The Election & After

Sir:

Wasn't it amazing how the pollsters, observers and interpreters thought exactly like the marvelous mechanical brain? A rather pertinent reminder that juggling statistics is not necessarily logical reasoning. Just feed the same statistics, trends and facts into any number of minds and all will rearrange them into the same pattern, and though there may not be a single real thought or reasonable observation in the lot, the pattern is accepted as profound logic . . .

MRS. ALICE J. BROCKWAY Bakersfield, Calif.

Sir:

The election would seem to prove that the majority of voters prefer a wartime economy (with their sons driving tanks instead of trucks or plows) and higher taxes rather than an era of peace which has brought greatly reduced taxes, the abolishment of war, and has added 10 million citizens to the Social Security rolls. What the Eisenhower Administration has accomplished is a marvel of efficiency . . . Are we to see the plans and program of President Eisenhower ruined so that we may return to another Democratic regime in 1956? And to another war, as we have had in every Democratic Administration in this century? Only in that way can we have their kind of "fulltime employment."

MAUDE G. PALMER Springfield, Ill.

Sir:

Last year Mr. Adlai Stevenson said: "He who throws mud usually loses ground." . . . In the last month of recent campaigning, Mr. Stevenson seemed to throw a good deal of mud towards the opposition. As a result, perhaps he will not have as secure a toehold as he might like to in 1956.

DAVID FENTRESS OTT Providence, R.I.

Sir:

"Republicans can argue that Democratic gains were held down to a point well below the normal off-year loss of the party in power" [TIME, Nov. 15]. This Democrat hopes that the Republicans enjoy such "victories" every year . . .

ALLEN KLEIN

Mount Vernon, N.Y.

Sir:

. . . Although UNIVAC's early predictions gave the Democrats a greater margin in the Senate than he or anyone else found reasonable as the night wore on, his basic forecast that the Democrats would control both Houses of Congress stood up. UNIVAC stuck to his guns on this, while newspaper editions and human analysts switched back and forth with every new return . . . We learn something each time, and hope that by 1956 UNIVAC's performance will be even more accurate.

CHARLES COLLINGWOOD

CBS Television New York City

The Crytic's Tale

Sir:

Forsooth, if I never read another, that film review of The Black Knight by your Camelot correspondent [TIME, Nov. 8] is the finest piece of nonsense I have ever laid eyes on. If that doesn't stop these medieval cowboy films then nothing will . . .

STANLEY FRAMPTON London

Sir:

... I have longge bin of a mynde that Holly Woode mayhap shold tayke a powddre . . .

ARELENE BRADSTREET Bath, N.Y.

Sir:

Yon Tyme reviewer, late from Camelot, Doth pleasure me no ende. 'Tis true, God

wot,

He bathed each picture in suche a light That, though he be no "parfait gentil knight,"

His tongge-in-cheeke reporte did me delight ; For suche a wan, though percing to the rote. Be better far than manye a maudlin sote.

MARTHA LEWIS BARKOFF New Orleans

The H-Bomb Delay

Sir:

... So long as Soviet Communism persists, the future of Western civilization and of Christianity itself will depend utterly on the progress of science, wherefore on our scientists . . . Our scientists live and work by a philosophy of freedom. Most of the leading wizards who have so far kept us ahead in the atomic race fled here from military dictation and just such assault as the Shepley-Blair "report" which TIME [Nov. 8] defends. Their attitudes cannot be evaluated by people who do not understand their scientific credo. They cannot work well under regimentation: you can lead a free scientist to water but you cannot make him think. Soviet scientists have a different philosophy . . . They have a different drive, a furious feeling of alleged inferiority, and they 'are rewarded, respected and honored above virtually all other Soviet citizens! TIME seems to be "unconsciously" busy in opposing those very scientists and their intellects upon which and whom depend TIME . . . and 160 million incidentals such as the undersigned.

PHILIP WYLIE Miami, Fla.

P:TIME neither consciously nor "unconciously" opposes any free quest for knowledge, believes that security is the concern of all 163 million free U.S. citizens, including free scientists.--ED.

Sir:

... I am a Detroit tool and die maker, and as such have built dies and fixtures for various new military developments. No one asked me to pass moral judgment on these projects. They handed me the blueprints, they ordered the steel, and told me to make a delivery date . . . Now I'll grant that building an atomic bomb requires a higher order of intelligence than die making, but . . . the atomic scientists and Detroit's die makers are links in the same chain. The atomic scientist, for all his education (and probably finer moral development), is no more entitled to obstructionist tactics than the lowliest sweeper in the smallest die shop. We elect men to establish policy. We hire others to carry these policies out. Just who in hell do these physicists think they are ? . . .

DANIEL B. DALLAS Royal Oak, Mich.

The Uneasy Scientists (Contd.)

Sir:

Doubtless your Nov. 1 article on "The Uneasy Scientists" will worry many a pulp-headed liberal. These sacred beings are being shackled, muzzled, harassed, etc. by military bureaucrats, politicians, officials, etc. Before falling suckers to this woolly-headed whine about thought control, let us all ponder an item in the Education section of your same issue, which reveals that a sample of 15 U.S. scientists showed two-thirds ignorant of the most elementary history and illiterate in philosophy. It is bad enough that scientists presenting themselves for a Doctorate of Philosophy should be crassly unaware of the meanest elements of our cultural heritage, but it is alarming that these new Piltdown Men . . . should claim the right to unsupervised authority over us all. These people don't need authority. They need a course in elementary logic, a McGuffey's Reader and perhaps a Gideon Bible . . .

