Righthand Man Sir:
With your Jan. 9 story on Sherman Adams, you have not only opened a new year, but you have also reopened the vast panorama of Washington with your very penetrating accounts of Government personalities in action.
RICHARD J. QUINLAN Santa Clara, Calif.
Sir:
Your interesting article reminded me of the best political quip that I have heard for years: "What would be the greatest tragedy for this country? If Sherman Adams would die, and Ike became the President of the U.S."
OLGIERD LANGER New York City
Sir:
It seems to me the burning question is not who will be the next President, but who will be the Assistant to the President--the power behind the throne?
LILA F. JANEWAY
Syosset, N.Y.
Sir:
Up here, where "The Rock" was molded, we are grateful for your timely recognition of Adams. He has created--with full backing from President Eisenhower--a unique and much-needed role in the modern American political machinery. By the way, it's hard to see how he could have skated to the music of Mozart and Chopin, piped to "Webster Lake, near his Lincoln home"; actually, he, while governor, and Mrs. Adams rented a home at Webster to be near Concord.
RAY BOWLES Manchester, N.H.
P: The skating to music was done on Lake Winnepocket, near Webster.--ED.
Sir:
Will Sherman Adams' hackles rise?
Will it cause marital rancor? I wonder if it was unwise For TIME to spill the Sanka?
RUTH MANLEY POWERS Boston
Sir:
I cannot help wondering what Rachel Adams said when she learned that you had given away her Sanka secret. What Sherman said is easily imagined from your vivid story. Incidentally, why didn't you give us a closeup picture of that capable lady?
E. H. BAILEY Atlanta
P:Rachel Adams (see cut), a woman to keep her own counsel, has already moved on to another ploy in the intra-family gamesmanship: Can her husband tell the difference between Vermont and New Hampshire maple syrup? Tentative decision: no.--ED.
Sir:
The story concludes with a 15-word potential prophecy for the Republican nomination for the presidency: "The only person who really understands what I am trying to do," said the President of the U.S., "is Sherman Adams."
NORMAN D. MATHEWS Montclair, N.J.
Rules of Order
Sir:
The translation of an understandable, desirable U.S. foreign policy [Jan. 9] is a masterpiece of journalistic expression. When set against the background of urgency so aptly described in your story on the H-bomb [April 12, 1954], TIME shows consistent national leadership unmatched in modern newswriting.
ERNEST E. WELLENBROCK Hanford, Calif.
Sir:
You ask if the U.S. makes sense to the world in January 1956? "Does it act?" and ''Does it present to the world an idea of order?" Few would doubt that you have asked the right questions, but who is qualified to answer? A politician? Soldier? Industrialist? Farmer? Labor Leader? Professor? Rabble-rouser?
I. W. KINNEY Laramie, Wyo.
Sir:
There is no American leadership for world freedom, because there is no press leadership. Popular demand breeds leadership. Popular demand is only whipped into articulation by a flaming press. Where are the volcanic thunderers of the press? William Randolph Hearst was damned, but he stirred the masses. Today we have a world crisis, but what American press stirs anything? The New York Times and the Washington Post are churchly papers, but what is their boiling point? No smoking anger ever billows from their pages. We are witnessing in these late years the most ghastly inhumanities; in the face of them our press is without fire and guts--it's ashamed of indignation, ashamed to rabble-rouse.
T. J. HAAS
San Diego
Christmas Amnesty
Sir:
So the ubiquitous Eleanor Roosevelt has gone and done it again! With 45 other eggheads she petitioned President Eisenhower to grant "Christmas amnesty" to the 16 second-string U.S. Communists now serving prison sentences [Jan. 2]. The greatest service this professional do-gooder could possibly render to her country would be to buy a one-way ticket to Moscow.
W. G. MARTIN
Kerrville, Texas
Sir:
Let Eleanor and her "Protestant divines" read what happened to the Bradshaws . . . and let them go to and among the filthy Chinese; if they get back to the U.S., to how many Communists would they want to grant "Christmas amnesty"? Also her comments about Nixon. Who gives a damn what she thinks? Perhaps it would be well to let Eleanor select the next President. Maybe she would pick Harry Bridges.
RICHARD N. POWELL Mobile, Ala.
Cypriots & Patriots
Sir:
TIME'S Jan. 9 report on Cyprus is probably the best I have read on the crisis on that unfortunate island ... I served with the British army during the last war . . . but I can easily understand why the Cypriots wish to determine their own destiny.
C. A. CARRATT
Starke, Fla.
