Fence in the Sky

Sir:

Perhaps your story on General Ben Chidlaw and the Continental Air Defense Command [Dec. 20] will make the people of the U.S. a little more aware of what conditions and threats do exist . . . General Chidlaw's fence needs the efforts of every American to hold it up ...

(A 1st C.) JOHN HOLMES Rockville, Ind.

Sir:

... I learned more about America's air defense from your article than I did from 25 months in the 662nd and 664th Aircraft Control & Warning Squadrons . . .

BLANCE A. WENTZ Athens, Ga.

Sir:

Your article is the first appropriate rejoinder to the advocacy of "preventive war" and heated belligerency ever published in a journal of notable circulation since the establishment of the United Nations ten years ago. It should also serve to defeat the purposes of those twisted personalities who would have us engage at the earliest opportunity the forces of destruction for the stabilizing of social and economic conditions on a global scale. The significance of your evaluation of America's air defenses at home, coupled with your excellent report of Great Britain's air strength, cannot fail to be discerned by even the most obtuse mind . . .

J. PAUL MORRIS JR.

Haverford, Pa.

Sir: Your article on General Chidlaw recalled my short but impressive acquaintance with him. In Italy, in 1944, the general (then, one star) invited me on a ride in his Piper Cub to "look over some new airfields." I happily accepted. As we kept flying north and beyond the front lines at less than 2,000 feet, it developed the general had neglected to mention that the new airfields were still in enemy hands. My concern was no doubt ill-concealed because the general turned to me, showed me his .45 and said, "Don't worry, we're armed." I'm happy to see him with four stars today--and better armed.

WILLIAM WYLER Hollywood 54 in '55 SIR: MY SINCERE THANKS TO BORIS CHALIAPIN AND TIME [DEC. 27] FOR A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS PRESENT . . . POSTSCRIPT AS TO MY BEING A "CHEERFUL MONOMANIAC"--MAYBE so. BUT THERE'S ONE THING OF WHICH I AM SURE; I WAS ONLY 53 ON DEC. 5.

WALT DISNEY BURBANK, CALIF.

The Bell Ringers

Sir:

Re your Dec. 20 article on those English bell ringers: those fellows may not have bats in their belfry but they sure have bells in their bathos. It plainly shows that you don't have to be crazy to be an Englishman, but that it sure helps.

WILLIAM B. PECK Endicott, N.Y.

Sir: . . . Change ringing is a truly fascinating art. It is a great pity that there are so few peals of such bells in this country . . . I'm surprised you didn't note in your story that Groton School, Groton, Mass., has ... a very fine peal of eight bells ... I enjoyed the rare privilege of being on the bell ringers squad, ringing the tenor bell through many a course of "rounds"--plain hunting on seven bells, Queens, Whittingtons (Dick), Grandsire Doubles and Triples, etc. As schoolboys we had our difficulties learning and executing these simpler changes and not infrequently each of us had the opportunity to know how Conductor Eric Critchley felt when he missed his "bob." A most monstrous din can crash forth when the order of the bells or the timing gets fouled up (our tower louvers were shuttered too!) . . .

STUART H. CLEMENT JR. Rye, N.Y.

Papa's Prize (Contd.)

Sir:

. . . Ernest Hemingway did not tell the whole story of the boxing match at which he [as referee] was introduced as "a world-famous millionaire sportsman and playboy" [Dec. 13]. I was there in Key West that night. The 33-year-old Cuban fighter, who . . . wanted one last bout before he retired, was matched against an 18-year-old Negro light-heavy with a head shaped like an acorn. To everybody's astonishment, the Cuban gave the husky black boy such a pasting that his seconds threw in the towel. The Negro thought he was being cheated, leaped out of his corner and attacked the referee. Hemingway had a notebook in his left hand, a pencil in his right . . . and was trying to remove his glasses while the young fighter was hammering at him. From the first row, where I was sitting, I went up through the ropes and punched the Negro (I am anything but a warrior, but I have a built-in admiration for good prose, and you can't let a writer as unique as Hemingway lose an eye). By that time Hemingway had his glasses in his pocket, he was still holding the notebook, but took on the fighter, with one hand, and he was going good, as he would say, when the cops stopped it. The cops were not admirers of prose, but they were admirers of Hemingway . . .

