Powerful Weapon
Sir:
My first year in the U.S. (after a youth of somber constraint in Nazi Germany) has shown me many wonderful and wondrous things. It was an especially great experience for me to read your factual and dispassionate contribution of "The Cat in the Kremlin" [TIME, July 17]. It made me perceive more acutely than ever before that truth is the powerful weapon of a strong country ... I hope that Americans will never cease to [appreciate] its vital necessity.
URSULA SIMA
Los Angeles, Calif.
Sir:
... A cat's-claw-sharp analysis of what the Kremlin Kittens are probably thinking.
JACK BOYER
Corte Madera, Calif.
Sir:
. . . "When the cat purrs, it's about to pounce." Not so! A cat never purrs when it is about to spring at a rodent. To do so would apprise the latter of its presence.
Your entire article is built upon the thesis that the cat is a sneaky, treacherous creature. We, of the American Feline Society, Inc., have dedicated our lives, energies and resources to dispel old wives' tales and folklore inimical to this noble creature . . .
ROBERT LOTHAR KENDELL
President
The American Feline Society, Inc.
New York City
P: The Kremlin cat is a special kind of breed.--ED.
Aid for China?
Sir:
In John Osborne's report, "The U.S. Tragedy in Formosa" [TIME, July 17], I get the impression that it is again time for the U.S. to make an all-out effort to support the Chinese Nationalists. Yet, if I am not mistaken, very poor use was made of the American aid that was sent to Chiang Kai-shek when the Nationalists were still in a strong position on the Chinese mainland . . .
What security does the U.S. have that future aid will not be similarly misappropriated? It would seem wiser to concentrate our efforts towards strengthening our own island bases further east in the Pacific, and to limit our aid to that which is directly controlled by us ...
However, if Chiang is to use what resources he does have to best advantage, the prohibition against his activity directed towards the Chinese mainland should be lifted.
BERNARD YABLIN
New York City
Putting Back the Clock
Sir:
An item in TIME, July 17, entitled "New Products," was a source of considerable amusement to me.
For approximately 20 years I have owned and used an electric alarm clock, made by the Telechron Co. of Ashland, Mass. This clock, when set for any hour of the 24, will ring daily at that time . . .
EDWARD H. LONG
Columbus, Ohio
P: General Electric says that its "new automatic alarm clock" is similar to the Telechron. Obviously, TIME forgot to set the alarm.--ED.
Classic Bores
Sir:
Amazed at Fon W. Boardman's list of the ten "most boring" classics to "most people," in TIME, July 17 ... It is unquestionable that Richardson's Pamela, Cervantes' Don Quixote, Goethe's Faust and others in his list may be boring to those in search of thrills . . . [But] bores do not become classics, nor do their works last four centuries . . .
F. M. INSERNI
Cincinnati, Ohio
Sir:
Your report of the poll conducted to determine the ten most boring books is most amusing. It (the poll) is an interesting commentary on a nation which is rapidly becoming completely illiterate . . .
N. SOJAC Columbus, Ohio
Tomahawk Ticket
Sir:
Re the movie theater manager who changed the title A Ticket to Tomahawk to The Sheriff's Daughter [TIME, July 17] . . .
A hearty pat to your backside for missing the chance of a lifetime. Maybe TIME editors should join forces with Mr. Hunter and 2Oth Century-Fox, and see A Ticket to Tomahawk. The "sheriff's daughter" was not the sheriff's daughter, she was his granddaughter.
GEORGE H. ANDERSON
Tulsa, Okla.
P: As new ads prepared by 2Oth Century-Fox for local exhibitors admit: "Well, even if the girl is the U.S. Marshal's granddaughter, I'm calling it--for the sake of brevity--The Sheriff's Daughter. For all we know, her father may have been a sheriff, and at least you'll know what the picture is about . . ."--ED.
Since 325 A.D.
Sir:
. . . You say Dr. Roland Usher of Washington University once compiled an "irreducible minimum" list of the important dates of modern European history [TIME, July 3] . . . Are they a secret?
RUSSELL OLIVER
Chicago, ILL.
P: No longer: 325 A.D.--Council of Nicaea; 476--Fall of Rome; 622--Mohammed's hegira from Mecca; 800--Coronation of Charlemagne; 1066--Battle of Hastings; 1096--First Crusade ; 1122--End of the investiture conflict; 1189--Third Crusade; 1204--Fourth Crusade; 1356--The Golden Bull; 1429--Battle of Orleans; 1453--Fall of Constantinople; 1479--Union of Spain; 1519--Accession of Charles V; 1588--Destruction of the Spanish Armada; 1648--Treaty of Westphalia; 1713--Treaty of Utrecht; 1789--French Revolution; 1815--Battle of Waterloo and Congress of Vienna; 1870--Franco-Prussian War; 1882--Triple Alliance; 1907--Triple Entente; 1914--World War I; 1917--Entry of the U.S. in World War I; 1933--Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany; 1941 --Pearl Harbor.--ED.
Key & P
Sir:
Here are a few notable facts about Princeton ['35] graduates that were omitted from your piece in TIME, July 17 ...
Princeton '35 has had only 5% divorces, owns a $22,000 house, has $5,800 savings, $30,000 in life insurance . . .
Phi Beta Kappa winners . . . earn $400 more than the class as a whole, and $1,000 more than the varsity athletes. The little group who won both a Phi Beta key and a varsity "P" earn most of all--$2,000 more than the class. All these brain and brawn boys are married, all have children . . .
JOHN F. MALONEY
Chappaqua, N.Y.
Sir:
Your statement that so far the Princeton classes of 1934 and 1940 have produced not a single famous man, and almost no authors, artists or composers, is a little rough . . .
After all ... both these classes took five years out for World War II. A look at the record of the 25-year class indicates what '34 and '40 may do in the next few years: "We (Princeton '25) ... have had published 78 books. We have contributed one state governor, two college presidents ... a District Federal Reserve Bank chairman, several high State Department officials [and] the Princeton football coach" . . .
JAMES C. GUMMING
New York City
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