Green Pastures
Sir:
TIME, April 19, states: "For some undetermined reason, the most intellectual men are apt to be baldest."
The reason has been well known for at least a quarter of a century. You can't grow grass on a busy street.
BROOKS SHEPARD
Saxtons River, Vt.
Corned Beef Calumny
Sir:
TIME, March 29, most likely under the influence of delicatessen dining, accuses Thomas More of having been overly fond of corned beef. I am at a loss to account for the source of your information. Perhaps you drew on your carnivorous imagination or relied on some biographical chitchat for this impeachment of More's anti-slaughter principles. I have re-examined the Ethics of Diet by Howard Williams for some verification of this corned beef calumny, without finding the slightest substantiation. On the contrary, in More's justly famed Utopia, we find the Utopians condemning every form of slaughter, whether it be for sport, style or sustenance . . .
SYMON GOULD
New York City
Sir:
. . . It seems that TIME is confusing Sir Thomas with Thomas Moore, the national poet of Ireland (1779-1852), whose favorite dish was corned beef . . . Sir Thomas More was a vegetarian from shortly after he entered Oxford to the extent that he eschewed flesh, fish and fowl . .
E. L. PRATT
Editor-Publisher
The American Vegetarian
Pismo Beach, Calif.
P: TIME'S authority for citing Sir Thomas More as a meat-eater was Erasmus, as quoted by Theodore Maynard in his book, Humanist as Hero; the Life of Sir Thomas More (Macmillan; 1947): "He likes to eat corned beef and corned bread much leavened, rather than what people count delicacies."--ED.
The Facts of Life
Sir:
The emotional seismographs record letter-writer Travis' tremors over teaching sex in the Oregon schoolrooms. Her theory is that knowledge leads to experimentation [TIME, April 12]. The truth is exactly the opposite . . . Curiosity is a powerful emotion, and . . . knowledge satisfies curiosity, thus greatly reducing the emotional pressures.
This is no unsupported claim. Shortly after World War I, Wisconsin began offering frank sex instruction to most of its high-school students. As a result, the venereal disease rate among its drafted [white] men in World War II was the lowest in the nation: 6.3 per 1,000 as against 170 per 1,000 in some other states . . .
The result [of the Oregon program] in 25 years will be colossal . . .
F. ALEXANDER MAGOUN
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Mass.
Sir:
. . . The Oregon [sex education] plan is a lot better way to learn about sex than the way I learned it during my elementary school years . . .
ROBERT I. BURROUGHS
Fernwood, Idaho
Torts
Sir:
Professor Prosser tried his $5 bill trick [TIME, April 12] on us at the University of Minnesota Law School last October, but we had the $5 back before the end of the hour. Justice is swift on the frontier . . .
GORDON A. STEPHENSON
Minneapolis, Minn.
Sir:
TIME . . . quoted Professor Prosser as saying that his opus on the law of torts was "inadequate." . . . Consternation reigns supreme in the Ole Miss law school. If Prosser on Torts, all 1,309 pages of it, is inadequate, what must an adequate volume be? ...
TOM BOURDEAUX
University, Miss.
Sir:
What was the decision of Judge Crafts in the case of Poindexter v. Prosser?
FRANCIS J. MOYNIHAN
Justice
Justice Court of Jamestown, N.Y.
P: The professor won.--ED.
Moderate's Dilemma
Sir:
While I appreciate the growing seriousness of the "cold war" between Russia and the U.S., I also deplore the serious dilemma which faces many moderates, like myself, who favor a compromise between the extremes of American free enterprise and Russian Marxism.
Unfortunately, in the present political temper, compromise is not appreciated in either country--people must be all or nothing, black or white, for or against. I am thus forced to accept elements I dislike in the Greek political setup and condemn many excellent measures for improving the lot of the peoples of Eastern Europe. I must wholeheartedly accept the corruption of the Kuomintang and refuse to admit that the Chinese Communists have done good as well as bad.