Sir:
Your objective analysis will contribute greatly in solving the Cyprus crisis . . . D. CAMPAS Athens
Sir:
Your coverage of the Cyprus situation was deplorable. Britain realizes the situation to be tragic, nevertheless necessary in view of the critical Near East situation. She is once more, in a small degree, holding the fort against aggression from the north, from possible eruption in the south, and adverse criticism from sources presumably friendly. Incidentally, could you survey the situation in Formosa and the off-China islands with the same penetrative binoculars, substituting a holding force other than Chiang's?
TOM GOSSAGE McMasterville, Que.
Sir: ... I would like to correct a minor discrepancy: E.O.K.A. is not a "Communist terror group." The initials stand for the Greek words National Organization for Cypriot Freedom.
ATHANASSIOS YIANNOPOULOS Berkeley, Calif.
The Word on Lola Sir: I was distressed to read in your Jan. 2 issue the description of the incomparable Lola Montez as a "hussy." My dictionary defines "hussy" as a "worthless creature," and surely a woman who was able to counsel kings and inspire geniuses was not worthless, and her mastery of the arts of love was a supreme accomplishment . . .
THOMAS BURNETT SWANN Winter Haven, Fla.
The First R Sir: After having completed "reedin" your provocative, but enlightening article [Jan. 9], I am led to wonder if the anguished cries of disgruntled parents could be nothing more than a rationalized realization of their progeny's inherited stupidity.
DONALD H. SHOTWELL Athens, Ohio
Sir: An excellent treatment of the present situation in the teaching of reading, and it deserves to be very widely read.
ROBERT W. COPE Supervising Principal Joint Consolidated School District Schwenksville, Pa.
Sir: Thank you for helping the poor, old, patient schoolteachers of America put the dunce cap on Rudolf Flesch.
JOAN MCLAUGHLIN Mayfield Heights, Ohio Sir: As one member of the board of education here, I strongly protest that the reading study which has been going on in this community for the past three years was referred to as an example of action taken by parents and teachers who mistake "bad practice for bad theory." The Phonetic Keys to Reading, which is used here, could not be described as "a return to rigid phonics." The time expended by the teachers in an effort to find a method whereby more children may learn to read better, the results of which we are very proud, deserve a better evaluation.
ELIZABETH SQUIERS Champaign, Ill.
P: In its brief highlighting of various communities which have been experimenting with reading programs TIME should have given the effective Champaign program its proper due. -- ED.
Sir:
If those Chicago clubwomen, yawping and heaving about Johnny's unphonic treatment in the public schools, would channel their time and energy into home reading exercises for Johnny instead of battering the school people, everyone would be much happier, including Johnny . . .
ROGER D. REDDEN Baltimore
Man of the Year (Cont'd)
Sir:
The officers and members of our Executive Committee join in congratulations to you upon your selection [Jan. 2]. We share your respect and admiration for one of our top business leaders, whose constructive activities extend far beyond just the walls of factories. It is significant that this distinctive honor goes to a man well aware of the moral and spiritual qualities comprising the major force behind the success of our way of life. Because Mr. Curtice has accepted the responsibility of leadership of American business, I truly believe, along with TIME, that soon Americans "will be able to unleash their considerable powers for cultural, ethical and spiritual accomplishments of a magnitude yet unimagined."
C. W. CHRISTENBERRY, PRESIDENT American-Korean Foundation New York City
Sir:
Please, how many times must I ask you to print a picture of the family of your cover subject? I'm especially interested in the wife and daughters of G.M. President Curtice--your Man of the Year--a surprising but good choice to my mind.
TAD FELTMAN
Playa del Key, Calif.
P: For a picture of TIME'S Man of the Year and family on a 1952 vacation trip to Hawaii, see cut.--ED.
Sir:
Not wishing to belittle Mr. Curtice's way of life, where "platoons of subordinates jump when he twitches," we would like to point out that we have a subordinate who jumps and twitches with no provocation. RUSSELL E. WILLIAMS Palo Alto, Calif.
Cancer Casualties
Sir:
Please allow me to correct an error in the report on future trends in cancer in your issue of Jan. 9. You stated that 31 out of every 100 males and 36 out of every 100 females born in the U.S. this year will eventually die of cancer. These are the percentages of people of either sex who will develop cancer some time during their lives --not die of it. Moreover, these calculations include skin cancer, which has a very high cure rate, and cancer of the lip, which is likely to be diagnosed early and treated with good possibility of cure.
JOHN R. HELLER, M.D., DIRECTOR National Cancer Institute Washington, D.C.
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