Dear Ann Landers,
hat is so terrible about slugging a woman if she darned well deserves it? This United States of America is the only country in the world where the practice is frowned upon. As a result, our women are the most spoiled and certainly the laziest in the world. As for the pain of a slap, it is nothing compared with the suffering a man must endure from the razor-sharp tongue of an enraged female. In the heat of battle, one sure way of ending the discussion is to give the offending party a sound crack across the mouth. This is why a policeman carries a gun and why we need an H bomb. We never want to use it, and hope we never need to, but it's a good thing to let the opposition know it's there-just in case. -Michael S.

Dear Michael,
Let's get out the whips and really live, eh? Your rea-soning is so filled with fishhooks and booby traps that I won't attempt to straighten you out. If your technique for ending a discussion is to crack the offending party across the mouth, you are doomed to have a wretched life and a lonesome one. Please read the following letter for a fresh approach to the subject: Dear Ann: I wonder if a man who strikes his wife can imagine what this does to their children. I was a child who lived in fear that my par-ents would kill each other so I know what I'm talking about. Every night I used to lie in bed shivering with fright. I listened to their angry voices and waited for that awful moment when the first blow would be struck. I used to pray for their lives, my young mind visualizing death as the only force that would put an end to the fighting and screaming. Often I would creep out of bed, hoping the sight of me would stop the fighting but it never did. I call it a "fight" but it was, in reality, a man beating his wife. My father was a heavy drinker and had a violent temper. I would hear him curse my mother and throw things. Then the sound of crashing objects and her moaning was almost too much to bear. I pity any man who thinks he's powerful because he can slap his wife around. These men are little boys who never grew up. I know I am stating this badly but as I write my hand is shaking and my stomach is churning. Remembering makes me literally sick. But please, Ann, fix this letter up in your own nice words like an educated person, so it will be fit to print. For the love of God, let these people know what they do to their children if they have no respect for themselves. -A Friend Dozens of male readers thought my disapproval of wife beating was ridicu-lous. Surprised? So was I. One male wrote, "Ever since women got the vote in this country, they've been crowding men out of jobs and denying them their rightfiil place as head of the house. " But I refiised to back down. In the early sixties, wom,en needed as much support as they could get. Here's a letter that will make your hair stand on end: