Call for Courage

Sir:

Re "The Danger Signals" in TIME, April 13: what is deplorable in the present state of American education is not the alleged threat of the loss of the teachers' and students' right to discuss controversial subjects, but that they are so easily frightened into a state of abject submission. If men of the nature of McCarthy can paralyze the whole system of education . . . then we might well forfeit our rights and give the whole thing back to the Indians . . . What is happening to American guts?

GLORIA GOLDSMITH SMITH Manomet, Mass.

Sir:

Your well-documented article is excellent proof of the need to protect the civil liberties of people we disagree with--even hate and despise--if we are to keep our civil liberties. At the rate we are going, some students and teachers will soon prefer not to be on the subscriber list of the sometimes controversial TIME. Let's not forget, though, that the civil liberties of the crackpots on the extreme right as well as the fanatics on the extreme left must be safeguarded.

WARREN J. KAHN Jackson Heights, N.Y.

Senator at Large

Sir:

After Senator McCarthy gained his now infamous notoriety, I was often dismayed at the amount of valuable space accorded to his activities in editorials and articles. For the most part, the Senator's activities were merely condemned without giving concrete proof of his utter uselessness. I must therefore congratulate TIME, April 6 for devoting so much space to a noble cause--that of exposing McCarthy for the farce he is ...

ROBERT BRUNTRAGER Ambler, Pa.

Sir:

Devoting almost three whole pages to a Joe McCarthy smear plus an uncomplimentary photo, TIME is somewhat like a spoiled child in a tantrum . . .

HENRY E. CORDTS New York City

Sir:

. . . McCarthy's battle on the Reds and red tape must leave a pink flush of embarrassment on TIME'S face.

MRS. J. V. LAMORE

Kirkland, Wash.

Sir: For Menace of the Year--Joseph McCarthy.

JACK L. GROSSMAN

Baltimore

Sir:

When will Mr. Eisenhower realize how Senator McCarthy's sinister antics are lowering the prestige of your great country, your Government, your Republican Party and your President at a fearful rate ... ? It is very unlikely that 10,000 active Communists on the loose inside your borders could do you an equal amount of harm.

G. ALLEN

Toronto, Ont.

Semper fidelisly

Sir:

In your issue of March 30, a slur is cast upon the scholarship of the Marine Corps in saying "that no marine would ever recognize (Ab aulis Montezumae/Tripolis ad litora . . .)." I can speak for at least one marine who has no difficulty in recognizing dog-Latin verse and can add some lines in kind:

. . . Pugnabamus bellos patri

In terra, aero, mareque--Primi pro rectitudine et libertate pugnare

Honoremque immaculare, Ferre titulam exultamus

Civitatorum Unitorum Marinorum.

P. KINGSLEY SMITH 1st Lieut., U.S.M.C. San Diego

Sir:

Eheu! fugaces. Referring maxima cum nausea to your bland comment: Fella, get me a copy of

Ab aulis Montezumae Tripolis ad litora . . . give me an old Springfield rifle and I'll translate word for word, identify the meter and give you the principal parts of every goddam verb, at 1,000 yards, with the peep sight up! And look--I'm not a Latin teacher, but a businessman; but I had good teachers and liked the stuff! Semper fidelisly.

JAMES K. HAYNES

Wethersfield, Conn.

Passover in Israel

Sir: Your April 6 article, "Back to the Wall," was most interesting and the closest thing to the truth you have ever written about Israel since 1948 . . .

EDMOND D. CHAMMAS Baton Rouge, La.

Sir:

. . . The facts in your article are for the most part true but don't you think, on second thought perhaps, that it is a warped conclusion and a bit anti-Zionist to say that Israel is celebrating Passover this year in "... a land of little joy . . ."?

LOUIS ROSENBLUM Cambridge, Mass.

Sir:

Your article on Israel paints a black picture for the future of that country. Israel's position wasn't improved when they had to open their doors to every Jew in Europe that Hitler didn't murder. But never forget that the kids who witnessed these horrors are now a fearless fighting group of men and women . . . They haven't "got their backs to the wall"--there are no walls . . .

GEORGE BARKIN Brookline, Mass.

On Old Baldy

Sir:

Your April 6 Pacific Edition contains a statement to the effect that Major General Arthur Trudeau, division commander of the 7th Infantry Division, was publicly rebuked by me in connection with the recent action on Old Baldy. Such a statement, I feel, casts unjust and unwarranted criticism on General Trudeau and the men of his division. He and his division have records of distinction.

