"In These Critical Times"
Sir:
Re your Aug. 28 article "Blood on Whose Hands?":
In these critical times . . . isn't it absurd that our Senators have time to call each other "blind, stupid," etc? . . .
If we are trying to influence other nations to turn to democracy, it seems to me that our Government is setting a poor example.
MRS. HAROLD MARTIN Waynesboro, Pa.
Sir:
As to whose hands the blood is on, it seems to me it's clearly on the hands of what Hanson Baldwin, the military commentator, calls the "busy-busy colonels making work" and careers for themselves . . .
The week before the Korean invasion I resigned in disillusionment as a civilian employee of the military establishment, after watching part of the job (which had not the remotest combat significance) that I, a woman, once did alone, divided among a lieutenant colonel, a major, a captain and an additional civilian . . .
ELNA BISHOP
Biloxi, Miss.
Sir:
I see that there are no sinners [in the Senate] except the other fellow. Each man is busily engaged in trying to extract the mote from his brother's eye, and is not at all concerned about the beam in his own . . .
One of the most cheering events for the people of these United States would be a general acknowledgment of ignorance and a confession of sin by our leaders. Is there no one who has the grace to humbly confess his part in the events which led us to this place of trouble? . . .
GILBERT A. JENSEN Royal, Iowa
"Seoul City Sue"
Sir:
Re "Seoul City Sue" [TiME, Aug. 21]:
We, here in Japan, have been receiving her broadcasts each evening at 2130 hours at 970 kilocycles. Her voice is anything but "honeyed." A great many of us here believe her to be one of the "Lost in Action" missionaries reported missing soon after the fall of Seoul.
Her manner of broadcast indicates, to us at least, that she is possibly being forced, either at gun point or by threat of life, to read the prepared script. The agonizing speed with which she delivers it indicates she has had very little time, if any, to rehearse the script. Her pronunciation is very Midwestern . . .
SERGEANT CHARLES R. MITCHELL Eta Jima, Japan
P: Official Army sources have now identified "Seoul City Sue" as Mrs. Ann Wallace Suhr, a former American Methodist missionary teacher, who left the mission in the 1930s to marry a Korean leftist. Missionary ex-colleagues believe that Mrs. Suhr broadcasts "under duress" and is "trying to save the life of her husband, and probably her own as well, by broadcasting for the Communists."--ED.
P.S.
Sir:
In answer to Mr. Lee Rosen's Aug. 21 letter [which described TIME as a "warlike manifesto-styled communication"], we wish to say that the War in Asia section in your magazine is to us one of the most important parts.
We are soldiers in the 24th Infantry Division, and we greatly depend upon your magazine to inform us of our progress in other sectors, as we seldom know what is going on outside our immediate area . . .
CORPORAL LEON E. FLAKE PRIVATE JACK P. HOGUE CORPORAL JESSE R. DAUGHRITY Korea
Sir:
I would like to express my gratitude to the Editors of TIME for their "warlike, manifesto-styled communication" . . .
My husband (a B-29 pilot), along with many other husbands and fathers, has been removed from his permanent station here in the Pacific for the purpose of aiding the South Koreans more effectively. The war has been brought very close to home for the dependents who are left behind. Authentic and up-to-the-minute news ... is scarce, so I look forward to the Pacific Overseas Edition of TIME every week . . .
Persons such as Lee Rosen would evidently be content to live their workaday lives . . . ignorant of the world-shaking and heartbreaking events that are taking place in the Far East today. Such attitudes are greatly responsible for the wretched state of affairs the world is in today . . .
PAULINE MELLON Guam, M.I.
The High Cost of Interning
Sir:
As the wife of an intern with a small son, I heartily endorse Dr. William Hart's no-more-interns idea [TIME, Aug. 28]. My husband is interning at one of the East Bay better-paying hospitals, and we have figured that ... he makes a little more than 30-c- an hour--this, after eight years of college and graduating in the upper third of his medical class.
I hope you print these facts so the public may know why doctors must charge high fees later on--they start out so heavily in debt.
PRISCILLA F. SHENK Richmond, Calif.
Cloudy Skies
Sir:
In your Aug. 28 cover story about rainmakers, you said that silver iodide had a tendency to drift with the wind . . . We were wondering if some of Dr. Langmuir's silver iodide might have drifted this far ... as all rain records for Kansas have-been broken this past July and August . . .
MAURICE D. STRYKER JR. Fredonia, Kans.
Sir:
Did it ever occur to you that these crazy scientists and their overdoses of silver iodide could very well cause a repetition of the famous 40-days rain? . . .
KENNETH J. GULP Overland Park, Kans.
P:It may comfort Reader Gulp to know that an overdose of silver iodide will often result in no rain at all.--ED.
Sir:
Your article on Meteorologists Langmuir and Schaefer neglected to mention that their work may result in another benefit ... to this part of the country . . .
Several years ago, [the late] H. T. Gisborne ... of the Northern Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station contacted Dr. Schaefer about the possibilities of inducing rain over forest fires. When Dr. Schaefer learned of our high percentage of lightning-caused forest fires, he began looking into the rather fantastic idea of stopping lightning at its source . . .
Instead of "triggering a rainstorm," the objective is to turn the small water droplets . . . into fine snowflakes, so that the cloud will fuzz out and drift away instead of growing into a towering cumulus with an anvil top and lots of lightning.
Mr. Gisborne and Dr. Schaefer selected a notorious cloud-breeding area in North Idaho . . . [and] had a plane ready to make the great experiment. But . . . the weather stubbornly refused to cooperate . . .
Had Mr. Gisborne lived, the experiment would probably have been carried on at a later date, and undoubtedly still will [be] ...
JIM PARSONS Sandpomt, Idaho
Advice to Mountaineers
Sir:
We, the members of the Sierra Club Rock Climbers search team that found the bodies of "Topper" Reynolds and Stephen Wasserman on Mt. Whitney [TIME, Aug. 28], are particularly interested in stopping the recurrence of this kind of tragedy . . .
The particular 2,000-ft. route that these boys attempted had been done only once, and the 800 feet they climbed before falling indicated that they had admirable courage, strength and athletic ability. Their failure, however, was due to poor judgment, and lack of experience, skill and equipment . . . this is typical of most mountaineering accidents in the U.S.
We would like to point out that the best mountaineers in this country take quite elaborate safety precautions even on simple climbs . . . Our sincere advice to eager youths is that if you are going to climb cliffs, learn and practice the techniques in a climbing club . . .
LEE TODD Hollywood, Calif.
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