Struggle for Survival
Sir:
"STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL" [TIME, MARCH 29] IS CRYSTAL CLEAR DISTILLATE OF AMERICA'S PROBLEMS AND ALTERNATIVES. CONGRATULATIONS. . . .
ROY FLAMM
San Francisco, Calif.
Sir:
WOULD CONSIDER IT A GREAT PRIVILEGE . . . TO [SEND] REPRINTS OF "STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL" TO EVERY MEMBER OF THE CONGRESS. . . .
F. WM. FREEZE
Denver, Colo.
The Facts of Life
Sir:
Your article on sex education in the Oregon public schools [TIME, March 22] was very heartening, although I'm sure that it will evoke cries of horror from many of the people of puritanical Massachusetts. . . .
ALLEN BARTLETT
Cambridge, Mass.
Sir:
. . . The film, Human Growth, will prove a godsend to this country and its children. Not too long after the other 47 states adopt this program, I predict a new era, heralded by a decline in sex crimes and divorce. Take the mystery out of sex, bring it before the eyes, and indecency flies out the window. Let's all endeavor to see that our own states follow suit.
ROBERT A. COSSABOOM
Bridgewater, Mass.
Sir:
Words can't express how shocked I was to read "Sex in the Schoolroom."
Does the State of Oregon actually believe that a child of 12 or 13 once sexually enlightened will wait until, let's say, the ripe old age of 18 to put into practice what he's learned? I doubt it. ... Talking about sex only breeds desires. . . .
For seniors in high school, my answer is definitely yes. ... As for the junior high deal--God forgive you, Oregon. . . .
HELEN TRAVIS Portsmouth, Va.
Sir:
. . . It's about time we taught our children how to live. . . . A kid comes to school with a fresh, clean mind and an all-consuming desire to find out what life is all about. . . . [But we] accuse him of criminality for daring to be interested in some of the things which life is more about than anything else. . . .
JOHN W. BAUGHMAN
University of Chicago
Chicago, Ill.
Sir:
Will you please let me know how I might obtain the film . . . ?
OLIVER D. DAVIES
Seventh-Grade Teacher
Middle River, Md.
P: By writing either: 1) Eddie Albert Productions, 1133 North Highland, Hollywood 28, Calif.; or 2) E. C. Brown Trust, University of Oregon Medical School, Portland, Ore.--ED.
Sir:
. . . The state legislature did not "make the subject (sex education) compulsory in junior and senior high schools." The 1945 health and P.E. law includes ten specific health areas that are compulsory, but sex education is not mentioned.
[Nevertheless it is being taught in all Oregon schools; see next paragraph.--ED.]
... Sex education is not taught as a separate unit or subject, but as an integral and logical part of a broad, well-rounded curriculum. . . .
The percentage of parents approving the film in the 1,131 polled was not 91.2% . . . but 97.2%. Actually, 4,000 have now seen the film and of this number 98% approve and want their children to see it.
LYLE M. NELSON
Director of Information
University of Oregon
Eugene, Ore.
Snow White & the Auctioneers
Sir:
I note that Marie Antoinette, at the time of her death, supposedly had blonde hair, a lock of which has been auctioned [TIME, March 22]. Somebody has been hoodwinked, I believe. According to Stefan Zweig's Marie Antoinette, her hair was snow white at the time, though she was only 38.
MRS. JAMES W. TAYLOR
Kansas City, Mo.
Free Enterprise & High Prices
Sir:
For some years the believers in free enterprise have preached the gospel of full production as the only solution of inflation, as the provider of jobs for all, the creator of more goods at lower prices, and the bulwark against state planning, Socialism and Communism. Like millions of people on this continent I believed that all these (and more) objectives could be achieved if all of us, including labor and industry, would strive to produce to the utmost of our ability. Two items in TIME, March 22, have shaken this belief.
1) Jay D. Runkle, chairman of the National Retail Dry Goods Association is quoted: "Manufacturers . . . would rather curtail production if necessary to maintain the present high level of prices."
2) Shoe manufacturers "cut production in hopes that shortages again would make prices more palatable" rather than cutting prices which they appear able to do.
TIME deserves credit for having publicly pilloried these betrayers of their own creed. . . .
THOMAS MARSHALL Toronto, Ont.
Non-Atomic Rubbish
Sir:
IN TIME'S MARCH 15 STORY, "A PLUG FOR LEAKS," YOU SAY [WASHINGTON] CONCEDED THERE HAD BEEN ONLY TWO MAJOR LEAKS IN ATOMIC INFORMATION SECURITY AND CITE AS ONE OF THESE "A DENVER POST ARTICLE ON THE DISPOSAL OF ATOMIC RUBBISH." THIS IS RUBBISH, BUT NON-ATOMIC.
