Dear Editor

...we invite factual contributions and thoughtful comments from students, graduates, faci1ities, and administrations of two-year colleges, and from concerned members of the academic and professional communities m general We are especially interested in matters of college governance, academic freedom, curriculum planning ratio of liberal arts to vocational courses academic standards, criteria for faculty hiring transferability of credits adequacy of vocational preparation for working life, adaptation of transfer students to four-year environment, adult education, and community involvement Acknowledgment of contributions will depend entirely on the contributor's wish Discretion is assured and all requests for anonymity will be honored Material that is to be returned should be so marked Please send contributions to Sehgmann & Collier, 280 Madison Avenue, New York City New York 10016 New York City James Slligmann...

...Madison, Wis Carla Mansheim None whatsoever Hunt's tomato products are manufactured by the Hunt-Wesson subsidiary of Norton Simon Inc, a conglomerate that also owns McCall's, Redbook and the Saturday Review, and Canada Dry beverages The tomato products were originally developed by the Hunt Brothers Packing Co of San Francisco in the 1890s The brothers were in no way related to the billionaire H L Hunt, Texas oil magnate, radio station owner and pursuer of conservative causes After the brothers died, their company became Hunt's Food Industries, keeping that name until its acquisition by Norton Simon Simon, incidentally, retired from the board of directors of his holding company a Little over a year ago to try his hand in politics He was an unsuccessful senatorial candidate against Senator George Murphy in last fall's California Republican primary-Ed Women's Lib I thought it a fortuitous coincidence that the December 14 issue of The New Leader arrived on the same day my local paper, the Salt Lake Tribune, chose to print Mike Royko's column entitled "Women's Lib Movement in Dog's World" I have read other articles by Pearl K Bell with interest, but I believe that her "Valley of the Stone Dolls" completely misses the basic reasons for "the new feminism," or whatever she derogatorily calls it She is in fact blind to the intent and concerns of those who—in attempting to define explain or simply demonstrate the condition of women--have opened themselves up to the flimflammery of female writers like herself It seems to me that Mike Royko's lightly satirical article shows a much greater understanding of the bases for the Women's Lib movement, while also pointing up the almost insurmountable difficulties in removing the issue from the realm of nonreality Royko talks about the discriminatory dog license fee $2 00 for males and $2 00 for spayed females, but $3 00 for "functioning" females The reasoning behind such fees appeals to be that it is the bitch's fault that she is stuck with the evidence of intercourse (although it is obvious to most people that to have arrived at this condition she must have been aided and abetted by a $2 00 male) And as Royko ably goes on to state the possibilities for the ' lascivious male to increase the canine population are virtually limitless (he estimates that by one coupling per day a male could account for 1 750 dogs a year), the average functioning' female can only have two litters (about 10 pups) each year Clearly these fee policies are illogical Similar discriminatory notions prevail in our society where men and women are concerned Regulatly the man absolves himself from responsibility by blaming the woman for many things m which he is clearly an accomplice Women do not become prostitutes bitches harlots whores strumpets wenches, drabs slatterns, or sluts without the active assistance of men Yet like female dogs they arc stigmatized and stuck with the product of a man s virility to boot This, by the way, is acceptable male behavior Why7 And why doesn't Las Vegas have a male 'nudie ' line, or 'playboy" Hefner display male sexiness9 It the human body is truly beautiful, why isn't the male body displayed, too...