The responsibility for success or failure of an operation within a corps rests on the corps commander. This is an accepted axiom and was not changed by the action on Old Baldy. In exercising this responsibility of command it is often necessary for the corps and division commanders to discuss the action and the situation in very simple and plain terms. Evidently your source erroneously interpreted such a discussion occurring in a forward observation post to be a public rebuke . . .

PAUL W. KENDALL Lieut. General, U.S. Army Headquarters I Corps Office of the Commanding General % Postmaster, San Francisco

The Ancient Profession

Sir:

TIME'S March 30 story on Dr. Rodriguez' embalming fluid "discovery" was very interesting to me and, I am sure, to many other members of our ancient profession . . .

To us oldtimers, there is nothing new or startling about the "spraying" feature; it has been tried before without success. I well recall, more than 30 years ago, an embalmer who thought he had the answer and drew the wrath of the profession upon his head with his slogan in the trade papers, "preservation without mutilation." As to keeping ten bodies one week in a "well-heated" room, surely there is nothing remarkable in that; a body properly treated even with the agents we've been using for years should easily pass that test . . .

ERNEST A. WAGNER Licensed Embalmer Minneapolis

Bishop in the Front Line

Sir:

. . . Your April 6 article [on Bishop Otto Dibelius is a fair appraisal of one of the outstanding men and church leaders in our time. Personally, I would see Bishop Dibelius in a somewhat different perspective. In my opinion, his greatness consists in the fact that he rightly assessed the problem of Communism. To most of the intellectuals of the U.S., it is a problem of the right political and social theory, and so it is to the anti-intellectuals of the McCarthy type. To most of our statesmen, it is a military problem.

Bishop Dibelius . . . has seen clearly that Communism is a new religion, and that its spread will depend on its ability to overcome the existing religions . . . [He] realizes that the only way Christianity can prove its superiority will consist in its ability to oppose Communism by means of an organized religious fellowship . . .

OTTO A. PIPER Princeton Theological Seminary

Sir:

. . . Your delineation of the character and worth of Bishop Otto Dibelius accords so fully with the information and insights which we have gained through a variety of contacts with him and his writings . . . There is something exhilarating about standing up to external foes of the sort Bishop Dibelius has been meeting head on in more recent years. In 1945 he dared to confront the wasting, undramatic and wearying-to-the-marrowbone enemies: insensibility, indifference and malice toward any expression of hope. To the bled-white spirits of his countrymen he dared to cry, "Lift up your hearts in prayer . . ." F. EPPLING REINARTZ Secretary

The United Lutheran Church in America New York City

Royal Manners (Concluded)

Sir:

My, my, such indignation (in your April 6 Letters column) over Queen Elizabeth removing her wrap unassisted ... I am sure a request [to the Duke of Edinburgh] in the form of a discreet nudge in the ribs would have brought him to her instant aid . . .

DOROTHY RUSSELL Park Forest, Ill.

Sir:

. . . How silly can your readers be? The Queen's party sits down at the concert. It's a bit chilly, and wraps are kept on. The concert begins, and presumably the duke turns his attention to it. Now, should the duke keep his left eye on the stage and his right on his wife ? Were he cross-eyed he might do just the opposite, but naval men aren't cross-eyed. So, his wife suddenly decides to shed her coat, and does so, even as you or I. So what? . . .

KENNETH L. Gow Houston

Sir:

. . . Having seen your March 16 picture, I paid more than usual attention when the whole incident was revealed to me in some belated newsreel down here. I may inform you that the duke took over The Struggle of the Coat at the very crucial and correct moment. By stating this fact, I am sure I have won the eternal friendship of the whole royal family . . .

ARNE Moi Rio de Janeiro

Working on the Railroad

Sir:

... I cannot read "Pay Boost for 1,225,000" in your March 30 edition without concluding that it is in the fullest sense an editorial and not a report . . . That the rail unions are dedicated to "featherbedders" and have "stubbornly fought" technological advancement is entirely aside from any established record, can be found only in the frantic harangues of special counsel and press representatives pleading a case against wage earners. In all the years I have devoted to rail labor relations, I do not recall a responsible company executive indulging in such intemperance . . .

D. B. ROBERTSON President Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen Cleveland

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