LAST SUMMER THE DENVER POST INVESTIGATED REPORTS THAT ONE OF THE NATION'S TOP SECRET AND CRUCIAL PROJECTS NEAR A SOUTHWESTERN U.S. CITY WAS SO UTTERLY LACKING IN INFORMATIONAL SECURITY THAT ANYONE COULD WALK THE STREETS, SIT IN RESTAURANTS TALKING TO TOWNSPEOPLE AND PROJECT WORKERS, AND GET ENOUGH VITAL DEFENSE INFORMATION TO FILL A BOOK. ROBERT W. FENWICK, A DENVER POST WRITER, RECEIVED THIS ASSIGNMENT: "GO DOWN THERE AND TALK TO ALL THE PEOPLE YOU CAN, GET ALL THE INFORMATION YOU CAN, WITHOUT GOING TO OFFICIALS. ... IN OTHER WORDS, LEARN EVERYTHING THAT COULD BE LEARNED BY ANYONE ELSE, INCLUDING A REPORTER FROM PRAVDA OR A FOREIGN SPY."
FENWICK WAS AMAZED, DENVER POST EDITORS ALARMED, AT WHAT HE DISCOVERED. . . . THE POST'S STOUY TOLD NOTHING OFFICIAL, DID NOT PINPOINT THE PROJECT ON THE MAP. IT PROVED THAT ANYONE COULD CHARTER A PLANE AND TAKE AERIAL PICTURES OF THE PROJECT, THAT COMMERCIAL AIRLINERS REGULARLY FLEW LOW OVER IT, THAT INFORMATION LISTED BY THE WAR DEPARTMENT AS TOP SECRET WAS AVAILABLE TO ANYONE WHO COULD SPEAK AND UNDERSTAND ENGLISH.
THE DENVER POST DID NOT VIOLATE ANY SECURITY. IT PERFORMED A NATIONAL SERVICE BY SHOWING HOW SECURITY ALREADY HAD BEEN VIOLATED WHOLESALE UNDER OFFICIAL NOSES. A FEW ARMY OFFICIALS TRIED TO COVER THEIR EMBARRASSMENT BY EFFORTS TO IMPUGN THE DENVER POST. AFTER HEARING THE WHOLE STORY, PRINTED AND UNPRINTED, OF HOW SECURITY OFFICIALS HAD FALLEN ON THEIR FACES, THE ARMY SHUT UP, TIGHTENED ITS PROTECTIVE MEASURES, BEGAN THE MOVE FOR PEACETIME VOLUNTARY PRESS CENSORSHIP.
ALEXIS McKINNEY The Denver Post Denver, Colo.
P: TIME'S thanks to Managing Editor McKinney for an interesting footnote.--ED.
Straight Edge
Sir:
My congratulations for your brilliant cover story on Russian Police Boss Beria [TIME, March 22]. . . .
Such straight-shooting as your article should worry the Communist oligarchy far more than the edge the U.S. currently has in atomic energy or air power. . . .
BOB HENDRICKS
Rochester, N.Y.
Sixteen-Cylinder Words, Etc.
Sir:
Let Sideliner Dudley Haddock [TIME, March 22] get his eye back on the ball game. Graduates of journalism schools can't be held responsible, as he believes, for the ills of today's press. As yet, said graduates are still the minority in a majority of U.S. newsrooms.
. . . Does he believe that TIME'S beautiful report on itself in the 28th Anniversary issue would have been better journalism with the so-called "16-cylinder words" and "Latin terms" hacked out? . . .
DON A. GOODALL
Yakima, Wash.
Sir:
Oldtime Journalist Dudley Haddock may rest assured that our school of journalism here is doing its best to lick unreadable copy.
. . . Our brains get beaten out regularly for writing above the head of the man in the street. . . .
RICHARD E. CLARK
University of Missouri
Columbia, Mo.
Flying Feathers
Sir:
... I'd like to register a protest. Your fighting cocks story [TIME, March 8] didn't belong in the Sport section. This bloody mark on the escutcheon of our so-called "civilized" society is hardly sport. Judging from the heavy wagering involved, the morbid details might more appropriately have appeared under Business.
RICHARD E. LUTZ
Rochester, N.Y.
Sir:
Congratulations. ... It is certainly gratifying to know that a magazine such as TIME will publish an article for the benefit of the narrow-minded individuals that are so against . . . one of the world's oldest and most exciting sports. . . .
C. R. HEWITT
College Station, Tex.
Whereas In Wheeling . . .
Sir:
The Council of the City of Wheeling directed a reply to an article . . . wherein TIME stated that public cock fighting pits operate in this City. A copy of the Resolution is enclosed.
CARL G. BACHMANN
Mayor
WHEREAS, "Time" Magazine, in its Twenty-Fifth Anniversary issue dated March 8, 1948, under the heading "Sport" on page 80, carried an article entitled "Fighting the Cocks"; and
WHEREAS, in said article in the third column thereof on said page appeared the following:
"In the north, where law enforcement is stricter and the S.P.C.A. more vigilant, public pits do not advertise, but they operate at Wheeling, W. Va. . . ." and
WHEREAS, the law enforcement officers of the City of Wheeling have caused an investigation to be made: and
WHEREAS, said investigation discloses that no person can be found who knows of, or has even heard of, any cock fights within the boundaries of the City of Wheeling for the past fifteen years, or more; and
WHEREAS, the publication of this article is a reflection upon the City of Wheeling,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF WHEELING that the Mayor be and he is hereby authorized to notify the Publisher and Editor of "Time" that said article is untrue so far as the City of Wheeling is concerned. . . . Wheeling, W. Va.
P: Peace to the shades of Wheeling's fighting cocks.--ED.
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