HAW

Sir:

As the initials of Henry A. Wallace . . . spell HAW, I suggest as his party's emblem the Haw tree (Viburnum prunifolium), specifically the Black Haw, sometimes called the Stag Bush. Should any artist wish to paint this phenomenon of nature, I give him Charles Sprague Sargent's description (Manual of the Trees of North America; Houghton Mifflin):

"A bushy tree . . . with a short and usually crooked trunk . . . stout spreading rigid branches beset with slender spine-like branchlets, bright red and glabrous when they first appear, soon turning green, and in their first winter grey tinged with red, covered with a slight bloom . . . and ultimately dark brown tinged with red."

Any similarity between the Haw tree and Henry A. Wallace is purely political.

BERNARD K. FRANK Portland, Ore.

Applied Faith

Sir:

. . . Congratulations on a very timely and significant cover story [TIME, Dec. 29]. What you have said about the inadequacy of modern art because of its conspicuous lack of faith or tradition could readily be applied to all the arts and to almost every phase of modern life. ... It is unfortunate that "modern" men have ceased thinking of themselves in terms of "participants in an eternal mystery," and have lost "the shepherd's compassion."

HERBERT C. WOLF Chicago, Ill.

Kyoto's Widow Morgan

Sir:

Your article about Mrs. George Morgan [TIME, Dec. 22] and the accompanying cut is both conceived and written in extraordinarily poor taste. Your willingness to accept the evidence of a cheap Japanese novelist is right in keeping with the tradition of yellow journalism.

At the request of her niece, Mrs. Sarah Morgan Gardner of Princeton, I located Mrs. Morgan in Kyoto in May of 1946 while serving in Japan with the Marine Corps. I found her through the St. Francis Xavier Church missionaries in that city, men who willingly testified to her devotion to the church and to the hardships she had suffered in Japan as the widow of an American. Mrs. Morgan herself, a charming elderly lady, who seemed more Occidental than Japanese, was overjoyed to hear news of her American relations, who are all devoted to her and have made every effort to see that she is taken care of. Far from being a rich woman, as intimated in your article, all her income is frozen in the United States.

Articles such as yours can do little else than make life more uncomfortable for people who are unable to answer them.

ROBERT W. LOCKE Princeton, N.J.

> TIME trusts that its other readers were not equally offended by this story of Madame-Butterfly-with-a-difference.-- ED.

Ducks Ltd.

Sir:

The letter of Warren Himmelberger [TiME, Dec. 15] re adjectives etc. reminds me of the late one being told around here:

A poll was taken in Hollywood on the question as to whether too many adjectives were being used over the radio. Results:

5% said too many being used. 5% said not too many. 90% said: "What are adjectives?"

DUFF S. HANSEN

Claremont, Calif.

Sir:

... I am forever thankful for learning in TIME "steatopygic" in place of "duck-shaped."

(MRS.) ARCHIBALD E. MACBRIDE Baltimore, Md.

A Touchstone for Hollywood

Sir:

It is with a certain pleasant surprise that I find, in a popular American magazine with a wide circulation like TIME, motion-picture criticism which is independent, impartial, and which doesn't in the least bit cater to the interests of American motion-picture industries.

As an oldtime theatrical and motion-picture critic myself, I usually fully agree with the judgment of your critics. . . . May I, however, point out a fundamental touchstone which, in my opinion, should be, but hardly ever is, applied to the art of motion pictures (regardless of the industrial implications). It is a principle which can be expressed in few words: whereas, the art of the stage consists of dialogues illustrated by visible action, the specific art of the motion picture consists of visible action illustrated (as sparingly as possible) by dialogues. . . .

According to this principle, the Hollywood industries are rapidly and disastrously departing farther & farther from motion-picture art, which had almost reached maturity before the advent of the sound. Talk all you want, but let the screen action be always fully clear and understandable even if all the talk is canceled. . . .

