Call to Action

Sir: Since when does overt action like boarding and capturing a U.S. Navy ship in international waters [Feb. 2] constitute not less than an act of war and demand not less than immediate retaliation? Our enemies probe our military might knowing full well that the only retaliation forthcoming will be a stern reprimand.

JAMES R. MINKEL JR.

First Lieutenant, U.S.A.

A.P.O., San Francisco

Sir: Our grandfathers "remembered the Maine" and ended an oppressive, archaic colonial empire. Apparently we're going to "negotiate about the Pueblo" and accomplish nothing, except little inconveniences like prison camps and death for 83 Americans who were serving for the rest of us.

O. H. WRIGHT

Bartow, Fla.

Sir: My predictions for the rest of the year: Fidel Castro takes Key West in a sudden action because it lies within Cuba's territorial waters and is a menace to its fishing interests. Senator Fulbright demands we evacuate Miami to avoid possible friction with Castro's forces in Key West. The Archbishop of Cyprus, with the aid of two armed sailboats, impounds an American heavy cruiser. Senator Mansfield recommends that the ship be exchanged for the crew and that $100 million be given for the bishop's inconveniences. The government of Andorra arrests 100 tourists for not genuflecting while passing in front of a church. Senator Kennedy considers the charges just and demands that reparations be made immediately. Albania jails the touring New York Philharmonic Orchestra for playing the Fifth Symphony because the first few notes were offensive to China's efforts in Indonesia. Senator Morse agrees and suggests that the notes never be again played.

R. G. RIVERA BENGOA

Tampa, Fla.

Sir: Can I assume that TIME either knows something nobody else knows, or else has been given advance word on the imminent demotion of Pueblo Skipper Bucher back to ensign? Otherwise, how do you explain the conspicuous absence of "scrambled eggs" on Commander Bucher's hat on the cover?

JAMES L. ABERNATHY

Manhattan

Sir: And something else: the eagle, shield and fouled anchors on Commander Bucher's hat appear to be all gold or brass color. Actually, the eagle and shield are always silver, while the fouled anchors are always gold or brass color.

JAMES B. PETTY

Lieutenant Commander. U.S.N.R. (ret.)

Gastonia, N.C.

>The press of deadlines led TIME to scramble its eggs and foul its anchors. Artist Boris Chaliapin painted the portrait in little more than nine hours, using as his primary guide a 1963 black-and-white photo of Bucher as a lieutenant commander--without gilt on his cap visor.

Fender Benders

Sir: Your Essay was a splendid contribution toward a solution of the problem of compensating automobile-accident victims [Jan. 26]. Only lawyers with a vested interest in automobile-accident litigation fail to discard the "central myth" that auto accidents can be avoided and that recovery must be founded on fault. The lethal nature of motor vehicles and the sheer weight of their numbers render accidents inevitable, divesting them of purely private concern--the subject of litigation predicated on negligence.

But the Keeton-O'Connell Plan offers no true solution. It is a sheer palliative intended to satisfy everyone. It offers to the advocate of liability without fault direct insurance payments for economic loss up to $10,000, regardless of negligence. However, it retains traditional litigation based on fault for economic loss in excess of $10,000 and for pain and suffering claims above $5,000. Obviously, it will encourage claimants to increase their demands to an amount which will bring them into court--and there they will still be faced with the present outmoded concepts and procedures--and interminable delay. Compensation plans similar to workman's compensation acts are the right prescription. Whether on state or national level, provision for full participation by private industry is indispensable.

SAMUEL H. HOFSTADTER

Justice

Supreme Court of the State of New York

Manhattan

Sir: There is only one permanent solution to the entire problem. The insurance industry should be permitted to regulate the reproductive processes of the country with a program of controlled breeding that would eventually produce a select group of drivers and claimants who are basically honest, responsible, and who have respect for the rights of others. With a mass of people who could retain their common sense, manners and self-respect while driving, we would encounter little difficulty in settling claims under the current fault system.

Until we develop a hybrid population like this, the fault system isn't going to work too well; but neither will any other method that has as yet been proposed.

HERBERT J. PREVE

Buffalo

Sir: TIME has laid the auto insurance mess on the line. I can only add that some of us in the Congress, having substantially succeeded in initiating congressional study and widespread public awareness and attention, now strongly feel that it is time to get on with the cure--and the sooner the better for those 103 million customers.

PETER W. RODINO JR.

Congressman

10th District, New Jersey

Washington, D.C.

Sir: Isn't it time we stencil automobiles and trucks with "Caution: Driving or riding may be hazardous to your health"? Not even smoking can injure 4,000,000, disable 1,900,000, and kill 53,000 in one year.

DAVID A. DEPREY

Luxemburg, Wis.

Working Over the Railroad

Sir: Your splendid summary of the 21st century railroad [Jan. 26] glossed over the incompetence and inadequate management of railroad passenger service. If Messrs. Saunders and Perlman would show the same attention to improving the lot of passengers as they obviously have shown to freight, America would enjoy a third service (to air and highway).

The filth, surly attitude of so many passenger-train employees (from ticket agents to dining-car waiters), the nonfunctioning of schedules, and the unwillingness of management to work with local and state communities to improve this mess, suggest that the railroads should be forced to sell their passenger service to market-oriented entrepreneurs, or begin to show that they can provide this needed utility. I hope that there will be new efforts and renewed vigor in tackling the problems of America's third great passenger system.

