July 4

Sir:

Your wonderful cover and account--I hope Washington's spirit of honor, daring and humility, guided by God, may remain a never-forgotten American example.

PETER FLORIEN GASS Hempstead, N.Y.

Sir:

. . . Certainly there is no better "Man to Remember" on such a critical July 4 of 1953. Your article captures the feebler flame of '53 and holds it against the vivid backdrop of '76. And every American reading it will see better through the discouraging darkness of the present . .

ANN HAWKES HUTTON Bristol, Pa.

Sir:

TIME'S beautiful Map of Revolution in the South indicates that the war ended at Yorktown when Cornwallis surrendered to Washington on Oct. 19, 1781. No; our fuss with the British continued, with Indian depredations and bloodshed, for 13 more years, until Mad Anthony Wayne fought and won the Battle of Fallen Timbers south of Toledo, Ohio in 1794. Even then the dogged British renewed the struggle in 1812, burning our White House to our everlasting disgrace.

The British were in our hair, off & on, over a period of 38 years, and we are not completely untangled yet.

THOMAS M. GALEY Owensboro, Ky.

Sir:

... I found your article excellent in that it represented the American Revolution as a rebellion, not especially against the English Crown, rather against certain conditions then prevailing thereunder. I trust that you have succeeded in persuading certain Americans that we are not still fighting that particular war--that on the contrary, we ought to be cooperating with a nation which rectified its mistakes after that war was lost.

JOSEPH PAUL MORRIS JR. Haverford, Pa.

What Keeps Illinois Afloat?

Sir:

There was a story popular in Seattle during the early war years about a disgusted stranger who viewed the barrage balloons tugging at their moorings in the usual Seattle drizzle, and muttered: "Why don't they cut those ropes and let the damn place sink back in the ocean!"

After reading in issue after issue of TIME about conditions in Illinois (i.e., slums, gangster politics, lack of nonsectarian schools), I think the state must be held up by balloons. What a relief if somebody would cut those ropes and let the place sink . . .

MARDINE LEMMON Pasco, Wash.

Myth or Menace?

Sir:

Honestly, don't you think most of your readers are fed up with your sophist diatribes against Senator McCarthy? The latest said that much ground is already cut from under McCarthy's feet because the present Administration is not influenced by Communism . . .

If former tenants allow skunks and beetle bugs to invade the house and associate with them, is it not the duty of the new tenant to exterminate the vermin, patch up all places of entrance, and to determine responsibility for allowing the neighborhood to be infected?

We Americans love a slugger like Senator McCarthy.

T. H. TRACY

New York City

Sir:

Your June 22 article . . . described accurately the causes and effects of McCarthyism --here and abroad ... It also illustrates the fact that Americans think more in terms of personalities rather than issues . . . This way of thinking reminds one of the Americans' reaction to Charles A. Lindbergh when he returned from Germany 16 years ago with his information of Germany's newly acquired armed might. Everybody was so busy commenting on his "defeatism" and whether he was a good guy or not--nobody bothered to listen to him . . .

ARIE SCHOORL Montevideo, Uruguay

Sir:

... If it wasn't easy "to inflate McCarthy to his present proportions," then the wishy-washy liberals must have been unbelievably clever. As you say, McCarthy is a major liability to Eisenhower's policies (if the liberals who hate McCarthy could do that, then they are Machiavellians), but the exaggerated fear which causes disgraceful episodes exists within the Administration, not outside. Though "serious people can hardly believe that Communism influences the present Administration," distrust has been widely disseminated -- and "serious people" aren't Mc-Carthyites . . .

McCarthyism isn't a myth. It is an unhappy fact of American political life . . . Let us pursue the Communists, instead of attempting to show that McCarthyism isn't what it seems, or that it never was.

TED LONG

Salt Lake City

Sir:

. . . The term McCarthyism has been battered the length & breadth of the nation . . . Yet I have heard of no one, completely innocent of Communist activity, who has been injured by McCarthy and his colleagues . . .

JOHN A. SULLIVAN JR. Staten Island, N.Y.

Presbyopic Prince

Sir:

Re your June 29 picture of the Duke of Windsor: There are some of us who won't ''give up" and wear bifocals, and it seems as if the Duke is one. Although he is probably astigmatic, I think "presbyopic" would be the more apt term . . .

