Letters: Sep. 14, 1970

(3 of 4)

Concerning her fight for academic freedom, I find it strange that she is unwilling to allow anyone else to exercise this right (some would probably call it a privilege). She has repeatedly stated that academic freedom is meaningless unless it promotes political and social freedom; very good. But when asked if she herself would extend this freedom to include those of the political right, or those who hold views opposed to hers, she has stated that "there is no place for the fascists or demagogues who aim at control and further enslavement." On another occasion, when she was asked to discuss or debate a point with a graduate student who was opposed to her violent tactics, she refused and said, "Why debate an issue that has only one correct side?"

These seem rather strange—or at least out of place—statements from one so involved in gaining academic freedom.

GUY-VINCENT DE PAUL

Los Angeles

Speakin' o' Art

Sir: TIME'S article on tobacco spitting [Aug. 17] appears to treat the subject as a novelty outside of Raleigh, Miss. That it is an established art is evidenced by a quotation from our beloved Hoosier poet, James Whitcomb Riley: "Speakin' o' art —I know a feller over t' Terry Haute 'at kin spit clean over a box car."

Should your article be criticized, there is also a quotation from John Steinbeck: "In art the subject upon which you concentrate is unimportant, it is only the quality of your concentration that counts."

GEORGE E. TALMAGE

Indianapolis

A Second Look

Sir: Congratulations on your excellent coverage of the Treaty of Moscow [Aug. 17]. As plans for a European security conference are being formulated, Germany is leading still another attempt to unify Europe—peacefully this time, of course, and politically and economically as well—through the expansion of the Common Market. It is clear that Europe is pulling away from American influence and intends to stand apart from both superpowers.

Perhaps this is all to the good, but we would do well to look again at the history of German-Russian peace treaties and the world-shattering events that followed them.

A.A. ARMSTRONG

Denver

Sacred Symbol

Sir: Harold Hothan "jeered and booed" when the Czech waiter flashed a Nixon-Agnew button [Aug. 24]. To that waiter, a slave in a slave state, that button was a sacred symbol of free elections, free speech, free trade, free minds and private property. It was a symbol, to him, of life worth living. When Harold jeered that button, he jeered not Nixon and Agnew but the nation and the concept of America. The waiter literally risked his life to show Harold that button, and all he did was jeer at it and at him. Harold Hothan sickens me.

WENCESLAUS ANDRUSZKIEWICZ JR.

Buffalo

Mod Martyrdom