Monday, May. 07, 1956
After Breakfast
Sir:
In your April 16 "Guest at Breakfast," I get an uneasy feeling reading (and even rereading) how Washington Post and Times-Herald Publisher Graham's "men of good will were embarrassed by the Hiss case." Does being "men of good will" necessitate defending Hiss against Nixon before the facts were in (like Acheson and Stevenson), and then, after Hiss was proved a perjurer and traitor, continue attacking Nixon because he "used the subversion issue as a political weapon"? Maybe such subtle Ivy League logic is too refined for us coarse Westerners; maybe that's why New Dealish defenders of the common man, as Graham plus A.D.A. plus Stevenson, are rightly distrusted by the common man.
J. S. ELMORE Denver
Sir:
As publisher of this influential newspaper, the Washington Post's Phil Graham realizes his great power and responsibility and aims higher with dreams of greatness, independence and institutionalism for his paper. To further this lofty and noble purpose, he hires Herblock to defame the President as a perplexed boob, the Secretary of State as a smug humbler, the Defense Secretary as a predatory capitalist and the Vice President as a bestial figure crawling out of the sewer.
DAVID C. BAILEY Asheville, N.C.
Sir:
As one who gets a greater lift at breakfast from Cartoonist Herblock than from her cup of coffee, I wish to express appreciation for TIME'S excellent and informative story on Philip Graham.
FRANCES MCCONNELL Washington, D.C.
Sir:
We were very pleased with the fine cover story on Publisher Graham, and we are all proud of the progress he has made in the newspaper field. However, we would like to challenge the statement: "To this day the Post runs 15 syndicated columns . . . more than any other U.S. paper." The Miami Herald is publishing 30 syndicated columns, twice the number the Post is now publishing. I am sure that Phil Graham will not mind relinquishing this record to his beloved Miami.
GEORGE BEEBE Managing Editor The Miami Herald Miami
Sir:
Unexplained is how Graham is going to preserve the "continuity of fundamental principles" when he has been brainwashed by Frankfurter.
T. H. TRACY New York City
The Campaigners (Contd.)
Sir:
Adlai Stevenson's efforts to "copy the Kefauver technique" [April 9] look like a clear case of nervous prostitution. A man with dignity can't just shed it like a coat when the weather gets hot.
RICHARD A. HOGE Philadelphia
The Shores of Parris Island
Sir:
I noted with extreme gratification that you did not join hands with the large majority of the American press and even some members of Congress in the condemnation of the U.S. Marine Corps on account of the Parris Island tragedy [April 23]. Perhaps these forgetful individuals do not remember the overflowing volume of praise that was heaped upon this heroic organization during World War II and Korea.
JOHN W. BRESLIN Yeoman First Class, U.S.N. Bethesda, Md.
Sir:
My heart aches so for those marines drowned at Parris Island, S.C., and for their parents and grandparents. These young marines will never see the Halls of Montezuma nor the Shores of Tripoli. Their situation was taken care of right here at home--in boot camp.
W. BYRON Mill Valley, Calif.
Word from the South
Sir:
The opening sentence in your April 9 review of Borden Deal's Walk Through the Valley says: "The widespread American belief that man is essentially good runs into hard going south of the Mason-Dixon line." In my travels on the North-South highway, I have noticed all the Yankee cars at eating places are locked up, while Southern cars, frequently with as much baggage in them, are left unlocked. I'm glad to know it is the Yankee's monopoly on ''American belief that man is essentially good" that causes him to lock his car while he walks 50 ft. to wolf a sandwich in ten minutes, and it is the Southerner's lack of this fine belief that causes him to leave his car unlocked while he goes in to "set a spell."
CHAL H. WHITE Charlotte, N.C.
Muted Trumpets in Dixie
SIR:
WE BEG TO POINT TO AND REQUEST THE CORRECTION OF CERTAIN ITEMS THAT APPEARED IN YOUR APRIL 16 ARTICLE. ARCHBISHOP RUMMEL NEVER PROMULGATED OR THREATENED A DECREE OF EXCOMMUNICATION IN CONNECTION WITH THE SEGREGATION CONTROVERSY. THE REFERENCES IN QUESTION WERE MISINTERPRETATIONS BY THE PRESS AND SOME PROPONENTS OF SEGREGATION OF AN EDITORIAL IN THE ARCHDIOCESAN NEWSPAPER, WHICH SIMPLY REPORTED THE EXISTENCE OF A CANON OF EXCOMMUNICATION.