...It is most unfortunate that a woman of such evident intelligence as Pearl Bell could join with the men who continue to exploit a segment of humanity and view Women's Lib as evidence of the female's characteristic frivolousness and empty-headedness Mrs Bell is obviously deep enough a thinker to realize that it is impossible to discuss problems seriously so long as everyone is laughing She facetiously assumes that Women's Lib seeks one-to-one equality with men, she even states that she recognizes women are different from men I would add that each man is also different from each other man and that all human beings, male or female, are unique individuals I am not a Women s Lib activist but a little old lady high-school teacher who views with great alarm the open male/female discrimination in out public institutions They indoctrinate the girl to expect a future of breeding, of serving the young and servicing the male The boys meanwhile, are encouraged to lead a full life--not just children and a wife, but personal development and achievement All human beings need this' Salt Lake City, Utah Louise Hess Bell and Oates Congratulations to Pearl K Bell for pointing out the deficiencies of a diet of too much Oates ("A Time for Silence,' NL, November 16} I've long been bewildered by the economics (it must be this) which provides Miss Oates a national reputation and keeps m relative obscurity such superior talents as James Mernll Andre Dubos and Evan S, Connell Jr I'm pleased to learn that (at least) Mrs Bell refuses to enter the barn with those who overpraise the technically cute, easy safe and essentially melodramatic talents of out (sigh) National Book Award winner Eugene, Ose Charles Deemer Department of English University of Oregon Partisan Contamination I recently entered a trial subscription to The New Leader as a matter of curiosity, and in order to determine what viewpoint you represent The "Between Issues" column in the November 16, 1970 issue suggests that your political philosophy is rather parochial in character You expressed well what can only be described properly as abstract truth but unfortunately contaminated it at the conclusion with a rather trite partisan reference 'Such a [campaign] system might actually persuade a Spiro Agnew to abandon the gutter--although admittedly that is asking an awful lot I recognize that this represents your view of life in the political world But it is a shame to see basically irrelevant comments which will inevitably spark controversy when you have succeeded in stating your general case in a manner that would undoubtedly elicit support from thinking people regardless of then place in the political spectrum Wynnewood, Pa David L Pennington Request For a client s projected book tentatively entitled The Community College Boon on Bunk...

...The act itself is just the type of complicated piece of rigamarole that would appeal to a mind like Newfield's Perhaps I'm investing both the book and the review with more attention than either deserve It has always been my contention that sound criticism can only proceed from sound analysis And Moss' review strikes me as a prime example of miss-analysis But he is m good company and perhaps I have been unjust m singling him out Tampa, Fla Robert C O'Hara Hunting As one of the "Northern liberals" chided by David S Ghck for missing the target when they "boycott Hunt's tomato products," ("Charles- Evers and the Future of Fayette,' NL, November 16), I would like more information on this matter Is the tomato Hunt really no relation to "Right-wing curmudgeon H L Hunt...

...Dear Editor Glazer and Goodman Possibly a discoverer's commendable modesty prevented Nathan Glazer from noting in his powerful review of The Greening of America ("The Peanut Butter Statement," NL, December 14) the eerie resemblance between Charles Reich's three consciousnesses and the Riesman-Glazer-Denney classifications of The Lonely Crowd Consciousness I parallels inner-direction Consciousness II resembles other-direction, and Consciousness III approximates the Nirvana of autonomy As Myrdal once remarked of Keynes, Reich may be guilty of some unnecessary originality New York City Robert Lekachman It is time someone printed something like Walter Goodman's article ("The Thickening Plot") in your issue for December 14 I must also congratulate you on the marvelous operation performed by Professor Glazer on The Greening of America in the same issue What a job he has done Purchase, N Y Alfred A Knopf Paranoiac Rigamarole The review by Robert Moss of Gerald Goldberg's The Lynching of Orin Newfield ('Man Bites Cow," NL, November 30) reveals more about the former's literary concentration than it does the latter's The source, Mr Moss, is not Swift--save as the good Dear finds his way into the outlook of Faulkner Pick up a copy of The Sound and the Fury sometime and look at Quentin's and Jason's sections A closer attention to the fact that we get the story from the narrator's viewpoint also accounts for the one-dimensional quality of the characters, which Moss finds so lamentable (Though I might be inclined to dispute this point with him ) Further, the man (New-field, not Moss) is a paranoid and these types are just not prone to viewing dimensions other than those on the surface Moss also accuses Goldberg of investing his central character with an inexplicable amount of erudition Note, Mr Moss, that the character has read the one volume of the encyclopedia his wife bought and that most of the references fall directly under the rubric of that volume Might it not also be possible that he picked up some of the remainder from this same source1* Finally, Moss takes seriously the fact that Newfield's suicide will bring down the law on the town There is a literary device called irony Might not Goldberg be using it here...