The Bear & the Bull
Sir:
This looks like it! And if it is the long overdue end of the longest bull market on record [June 1], there is the sure knowledge that stocks, like the phoenix, will rise again. Meanwhile, there is a strong possibility that a certain currently popular smoothie may prove to be the Democrats' Hoover.
Cheer up! And whistle a happy tune.
OWEN BALDWIN
Kingston, Mass.
Sir:
Washington is packed with "book-headed" boy wonders who couldn't successfully run a business, but they are going to tell others how.
JACK STIRES
El Centro, Calif.
Sir:
Our present bear market in stocks should prove no puzzle to anybody. An inflated balloon predictively bursts. Perhaps to the President must fall the dubious distinction of having furnished the pin.
JOSEPH IRGON
Flanders, N.J.
Sir:
Entirely contrary to an impression given in your article last week on the stock market, I made no comment on the price of IBM stock. It would be quite improper for me to make any such comment, and I have not done so.
THOMAS J. WATSON JR.
New York City
>To TIME INC. Director Watson, TIME expresses regrets. The Watson statement covered only the market in general and should not have been linked to a stockbroker's comment on IBM.--ED.
Sir: Eisenhower had to have a heart attack to throw the country into a recession, but Kennedy just has to open his mouth to wipe out $70 billion in values of stocks in two months.
As a small businessman, I resent being called an s.o.b., and resent the multimillionaire Kennedy family's seeming aversion to anyone else's making a few bucks.
N. B. JOHNSON
Los Angeles
Sir: Lest Kennedy forget--stockholders can vote when election time rolls around.
(MRS.) DOROTHY M. COOPER
Newark, Del.
Diagnosing Medicare
Sir: As a British subject, may I comment on medicare for the aged [June 1]. Not only are our hospital bills paid for, but our drugs, doctors' visits to our homes (a luxury in America). Our eyes and teeth are all taken care of--and last, but not least, our free choice of doctors is upheld. What a comfort to know that my savings are safe in the Bank of England--without the thought at the back of my mind that one day the lot will have to go on medical expenses.
(MRS.) EDNA S. WEISS
Philadelphia
Sir:
The peculiar behavior of the TV networks in granting Mr. Kennedy free time to plug the King-Anderson medical care bill, and their shoddy treatment of the A.M.A. when it attempted to obtain equal time for a rebuttal, make one wonder if the networks are afraid to incur the wrath of the President for fear of being treated like the steel companies.
KENNETH A. LUND
Chicago
Marx & Acts
Sir: Although Karl Marx may have authored the unfamiliar quotation ["From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs"] used by Jessica Moore as the key quote in her high school's yearbook [June 1], its substance is quite scriptural: Acts 4: 34-35*
(REV. CANON) JOHN E. WILKINSON
Rector
St. John's Episcopal Church
Medina, N.Y.
After the Bomb
Sir:
The careless reference to the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in the story on Hiroshima and Nagasaki [May 18] is a disservice to many people and must confuse many more. It is true that the commission "has found no evidence that either city has a higher rate of deformed births," but, contrary to your report, increases in leukemia have been amply documented.
The commission's other studies are not all flatly negative, as you assert, but are incomplete. At this stage some analyses do suggest association with radiation exposure. Only the evidence contributed voluntarily by the citizens themselves little by little over the years will give the answers.
GEORGE B. DARLING
Director
Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission Hiroshima, Japan
America's Cup
Sir:
The interesting article covering the Gretel's challenge to the U.S. for possession of the America's Cup [May 25] was well written and researched.
My own memory, however, was jogged as I read that Gretel was voyaging from Australia to the U.S. as deck cargo aboard a freighter. I thought that the challenger had to sail to the defender's course on her own bottom, so to speak.
ROBERT STEVENSON
Visalia, Calif.
>The original rules (1887) demanded that competing yachts be more than 65 ft. long and "proceed under sail, on their own bottoms," to the contest port. Because no one had the money to build large yachts, the race was not run for 20 years (1937-57). In 1956 the Supreme Court of New York sanctioned two amendments to the rules, changing the minimum length from 65 to 44 ft. and permitting the challenger to spare her bottom until she reached the course.--ED.
After the Balloons
Sir:
I feel that your story about the Japanese aviator picked to raid the West Coast and set fire to the forests during World War II [May 25] is incomplete.
You neglected to publish the results of another Japanese effort to set fire to West Coast forests by floating balloons carrying explosives across the Pacific.
I recall that this action started early in the war, and thousands of these balloons were sent across, but because of the outstanding cooperation of all the newspaper, periodical and radio media, the Japanese never learned what happened to them.
The only casualties were a mother and three children, who picked up a balloon, detonating the explosives and killing them all.
T. J. CROSS
Major General, U.S.A. (ret.)
Springfield, Va.
>Reader Cross's recollection is correct--in part. The casualties were a minister's wife and five youngsters from her Sunday school class, killed in 1945 near Ely, Ore. (TIME, May 30, 1949). The woman was the wife of The Rev. A. E. Mitchell, who is one of three U.S. missionaries kidnapped last week by Communist guerrillas in South Viet Nam.--ED.
Ma Before A.B.?
Sir:
Regarding the article in EDUCATION, "Marry Early, Learn Later" [May 25], Mrs. Heilbrun's plan is fine in theory and exactly what many of us had planned to do. But when she is in her 30s, a mother's time and thoughts are taken up by her children.
(MRS.) DOROTHY GULEZIAN
Andover, Mass.
Sir:
Naturally a mature woman with a settled home life turns out to be an "extraordinary student"; her advantage is an emotional security which the young unmarried student is still casting about for.
Far from depriving her family of some of her attention, studying forces her to make the best use possible of the time she has. A houseful of shouting children is an amazing improver of one's powers of concentration--Victor Hugo will bear me out.
(MRS.) E. R. AMOILS
Johannesburg, South Africa
Sir:
While mother is climbing out of that washing machine to scale the educational heights, how does Instructor Heilbrun propose to keep father out of the poorhouse, and the kids out of jail?
THOMAS J. LALLY
Buffalo Grove, Ill.
Sir:
As the mother of four small children with one year of college, I look forward to the day when I am able to return and complete my education.
The older I get, the more eager I am for knowledge. Girls do not realize how much they don't know until they leave school.
(MRS.) SUSAN BLAIR SMITH
Salt Lake City
Sir:
Under the Heilbrun plan our children, while basking in undiluted love, would be denied the advantage of an educated mother at a time when they are learning a language and seeking outlets for creative expression. Many young mothers would attend to their dreary home chores without the companionship of the good things for which they acquired a thirst in college.
(MRS.) BETTY MAY AMES
Sierra Madre, Calif.
Sir:
I have only one question: Did Dr. Heilbrun graduate from Wellesley before or after her three children were born ?
SHERRY BERKOWITZ
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh
>Before.--ED.
It Figures
Sir:
I spent the greatest part of three hours walking through the current show of new figure paintings at the Museum of Modern Art. Not only has TIME reproduced what I feel were the best of the paintings [May 25] but has also managed to produce amazingly good quality prints.
DAVID SELBY Newark, N J.
Ready for Export?
Sir:
Is it true that there is a movement afoot among Texas Republicans to pay Billie Sol Estes' fare to Hyannisport?
W. H. RICHARDSON
Narragansett, R.I.
*Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold. And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need."
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.