Crumps & Bumps
Sirs:
Never have I been in a dirtier, plainer big city than Memphis. And never have I read such phony kowtowing to that city and to Boss Crump as that which appeared in your May 27 issue.
JOSEPH ZWEBEN
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Sirs:
. . . There should be about 1,000 more Ed Crumps strategically located in cities and towns all over the U.S.--to effect a cure-all for our national problems.
JOE CYCKEVIC JR.
Providence
Sirs:
. . . No other city in this country has been fortunate enough to have an Ed Crump. He is the only so-called political boss I have ever known at whom the finger of suspicion could not be pointed charging him with personal corruptness. . . .
It may surprise you to know there are thousands & thousands of people in the city of Memphis who never make up their minds as to how they will vote until they know Ed Crump's wishes. This is due entirely and solely to the confidence they have in him. . . . All they want to know is whether or not a candidate is supported by Mr. Crump. . . . He has always been right. . . .
Mr. Crump is a fine Christian old style Southern gentleman. . . .
CHAS. D. JONES
Nashville
Sirs:
. . . Hitler was a dictator, yes, but Crump makes his fawning, obsequious satellites like it! Can it be that there are no good red-blooded Irish-Americans in Memphis who will vote No for no other reason than that they were told to vote Yes? . . .
J. F. BOAL
Millington, Tenn.
"Men Are Beasts"
Sirs:
In regard to the Subcommission on the Status of Women of the Commission on Human Rights of the United Nations Economic & Social Council (whew!)--in regard to their adoption of the principle: "Woman is as much a human being as man" [TIME, May 20], let me say: Woman is more of a human being than man!
Men are beasts, chained to primeval instincts. If women held the domineering power in world relations, wars would cease to be. . . .
NAOMI-MARGRET SEVETSON
Cheyenne, Wyo.
Square Circle
Sirs:
Vishinsky's speech to French lawyers reported in TIME, May 27, recalls a critical dictum of St. Augustine which Americans might profitably keep in mind when evaluating our relationship with Soviets: "Distinguish between the trickery of words and the reality of things. . . ."
"Dictatorship . . . in fact," Vishinsky says, "is democracy in action." Any mind which assents to that will have no difficulty in grasping the "fact" that black is white, a circle is a square, and that TIME is identical with Sooper Dooper Comics.
JOHN ABRAHAM
Pardeeville, Wis.
Father of the Year
Sirs :
YOUR ISSUE JUNE 3 CARRYING STORY ON KENNY DELMAR AS OUTSTANDING RADIO FATHER OF YEAR IS INCORRECT AND EXCEEDINGLY DAMAGING TO US AND OUR TRUE NOMINATION OF FRANK SINATRA AS RADIO FATHER OF YEAR FOR HIS WORK IN PROMOTING BROTHERHOOD AND UNITY. . . .
ALVIN AUSTIN
Executive Director
National Father's Day Committee
New York City
P: TIME erred; Delmar's award was for being the father who "made the biggest strides to stardom in one year."--ED.
Democracy: Minorities & Majorities
Sirs:
A vast number of American citizens in foreign service have been observing at long range our country's pathetic efforts toward [reconversion]. We have . . . seen how a few industrial magnates and labor leaders. . . have presumed to impose terms on our Federal Government; and I tell you, we don't like it. . . .
But we refuse to accept the present chaotic situation as the final word of democracy. It seems rather to sound the death knell of an outmoded technique under which minority groups have usurped the functions of government. In a highly industrialized and complex economy . . . strikes and lockouts are as archaic and out of order as lynch law or the antics of the Ku Klux Klan. . . .
The arbitrary stoppage of any major industry is an assault on the public safety. It is high time for Congress to outlaw this antiquated and barbaric mode of action and provide a more rational method for the settlement of industrial controversy. Bernard Baruch has proposed an industrial court. Well, why not? . . .
SERVICEMAN'S NAME WITHHELD
Korea
Sirs:
Thrilling it was to me and I believe countess thousands of others when Harry Truman showed he had the guts to recognize his obligations to the people who elected him. . . .
FRAYSER HINTON
Memphis
Sirs:
If democracy is the will of the majority, certainly labor represents the majority. . . .
The people dare not and will not stand idly by and watch a reactionary government built over the broken remnants of the democratic government for which they stand. We feel that if the slightest initiative were taken to begin an impeachment movement against Truman it would find undivided support from the majority. . . .
DUSTIN E. LAKE
EDGAR C. SMITH
Oakland, Calif.
Mind over Matter
Sirs:
. . . I had three warts, one on each of three fingers, and they were removed by suggestion.
Had never heard of it being done before until I read your article [TIME, May 20]. One day I looked at my warts and decided that they must go away and they did. . . .
