks down on short, 5-ft. 6-in. people?
BETTY RADMACHER Linn, Mo.
P:TIME'S 5-ft. 8-in. Senior Editor for Music feels that 5 ft. 6 in. is short; TIME'S 6-ft. 4-in. Senior Editor for Press, whose wife is 5 ft., feels that 5 ft.
6 in. is ''middle-sized."--ED.
SIR:
REUTLING'S CHALLENGING NEW POST AS MANAGING EDITOR (SUNDAY) IS NO PASTURE, BUT WILL DEMAND SAME ENERGY AND VERVE THAT HAVE LONG MADE HIM A TOP NEWSMAN.
E. P. DOYLE EXECUTIVE EDITOR CHICAGO AMERICAN CHICAGO
Ladies & Palettes
Sir:
Your May 2 article on and pictures of Artists Frankenthaler, Hartigan and Mitchell are the straws that finally cracked my aching back. No one would pay money to hear a the simplest techniques of pictorial representation be given so much attention (
FRANK KASTNER Philadelphia Advice & Consent
SiAdam Clavton Powell couldn't have ^ described himself more aptly than as an irritant" IMav 2]. He has succeeded in ir-ritatL many people, including mysetf, into ?toSSStKiP<
As regards the item concerning me : 1) Never been called "Big Daddy by anyone. 2)Government did not prosecute "haphazardly "they tried viciously but had no case. 3) I never said, quote, "I am not a Negro " 4) My mother, Mattie Schaefer never attempted in the famous Philadelphia Schufer suit to prove her relationship to Colonel Schaefer. , 5) I never bought "expensive" clothes No suit cost more than $75, and most ot them are restyled double-breasted, vintage 1945-1950 6) I do not "tack on the Powell Amendment at every opportunity," see the Congressional Record. .
7) Wow!-- "the most unpopular man Congress."
8) No ''"small-bore eyes" in the drama of desegregation. The quote used was only in connection with lawmaking.
9) The "capacity to become a worthy leader"-am always ready to listen to advice.
Many thanks for everything.
ADAM C. POWELL
Bayamon, P.R.
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