The Betrayers
Sir:
Perhaps the execution of ex-Premier Imre Nagy and General Pal Maleter, the most atrocious of the many broken promises made by the Russians, will strike a note of realization in the minds of our recent "peace walkers"--the promise of the Russians to suspend future nuclear tests should be taken with a grain of salt.
D.L. KEANE
Flushing, N.Y.
Sir:
It is not too late for the U.S. and the free world to declare now that Nikita Khrushchev is an international murderer.
ALEXANDER MANO
Auckland, N.Z.
Second Wind to the South
Sir:
Re the "post-Nixon" Latin American emphasis and your excellent Munoz Marin cover story [June 23]: many Americans, enchanted by the cultures of Spain or France, ignore or even deride an almost identical culture to their south. To a large segment of Americans, Mexico and the remainder of Latin America is represented by dives or semiliterate braceros. This is like judging the U.S. by Coney Island or Arkansas hillbillies. Unless we make an effort to understand and appreciate the rich, proud and nonmaterialistic culture of our southern neighbors we shall have lost a major battle of the cold war.
DONALD MORROW
Guadalajara, Mexico
Sir:
We rejoice that "Operation Bootstrap" has been so successful, but let us not deny that Puerto Rico is a poor boy hitching a free ride in Uncle Sam's limousine. Some rich boys are also riding free--namely the U.S. corporations there. If freedom from income tax is so beneficial to Puerto Rico, by all means let us all enjoy it and extend it to our other possessions.
EDW. M. BIANCHI
Campbell, Calif.
Sir:
From the people of Puerto Rico, thanks from the bottom of our hearts for such a magnificent embrace.
TEODORO MOSCOSO Administrator
The Economic Development Administration
San Juan, P.R.
Sir:
I think TIME did an uncommonly good job on my friend, Luis Munoz Marin.
NORMAN THOMAS
New York City
Sir:
You may be interested in knowing that your article has already acted like a shot of adrenalin on the people of Puerto Rico, who were wondering if, with the recession continuing, they could continue to run at top speed. TIME'S recognition of their efforts so far is giving them a second wind.
PAUL HARRISON
Puerto Rico News Service
Washington, B.C.
Of Wool & Things
Sir:
The presidential office is without a doubt a mankiller, but there is no such thing as an indispensable man--in or out of the White House. Better that we should all skate around on the slippery ice of politics until 1960 than retain a man who knew all the rules where other men were concerned but considered himself sacrosanct when these rules applied to him. I am a Republican and I like and voted for Eisenhower. But I think Adams had all that has happened "coming to him," and I think Eisenhower made the ultimate mistake in not firing him pronto.
(MRS.) MARYL MARSHALL
Oakland, Calif.
Sir:
What Goldfine and Adams did for each other happens every day, I am sure, in the U.S. I am willing to bet that each of these men, in his own way, has contributed more to this nation than nine-tenths of the people who have criticized either or both.
ROBERT A. LEVENSON
Vineland, NJ.
Sir:
Whether the Sherman Adams censure is justified or not, it certainly provides a fine relief valve for the guilty conscience of a nation where petty corruption is rapidly becoming a way of life.
ERNEST HENNINGER
Indianapolis
Sir:
It is a pretty shabby state of morality when a man's life work can go up in smoke not because of evil but because of "the implication of evil." Because the converse is that "anything goes" so long as nobody knows. Adams' biggest political sin was to leave people dangling on the phone without saying goodbye. No one can forgive anyone for the ego-deflating experience of being left talking to empty air. But, let's get back to the business of getting 5,000,000 people back to business and forget about a situation that is as stupid and as sad as a farm girl who got seduced for a box of chocolates.
P.S. I'm a Democrat.
V. J. JAMES
New York City
Sir:
If, in five and one-half years, the Democrats have been able to come up with nothing more significant than this, is that not the supreme tribute to the general high standard of ethics and morality of the Eisenhower Administration?
ROLAND O. MILDRAM
Reading, Mass.
Sir:
Let's get the rascals back!
K. H. SMALL
Gainesville, Fla.
