The Sainted Brethren

Sir:

Governor Dewey is quoted as saying, through the medium of an aide, that he never criticizes other members of his party publicly [TIME, Dec. 1]. It is to be hoped that Governor Dewey does not regard politics as a game wherein the Republicans are always and automatically right, and the Democrats usually wrong.

For Dewey to state in effect that he criticizes publicly members of the opposition party, but never his sainted Republican brethren, is to reduce almost completely the value of his public criticism in the minds of thinking people. Intellectual honesty requires that politicians support what they believe in and oppose what they don't believe in, regardless of party lines.

WM. J. GAFFNEY Pasco, Wash.

Brotherly Feeling

Sir:

IN YOUR ARTICLE OF DEC. 8 ON PANAMA

[YOU SAY] THAT I AM "A BITTER ENEMY" OF MY BROTHER ARNULFO ARIAS. ALTHOUGH I HAVE DISAGREED WITH SOME OF HIS POLITICAL VIEWS, THIS DOES NOT BY ANY MEANS JUSTIFY SUCH ASSERTION. . . .

HARMODIO ARIAS Panama

> TIME'S readers, including many in Panama, will be pleasantly surprised to hear that "bitter" is too strong a word for ex-President Harmodio Arias' feeling toward his brother, ex-President Arnulfo.--ED.

Obfuscated Choctaw

Sir:

Your review of the cinema, The Lost Moment [TIME, Dec 8], based on the adumbrated novel by Henry James, the scribbler (to use the vulgar expression), is sufficient, I think, to suggest the ponderous prose, the--some personages might almost label--circum-locuted prose of Henry, the dear fusspot, James, but, may one reflect, and I do appreciate your unwonted forbearance, that the pages of TIME are not precisely the place--one may relievedly observe--where one expects to encounter . . . the ambiguous, attenuated, ' grayed verbiage, the niceties of the vaporous review mentioned somewhere above . . . .

New York City E-LAKES

Sir:

Veritably, The Lost Moment critique, though divertingly atmospheric, was a lost moment, for such abstruse phraseology, almost senza cerimonia, as it were, substituted a fabulous if rather obfuscated Choctaw for simple English though the need for the substitution remains ineluctably TIME'S. Well would we, with James, delicately strangle the scrivener of that apotheosis of the superficial.

MURRY HARRIS

TOM MOORE Phoenix, Ariz.

Sir:

A la Dick Tracy I must ask, "What did he say?"

P. H. RICHER Austin, Tex.

> He said that James wouldn't go for it.--ED.

Man of the Year

Sir:

As the person whose rise to fame is based on the essential principle that government by the people must be based on law and order ... I nominate Robert Schuman, French Premier, as Man of the Year. . . .

M. P. SWEENEY Cambridge, Mass.

Sir:

. . . Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek. At no time in history has a man defended the liberties of so many with so little. . . .

GEORGE ATWOOD Sacramento, Calif.

Sir:

.... Walter Winchell ... for his sincere fight against Communism.

FRED W. MARKLAND Jacksonville, Fla.

Sir:

. . . President Truman ....

W. CHIN

Berkeley, Calif.

Sir:

. . . Since reading about Maurice Goldblatt [TIME, Dec. 8] giving a million dollars to fight cancer and then going out to raise several more million for the same worthy cause, I am writing to nominate him as the Man of the Year. . . .

FRANK LYONS

Bremerton, Wash.

Sir:

. . . Senator R. A. Taft, who is the only man in our Government strong enough to break the power of the dictator labor bosses and end the stranglehold that these people have over the nation.

R. M. SMITH Oakland, Calif.

Sir:

. . . Major General Bennett Meyers, officer and gentleman (with medals), who knew what he was fighting for.

CLYDE N. LAUGHTER Evanston, Ill.

Sir:

General Douglas MacArthur. . . . His superb transition from victorious soldier to Christian statesman stands as the one real and effective postwar "reconversion" in our shattered world.

JAMES W. SPAIN Chicago, Ill.

Sir:

. . . Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg. . . . As a Christian gentleman, a thinker, a scholar, a diplomat, a patriot, he is unexcelled. . . .

