Human Relations
Sir:
Congratulations on the comprehensive, intelligent survey of a significant social development contained in your special article April 14, "Human Relations: A New Art Brings a Revolution to Industry."
Do I sense correctly that one of your major sources was "Partners in Production,"a report by the Labor Committee of the Twentieth Century Fund assisted by Osgood Nichols, which the Fund published in 1949?
EVANS CLARK
Director
The Twentieth Century Fund New York City
P: Reader Clark is correct. The Fund's report was one of several major sources, supplemented by more than 100,000 words of research filed by TIME'S own correspondents.--ED.
Sir:
I am a graduate student at the Center for Human Relations Studies at New York University, and . . . am constantly asked: "Just what is human relations?" This is a difficult question to answer, for HR is not only a "field" (or profession, like law), but also a method and a philosophy. Further, it involves relations not only in industry, but also in the family, the community, the school, the church, the international scene, etc. . . .
We in the field . . . strive to give man "a sense of usefulness and importance" in as many areas of his living as possible; we are the searchers for those "things" which will help restore meaning and value to life's living. We are "a new art," a new philosophy, of which not too many are, as yet, even aware. And it is recognition (and clarification) like yours that gives us "a shot in the arm" . . .
EUNICE NELSON
New York City
Sir:
"Actually, far from being an occult science, human relations is nothing more than good will--and applied common sense."
Right! The New Philosophy is not new. It is Christianity.
D. S. McARTHUR
Elizabeth, N.J.
Sir:
Your article on human relations . . . reduces to two pages what we try to say in somewhat greater detail in several months of our courses in personnel management . . . We find some students . . . who feel (usually on the basis of their limited and somewhat unhappy experience) that all this talk is merely an academic pipe dream with little practical application in industry . . .
We are convinced that the survival of our American way of life depends to a large degree on our ability to see and correct the evils of our existing institutions, sooner than to throw our system overboard in favor of any one of the many forms of Utopia which our Washington D.C. reformers and some collaborators in university classrooms are trying to foist upon us.
WILMAR F. BERNTHAL
Valparaiso University Valparaiso, Ind.
The Musk Ox Forever
Sir:
Re: "How Now, Brown Cow?" [TIME, April 14].
This guy is terrific. Benchley can now rest in peace--he has found his successor.
KEN C. FITCH
Wichita, Kans.
Sir:
I never realized what a valuable asset we Canadians had in our vast wastelands to the north.
If Mr. John J. Teal, anthropologist extraordinary, is successful in his mission, it will be a tremendous blow to our dairy, textile and packing industries. Nevertheless, all the best to the "Arctic Rustler."
KENNETH M. NEALON
Toronto, Ont.
Sir:
The statement that the musk ox "yields meat (though only if killed)" puzzles me. Do you HAVE to kill one before eating it? ? ?
MAGGIE McCAY
Salem, S. Dak.
P: It helps.-- ED.
Mink, Shmink!
Sir:
You have just broken the camel's back.
Since the first mink coat appeared on the Washington scandal scene, you have scarcely missed an issue wherein you did not drag mink and mink coats in general through the mud . . .
In your April 14 issue, however, you have not only leveled your sights on mink and mink coats, but have now included mink ranchers. Your statement, "Mink ranchers could relax--if the rest of the nation could not," bears an implication which is not only untrue but defames a hard-working industry unjustly. Mink, mink coats, and mink ranchers have nothing whatsoever to do with the raw corruption in Washington.
Mink coats have become a part of the way of life in America . . . because they are the supreme in beautiful furs . . .
Please go swing your battle ax at some deserving target--there is no shortage.
ALLYN F. EKSTROM Kay Bee Fur Farms Mt. Morrison, Colo.
Democracy Transplanted
Sir:
My congratulations for your account of Latin American idiosyncrasy toward politics [TIME, April 21].
I am Latino (from Venezuela), and agree that besides many social transformations urgently needed in Latin America, time is ... of paramount importance for fulfilling the requirements of what we (in the United States) understand as a democracy . . .
I consider myself lucky to be studying at an American university. Perhaps this now-increasing tendency of young Latinos to pursue studies in America will eventually help in the achievement of the above goal.
FRANCISCO HERRERA G. Syracuse, N.Y.
