Nominations & Decisions

Sir:

Re Negro Lawyer Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court's decision on the segregation issue in public schools [TIME, May 24]: You state that this decision ''was the victory of a lifetime" for Marshall. In view of the long fight, the courageous stand and the far-reaching effect of the verdict itself ... I nominate him as the Man of the Year.

(THE REV.) CHARLES C. WALKER

First Congregational Church Little Rock, Ark.

Sir:

The blow just dealt to the South by the Supreme Court is equal to none since the Civil War . . .

ANNA A. DUDLEY

Worcester, Mass.

A Southern Violet

Sir: Re Candidate Linder and his thundering bombast at Atlanta's Confederate Memorial Day ceremonies [TIME, May 10]: My forebears came to Georgia from Virginia, having emigrated from England about 1650 ... I am a "real" Southerner--a statement I make with some pride--and in the next breath I say I am embarrassed and saddened by the words and actions of individuals like Tom Linder. I offer my poor apology for them to the rest of our good Americans--Northern, Western, or wherever else they may be ...

L. F. COLLIER Atlanta, Ga.

Sir:

We were ashamed and embarrassed by the vituperations of Tom ("Shrinking Violet") Linder. We thought his kind died "four score and nine years ago." We of the famed 82nd Airborne Division, who have fought and worked beside many of Georgia's higher-class citizens--notably Negroes--are inclined to believe that Linder is the "immigrant of lower standards" .

THREE PARATROOPERS

Fort Bragg, N.C.

Sir:

I am sorrowfully forced to admit that humanity's experience during its unceasing and glorious march across the thunderous pages of history should impart to the citizens of our great Republic this enduring truth: "Never underestimate the power of a cliche."

A. A. DANISH

Denver

Boar v. Coon

Sir:

Your May 17 cover article on Ray Jenkins, one of our favorite East Tennesseans, was highly appreciated in this section . . . You referred to him as the "Terror of Tellico Plains," which reminded me of another Tellico terror: the wild boar of that section, which, pound for pound, is the fiercest fighter of the mountains. Both terrors are scrappers, and with no disrespect to Ray, believe you will note a remarkable likeness in the jut of their jaws [see cuts] . . .

I suggest to Mr. Jenkins that he use the boar as his symbol in his coming bout with Senator Kefauver, who uses a coon as his . . .

JACK JOHNSON

Knoxville, Tenn.

Portraits on Request

Sir:

The American primitives in your May 10 issue take me back 60 years to my friendship with Jack Mann, an artist who, I felt, was a genius. On exhibition in a village store was Jack's painting of a game bird, a hunting-trophy still life with every barred feather in place, as realistic and photographic as anything modern processes have shown since. Yet Jack could whip up a portrait in an hour or two for anyone who cared to pose in his paint shop amid pails of whitewash and hand-mixed house paints. At one period he traveled over the hills of southern Vermont and New Hampshire selling spectacles to the farmers' wives, but always ready to do a portrait in short order. In a small weekly paper his advertisement read:

JACK MANN, PAINTER

PORTRAITS ON REQUEST. FENCES WHITEWASHED.

IF YOU WANT YOUR HOUSE PAINTED,

BRING IT TO THE SHOP.

CHANNING BARNES Henderson, N.Y.

Sir:

Here is a primitive, dated 1898, picked up at a Canadian farm in the province of Quebec, and painted by an anonymous itinerant, who paid for his food and lodging with this painting [see cut]. It hangs in my waiting room and attracts considerable interest.

F. RONCHESE, M.D.

Providence, R.I.

Empires, Past & Present

Sir:

Your splendid May 17 study of Imperialism emboldens me to ask your kind assistance in a similar study of the spread of Communism: a TIME map of the world which would show, with dates, the blood-red tentacles spreading from a Soviet center and leeching the life of one country after another, first in the West and then in the East . . .

(THE REV.) JOHN J. G. ALEXANDER, S.J. Pomfret Center, Conn.

McCarthy Faces Life

Sir: The one--and only--accomplishment of the Army-McCarthy hearings has been the introduction of Joseph Nye Welch to American televiewers. His wonderful performance is the best entertainment I've had in years. Thank you . . . for his background sketch [TIME, May 17].

MARY ALICE RICE

Buffalo, N.Y.

Sir:

Current on our campus is the historical revelation that not since Samson and the Philistines has an army been defeated by the jawbone of an ass . . .

R. L. ABRAMSON

University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia

Sir:

How refreshing, after several centuries of stuffy British ethics and antique notions about the fitness of things, for the civilized world to be led now by a nation which gleefully washes its soiled linen in public and makes belligerent noises at everyone in sight, while wondering what the hell to do next ... I am . . . bemused by the gay ambivalence of the U.S. citizenry, which gets sore if Eisenhower is criticized but cheers when told that his administration "stinks." It's just this sort of subtle, penetrant reasoning that gives us all such confidence in the future.

CABAL AMADOR Cali, Colombia

Sir:

. . . That particular story in the May 24 issue on the Adams testimony was a masterpiece of wit on a masterpiece of silliness. As far as I'm concerned, the Government should stop squandering money on the hearings, and turn them over to some soap manufacturer who could call the show "McCarthy Faces Life."

AUSTIN PENDLETON

Warren, Ohio

Sir:

Is it still rank heresy to suggest that a great deal of the pother and nuisance caused by congressional investigations can be traced to one fundamental weakness of the U.S. Constitution of today, namely, its obsolescence ? When, in every other phase of American activity, there is continual renovation and change, it seems a pity that the people of the U.S. should be quite content with a rigid and antique political procedure . . .

H. Y. HALSALL

Santiago, Chile

Roll Call on Tennyson

Sir:

Re the Charge of the Light Brigade and TIME'S [May 10] review of The Reason Why: It's too obvious to be another "story of a blunder" . . . when you reported that "some 700 horsemen" rode, etc., but Alfred, Lord Tennyson sent in only "six hundred." At least, a footnote to keep us straight.

A. LESLIE ESCOFFERY JR.

Lima, Peru -- Poet Laureate Tennyson wrote his poem (''in a few minutes") after reading the London Times's account. The Times reported 607; Tennyson used 600 in the interests of metrical smoothness. Later figures, like the returning British troopers, came home more slowly.--ED.

McGoon's Ride

Sir:

In the midst of TIME'S [May 17] reporting of the backing and filling of the world's "great" statesmen at Geneva, Captain "Earthquake McGoon ' McGovern's farewell came as a breath of fresh air and a brief glimpse of greatness in mere man . . .

GEORGE S. KOHLER

Babylon, N.Y.

Sirs: Further note on the "Earthquake McGoon" saga: One evening in Cholon, Indo-China, I was being introduced by Earthquake to his favorite Szechwanese food. With his Chinese plane crew about him ... he told us about his capture by Chinese Communists in West China after his plane was downed. His captors were putting him through a long forced march to their head quarters. In the course of time Earthquake, much better at flying than walking, became so tired that he sat down on the ground, and all efforts to get him to resume the trek were of no avail. Threatened with being shot on the spot, he wearily motioned them to go ahead and shoot him -- and didn't budge. It was uncertain what the attitude at head quarters would be, so a runner was dispatched for orders. When he returned, the bulky Earthquake was hoisted aloft and carried to prison by his diminutive captors.

GEORGE THORNGATE Monterey, Calif.

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