H. A. LEE New York City

Gone with the Goonies

Sir:

The opening sentence in your Nov. 8 goony bird story, which described this erratic but Pacific aviator as "an odd but charming creature which serves no useful purpose at all," was somewhat disturbing. Although I do not consider myself a bird fancier, the statement sets off a few serious overtones. What is the useful purpose of a starling, a hedgehog, or indeed, TIME'S Science writer?

ROBERT LASSON Bechtelsville, Pa.

Sir:

. . . The goony bird . . . "serves no useful purpose . . ." Isn't Dr. Philip DuMont of the Fish & Wildlife Service, thanks to this bird, getting a trip to Midway and a respite from the odd but not so charming goons of Washington? . . .

C. LAURENCE SHEPLEY Philadelphia

Sir:

Fortunate, indeed, that Dr. DuMont will not resort to "simple slaughter" in his warfare on the Midway Island goony bird. For the weary and depth-charge-happy submariner of World War II, this monstrosity produced desperately needed mental therapy, belly laughs and sheer astonishment as they ambled through their repertoire of screwball antics . . .

World War II has many grievous memories, but for those who ever did a tour on the "Rock" (persistently ignored by USO troupes and widely ballyhooed "name" entertainers), no fonder memories exist than those regarding that fabulous creature, Nature's caricature of humanity: the goony bird.

DOUG S. WILSON

Ketchikan, Alaska

Sir:

Re your footnote relating to the Air Transport Command's solution of the sooty-tern problem on Ascension Island during the war: I have always heard rumors that they did a very thorough job of simply throwing rocks at the birds -- in fact, they did so well that they left no tern unstoned.

STANLEY D. VER NOOY JR. Bergenfield, NJ.

Organized Charity

Sir:

Re the Nov. 8 report on organized chariy: We do need the big Community Chests, but we must not minimize the tremendous contribution of the hundreds of devoted smaller groups who do not "hit" the whole community but who direct their campaigns at limited circles of selected . . . persons and concentrate on specific tasks and areas of service. What these groups need is more know-how on fund raising. Many of them are woefully amateurish and wasteful (and annoying) in their money-raising effort.

HENRY L. MCCARTHY Commissioner Department of Welfare New York City

Sir:

TIME is to be congratulated on its article . . . Our major health organizations, presenting independent appeals and operating outside the uniformed control of local federated fund-raising groups, are our best hope of conquering mankind's leading diseases. They offer the individual the precious sense of participation in something that is vital and dynamic. They create a national awareness of outstanding medical problems. They show the individual how he can protect his own health . . .

BRUCE BARTON New York City

Sir:

Your remark . . . that Seeing Eye rattled tambourines "too well," raising in five years $2,000,000 more than needed (enough, you say, to provide . . . 1,300 dogs), is a body blow to the efforts of those of us who hope to put the school on a stable endowment basis. The economy of many of us who use the dogs now rests squarely on the stability of Seeing Eye. $2,000,000 is just about enough to keep it going six years--hardly a conquest of the endowment problem . . .

HECTOR CHEVIGNY

New York City

Flipping Recap

Sir:

What a gas it was to pick up a copy of your crazy mag and glim Dave Brubeck on the cover [Nov. 8]. At last those of us who dig the modernists won't receive gleepin' stares when we mention Brubeck or Rogers . . . These cats are the wailin'est! Thanks for your flipping recap of the '54 jazz scene.

ADRIENNE GRIFFIN

Indianapolis

Sir:

. . . Although Brubeck may be one of the best-known jazz pianists among a pseudo-sophisticated, flannel-clad collegiate set, he is far from the best of the modernists. Compared with the sublime simplicity of a Chet Baker or an Oscar Peterson, Brubeck's pretentious key-switching and borrowing of classical themes is a bit affected . . .

PHIL WEINBERG Philadelphia

Sir:

. . . One feels that the "new jazz" is too avant-garde for the average cat. The jazz ground swell of the '30s found joints and after-hours sessions in every U.S. city and many a crossroads town. Everybody who cared could get hip and come on without a doctor's degree and a libretto. It wasn't cool, man, but it sure was solid--a real ball.

LESTER BERGER New Canaan, Conn.

Sir:

I needed that dictionary of "cat" jargon--if only to help me understand what my children are talking about. I deplore the senselessness of it all, sigh resignedly, and wish that today's bopsters would be more specific and less prolific . . .

PAULA MARAN

Detroit

New Directions (Contd.)

Sir:

... I have never felt the urge to write a letter to TIME until I read Max J.K. Clark's letter in your Nov. 8 issue. It is a masterpiece. As long as we have Max J.K. Clarks, things will be all right with these United States . . . His slice of Americana [is] superlative.

HELEN M. DONOVAN New York City

Sir:

On behalf of at least a million of your readers: Did Max J.K. Clark give the Wall-Street-bound panhandler the two bits?

LEWIS A. LINCOLN Kansas City, Mo.

The Battle of Detroit (Contd.)

Sir:

"The Battle of Detroit" [TIME, Nov. 1] was a very interesting article and, most assuredly, will have proved to be of great use to many of your readers. I have not had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Harlow Curtice, but he is the kind of man whose kindly, cheery pictures create confidence and suggest that he is one with whom businessmen would like to be associated.

HARRY FERGUSON

Stow-on-the-Wold Gloucestershire, England

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