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It is a sad thing that every American taxpayer will not read your cover article on Congressman Mills and taxation [Jan. 11]. It might serve as the stick that got the ball rolling for tax cuts and complete reform. For once the public becomes aware of the great inequities of our present tax structure, and encouraged by the work of men like Wilbur Mills, it might do enough patient pushing to achieve a just distribution of contribution for everyone.
LARRY D. SHUBNELL
Muncie, Ind.
Sir:
Let's not be naive. We all know that the taxpayers must pay the obligations that the Government incurs, and that taxes cannot be cut without cutting spending. Kennedy and his colleagues are kidding the public. They are talking about "tax-cutting" while meaning "tax postponing." Any amount that is cut from the nation's tax bill in the years immediately ahead will be added to the tax bills in some future years. To the deferred amount will then be added interest for the intervening years. These are facts that cannot be escaped. Kennedy wants to take credit for "cutting taxes" and will let some other President worry about paying the bill.
D. L. DARNELL
Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Sir:
You described President Kennedy's defense of his tax program as "sophisticated rhetoric." I call it a snow job.
BRIAN CASS
Golf, Ill.
Virus Attack
Sir:
Allow me to point out an error in the virology story in the Jan. 18 issue of TIME that I hope will be corrected. I refer to the statement that National Cancer Institute scientists have reported photographic evidence that a virus they have found in the blood of leukemic animals attacks cells in the manner of a bacteriophage.
What the scientific report states is that the characteristic form of the mature particle observed is reminiscent of the structure of certain bacteriophages. It reported no findings on the method of attack on cells that could be compared to bacteriophages, however. A study is in progress to determine whether the leukemia virus acts like the virus that attacks bacteria by attaching its tail to the single-cell organism and injecting it with the disease-causing nucleic acid. An understanding of how the leukemia virus does its work in animals would help investigators devise ways of proving the theory that viruses cause human leukemia.
The scientists have found only a superficial, though important, resemblance between the virus under study and certain bacterial viruses.
JAMES F. KIELEY Information Officer
National Cancer Institute
Bethesda, Md.
The Other Side of the Brain
Sir:
The extent to which man can learn to use the other half of his brain [Jan. 11] has been impressively demonstrated in the case of one of the best pistol shots of all times, Major Karoly Takacs of Hungary, who was born righthanded. At the Olympic Games in 1936, Takacs placed among the first ten in his event. Shortly afterward, he lost his right hand in an accident, but continued shooting with the left hand, which he had never previously thus used. He won gold medals in his specialty in 1948 in London and in 1952 in Helsinki.