Top Dogs
Sir:
I was sorry to find the Philadelphia Orchestra out of the money in TIME'S Boston article [Dec. 19]. "De gustibus" and all that, but the ratings had the ring of a statement of fact.
[TIME called the Boston symphony--except for Arturo Toscanini's NBC Symphony--"the U.S.'s finest and one of the top four in the world. The others: Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic."]
I disagree violently: the Philadelphia Orchestra sounds best to me in person, on records, and on the air.
PAUL BAKER Upper Darby, Pa.
Sir:
In Philadelphia, nearly everybody prefers the Philadelphia Orchestra. In Boston--and among TIME'S editors--the Boston Symphony is top dog (except, of course, for the NBC Symphony, which is in a class by itself).
We rather imagine that collective expert opinion would render TIME'S sacrosanct judgment subject to question . . . It is very probable that the Boston is not the "nation's finest" (except, of course, for the NBC Symphony, which is in a class by itself), nor is the Philadelphia the "world's greatest"--as it was hailed to be in Great Britain last summer. More likely . . . neither is sufficiently superior to" the other in all departments to warrant being called "THE BEST" . . .
MAHLON M. NEMIROW ALVIN J. HOLLIN Philadelphia, Pa.
Sir:
. . . The Virgil Thomson you quote as prophet (he prophesied that Munch would eventually lead the Boston Orchestra) apparently has no standing with you as a critic . . . Virgil Thomson says that the Philadelphia Orchestra is "certainly the finest orchestra, I think, now playing in America, which means anywhere."
BESSE HOWARD Philadelphia, Pa. Cf De gustibus, indeed.--ED.
Sir:
As is usual ... I leafed thru page by page . . . On page 42 there was a picture of Madame Munch & Pompey. My thought was:
"Ah, here are newsworthy people who champion that finest of all dogs, the Airedale" . . . Am I disgusted, or need I be? If after all these years I cannot tell an Airedale. Tell me, now, didn't your writer make a mistake ? . . .
EDWARD B. TIRRELL Kelseyville, Calif.
P:Conductor Munch says that his dog is an Irish Airedale, sometimes also known as a Welsh terrier (which is what TIME called him). Madame Munch says that Pompey is a pedigreed Airedale. TIME'S Boston correspondent says that the dog weighs a good 40 Ibs., is mostly grey, and is unlike the Airedales he grew up with.--ED.
This May Hurt a Little
Sir:
TIME'S Dec. 19 story of the A.M.A.'s campaign to defeat socialized medicine was an example of objective coverage.
May I suggest that the "medicine men" save their millions of dollars on propaganda and win the battle against the politicos by reducing fees to a reasonable level . . .
WILLIAM F. QUAINTANCE Moline, Ill.
Sir:
The only thing wrong with the $25 assessment on American Medical Association members, to be spent for lobbying against the national health insurance program, is that it's not enough. The A.M.A. should take a page from its own book and charge the good doctors according to their incomes, the way these champions of free enterprise do to the public. Like this: a member surgeon charges a man having a $5,000-a-year income $500 for an essential operation on the man's wife. Ten percent is not at all unusual in such circumstances . . . This plan would provide the A.M.A. with ample funds to fight its feudal battle . . .
ROLAND CUEVA Heyburn, Idaho
Sir:
Mr. Oscar Ewing fails to state whether his unbounded admiration for the British system of socialized medicine extends to still another of their techniques for promoting the general welfare, namely, their method of settling labor disputes.
Whenever the government wishes to terminate a strike . . . it calls in the army to act as strikebreakers . . . Will that come later, after the doctors are fixed?
LYON STEINE, M.D.
Valley Stream, N.Y.
Exeunt Omnes
Sir:
Re: Science--Breeding Atoms [TIME, Dec. 12]. Doesn't this remind you of Shakespeare?
Plutonius: "Geigers, beware, for Fission and ourselves will wed our forces to spawn a new and fiercer breed of demons."
Neutrons: "Hear! Hear!"
Fission: "If 'twere done, 'tis well 'twere done quickly, ere some other power cheat us of the race."
Neutrons: "Hear! Hear!"
Plutonius (aside to U-235): "Canst stomach for your bride this heavier creation of your own being?"
U-235 and U-238 (together): "Already we are all but wed."
Neutrons: "Hear! Hear!"
Plutonius: "Hear what I say?"
Neutrons: "BANG!"
Well, anyway, thanks for your excellent reporting of the preliminary scene-setting. Even in this distant outpost, it's interesting to know what's on the way.
ROBERT F. FISKE Christiansted, Virgin Islands
Left & Right
Sir:
The Religion section of TIME'S Dec. 19 issue is a masterpiece . . .
On the left side Bishop Oxnam, on the right side Padre Pio. What a dangerous threat this Pio fellow, huh, Bishop! . . .
HAROLD F. BECKER Akron, Ohio
. . . On the one hand, a man who professes to be "a man of God" . . . declares that the Catholic Church seeks to destroy religious freedom. He insinuates that the Catholic Church, the faith of 350 million people, cannot be trusted, thereby creating suspicion, bigotry and hatred . . .
On the other hand, a reporter's factual account of a truly remarkable man (who also professes to be "a man of God") provides the contrast which thinking men cannot fail to see. Padre Pio's life is far more eloquent than words . . .
REV. JOHN J. KOROS St. Peter's Church Omaha, Neb.
Sir:
So Roman Catholic Archbishop Gushing says that those Americans who are organized to defend the Separation of Church and State, and Religious Freedom, are a "refined form of the Ku Klux Klan." Has the archbishop forgotten what brought the Pilgrims to this country? . . .
MRS. J. SCOTT Chicago, Ill.
Sir:
. . . Linking the Communist Party and the Catholic Church as oppressors . . . is stupidly ridiculous. Any person reading the news, whether he is biased or unbiased, knows that the Catholic Church and its heroic hierarchy is locked in a life-and-death struggle with Russian Communism in Europe and elsewhere. And this struggle, incidentally, is for both religious and civil liberty . . .
BERTRAND LEBLANC San Francisco, Calif.
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