The Texas Collectors
Sir:
Congratulations on your excellent article [May 24] on Clint Murchison--a great citizen of a great state.
SIMON LICHENSTEIN
Dallas Sir:
Wouldn't it be nice if we unfortunate proletarians could take advantage of a tax bonanza such as is enjoyed by millionaire oilmen, i.e., a "depletion allowance which permits them to pocket 27 1/2% of their gross income (up to 50% of their net) before paying a cent of taxes," so that we could live comfortably and, still have something left. But, alas! Someone has to pay those taxes!
JIM KUNTZELMAN
Omaha
Sir:
If Financial Genius Murchison can build the Trans-Canada pipeline for $3,000,000, then he must also be an engineering wizard in his spare time.
C. W. DAVIS
Miami
P: Until it reached TIME'S teletypesetter wires, the pipeline cost $300 million.--ED.
Sir:
Outside Texas, it is generally considered to be in bad taste to make boastful comparisons of personal wealth, but there are other American fortunes that would undoubtedly be greater on an actual net basis than any amount as yet amassed by any individual in Texas. The owners of these fortunes learned long ago that it was wiser to keep the news of their prosperity to themselves.
J. R. COLPITTS
Phoenix, Ariz.
Sir:
As one once indirectly connected with the Murchison organization . . . I feel . . . you . . . overlooked the fact that Clint's original stake was made before the days of high income taxes, and for the past ten years his immense gains have been more from the effects of inflation than from oil income. Clint was smart enough, around 1939, to recognize the signs of coming inflation and bought anything on which he could borrow most of the purchase price . . . His equities were spread thin, and the banks could have closed him out at any time up to about 1945 . . . Clint Murchison gambled extremely heavy on inflation, and won-- more power to him.
H. N. SWEENEY
Breckenridge, Texas
Rye Tround the Corner
Sir:
Re the May 24 item "Greyed Eel to Be Said": Although BBC announcers may have their own enunciatory peculiarities, they're not alone in this respect. Right here in the U.S. one can find some equally puzzling variations. Samples:
RYE TROUND-- close at hand (New Hampshire).
PAY UP-- a breakfast cereal [Pep] imparting vim and energy (Tennessee).
JAUNTS-- a major-league baseball team, the New York Jaunts (Georgia).
PRAISIN' TIZENHAR--the Chief Executive of the U.S. (Florida).
J. B. ALVORD
Miami
Wrong Wright?
Sir:
As a native of Elkins Park, Pa. . . . I had an understandably keen interest in the Wright-designed synagogue [TIME, May 31] that is planned for my quiet suburban community. Esthetically I am inexperienced, but somehow I feel that Mr. Wright's inspiration is about as appropriate to its proposed location as Connie Mack Stadium is to suburban Singapore.
Even for $750,000, this pagodalike structure cannot be made to blend with its surroundings. Either the old master of our century is losing his touch, or my neighbors have recently taken to the rice paddies.
I. HARRY SUBIN
Oberlin, Ohio
Declarations & Decisions (Contd.)
Sir:
The Supreme Court edict outlawing segregation in public schools knocks the hell out of Jim Crow and makes all other forms of segregation and discrimination look sillier than ever. TIME'S March 24 article on the ruling should be read by every American ... It is so important now that all citizens of the U.S. be made aware of the fact that the Negro is a man, a citizen of equal rank, and that two-thirds of mankind's people are dark-skinned, and they are watching and gauging America in terms of her treatment of the Negro . . .
FLEMING R. WALLER
U.S.A.F.
Anchorage, Alaska
Sir:
To impress the Asiatics, nine misguided political appointees have decided to change the way of life of 50 million Americans in 21 states of our great nation. If we red-blooded Southern Americans submit to this unconstitutional ''judge-made law" and surrender our Caucasian heritage of 60 centuries, the malignant powers of Communism, atheism and mongrelization will surely follow . . .
ROBERT B. PATTERSON
Indianoloa, Miss.