NICOLA LUBIMOV Florence, Italy

Man of the Year

Sir:

May I, though a foreigner, give my opinion about the Man of the Year [TIME, Jan. 5]?

If we Western Europeans are lucky enough to remain free and keep our rights to think and speak, it will be for a great part owing to your George C. Marshall. Millions of Europeans will not forget. . . .

JACQUES M. LECLERE

Wasquehal, France

Sir:

TIME picks one Man of the Year.

This cartoon shows the schizophrenic selection by the Winnipeg Tribune of two--Marshall and Molotov. . . .

NATHAN ZIMMERMAN

Winnipeg, Canada

V.M.I.'s Gill

Sir:

If Colorado College reached for a West Pointer [TIME, Dec. 22] in hiring Major General W. H. Gill (ret.), it was fortunate in not getting what it reached for. Like General Marshall, Gill is a product of Virginia Military Institute, and like him is more a man and less a martinet than the products of the U.S.M.A. ...

WILLIAM E. THOMASON

Bryan, Tex.

P: TIME'S Education editor reached for the "West Point of the South" but only got across the Hudson River.--ED.

Wrong Guess

Sir:

The article in TIME, Dec. 22, concerning me in connection with Forever Amber and the Legion of Decency, cannot possibly be classed as factual reporting. You gave the mischievous impression that I slyly maneuvered the Legion into placing that film in the "C" or condemned classification for the sake of box-office stimulation, when you said that I "guessed, correctly, that Legion disapproval would whet public pruriency and boost attendance." Your guess as to my guess was completely wrong as to the facts. Let me state these facts:

From the time the Legion formally notified me, Oct. 16, that the picture had been given a condemned rating, until it announced, Dec. 8, the change in classification, arduous and painstaking negotiations were in progress every day. The day after I received a letter from Father Masterson, Executive Secretary of the Legion, informing me of the classification, I met with him for an extended discussion, during which I told him that we were prepared to do anything possible to eliminate those features of the film which the Legion found objectionable. From that day on, officials of the Legion and executives of our company met almost daily in an effort to agree on changes. Two days after the picture opened, I proposed that a prologue be added to the film, and gave notice to Father Masterson that the way would be open for other changes.

Throughout the unbroken series of discussions, the Legion itself indicated no concern that its own action might add to the box-office appeal of the picture, and at no time complained that matters were being delayed. At my request, Judge Stephen Jackson, who is assistant to Joseph Breen, director of the Motion Picture Code Authority, came on from Hollywood to act as an impartial negotiator. I also had Otto Preminger, director of the picture, fly on from California as soon as I received word of the Legion's action, and he participated in discussions on possible changes.

When agreement was finally reached and rough changes had been made, it was then necessary to make the actual finished emendations and additions in this Technicolor picture via all the technical processes at the studio. Thereafter, it was also necessary to revise 475 prints scattered in exchanges throughout the U.S. I made a statement Dec. 5, announcing the changes, and Dec. 8 the Legion of Decency followed up by announcing that the picture had been put in the "B" ("objectionable in part") classification.

SPYROS P. SKOURAS

President

20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York City

P: TIME indeed guessed wrong as to Cinemogul Skouras' intentions, thanks him for setting the record straight on Forever Amber's "clean-up."--ED.

Cold, Curt, Cruel

Sir:

"People don't completely collapse. They go on living anyway." [TIME, Dec. 29]. These words, spoken by Bob Taft about the hungry and politically confused peoples of Europe, seem to ... me the most cold, curt and cruel indictment, or better still abandonment, of humanity since Marie Antoinette told the hungry mob, "Let them eat cake." . . .

JOHN S. SAYLOR JR.

Reading, Pa.

Sir:

. . It rather appealed to me to have the chance to vote for a man as courageously honest as Bob Taft, much as I disliked many ... of his views. But the above statement goes far beyond what the most ardent admirer of mere courage could follow.

Boston, Mass.

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