. . . I naturally support America in the present political struggle--as do all freedom-loving people in Europe--but, like them, I hope the struggle will not mean an end to liberal aspirations throughout the world, and the revival of those reactionary forces against which we all fought so recently.
RUSSELL SPURR
Essex, England
Plump Puppet
Sir:
TIME, Feb. 23, describes the celebrated puppet of North Korea as "leathery" and "sharp-eyed." Attached is a photograph of the gent. He doesn't look very sharp to me.
JAMES L. STEWART
Director
Office of Civil Information
U.S. Army Forces in Korea
P: Nor to TIME--which swallowed a Communist-controlled radio description of cowlicked, cow-eyed Kim as "fiery-eyed."--ED.
Country Boy
Sir:
A great story on Roy Roberts [TIME, April 12], with one error. Roy never announced in a saloon that "this fat boy from Kansas is going to be the best Goddamned reporter the Star ever had." When Roy went to the Star he weighed about 140 Ibs., rarely swore, and was no boaster. He got his weight --a start on it, at least--in Washington.
I did as much as anybody to start Roy in the newspaper business. We were about to be graduated from Lawrence High School, class of 1904. Roy was the honor student and had to make an address. "What'll I orate about?" he asked me one day. I had newspaper ambitions and a book that I happened to be carrying. "Make a speech about the power of the press," I suggested. "It's all in this book." He took the book, delivered an oration about what was the matter with newspapers -- at the graduation exercises in the Bowersock Opera House -- and was so fascinated with his own speech that he decided that newspapering was the career for him. At that time he didn't weigh much more than 110.
The Star's presses, by the way, rest on Pendergast's Ready Mixed concrete.
JEROME BEATTY
Roxbury, Conn.
Sir:
. . . There is no doubt in Kansas City as to who runs the town. It's big Roy Roberts, mighty, cigar-chewing mogul who sits complacently on his throne at 18th and Grand, and pulls the strings that make his puppets in public office jump to do his bidding.
Roy A. Roberts is not Kansas City's No. 1 citizen, but No. 1 undisputed political czar.
GARRETT L. SMALLEY
Kansas City
Sir:
Your article . . . describes most faithfully the benevolent despot as we who live here know him . . .
JOHN THOMPSON
Kansas City
Sir:
. . . First of all, how can Roy Roberts be considered a citizen of Kansas City, let alone "an undisputed first citizen," when he lives and pays taxes in Johnson County, Kansas?
Most Kansas Citians, not just "some," hope and pray that we'll have another daily paper here before very long . . .
Nuts to Roy Roberts, the Star and the Citizens Country Club district party . . .
BERT L. CAMPBELL
Kansas City
To Be Continued
Sir:
Your article entitled "Poison Pen" [TIME, April 12] has all the markings of a wait-till-next-week serial ...
Please don't overlook mentioning the culprit's name and biography, if & when he is uncovered.
JOHN W. LONGPRE
Los Angeles, Calif.
P: TIME'S Yorkshire correspondent is keeping a peeled eye on Robin Hood's Bay. -- ED.
History's Hirelings
Sir:
One of your readers suggested [TIME, April 5] that the U.S. Army open recruiting offices in European countries for the formation of a sort of American Foreign Legion. The verdict of history on such matters is quite decisive.
Twice the Persians invaded Greece with overwhelming armies & navies, but they had levies from more than 50 slave nations, and the little Greek city-states, fighting for their own hearths and way of life, threw them into the sea. The Carthaginians hired mercenaries to defend their city, and when these hirelings revolted, Carthage was stabbed in the back and left to the mercy of the Romans. And Rome herself fell when the famed Roman legions were replaced by Germanic soldiers.
. . . For three centuries Americans have considered freedom worth fighting and dying for. When we are reduced to having others fight for our freedom, we shall not deserve to have any -- and undoubtedly shall not have any to worry about.
C. J. LAMPOS
Chicago, ILL.
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