Where Is Man?
Sir:
"Where Is Man?" [TIME, April 11] is so wise--so eminently wise (to paraphrase Quiller-Couch on Newman's Idea of a University) --as to deserve being bound by every college student "for a frontlet on his brow and as a talisman on his writing wrist."
R. C. WILLIAMS, S.J.
Creighton University Omaha, Neb.
Sir:
. . . Don't you think that one conclusion might be that: 20th Century man expects too much of himself?
(MRS.) J. C. NELSON
New York City
Sir:
Your reporting on the M.I.T. conference would have been more honest if you had pointed out that the scientists . . . represent a vested interest, like the butter lobby . . .
These scientists may as well accept the fact that they are no longer in the saddle. We individuals who insist upon being individuals no longer support them, ho longer believe in them; and unless they behave themselves better in the future and stop lying to us, will no longer tolerate them.
HENRY HILTON
New York City
Sir:
. . . The middle-of-the-roader, Lecomte de Nouey, who was a brilliant scientist, adduced scientific proof that human life cannot have begun spontaneously, that there must be a Supreme Being. Since this evidence points to His being our Maker, why not attribute to Him capability for a loftier point of view than any of those possessed by man? Is it possible that He created him to love, and that the knowledge intelligent men of science have amassed is intended to be only a tool to that end?
JAMES N. STUDER
Collegeville, Minn.
Sir:
The sooner many of our scientists like Professor Bridgman acknowledge the implications of the completely materialistic interpretation of man, the sooner will our moral state be on the road to improvement . . . For those of us who are not wrapped up in an intensive study of one aspect of the universe, based on a particular philosophical conception, the idea doesn't seem to make such a workable living standard . . .
HAROLD JERSILD
Chicago, Ill.
Population by Slide Rule
Sir:
I was fortunate enough to have been one of the audience at the Rockwell Cage when Dr. Vannevar Bush made the statement you quoted.* I sincerely hope he is right in his optimism, but the slide rule he used for his computations must have slipped quite a bit.
Assuming, as he did, that Adam and Eve started a geometric population progression some 6,000 years ago, and that the increase has been 10% per generation; if a generation is taken as 30 years, the population after the ensuing 200 generations would be 1.10^2-o-oX2, or slightly under two persons per square mile, including deserts and oceans. The total would be less than one-sixth of the actual population of today, and less than one-millionth of the gruesome pile, packed as we were in the Rockwell Cage but 15 layers deep, envisaged by Dr. Bush.
THOMAS F. MCSWEENEY
Boston, Mass.
P: Says Optimist Vannevar Bush: "I believe I said '10 to 15%,' and didn't specify the generation interval. At 10% and 30 years per generation [Reader McSweeney] wins hands down. At 15% and 23 years, I was about right./- At 15% and 20 years, the result is over a billion billion, which is much worse."--ED.
To the Tune of Billions
Sir:
Last evening a small group of us ignoramuses were discussing the wonderful and stupendous sense of generosity of your great country in further giving EGA help to Western Europe, to the tune of $5.5 billion for the next 15 months [TIME, April 11].
The point was whether these great benefactions [were] pure gifts [or] simply loans to be reimbursed by each beneficiary country . . .
Your great little magazine, which seems to know everything, would perhaps be willing to put us wise on this matter.
PIERRE CURIEUX
Montreal, Canada
P: Let Reader Curieux be wised up as follows: Of the $5 billion which EGA has spent so far (1948-49), $1 billion was in the form of loans (on which no one expects complete repayment), the other $4 billion was an outright gift; the new EGA legislation does not specify that any certain portion of the $5.58 billion authorization should go for loans.--ED.
Left Slants v. Right
Sir:
In reply to Miss Nadya Olyanova's contention that all politicians who have distinguished themselves in history wrote with their handwriting slanting to the right [TIME, April 18] . . .
It is true that Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and even Roosevelt and Churchill all write (or wrote) with a forward slant. So did many of the big name generals.
But General George Marshall, who has done the most to help us towards peace, writes with a left slant (see cut), like Secretary Acheson. It may be that restraint, emotional control, analytical insight and some inhibitions (all indicated by a left slant of letters) are an aid towards checking wars instead of fighting them . . .
MURIEL STAFFORD
New York City
Texas Shuttler
Sir:
In your issue of April 18 you refer to the visit of "Atlantic-shuttling Lady Astor" to the Consolidated Aircraft works at Fort Worth. It was, in fact, not my mother, Lady Astor, but my wife, Mrs. William Astor, who paid the visit.
She was especially interested in that magnificent factory as she worked in the Hawker Aircraft Factory making "Hurricanes" during the Battle of Britain . . .
WILLIAM ASTOR
New York City
Cultural Correction
Sir:
A slight--and, I am sure, unintentional--error in TIME'S [April 4] account of the Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace . . . TIME . . . says I addressed my "fellow delegates" ... I spoke without portfolio or status. Not a delegate; just a guest speaker.
NORMAN COUSINS
New York City
$6,500-a-Year Test
Sir:
I read with considerable interest your April 11 article on Mr. Richard H. Crowe . . .
At the risk of keeping my foot in my mouth, by commenting without even a decent percentage of the facts of the case, it seems shabby as hell to entrust a man with hundreds of thousands of dollars to manage and pay him only $6,500 a year for the responsibility . . .
BLAIR MCCLENACHAN
Roseville, Mich.
Sir:
The National City Bank of New York should hang its head in shame . . .
MARJORIE A. MABON
Pittsburgh, Pa.
* ". . . If Adam and Eve started [populating] about 4,000 B.C. and had been reasonably fertile, if we had had a 10% increase per generation, we would now have--unless my slide rule slipped--a population as densely packed as this auditorium, leaving out the aisles. It would cover the entire earth, deserts and oceans 15 layers deep."
/- 10,530,000,000,000,000 compared to Reader McSweeney's 381,100,000.
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.