Political Funds
Sir:
Re Nixon and all public officials, these words of William Penn (in Fruits of Solitude): "Let Men have sufficient Salaries and exceed them at their Peril.
"It is a Dishonor to Government that its Officers should live of Benevolence; as it ought to be Infamous for Officers to dishonor the Publick by being twice paid for the same Business."
J. M. MOUDY
Durham, N.C.
Sir:
I wish somebody would give me $18,235 for the operation of my farm. I wouldn't use any of it for any personal expenditure. I would spend it all for producing food for all of us ...
DARIUS D. BUELL
Elmira, Mich.
Sir:
... I think having Senators supported by private contributions is a fine idea--as long as there are a few cut-rate Congressmen around to represent us poor people.
KARL KROEBER
New York City
Sir:
I wish to relate an experience I have had in connection with Senator Nixon ... I have the hobby of collecting autographed pictures of the persons who appear on the front covers of TIME . . . My method is to cut the picture from the magazine, mail it to the person concerned, ask for their autograph, and ask that they return the picture to me ... Of 17 returns of pictures which I have mailed to U.S. Senators and Representatives, Senator Nixon's envelope was the only one on which postage had been paid--the other 16 Congressmen preferring to return my picture in a franked, postage-free envelope . . .
ETER J. KUYPER Bremerton, Wash. P
SIR:
. . . WHEN A PUBLIC OFFICIAL ACCEPTS PRIVATE FUNDS FROM INDIVIDUALS, THE OBLIGATION IS WRITTEN IN LEMON JUICE ON HIS SOUL AND WILL COME OUT WHEN THE HEAT GOES ON.
JACK DENTON
NEW YORK CITY
Sir:
... If those Angels gave [Nixon] this money just because they loved him so, Los Angeles has now replaced Philadelphia as the "City of Brotherly Love." . . .
CYRIL C. SANDERS
San Francisco
Sir:
. . . Ministers of churches accept voluntary contributions to carry on their work against evil . . . Why then should a crusader against Communism ... be excoriated for using voluntary contributions to carry on his work?
META R. CURTIS St. Helena, Calif.
Texas Pride
Sir:
We Texans want TIME readers to know that it was in the Texas state penitentiary that "O. Henry" [Sept. 22 issue] served time and started on his road to fame.
GEORGE SAPHOS Pittsburgh
P: Reader Saphos is wrong. O. Henry was tried and convicted for a federal offense: embezzlement of funds from the First National Bank of Austin, Texas. He was detained briefly in the Travis County jail but, as TIME reported, served his sentence in the federal penitentiary (Ohio State) in Columbus.--ED.
Ike's Lieutenants
Sir:
For Douglas Southall Freeman I have high regard, and agree that General Eisenhower may be admitted to the society that produced Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson and Wade Hampton; but I would ask the distinguished gentleman of Virginia, what do you say of the general's lieutenants:
1. Senator Taft and corrupt methods by which he attempted to sew up Southern delegations.
2. Senator Nixon, whose political and personal ethics have become beclouded . . .
3. Senator Styles Bridges, paid $35,000 a year by [John L. Lewis' U.M.W. Welfare Fund].
4. Senator Owen Brewster . . .
5. Senator Joseph McCarthy . . .
MAX FLEISCHER St. Petersburg, Fla.
Not Only Clowns
Sir:
Who says that we Republicans don't have a sense of humor? We have renominated that clown Joe McCarthy in Wisconsin and his comrades Jenner and Cain in their respective states ... I do hope that we don't carry our humor too far and produce a framework of senatorial party organization within which it would be impossible for constructive [Republican] conservatives and responsible liberals such as Morse, Ives, Lodge, Smith, Saltonstall, Aiken, Duff and Thye to operate in behalf of the people.
DAVID CARGO
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Double Southpaw
Sir:
Does he need a refresher course in anatomy, or has Scripps-Howard's Talburt confirmed my direst suspicion that Secretary Acheson does have two left hands?
FREDERIC R. JOHNSON North Hollywood, Calif.
P: Cartoonist Talburt admits that he nodded at his drawing board.--ED.
