Sales Talk
Sir:
Congratulations on your fine article, "Death of the Salesmen" [TIME, Jan. 25], one of the finest I have read on the subject. If enough salesmen read [it] and take it to heart, it could most certainly change the retail sales picture . . .
W. L. KNIGHTON
Denver, Colo.
Sir:
Your article on the lack of salesmen . . . is a joy to one who has recently been promising herself that she would buy a police whistle, take her stand in a store, and blow it for help . . .
MRS. ELLA POMEROY
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Sir:
. . . You are a master of doubletalk and a master of sophistries . . . I speak as a man who, for the past 18 years, has made a living as a salesman. I always have managed to make a living. I made a living selling magazine subscriptions in the depth of the Depression. I've sold sidewalling and paint; I've sold newspaper space and radio time; I've sold housewives hospital insurance and I've sold businessmen businesses. In short, sir, I'm the salesman you claim is dead. Confidentially, I'm still alive--in spite of management! In order to live the way I insist upon living, I must net, after taxes, a minimum of $8,000 a year. I am kept at that level by stupid management.
I would be worth ten times that amount to any business concern which would permit its salesmen to use their intelligence. I'm not talking about salary or expense account; I'm saying that I, and a dozen good salesmen I know personally, could earn $80,000 in legitimate commissions per year for any company which would let us sell honestly and to the limit of production of the company . . .
WILSON BOWE
Tallahassee, Fla.
The Beagle's Bones
SIR:
BULLY FOR THE BEAGLE'S ACHIEVEMENT AS u.s. NO. 1 DOG [TIME, FEB. 1]. AS OWNER AND BREEDER OF A.K.C. BEAGLE CHAMPION, MAY I SAY THAT NO "SLIGHTLY BOWLEGGED, APARTMENT-SIZE FOXHOUND" TRULY EXEMPLIFIES THE BREED. THE BEAGLE IS STRONG AND STRAIGHT OF BONE, FOR ALL HIS SMALL SIZE.
GRETCHEN K. PEARSON
PASADENA, CALIF.
Sir:
. . . There is nothing crooked about the merry beagle. That's why he is on top.
IKE CARREL
Editor
Hounds & Hunting
Greenfield, Ohio
P: TIME bows to the best of the beagles, whose legs are indeed unbowed (see cut).--ED.
Baby Talk
Sir:
Having [participated] in a home management program similar to that in Eastern Illinois State College, I would like to venture an opinion regarding the "Case of the Resident Baby" [TIME, Jan. 25]. No infant ever received more ''tender, loving care" (which psychologists deem so important) than our home management house baby. The baby not only thrived on the attentions of his eight "mothers," but remained completely happy, unspoiled, and obviously free from all the little "neuroses and anxieties" psychologists and educators are so concerned with nowadays. Does Superintendent Haremski consider some of the alternatives, such as life in an orphanage or a home for unwed mothers, a "normal family setting"?
JEAN C. MURPHY
Philadelphia, Pa.
Sir:
. . . I can only hope that too many people don't flunk home economics at Eastern Illinois State.
PHIL RUSSELL
Great Lakes, Ill.
Dancing Master
Sir:
I want to express my sincerest appreciation, and the appreciation of the entire New York City Ballet Company, for the magnificent TIME cover story [Jan. 25] . . . We are all very pleased . . .
GEORGE BALANCHINE
New York City
Sir:
. . . Your lovely color photos of the ballerinas (especially Maria Tallchief) were sheer joy to these jaded eyes. Many, many thanks for your tribute to my favorite art, and bravo to the New York City Ballet, which is the best in this whole world.
ERNO R. MEZO
San Francisco
Sir:
The distinguished Balanchine has no need to damn the modern dance, as he well knows that the "American style," which Europeans immediately discerned, is the direct result of the modern dance movement and its application here. It's a little sad to see the accomplished, suave Balanchine caught off balance . . .
MERLE ARMITAGE
New York City
The Hartley Case (Contd.)
Sir:
Concerning the Hartley case letters of Valeski and Varallyay in TIME, Feb. 1: It is a sad commentary on our progressive civilization to find people today who allow primitive emotion to overshadow entirely the nobler aspects of Dr. Vance Chattin's dedicated efforts to save the Hartley boys, regardless of their physical deformity . . .