Sir:
. . . Never before have so few (nine men) done so much (injury) to so many . . .
W. S. Cox JR.
New Orleans
Sir:
Three cheers for the Supreme Court . . . but it's sad that the Government should have accomplished so much, and these social clubs that call themselves churches so little. That schools should end segregation before the churches seems to support the idea that the church in America is becoming obsolete . . .
J. M. WILSON
Ithaca, N.Y.
Sir:
If the U.S. Supreme Court wishes to black its face and have a minstrel, that is their business, but I deeply resent their blackening mine . . .
MRS. ATHALIE B. WOLBRECHT
Memphis, Tenn.
Sir:
. . . There are those of the South (I am white) who hail the . . . decision . . . I have genuine faith that the Talmadges and the like will be trampled into oblivion with this new mode of thought that the young intellectuals of the South are developing.
WILLIAM LUTTRELL
Atlanta
Sir:
In view of the fact that the majority of the Southern whites and Negroes still prefer to maintain a segregated public-school system, a friend of mine proposes that separate schools be maintained for the majority of the children, with a small school for those few Yankees and NAACPers who just love to mix. In addition, a small, dilapidated one-room school should be kept in each southern county in order that our Northern "friends" might be able to continue their wailing about the wretched conditions in the South . . . Save your Confederate money, boys !
ROBERT S. DUGGAN JR.
Atlanta
Sir:
. . . I am and always have been in favor of improvement and advancement of everything . . . but abolishment of segregation is in no sense an improvement for the Negro . . . You said the Herman Talmadges are not going to write the last chapter in the story of the American Negro's go-year rise from slavery. Well, I can assure you that we shall try to write the last chapter, but if we fail, I guarantee that we shall write the next to the last chapter, and starting as of now, it is going to be a long, long story . . .
V. P. CUNNINGHAM
Aberdeen, Md.
Sir:
. . . Only when the people of the U.S. become mature enough to judge others for their inner worth rather than their outer color will we deserve the respect of the world . . .
MRS. NEIL THORTAKSON
Boston
Sir:
After recognizing the justice of the Supreme Court's ancient bromide that "all men are created equal," we must still face the incontrovertible fact that an ingrained proclivity of the modern Negro is to take a yard after the white man has graciously granted him an inch . . .
F. A. GRIFFITH
(Former member, South African Police)
Los Angeles
Sir:
May 17, 1954 will be remembered as long as I live. You cannot imagine the feeling I experienced when I first learned of the . . . decision . . . To me . . . it means that I am one step closer to losing what I consider my "second-class" citizenship. Let us hope that those affected will accept what is right with calm and courage.
COLEMAN A. GOLDSBOROUGH
U.S.A.F.
Stephenville, Newfoundland
Mr. Jackson's Bulky Box
Sir:
. . . I was fortunate enough to hear the 96-year-old William H. Jackson describe in a lecture how he made Colorado's famous Mountain of the Holy Cross picture in 1873 [TIME, May 31]. It's only a minor detail in your story, but I cannot resist pointing out that Mr. Jackson was not fortunate enough to clamber up the iced boulders with "primitive film." Somebody in his party had to haul glass plates up the mountain so that when the time came to make an exposure, all he had to do was to kneel in his tiny darkroom tent, sensitize a glass plate, place it in a holder and rush it to his bulky camera before it had a chance to dry. Then he had to develop it immediately and fix it and wash it right on the spot. This was the same laborious process used by Mathew Brady's photographers in the Civil War, a dozen years before.
D. JAY CULVER
New York City
The Vein of Charity
Sir:
After reading your May 24 article about blood banks and that ''the A.M.A. and state medical societies claim that free blood--for any patients other than charity cases--is 'socialism,' " I was bothered by the following question: Would the socialism phobia of the American Medical Association cause them to condemn the Good Samaritan as a dastardly socialist because he did not determine whether the wounded man he helped was a man of means before giving freely of his aid?
WILLIAM A. CROSS
Ames, Iowa
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.