Here Come the Compacts
Sir:
Thank heaven the small cars are coming back again. In 1949 we finally got our first new car—a Plymouth club coupé. Now, ten years and three children later, we still have the same wonderful little car. We figure that if we hang on to the old '49er a while longer, it will be right back in style again. Hurray for the compact car with the nice price, power-nothing, and the good old stick shift.
MRS. ALICE KRAUKLIS Calumet City, Ill.
Sir:
You write that close to 1970 about 10 million cars per year will be sold. That can only mean that by then our roads will be so choked up that you can walk faster than a car can move.
Pedestrians, frightened chickens of America, the greatest time in your life is coming!
RICHARD A. RESTLE Toronto
Sir:
Your breathless account of all the high-level maneuvering at mighty G.M. to bring forth the Corvair mouse reads like a novel, but it's a lot of amiable nonsense. In this age of space miracles, why give so much importance to so small an accomplishment as moving a motor to the rear end? The day to celebrate a great achievement would be when G.M. designs a really safe car.
R. P. GHELARDI
Brooklyn
Sir:
If TIME'S threat of two cars in every garage comes true, we'll also need two hospitals in every block.
PHIL CLARK Boston
Sir:
The announcement of compact cars from Detroit reminds me of the story of the circus that advertised having "the biggest midget in the world."
JACK JANSEN
Anaheim, Calif.
"Disgraceful Episode"
Sir:
I consider that the press and photographic coverage of the Khrushchev visit [Oct. 5] was a disgraceful episode. This incident, probably because of its international importance, merely highlighted a behavior on the part of reporters and press photographers which seems to be increasing in absurdity in the last few years. I firmly believe in a free press, but I also believe that it is one duty of a free press to discipline itself. The use of "any trick of brain or brawn," to the point of rowdiness, is not to the credit of the press. T. S. CARSWELL Chestertown, Md.
Sir:
A salute to your staff for its delightful coverage of press capriciousness during Mr. K.'s visit. Good Lord, this is the profession I'm striving to enter !
JOHN MITCHELL
Twentynine Palms, Calif.
Righting a Wrong
Sir:
Space Scientist Wernher von Braun [Sept. 21], always more adept at obtaining newspaper space than in penetrating outer space, is also weak in the history of his adopted country. "My country, right or wrong" is no "old English saying" but a slight misquote of a toast by Stephen Decatur.*The English view was best expressed by G. K. Chesterton: " 'My country, right or wrong' ... is like saying My mother, drunk or sober.' "
OSCAR MILLARD Pacific Palisades, Calif.
DAMP v. RUMP Sir: We were most interested in Senator Keating's accurate evaluation of the Democratic Astronautical Missile Program (DAMP) [Oct. 5]. However, he has failed to consider the obvious faults of the Republican United Missile Program (RUMP).