Lock & Chain
Sir:
Your grim story of life under Socialism Communism in East Germany [Aug. 25] should be reprinted weekly and distributed to every American to read. Nonsubscribers have missed a strong reminder of what the free world faces.
Better our own system of individual private initiative, even with occasional inequities, than life as a "dreary procession of rules and slogans that dragoon the mind as well as body," with pictures of dictators looking from walls, and the "ever present aura of fear.''
O. O. WISWELL, M.D. Hollywood, Fla.
Sir:
Who else but Artzybasheff could capture the hopeless, despairing mood of East Germany's captive peoples with as simple a device as a chain and a spectral padlock. The compelling message of this cover picture is plain, and needs no words of explanation. (MRS.) ALICE A. PAULSON
Genoa, Ill.
Sir:
Thank you for your very true and objective story on Berlin. I hope that you helped to teach even the last American citizen that, if he wants to give up Berlin, he gives up himself.
DR. SCHENICKE Cologne, West Germany
Sir:
Every German I have spoken to knows that the real reason for the presence of American troops in West Berlin is to save our own skins, not because we have any great love for the freedom of the West Berliners. Many British would do well to remember that a strong stand in Berlin might prevent a strong stand one of these days in the streets of London.
MARTIN I. TOWNSEND JR.
West Berlin
Sir:
Congratulations on the very revealing and well-written Ulbricht story.
Indeed, rarely in history has a country shown less justification for its existence, from any point of view, than does Ulbricht's custom-styled D.D.R.
AVIK GILBOA Geneva
Sir:
Let us face reality: we are living in an atomic age, and we have created an instrument that can destroy us all, the innocent along with the guilty. Every reputable scientist knows, and many have certainly stated, that a nuclear war would wipe out millions of human lives and would destroy our civilization.
If mankind is involved, mankind should be consulted. The Berlin controversy is one for the U.N.; let there be no extermination without representation.
HERBERT A. LEVINSON
Los Angeles
Garbage in the Parlor
Sir:
Roses to the "self-appointed" censor, W. D. Maxwell of the Chicago Tribune [Aug. 25], who revised the list of bestsellers to exclude the products of smut-rakers.
D. A. CAMERON Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Sir:
Strike off a medal for Chicago Tribune's Maxwell. If a hostess brought the garbage can in the living room and lifted the lid for all to admire and discuss the contents, we would be shocked. So what is so wrong with Host Maxwell's removal of the Garbage Can School of Literature from the Trib's parlor?
THEO K. MCWILLIAMS Westfield, X.J.
Sir'
Regarding Trib Editor W. D. Maxwell's dilemma, 'why not a list of the bestsellers and a list of the books worth reading. This should make everybody happy!
EUNICE GUY Jacobsville, Mich. P: See LISTINGS.--ED.
Sportsed Slams Slang
Sir:
I read with great interest your article on the new breed in sportswriters [Sept. 1] , and think you might like to know that the writer who put the "belt" into the story and the Miami sports editor with the antislang memorandum are one and the sameonly wiser.
Stanley Woodward was sports editor of the Miami News when I was writing baseball in 1952. As a youngster then, I thought all sports stories had to be filled with belts, twin-killings, and four-ply blasts.
Stanley ended it quickly with his belt display.
It was a great lesson to me, and when I became executive sports editor here in 1958, I began issuing the memos.
The most perfect squelch I've heard about sports slang came from one of our young writers arguing that "Bosox" and "Chisox" were ridiculous. His opponent in the debate continued to say that such words made it easier for headlines. The first man answered: "I can see it now. WASHNATS COP PAIR." HOWARD KLEINBERG Executive Sports Editor Miami News Miami, Fla.
Said the Congressman to the Senator
Sir:
Senator Proxmire may not stand on his head, physically that is, but he has never had any trouble keeping himself suspended in mid-air without any sign of support, logically that is.
Referring to his letter to you [Aug. 25], may I say:
1) My charge that his bills would cost the Treasury $23 billion was not made at the Republican State Convention in Milwaukee on May 24, 1958, but from Washington on May 12.
2) From May 12 until Aug. 7, when he claimed his bills in toto would save the Treasury $700 million, Senator Proxmire stood on his head, figuratively that is, in an effort to find bills to introduce that purported to save money, even going so far as to introduce and claim $4 billion in savings for a bill which had passed the Senate before he was sworn in. This is a nice trick too.
