The State of France
Sir:
When bison were grazing on the Pentagon and deer frolicking on the White House grounds, France was there to play midwife to the birth of the U.S. Believe me, despite all "chaotic politics," France can take it; she intends to stay.
HENRI GIRONDELOT Paris
Sir:
France must not die--for what would your readers write to you about if not"to predict the fall of France? Of course, there's always England--she's acting a bit giddy these days, don't you think?
RUTH WHIPPLE FERMAUD Ville d'Avray, France
Sir:
The solution to the French situation is in the prophecy of Nostradamus: France shall again have a king to unify the country.
ALVIN C. GREENE
Tokyo
Credit Counseling
SIR:
AS PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF CREDIT COUNSELORS, I SALUTE TIME [MARCH 5] FOR THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE JOB OF REPORTING THE NATIONAL INVASION OF OUR FIELD BY SELFISH PROMOTERS AND RACKETEERS. YOU RECOGNIZE THE WORK OF A FEW OF OUR MEMBERS ESTABLISHED IN METROPOLITAN AREAS; MANY OTHERS ARE FILLING COMMUNITY NEEDS ACROSS THE COUNTRY NOT
ONLY THE 24 WHO HAVE SATISFIED THE RIGID QUALIFICATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP IN OUR ASSOCIATION, BUT AN ESTIMATED HUNDRED OTHERS WHO SHOULD SOON BE MEMBERS.
GOOD CREDIT COUNSELING PROVIDES, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE HISTORY OF PERSONAL DEBT, EXPERT AID WITHIN REACH OF ANY HEAVILY INDEBTED FAMILY WITHOUT DEPENDENCE UPON THE COURTS OR CHARITIES.
THE PROMOTER THRIVES ON THE INDIFFERENCE OF THE CONSUMER CREDIT COMMUNITY; HE IS PHOTOSENSITIVE, AND IN THE GLARE OF TIME'S SEARCHLIGHT WILL SOON DISAPPEAR. PRICE A. PATTON CHICAGO
"Blabbin Bill"
Sir:
As a gentleman and Hoosier, I resent your publishing an article in your Feb. 27 issue about "Blabbin Bill" and placing it under the heading Indiana. If you want to make Senator William Jenner's followers ashamed of themselves for supporting such a smart aleck--all right, but why embarrass the rest of us?
MEREDITH W. FRY (native of Bedford, Ind.) Jefferson City, Mo.
Sir:
Having succeeded, over the past few years, in doing your part in the "hatchet job" on Toe McCarthy, you have now decided to try your best in mocking and smearing another great American, Bill Jenner of Indiana . . . You imply that Jenner's charge of George Marshall being a "front man for traitors was untrue. Yet, in using these words, he was being kind to George Marshall, for the record, fully documented by McCarthy, Jenner and others, shows that it was Marshall, Acheson, Jessup and others of the same mode of thinking who sold China down the river.
WILLIAM SCHULZ JR.
Montclair, N.J.
Sir:
I would like to compliment you on your very excellent article. Although you and many others classify Mr. Jenner as a reactionary, and I think you are quite correct, I once heard a lawyer give a definition of a progressive which seems to fit the Jenner policy and the Senator himself very aptly: "He doubts all his former beliefs and believes all his former doubts."
KENNETH B. ROLLINS Leesburg, Va.
Sir:
The article on Mr. Jenner was most enlightening. Please keep informing us of the blabber-mouthing of those who would seek our votes.
WILLIAM F. LOWANCE
Silver Spring, Md.
All Aboard
Sir:
May I take the most measured and courteous exception to your paragraph about me and my partner Charles Clegg in your People section [Feb. 27]? Not the part that says I am an old codger, a boozer, and no-gooder, all of which is doubtless too true. The private car Virginia City is not, however, my car. It belongs jointly and in equal partnership to Charles Clegg and Lucius Beebe, and I would be indebted to you if, in the private car dossier in your library devoted to such matters or to me and Mr. Clegg against our ultimate obituaries, you made a note to this effect. It is rather mean to have him put up half the scratch or wampum for this property and then have it altogether attributed to his partner.
Lucius BEEBE
Virginia City Weehawken, N.J.
Tribal Customs
Sir:
As reported in your Feb. 27 issue, Dr. Dick Read has apparently discovered something more than a tribe with beautiful vomen using a mysterious contraceptive [to limit themselves to bearing one child apiece]. The tribe is also vanishing, or cheating!
ARCH E. HOUSTLE JR. Baltimore
Sir:
How does this tribe maintain its population? If this law has been in force for a few generations, it should be extinct.
HILLIARD D. COOK
Phoenix, N.Y.