The question, "Should the Hartley boys have been allowed to live?", was best answered by the mother, Mrs. Cecil Hartley, when she told reporters, "I love my boys."
LOU TOROK
Miami
Old Husband's Tales?
Sir:
TIME . . . errs like most men in assessing reasons for the relatively small number of top women executives in our economy [Jan. 11]. A finger of shame for such old husband's tales as ". . . lack of technical aptitude and muscle power . . . cry . . . gossipy . . . get pregnant, or something." Something, indeed! If brawn were a requisite, most male executives would be disqualified at once. Just ask their doctors--or their wives. Maybe "no man ever takes more than a day away from work to have a baby," but plenty of men take considerably more time over their ulcers or their colds . . .
The trouble, dear gentlemen, lies not in the sex but in yourselves. It's not that men "can't talk to women the way you do to men." It's that men just refuse to do so. And they won't pay them like men either, for equal work. That's still one of the major reasons for the income differential cited in your article . . .
Those of us who operate our own businesses exercise the same executive qualities as we would in "important corporate jobs," if we were welcomed into them. And we don't do it by fluttering either our eyelids or our Victorian lace handkerchiefs . . .
CONSTANCE HOPE
New York City
Sir:
The reason women don't become great executives is that they don't have wives.
BETSY INNES
Davenport, Iowa
Hero Hammond
Sir:
The wife and mother of Francis Colton Hammond, Navy hospital corpsman I/C, were deeply hurt by the article in the Jan. 11 issue of TIME, "Report on a Drug Clerk." It is felt that a great injustice has been done to the memory of this young man who died a hero's death. The article . . . tends to belittle the youth and training of this young man when it would appear that nothing too good could have been said in recording publicly the life of one to whom the entire nation owes a debt of gratitude . . .
C. GORDON SMITH JR.
Alexandria, Va.
Sir:
. . . This article, particularly the last paragraph, ranks with anything I have ever read in either literature or report writing, and the writer responsible is to be commended . . .
W. P. MURPHY
Birmingham, Mich.
Calling Dr. Dallis
Sir:
. . . I would be less than modest if I did not tell you that a lion's share of Rex Morgan's success [TIME, Jan. 25] is due to the contribution of my two artist associates, Marvin Bradley and Frank Edgington . . . Years ago comic strips were written and drawn by one man. The modern fiction strips, like Rex Morgan, M.D., are a collaboration between artists and writers . . .
NICHOLAS P. DALLIS, M.D.
Toledo
Sir:
Three cheers for Dr. Dallis! At last a deadly, disastrous weapon has been placed in the hands of an educator . . . Perhaps some day comic strips and comic books will once again furnish our children and us with wholesome entertainment and educate us besides!
MRS. TIMOTHY F. ROBINSON
Roanoke, Va.
TV Payoff
SIR:
. . . I AM APPALLED, AMAZED, ASTOUNDED AND SICKENED BY YOUR ILL-BASED, ILL-CONCEIVED, ILL-DESIGNED AND FANTASTICALLY INCORRECT PIECE ON "PAY-AS-YOU-SEE TV" [TIME, Feb 1] . . . THIS IS EITHER A HIGH MARK OF STUPIDITY OR AN UNBELIEVABLE PEAK IN PUBLIC IGNORANCE . . . OVER 2,000 RADIO STATIONS IN THIS COUNTRY HAVE BEEN BORN, NURSED, AND FINANCIALLY MATURED IN SPITE OF YOUR NONSENSICAL IMPLICATION THAT ADVERTISING COMMERCIALS ARE DISAPPROVED . . . PAY-AS-YOU-SEE TV IS THE MOST IDIOTIC, IMPRACTICAL AND ABSURD IDEA FOSTERED IN THE FIELD OF PUBLIC MEDIA . . . NEXT TO RADIO, TV IS THE MOST ECONOMICAL AND EFFICIENT ADVERTISING MEDIUM CREATED BY MAN . . .
LEON P. GORMAN
GENERAL MANAGER
WABI AND WABI-TV
BANGOR, ME.
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