(MRS.) MATHILDA VANDENBERG
Hawthorne, NJ.
Tennis Cadet
Sirs:
What Jack Kramer would do after laying off tennis [TIME, May 27] was nothing new to those of us who served with him as cadets aboard the three-masted sailing ship Danmark. . . . We were sailing in Long Island Sound during the days before his match with Budge in March 1944. . . . We would see accounts of Budge's progress in training in New York, and still the Coast Guard kept Jack on that yardarm. . . . [Yet] he defeated Budge . . . in Madison Square Garden 6-3, 6-2. . . .
It was no surprise to the members of the class of 10-43, Coast Guard Academy, when Jack trounced Frankie Parker . . . after a two-year layoff.
RANDALL S. JESSEE
Chief Announcer WDAF
Kansas City
"Mamma's Boy" Draft
Sirs:
Let TIME continue to elucidate, not confuse.
From your explanation of "Mamma's Boy" Draft [TIME, May 27], one gets the idea that, with the Army losing 55,000 a month by the discharge route, and receiving 25,000 replacements, the brass hats won't have enough soldiers "by year's end."
The deficit each month will be 30,000; for twelve months, 360,000. Subtract 360,000 from the July 1 total [wanted by the Army] of 1,550,000 (p. 3323, Congressional Record, April 6, 1946). Result: 1,190,000 on July 1, 1947--far above the Army's own estimate of needed strength, 1,070,000. Not so ? . . .
PHILIP E. LILJENGREN
Wellston, Mich.
P: Not so. TIME'S 55,000 figure referred only to the discharge of volunteers.--ED.
A Thought on Thinking
Sirs:
For Keats Speed [executive editor of the New York Sun, who said that he and his colleagues "all think alike, so it's easy" to plot editorials--TIME, May 27], I would like to quote from Walter Lippmann: "Where all think alike no one thinks much."
(MRS.) EVE W.SIMS
Hollywood
Surplus Autos
Sirs:
. . . TIME [May 27] . . . states that "25,000 almost-new passenger cars were rusting and rotting in an Atlanta depot," and that the Army had "reluctantly" given up 7,000 of them under pressure of publicity.
When posts, camps and stations in the U.S. are deactivated and when automotive equipment is returned to this country, all automotive equipment found to be in an unserviceable condition is shipped to Ordnance depots for disposal. . . . If it cannot be repaired economically, it is at once declared surplus. If it can be repaired economically, it is repaired and placed in storage. At one-month intervals a survey is made and all vehicles not required by the Army are declared surplus.
The Atlanta Ordnance Depot is one of several depots that receive vehicles for repairs. They are stored in open fields since there is not enough undercover storage to meet the requirements. About 31,000 vehicles of all types are stored there at present, including trucks, passenger cars and motorcycles. At the present time there are 525 passenger cars there, of which 48 are in serviceable condition. The balance of 477 cars are unserviceable and require varying amounts of repair work.
The total number of passenger cars the Army procured was about 20,000. All were procured prior to 1942. None were manufactured during the war. . . .
F. L. PARKS
Major General, U.S.A.
Washington
P: TIME erred; Reader Parks' breakdown is correct.--ED.
$5 Axiom
Sirs:
. . . The old, soldierly axiom . . .
God and the soldier we adore
In time of danger, not before;
The danger passed and all things righted,
God is forgotten and the soldier slighted
[TIME, March 25] has been evaluated . . . at $5.
The undersigned was . . . apprehended for speeding. It was Saturday afternoon and the judge . . . was not in the city for the weekend so . . . I wrote a letter to the judge and he fixed bail at $15. Whereupon I wrote another letter and quoted the above axiom and he raised the bail to $20. . . .
SIMON KINSMAN
Los Angeles
Assault
Sirs:
Just prior to the Kentucky Derby, TIME [May 6] gave its cover page to Mrs. [Elizabeth Arden] Graham and devoted seven columns to her and the Maine Chance entries.
After the surprising and decisive defeat of Mrs. Graham's "stable," TIME gave exactly 33 lines to Assault's victory and not one line . . . to the Preakness, where Assault again demonstrated his superiority over Lord Boswell. . . .
C. S. VEDDER
Mason, Tex.
P: TIME still thinks that Mrs. Graham's stable was the most newsworthy pre-Derby racing subject, agrees that Assault has since stolen the three-year-old horse show--and has twice said so, in reporting Assault's victories in the Preakness (May 20 issue) and Belmont Stakes (June 10).--ED.
News
Sirs:
Your article on Nature's gyroscopes [TIME, June 10] is the most skillful piece of popular technical writing I have ever read. It is a masterpiece of brevity, completeness and accuracy.
R. E. GILLMOR
Vice President
The Sperry Corporation
New York City
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