Mirror's Beat
SIR:
DON'T YOU READ ANYTHING APPEARING WEST OF HOLLAND TUNNEL? STORY OF DORIS DUKE AND HER YOGI WHICH YOU CREDIT TO NEW YORK JOURNAL-AMERICAN IN YOUR SEPT. 29 ISSUE WAS ORIGINATED BY AND PUBLISHED IN THE LOS ANGELES MIRROR SIX DAYS BEFORE MIRROR ENTERPRISES SYNDICATE RELEASED IT.
J. EDWARD MURRAY
MIRROR MAN. EDIT.
REX BARLEY
MGR.
MIRROR ENTERPRISES SYNDICATE
LOS ANGELES
The Practical Basques
Sir:
I seldom have read such inaccurate and even fantastic information as yours about the Basques published in TIME of Sept. 22 ...
As a pure Basque, exclusively descended from Basques, I am ashamed of the intent to present the Spanish Basques as a picturesque, dancing and pseudomystic people, when they are the most practical, active and earnest of the Spaniards.
JOSE F. DE LEQUERICA
Ambassador of Spain
Washington, D.C.
Sir:
Being an American of Basque descent, I couldn't help but laugh when the language was referred to as "jawbreaking." True, true, but to me, and without exception, it is the most beautiful language in the whole wide world . ..
MARIE ILIZALITURRI GOETHALS
Los Angeles
Marathon Kisses?
Sir:
With reference to "Magnetic Molars" [TIME, Sept. 22], how would you prevent two lovers, both sporting this latest innovation, from being locked in a "magnetic" embrace ?
WILLIAM SOMEKH
St. John's, Newfoundland
The Lady Is a Tramp, But . . .
Sir:
"How to Stop Smoking" [TIME, Sept. 15] prompts an addict to reply: Why? Tobacco is a drug but a good drug. Consider the eminent and distinguished persons, men & women, of high repute, superior judgments and discriminating tastes, who find comfort and release from nervous tensions through the soothing influence of this mild narcotic . . . Lady Nicotine is a dear . . . Don't ever let them take it away.
HUGH MCCARTHY
Minneapolis
Sir:
. . . Having read your excerpted report of Dr. Johnston's article and subsequently taken stock of myself, I laid aside my tobacco and the whole nasty habit. By this afternoon my spirits have risen four points, I ran the mile in 4:15.3, and have eaten seven five-course meals and said risque things to over 20 ladies . . .
And what if the millions of smokers in this country were to "swear off" and experience "an accession of ... sexual potency?" Already, a woman isn't safe on the streets; tomorrow, it may be that a man isn't.
PARFONT THILKING
Honolulu
Again & Again
Sir:
To a Roman Catholic one of the most discouraging aspects of American life is the way that falsehoods about the church that have been disproved again & again are repeated again & again. It is therefore probably of little use that I tell R. Louise Travous of Edwardsville, Ill. [TIME, Sept. 15] that "only Roman Catholics go to heaven" is NOT a doctrine of the Catholic Church. Evidently she has never heard of Father Feeney of Boston and his condemnation by church authorities because he taught this very thing. If she really knows of parochial schools where such a doctrine is taught . . . they should be reported to their bishops for teaching their children heresy.
LOUISE CRUICE STURDEVANT
Washington, D. C.
Sorry, Mr. Gallico
Sir:
... In your review of Mrs. Luce's Saints for Now, to which I am a contributor [TIME, Sept. 29], you refer to "Sports Writer Paul Gallico." I have not written sports since 1936. Since that time I have earned my living writing short stories, novels and moving pictures.
PAUL GALLICO
New York City
The British Answer
Sir:
TIME [Sept. 15], in reporting U.S. airmen's criticism of Britain's Farnborough Air Display, says: ". . . The British exhibit their designs (e.g., the ill-fated DH-110) long before they have been properly tested." . . . The aircraft which crashed was the first of the DH-110 prototypes ... It had completed 150 hours flying since its maiden flight over a year ago and . . . had logged over 100 flights at supersonic speeds. It should also be remembered that in 20 years of Farnborough flying displays this was the first fatal accident.
A. S. JOHNSON
London, England
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