Brazil and the Future
SIR:
DEEPLY APPRECIATIVE COVER STORY IN LAST ISSUE [FEB. 13] OF YOUR BRILLIANT MAGAZINE WHICH REVEALS PERCEPTIVE ANALYSES OF CURRENT PROBLEM AND GOALS TO BE PURSUED BY MY GOVERNMENT. I ATTACH FUNDAMENTAL IMPORTANCE TO THE ROLE OF A FREE AND WELL INFORMED PRESS IN STRENGTHENING GOOD WILL AND UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN OUR COUNTRIES AND REGARD THE TIME STORY AS A RECOGNITION OF THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF BRAZILIAN PROBLEMS IN THE WORLD PICTURE. IT IS A VERY DEFINITE CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS BRINGING TO THE ATTENTION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THE ASPIRATION OF MY GOVERNMENT AND ITS PURPOSE TO ACHIEVE WITHIN A DEMOCRATIC WAY OF LIFE A BETTER AND PEACEFUL FUTURE FOR THE BRAZILIAN PEOPLE.
JUSCELINO KUBITSCHEK
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL
NATO's Gruenther
Sir:
As one of the men serving in the NATO command . . . the feeling of just what we are doing here often arises in all of us; your informative Feb. 6 article certainly clarifies our position and gives one a feeling of confidence to know that a man like General Gruenther is running the show.
Spec./ 3c STEVE GRAFOS U.S. Army Heilbronn, Germany
Sir:
As for Gruenther, I can't help feeling the following lines (from The Pirates of Penzance) suit him to a T:
I am the very pattern of a modern major general,
I've information vegetable, animal and mineral,
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical,
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical . . .
N. LEWIS New York City
SACLANT's Wright
Sir:
I enjoyed your story on NATO, but why is NATO's other Supreme Command (SACLANT) so consistently ignored? I do not doubt the importance of SHAPE, or the great abilities of General Gruenther, but Admiral Jerauld Wright, U.S.N., as Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic, is responsible for NATO's defense of the vast 12 million square miles of ocean that separate Europe from America.
SAMUEL H. P. READ JR. Commander, U.S.N.
Chief of Public Information, SACLANT Norfolk, Va.
P:Admiral Wright indeed keeps the sea legs of NATO steady from his SACLANT headquarters at Norfolk--as TIME'S map showed.--ED.
No Hands for Adlai
SIR:
YOUR FEB. 13-"DUEL IN THE SUNSHINE" FAILED TO REPORT KEFAUVER HAD NO TV TIME, THEREFORE COULD ENJOY BEING "INTERRUPTED 43 TIMES BY APPLAUSE." WE WHO ARE FOR STEVENSON ARE SMARTING UNDER THE TREMENDOUS COSTS OF BROADCASTING RATES, KNOWING OUR MAN SELDOM MAKES HIS TIME ALLOTMENT BECAUSE OF ENTHUSIASTIC INTERRUPTIONS . . .
WE WANT ADLAI STEVENSON TO BE PRESIDENT, AND WE WOULD SIT ON OUR HANDS FOR DAYS IF IT MEANT THAT MORE PEOPLE COULD HEAR THE UNINTERRUPTED VOICE OF AMERICA'S FUTURE.
MERCEDES MCCAMBRIDGE
BEL AIR, CALIF.
Mencken's Mark
Sir:
Your Feb. 6 article on the late H. L. Mencken was excellent. Very erudite people probably will always go on recognizing him as a literary genius, but from your account, and others, I think he must have been a rude, discourteous smart aleck. . . .
PAUL B. WATLINGTON JR. Orange, Va.
Sir:
As a 25-year-old daughter of the Lost Generation, I thank you for the article. I feel more strongly than ever that the force causing my generation to join churches, nurse our babies (indeed, have them at all!) and raise little vegetable gardens in our subdivision rectangles is not nearly so much dread of The Bomb as retreat from the dank void of Godless intellectualism that shrouded us Depression babies, and that Mencken symbolized.
PHYLLIS JOHNSON DAVENPORT Williamsburg, Va.
Sir:
Your comments on Mencken must have been anticipated by many, but few of us could have expected such a perceptive and even compassionate endorsed American critic. The intellectual maturity of a people is confirmed by the simple existence of such men, and Mencken alone may be responsible for the atmosphere that your staff inhales to such rare effect.
C. W. WHEATLEY
Sir:
H. L. Mencken is gone and I am glad, for his sake, that he is. Men of his ilk cannot live in the stifling atmosphere of modern democracy.
