Swivet Sir:

In your issue of March 1 . . . you use the word swivet. The only person I ever heard use the word is my secretary, who is from Memphis, Tenn.

I cannot find the word in the dictionary; Where did you find it?

W. E. JONES

Clearwater, Fla.

P:TIME got it from a Texan in a tizzy.--ED.

Cincinnati Slants

Sir:

Reading about the Cincinnati Enquirer-Westbrook Pegler feud [TIME, March 1], I noticed you termed the Enquirer "Democratic." After several years of reading the Enquirer, I've either gotten the wrong slant on things, or else TIME is wrong. About the only thing in the Enquirer that approaches being democratic is the comic section.

H. W. HAUENSTEIN

Cincinnati, Ohio

Sir:

You speak of the Democratic Cincinnati Enquirer. That cracked many a chapped lip in Cincinnati. . . TIME'S Cincinnati correspondent needs a couple of Benzedrine tablets.

ERIC STOCKTON

Cincinnati, Ohio

P:Lip Ade is fine for chapped lips. The Enquirer considers itself an "Independent Democratic" paper.--ED.

Southern Hospitality

Sir:

Mah heart bleeds for poor Senatah [Olin] Johnston [TIME, March 1]. It's a cryin' shame that the poor man had to miss $100 worth of capon and champagne just because his poor Tie wife was too good to be seen in the same room with a "Nigra." . . .

BARBARA WICKHAM

Arcadia, Calif.

Mister Roberts' Doctor

Sir:

Your picture caption on the smash hit, Mister Roberts, reads David Wayne, Henry Fonda, William Harrigan [TIME, March 1]. Rather believe the last one is Robert Keith, the ship's doctor. The ship's captain, William Harrigan, spends little time with his men, certainly had no time to help the rest prepare a homemade alcoholic concoction.

BERNARD BLOOM Indianapolis, Ind.

Sir:

I WILL BET YOU TWO TICKETS TO THE PLAY THAT THE THIRD PERSON [WAS] MY FRIEND BOB KEITH. . . .

WILSON P. Foss Katonah, N.Y.

fl No bet. It was the doctor. The error was caught and corrected in several hundred thousand copies.--ED.

The Taxonomic Approach

Sir:

In his "taxonomic" researches I presume "Sexologist" Alfred C. Kinsey [TIME, March 1] spent most of his time "looking (a fruit fly) squarely in the eye, firing questions at him at maximum speed," and getting excited about his answers. . . .

As an ex-Gallup pollster, I am no longer surprised at the answers people give to questions, but I am continually astounded at the conclusions "experts" derive from their answers.

J. G. BUTTERWORTH San Francisco, Calif.

Sir:

In discussing the Kinsey report, TIME gave the impression that though laymen book reviewers acclaim the study, experts find it unacceptable. This is quite erroneous, as the inquiry has been at all times guided by scores of experts who stand in back of it. ... By the . . . realistic standard of what has been achieved before in the study of sex, Professor Kinsey's work is clearly a tremendous advance, and warrants wide attention and respect. . . .

LEO P. CRESPI

Assistant Professor of Psychology Princeton University Princeton, N.J.

Sir:

You note that Kinsey, a onetime student of insects, set out to apply the "taxonomic approach" to human beings. I am wondering if this approach does not involve a basic error, or at least open the way to a misinterpretation of the Kinsey report.

Kinsey can study 100,000 insects by the "taxonomic approach," and derive certain principles and laws from their constant behavior. The physical laws governing insect life admit of this diagnosis, because they are followed instinctively and necessarily by insects.

But moral laws are in a completely different category. No scientific process can determine, even after studying 100,000 human beings, what man will do. The best that Ethics can tell us is what man ought to do. Human behavior as such tells us nothing of the moral law, only of the good or bad will of individuals in the face of the law.

Moreover, a discrepancy on the part of one insect belies the existence of a universal physical law. Yet man, through weakness, or ignorance, or even malice, can fail to observe the moral law without affecting the existence of the moral law one bit, because his behavior does not establish the law. So as far as the law of behavior is concerned, we can learn a lot more from studying insects' behavior than from studying man's. . . .

THEODORE M. HESBURGH Notre Dame, Ind.