EDWARD SIEGEL, M.D.

Plattsburgh, N.Y.

P: Reader Siegel has a presbyopic point. -- ED.

Cracks About Pots

Sir:

. . . For those plagiaristic Washington newsmen who coined the new word "psycho-ceramic" -- meaning crackpot [TIME, June 29!: a rap on their scrawny knuckles!

We at Bethel College and Seminary (St. Paul) used, abused, parried and buried that word last fall. I'd even venture to assert that a thousand other U.S. colleges did the same thing.

BERGE A. HOOGASIAN St. Paul, Minn.

Sir:

. . . Judge Gilliam of the Denver Juvenile Court used the word in a talk before the Knife & Fork Club here two or three months ago, and said it was coined by one of the smart young delinquents with whom he has to deal . . .

R. A. HENDERSON SR.

Phillipsburg, Kans.

Sir:

... I have heard and used that word here for a year . . . Not all the wit in the world spawns in Washington.

LESLEY R. BATES Los Angeles

Marines' Secret Weapon

Sir:

Re the June 29 review of Samuel Eliot Morison's New Guinea and Marianas: it might well be subtitled, "How the Navy and Marines won the war without help from the Army and Air Corps." In particular, I bridle at the mention of the 2nd and 4th Divisions storming ashore [on Saipan], etc. No mention is made of the fact that the 27th Infantry Division was called in to bail the Marines out of the mess they got themselves into . . . because they didn't have the wherewithal to secure the beachhead. The 27th was a floating reserve and was not even supposed to have been used . . . but they were diverted to rescue the Marines ... as usual. Unfortunately, they did not have the Marine setup of correspondents to supply the civilian correspondents with stories . . .

. . . We used to sing a song in ... my outfit ("The Fighting 69th") which summed up the men's feeling about the overpublicized Marines:

From the shores of Makin and Eniwetok

To the slopes of Tapotchau.

We have fought our country's battles

And we're fighting one right now.

Oh the Army, Navy and Air Corps

All were present at the scenes,

But the guys who got the credit were

The United States Marines.

TED POWERS Montpelier, Vt.

Giddy Denims

Sir:

Re the June 29 article on the cotton industry: Have the gals of the fashion world been able to figure out what we suburb-dwellers do with our new-spangled, giddy denims once they've hit the clothesline? . . .

(MRS.) SHEILA SCHMIDT Los Angeles

P:The word: don't mangle that spangle; it's a case for the dry cleaner.--ED.

Why Italy Is That Way

Sir:

Among those who commented on the recent Italian election, you were the most understanding. The majority of commentators pointed out the glaring disparity between the large sums of American money spent for Italian economic reconstruction and the apparent ingratitude of Italians in voting either left or right. Without minimizing the failure of the coalition parties to gain the bonus for extra seats, I would like to add a few comments from the Italian viewpoint. More than 93% of the 28 million Italian voters turned out for the election. Isn't this an alltime record, especially for a country which has been a democracy only since 1946? Furthermore, Italians did vote for the center parties . . .

As for the gains of the Communists: they have ideal conditions for their propaganda. Italy's chief problem is overpopulation . . . All the economic aid imaginable can't solve this problem. Italy needs emigration and Italians are willing to emigrate to any land ... As for the Fascists: they are chronic sentimentalists who are fostering a regrowth of nationalism. However, in the case of Trieste, they appeal to genuine Italian patriotism and rightly so ... The Italian claim to Trieste is legitimate. What Italians want is the right and opportunity to work and justice for their national interests. Until the Western powers deal with Italy on this basis, there will continue a lively Communism and Fascism dangerous to democracy.

PASQUALE M. SPOLETINI, SJ. Los Gatos, Calif.

Pass That Old-Fashioned Spinach

Sir:

Re Jacob Rosin's theories on a "chemistic society": let Chemist Rosin go soak his head in a pail of his delightful synthetic food slops. Agricultural research has abundantly shown that world food production could easily be doubled or trebled through efficient fertilization and conservation.

This is no time to start plowing under the farmers.

EDWIN HARRINGTON

Agricultural Chemist Carversville, Pa.

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