P: "This wonderful tribe," says Author Read, "is gradually growing smaller and smaller and is only a shadow of its former majestic self."--ED.
Marilyn at Elsinore
Sir:
Sir Laurence and Cheesecake Marilyn! [Feb. 20]. The world is now crumbling on all sides of us! Britain's leading thespian has sold his cinematic soul. Surely this knight errant is jousting when he refers to Miss Monroe's hip-flipping talents as "ethereal." Perhaps a remake of Hamlet is proposed? If so, the event would truly be an occasion to make the Danes melancholy, for the dramatic climax would, no doubt, be Marilyn as Ophelia frisking about the lily pads clad in a bikini for a real razzle-dazzle death scene. At this point, the profit-sharing prince would no doubt be moved to make his quietus with a bare bodkin.
ROBERT L. MORRISON
Brooklyn
Speed on the Beach
Sir:
I am disappointed to appear in your March 5 report as one who could have contributed to the evasion of rules [during the stock car speed trials at Daytona Beach, Fla.]. I followed a reasonable course in bringing a weight to help acceleration and then asking officials if it was permitted. It was not allowed, and the weight was removed. I was not as confident as TIME'S reporter that added weight would have helped --that any increase in traction would offset the increased inertia. If it had been allowed, I would have experimented with the best results, with and without the added weight. As it was, I did not hope to smuggle a 200 or 300-lb. block of iron, lying on the trunk floor, through a microscopic inspection. Aside from moral and racing considerations, this is a slur on the mentality of one who got all the way to Florida all by himself.
JOHN FITCH Stamford, Conn.
Enigmatic Actor (Contd.)
Sir:
The picture of William Holden on the Feb. 27 cover is a well-deserved tribute to a most remarkable man. Looking at this picture, I think I can see a little of the essence of the man, but after reading the story, I have the feeling that your writer is talking about someone else part of the time . . . The fellow you describe sounds a bit more like a character out of Mickey Spillane's "masterpieces." Somewhere beneath the literary imagination of your writer and above the "brogues gleaming richly on the broadloom" must exist a very competent individual composed of an uncommon amount of just plain Bill.
WILLIAM C. BAKER Layton, Utah
Sir:
Holden "hangs up; bounds from his chair, grabs a sharp Tyrolean felt, 'I'll be over in dubbing.' " What hogwash ! Do you think the majority of your subscribers care for this? Please, no more silly blurbs about movie actors.
RALPH SIMMONS Monmouth, Ill.
Sir:
A "good Joe" with talent is a good thing to see--as for his "whole wheat" charm, what woman wouldn't like to find that at her breakfast table?
JEAN TYLER LITTLEFIELD New Milford, N.J.
Sir:
As many times as you've verbally ripped motion pictures and their stars apart, you certainly made up for it in "The Conquest of Smiling Jim." The story was of great interest to me, but I find it hard to believe that Bill Holden is really that perfect.
NED I. COBB Tampa
Kosher Revival
Sir:
Our congratulations on a masterful job of offering so excellent a report on the significance of the Jewish dietary laws [Feb. 20].
We are grateful to TIME for this brief but enlightening explanation of one of the keys to a stronger religious dedication for hundreds of thousands of American Jews.
NATHAN K. GROSS Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations New York City
Sir:
My main objection to your article is that it casts a false implication on the Jew who does not keep a kosher home. Too many Jewish housewives today literally keep their houses kosher but their stomachs unkosher, or tref. It is quite possible to be a good Jew and at the same time not keep a kosher home.
MRS. LORRAINE B. PAUL
Albany, N.Y.
Service & Services
Sir:
Under the title "New Scandal in Texas" [Dec. 26], you referred to "U.S. (for 'United Services') Trust & Guaranty." We have been informed by the Texas Insurance Department that the letters "U.S." in the title of the U.S. Trust & Guaranty Company do not mean United Services. Your reference has confused a number of the officers of the armed forces who are insured by United Services Automobile Association. This association is a large and financially strong insurance organization, which has been serving the commissioned and warrant officers of the U.S. armed forces for many years.
C. E. CHEEVER
Colonel, U.S. Army (Ret.)
General Manager
United Services Automobile Association San Antonio
P: TIME erred. U.S. Trust & Guaranty used the initials to stand for United Service (not Services).--ED.
Mencken's Mark (Contd.)
Sir:
I was saddened by the death of H. L. Mencken and angered that his waning years had to be spent in forced inactivity. How it must have galled him to sit on the sidelines during an era that produced a Harry Truman, a Joe McCarthy, an Arthur Godfrey and, of course, a Liberace ... As for your Feb. 6 tribute to Mencken, I felt that it was excellent.
DAVID GREGORY ROSSIE
Windsor, N.Y.
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