The Hiss Trial

Sir:

Your fine story of the Alger Hiss trial [TIME, July 18] ... is a credit to American journalism and presents a completely clear picture of the entire case.

I believe in fairness and in a fair trial, but I do not believe in ignoring facts. How the four jurors who voted against conviction could choose to ignore those three proven facts of the case is much more than I can understand. What did they want before they voted for conviction? . . . Maybe some gremlins from the Kremlin used Hiss's typewriter, without his knowledge, of course.

R. R. HORNER JR.

Richmond, Va.

Sir:

. . . Your story on the Hiss trial wrapped the whole subject up for me, after weeks of frustrated wondering what it was all about. . . . Can you tell me why my newspapers quoted so sparely from those summation speeches? I could make neither head nor tail of the trial from their accounts . . .

CARL RITZMAN

University of Oklahoma

Norman, Okla.

Sir:

. . . Defense Lawyer Stryker may command big fees, but his reputation was not enhanced by all of the blarney which the majority of the jury so easily sensed. Federal Prosecutor Tom Murphy, who draws a small salary for hard work well done, had it over Stryker "like a tent." His summation was a gem of logical courtroom oratory. By the way ... if Tom had needed help in his argument, he could have called on his brother (none other than "Fireman" Murphy, ex-Yankee pitcher) to quench Stryker's pyrotechnic palaver . . .

HUGH CAHILL

Cleveland, Ohio

Sir:

. . . U.S. Attorney Murphy . . . "marshaled his facts impressively." Suppose we examine his "facts" a bit?

According to TIME, Murphy began quietly with: "Let's see if we can't apply reason and not emotion." Then, later: "Let us suppose one of your children is apprehended in the kitchen with jam on his face. We don't have to get a stomach pump to find out if he's been eating jam. We have the jam on his face." Finally, referring to Hiss: "Inside that smiling face is a heart black and cancerous."

Stomach pump, hell--I demand an autopsy.

GARDNER REA

Brookhaven, L,I.

Tarzan & Lady Greystoke

Sir:

Granted that the Tarzan movies do not resemble Edgar Rice Burroughs' intriguing books too closely, is It still fair to say that Tarzan and Jane are not married [TIME, July 25]?

At the close of the second Tarzan novel--The Return of Tarzan (1915)--the ape-man was married to Miss Jane Porter of Baltimore, Md. by the latter's father, Professor Archimedes Q. Porter. The ceremony took place in the little cabin on the African coast where Tarzan was born, and through it Jane became Lady Greystoke of England, since Tarzan was a nobleman by birth.

HENRY HARDY HEINS

The Bethany Evangelical Lutheran Church

Central Bridge, N.Y.

P: Producer Sol Lesser confessed to TIME'S Hollywood correspondent: "That's something we overlooked. Do you think we ought to put out a trailer showing a marriage ceremony?"--ED.

Sir:

... In a later novel, The Son of Tarzan, the pair were revealed as having a son born in wedlock . . .

ANNE CATANACH

Detroit, Mich.

Ideological Trap

Sir:

I think something profoundly significant lies in the testimony of Benjamin Davis, one of the eleven Communists on trial in Manhattan, as reported in "Man & Automaton" [TIME, July 18].

In his sincere description of how he became a Communist there was revealed the pitiful effects of Communist tactics and dialectics on a man of integrity and idealism ... No humane man could possibly fail to understand how Mr. Davis grew bitter and resentful, but to join the Communists as an agency for the reform of our social wrongs reveals the trap into which otherwise honorable men too often fall . . .

HERBERT BRUNCKEN

Milwaukee, Wis.

Alert

Sir:

You conclude a review of Stephen Seley's book with: "It is now 24 years since James Joyce gave the world, in Ulysses, his great experiment in stream-of-consciousness writing. Baxter Bernstein not only recalls the horde of little streamlets that bubbled up in the master's wake but proves once & for all that though the great original is still alive and glowing, its imitators are only fit to be dropped thhhh into the cuspidor" [TIME, July 18].

Aside from your slight error in subtraction (Ulysses was published in February 1922) . . . there is another point at issue: TIME's notorious sluggishness in recognizing works of art as they appear. Since Ulysses was a cocktail-party sensation in 1923, I suppose TIME commented on it during TIME's first, alert, lively, exciting year . . .

Please, Omniscient Sir, tell the assembled class what TIME said then about "the great original" that is "still alive and glowing."

GEORGE BARBAROW

Sun Valley, Calif.

P: To TIME'S stream-of-unconsciousness checker, three years. When Ulysses was published in 1922, TIME, not yet born, said nothing. In Vol. I No. I (March 3, 1923), TIME said:

"There is a new kind of literature abroad in the land, whose only obvious fault is that no one can understand it. Last year there appeared a gigantic novel entitled Ulysses by James Joyce. To the uninitiated it appeared that Mr. Joyce had taken some half million assorted words--many such as are not ordinarily heard in reputable circles--shaken them up in a colossal hat, laid them end to end. To those in on the secret the result represented the greatest achievement in modern letters--a new idea in novels."--ED.

Promotion

Sir:

[TV Comedian] David Garroway ... is due for a TIME promotion, by virtue of seniority and Navy personnel. Garroway patrolled the untroubled waters of Waikiki as a lieutenant, junior grade, not as an ensign [TIME, July 18].

Garroway's pranking extends to off-radio hours. One of his "milk bottles" almost landed him in the brig, but for the sense of humor of a three-star admiral. While on duty in Hawaii, Garroway founded the Gold Brick Order, Pacific Area--an exclusive organization peopled by Navy officers who somehow were relegated to back-area activity. Garroway fashioned a Navy ribbon bearing a small gold brick, and, with proper ceremony, awarded the ribbon to qualified officers. One night at a Navy function, Garroway's ribbon was spotted by Vice Admiral T. S. Wilkinson, who demanded to know what the ribbon stood for. Garroway, with visions of six months in the brig, fumbled out the truth. "Get me one of those at once," Admiral Wilkinson ordered.

The next day Garroway presented a bright new "Gold Brick" ribbon to the admiral, who that night sported it just below his Congressional Medal of Honor.

FREDERICK N. POLANGIN

Los Angeles, Calif.

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