Watching "Time Clock"

Sir:

Re the May 25 Business section: "Time Clock" well timed.

DON A. QUERIO

Chicago

Sir:

Tremendous !

IAN D. MORRISON

Toronto, Ont.

Sir:

. . . It's a screwball idea not worthy of the promotion space given it.

WILLIAM M. HINES SR.

Falls Church, Va.

Sir:

Your new-look Business section rates a pay boost, "Time Clock's" short, punchy capsules being beautifully attuned to the businessman's cadence. However, that old mechanical watchdog--the factory time clock--is regarded by millions of Americans as an annoying and anachronistic regimentation. When 14 of them here were unceremoniously junked in favor of an employee honor system, employees and onlookers all over America stood up and cheered.

WILLIAM G. BEYER

Parker Pen Co. Janesville, Wis.

The Tariff Wall

Sir:

The something new that has been added to TIME'S Business section is probably the most enlightened and important contribution made to American publishing in many a day . . . An article related to business should be placed alongside business news instead of appearing in sections so remote from the business articles that some of the most constructive comments in American periodicals are seldom read'. . . The topic selected, "The Case for Free Trade," was particularly timely, for the ancient proverb, "Where there is no vision, the people perish," holds truer than ever today.

WALTER DREY New York City

Sir:

Realizing that foreign trade is one of the world's most underestimated problems, it was encouraging to read TIME'S May 25 article. I regret that our President has not realized the critical importance of the problem ... his delayed action has commissioned another committee to study [it] . . . Our present trade position . . . the power of the business lobby, the timidity of Congress, and the inexplicable lack of self-confidence of American business, result in an inequitable subsidy paid by the consumer.

NORMAN P. NOBACH Seattle

Sir:

. . . While conservative business organizations and individuals plead for a liberalized trade policy and a devoted nation stands ready to back him to the hilt, Mr. Eisenhower bows to the noisy and parasitical high-tariff lobby. The commission which he would have Congress appoint for a year's review of tariff policy could arrive at basic and practicable conclusions after a conference with any schoolboy who has studied elementary economics. Europe is crying for prompt removal of American tariff barriers so that, by earning dollars, she might ease out of the American-aid strait jacket . . .

J. W. BRUNELL

Istanbul, Turkey

Sir:

... A $2 billion, or for that matter, a $5 billion increase in our imports would not displace any workers in the total American labor force. If payment for these imports reduced the need for foreign aid by this amount, an offsetting reduction in taxes would permit the American consumer to buy an additional $2 billion worth of goods. If foreign-aid payments were not affected, such imports would permit foreign buyers to buy an additional $2 billion worth of our goods.

The fact that certain workers might lose certain jobs in certain industries is, of course, so obvious that we refuse to look beyond that simple fact. Were we willing to go a step further, we would see that a similar number of workers would get jobs in other industries. Whenever we get to the point where freezing workers in [their present] jobs is generally accepted as a virtue and a true economic benefit, we may well say farewell to progress . . .

JOHN F. SELLE Gainesville, Fla.

Sir:

. . . Our country can enhance its position of leadership in the world only by following an enlightened policy in the field of commerce . . . The economic doctrine of free, unhampered trade corresponds to that of political freedom and individual liberty . . .

ANDREW J. LASKA Havana, Cuba

Travel Notes

Sir:

Senator George W. Malone, who doesn't want statehood for Hawaii, says: "If we were to accept Hawaii, I am sure that less than 1% of the entire population would ever be able to visit the United States to observe life and conditions on the mainland [TIME, May 25]." His statement parallels another statistic: none of the boys from Hawaii who have died fighting for the mainland will ever observe life and conditions here.

JOE PRATA Russells Point, Ohio

Aloha, Webster?

Sir:

Re Hawaii and Senator Malone: I can't bear my ignorance any longer! What is a humuhumunukunukuapuaa? I almost strained my sternocleidomastoid just trying to say the word.

HOLCOMBE C. McDANIEL Ruston, La.

P: Try saying triggerfish under water.

--ED.

Duke of El Salvador

Sir:

I enjoyed your colorful version of my years in the Foreign Service (TIME, May 25), and particularly your generous description of my being one "who has proved himself one of the best ambassadors the U.S. has ever sent to Latin America." However, rather than "pleading to be kept on," I would prefer to be regarded as a friendly pleader for El Salvador's special role, not only as a nation sympathetic to our objectives, but as the showcase for a dynamic approach to the problems that are currently plaguing all Latin America . . .