A Short in the Gas Line
Sir:
Many thanks for your June 30 praise of Playhouse go's A Town Has Turned to Dust, but your identification of our sponsorship as "American Gas & Electric" is like saying the program is brought to you by Kent and Winston or by General Motors and Ford. Our portion of Playhouse go, as stated in the opening billboard, "is brought to you by Your Gas Company . . . in cooperation with gas producers . . . pipeline companies . . . and gas appliance and equipment manufacturers."
C. S. STACKPOLE
American Gas Association
New York City
Israel at Ten
Sir:
At long last a major national weekly has succeeded in presenting the Israeli position in its true perspective. Ever since the founding of the state, Israel's leaders have directed all their efforts toward scientific rather than territorial expansion. Your photos portray an excellent picture of a nation in growth.
HAL P. SPRINGER
Forest Hills, N.Y.
Sir:
This nation, built on material, worldly attainment instead of a spiritual and prophetic heritage, will not stand. In the process of building Israel, its leaders have lost track of the true meaning of Judaism.
MAY MANSOOR
Dalton, Ga.
Warm Spell
Sir:
Thank you for your very kind and thorough review [June 23] of Hot Spell. While I'm at it, thanks for all of your reviews of my screenplays (The Big Knife, Attack, 80 Days, etc.). The Screen Writers Guild has tried for years to persuade film critics to credit scenarists--with little success. Your practice of throwing the credit--or the blame --to the man behind the typewriter is heartening and encouraging.
JAMES POE
West Los Angeles, Calif.
Keeping Up with the Indexes
Sir:
The statement in TIME, June 2, that "U.S. efforts in the abstracting field are puny by comparison [with Russia's]" is grossly wrong. Chemical Abstracts alone publishes over 100,000 abstracts a year, and our abstracts are restricted to chemistry. Fourteen branches of science are represented in the recently organized National Federation of Science Abstracting and Indexing Services. These 14 services represented in the federation produced approximately 440,000 abstracts in 1957. Information in these journals is not of lasting value if there are not good indexes in existence to make it possible for the scientist to find what is wanted. The U.S. far surpasses the Soviet Union in the provision of thorough and prompt index keys.
E. J. CRANE
The Chemical Abstracts Service
Columbus
Answering the Bell
Sir:
As a Catholic, I am one of the millions of knuckleheads described in two of your June 16 letters as "conditioned to attend church virtually from the cradle, much as Pavlov's dogs were trained to salivate at the ringing of a bell . . . and on whose minds . . . the Roman hierarchy has a strangle hold." Christian charity forbids my answering your readers, but names of recent converts to Catholicism come to mind--people who should have been warned of the stultifying effects of Catholic teaching: Alec Guinness, George Jean Nathan, Dame Edith Sitwell, Thomas Merton, Avery Dulles--to name a few.
MARGARET V. WALSH
Evanston, Ill.
On the Maps
Sir:
May I compliment you on the excellent map of Calcutta in your June 16 issue. With its aid, a traveler could steam up those hot-looking 126 miles of the Hooghly and feel himself roughly oriented from the start.
WALTER S. MAPES
Philadelphia
Sir:
While watching a rebroadcast of the Air Power series, I took out your June 10, 1957 issue and witnessed the Battle of Midway with your map before me. It was an exciting adventure into history. Thank you.
DONALD N. SKIBO
Calgary, Alta.
Mess of SS's
Sir:
Although no M.D. or spaceman, I can tell you what's wrong with the term "weightlessness." "Weightlessness" could embrace any thing or condition without weight, e.g., a cubic yard of vacuum; an idea in the mind of Marilyn Monroe; a gas whose tendency to rise equals the pull of gravity; a color. How about "Non-G?"
DAVID KLEIN
New York City
Sir:
Why not use "antigrav"?
J. HARVEY ADAIR
Saginaw, Mich.
Sir:
You ask what's wrong with the word weightlessness. Anyone who has tried "kicking the geese" out of Tennyson* knows the answer. Too many ss's, thir.
JOHN HENRY CUTLER
Duxbury, Mass.
* Who said: "There are many other things [that] help to make the greatness of blank verse, for instance, a fine ear for vowel-sounds and the kicking of the geese out of the boat (i.e., doing away with sibilations) . . . I never put two 'ss' together in any verse of mine."
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