Progeny for President

Sir:

Now that Teens for Taft are in the political arena, I am waiting for the appearance of:

Adolescents for Adlai;

Bairns for Byrd;

Cubs for Kerr;

Infants for Eisenhower;

Kids for Kefauver;

Little women for Warren;

Moppets for MacArthur;

Runts for Russell;

Striplings for Stassen;

Tots for Truman.

GEORGE JOHNSON Wausau, Wis.

Post-Mortem for Taxpayers

Sir:

At my desk, miserably struggling over my income-tax form when I could ill afford to spare the time from the work whence comes my income, I looked up, not at the ceiling as you suggest, but at your March 10 cover article on the U.S. taxpayer. I quickly sensed an expression of sympathy from you . . . Your commiseration is superb . . Congratulations on the masterpiece of writing that makes income-tax time something to feel almost gay about . . .

HOWARD M. LIECHTY Monsey, N.Y.

Sir:

. . . Artist Artzybasheff has probably captured the feeling of a great mass of Americans who feel so "squeezed," but will never voice a protest in the direction where it might do some good -- their Congressman . . .

W. W. ROGERS Lansing, Mich.

Sir:

Congratulations on your March 10 cover. Regardless of the remaining covers for this year, that is my nomination for Cover of the Year.

W. L. MERRICK JR.

Cambridge, Md.

Sir:

I still think my first idea for the U.S. Taxpayer cover was more to the point.

BORIS ARTZYBASHEFF New York City

P: Herewith the first idea. -- ED.

Grimm Stuff

Sir:

Many thanks for your March 3 article "Gun, Gat & Rod." With the exception of a very few, all children's shows on the current TV programs seem to be composed of nothing but gangsters, tough cowboys, blustering, blood & thunder pictures which give every child from Maine to Louisiana the idea that it is right and honorable and pure heroism to shoot and kill in cold blood. At the tender age of four years, my daughter has a well-established idea that it is nice to shoot people.

MRS. AMOS BELDEN Avon, N.Y.

Sir:

... In these parts we were raised on Saturday afternoon movies and popcorn, gats and lynchings, but the kiddie population hasn't rubbed anyone out for a long time . . .

JANET HARTLE Franklin, Pa.

Sir:

I am no valiant viewer of television for tots, but having read your article and noted horrified reactions of mothers, who eavesdrop on childish programs, I merely wonder if those anxious adults ever happened to read Grimm's Fairy Tales or Hans Christian Andersen's?

As a onetime child, may I point out that I . . . found my childish dreams haunted by: a witch (Czechoslovakian) who collected the eyes of hapless travelers lost in her enchanted wood, and amused herself by slipping them in & out of the empty sockets of her victims; a princess who, suffering under a spell, kept a quaint garden filled with the bones of her murdered lovers (On windy days the bones which hung on the trees would rattle back & forth in the breeze); a girl who kept the severed head of her lover in a flower pot* by her bedside; a witch (Russian) who lived in a hut on hen's legs and had a charming fence surrounding her abode--a fence manufactured from human thigh bones and topped with human skulls . . .

Yet with all these horrors "our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation . . ."

FLORENCE M. STEVENSON Los Angeles

Wherefore Art Thou Roger?

Sir:

It was with deep regret that I read the new phonetic pronouncing alphabet [set by the International Civil Aviation Organization--TIME, March 3].

All of the words have been changed except V for Victor. What is of most concern is imagining how the television "space cadet" will sound. Instead of saying, "Roger and out," it will be "Romeo and out." What a mouthful for the youngsters, and a slur on love.

I. WILLIAM OBERFELDER Detroit

Sir:

The spectacle of grown men fiddling with new, multi-syllabled names for the Navy alphabet flags, at a time when we are told we are in dire peril, overwhelms me. And I shudder to think of the response from a group of sailors when an unfortunate signalman is required to sing out, in the course of his duties, "Foxtrot, Juliett."

ROBERT S. SEESE Detroit

P: Or Tango, Oscar?--ED.

