Letters, Jun. 3, 1946

John L. Might Be Half-Right

Sirs:

To a browned-out, hamstrung nation, TIME [May 13] eruditely announces that cities are running short of power, plants are shutting down, things are in a hell of a state. Your leading article . . . quotes an ominous John L. Lewis and two wrathful Senators, contains not a word about specific issues or facts involved. . . .

Before the public can be expected to exert its force of opinion, it wants to know who is being unreasonable, what steps can be taken to resolve the dilemma, how to get the coal dug and on fire. . . .

Those of us who work for a living are somewhat loth to believe that labor is responsible for all our nation’s ills. . . . John L. might possibly be more than a “master strategist” possibly (with your implications a that his “master maneuvers are aimed straight at our liberties). He might even—oh, sacrilege—prove to be half-right.

KING RUHLY

Detroit

Murray—Sleepy?

Sirs:

. . . Your great magazine, under the heading . . . “Back of the Barn” [TIME, May 6] . . . made this statement: “The technique: buying from individuals in auto-jammed Detroit, selling to the auto-hungry mid-South through auction outlets in sleepy Cairo, Ill., and sleepier Murray, Ky.?

Who told you . . . that Murray was sleepy? How did you arrive at the conclusion that Murray is sleepier than Cairo, Ill.? Have you or any of your roving “asses of the barn” ever been to Murray, Ky.?

It appears that you . . . crawled up into the haymow in the loft and went to sleep. And, in your journalistic slumber, your uninformed, vague subconscious mind caused you to use the adjective “sleepier” about the most wide-awake town in Kentucky.

If you or any of your high-powered fact-finding sensation mongers would like to visit this “sleepier” town, the Chamber of Commerce will pay your fare here & return by Pullman or plane, feed you on Southern fried chicken and hickory-cured Kentucky ham with all the trimmings, and, what is more, we’ll even try to wear our shoes while you are here. . .

MAX B. HURT

Executive Secretary

Chamber of Commerce

Murray, Ky.

¶ The free fare sounds fine—but soporific.—ED.

Woman in the House

Sirs:

I very much want to let you know with how much interest, admiration and appreciation I have read the article on The Netherlands [TIME, May 13]. … [Your] associates have done a splendid job, for not only have they accurately reported on the present temper of the country, but they also have caught quite a lot of the permanent essence of the Dutch nation, and expressed it in a very readable form. . . .

E. N. VAN KLEFFENS

Delegate of The Netherlands

United Nations Security Council

New York City

Super Turbo-Encabulator

Sirs:

Being of the engineering profession, I was impressed by the profundity of the article, “For Nofer Trunnions” [TIME, April 15] … in which the veil of secrecy was partially drawn from the “Turbo-Encabulator.”

I believe, however, that the layman’s digestion of this engineering complexity may have been impaired by the lack of illustrative material, and therefore submit the attached rendering of the “Cerebro-Optical Dynamagon Chonphuser” (pronounced kon-fuz zer), which . . . should unquestionably aid to clarify the turbidity of the H<SUB>2</SUB>0.

HENRI A. BRYSSELBOUT

York, Pa.

Two-Fisted Drinking

Sirs:

After reading the Rev. Mr. Kennedy’s report [TIME, May 6] on the conduct of the G.I. in Germany, I feel impelled to give the soldier’s side of the story. I was a G.I. stationed in Germany until Jan. 25. . . .

Probably 95% of the G.I.s (and officers) are in the black market. . . . This desire for money is revered in very respectable quarters here in the States. The National Association of Manufacturers, the Farm Bloc, and various labor unions rate it as a worthier motive than love of humanity. The G.I. is completely convinced that his deals are blameless in comparison with the profiteering and lobbying in the States. . . .

He feels that the people back home are selfish money-grabbers who will willingly let him rot in Europe. As long as he thinks this way, he will misbehave. And he’ll think this way as long as it is true!

W. N. SMITH

Madison, Wis.

Sirs:

. . . The pastor, while rough on the G.I., did not indict the officers. I lived in Berlin and . . . from my observation I would say that they are just as lax as the G.I. with respect to their habits and neglect of work, and as two-fisted in their drinking. . . .

H. P. NELSON

Richmond, Va.

Commercials v. Ads

Sirs:

. . . True, TIME’S “ads never sing jingles, blow sirens [TIME, May 13]. . . .” However, I re-carp, your ads do “pop up in the middle of news stories.” Observe the issue under discussion: follow Foreign News to the bottom of page 32. The plate facing this page pops up, not just in the middle of a story, but in the middle of a word. Man and boy, I’ve been broadcasting since 1929, and I’ve never known that to happen in radio except by accident. . . .

