Letters, Nov. 7, 1949

Mason from Sir: President Truman, referring to the time when he became Grand Master of the Missouri Grand Lodge in 1940, says: “I considered it, and still consider it, the highest honor that ever came to me” [TIME, Oct. 10].

If Mr. Truman doesn’t consider being President of the U.S. a far greater honor, he voters should . . . return him to his Missouri Masons in 1952.

MRS. C. S. ROTHMANCleveland, Ohio

Wide & Woolly Sir: Last year you ran an item on the American Museum of Natural History’s experiment in forecasting the severity of winter by noting the number of rings a caterpillar had. The Forecast was for a mild winter.

What is the forecast for this winter? JOHN F. ANDREWS Detroit, Mich.

¶ In the fall, woollybear caterpillars have a brown band in their midriffs. If the brown band is wide, a mild winter is indicated; if the band is narrow, it will be a hard winter [TIME, Nov. 8, 1948]. This year’s bands, according to the museum’s naturalists, are wide. — ED.

Diplomat from Texas Sir: In your Sept. 26 issue you mention “State’s Assistant Secretary Jack Hickerson.” This name, among our diplomatic representatives, has never caught my eye before. Thirty years ago I “lost” a schoolmate at University of Texas who said he was going into diplomacy. His name was Jack (John D.) Hickerson . . . We worked our way through school delivering newspapers and owning a shoeshine parlor . . . Is he our old friend?

WENDELL S. DOVE, M.D. Barranquilla, Colombia

¶ None other. After serving as chief of the Office of European Affairs and as Assistant Secretary in Charge of U.N. Affairs, Jack Hickerson (Texas ’20) last May became one of the five Assistant Secretaries of State.—ED.

Krazy Hat

Sir:

I’m sure Mexico City’s Hatmaker Henri Chatillon will be interested to learn that he is not the originator of tortilla hats [TIME, Oct. 17].

George Herriman’s [famed comic-strip character] Krazy Kat once demonstrated, to an astonished duck, the same hat-making possibilities of the tortilla.

H. FRIDHANDLER Montreal, Que.

Stalin’s Siberia Sir:

In your review of Isaac Deutscher’s Stalin: A Political Biography [TIME, Oct. 10], you mention that Stalin in Siberian exile under the Czar received food parcels and picture postcards from his mother-in-law. Can you tell me whether Siberian exiles under Stalin are permitted to receive such gifts from the folks back home ?

F. B. SHERMAN San Francisco, Calif.

¶ Reader Sherman’s guess is as good as TIME’s.—ED.

Model Schoolroom

Sir:

We are pleased and gratified that you chose to picture a classroom in our Clyde L. Lyon School in Glenview, Ill., as a 1949 model . . .

MARK H. CLAYTON Glenview, Ill.

Lateran, Not Vatican

Sir:

TIMI> [Sept. 26] . . . seems to have been misinformed about the so-called papal award to William Randolph Hearst.

The Lateran Cross awarded Mr. Hearst was a simple medal, not an award from Pope Pius XII. Vatican sources said that Hearst’s name had been mentioned for an award, but had been turned down.

The erroneous report in our nation’s press has led many Catholics to feel apologetic about the whole thing.

PATRICIA JOHNSTON

New York City

¶ TIME (along with A.P., U.P. and Hearst’s I.N.S.) fell for an exaggerated report.—ED.

Head Stand

Sir:

In an article on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru [TIME, Oct. 17], you stated that his secretary told newsmen in New Delhi that perhaps Pandit Nehru would demonstrate his “head-standing” trick to President Truman during his present visit to the U.S.

I would like to know if Pandit Nehru demonstrated the feat to President Truman or not. And, if so, what was the President’s reaction to it …

R. K. GUPTA Louisville, Ky.

¶ The White House spokesman, with both feet soberly planted on the ground, says: “Prime Minister Nehru did not, so far as we know, stand on his head for President Truman.”—ED.

Sinning Shepherd

Sir:

I was interested to read your review of James Hogg’s Confessions of a Justified Sinner [TiME, Sept. 26]. Also, the excellent picture of Hogg, which so much resembled the picture of him in our house in Selkirk when I was a boy some 70 years ago, took my eye . . .

My grandparents often told me of their contacts with Hogg, the “Ettrick Shepherd,” as he was known to all the people in the Scottish Border country where he was born in 1770 . . . My grandfather lived [near] Hogg’s farm, and told of the poet’s visits there when people from all around gathered to hear him singing some of his own songs, such as When the kye come hame, and there was much carrying of hot water to make whisky toddy . ..

ROBERT ANDERSON Corte Madera, Calif.

Mellon v. Marx

Sir:

You publish a letter from George D. Webster, Special Assistant to the Attorney General of the U.S., calling attention to the fact that the influence of Andrew Mellon effected the repeal of the federal gift tax in 1926, and, save for the opposition of John Garner, would have obtained the repeal of the federal estate tax [TIME, Oct. 24].

This is evidence that Andrew Mellon was … a patriotic American citizen. You are, of course, aware that one of the methods advocated by Karl Marx for the destruction of capitalist nations was heavy estate taxes. Another scheme urged by Marx for the ruin of civilization was a graduated income tax. And we Americans, suckers for every fantastic foreign idea, have accepted both! I wish we had more Andrew Mellons in high office.

GEORGE ALBERT DROVIN Chestnut Hill, Pa.

Sir:

This George D. Webster . . . might look up the record of Andrew Mellon as a Government official and find out . . . that Mr. Mellon first cut the public debt from 24 billions to 16 billions . . .

O. G. ERICKSON

Detroit, Mich.