ANGIER BIDDLE DUKE Havana, Cuba

Jungle Pets

Sir:

I see from your review of Lost Trails, Lost-Cities [TIME, May 25] that the famous Colonel P. H. Fawcett, in common with nearly all other explorers of Amazonas and Mato Grosso, is not above grossly exaggerating the size of the Brazilian anaconda. Stories of sucuris 40 to 50 ft. long are common in Brazil, but they always turn out to be third hand, and neither the snake nor the actual person who saw it can be located! Some years ago, R. L. Ditmars, curator of reptiles at the Bronx Zoo and one of the world's foremost experts on snakes, made an offer of $1,000 for a skin in excess of 40 ft., but no such skin ever materialized. Dr. Afranio do Amaral, director of the Butantan Institute (snake farm) in Sao Paulo, has reported an anaconda a little over 25 ft. in length, and this appears to be the world's record . . .

The "spider that can catch birds" is of course the carangueigeira of northern South America, the largest of the tarantulas. It has gained a reputation based more on its formidable appearance than on actual fact. It is a hairy beast, often with a leg span of nine or ten inches, but it is almost blind, and is aware of the presence of prey through sensory hairs. There are a number of records of this spider attacking and killing small birds, such as humming birds, but it probably happens more by accident than design ... As far as man is concerned, they are retiring, unaggressive creatures quite easily tamed, and their poison is not dangerous.

R. VINCENT BENNETT, F.Z.S. (London) Rio de Janeiro

The Ins & Ons of Islands

Sir: TIME, May 25 has just informed me that President-elect Eisenhower and Admiral Radford had dinner "in Iwo Jima." It has always seemed to me that one would not be in such places as Iwo Jima or Truk, but on them. If I am correct, I would not know just how small an island should be to be relegated to the on category--would you?

NORMAN D. CHASNOFF Oakland, Calif.

P: TIME admits the wrong preposition landed on Iwo.--ED.

The U.S. Negro (Cont'd)

Sir:

Re the letters in TIME [May 25, June 1] on the U.S. Negro: It is with regret that I notice a state of mind reflecting mental and emotional hydrophobia on the part of many Negroes today [particularly in] attacking Negro leaders of the past, such as Booker T. Washington.

Thanks to men such as Booker Washington, Negroes who would still be in the cotton patch are riding in Cadillacs, complaining and mouthing about "intolerance." The Negro, once a physical slave to white men, is today a slave to slogans, such as FEPC, civil rights, etc. State socialism is the real "opium of the people" today. And, of course, the Negro once was as much a slave to the superstitions of a dark age from a dark continent as he was the property of slaveowners. He came out of barbarism at a much later date than the Anglo-Saxon or Germanic tribes of Europe, and not to recognize this will bring calamity. Even now Africa is in convulsions.

Booker Washington taught that the Negroes would lose the ostracism they suffered when they showed the world what they really had to offer. He taught hard work and hard study. There was more courage in this man and in his quiet constructive approach than in all the overbearing intolerance of the Harlem race fanatics and their politicians . . . Race hatred is evil anywhere, but it is just as evil in Harlem as it is in Hattiesburg. A white man is not safe in Harlem. Racial good will is a two-way street . . .

DUDLEY T. DOUGHERTY Austin, Texas

Christian Democracy

Sir:

Congratulations on your fine May 25 article on Premier de Gasperi and your remarks on the Christian Democrats in Europe. These facts serve to keep us all aware, as you say, that the only thing necessary for evil to win is for the good to do nothing . . .

KATHERINE E. GRINNELL Manhattan Beach, Calif.

Sir:

An ovation to TIME for the essence of the article on Europe's Christian Democrats. Their credo ... is the complete credo of Unitarianism, and it is what can save the world. It is believable, nonauthoritarian, antitotalitarian, anti-superstitious and responsible.

P. B. LOOMIS

Birmingham, Mich.

Young Dr. Fosdick

Sir:

To your superb tribute to Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick in TIME [May 25] may I, for the record, add one of Dr. Fosdick's choicest epigrams, from a sermon which he preached in the Riverside Church nearly 25 years ago? . . . Said Dr. Fosdick, "It is magnificent to grow old--if one keeps young!" And now, a quarter of a century later, on his 75th birthday, Dr. Fosdick has become the finest personification of his own meaningful epigram. WILLIAM B. LIPPHARD Executive Secretary Associated Church Press New York City

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