Sir:

. . . ICAO thinks the new pronouncing alphabet "would be more universally pronounceable [by members of the armed forces]."

How can a pilot pronounce "Foxtrot," under the new alphabet, if he can't pronounce "Fox," under the old?

JAMES C. LINCOLN

Rome, Italy

Git & Gumption (Canadian Version)

Sir:

After reading three letters in your Feb. 25 issue complimenting Canadians in general and Clarence Decatur Howe in particular, I began to alter my opinion of the typical Yank. But when I read the letter by Allan S. Richardson [who credited C. D. Howe's "Yankee upbringing" for his success in Canada], it slithered right back down to where it came from.

Mr. Richardson please note: in Canada a person is judged by what he is and does, not by what his ancestors did and were. Credit for Canada's industrial development goes to Mr. Howe, not to a bunch of New England characters buried over 100 years ago.

EDWARD H. MOSER Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Sir:

Allan Richardson of Denver, Col. seems to have a "typical American superiority complex," i.e., the Almighty American Dollar point of view . . . On the financial angle of things, American capital is interested in Canada only because it is paying big dividends now and will in the near future, and, considering the rapid dwindling state of the U.S. national resources, they must look elsewhere for investments to make . . .

J. G. THIVIERGE Trois Rivieres, Quebec

Sir:

Re Mr. Richardson's instructions to "give credit where credit is due": The "cash and nerve that showed the way and took the early gamble" in Canada was British. Consider the two greatest contributions, the Hudson's Bay Co. and the Canadian Pacific Railway . . . However, one should not harp on the past, but should instead consider whose "cash and nerve" are now going into the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway, a project apparently too big for a country with ten times the national income of Canada to tackle, even as a 50-50 partner, and after a half-century of thumb-twiddling indecision.

PAUL M. LAUGHTON

Ottawa, Ont.

Praise for Wayne

Sir:

I enjoyed your March 3 John Wayne cover story . . . Wayne's tolerant reaction to Actor Larry Parks's confession of having been a Communist was much more admirable than Hedda Hopper's Old Testament cry for vengeance. Instead of Wayne being "a little dumb about these things," I'd say Hedda is the one who's in need of instruction . . .

RIDGELY CUMMINGS Hollywood, Calif.

Sir:

. . . John Wayne may be no Alec Guinness or John Gielgud (just imagine them intoning "Let's get charging ! Saddle up !"), but he is a damn fine actor.

CHARLEY STANTON New York City

The Saucer Problem

Sir:

Along with hundreds of other sensible, rational and calm Americans, I wish to admonish you for your March 3 report on flying saucers. You are skeptical about [them] simply because you have not had the good fortune to see one. I certainly have not had technical training, but I . . . saw one and I know such things exist . . . My son first saw the object; it was coming towards our place and looked long and oval in shape with little square windows on the side . . . A flying saucer is noiseless, and comes and goes quickly. How many people do you know who watch the sky? Most people go for days without even a slight glance up. Flying saucers do not attract attention. Luck in looking up at the right time is what counts . . .

LEONA YARBROUGH Redwood Valley, Calif.

Kingdoms of Oil

Sir:

Having lived for 28 years in the Middle East, I found the report of your correspondent, James Bell, in "Six Kingdoms of Oil" [TIME, March 3] extremely interesting, very clear, and depicting the true Arabian mentality.

I believe the policy of the U.S. in this sensitive region of the world is a splendid example of cooperation with Arab countries, where the fanatic pride of the people could only accept, and live with, such a policy.

HENRY BEYDA Washington, D.C.

Sir:

. . . The crime of wantonly exploiting the world's greatest known reserve of oil in an oil-hungry society like ours is most serious, yet the only interest of the five Arabian oil companies shapes up as a race--who can pump the mostest the fastest? Conservation is a thing of the past, even though the West has begun to feel the oil pinch. In 15 or 20 years ... it will be interesting to hear the excuses given to an already riotous Arab world about why their only good asset has vanished.

WILLIAM A. GROMKO Norwich, Conn.

* A gruesome foible also indulged in by the heroine of Keats' poem, The Pot of Basil.

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