THE CHANCERY OFFICE NEW ORLEANS
P:The editorial said in part: "The issue is so grave that under certain conditions the offenders automatically incur excommunication." At that time, the Chancery stated that "the editorial . . . was not written at the request of the Archbishop, although the Archbishop takes full responsibility for having given approval to the editorial when it was read to him."--ED.
Milwaukee Smear
Sir:
The whispers from Milwaukee are disquieting to those who believe that constantly improving education and communication move us each year toward the perfection of American democracy. Thanks to TIME, April 2, for printing the facts about Mayor Zeidler. The article should help stop this from becoming the smear that made Milwaukee famous.
THOMAS J. SAMMON New York City
Fair Hearings
Sir:
In reporting recent A.A.U.P. action in censuring eight universities, TIME, April 16, stressed a few individuals' charges that we failed to give the universities a fair hearing Your report, however, refuses to give the association a fair hearing. A.A.U.P. has been considering the California and other cases for years. The professors who comprise A.A.U.P. are a body of educated, fair men who have discussed and probed into these cases conscientiously as they arose.
STANLEY SPECTOR Assistant Professor of Far Eastern Studies Washington University St. Louis
Sir:
My personal thanks for your report of the actions of the A.A.U.P. As one of the black-listed institutions, we feel very keenly the grave injustice that has been done. Even more are we fearful of higher education's future under the principles advocated by this group.
FRED S. HULTZ President North Dakota Agricultural College Fargo, N. Dak.
The Prone Ranger
Sir:
We love you for the review of The Conqueror [April 9]. You gave us a wonderful interlude of howls, giggles, twitters and guffaws. It was the first time we had the misfortune to see a movie before reading your review, but just being able to appreciate your comments was worth the price of admission.
EDYTHE GAISOR Oak Park, Ill.
Sir:
I am a hapless human bereft of 85-c-, spent knowingly and willingly on The Conqueror. What became of the acid tongue of TIME'S Cinema Editor? If TIME only mildly pans an extravaganza, then, in my book, it will be a flick worth seeing. I never bargained for John Wayne playing the Prone Ranger with Pedro as Stupido. Is TIME afraid of the great John Wayne that it showed itself too lily-livered to use its Damascus pen on such a movie?
ELY BYRNE Palo Alto, Calif.
Sir:
I suspect you have at last changed your movie reviewer or else persuaded him to stop the bad puns . . .
ELAINE STANSFIELD Los Angeles
P:TIME, even though its acids are sometimes mistaken in Hollywood for lie abilities, could probably survive a Wayne of terror.--ED.
Merger in Monaco
Sir:
Let's give credit to the millions of good wives and mothers across our country whose talents are truer, if less glamorous, than Grace Kelly's, and leave sensationalism to the cheap tabloids. The values of the people are distorted enough without adding to their confusion with the glorification of a social-climbing actress and a pip-squeak prince.
ARTHUR WOLFE Eaton Rapids, Mich.
Sir:
Please, spare those of us who don't give a fig if Miss Kelly gets married every hour on the hour.
W. B. KERR Islip, N.Y.
20 Minutes of Meat
Sir:
My thanks for your very fine report of my Boca Raton talk in the March 26 issue. As always, TIME managed to present in a few lines the meat of what it took me 20 minutes to state.
HARLLEE BRANCH JR. Atlanta
Tenors & Tantrums
Sir:
I was much intrigued by the use of the Kinsey technique in your April 16 story on operatic tenors; however, you fail to give this vital information about your sexual frequency investigator-tenor: Was his three-days-before-singing intercourse licit or illicit? And does the optimum interval hold for all types of operas? You have started a new trend in journalism and, I suspect, in musicology. It now behooves our young Ph.D. candidate to investigate the essential sexual frequency factors underlying successful musical performance. The data can then be put on a slide rule, which by proper setting will indicate the optimum timings for singers, instrumentalists, conductors and professors.
MARTIN BERNSTEIN Head of Department of Music New York University New York City
Sir:
I certainly appreciate your wonderful article about me.
RICHARD TUCKER Great Neck, N.Y.
Sir:
I am a tenor. The rigors of a tenor's training, according to your article, while not altogether unpleasant, seem to be far more frustrating than a bass or baritone, who appear to have a far more unrestricted home life.
