U.S. Job
Sir:
Congratulations to TIME for the excellent report on the present and future position of our military might [TIME, June 23]. Let's hope this article will help to bring some of our reactionary Congressmen out of their shells and help them to see the light. . . .
JOSEPH C. WEBB JR. Washington, D.C.
Sir:
. . . Any U.S. citizen who is even partially capable of taking cognizance of the present world situation should realize, without having to be sold on the idea, that the Armed Forces should be maintained at optimum strength and efficiency.
This question goes beyond just the Armed Forces. Planning for future strength should include the entire potential resources, natural, industrial, technological, intelligence, etc., of the country. . . .
I believe it is admittedly and inherently the job of the U.S. to guide and aid the countries of the world at the present time, and it can only be done if this country remains the dominant power of the world. . . .
KENNETH Z. CRAWFORD Douglaston, L.I.
Hot & Corny Jazz
Sir:
The scribe who said of Till the End of Time, "It was the best-selling jazz record of 1945" [TIME, June 23]--was he kidding the public? Anyone who had the nerve to pen such a banality should be forced to listen to Guy Lombardo, Sammy Kaye and Freddie Martin till the end of time! . . .
Call it corn, schmaltz or what you will, no Mickey-Mouse band wheezing through Till the End of Time could ever, by any stretch of the imagination, play anything but that!
J. LEE ANDERSON Ludington, Mich.
Sir:
. . . The best-selling "jazz" record of 1945 ! Man, how square CAN you get?
ARISTOTLE BOURAS Newmarket, N.H.
P: Let Readers Anderson and Bouras stash the gaff: TIME, not written and edited exclusively for hep cats, always labels "hot jazz" as such.--ED.
The Punch & Pokes of Profit
Sir:
. . . Taylor Caldwell's letter [TIME, June 23) not only verifies beyond question everything your "mean-hearted critic" said, but also gives us a superb example of her writing, which those who have not read any of her printed works needed to form a complete picture of the artist. . .
LESLIE BROWN Cambridge, Mass.
Sir:
As a writer of popular fiction* that usually (thank God) winds up on best-seller lists and in the movies, may I be one of my craft to blush publicly for Taylor Caldwell's letter. . . . TIME giggles at us "popular writers" in a silly effort to convince the public that it is literate enough to appreciate Henry Miller and Joyce. We don't fool you and you don't fool us. We only envy you because you have God's unlisted telephone number and we have only bosomy women and sinewy men to work with. ...
And those of us who write for profit must never forget that if we drink the punch we must take the pokes.
JAMES STREET Chapel Hill, N.C.
Canadian National Game
Sir:
The airy nonchalance with which you report a lacrosse game in Baltimore "that settled the white man's 1947 championship" [TIME, June 16] will, I am sure, amaze the members of the hundreds of Canadian teams now playing their scheduled league games leading up to the east-west playoffs for the Mann Cup, emblematic of the Canadian Lacrosse Championship. . . .
H. J. KEENAN Toronto
Sir:
Most Canadians, who have either played or enthused to their national game of lacrosse for generations, were more than mildly amused at TIME'S . . . statement that Baltimore is now "the game's capital."
. . . Apparently you have never heard of St. Catherine's, home of the perennial winners of the Mann Cup, emblematic of world lacrosse supremacy. St. Kitt's "Athletics" are world lacrosse champions in the same sense as the St. Louis "Cardinals" are champions in the baseball world.
J. DOUGLAS WILSON Fergus, Ont.
P: TIME'S Sport Editor, who knows how it feels to be hit over the head with a lacrosse stick, was in the crease.--ED.
49th State?
Sir:
Your splendid article on Alaska [TIME, June 16], with the cover showing the 49th star [with question mark] . . . gives warranted attention to the Territory of Alaska and its capable and energetic Governor, Ernest Gruening--energetic, advisedly, for he was recently my partner in tennis, and he plays a bang-up game with a Harvard accent.
The Hawaii Statehood Commission agrees that Alaska meets qualifications hitherto required for statehood, and wishes its fellow territory godspeed.
Actions of Congress, however, have put Hawaii even closer to statehood than Alaska. . . . Hawaii's enabling act, appropriately dubbed H.R. 49, has been placed on the House calendar for debate during this session of the 80th Congress.
Although Alaska's friends in Hawaii hope there will soon be 50 stars in Old Glory, they feel that Hawaii has a reservation on No. 49.
GEORGE H. McLANE Executive Secretary Hawaii Statehood Commission Washington, D.C.
Best Since Thorpe?
Sir:
"The best collegiate athlete since Jim Thorpe . . . and possibly the greatest of them all" is a tremendous compliment to pay to Glenn Davis [TIME, June 16], but did your Sport Editor ever bother to check the record of one Jack Robinson? . . .*
Yes, I'm speaking of the same Mr. Robinson who is now with the Brooklyn Dodgers. ... At U.C.L.A., in 1939 and 1940, the swift Mr. R. did the following, which I sincerely doubt has ever been equaled in college ranks, even by Mr. Outside:
Was named All-Coast halfback. . . .
Led the Conference in scoring in basketball.
Captured the N.C.A.A. broad-jump title, with a leap of 24 ft. 10 1/4 in.
Played varsity baseball. . . .
Oh well, young Mr. R. is finally having his day, so we should complain.
BOB WOLCOTT JR. Los Angeles
Freedom & the Arts
Sir:
The most pertinent criticism of Mr. Truman's opinion of modern art, part of which appeared in your June 16 issue, was made by the man under whom he served as Vice President. At the opening of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said:
"The arts cannot thrive except where men are free to be themselves, and to be in charge of the discipline of their own energies and ardors. The conditions for democracy and for art are one and the same. What we call liberty in politics results in freedom in the arts.
". . . As in our Democracy we enjoy the right to believe in different religious creeds or in none, so can American artists express themselves with complete freedom from the strictures of a dead artistic tradition or political ideology. While American artists have discovered a new obligation to the society in which they live, they have no compulsion to be limited in method or manner of expression."
It is more than sad to see the man who succeeded Mr. Roosevelt as President of the U.S. not only unappreciative of these most vital truths, but denouncing those who are.
EMANUEL SOLOMON Philadelphia
* Oh Promised Land, Tap Roots, The Gauntlet.
* Obviously; see TIME, Nov. 5, 1945; Aug. 26, 1946; March 31, 1947; April 14, 1947.--ED.
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.