Morality in Politics
Sir:
. . On the one hand, we have "Secretary Dulles as the champion of a moral order in politics" [TIME, Sept. 28] ; on the other, we have the British, "soaked in the politics of expediency . . . working behind the scenes trying to unseat" this noble figure . . . Should we laugh at this picture of our Machiavellian activities or cry, knowing that for the aggressors every war has been undertaken as a moral crusade? . . . If I knew I were to be the victim of aggression, I would prefer that my aggressor was prompted by honest-to-goodness motives of rape and plunder . . .
J. M. RAMPTON Ipswich, England
Sir:
I found "The Law Beyond" stimulating and near great . . .
You've emphasized the conflict . . . between those who believe in a moral law and those who do not . . . Good! Now let us go from here and resolve and eliminate the conflict. This, rather than "winning" [it], takes courage. The winner of a conflict is really only proving he is the stronger . . . The only real progress in mankind and greatness of men will be to fight to discover what is right rather than fight for what "is" right . . .
SAMUEL ROSEN Chicago
Sir:
. . . The Dulles and U.S. policy has always been the military solution. To parade our military might all over the world--into backward countries where we have no business ; spray our brother with jellied gasoline and set him on fire; burn his women and children with atomic fire. Christianity?--These are the works of Hell . . .
Go ahead and annihilate each other; maybe the meek will finally get their chance to inherit the earth.
A. B. BILLING San Diego
Sir:
The East is supposed to represent spiritual civilization, and the West, a materialistic one . . . It is very humiliating for an Oriental like myself to read that John Foster Dulles of materialistic America is championing the cause of moral and spiritual principles, whereas Jawaharlal Nehru of spiritual India is advocating the adoption of political expedience in the realm of international politics. Can it be that India has degenerated spiritually so low as to copy the Machiavellian practices of the Western nations? . . . No one can be too proud of the role that Nehru has played in the struggle between Democracy and Communism . . .
NO-YONG PARK
Oceanside, Calif.
Shining Ruby
Sir:
For many years now I have enjoyed reading your excellent weekly. This week we even enjoyed looking at it. Your print of James Chapin's Ruby Green Singing (Sept. 28) is deeply moving.
J. DANIELS
Byron, Ont.
Sir:
James Chapin's portrait of Ruby Green as a young girl, with its shining innocence and hope, is exquisite . . .
It would be interesting to see what changes a quarter of a century has brought to the lovely Ruby . . .
MARK MICHAELS San Francisco
Sir:
I have just turned to Ruby Green Singing.
However dramatic it may sound, I cannot turn the page.
The expression in the arm, hands, the optimistic happiness in the eyes and the tilt of the head stop me, and I sit looking and looking. It is like simple, peaceful, spiritual music . . .
MRS. RICHARD V. EDDS Los Angeles
P: Herewith Ruby, Oct. 5, 1953.--ED.
Diplomatic Ostriches
Sir:
Re "Bombs for Everybody": "The U.N. felt it would be impolitic for a peace organization to recognize the [New York City air-raid] drill." Impolitic hell! If anyone should be drilling, it should be U.N.ers in their glass house. Can't you just see 5,000 ostriches with their necks buried in piles of glass, yelling: "This is impolitic!" There will be no diplomatic immunity if the bomb comes.
JIM WORSENCROFT San Francisco
For Trade, Not Aid
Sir:
John L. Lewis, as reported in your Sept. 28 issue, says that Japan stopped buying coal as soon as U.S. aid stopped. For the record, Japan has since 1945 been a regular purchaser of U.S. coal to the average amount of 2,000,000 tons yearly . . .
. . . Certainly, Japan cannot forever continue to buy from the U.S. unless barriers to trade permitting Japan to earn those dollars are opened to it.
To sit back smugly as Lewis has done and say to buy more from the U.S. without an explanation of where the dollars are coming from is stupidity in its most lucid form . . .
W. E. CONNOR
Yotsuya-Tokyo, Japan
Sir:
. . . His logic can only lead to the argument that the U.S. should not expect to export to other countries any more than it is willing to import from them . . . That is all that the "trade, not aid" contention is. DAVID G. PHILLIPS
Chicago
Off the Hook
SIR:
IN RE YOUR DRAMATIC PIECE ON MIRROR'S CRIME ACE SID HUGHES HELPING FBI BY LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE [OCT. 5], IT'S PROBABLY FIRST TIME IN HISTORY THAT HOT EXCLUSIVE STORY COST NEWSPAPER 60,000 CIRCULATION. SID'S STORY ACTUALLY BOOSTED OUR NORMAL QUARTER MILLION DAILY SALES INSTEAD OF DROPPING THEM TO 188,000 WHICH YOU INADVERTENTLY QUOTED. NOW HUGHES IN NEED OF FBI PROTECTION FROM OUR WOUNDED CIRCULATION AND ADVERTISING DEPARTMENTS. CAN YOU GET HIM OFF HOT SEAT?
