Myth or Menace?
Sir:
I was a little disappointed to find [TIME, June 29] that only 22% of the U.S. public agrees with me that Joe McCarthy does more good than harm (which is more than I can say for a few other Congressmen). McCarthy is ... the only man to fight Communism with a little of the fanaticism that Communists themselves display.
Our "liberal" journalists and politicians have proven easy pickings in the Red plan to calm this country into apathy against their infiltration tactics. They don't seem to realize that we must soil our hands in order to dig out the rodents that have burrowed into our backyard.
LAWRENCE NABOZNY
Hudson, N.Y.
Sir:
. . . You make much of the anti-McCarthy attitude in [England] . . . You should realize that your spineless State Department, by destroying books which have not the faintest Communist bias, out of fear of a demagogic Senator, makes people here wonder what is happening in your country. We would never allow any person in public life here to create such an atmosphere . . .
Your politicians (and this is no slur on your remarkable people) are notoriously among the world's most venal, but the latest batch seems to have reached a new low . . .
TAMES MORAN
London, England
Sir:
. . . You seem to be so intent on placing the blame for McCarthy's present power on "the apologists for the New and Fair Deals" that you are willing to overlook any fact that belies your argument . . . Like all honest and intelligent people, you are ashamed of McCarthy. But . . . because you are doing your best to support President Eisenhower and the Republican Party, you are trying to minimize McCarthy's influence in that party, and to blame his strength on those with whom you disagree politically. It may be that the liberals, by their opposition to McCarthy, have helped to strengthen him. But let us not try to obscure the one reason for his present position: the willingness with which many Republicans have clasped him to their bosoms, and the unwillingness of all but a very few others to oppose him . . .
JAMES N. MILLER
New York City
Sir:
... If the Gallup poll indicates that only 22% of the public interviewed think that McCarthy does more good than harm, then how come his smashing victory in Wisconsin, in spite of his inability to campaign against the whirlwind fight put up by his opponent and a number of Fair Deal orators? Was it this 22% that beat "Tydings, the Good" in Maryland? Must we finance British Socialism and pay more attention to their lords, dukes and sirs in the running of our affairs than we do to our own peoples' elected representatives? . . .
C. A. GOTT
McLeansboro, Ill.
Dig the Mellower Things
Sir:
I was really shook to see that TIME has begun to dig the mellower things in life. That real cool [June 22] article on our own "Red" Blanchard was the zorchest mess of weird words your crazy mag's had in eons. It was really nervous, man, and it'll sure help to button up these eggheaded cubes who don't dig us ...
Real gone, cats.
DAVE LITTLEJOHN
San Carlos, Calif.
Picasso's Proletarian Pegasus
Sir:
May I congratulate Picasso (via TIME, June 1) upon his rather pleasing canvas, which shows us in so simple and direct a manner . . . the true meaning of "peace" under Communism [see cut]?
. . . Not even the fish nor the birds are permitted freedom of action. Pegasus himself has been chained to the plow. None knows his native element, but all must dance--or work--to the tune of one piper. But in one small area lies hope. It is clearly shown that, even though carried on within the close confines of the underground, by the mother's careful nurturing of her child, the intellectual's closing his ear to the piper's tune, and the freeman's bending faithfully to his task (or is that Picasso molding a pot?), the way will be opened for the child gazing wistfully at the pasture to leave his slavery . . .
Possibly, for once, Picasso has painted better than he knew.
MARY F. WOMER
Chicago
The Rugged Life (Washington Division)
Sir:
In the name of all society editors who have ever wearied of the trite flittings of the elite, permit me to thank you for your tremendously well-done account of Martha Rountree's Washington party [TIME, June 29] ...
NANCY SEHR
The Evening News
Petoskey, Mich.
