"Silo" Coughlin (Cont'd)
Sirs:
I am amazed that there are 500 followers of "Silo Charlie" [TIME, Feb. 13] with sufficient intellect to read and understand TIME.
ARTHUR H. LEONARD Kansas City, Mo.
Sirs:
I think it would be in the interests of accuracy if you ceased placing any references to the Reverend Father Coughlin, under the heading of Religion, except those pertaining to the administration of his parish.
The Reverend Father's arrogant, intolerant and uncharitable utterances have long been opposed by most intelligent Catholics.
LAWRENCE V. SHAUGHNESSY New York City
Sirs:
Were everyone as narrow and bigoted as certain minority groups in this country, boycotts would have had business at a standstill long ago. We, who are about to renew our subscription, salute you!
WILLIAM D. WATKINS Lansford, Pa.
Sirs:
Regarding the Coughlin controversy, I would suggest that you censor the stuff of the Hebrew and Left Wing members of your staff closely, as nobody is more vindictive than a single track Communist when someone tells the truth about their great & noble cause. For years all Communists have been rabid Coughlin haters and for good reason as nobody has done a better job of throwing the light of truth on these Christ haters. . . .
CALVIN AUSTIN II Camden, Me.
Sirs:
Truth, like murder, will out eventually, has, as a matter of fact, come out in this matter already. When the Church, of which this priest is a member, makes public the fact that he does not represent its views on this subject, when the Dec. 30 issue of The Commonweal publishes two articles by high Catholic Churchmen blasting his statements, when outstanding Protestant ministers and laymen have condemned such vicious un-Americanism, how long are people going to listen to such guff from the head of the discredited Social Justice political party? . . .
LESTER D. ALEXANDER Toledo, Ohio
Sirs:
It is apparent that you do not comprehend or understand the reasons for the resentment expressed against your remarks concerning Father Coughlin. Both the original article [TIME, Jan. 30] and your editorial comment in the Feb. 13 issue are in extremely bad taste and grievously offensive to me and all Roman Catholics.
EDWARD J. MURTHA Brooklyn, N. Y.
Sirs:
Pay no attention to those Coughlin claquers who are barking at you and threatening to destroy your circulation. I shall undertake personally to get you a dozen or more new subscribers on the strength of your courageous stand against demagogues of Coughlin's sanctimonious type. Others will do the same. . . .
GEO. THOMPSON Cleveland, Ohio
Sirs:
I think it was great of your magazine to print those knocks. It proves you stand by what you print.
For every subscriber of "his" that you lose, you will gain two. . . .
J. D. BROWN Detroit, Mich.
Sirs:
... I desire to inform you that from this day on I have decided to drop the reading of TIME. Experience again proves to me that for unprejudiced and accurate information Social Justice is the magazine.
C. M. ROSE Wheeling, W. Va.
Spirit and Might
Sirs:
TIME, Feb. 6, Foreign News, p. 15. "It took the Wilderness and Shiloh, as well as Gettysburg to finish the U. S. Civil War."
The battle of Shiloh was at least a partial victory for the Confederate States, and was certainly prior to that of Gettysburg. Might it not be more historically accurate to say that it took "overwhelming superiority of material" (TIME, p. 14, same issue) to win the U. S. Civil War (War Between the States) as it took to win the Spanish Civil War (War between the Ideologies) ?
Perhaps, however, "patriotism" refuses to admit this. All right, say "Wilderness and Cold Harbor--and the 1st Bull Run, and Antietam and Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg" before spirit succumbed to might--as in Spain.
ROBERT M. WEBB Brooklyn, N. Y.
Businessmen Get Business
Sirs:
As you may have heard, the Federal Government within the past two years has loaned $2,563,000 and given $2,097,000 to the Imperial Irrigation District of California for construction of a power system that duplicates entirely the system of our privately-owned power utility in the same area--the Imperial Valley, largest irrigated area in the world. . . .
You may be interested in knowing that although in two elections the electorate of the local Irrigation District voted 10-to-1 and 24-to-1 to go into the power business, our company is more than pleased with the business it has held so far in the competition between government and private business.
After 72 days of competition our company has retained 77.9% of its business, and already has reconnected 118 customers who left us to go to the government power system. The most common explanation of this inconsistency of people voting for a power system and then not using it is: Politicians Get Votes --Businessmen Get Business.
HARRY R. BURTON Assistant Advertising Agent The Nevada-California Electric Corp. El Centro, Calif.
Gunga Din
Sirs:
Re article on Gunga Din, TIME, Feb. 6, I take exception to your statement ". . . nor affront the intelligence of their seniors."* I think it is an insult to the intelligence of the moviegoer to expect him to believe among other things:
1) The colonel takes command of the right wing of the expedition, assigns the left wing to the major, and for the centre can find nothing better than 3 sgts.
2) An old army sgt. would desert in the face of the enemy--Grant's action in going after the temple of gold can be called nothing else from a military point of view.
3) That the commanding officer (McLaglen) will leave his command just to rescue aforementioned deserter.
4) That the British Army is as stupid as one would be led to believe from the fact that only by the suicidal bungling of Gunga Din was the entire command saved from walking into a death trap.
