Land of the Big Muddy
SIR:
I WOULD LIKE TO TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO COMMEND TIME [SEPT. 1] FOR ITS EXCELLENT "LAND OF THE BIG MUDDY." WHILE I DISAGREE WITH YOUR STATEMENT TO THE EFFECT
THAT "PROBABLY MOST VALLEY RESIDENTS FEAR
A SUPERSTATE OVER THEIR REGION," WHICH IS PROPAGANDA PUT OUT BY THOSE IN OPPOSITION TO THE M.V.A. BILL AS SPONSORED BY ME IN THE SENATE, I NEVERTHELESS WANT TO THANK YOU FOR THIS ARTICLE, WHICH HAS BROUGHT DATA AND FACTS, TO SAY NOTHING OF YOUR EXCELLENT AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS, TO THOUSANDS OF READERS . . .
JAMES E. MURRAY U.S. SENATOR FROM MONTANA GREAT FALLS, MONT.
Sir:
Your presentation ... is excellent. It might have pointed up the critical need for flood control. Billions of dollars of property damage, the many lives lost and perennial anxiety are the toll of these recurring floods, and will continue to be ... We know how to control floods, but we spend our time debating methods rather than completing the projects already authorized.
We in St. Louis have had five floods in the last ten years, which have cost our people upwards of $30 million. We have narrowly escaped major disasters similar to those of Louisville, KY. in 1937 and of Kansas City, Mo. in 1951. We are in a vulnerable position . . . threatened by both the Missouri and the Mississippi . . .
MORTON MEYER President
St. Louis Flood Control Assn. St. Louis, Mo.
Sir:
. . . As a resident of Omaha for close to 44 years, and as an enthusiastic proponent of MVA since my college days, I commend you and thank you for the article. Also for those you did on the water grids of the Southwest [TIME, Dec. 10], which I have put away in my archive of significant articles of the 20th century . . .
HARRY G. MENDELSON Omaha, Neb.
Sir:
TIME'S [article] indicates the need for quasi-official agencies to compile, digest and evaluate those statistics so important in constructive planning of these vital areas.
If such agencies were subscribed to and supported by the varied states, duplication of research and planning could be avoided . . . Now is the time for such action.
RICHARD P. DOBER Staten Island, N.Y.
Sir:
With your usual good judgment and sense of the relative importance of the various interests of our nation, you have given the Missouri watershed a fair and comprehensive report . . .
JUSTUS J. CHAMPLIN Spearfish, S. Dak.
How Katy Does
Sir:
The Sept. 1 issue of TIME gave us a perfect two-star even-money match: that centuries-old, unpredictable "Big Muddy" v. that never-old, unpredictable Katharine Hepburn...
We love them both !
FRED BALLARD Lincoln, Neb.
Sir:
It is about time that you got around to giving the public the correct account of Kate Hepburn's fabulous career [TIME, Sept. 1]. She is an actress who has never received the accolade she rightly deserves. I have been secretly in love with her for years.
STAN KOROTKIN Brooklyn, N.Y.
Sir:
Your copy featuring Miss K. Hepburn was not only trivial but a departure from good taste. The number of baths she takes is of no public importance.
BERTHA DRAIMER Toronto, Canada
The McCarthy Problem
Sir:
... I intend to cast my vote for Eisenhower and a new Administration. But until Ike also faces the McCarthy issue with less coercion from his left-wing advisers and considerably more intelligent personal thought, it will not be a vote cast in happy confidence of his presidential capabilities.
McCarthyism has become an issue with far-reaching effects; one must take an honest, thoughtful stand either for or against it. If the man's accusations are true and his methods necessary in this crisis, let us stop nailing him to the cross. If he is indeed the dangerous hothead he is painted, let us have final proof of this and dismiss him from his country's service . . .
JULIA PAYNE
San Antonio, Texas
Quiet Flows the Champagne
Sir:
Re your Aug. 18 story, "Rich Man's Architect": Mr. McGaha didn't fly any guests to his party; and some of his friends who paid for their own gasoline, plane, or rail fare now want rebates, after having read your article. There weren't 2,000 guests--and as for the thousands of orchids tied to the trees--there aren't enough trees in this section of Texas to hold them. The florists did arrange a few potted trees with orchids tied to them; but if you counted those and all the orchids worn by the lady guests, the total wouldn't come to a thousand. There were enough guests for seven bars, but there were unfortunately only three in operation; and Mr. McGaha got his idea for the champagne fountains (two) from some conservative Eastern stockbrokers.
