Southern Hospitality
Sir:
I was shocked to read in your Aug. 13 issue that segregation in the Southern states had reached the point where the picture of a Negro is not permitted in a Southern newspaper.
NEIL BUCHANAN
Winnipeg, Man.
Sir:
It is ignorant to cut out Private Ervin's picture, not only because it violates all rules of journalism but because it also violates all moral and social rules. The Morning Star is hardly a newspaper, and anyone who breathes air should see this prime example of the stagnant condition of the South.
DON FARMER
Ferguson, Mo.
Sir:
I just cannot believe there is an intelligent American with the mentality of the Wilmington (N.C.) Morning Star editor. We in the Philippines look upon America as our great teacher in democracy. When we come across things like this, we begin to doubt whether our American books and American teachers told us everything.
A. D. NARCISO
Quezon City, Philippines
Presidential Preferences
Sir:
Now that you have jinxed Harry S. Truman into oblivion with your Aug. 13 cover, he is no longer an "elder statesman" (by his own admission) nor a "live politician" (by his irresponsible statements at the convention). He has now joined the ranks of the has-beens.
AL ADLER
Dallas
Sir:
Was aghast at the insolence with which you described Harry S. Truman. You can be assured that he will go down in history as one of the greatest Presidents this country has ever had.
JACK A. WILSON
Arlington, Va.
Sir:
It will take the Baptist denomination a generation to recover from the brand of orthodoxy exercised by this notorious communicant.
DUANE A. WALKER
Newton, Mass.
Sir:
Thank God for Truman. By the singular clarity of his political devotion, he should make us Republicans realize the perils of mealy mouthed complacency and muddleheaded vacillation. If it weren't for Bess, we would have had a fight on our hands this fall!
ROBERT R. SHINNICK
Omaha
Sir:
Your Harry Truman cover story is superb. And Mark Twain would have loved those lines about Harry Truman wanting to be buried in a mulberry coffin so he could "go through hell crackin' and poppin'." Two Missouri boys--Mark Twain and Harry Truman. Boys to be proud of.
FRED BALLARD
Lincoln, Neb.
Clangorous Keynoter
Sir:
For years I had been looking in vain for a worthy Democrat. Now my quest is ended. The silver-tongued Governor Frank Clement of Tennessee, in his keynote speech opening the Democratic Convention, came up with the greatest political slogan ever conceived by the mind of man, to wit: "The Democratic Party--dedicated to the greater glory of God!"
EVERETT R. MEVES
Haddonfield, N.J.
Sir:
Had the Boy Wonder from Tennessee--a composite of "Pitchfork" Tillman, Huey Long, "Hummun" Talmadge and lay preacher--spent less time with the dictionary of invective and more with his Bible, he might have learned what it says about liars.
W. S. WAKEFIELD
Salina, Kans.
Sir:
The keynote address by the governor of Tennessee was a new low in American politics for fiendish hate, diabolical slander, coldblooded assassination, murder of truth, perversion of history and vituperation.
MEROLD E. WESTPHAL Pastor
North End Bible Church Seattle
Sir:
About that opening speech: I counted at least threescore cliches among those gems of Clem's. I can only say that it will be a black day for these United States should they fall behind the other nations of the civilized world in the production of rockbound, palm-fringed, seagirt cliches. I point with pride to Governor Clement, whose speech was worthy of Cicero--Cicero, Ill.
JOHN ADAMS
New York City
Sunnyside Down
Sir:
I am disappointed in TIME, Aug. 20 for the low blow it dealt Adlai Stevenson in publishing the foolish picture of the ex-Mrs. Stevenson and printing her even more foolish remarks [concerning The Egghead and /]. Shame on you. And I'm a Republican and expect to vote for Eisenhower, too.
GLORIA H. SYKES
Chicago
Sir:
Let Mr. Stevenson counter with a book about his exwife, The Egg Shape and I.
MARJORIE WURTH
Forest Hills, N.Y.
