Lucky Jinx
Sir:
Congratulations! You have broken all records.
You jinxed Eddie Stanky (fined $50 for a tiff with Umpire Scotty Robb) before your cover story on the Cardinal manager hit the streets.
BILL VAN HORNE Martins Ferry, Ohio
P: But Umpire Robb was fined more than $100.--ED.
Stay-Downers
Sir:
When I hear of a reserve officer shirking his duty [TIME, April 28], I feel inclined to ask him why he stayed in the reserves. Most of us had a choice.
I will agree with our Air Force mutineers that reservists have not always been treated fairly--but I stayed in because I thought I'd be needed, and now I'll serve where I'm needed . . .
Any reservist who does not obey his superiors and perform his duties may be accused of showing unpatriotic and egocentric self-regard.
BENJAMIN B. MOORE ist Lieutenant, Artillery Fort Bliss, Texas
Sir:
... As a reserve officer 'who signed for a five-year commission in September 1945 (after four years' active duty), I would like to state that I have never received a paycheck for what time I gave to the Air Force, and certainly did not ask to have the commission extended beyond the five-year period. I cannot see why anyone in my position, as many reserves must be, should feel we owe any duty to our country when all around us are men who have never been required to give one day's service to their country. HENRY C. RUPEL ist Lieutenant, Air Force Reserve Lima, Ohio
.Sir:
. . . Flyers who refuse to fly should be treated like all other cowards who shirk or desert. Have the wretches no manhood?
JONATHAN M. MCMURRAY
Stevens Point, Wis.
Sir:
A suggestion for our flyers who don't want to fly: ... transfer to the infantry. We have many reservists . . . who would be perfectly happy to trade places . . .
WILLIAM G. MILLER and Lieutenant, Infantry Fort Benning, Ga.
Democracy in Latin America
Sir:
Allow me to extend my warmest congratulations for your accurate account of Cuba's recent history and your flawless interpretation of the term "democracy" in Latin American countries [TIME, April 21].
M. ANTUnA Havana, Cuba
Sir:
To you go the heartfelt thanks of this hemisphere's exiles . . . for the tragic summary of truth [about] the growing military fascism of which South America is victim . . .
ARTURO JARAMILLO R. New York City
Sir:
That was an interesting and snappy resume of revolutionary Latin America. However, don't you think you simplified the situation in Costa Rica too much: "A rustic democracy fit to gladden Thomas Jefferson's heart." What was all the uproar in San Jose in 1948, of which Otilio Ulate was the principal? As I recall, there was quite a bit of bloodshed then in that "rustic democracy."
GORDON H. ALLISON Knoxville, Tenn.
P:I In 1948 Costa Rican liberals fought a successful civil war to prevent reactionary congressmen from nullifying President Ulate's election. In 1787 Thomas Jefferson wrote: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed irom time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."--ED.
Sir:
... A terrific lesson in democracy or how it should not function!
PAUL UCKER
San Francisco
Steel Seizure
Sir:
I ... wonder why the President's action [in seizing steel companies--TIME, April 21] was so "unreasonable." What else could he do?
He had the alternative of letting the situation drift--workers go out on strike, management closes its door, and the end product disappears from the nation's economy at a time it is vitally important to everyone.
The President seems to be the wrong man to be called an intemperate usurper of private property who should be impeached for his action.
HARLAND RYSON Chigago Royal Housewife
Sir:
Quite some years ago you published an article about former Queen Wilhelmina of The Netherlands in which you used the German word Hausfrau. I protested against this . . .
In your April 14 issue, in the article about Queen Juliana, you again use the German word Hausfrau.
May I again protest . . .?
LEONARD H. FABER Bogota, Colombia
-I TIME, still in Dutch, apologizes to Huisvrouw Juliana.--ED.
A Greater Destiny?
Sir:
And now has come the time when General Eisenhower must leave his European command ... It may be said truthfully that many of us, be we Italian or British, sometimes resent the feeling of playing second fiddle to the U.S.A., but never have we resented General Eisenhower, for the man he is or for what he stands for . . . He leaves, we hope, for a greater destiny.