Sir:
Life in Washington, as you represent it, is rugged for Her Majesty's ambassador, Sir Roger Makins, forced, in the name of duty, to eat lavender-pink potato salad and dance the Lambeth Walk with strange ladies. Let Sir Roger reflect that his predecessors of 20 years ago had it even rougher: no champagne or Scotch to wash the stuff down with ... At least, in this age of lavender-pink potatoes and policies, Sir Roger does not have to face the grim protocol of Prohibition, which moved the compassion of Hilaire Belloc:
. . . And when they ask you out to dine
In Washington, instead of wine,
They give you water from the spring
With lumps of ice for flavoring
Which sometimes kill, and always freeze
The high plenipotentiaries . . .
Chin up, Sir Roger !
GEORGE A. TULL
Tarrytown, N.Y.
The Going Price of Eagles
Sir:
My husband is a numismatist, [and] commented on the June 22 article, "Money Black Markets," where, it seems, $20 gold pieces were referred to as "Eagles." A minor issue, to be sure, but we believe that $20 gold pieces are "Double Eagles," and $10 pieces are called "Eagles."
MRS. G. P. CALVERT
Williamsport, Pa.
P:TIME shortchanged a noble bird.--ED.
Only 16 Played Pingpong
Sir:
There are seven of us Presbyterian missionaries in this station who are ex-servicemen, but if Chaplain Ivan Bennett thinks the "new look among G.I.s . . . is a spiritual one"
[TIME, June 15], he should have walked the streets of Kobe with us about two weeks ago when 4,500 Marines came to town. The look they had was neither new nor spiritual. There was a nauseating lack of either.
In one short, eight-hour period, some (at least 16 came to play pingpong, drink coffee and sing in Christian fellowship at one of our centers, and a few were innocently sightseeing) of these men did more to break down Japanese-American relations and to hinder the Gospel of Christ than years and years of constructive work, both diplomatic and spiritual, have done to build them up. The strife is not yet o'er.
L. H. LANCASTER JR.
Kobe, Japan
Business Bubble?
Sir:
Re Noyes bubble house, Bauhaus builder, etc. [TIME, June 22]: many thanks for your excellent reporting of newsworthy architectural items. However, you would be doing our profession a service by classifying such stories in the Science or Business sections.
We are trying to live down the public's misconception that an architect is an impractical, long-haired artist. Design is important, but science of construction and dollars and cents imperative.
S. KENNETH JOHNSON, A.I.A.
Los Angeles
Prophet from Yoknapatawpha
Sir:
Without being sacrilegious, I wish that the speech that William Faulkner made at Wellesley [TIME, June 22] could be translated into every language in the world, as it carries a great lesson--in fact, so great, in my humble opinion, that I can see it as an extra page to be inserted in our Christian Bible . . .
MARSHALL NEILAN
Hollywood, Calif.
Sir:
The "final signature" that William Faulkner spoke of will never be written by man, because man is incapable of the other attributes that Faulkner bestows on him, namely: that man is competent for a soul because he is capable of saving that soul . . .; that man is capable of teaching himself to be civilized. The pitiful history of man's wars, starvation, sickness, persecution and pestilence is evidence enough that no angels are watching . . .
BILL STALNAKER
Houston
General No-Goods, etc.
Sir:
In your June 22 People section, you have really hit a new low: Eleanor Roosevelt touring Japanese coal mines--what sensible miner wouldn't be astonished? Frances Perkins "honored"--by Glamour magazine yet--for 50 years of service to the working girl. They call it "service"? Aly Khan--how thoughtful of him to pick a stud farm this time . . . Lady Astor, an ... arrogant woman, being horrified at the idea that she could have married a U.S. Army officer. Nobody in his right mind would believe it ... And last, the driveling of Diana Barrymore. She observes . . . that women are no damn good ("They should be struck regularly, like a gong") . . . She doesn't need to be struck like a gong. Not at all. What she needs is a good, swift kick . . .
Why can't TIME confine its activities to worthy individuals in its People column, rather than dredge up such a roll call of globetrotters . . . and general no-goods? . . .
MRS. M. J. PRENDERGAST
Library, Pa.
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.