Marine Court-Martial
Sir:
As a civilian engineer on Wake Island, I had a ringside seat from which to observe a demonstration of basic guts by a group of U.S. marines fresh out of boot camp. Sergeant McKeon may have shown poor judgment, but that's not sufficient reason for busting an obviously dedicated man out of the Corps with a bad-conduct discharge.
JOHN R. BURROUGHS
Steamboat Springs, Colo.
Sir:
I was appalled by the action of Sergeant Matthew McKeon, but I felt the Corps would certainly give him his just punishment. The Corps still had a chance to prove itself. Then came the disgraceful verdict. Such a hue and cry about the poor Sergeant! Isn't the drunken, sadistic murder of six supposedly superior youngsters--isn't that bad conduct?
(MRS.) JAMES WYATT
San Francisco
Sir:
Well, it seems the mommas have done it again. I pray that if and when another war breaks out, they will not need to be sorry that their sons did not come home because they wanted softer training.
MIGUEL E. BUSTAMANTE JR. Lieutenant, U.S.M.C.
Pensacola, Fla.
Cornball Disk Jockey
Sir:
In your Aug. 13 mag you call me a "rock 'n' roll" disk jockey. I have been actively fighting the stuff for years, and am known far and wide as the fearless champion of genuine cornball music. This way-out rock 'n' roll is strictly for the squares.
RED BLANCHARD
Hollywood
The Durable Duke
Sir:
Your candid and informative Aug. 20 sketch of Duke Ellington is heartening to many talented and aspiring Americans.
J. HOWARD MOORE
Boston
Sir:
I was quite proud to see the excellent cover story of that great musician, Duke Ellington. I use the word proud because the Duke is my musical father. In 1945 Mr. Ellington established a scholarship to Juilliard, which to me was the only means of acquiring a much-needed education in my chosen profession. This scholarship was open to [highschool students] on any musical instrument. I was fortunate enough to win this award, thus able to start my musical career.
RICHARD KAY First Cellist of the Baltimore Symphony
Brooklyn
Sir:
Congratulations. TIME has rarely had as durably valuable a protagonist as Duke.
NAT HENTOFF
Associate Editor
Down Beat
New York City
Trustbusters
Sir:
Our new national motto, "In God We Trust" [Aug. 6], is not only a violation of the spirit of the First Amendment, but is also an insult to the many thousands of Americans who have outgrown a childish supernaturalism and who feel that the new motto is a meaningless political gesture, reeking of hypocrisy.
EDD DOERR
Indianapolis
Sir:
And who, I wonder, are "We"? Personally, I can no more trust in God than in Zeus or any other of the several deities that mankind has had. Does this make me no longer a member of the American nation?
JAMES F. STANDISH
Fort Clayton, C.Z."
Casting Cortisone
Sir:
Sincere thanks for your flattering comment on my direction of Bigger Than Life [Aug. 6], but I must take issue with the comments that the "medical mischance [the movie] purports to describe was always rare, is now almost obsolete" and that "medically, its greatest blunder is in casting cortisone as an intrinsically monstrous villain." Our production has received the stamp of approval from the American Medical Association, and our facts were substantiated by material supplied us by the Mayo Clinic.
NICK RAY
Beverly Hills, Calif.
P: Cortisone is no villain. Like all drugs it can be misused and frequently was when first introduced, because its potential was not yet fully known.--ED.
The Irish Way
Sir:
Reader Nicholson appears to suggest that Mayor Briscoe of Dublin would not have been elected had he been a Protestant [Aug. 13]. Perhaps he is unaware that Douglas Hyde --our first President--was a Protestant.
G. OWENS
Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland
Life on the Liffey
Sir: When I was a junior public servant in Dublin, a jovial colleague, reliving his salad days, told me how he had been rebuked by his strait-laced mother for staying out all night. In his defense, he said he had been at a "hurroosh" (his pronunciation). Asked what that might be, he explained that it was "a party of six ladies, six gentlemen, and twelve dozen of stout." I offer this as a footnote to your footnote on haroosh ("something between a hassle and a brouhaha, or maybe a shenanigan") in the July 30 review of Honor Tracy's The Straight and Narrow Path.
DONALD O'KELLY
Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, Ireland
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.