The foreign policy of President Truman and Dean Acheson has marked a new era. But let not those who follow this Administration underestimate or belittle the potential power and influence of this Continent. In all likelihood, the fight with Communism will be decided here.
DEREK WHITING Beckenham, Kent, England
Sir:
. . . The specification for our next President can simply be stated as the best suited to match against Stalin. If this contest were poker, Truman might be a good possibility for us, especially if he had General Vaughan to deal from the bottom of the deck for him. If the contest were one of rolling the pork barrel, Senator Taft would be a good candidate to stake our lives on. If, on the other hand, we were to match Stalin in coon hunting, our man from Tennessee would be an excellent choice.
Stalin's game, sad to say, is ... WAR, hot or cold, depending on the skill of the players . . .
Of the candidates . . . there is only one [who meets] the specifications . . .
A. HUNDERE San Antonio
Fainting Folly
Sir:
... My advice to Dr. Mossadegh [TIME, April 21] is to stop his fits of weeping and fainting and come to a suitable agreement with both sides to put his house in order instead of whining to the U.S. for help in his folly.
D. G. WOOD
Tolworth, Surrey, England
Cookie-Cutters
Sir:
It is a dark day, indeed, when an educator the stature of President Conant of Har-imes up with the Blanshardites and nts to the rise of private and denominational schools as a menace to "our democratic unity" [TIME, April 21] ...
Unity is not uniformity. If private and parochial schools are divisive . . . then so are ynagogues and churches, so are yachting clubs and vets' organizations, so are Knights lemplar and Knights of Columbus. God deliver us from the spectre of an America in which the cookie-cutter of democracy stamps out millions of rigidly uniform dolls of the same neutral grey. Even Macy's dolls come in different sizes and colors.
NEIL G. MCCLUSKEY, SJ. Alma, Calif.
Sir:
Logic a la Conant: the Amalgamated Association of Dairymen and Pharmacists is deeply concerned with the rising undemocratic practice of breast feeding. Whereas it is admitted that in most cases the standard formula product is somewhat inferior to the natural milk, still the practice is considered highly detrimental to the unity of our society, even though those guilty are still assessed their pro rata share of the general tax on lactic feeding.
I was unaware that Harvard was considered a public institution; had mistakenly assumed that its exclusiveness limited students' mixing with "all sorts of people." Bless my parochial ignorance!
TAMES MCDERMOTT Dallas
All's Fair ...
Sir:
By God, finally someone (General Sir Gerald Templer) has had the foresight, common sense and guts to fight Communists in the manner to which they should become accustomed. Templer's action in Malaya [TIME, April 21] will be effective, will raise horrified outcries from the intellectual do-gooders, and give hope to frustrated and baffled Red-haters like me.
Anti-Communist tactics based on Christian principles have failed universally. The argument that Templer-type combat is too reminiscent of Communist tactics is both specious and suicidal. In hand-to-hand street fighting, no man ever won by appealing to the spectators that he was being fouled. The victor must concentrate on winning, and if it takes a rabbit-punch or kidney blow--he uses it, and quickly . . .
DAN H. ROWAN
North Hollywood, Calif.
To the Salt Mines
Sir:
I shall admire America's courage if it persists in shouting Freedom and Democracy after what it has done for Morocco and Tunisia in the U.N. [TIME, April 28]. Is the Marxist dictum that capitalism and imperialism are next of kin so utterly false?
We have an old adage which goes: "The ass that went into the salt mine turned into salt." This seems to fit Greece and Turkey very well since their faithful toeing of the American line over the Tunisian question. A. MOHIUDDIN Hyderabad, Sind, Pakistan
Sir:
You want us Asians to fight on your side against Communism. Well, we are fighting at this very moment devils more dreadful . . . disease, poverty, ignorance. You are the richest country in the world, and the countries of Asia are the poorest . . .
Well, what are you doing for us? Holding out offers of aid, but only on condition that we fight for you if called upon to do so. This is very humiliating from our point of view ...
What are you doing about Malan's naked racialism in South Africa, which to us is much more terrible than Hitler's?
Let me tell America that Asia will readily stand by you, but only if you treat us like equals and help us to help ourselves.
Otherwise, all your anti-Red propaganda is going to be useless.
GERALD WICKREMESOORIYA Colombo, Ceylon
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