Monday, Jan. 21, 1946

What's in a Chuff?

Sirs:

In TIME [Dec. 17] under Miscellany you stated that a tug "chuffed" down the harbor. Please tell me what a tug does when it chuffs.

LeROY VAN COTT Yellowstone Park, Wyo.

P: Chuff-chuff-chuff-chuff-chuff.--ED.

Truman & Atomics

Sirs:

Page 16, para. 5, Dec. 31, 1945 issue TIME: "As the year started, Harry Truman had no idea that his Government was engaged in atomic research."

Chapter 5, para. 34, page 87, H. D. Smyth's official report on the atomic project: "President Truman, who as a United States Senator had been aware of the project and its magnitude . . . etc. . . ."

CYRIL ENDFIELD

Culver City, Calif.

P: TIME, not Professor Smyth, erred.--ED.

A Gang of Dr. Moriartys?

Sirs:

Under the headline "They Know It's Loaded," TIME [Dec. 3] asks: "What is the goal of science? To blow up the world?"

[The atomic bomb] was used in warfare at the insistence of our Government and against the judgment of many of those who took part in the development. TIME's picture of a gang of Professor Moriartys is either vicious or unpardonably ignorant.

The scientists, as scientists, put freedom of inquiry and truth before all else. Does that call for abuse ? . . .

The problem of socially harnessing nuclear energy is not different in kind from that presented by each technological advance in turn since the day when man first bound stone to stick to help him hew wood and grind corn and then realized it could also serve to bash his neighbor's brains out.

Government has not always solved these problems, or even attacked them wisely. There are indications that this time, at last, it may succeed. For our statesmen, with a commendable humility which TIME does not share, now recognize the shortcomings of their own education and are calling on the men of science for help. It is the most hopeful sign of our times that the men of science and good will are being given a voice in international affairs.

HARRY C. HART Princeton, N. J.

P: TIME, which admires the virtues of scientists (in the laboratory), is both humbler and more hopeful than Reader Hart seems to think it.--ED.

Amelia Earhart?

Sirs:

Enclosed find a photograph which was removed from a slain Jap on Okinawa. The lady in slacks appears to be Amelia Earhart. . . .

It may be that this photograph [see below] may shed some light on the mysterious disappearance of the aviatrix. . . .

DR. ROBERT W. MCALLISTER Macon, Ga.

Bedfellows

Sirs:

The editor of your page on People [TIME, Dec. 17] must be hard up for copy and cuts when he has to fall back on a 13-year-old photo of my friends Joad and Price, and serve it up as current gossip. This photo was taken in a private museum in Chiswick, London, England, on Sept. 15, 1932. . . .

RICHARD S. LAMBERT Toronto

P: Right (alas, alas) is Reader Lambert, onetime collaborator with ghost-breaker Harry Price (The Haunting of Cashen's Gap). To a Rip Van Winklish TIME reporter in London: wake up.--ED.

Hargrove for Congress

Sirs:

About the biggest morale booster to us forgotten men of the Assam Valley was the news broadcast concerning the momentous speech of Sergeant Marion Hargrove [TIME, Dec. 17], ex of the U.S. Army. The chairman was right in calling him a nice young fellow. We feel that he speaks for us out here and for 10,000,000 other nice young fellows throughout the world.

. . . The signees of this letter will all vote for Hargrove for Congress. . . .

(CPL.) PAUL BROCK (AND 25 OTHER SIGNATORIES)

c/o Postmaster

New York City

Bias Showing?

Sirs:

. . . Your piece [TIME, Dec. 17] on Laski's speech is inexcusable. Why the adjective "Little" Laski? You are evidently unaware of his writings when you say, "Harold Laski was troubled by no doubts." You don't have to tell us that his "challenge" was "arrogant"--just quote it and let us read it. And what do you mean that it rang "tinnily" [through the room] ? What would he have to say to make it ring "resonantly" or "decisively?" (And why do you make such a point of the fact that "no public vote anywhere has ever elected Harold Laski to anything," when he is speaking as a private citizen? . . .) Don't look now, gentlemen, but your bias is showing.

REUBEN ABEL New York City

P: And what do you mean, Reader Abel? That TIME should falsify Laski by doubling his weight?--ED.

The Montezuma Fiction

Sirs:

I regret to find that in its Dec. 31 issue TIME has fallen into the somewhat common error of referring to Montezuma as "Aztec Emperor of Mexico." Montezuma II was not an "emperor" and did not rule over an "empire. . . ." Montezuma was only one of the two chiefs of Tenochtitlan, the ancient Mexico City. Both these chiefs had but limited powers. . . . The "Aztec Empire" was only a loose confederation of nations tributary to Tenochtitlan but not integrated into a single, or even several large, governmental systems. . . .

RICHARD L. VAN NORT Haddonfield, NJ.

It's an III Wind

Sirs:

Please inform the writer of the article "Breakthrough," under caption "Weather" [TIME, Dec. 31], that it was a privilege to have endured the recent storms--inasmuch as it has given us the pleasure of reading his beautifully written account.

A. M. LYONS Vincennes, Ind.

Preserve Those Planes!

Sirs:

THE GOVERNMENT TREND TOWARD SCRAPPING THE FOLLOWING TYPES OF AIRCRAFT THAT CANNOT BE SOLD AT PRESENT ESTABLISHED PRICES IS ABSOLUTELY WRONG AND MUST BE STOPPED : c-45s, c-46s, c-47s, c-60s, c-78s, BT-13s, BEECHCRAFT, AT-6s AND ALL TRAINERS. . . .

ALL THE ABOVE TYPES OF AIRPLANES WERE BUILT TO FLY AND NOT TO SCRAP. THEY HAVE YEARS OF SERVICE IN THEM AND IT IS A CRIME TO DESTROY ANY AIRPLANE THAT CAN POSSIBLY BE USED. RETURNING VETERANS AND FLYING ENTHUSIASTS SHOULD BE GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO BUY THESE AIRPLANES AT NOMINAL PRICES. ALL THE ABOVE AIRPLANES ARE OF A TYPE THAT WILL NOT BE COMPETITIVE WITH NEW TYPES. . . .

C. C. MOSELEY

Cal-Aero Technical Institute President Glendale, Calif.

Southern Comfort

Sirs:

. . . The letter from R. Singleton Sims, of Madison, Wis., in your issue of Dec. 3, moves me to protest. ..."

Is [Mr. Sims's] historical background for such a diatribe so superficial that he does not know that it was the north which introduced the black man into this country? . . .

And now, Mr. Sims and other non-Southerners are out to "free" the Negro again; but this time, I am afraid they will have to foot the bill. I don't think any "thoughtful Southerner" is going to be greatly interested in financing this new freedom. . . .

MRS. ORA CHESTER BARBER Denver

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