Also it seems to me that the unholy glee the 3 sgts. display in taking human life is more in keeping with young Mussolini rather than with the accepted opinion of the British Army.
DAVID M. BANEN, M. D.
U. S. Public Health Service Quarantine Station Curtis Bay, Md.
Dangerous Campaign
Sirs:
Much of what we Americans in Europe have read recently from American publications about politics leads some of us to suspect that something has gone wrong with American journalism. . . .
Only a few weeks ago it was common experience to read in American papers verbatim excerpts from specific government-controlled newspapers in Europe. These excerpts were printed without comment. . . .
In contrast with this what have we now? Examine the current January issues of Reader's Digest, TIME, New York Herald Tribune--Paris Edition, The Christian Century, publications which we believe are effective creators of public opinion at home and abroad. Taken together, do they or do they not leave the impression that American journalism--with one or two notable exceptions--has entered a dangerous campaign of hatred? . . .
Does the American journalist want America to win in a mad armaments race ? Fanning to a flame the unholy passions of millions in America against the peoples of two or three other large blocks of earth is one way to bring this about. . . . Does the American journalist want peace? . . .
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN STELTZFUS
The American College Sofia, Bulgaria
> Come home and see.--ED.
Hot Dogs Heated
Sirs:
Let TIME editors be more founded before stating that "hot dogs" cause trichinosis (TIME, Feb. 6, p. 35).
Every frankfurter in a package that bears the inspection legend of the U. S. Bureau of Animal Industry has been heated to a temperature of 137DEG F. (a temperature under which trichinae can no longer live).
Most manufacturers heat their frankfurters to a temperature well above 137DEG before shipping in order to improve the keeping qualities of the product.
FRANK B. R. SAHM JR.
Williamsport, Pa.
> Unfortunately for U. S. hot-dog eaters, many a frankfurter has not been Government-inspected. Thirty percent of U. S. meat is raised and prepared locally, hence not subject to Federal regulation. The answer: State regulation or thorough cooking of your own pork.--ED.
Patrioteers
Sirs:
TIME, Feb. 6, p. 9, col. 3: "Longshoreman Harry Bridges, whom patrioteers have tried to get deported. . . ." Please, what do you mean by patrioteer? And when you tell me, will you say if you mean that such are all who wish to see Harry Bridges deported? If you tell me this, tell me, too, what has happened to our feeling for the fine word patriot, that in this country, and, so far as I know, only in this country, people are ashamed of it and so often give it the sneering inflexion ? I am touchy.
CARET GARRETT Tuckahoe, N. J.
> 1) By patrioteer TIME means to describe the professional patriot, the kind of refuge-seeking scoundrel who waves a red-white-&-blue handkerchief when he should be wiping his own nose.
2) TIME knows of no inventory of those who wish to see Harry Bridges deported.
3) TIME too thinks patriot is a fine word.--ED.
Abed with an Egg
Sirs:
Anent the New Zealand egg story [TIME, Feb. 13]. No marvel to readers is the fact that bedridden Harold Ryder "set" on a chicken egg and succeeded in hatching it. Any constantly warm location would have done the same for said egg. The marvel lies in the fact that Mr. Ryder, who probably weighs between 100 and 200 pounds, was able to lie abed with an egg for 25 days and nights and not so much as crack the shell.
What manner of man is he? How did he keep himself from tossing about in the throes of sleep and scrambling the egg ? To what does TIME attribute this astonishing muscular control? From all appearances it would seem that Mr. Ryder is better fitted to show the public "How to Sleep" than Robert Benchley.
EWELL SHIELDS Colorado Springs, Colo.
Kittens in the Oven
Sirs:
Regarding your reply to Michael Fanning about the "Irish Volcano" [TIME, Feb. 6, said: "Tom Mooney's grandparents emigrated to the U. S. from County Mayo, Ireland. If that makes their grandson a Russian, Stalin is a Dutchman."]
If a cat had kittens in the oven would that make them biscuits?
B. E. KONWALER, M.D. Pueblo, Colo.
Style Rococo
Sirs:
TIME, Feb. 20, p. 13:
"But he is exclusively responsible for none of these; the Chief of Naval Operations is also interested. And over both is the Secretary of the Navy. But he is exclusively responsible for none of these; the Chief of Naval Operations is also interested. And nominally over both is aging (76), ailing Secretary of the Navy Claude Augustus Swanson."
This is fine. Anybody could have said it once; it takes a poet to repeat (cf. Poe's Ulalume, Swinburne's A Match, and many others). I knew your mad prose pace would get you; that somebody would rebel. Congratulations on a more leisurely tempo! The "Curt" of "Curt, Clear, Complete" has been dealt a mortal blow. Enter now the style rococo and redundant.
Please do not cancel my subscription. Ignore Proverbs XVII, 9: "He that repeateth a matter separateth very friends."
CHARLES M. HUDSON, JR. Easton, Pa.
> Proverbs XVII, 10: "A reproof entereth more into a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool."--ED.
*TIME said: "First-class entertainment, it will neither corrupt the morals of minors nor affront the intelligence of their seniors. But unfortunately, Gunga Din ... a symbol of Hollywood's current trend ... is as deplorable as it is enlightening ... a $2,000,000 rehash."--ED.
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