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Sir:
The undersigned alumni of Caltech and graduate students here in the Midwest, have suffered severe and irreparable damage as a direct result of your very nattering article about Caltech. One of us read it the day before taking a final examination in a course on Techniques of Plant Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin. The ego-inflating article strongly implied that there was little need to study for the exam. The exam was flunked. The other, after reading the article, came to a similar conclusion regarding a homework assignment in Quantum Mechanics at the U. of I. At the present writing, the assignment has not even been begun.
ALAN H. HABER
University of Wisconsin
JIM PINKERTON
University of Illinois
Return to the City
Sir:
I find your May 16 account of young William Blankenship's death extremely disheartening. Far more tragic than the boy's death is the reaction of his father . . . Mr. Blankenship isn't whipped—at least he had better not be!
McMinnville, Ore.
HELEN GARLETT
Sir:
Because his child was killed [by a teenage hoodlum] gives more reason than ever for Research Chemist William Blankenship to carry on his work to rid the street "jungles" of such criminals and the causes that contribute to their creation. The young victim is a martyr to the cause. For most every good and lasting cause, someone has had to die.
MRS. MARTHA McVAY
Topeka, Ind.
¶Parent Blankenship, who first announced that he would leave his Bronx home and move to the country, has decided to stay and renew his campaign against juvenile delinquency.—ED.
The Long, Long View
Sir:
Re the projected Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs pictured in your May 23 issue: it may seem as "modern as ... aircraft" to its architects, but students of archaeology will find it a bit oldfashioned. The general layout recalls Khorsabad, which the Assyrian Sargon dedicated in 706 B.C., and Persepolis, which Darius I founded two centuries later. There also, low, oblong buildings with enclosed courts were grouped in the shadow of an imposing terrace topped by a temple, a throne room and a palace, or, in our parlance, a chapel, an administration building and a social hall.
GWYNETH HARRINGTON
Tucson, Ariz.
¶For the long view of Anthropologist Harrington, see cut.—ED.
Freighters in the Air
Sir:
. . . The three airlines mentioned in your May 16 Time Clock item as "non-scheduled"airlines are Slick, Flying Tiger and Riddle. All three are scheduled, certificated airlines. They were certificated on the claim that there should be scheduled service devoted exclusively to freight . . . Also, the item says that the three have just won CAB permission to fly mail at 18½¢ per ton-mile v. 45¢ for scheduled lines. What the three were seeking was the right to carry 3¢ mail at 18½¢ per ton-mile, which is the rate at which 3¢ mail is currently being carried by the scheduled airlines. The 45¢ rate applies to the priority 6¢ air mail.