J. E. AUSTIN Windsor, Ont.
Mencken's popularity would never have waned had not the present generation be come excessively neurotic about name calling.
CORDELIA P. KENDALL Towson, Md.
Schnooks & Schmos Sir: Your Feb. 6 article "Poor Schnook" is in poor taste and not worthy of your magazine.
CLARE SHAER Brockton, Mass.
Sir:
Re Sol Randall: two better synonyms for "schnook" would be 1) jerk, and 2) schmo.
SIDNEY E. RIFKIND University City, Mo.
Sir:
Hail to Sol Randall: iconoclast, philosopher, non-seeker after the ranking deity of the U.S.: Success. Sol correctly senses the futility of making a success out of marriage with a social-climbing, materialistic female, so he faces the breakup without regret. . . . The ills that beset the Randalls can be found to a greater or lesser degree in so many U.S. marriages and in Yolaine's edict: "No money, no sex" . . .
GORDON SMITH
New York City
Sir:
The dreary marital vicissitudes of the "vacantly beautiful" Yolaine Randall and her equally vacant husband prove at least one thing-- that vacant they probably deserve each other.
MRS. DOUGLAS R. SPITZ Lincoln, Neb.
Sir:
TIME is the poor schnook for tripping on the curbstones of Central Park West; such matters are better left in the hands of Herman Wouk . . .
DAVID ROSENFELD Los Angeles
Snooking the Schnook
Sir:
Permit me to footnote your footnote on etymology of "schnook" schnook is probably a corruption of snook, a Middle English word for sniff, smell or search for. In Australia, a species of barracuda is a snok.
The phonetic change from the "s" to the "sh" sound is contemporary and popular as shmmo, schlamiel, sham. Synonyms are glop, shmo, jerk, goof, sad sack, "Marty," poorish.
Louis A. TROMBETTA JR. Carmel, N.Y.
Low Down on the Farm
Sir:
Mr. Murrow's sob story on TV about the "death of a small farm" was interesting, but even more so is your priceless epilogue wherein Mr. Peterson's relatives state that "he just sold out because he thought he could do better in California, and they like it fine so far" [Feb. 6]. Could it be that this is the Murrow method of discrediting the Eisenhower farm program?
IRENE GOODWIN Upperco, Md.
Sir: I couldn't see any purpose served by your article except to infer that Ed Murrow . . .was deliberately attempting to distort the situation . . .
MERRILL G. FARRELL Farmington, Conn.
Sir: Fancy Ed Murrow being such a babe in the wood ! He made Ezra Benson look the hero-- something Mr. Benson hasn't been able to do for himself recently . . .
E. P. OLSON Argyle, Wis.
Sir:
I am confident that Secretary Benson understands the basic farm problem and its solution, but feel that his comments on the Murrow broadcast were very misleading. Low-income farmers are not being driven off the land by foreclosures when they can sell out at alltime peak prices; they are leaving, as shown in the Murrow telecast, of their own free will, to take their profits on land prices and find more profitable employment. It is through this migration of surplus low-income farmers to more profitable and useful employment . . . that the farm problem of surplus production and low prices will be solved.
C. EDWIN HILL Seattle
Sir: Your handling of the agricultural issue is positively unfair ... I hear this farm situation discussed pro and con 20 times a day, and I haven't the answer to our trouble, but I do know that partisan reporting will only harm us. Delve into this deal a little deeper. You'll find Ed Murrow knew what he was talking about.
MARVIN C. REHBEIN Vail, Iowa
Rebel Yells (Contd.)
Sir: In the North we have a long, long way to go in the unshackling of our prejudices, but thank God we're still not in the rock-throwing stage, but those participating students at Alabama University would do better in their studies and have a better chance of success in their chosen fields if they forgot about Miss Autherine Lucy [Feb. 20] and opened their books to the assigned pages. All of them might make a stronger America if they would eat their eggs, leave the rocks in the garden, and direct their animosities toward the real threat of Communism.
L. A. WHITAKER Denver Sir:
. . . May I, a Southerner, congratulate TIME on its fair treatment of the integration problem as expressed by the insight shown in your past three issues. We are, I fear, on the brink of a considerable amount of difficulty in the days ahead; most of the conscientious members of our society are at a loss as to ready solutions. Your articles will go far in giving an appreciation of our problem to these outside the South.
WILLIAM F. STRAIT Lieutenant, U.S.A. F.
Valdosta, Ga.
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