Man of the Year?

SIR:

... I PLACE IN NOMINATION THE MAN WHOSE BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS QUITE LITERALLY MAKE POSSIBLE THE STELLAR ROLES PLAYED BY POLITICIANS AND GENERALS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. A MAN WHOSE GENEROSITY IS ONLY EXCELLED BY HIS DOCILITY. MR. REALLY BIG, THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER.

FRED C. ELLS SANTA MONICA, CALIF.

Sir:

There is no one but General Douglas Mac-Arthur . . .

FRANK T. PRIEST Wichita, Kans.

SIR:

. . . T. LAMAR CAUDLE FOR CINCHING THE REPUBLICANS IN 1952.

MICHAEL REISE

NEW YORK CITY

Sir:

. . . John Foster Dulles.

C. T. HUYSKEN Detroit

Sir:

. . . Senator Estes Kefauver.

(REV.) WILLIAM MCLEAN TWIDDY

Succasunna, N.J.

Sir:

Senator Joseph McCarthy . . .

CARL NESOR

Winnetka, Ill.

Sir:

. . . Surely General Eisenhower? . . .

MRS. RUTH LOUCHS

Bainbridge, N.Y.

Sir:

Hear my plea--Not H.S.T.!

JOHN MORGAN

Bell Buckle, Tenn.

Sir:

That forgotten, imprisoned Associated Pressman William N. Oatir,.

DAN F. SULLIVAN

St. Louis

Sir: . . . Paul Douglas.

JEAN SHEPLER

Litchfield, Ill.

Sir:

. . . Secretary of State Dean Acheson.

ROBERT DONIHI

London, England

Sir:

As runner-up to your Man of the Year, I'd like to nominate a once stalwart gent known as Dollar Bill . . .

LEWIS WILLIAMS Philadelphia

P:Of TIME readers' nominations for Man of the Year, 14% voted for General MacArthur; 9% for John Foster Dulles; President Truman and General Eisenhower, 4%; Churchill and Senator Estes Kefauver, 3%; Dean Acheson, Senator Paul Douglas and the American Taxpayer, 2^%; Senator Taft, 2%; Senator McCarthy, Premier Mossadegh and John L. Lewis, i%%. The remaining 49^% votes were scattered.--ED.

How the Readers Digest

Sir:

TIME [Dec. 10] says: "The Reader's Digest is one of the greatest success stories in the history of journalism." Admittedly, the Digest enjoys circulation superiority. But is that equivalent to success? The real test of success is not size but quality. I regret to note TIME contributing to the American heresy that bigness is the same as goodness, that success can be tabulated on an adding machine.

The measurement of a successful publication is its approximation to the true and the good . . . and a publication which . . . caricatures truth by pretending all truths are not really complex but simple and simply digested ... is only effective in spreading the trite and the superficial.

DONALD MCDONALD

Davenport, Iowa

Sir:

For most young people the Reader's Digest serves as a pleasant introduction to adult reading . . .

I suppose that my main objection is that the food for thought has been so carefully sweetened for swallowing whole that the readers themselves digest very little. There is little stimulation for careful analysis or deeper inquiry. As indicative of this condition I cite the fact that to many students, "research for speech material" is synonymous with thumbing through the current edition of the Digest. Worse, they reproduce the chosen article . . . orally, right down to the last pastel adjective . . .

GEORGE A. WILLEY

Beloit College

Beloit, Wisconsin

Sir:

Your article on the DeWitt Wallaces is one of the best that I have ever read. Every reader of the Reader's Digest must have wondered about the people and the organization that do it. Then you come along and lift the curtain in a very perfect sort of way . . .

GORDON STRONG

Dickerson, Md.

Sir:

I suggest that since the Reader's Digest does not give the public an open forum or letters-to-the-editor section, some young couple get married and publish a magazine of direct reply. I would not suggest Reader's Indigestion [but] imagine the possibilities in free contributions to "The Character I Want to Forget" . . .

F. DEWOLFE MILLER

Knoxville, Tenn.

What They Like About the South

Sir:

Congratulations on your excellent "Industrial South" [Dec. 10] article. It is high time someone dispelled the illusion that the South is a decadent, poverty-stricken area, peopled by prejudiced and illiterate "natives" . . .

JACK H. CAMPBELL

Bullock, N.C.

Sir:

The "Industrial South" is a long-awaited reward for nine years of subscribing to TIME.

RALPH D. PORCH

Anniston, Ala.

Sir:

. . . You have finally given us credit for being more than a stamping ground for carpetbaggers . . .

MILLARD N. WILLIAMS

Savannah, Ga.

Sir:

... I am disappointed that you omitted the "e" in Greeneville, Tenn., which reminds me of a porter on the Southern Railway's "Memphis Special," announcing: "Greeneville, Greeneville, the home of Andrew Johnson, the 17th President of the United States, the onliest Greeneville with an 'e' in the middle!"

CHARLES HEWETT

Erwin, Tenn.

SIR:

YOUR CAPTION UNDER PICTURE OF ECUSTA PLANT CALLING IT "WORLD'S NO. 1 MAKER OF CIGARETTE PAPER" IS INCORRECT. FACTS ARE THESE: ECUSTA HAS TOTAL OF ONLY EIGHT PAPER MACHINES. PETER J.SCHWEITZER, INC. HAS 31 PAPER MACHINES WORLDWIDE: 16 DEVOTED TO MANUFACTURE OF CIGARETTE PAPER, WORKING 7 DAYS A WEEK, 24 HOURS A DAY PRODUCING CONSIDERABLY MORE CIGARETTE PAPER PER YEAR THAN ECUSTA.

M. PETER SCHWEITZER

NEW YORK CITY

P:TIME'S caption should have made it clear that Ecusta is the biggest single plant making cigarette paper.--ED.

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