LETTERS

Luanda Stout



After reading Jim Atkinson’s article (“Murder in the Family,” July) I was almost moved to sympathize with Lucin-da Stout. After all, how could she have gotten a fair opportunity for defense with: a District Attorney dedicated to “bringing the hammer down on juveniles,” “Henry Wade’s hanging judges,” and “the sloppiness of police procedure” (just a few of Mr. Atkinson’s extenuating circumstances)?

The author’s journalistic intent may have been to raise the question of justice; actually, he succeeds in presenting justification for his opinion of the case and its outcome.

Nancy Voith

Richardson



Mr. Atkinson responds: Henry Wade would be the first to admit that he has initiated a program to “bring the hammer down on juveniles.” In the past nine months, 24 juveniles have been certified and tried under Wade’s “career criminal” program, a policy the DA says is the only way to stop “a rash of violent crime committed by kids.” That Dallas has “hanging judges” is a fact supported by local judicial history dating back to the 19th century. The conviction rate and sentencing averages here have been amply documented as among the top three in the nation. The “sloppiness of police procedure” in securing the confession of Lucinda Stout was as much as admitted to by one of the arresting officers in the case. He testified that although department policy and state law required that Ms. Stout be taken to a juvenile center before making a statement, she was questioned by police in a patrol car for more than an hour at the scene of the crime.

Finally, you are correct that part of my intent was to raise the question of justice. I do not know whether Lucinda Stout committed the crime she was convicted of. I do know that a community that sends a 16-year-old to an adult prison for 99 years ought to realize the implications of what it’s done.



The Austin Power Game



Having had the dubious honor of addressing the Dallas delegation in Austin this April on the subject of teacher pay raises, I was most interested to read your article (“Winners and Losers in the Austin Power Game,” June). I felt my association and I had made our point rather well, but we were met with Rep. Gaston’s ramblings about why we didn’t overhaul the Dallas bilingual program and fire excess administrators before we asked for an inflation-based raise. To add fuel to the fire, Clay Smothers said he didn’t see what all the fuss was about, since all teacher organizations ever interviewed him about was the ERA. Our presentation fell on deaf ears.

Now I know better. Next time I’ll put my money where my mouth is.

Marjorie Wall

Dallas County Educators’

Political Council

Dallas



I would have sniggered with glee at your description of Texas’ legislative process, if it hadn’t been so true. In March a group of residents from south Tarrant County appeared before a legislative com-mittee in Austin. We were soliciting the right to vote on annexation, as is granted county residents living adjacent to smaller cities. Although committee members and even opponents of our bill agreed we were being denied due process of the law, the committee didn’t have the guts to vote against the Texas Municipal League. The TML, a tax funded organization, is the most powerful lobby in Austin.

Patsy Ruth Wilson

Burleson



You are certainly entitled to print your own liberal opinions. But on the facts, you sure give a bum steer – you’re all wrong on the Abe Lincoln affair.

Senator Betty Andujar

Fort Worth



Mr. Stileler responds: The Senator assigns ideological labels as casually as she performs her Senate duties. The facts in my story are correct.



Mitch Wilder

The Mitch Wilder Retrospective in your June issue will be appreciated by anyone who knew him. Your article was accurate, informative, and charming, and that’s a rare combination.

When my wife and I moved here nine years ago, Mitch and Sally Wilder quickly became our good friends. The first time we went to the Carter Museum, I saw a wonderful, large Stuart Davis hanging in the gallery. “Hey,” I said, “how can you possibly rationalize a picture like that in a museum of western art? Want to get rid of it?”

Mitch gave me a very long flinty smile and replied something like, “in a pig’s posterior.” After that, we got along just fine.

Lewis F. Kornfeld Jr.

President, Radio Shack

Fort Worth



Reading Matters



As one of the Adult Basic Education teachers who talked to Ms. Cunningham (“The Closed World of Adults Who Can’t Read,” June), I was surprised at her startling conclusion that “the ABE program just isn’t designed to help illiterates.”

It is true that our students do not operate under any regimen, since our program provides individualized instruction. If a student does not seem to be learning with one type of approach, we try to emphasize others. It is also true that we do not emphasize a structured program of testing. I don’t give nearly so much credence to “official” evidence as I do to my own eyes and ears. By working closely with my students day in and day out, I know exactly how much progress they’ve made since they started in my class.

I did not present Ms. Cunningham with glittering success stories of students who came to me as non-readers and emerged a year later as college material. If our program must produce such miraculous resuits to be considered successful, then, indeed, we probably are not successful.But, in my reading class, students whocould barely read their names are nowreading second- and third-grade levelbooks; students who could never tell timebefore can now read it to the minute; students who never knew how to fill in jobapplications are learning to fill them incorrectly. Holly Hunter

Reading Instructor,

Pearl C. Anderson Middle School

Dallas



Fair Play

We were extremely disappointed that Charles Matthews’ article on the museums at Fair Park (“Exhibition Games,” July) made no mention of the museum program carried on by the Dallas Historical Society at the Hall of State.

Since February 1978, twelve major exhibitions have been mounted in our galleries, including the present sampling from our permanent collection, “Homemade and Storebought.” During the next few months we will be bringing to Dallas the Library of Congress’ magnificent exhibit on American mapmaking, “Taking the Measure of the Land,” and the Witte Museum’s superlative collection of Texas folk art, as well as continuing to develop exhibits from our own collections. A recent grant from the Texas Commission for the Humanities will enable us to develop a gallery devoted to the cowboy and his equipment.

If Mr. Matthews had taken the time to tour all the museums, he might have been more optimistic about the future of Fair Park. We certainly are. It is truly a public museum center.

John W. Grain

Director, Dallas Historical Society



Louise Cowan



The best memory I have of Dr. Louise (“The Prime of Louise Cowan,” May) is of her arriving at a dinner party exhilarated by a comment from a handsome young man at a stoplight: “God, you’re gorgeous!”

How right he was.

Holly Wermeyer

Dallas



Dallas/Fort Worth 100



Recent developments – and alert readers – have brought to our attention five firms that should be added to the list of the 100 largest public corporations headquartered in Dallas and Fort Worth (1979 Business Review and Forecast, June). When it arrives, Diamond Shamrock will become our eighth-largest company, with $1677.6 million in 1978 revenues. Hunt International Resources can currently be listed as 22nd, with $421.8 million (although the Hunt brothers have proposed the purchase of all publicly owned shares). Color Tile, recently spun off from Tandycrafts, is 56th, with 1978 revenues of $111.1 million. Dixico Incorporated ranks 60th, with $95.7 million; Sunshine Mining, whose proposed merger with Hunt International has been called off, is 70th, with $68.5 million. In addition, Stafford-Lowdon, number 72 with $46.2 million ,recently announced plans to merge into American Standard.