Seriously, Mr. McGaha is av quiet, unassuming oilman, banker, and completely successful businessman--certainly not a good-time Charlie . . .
RALPH W. MILBURN
Wichita Falls, Texas
P: Architect-Designer Paul Laszlo, who flew to the party, still remembers seven bars, two orchestras, and a guest list of 1,900 to 2,200. As for the flowers, he admits: "I might have been seeing double, since the party started Friday evening and was not over until Sunday noon."--ED.
The Stamp of a Hero
Sir:
TIME [Sept. 1] mentions Harry G. Hawker only briefly as "an Australian flyer (later killed in a test flight) who had helped design Sopwith's planes." Hawker ranks as one of the great pioneer aviators. He was one of the first who dared to fly the Atlantic just after World War I. Starting from Newfoundland, he almost reached his goal but was forced down in the ocean, where he was rescued by a small freighter without radio communication. He was unheard of for days, and Britain and the world mourned his loss. Later when he was landed in England by the rescue ship, he received a hero's welcome similar to those we gave Byrd in 1926 and Lindbergh in 1927.
Hawker's plane (a Sopwith) carried a small amount of mail, with a special stamp that Newfoundland had created for the first transatlantic air mail. A few copies survived, now being a treasure for stamp collectors price-listed at $2,200 a copy. In a recent letter, Mr. T.O.M. Sopwith wrote me that he possesses one.
HENRY M. GOODKIND
The Philatelic Foundation New York City
Presidential Baldness
Sir:
I've been waiting for TIME to comment on the fact that we are about to have our first bald-headed President of the U.S. Is this just in keeping with the tempo of our times--that tension causes baldness? Both candidates have had their share of "headaches" and tension. Or do we have here two of the brainier men of our times proving the old wheeze that "brains and long locks can't share the same scalp"? . . .
In any event, the country will be in good hands . . .
J. DEWITT Fox, M.D. Silver Spring, Md.
P:George Washington's portraits show that he was bald in front; James Madison, Martin Van Buren and the two Adamses lived in tense times, had bald pates to show for it; the Civil War, however, left Abraham Lincoln's splendid thatch unthinned.--ED.
Last Lost World?
Sir:
In modern times there have been only two relatively unexplored regions in the entire world to tempt those of exploring bent--Antarctica and central Brazil. Antarctica, having no lure for industry except for deposits of a luckily poor variety of coal, should remain safe from the horrors of civilization in the foreseeable future. The jungle, it seems, will not be so fortunate.
For years I have been afraid of the day when some harebrained crusader would raise the cry to destroy the Brazilian jungle and civilize the area. It would appear that that day has arrived. The armies of commercialism will chop roads through the greatest forest in the world, towns will spring up, and in a few years the alluring area will be leprosied with everything from filling stations to billboards.
In the name of all who believe in leaving something of the region which attracted Theodore Roosevelt and inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write The Lost World, can't something be done to stop these barbarians? . . .
Why not declare the area a national park? ... I admit that this solution would never come to pass, but perhaps the suggestion will awaken even President Vargas to a realization of the folly of destroying what even TIME [Sept. 8] called "one of the world's last great frontiers."
ROBERT C. MARSHALL
Austin, Texas
Man of the Year?
Sir:
May I be among the first to predict that TIME'S Man of the Year for 1952 will be President-Elect Adlai Stevenson?
STANLEY GREEN New York City
With the Purest of Intentions
Sir:
General Eisenhower's recent statement that the U.S. would never rest until the Communist-dominated nations of Europe were free again, has met with some unjustified criticism. How can Germany ever be united and free again, except by a "rollback" rather than a "containment" policy?
With the purest of intentions, those who condone the oppression of Eastern Europeans are warmongers, no matter how sincerely they believe themselves to be apostles of peace, because there can never be peace without freedom, for instance the freedom to convince each other by other means than wars (such other means as the freedom to read foreign newspapers and magazines, the freedom to listen to foreign broadcasts, the freedom to elect one's own representatives and government), and the right to refuse to be miseducated regarding the good or evil intentions of other nations, other races, other religions, other classes of people, or just other persons.
S. D. ABRAMOFF
Rotterdam, Holland
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