BLAINE CORNWELL

Program Manager, Station KMOX

St. Louis

¶ If Reader Cornwell will agree to turn the page, TIME will agree to turn on its radio.—ED.

“The Sisterhood of Women?”

Sirs:

The Symphony of Alpha Xi Delta [whose University of Vermont chapter was suspended by the national organization for pledging Negro Crystal Malone—TIME, May 6], which is the public avowal of the sorority’s purpose . . . reads thus:

“These things do we earnestly desire:

“A clear vision of life, that with gracious and kindly hearts we may share both joy and sorrow and bring into living reality the sisterhood of women.

“An appreciation of real merit and worth, steadfastness of soul. . . .”

I would like TIME readers to know that there were at least a few dissenters to the action taken by the national chapter. . . .

I believe that we have taken an enormous step backward in bringing “into reality the sisterhood of women.” Either we should live up to our aims or we should make no pretenses of having them. Perhaps we have been lacking in “a clear vision of life” and “an appreciation of real merit and worth. . . .”

It seems to me that we have been lacking in courage, have been less than gracious, and for at least some of us there is little peace in our hearts.

AN ALPHA Xi DELTA

(Name Withheld)

St. Louis

A Liberal Finds a Church

Sirs:

May I thank you? Due to your sincere and intelligent discussion of Unitarianism in the Jan. 21 and May 6 issues, I decided to look in on the small Unitarian Church of San Antonio, to see for myself if there really could be such a liberal church in this world of ignorance, prejudice and hate. Attendance at one service convinced me that at last I have found the church about which I have always dreamed! So—thanks, TIME, thanks.

FRANCES LANIER SMITH

San Antonio, Tex.

Thought, Anyhow Sirs:

. . . “Doggedly Unitarian about the nature of God” [TIME, May 6] may describe the inherited doctrinal condition of modern Unitarianism, but it ignores the fact that in the past few centuries most of the moderately liberal Christian churches have silently come round to the Unitarian view of Servetus on the oneness of God, and thus it has ceased to be a live issue. Meanwhile, during the period in which orthodoxy was catching up with liberal thought, the liberals were advancing onward to new and sharper issues, and today the crucial issue about which they speak and think is that of supernaturalism v. naturalism, the issue of two worlds v. one, and, as you would expect, the Unitarian stress is again on the scientific outlook. . . .

When reporting on Unitarians, you must remember that the principle of the free mind in religion is paramount to all particular beliefs and dogmas. . . . We are not unanimous, for we insist on thinking for ourselves, without the aid or hindrance of revealed “truth” or official church pronouncements. Our motto can be well stated: “Here not all think alike, but all alike think.”

PETER H. SAMSON

Minister

First Unitarian Church

San Diego

Hysterical Reuben

Sirs:

. . . TIME [May 6], in an article concerning the recently emasculated OPA bill . . . stated: “The voice of Reuben, slightly hysterical as it was, had its effect.” I resent your allegation that the average American citizen is a Rube and that he is hysterical.

It’s about time Americans showed an unrepresentative House of Representatives that the average citizen is for the OPA. That “hysterical voice of Reuben” has been the backbone of our nation since its beginnings. … I only hope that “hysterical voice” is heard more often.

MARK P. KITE

Clarkston, Wash.

¶ TIME never dreamed of suggesting that Reuben suffers from chronic hysteria, but thinks his voice is more effective in the lower register.—ED.

Reconverted Louis Budenz

Sirs:

If Louis Budenz is a fair sample of Fulton J. Sheen’s converts [TIME, May 6], then it is very easy to see how he does it.

Hasn’t your “research department” advised you that “Communist” Louis Budenz was formerly director of the Catholic Central Verein of St. Louis … or did you so easily swallow the fairy tale of his swift promotion from Communist editor to Catholic professor?

ELLIOTT FANSLER

Baltimore

¶TIME was well aware (and so stated) that Budenz was a Catholic in his pre-Communist days. He was associate director (never director) of the St. Louis Catholic Central Verein.—ED.

He Got Fired

Sirs:

TIME states [May 13] that I am the Daily Express columnist “William Hickey.” I was fired from this job in July 1943, partly perhaps for being (as TIME puts it) too “cocky” to the great and smug; since then I have written regularly only in the more congenial context of Reynolds News, and there have been six or seven Hickeys.

TOM DRIBERG, M.P.

London

¶ TIME erred; there have been six ” William Hickeys” on the Express since Reader Driberg. The latest: MacDonald Daly.—ED.