J. SAM WHITE

Mebane, N.C.

Sir:

. . . Stanislaw Mikolajczyk. [His] courage in leading the fight against Bolshevistic terrorism in Poland . . . has been an inspiration to defenders of freedom the world over. . . .

MICHAEL WOLFSON

New York City

Sir:

. . . Speaker Joe Martin. . . .

With his elevation to the speakership, Martin has been the outstanding symbol of all the forces in the nation which seek to restore traditional American freedoms as against the New Deal theories of centralized control. . . .

LEO E. ALLEN, M.C. Chairman, Rules Committee

House of Representatives U.S. Washington, D.C.

Sir:

. . . The friend who was responsible for the Friendship Train, Drew Pearson. . . .

FAITH M. KELLER Polo, Ill.

Sir:

Re: Man of the Year selection. Could it be possible that TIME would even consider anyone but General Marshall? . . .

CHARLES E. FITZGIBBON Syracuse, N.Y.

> TIME herewith declares the polls closed. For TIME'S Man of the Year, see TIME next week.--ED.

Maine Is Still There

Sir:

Having in mind the widespread circulation of your valued magazine, I would appreciate an opportunity to reassure thousands of your readers ... as to Maine's condition since our forest fire disaster [TIME, Nov. 3]. This is prompted by the many letters I have received from far places "expressing concern based on exaggerated reports. . . .

The overall loss in physical resources and assets was relatively small. Only about 1% of our forest resources was burned or damaged. ... Losses in farm stands, while severe to owners, will have small effect on Maine's overall agricultural economy. . . . The attractive Bar Harbor colony lost some valuable summer estates and the Kennebunkport area suffered heavily, but . . . most of our seashore and lake resorts were untouched by the fires. . . .

There is ample forest land untouched by fire to provide full recreational facilities, ample supplies to support industry, and adequate protection for wild life in all areas of Maine. Next year and for unnumbered years to come, Maine, both because of its natural assets and the character of its people, will continue to be a good place to work and to live, as well as the "Land of Remembered Vacations."

HORACE HILDRETH Governor of Maine Augusta, Me.

No.1

Sir:

Thanks for the splendid cover story on Rebecca West [TIME, Dec. 8]. . . . However, I think you did the good lady an injustice by failing to mention her coverage of the mass lynch trials at Greenville, S.C., last spring. . . . Not only was her writing style superb, but as a reporter she dug up facts that none of the rest of us were able to uncover, angles that we of the deadline-plagued, spot-news journalism missed in passing.

I think dubbing her the "world's No. 1 woman writer" is faint praise. For my money, she's the best I've seen, man or woman.

JANE NOLAND

United Press Associations Columbia, S.C.

Sir:

How can you feature Rebecca West who has written so much trash! Nobody reads her junk--except those who think it fashionable due to the false publicity your magazine makes the public swallow.

HENRY BOWES Red Bank, NJ.

Sir:

Congratulations! . . . Let's have more feminine personalities.

EUGENE LA CINA Dodge, Neb.

Sir:

Orchids and huzzahs. . . . Here is reviewing raised to a brilliant level on a par with its brilliant subject. In fact, all of your cover articles . . . are, I think, model "profiles" which students of journalism as well as the lay reader should note as encyclopedic in content, human in approach, and definitive as history. . . .

DAVID D. THOMPSON Bethel, Me.

Erroneous Impression

Sir:

In the issue of TIME dated June 16, 1947, you referred to our client, Loelia, Duchess of Westminster as "recently divorced," thereby conveying the imputation that the Duchess, who had in fact been the petitioner in proceedings earlier in the year in which she was granted a decree of divorce against the Duke, had herself been the guilty party in the suit.

This, as you are no doubt aware, is not the case, and needless to say the implication has caused the Duchess considerable embarrassment.

In the circumstances, now that the matter has been brought to your attention we naturally assume that you will wish to correct the erroneous impression given by your article.

HARDMAN & Co. London

> TIME pleads guilty to the U.S. custom of applying the word divorced to both parties, regrets that its U.S. usage was misunderstood in England, assures the Duchess of Westminster that it had no intention of accusing her of having been the guilty party.--ED.

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