J. EDWARD MURRAY
MANAGING EDITOR THE MIRROR LOS ANGELES
Grinding Axes & Taxes
Sir:
As an underpaid, overtaxed wage earner, it is difficult to describe my disgust at reading ''A Federal Sales Tax" [Sept. 28].
We pay one sales tax in Arizona, and that's one too many . . .
EARL F. CODNER Tucson, Ariz.
Sir:
. . . A federal sales tax does what its backers think it will do: it places the Durclen more on the low-income-bracket classes than on the higher-income-bracket classes . . . The present federal excise tax structure is not discriminatory; it puts the burden on such articles as are capable of bearing it . . . A 10% manufacturers excise tax means a 10% tax at retail and no act of Congress is likely to change that . . .
JOHN PARKANY Loyola University Graduate School Chicago
Sir:
. . . Until about 1912 our Federal Government was supported by a tariff upon imports and a tax upon liquor and tobacco products. Then a demand suddenly arose to "soak the rich" . . .
No one ever suggests that the rich pay more toward the support of our commerce than those of us in the lower-income groups.
But, as you know, we have countless thousands of thoughtiess damn fools who think that the rich should bear most of the tax burden . . .
CHARLES C. KING Seattle
Sir:
. . . Why not junk the most inequitable personal income tax and all the other patch-quilt federal taxes and try out a simple 100% sales tax at the manufacturers level? This would amount to a 50% tax at the retail level and yet would bring in revenues of $80 billion.
The secret of the tax would be that it would tax ... everything at the same rate . . . There would be no tax evasion and the Government could fire most of the revenue bureau . . .
WILLIAM L. ROBERTSON Oreland, Pa.
In Venezuela
Sir:
The article about Venezuela [Sept. 21] certainly handed me a big laugh.
I have been living and working in Venezuela for over five years, and even though I have what is considered to be a very good position, my salary is certainly a far cry from your "$1,000 a month is just about a rock-bottom wage."
As for the banks' paying 3% interest on minimum balances . . . cooks earning $10.50 a day, etc. . . . Some banks do pay 1% interest but that is all. A good cook may earn Bs. 10 or Bs. 12 per day, but since a bolivar is worth about 30-c-, you can figure out what her actual earnings are.
Y. M. SIMEONE Caracas, Venezuela
Sir:
Re your appraisal of Venezuela . . . A glance in another direction for a moment would also disclose that many Americans here with large families sometimes have difficulty in meeting their expenses . . . there is considerable unemployment [among them], with even larger Venezuelan families hovering from day to day around the one member working for one of the foreign oil companies operating in the area. A yet deeper survey would also introduce a few of us who came at the dawn of the present era of activity and who have spent the better part of our lives here . . . None of us are millionaires . . .
PAUL J. GRUBER
Barcelona, Venezuela
Strictly Legal
Sir:
The least you could do was cut out the "no hunting or fishing" sign in your pic of Ike [Sept. 28]. I would surely hate to see him hauled in before the local magistrate and fined $10 for every fish.
TIM ABRAHAM Niles, Ohio
Sir:
I'd like to know if President Eisenhower will be prosecuted or not as a trespasser . . .
ALBERTO LANDESMANN Sao Paulo, Brazil
P: No trespasser was Angler Eisenhower: he was invited to fish the South Platte River on the ranch of a friend, Denver Banker Bal F. Swan.--ED.
Muntii
SIR: . . . Seldom have I heard Nyasa Africans called "niggers" and only occasionally "coons"by Nyasa Europeans [Sept. 14]. Your wording is a slur on both races. The usual is "native," "muntii"(person), "munt" (person abbreviated), though even these are beginning to suffer under the "locals' " aggravated persecution/inferiority complex so that "African" or "Nyasa" are generally taking their places.
I trust you will keep your implications of "Chifwamba" in mind when you attempt to report what the Nyasa thinks of the Central African Federation . . .
JOHN ALGAR
Mwanga, Tanganyika
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