J. L. ROGERS Big Rapids, Mich.
Spreading the Word
Sir:
We are delighted with the April 9 story on Baptist Andrew Allen of Texas. With one stroke of TIME'S mighty pen, you have put across some things we have wanted to proclaim to our Japanese Christian leaders and throughout Japan. We hope it has a wide reading among the pastors.
CARL M. HALVARSON Japan Baptist Mission Aomori, Japan
The Freudian Couch
Sir:
I enjoyed tremendously your April 23 cover story on Sigmund Freud but seriously hope that his picture on the cover won't put a jinx on sex.
SAMUEL M. COHEN Wilkinsburg, Pa.
Sir:
Thank you for your excellent article on Freud. It was put together with a maximum of skill and a minimum of partisanship.
WILLARD BEECHER Brooklyn
Sir:
Having observed the parade of so many of his patients on your covers, it was a pleasure indeed to see the doctor, for a change.
SlOMA SCHIFF Calgary, Alta.
Sir:
Shame upon Swiss "Catholic" Psychiatrist Charles Baudoin, who babbles ". . . Modern man cannot conceive of himself without Freud." How fortunate that God, who thought that He had revealed man's purpose to man long ago in Revelation, belatedly realized that He had bungled and created Sigmund Freud to set things right.
C. DUDLEY SAUL Philadelphia
Sir:
I especially appreciated your section "Theme and Variations" describing the basic tenets of the chief exponents of the other schools of psychoanalysis.
SHEILA M. PARKER Washington
Sir:
One minor complaint--your failure to point out that the mystic-sounding terms Id, Ego and Superego are just so much Anglo-American psychiatric jabberwocky for simple concepts. In his native German, Freud used understandable terms: es, ich and ueberich--literally translatable as the it, the I and the beyond-I. This kind of linguistic lily-gilding by Freudian exponents is the stuff that cultism is made of.
DAVID SEVERN New York City
Sir:
Did Freud suffer from feelings of guilt when he named his famous daughter Anna after his sister of the same name, who had caused him to "suffer pangs of jealousy" and "he never liked or forgave her"?
SYLVIA D. LEVITT New York City
Sir:
Your story on Freud (with another wonderful portrait by Ben Shahn) has probably done more to inform embarrassed non-Freudian cocktail conversationalists than 20 hours of college lectures could. Your text served mainly to point out one glaring id-ego-syncrasy in Freud's primary approach: if he had only asked the question "Why am I?" rather than "What am I?" his searching would have led eventually to the soul-triumphant symbol of the Cross rather than the sex-triumphant symbol of the couch.
REGINA O'CONNELL Los Angeles
Sir:
Freud's self-analysis rid him of most .neurotic cares; this possibly is true, but please don't overlook those long, wonderful summer vacations, usually without his wife.
WILLIAM F. FINESH New York City
Navel Bases
Sir:
How naive of you to have Adam, Eve and Freud share places under the same cover.
ROBERT A. PETERSEN Chicago
Sir:
I became considerably confused when I looked at the painting by Cranach [April 23]. Why do Adam and Eve have navels?
PAUL A. MECKLENBURG Seattle
P:The question is as old as Adam. Most artists have credited both Adam and Eve with all human features. For Michelangelo's version, see cut.--ED.
Credit & Discredit
Sir:
What exactly do you mean by "The U.S. . . . hesitates to make common cause with discredited colonial positions" in your April 16 report on the Middle East? Who discredits British or French colonial positions except the Kremlin and its crafty stooges, and misguided nationalists like Nasser, out for their own ends? It's high time the people of the U.S. realized that over the centuries British rule has not only rescued many parts of the world from savagery, but has abolished slavery, and established law and order, an unrivaled system of justice, good government and an incorruptible civil service. Can't Americans see that in denouncing "colonialism" they are playing Moscow's game?
RONALD S. RUSSELL, M.P. House of Commons London
Squids & Red Herrings
Sir:
According to the April 23 Science section, the subtle squids discharge a cloud of ink to escape enemies. Presumably the octopus and cuttlefish employ the same method of self-defense; they are not the only ones:
Extremely sly and subtle fishes Are octopi or cuttlefishes. Rather than own themselves defeated They squirt a cloud of ink and beat it. Thus emulating in their capers The editors of Commie papers.
H. B. CHIPMAN Winnipeg, Man.
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