Mister General
Sir:
Mrs. Fred Norton [TIME, April 14] asks if anyone remembers "that when General Eisenhower takes off his uniform, he is going to look just like a man instead of a god." Mrs. Norton omits an important point, i.e., that when the general takes off his shoes and his socks, it may reveal that like another god (idol), his feet are of clay!
S. G. NOBLE-SOSMAN Westfield, NJ.
Sir:
. . . Since when have we had to line up our presidential candidates like contestants in a beauty contest and worry about how they will look in various costumes? . . .
MARTHA J. SMITH Philadelphia
Sir:
May I remind Mrs. Fred Norton that . . . several million successful American soldiers found removing the uniform no impediment to being a successful citizen?
JIM VAN AVERY Miami
Bishop on the Air Waves (Cont'd)
Sir:
Please accept the sincere thanks of four Scandinavian converts for the splendid article on Bishop Sheen [TIME, April 14] . . . Would that he could preach in Sweden, Norway and Denmark; what a harvest is there! Though we are few, others are gradually returning to "Their Father's House"--and perhaps one day there will again be a flourishing Catholic life in the Scandinavian countries. Thank you, and God bless you!
INGEBORG ULLAFSON
BJORN KNUTSON
LILLIAN ANDERSON
SIGNE BORG Seattle
Sir:
As an old schoolmate of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen--in high school and college--I want to congratulate you upon the splendid job you did in portraying his student days. With marvelous accuracy you recaptured the spirit and the atmosphere of his early youth and young manhood . . .
Bishop Sheen is that unusual blend of eminent scholarship, high sanctity and warm human friendliness which makes his Tuesday evening appearances on television such a refreshing and inspiring visit to the homes of many millions of families of every faith. All who listen to him on the radio and on television will appreciate him all the more because of your authentic and masterly portrayal of his life and work.
REV. J. A. O'BRIEN University of Notre Dame South Bend, Ind.
Sir:
Why do you dare to offend the sensibilities of millions of Americans with your Easter cover by representing the sacred Christian traditions with the religious anachronism of Roman Catholic totalitarianism? By no stretch of your perverted editorial imagination can you represent the unpretentious and democratic Christ by the priestly symbolism of a modern Roman Catholic bishop, arrayed in purple and supported by a totalitarian system of religion, which wallows in luxury, pageantry and power . . .
REV. ROY L. LAURIN Eagle Rock Baptist Church Los Angeles
Sir:
. . . I guess it's all up with Uncle Miltie--he'd better shop around for another spot. MARGARET M. WEIS Jersey City, N.J.
Sir:
The pulpits are full of shams like Sheen. If he practiced what he preached, why the ulcers? Ask the man who owns one!
J. H. BICKFORD Evanston, Ill.
Sir:
Your article states: "Into the making of Fulton Sheen went St. Paul and Thomas Jefferson, Savonarola and George F. Babbitt"--and, I might add, Torquemada.
For make no mistake: these thunderers of the Lord, both Catholic and Protestant, are all Inquisitors General at heart, and their burning zeal to "seem terrible to the opponents of truth and be their steady adversary" would quickly be translated into a zeal for burning if given half a chance.
Woe unto us heretics if that day should ever return!
J. L. TAYLOR
Piedmont, Calif.
Among Politicians, a Failure?
Sir:
Congratulations and thank you for your Eastertime message contained in the very fine and sympathetic "Personality" sketch of the Rev. Michael Scott, South African Christian minister-without-parish [TIME, April 14].
The teachings of Christ are very difficult for mortal man to put into practice, but they contain so many answers to the problems that persistently vex mankind. "It seems certain," you say in the closing paragraph of the article, "that he will be defeated in the end and pass, among politicians, for a failure." His example of untiring effort to secure decent, Christian treatment for ALL men is an inspiration to those of us . . . who have a strong belief in the Christian, democratic and liberal ideals of the West, and who plan to enter politics to fight for the realization of these ideals. His example is a challenge to us that we must not pass, among politicians, as failures.
KEITH M. SEEGMILLER Chevy Chase, Md.
Sir:
Please forward this check [$10] to Michael Scott--he can do a better job of spending it than I can.
E. E. LOCKE JR. Detroit
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