Preferences

Sir:

Of course, we would prefer that you tell TIME'S readers that the Wiltwyck School for Boys" [for which a fund-raising drive brought out some stylish, visiting notables; TIME, Feb. 23] hopes to set a scientific, nonpunitive pattern for the rehabilitation of young delinquents everywhere.

But if it's hats you prefer, Actress Ilona Massey out-hatted Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune (see cut) and Eleanor Roosevelt at the Wiltwyck meeting last week.

GEORGE B. SCHLESS New York City

"What fell?"

Sir:

Criticism of the Associated Press report by Dr. Rudolph Flesch [TIME, Feb. 16] might well apply to the other press associations and many newspapers. "Monotonous," says he, "too many long sentences," "16-cylinder words," "Latin terms" and so on. Old hands saw it coming when Morse operators disappeared with the advent of the telegraph printer, and the colleges and universities began to ... offer courses in journalism.

The average telegraph operator was as smart as a whip. ... He was an artist at pouring copy down a wire, and when a word not in his limited vocabulary turned up he questioned it. If he didn't, at least one of the dozen or so receiving operators on the circuit could be depended upon to break in with "What t'ell?" So, the press, association reporter then had a flock of sarcastic copy readers riding his story after the desk editor looked it over. The result was that he wrote simply and to the point. . . .

Some of us, now on the sidelines, hold schools of journalism largely responsible for many of the faults cited by Dr. Flesch. The oldtime press association reporter ... at one time or another had worked under a hard-boiled city editor who beat out his brains with a club when he wrote above the head of the man in the street. . . . Now the average reporter is a journalism graduate and apparently puts on the dog to show how much he knows. . . .

DUDLEY HADDOCK

Sarasota, Fla.

After Meeting

Sir:

Your article about the retirement of the George School's able principal [TIME, Feb. 23] brings to mind an incident that illustrates 'the Pope's" [George A. Walton] Friendly understanding and treatment of his students. Returning from Quaker Meeting in nearby Newtown one Sunday morning, my roommate and I could not resist the temptation to throw stones through the windows of a coal shed. . . . The irate owner pursued us up the racks but, being in training for soccer at the ime, we soon outdistanced him.

Upon arriving at our room, we changed our clothes, put out different coats on the Deds, and buried our noses in dog-eared copies of Julius Caesar. Soon we heard knocking at the doors along the hall, and presently "the Pope" opened our door and said to the shed owner with him: "Are these the boys?" The man looked us over, looked at the coats on the beds, and said "No." But "George A." wasn't fooled. He stood coking at us for a moment with just the trace of a smile at the corners of his mouth, hen shut the door and left. Soon he came jack alone and said: "Thee will please be in my office after Assembly tomorrow." He knew darn well that two boys [like us] would never normally be cracking a Latin book on Sunday morning. But he wouldn't ive us away to the shed owner!

R. W. GRAHAM

George School '20

Philadelphia, Pa.

Hot Licks

Sir:

. . . I wish to express my indignation at the severe injustice you have done Stan Kenton [TIME, March 1]. The despairingly stagnant condition of popular American music has been in existence far too long, and I believe that, whether he is right or wrong in his efforts, Mr. Kenton should be commended for his one-man crusade to alleviate this deplorable condition. . . .

The psychological effect Mr. Kenton's music has had on his listeners and his continued record-breaking attendance marks are undeniable proofs that present progressive-minded people are eagerly looking for something fresh and invigorating in music. If Mr. Kenton's "progressive jazz" can substitute for, or even alter, the present uninteresting, uninspiring style of obsolete music, more power to him. . . .

K. L. VANDER VOORT

West Lafayette, Ind.

Sir:

As Louie [Armstrong] might exclaim, I "jumped salty" when I read that one. Mr. Stan Kenton has more gall than the Hollywood hams.

Chronologically, Armstrong's throne, dug in bed rock through the years, has had hosts of usurpers. . . .

Nothing small about Mr. Kenton though. ... He harangued the one man who would stir this writer's emotions, and (I hope) a few others who detest Boy Scout Brass and the rest of this cacophony they euphemistically term "music."

Shackle the graves of Bolden, Bix and Berigan before they rotate, and send those 4,200 squares in Chicago back to the sincere "Three Bs."

Louie & Muggsy, I love you.

ROBERT O. SCHICK

Toledo, Ohio

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