3) The fact that Senator Proxmire has not reintroduced his 1958 bills, and is now on an economy kick, shows that his "flat denial" that they would cost $23 billion has never been taken seriously, even by him.
4) While I applaud new conversions to fiscal prudence, I would be more convinced about Senator Proxmire if his actual voting record this year didn't show enthusiastic support for the more grandiose spending proposals of the New Frontier, plus some that even the New Frontier has opposed, including $250 million for educational TV.
REP. JOHN W. BYRNES House of Representatives Washington
Wrong Man
Sir:
Amongst all other things I've been called, I can't recollect ever having been Anthony [July 28]. I look forward to the day when TIME will know me as, sincerely,
MAURICE MAN London P:TIME should have known it was Maurice, not Anthony, for Maurice is the well-known Man whose painting of Lady Coldstream was purchased by Britain's Hugh Gaits-kelLEo.
Of God & Marble
Sir:
In your story on the little white church at Marble, Colo. [Aug. 25], you mentioned famous structures made of marble from Marble, Colo., among them the Lincoln Memorial.
My father, Harry H. Miles, was a vice president of the Georgia Marble Co. and negotiated the sale of a solid block of white Georgia marble quarried at Tate, Ga., for the Lincoln Memorial, Lincoln seated in his chair. Could TIME be wrong?
MARTHA MILES BASKETTE Alhambra, Calif.
Cf No. The statue of Lincoln is Georgia marble, but the superstructure is marble from Colorado.ED.
Sir:
Your article was very interesting to me. Having been an exchange student at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, Colo., I was so excited to find the little white church of Marble in TIME Magazine. We went up to Marble on field trips with our geology class;studied the stones and structures and admired the beautiful country way up on the Crystal River in the Rockies. Maybe I'm the only Swiss girl who has ever been up there?
Too bad that canon law got in the way. It would be such a pretty place to thank God for all the wonderful things on earth! JACQUELINE-MONIQUE ESCHENMOSER Spreitenbach, Switzerland
From The Sofa Of ...
Sir:
Your Aug. 25 Modern Living story on the so-called "deskless office" trend reminds me a little of a "pocketless suit." It may be a dandy space saver, but you can't keep your wallet up your sleeve.
For example, where does a man dare put his wife's picture but on his desk? Then there's the problem of where an executive can keep his cigars, his golf balls and perhaps the work he's putting off until tomorrow.
Memo pads bearing the imprint "From The Desk Of" could hardly read "From The Sofa Of." And when the boss is away from his desk, where can his secretary say he's away from ?
As a dispassionate PR man I refuse to give up the secrets and comfort of the best friend an office ever had. WILLIAM J. DUGAN Public Relations Manager Royal Metal Manufacturing Co. New York City
Gravity Is Weaker
Sir:
As you pointed out [Aug. 25], the controversy of the rabbit ball has raged for at least 35 years. But most of the attention has been paid to the manufacture of the ball, and very little to its use. Years ago, pitchers used the "emery" ball, the "shine" ball and the "spitter." All of these detracted from its resiliency, and still the balls were kept in play until hit out of the park.
Today, a scuff on the cover, a grass stain or a split seam, and out it goes. The balls do not stay around long enough to loosen up and become soft. It could be that the balls are still coming out of the factory the same way that they did years ago, but the comparison ends there.
WILLIAM M. PEARSON Kaneohe, Hawaii
Sir:
The application of some elementary physics to the problem of the home-run deluge provides a logical explanation. It is simply this: gravity is weaker than it used to be.
The reason for the weakening is, of course, the reduction in the mass of the earth caused by shooting satellites into space. Since the force of attraction between two objects is proportional to their masses, the ball is not returned to earth as fast as formerly. Thus, as more and heavier space vehicles are placed in orbit, we may expect startling new records in all athletics.
G. W. DUEKER Wilton, Conn.
Learned Hand
Sir:
Sometimes we have to go day after day settling for second-rate journalism. Then, suddenly, we are lucky enough to open our weekly copy of TIME and read such an excellent story as the one on Judge Hand [Aug. 25]. It's been a long time since I have read something that so completely captures the personality of a great man. Your article, like Judge Hand himself, is a great tribute to the law and to humanity.
MARGARET HALE Lake Forest, Ill.
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.