Shouts, Doubts & Avocados
Sir:
THANKS FOR A FAIR AND OBJECTIVE VIEW OF LOS ANGELES [TIME, JULY 4]. THOSE THINGS YOU FOUND WRONG ARE THE SUBJECT OF STUDIES AND PLANS BY THOUSANDS OF OUR CITIZENS ACTING THROUGH THIS AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS. WE CORDIALLY INVITE YOU BACK FOR A COMPARATIVE REPORT, SAY ABOUT 1955
HAROLD W. WRIGHT
Chamber of Commerce Los Angeles, Calif.
Sir:
TIME . . . really hit the nail square on the head in its description of Mayor Fletcher Bowron. He is all you say he is, and not much more.
RUTH ARNOLD Beverly Hills, Calif.
Sir:
. . . One very important industry in our economy is the tourist industry which last year produced $490,473,000 in new revenue, second largest source of area income . . . FRED F. HARRIS President
Southern California Hotel Association Los Angeles, Calif.
Sir:
It took us 15 years of living there to find out . . . Miles of beaches, hundreds of klieg lights, cases of suntan lotion . . . and avocados in the front yard.
Somewhere, after the birth of our second child, there came that shadow of a doubt. We couldn't help questioning the sanity of the whole extravaganza. Has any set of parents the right to deprive a child of the privilege of planting a row of beans that will grow without irrigation? ... Of knowing a brook, and a field, and a hill intimately? Of picking fat, juicy blackberries . . .?
MR. & MRS. C. E. JAMISON Waterbury, Vt.
Sir:
I hope that your elaborate spread on how we smog-eaten Angelenos all drive snappy Cadillacs into our private swimming pools doesn't create a stampede of suckers to come out here! It stinks out here; the phoniest town ever slapped together by stucco and fog, and sprinkled by glib-line underhanded promoters . . . "Go back East, young man, and eat again."
EARL A. SCHULTZ Culver City, Calif.
Sir:
... I agree with all the good you wrote about us. I deny all the bad. Furthermore there is no proof that the Black Dahlia's murderer was a citizen of Los Angeles. He might have been from Florida.
FRANK G. RIVERA Los Angeles, Calif.
Millions More?
Sir:
After reading the article on Carl Strandlund and the Lustron home [TIME, July 4], I would say that Preston Tucker hadn't used his head in financing his auto company. Tucker apparently squandered about $28 million belonging to various private individuals and he has the Government and half the newspapers and magazines in the country on his neck. Carl Strandlund "has spent" $32.5 million in a period of about two years, apparently needs $3,000,000 more, is all set to spend another $1,000,000 a month . . .
DOUGLASS L. LIST
Lafayette, Ind.
Sir:
In my judgment the Lustron type of home cannot be satisfactorily marketed until such time as it can be sold for a maximum sum of $6,500 including the building site, and to continue to waste the taxpayers' money on such a project is absurd . . .
HANDFORD T. CRUSER JR. Norfolk, Va.
Disgraceful Performance
Sir:
I have read with a sickening sense of frustration the account of the swimming pool riots in St. Louis in TIME, July 4. My feeling is intensified by the knowledge that the news of this disgraceful performance has been published all over Europe . . .
I have just returned from a month of travel among the ruined cities of Germany. When I look at the photograph of these young St. Louis ruffians ... I remember that 15 years ago the same type of German youth was beating Jews in the streets of German cities, burning synagogues and carrying on street fights against their own government. What has happened to American civilization, the American home, the American church, and our educational system, that it produces or tolerates this sort of conduct? And why should the St. Louis law enforcement agencies be so lenient with such rioters? Is closing the pools to Negroes the answer? Is the assault of a mob on a few helpless individuals a less serious offense than an assault of a single individual upon another?
JAMES A. GRAIN Geneva, Switzerland
Sir:
. . . The mention of segregation and equal rights in the same breath seems to me a mistake. And the mistaken impression that it is impossible to have both at the same time is one of the biggest causes of present racial troubles. If I divide my apple with a Negro but refuse to let him bite off my half, I give him an equal right but at the same time I keep segregation. I can't believe an intelligent Negro would object or feel discriminated against . . .
A. L. LIGHT
Deermg, Mo.
Kudzu Kid & Lupine Queen
Sir:
... In Georgia, we are very proud of Channing Cope and the work that he is doing for the farmer. You have beautifully described his activities and the admiration all Georgians hold for him [TIME, July 4] . . .
[But] Miss Susan Myrick, Associate Editor and Farm Editor of the Macon Telegraph, probably the only woman in the nation to serve in this capacity, swings more influence with Middle Georgia farms on soil conservation than anyone [and] is regarded as the best informed and most helpful person in the area on agricultural problems . . .
Known as the "Blue Lupine Queen," Miss Myrick can challenge the "Kudzu Kid" any time. Blue Lupine, incidentally, is a nitrogen-bearing plant used extensively for winter cover crops in the South ... It stops erosion, and adds millions to the income of Georgia farmers . . .
PEYTON ANDERSON Macon Telegraph Publisher
Macon, Ga.
P: If the Macon Telegraph (circ. 34,000) had as many readers as the Kudzu Kid's Atlanta Constitution (circ. 187,000), Publisher Anderson's case for his farm editor would carry more weight. It is nevertheless true that Sue Myrick, born & raised on an oldtime cotton plantation, knows the answers to many Southern questions.* Her pet promotion is soil conservation, and she has done much to popularize the Blue Lupine, as Cope has the Kudzu.--ED.
*She was hired by David Selznick to teach Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, et al., how to "talk Southern" in Gone With the Wind.
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