Men of the Year
Sir:
How striking is the similarity between your Men of the Year (1960), the modern scientists, and the early Greek philosophers of 2,500 years ago! They also were concerned with the fundamental workings of nature and matter, and their speculations, their very language and images, come very close to what is being discovered today.
WILLIAM S. BURFORD Austin, Texas
Sir:
We go off the deep end when we think that the scientists alone hold the whole world in their hands. This you apparently do when you assert, "Statesmen, savants, builders and even priests are their servants." I am inclined to believe that scientists themselves would be among the first to repudiate such Olympian authority. For the great pervading thought in the sciences, both natural and social, tells us that we should all be servants of truth-seeking and of one another.
PAUL E. DROST Hampton, Virginia
Sir:
TIME has chosen 15 U.S. scientists because the heart of scientific inquiry now beats strongest in this country. In the realms of pure impudence and barefaced, shameless exhibitionism this statement beats everything Americans have yet said about themselves!
MARTIN BERTRAND Copenhagen, Denmark
Sir:
How many of these scientists graced TIME'S cover on their own before this?
FINBARR SLATTERY Killarney, Ireland
P:Four: George Beadle (July 14, 1958), Willard Libby (Aug. 15, 1955), Edward Teller (Nov. 18, 1957), James Van Allen (May 4, 1959).--ED.
Sir:
Certainly one of your selections should have been displaced by Dr. Albert Sabin, developer of one of the greatest humanitarian gifts to the world in many years--an orally administered vaccine for polio. Does he not rank somewhere in the list of 15?
PETER ROBERT RENTSCHLER Hamilton, Ohio
Sir:
It seems too bad with all the emphasis being placed on "space sciences" that you did not include at least one true "space scientist," such as Astronomer Martin Schwarzschild of Princeton University, who through Project Stratoscope has come closer than any other man to placing a telescope in outer space.
GEORGE S. MUMFORD Assistant Professor of Mathematics Tufts University Medford, Mass.
Sir:
I was disappointed that TIME overlooked Johns Hopkins' distinguished geneticist, Bentley Glass, whose concern for the long-range consequences of nuclear experimentation, active interest in the preservation of academic freedom, and articulate insistence on understanding between the "two cultures" make his one of the most responsible voices in the scientific community.
JAMES KISSANE Grinnell, Iowa
Sir:
Any listing of great men tends to be controversial, and no doubt you will receive many comments on the list. I cannot refrain from adding mine: one of this country's greatest scientists, whose place in the history of the Atomic Age belongs very near the top, was Ernest O. Lawrence, and his name should have been included.
On a less serious plane, if Dr. Donald Glaser thinks that he has my permission to give away my long-cherished and TIME-honored white vest, I have a correction for him too !
EDWIN M. MCMILLAN Director Lawrence Radiation Laboratory University of California Berkeley, Calif.
P: Dr. McMillan wore the white vest in 1951, when he got his Nobel Prize, later loaned it to Dr. Glaser.--ED.
Sir:
I am just wondering how many of your readers wrote the correct answer in choosing these "fortunate ones."
Ko Ko LAY Tokyo
P:None.--ED.
Inside the Cabinet
Sir:
Hail Harvard!
Without you our country would be President-less, Cabinet-less, leaderless, aimless.
STEVEN H. SASSOON Carmel, Calif.
Sir:
About the appointment of Arthur Goldberg as Secretary of Labor I'm adopting a wait-and-see attitude.
Goldberg's greatest triumph is cited as winning the steel strike with a tremendous raise for the steelworkers. So now the steel mills are operating at 50% capacity, steelworkers are jobless in a distressed area, and American gold goes out of the country to pay for cheaper, imported foreign steel. A few more such victories for Goldberg and he can qualify for Champion Killer of Geese That Lay Golden Eggs.
EVELYN CRANE Hollywood
Sir:
If newly appointed chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Walter Heller is willing "to accept--in preference to high unemployment--a 'tolerable' amount of inflation," then we as a nation should be ready to accept a little bit of embezzlement, bank robbery, blackmail, etc.
NORRIS E. CHAPMAN Denver
Sir:
Are we witnessing the early beginnings of a dynasty in the White House?
J.F.K. should be able to win another term in 1964.
And in 1968 Brother Bobby, after eight years in the limelight as Attorney General, will be 43--the ideal age for a Kennedy to run for President.
HENRY MINOTT Boston
Sir:
Isn't it somewhat adding insult to injury, giving Secretary of Defense McNamara a chauffeur-driven Cadillac after that huge loss of Ford income? The least compensation should be a chauffeur-driven Lincoln.
H. FISCHBACH Sevres, France
Up the Mayors!
Sir:
After belittling items, picture and caption re J.F.K.'s senatorial successor, Ben Smith, from the heterogeneous seaport of 25,000 hardy Americans, you conclude that "his sole experience in political office was as a city councilman and mayor of Gloucester." It's to laugh !
Senator Paul Douglas boasts his greatest public experience was gained as a Chicago Alderman, and Hubert Humphrey was "promoted" directly from Minneapolis' "Boy Mayor" to Minnesota's junior Senator--not to mention Senator Joe Clark of Philly.
No egghead, balanced Businessman Senator Smith will catch more than fish for the Commonwealth of the Sacred Cod during Roomie Jack's tenure.
EDWARD A. CRANE Mayor Cambridge, Mass.
A Daisy for Tralee
Sir:
Re your story "New Industry for Ireland": the advent of the Borden Co. is of threefold benefit to us: 1) it utilizes native material, 2) it gives badly needed employment, and 3) the product is for export.
We need more and more industries of this kind if we are to prosper as a nation.
J. B. O'SHEA Tralee, Ireland
The Issue of Disarmament
Sir:
Perhaps the most significant warning published by TIME this year is from Dr. Harold C. Urey in your year-end issue.
The forces of history are shaping up to bring America and the entire free world to ultimate disaster. Only a voluntary willingness on the part of the people of many nations to unite in support of a governed world will save all of us from the eventual establishment of a world government under Soviet auspices and Soviet tyranny.
The ancient tools of diplomacy still held sacred across the world must be junked at the earliest possible day and replaced by a world organization invested with the instrumentalities of world law. Nothing short of this can save the free world, or the Soviet empire, from eventual disaster.
THOMAS HUDSON McKEE Dallas
Sir:
Dr. Harold Urey is skeptical of the chance of successful disarmament negotiations with the Soviet Union because of the Soviets' unwillingness to accept inspection.
It is true that this unwillingness has ruined negotiations in the past. But the Russians may be coming to realize that extensive inspection is necessary to a safe treaty. For our part, we need not insist on inspection to a degree that no government, including our own, could reasonably be expected to accept. An inspection system need not be perfect--only prohibitive.
We must recognize that an arms-limitation or disarmament agreement is indeed feasible, and press for it far more strongly than we have yet done. The Russians believe Communism will triumph without world war, and so in recent years have come to consider disarmament seriously. We should not have so little confidence in the ability of a free society to exist and flourish beside the Soviet Union as to refuse disarmament the very strenuous efforts it deserves.
CHRISTOPHER Z. HOBSON Cambridge, Mass.
Objectivity
Sir:
TIME, Jan. 2: "Mailer by last week had even learned not to be a cop hater."
Drear lads, I've never been a cop hater. Too small a role. But one is not a cop lover, for that is cancer gulch.
NORMAN MAILER New York City
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