JOHN L. KOMIVES

Kalamazoo, Mich.

Sir: I read with interest the self-serving letters by executives of the New York Central and Penn Railroads [Feb. 2].

As a half-frozen, harried commuter, on the Hudson Division of the New York Central, let me say that I do not believe my train was on time more than once or twice between the first of December and the middle of January. I wish that the executives of both railroads would join hands with me and freeze their knees on the shores of the Tappan Zee (there isn't room in the station) for an hour or so after train time on a frosty morning.

I would rather that they would hope for some improvement than boast of "the greatest railroad the world has ever seen."

THEODORE N. HUNSBEDT

Briarcliff, N.Y.

The Uninvited

Sir: TIME erred in listing me as a delegate to the international cultural congress in Havana [Jan. 19]. I was in Cuba as a journalist on assignment from Harper's magazine.

JULES FEIFFER

Manhattan

Easy Did It

Sir: TIME states that Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis race "at the then astonishing average of 74.6 m.p.h. [Jan. 26]." The really astonishing thing about Harroun's run was not his speed but that he came within .4 of the pace he'd selected before the 500-mile race began.

Harroun was probably the most careful, cautious and calculating man who ever won at Indianapolis. He ran on the principle that guides most race drivers who wish to live to be 89, as he did, and that is to drive as slowly as is consistent with a good chance to win. Harroun, who was an engineer, figured that the tires then in use would not last any useful length of time at speeds over an average 75 m.p.h. In the race, the chargers all went by him, running in the 80s. (The lap record for the track, set the day before the race, was 102.) Harroun let them go and was soon rewarded by seeing rubber all over the place. Toward the end he ran for a long time second to a car averaging 78. He passed it in the pits, changing tires, and held first place the rest of the way.

KEN W. PURDY

Wilton, Conn.

Prizes in the Net

Sir: I wish to applaud your article on programming for children on television [Jan. 26]. I was disappointed, however, that you have not recognized the large contribution of National Educational Television to the interests of children throughout the country. Each week we have two five-day-a-week programs produced and distributed by the National Educational Television network, What's New, which is produced by several affiliates (the non-commercial television stations themselves) and a new series, Misterogers Neighborhood, produced by the public-television station WQED in Pittsburgh. They are the two very best programs available for children in the U.S. today.

EDWARD L. MORRIS

Director of Programming Chicago Educational Television Assoc.

Chicago

Sir: I think that the statement, "Any time spent beyond 25 hours of weekly viewing is regarded as a sign of emotional disturbance," to be a gross misinterpretation of research on TV viewing. I have seen no evidence to support this argument; in fact, the data seem to show that many highly intelligent and creative individuals, both children and adults, watch TV to degrees that the TIME article would find "excessive." Excessive anything--smoking, drinking, pogo-stick jumping--can be indicative of personal problems. Excessive TV viewing may also be indicative of great interest, and serves as the greatest educator since the invention of the Latin grammar school.

RICHARD E. SPENCER

University of Illinois

Champaign

Sapiens Is Right

Sir: What has happened to the vaunted objectivity of scientists like Desmond Morris? According to your review, his book purporting to explain the development of man from apes [Jan. 26] raises two or more questions for each one it claims to answer.

How did it happen that the ape who eventually developed the superintelligence was the one who in the beginning didn't have the sense to stay in the forests where he had adequate food and protection? If the ape-man became hairless so he could outrun his prey, why didn't the animals who outran the ape-man to escape him become hairless in the same process? Why should the ape-man evolve into a two-legged animal as a result of trying to run faster while the fleetest members of the animal kingdom remained quadrupeds? The answer is found in the fact that evolution is an absolute monarch to men like this author.

It seems that two of the qualifications for an evolutionary scientist are a credulity as vast as the millions of years required for the process and a monumental ability to keep a straight face while propounding the theory.

(THE REV.) CLIFFORD A. HOIEN

Mercer, Pa.

Sir: Please permit this particular naked ape to observe that 80% of women hold an infant in their left arm to leave the right hand free to minister to him. The 20% who hold the baby the other way around are lefthanded.

MRS. B. L. BLANKENSHIP

Bedford, Texas

Re Joyce

Sir: Your devastating review of Giacomo Joyce [Jan. 19] recalls my own "quarrel" with this document a few months ago, after a one-page facsimile from it, with a dramatic account of its discovery, appeared on the front page of the New York Times. I read the article and telephoned the writer to tell him that in my opinion the script was definitely not that of James Joyce. I have handled scores of letters and manuscripts by Joyce, but not a single one looked anything like the facsimile reproduced in the New York Times.

I believe it was written by Joyce's brother. Or possibly Joyce dictated it to his brother. This would explain the difference in the handwriting.

I asked five of America's leading autograph experts, all experienced dealers, to examine the facsimile, and they unanimously agreed that the handwriting was not that of James Joyce. Imagine! At the very time when Joyce allegedly set down these puerile meanderings, he was already at work on Ulysses.

CHARLES HAMILTON

Charles Hamilton Autographs, Inc.

Manhattan

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