Oh, To Be in Iowa . . .

Sir: I was sitting here at my desk . . . [when] I happened to glance at your hypnotic "The Finest Time of the Year" [TIME, Oct. 11]. I got as far as "First graders brought home cutout paper pumpkins," and fled from the factory for a personal survey of Dubuque County under "October's bright blue sky" . . . I found everything in this part of the Upper Mississippi Valley as advertised in your excellent paper. The sumac along the river bluffs is in excellent shape, "the greatest corn crop in history" awaits picking, down in Nine Mile Island slough the advance guard of "honkers," a small band of mallards, are settled behind some willows to feed, and out somewhere beyond Flint Hill the windows of a rural school are adorned with cutout paper pumpkins. RICHARD P. BISSELL Dubuque, Iowa

Pax Vobiscum?

Sir: As an "assorted listener" [TIME, Oct. 4], let me tell you how this thing looks to me. Tom Dewey is running for President of Rotary International. Harry Truman is running for Mayor of Independence, Mo. Strom Thurmond is running for President of the Confederate States of America. Henry Wallace is running for President of the Soviet Union. The only man who seems to be running for national office is Earl Warren. He's running for Vice President of the United States. We've had a Vice President for the last three years. I'm running for cover. GREEN PEYTON San Antonio, Tex.

Sir: As a staunch Republican, I wish to view with alarm this sweetness and light campaign of Dewey and Warren to unify the nation . . If, as we believe, Dewey wins the election, he will doubtless pose as the representative of a united nation, and those who criticize and those who attack his policies will be divisive forces, seeking to undermine the united efforts of the nation. Is this not authoritarianism wearing the garb of a monk and sweetly-saying Pax Vobiscum! . . . JAMES L. ROHRBAUGH Pastor First United Presbyterian Church Seattle, Wash.

One Balmy Day

Sir: Re your article on the 1948-49 automobiles [TIME, Oct. 4]: Obviously, the designers from every company got together one night, had too many drinks and [decided] to make all cars alike--too wide, too stub-nosed and boxy-looking--and thus enjoy a designer's holiday . . . CALDER B. VAUGHAN Washington, D.C.

Sir: ". . . Custom-built guided missiles"?! Well, cut my trousers off and call me Buck Rogers! JACK J. JONES Washington, D.C.

Sir: For the information of [Designer] Raymond Loewy, I would like him to know that heads and right hands are not easy to come by. The latter I reluctantly left in one of his well-designed automobile interiors, caught between the arm rest and window handle, one balmy summer day. The head, which I fortunately salvaged, I still carry around in my pocket. It was removed at the request of the driver, who could not see out of the rear window through the rear-view mirror. I am writing this left-handed from the hip. W. S. SHERMAN Chicago, Ill.

Maestro & Guinea Pigs

Sir: . . . For heaven's sake, where oh where did you get that fantastic line about Sir Archibald McIndoe: "Some of his patients call [him] 'God'--and partly mean it" [TIME, Sept. 27]? I have known Sir Archibald since I crashed in flames in 1941, and have been under his chopper 32 times ... I have never heard him spoken of as God ... If your correspondent (may he be hoist by his own typewriter) had said that Sir Archie was known to the boys as "The Boss," "Maestro," "Mac," or merely "The Big White Chief," then he would have been guilty of complete accuracy. Thanks for the write-up, all the same . . . HENRY STANDEN Sussex, England

P: Former R.A.F. Warrant Officer Edward Blacksell, McIndoe's closest associate in running the Guinea Pig Club, says that TIME'S statement is "only wrong in a technical sort of way. Although they didn't actually call Mac 'God,' many of them thought of him as such, or certainly as the next best thing."--ED.

Things Are Hummon, Suh!

Sir: . . . Five months ago, Herman ("Hummon") Talmadge couldn't have been elected to the office of dogcatcher in Georgia. Then . . . Mr. Truman started yapping about Civil Rights. Every time he opened his mouth for one of those monotonous speeches, it meant thousands of votes for "Hummon." Don't forget that the South is basically defensive in its thinking. It knows it has no friends outside the South, so it thinks it can counter its enemies by electing people like Long and Talmadge . . . SEATON OWENS Marietta, Ga.

Sweet Comforts

Sir: ... I read your review of The Lost Art of Profanity [TIME, Sept. 27] with a sensation of pain and disappointment. Was it not enough that the devil should get in his lick with the author? Must the satanic literary abnormalities of Burges Johnson and Henry Mencken be flaunted by TIME? . . . PAULINE B. WHITE Lancaster, N.Y.

Sir: Your review . . . reminds me of some acute remarks which were made on this engaging subject about 30 years ago. The following appeared, I believe, in 1918: . . . The human weakness for profanity is like the human weakness for tobacco--it does not cure anything, but it undoubtedly soothes and caresses. Carried to excess, it grieves the judicious; practiced in moderation, it allays the passions, promotes digestion, placates animosities, and makes for happiness at the domestic hearth . . . No sane man would seek relief in cussing if a safe fell upon him, or a lion bit off his leg, or an anarchist had at him with a bomb, or his wife eloped with the letter-carrier. But on missing a train, or slipping on an orange peel, or losing a collar button, or in the presence of a crying baby, an automatic piano, a political heresy, or an incompetent barber--then the ancient craft hath its high uses, and its sweet comforts, and its mild and consoling sinfulness. RICHARD NORRIS Conway, Ark.

"Adolescent Comments"

Sir: As secretary of the International Schoolboy Fellowship, I wish to register my dismay upon reading the report in TIME [Oct. 11] of an interview with five British boys who had held scholarships in American schools on this Fellowship program. Since 1946, the English-Speaking Union, with the generous and wholehearted support of outstanding American and British schools, has administered the exchange of 40 or more boys each year between the schools of the two countries. All of the British boys, including the five quoted, have expressed on innumerable occasions their deep appreciation of the scholarships which American schools have given them, and of the inestimable values they have gained therefrom. It is regrettable that TIME'S correspondent failed entirely to convey this appreciation but, rather unfairly, reported only one-sided remarks made by the boys. Of course there are differences in American and British educational methods, with advantages in each, and undoubtedly the boys were encouraged to comment upon them; but such adolescent comments are misleading. Had TIME'S correspondent confined these interviews to a careful evaluation of just what the boys got out of their experiences from the schools which they attended, the report would have been of greater value, and reflected more accurately the boys' true impressions of America and American schools. MARJORIE S. POWELL Executive Secretary Educational Exchange Committee The English-Speaking Union New York City

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