GEORGE SUMNER ALBEE Varadero, Cuba

Judgment on a Judgment

Sir:

TIME'S Nov. 29 reprint of a recent Commonweal article which viciously attacked the Vice President departed from TIME'S fine reputation for fairness. The article contained gross inaccuracies and inferences . . . The facts are that Vice President Nixon did not accuse the Democrat Party of being pro-Red or treasonable, as inferred by Commonweal. The facts are that the security risk figures mentioned in his speeches were released officially by the Civil Service Commission . . . Commonweal makes wild charges of demagoguery against the Vice President. It does not, however, cite any specific facts which back up its assertions that the Vice President erred or uttered misstatements concerning the security program. Commonweal, shooting from the hip, commits the very sin of demagoguery of which it accuses Richard Nixon. Incidentally, TIME labels Commonweal a Roman Catholic weekly. The National Catholic Welfare Conference advises that it is a completely unofficial publication and does not reflect church policy.

PATRICK J. HILLINGS House of Representatives Washington, D.C. P: TIME always has made, and will continue to make, its own judgments on issues and people. But TIME believes that the views of others are part of the news, if they are reasonably or forcefully stated, hence TIME'S JUDGMENTS & PROPHECIES section. Such a judgment was Roman Catholic Commonweal's view of Vice President Nixon's campaigning.--ED.

World Economic Plan (Contd.) Sir: Re your fine article "New Front in the Cold War" [TIME, Dec. 13]: the question often and aptly put to the American businessman abroad is: "If your ingenuity and technology is all you claim it to be, why are you unwilling to compete with foreign production on an even basis?" The cause of world peace could be given a mighty boost by the institution of free trade--but the U.S. alone must take the lead.

PAUL E. REED Torreon, Mexico

Sir:

. . . You disclosed the power behind the free-trade drive when you reported "U.S. productive capacity is outrunning domestic demand and the result is thousands of businessmen are seeking bigger outlets abroad." There is a limit to the total dollar volume of both foreign and domestic trade in domestic consumption. To maintain a healthy domestic economy we must consume all of our own production plus the imports, else the mounting inventories depress values to depression levels. We must not add world supplies to domestic supplies . . . We simply cannot consume that much production . . .

PAUL T. BEARDSLEY

Lawson, Mo.

Sir:

Your article offers the only possible alternative to a global war of inestimable dimensions . . .

The people of Asia . . . need to be liberated from hunger, disease and ignorance. We must combat Communism by raising the standard of living of these people, and this means that these countries must be industrialized. Industrialization depends upon capital, technical assistance, and trade. In other words, American capital must be invested, technical assistance must be given, and our tariff rates must be lowered . . .

KENNETH L. SMITH

Chester, Pa.

Pistol Pete, Hero

Sir:

I was very much surprised to read about Charley Gilliland being awarded, posthumously, the Medal of Honor [Dec. 13]. When I joined . . . the 3rd Division's 7th Infantry Regiment in 1950, Gilliland was already somewhat of a minor legend. The men of the company called him "The Sheriff" because of his western mustache and Gary Cooperish drawl. The rest of the battalion called him "Pistol Pete," because of his habit of collecting numerous weapons. At one time he carried, besides his 20-lb. Browning automatic, an Army issue .45, two revolvers, a chrome-plated automatic, and a Russian burp gun. His pockets and boot tops were crammed full of ammo for his weapons. A favorite saying among the men was that if an enemy bullet ever hit Gilliland he would explode. His heroism is the kind that is found only in the very young. He had an almost desperate desire to be admired and looked up to. It is a pity he died. The adulation he would have received would have been fruit for his soul.

DAN M. SULZINGER Los Angeles

The Overstuffed Chair

Sir:

Reviewing recent publications of poetry [Dec. 20], you complain, "The work of younger poets, many of them wrapped in the academic cocoon of teaching, was downright dreary." What you are complaining about is not the younger poet, but the not-so-younger poet. The younger poet can't be downright dreary or even mildly boring, since he can't get that much of his work published. The older poets are the ones who fill the reviews. They continue, like hairs on the corpse of the roaring twenties, to show some specious life. Having published a couple of slim volumes . . . they retire to chairs of creative writing. There, deep in the overstuffing of tenure, faculty good manners, and undergraduate adulation, they develop a poetic secretary's spread. The crime is compounded, since most of the reviews are run by university groups. Favors beget favors beget favors to the sole delight of the Goddess of Dullness; and Grub Street now detours down the hall between seminar room and payroll office . . . But don't blame the universities. They are keeping alive those who like to eat as well as write honestly . . .

O. B. HARBISON JR. Knoxville, Tenn.

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