Letters, Nov. 1, 1948

Stromy Weather

Sir:

. . . I don’t see how a magazine with the good reputation that TIME has could picture on its [Oct. 11] cover a man who upholds the things Strom Thurmond does.

You undoubtedly will say you were trying to please some of your Southern readers . . .

LEROY LA FRANCE

Danville, Va.

Sir:

TIME’S article on Presidential Candidate J. Strom Thurmond is written with the magazine’s usual display of prejudice . . . TIME always seeks to make the South, and Southern leaders, look ridiculous . . .

Thurmond has never campaigned on a “white supremacy” platform. He has consistently urged constitutional government of the U.S., with the 48 components maintaining their sovereign rights. Of course, it makes a more sensational article . . . when you drag in the Negro question—and probably sells more copies in your Northern stronghold where they can continue their criticism of the Southerners for their oppression of the poor blacks . . . “

TINA CANNON

Columbia, B.C.

Sir:

. . . It would be interesting to note, I believe, how long you and your Negro-loving Yankees would yell for civil rights if they outnumbered you ten to one.

T. H. VICKERY JR.

Baltimore, Md.

Sir:

. . . We of the South have not noticed any immediate problem, and neither has the Negro race as a majority. The Negroes are not oppressed, and as a majority are contented. In the larger cities of the “North” the Negro is neglected, kicked about and oppressed regarding housing and employment . . .

Yes, we of the South do draw a line. To you Northerners, it may seem closer to the solicitude of the master for his slave. By correction, it is solicitude of the employer for the employee . . .

JOHN L. COGBURN JR.

Ridge Spring, S.C.

Sir:

. . . As an American Negro, educated in the North, and with a knowledge of the South gained from years of teaching in the South, I consider TIME’S indictment of both North and South as just . . .

TIME’S exposé of the yawning chasm which exists between our professions and practices of Christianity and democracy deserves earnest consideration . . .

If the white man meets the challenge which TIME has so ably presented, white Americans, in the words of Toynbee . . . “may perhaps be capable of rekindling the cold grey ashes of Christianity . . . until in their hearts the divine fire glows again. It is thus, perhaps, if at all, that Christianity may conceivably become the living faith of a dying civilization for the second time.” For unless the hearts and minds of every one of us have the will to put into action our professions of Christianity and democracy, we will have NO world instead of ONE.

FRANK M. SNOWDEN JR.

Howard University

Washington, D.C.

Truman-for-President Dept.

Sir:

IN SIX AND ONE-QUARTER LINES OF TYPE, YOU HAVE ACHIEVED, I BELIEVE, THE WORLD’S RECORD FOR MAKING THE MOST ERRORS IN THE SMALLEST SPACE. I REFER TO TIME, OCT. 18, IN WHICH YOU STATE THAT IN A POLL OF 51 MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB, PRESIDENT TRUMAN WAS THE ONLY MEMBER TO PREDICT HIS OWN VICTORY. YOU DESCRIBED MR. TRUMAN AS A “LIFETIME” MEMBER OF THE CLUB . . .

1) NO POLL WAS CONDUCTED BY OR IN THE CLUB. 2) I HAVE SATISFIED MYSELF THAT OUR ASSOCIATE MEMBER, HARRY S. TRUMAN, HAS NOT VOTED IN ANY POLL CONDUCTED BY ANYONE. 3) MR. TRUMAN IS NOT A LIFETIME MEMBER. HE PAYS THE SAME DUES AS EVERY OTHER RESIDENT MEMBER.

YOUR ITEM APPARENTLY IS A . . . DISTORTION OF A WHIMSICAL ARTICLE . . . BY ROSCOE DRUMMOND, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR’S WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF . . .

JOSEPH H. SHORT

Washington, D.C.

¶ Reader Short has achieved the world’s record for being unimportantly right. Herewith, for more objective readers, a substantial sample of Drummond’s “whimsical article”:

Fifty-one members of the National Press Club in Washington flatteringly described as “the nation’s leading political experts” have just been polled on the question: Who will win the 1948 presidential election? The results are as follows:

Thomas E. Dewey . . . . . . 50

Harry S. Truman . . . . . . . 1

The man who cast that one vote is in many ways in a position to do more about it than any of the others who were polled, for the one who voted for Harry S. Truman to win is Harry S. Truman, who as President of the United States is a lifetime member of the National Press Club . . . —ED.

Peachy

Sir:

In your recent write-up of the fast-selling record Serutan Yob [TIME Oct. 11], you did not give due credit to Jim Hawthorne, the popular young ABC disc jockey. Hawthorne, by humming and strumming the hum-a-hogan and the hogan-twanger, respectively, giving out with seal barks, hitting the elephant bell, singing, talking and making most of the noise in general, practically made the record a Hawthorne solo.

I want you to realize that you have offended thousands of Loyal Royal Hoganites (as Hawthorne devotees label themselves), who range from infants and teen-agers to faculty members here at Caltech. We think Hawthorne is real peachy-keen . .

GEORGE KRAUSI

California Institute of Technology

Pasadena, Calif.

Not-So-Peachy

Sir:

I note that you have quoted lyrics which were written by me and which are incorporated in the Capitol record of Serutan Yob. These particular lyrics are part of a work in which I have a common-law literary property right . . . and for that reason, it is an unpleasant duty for me to have to ask you to notify the public that these lyrics were printed without my consent.

FOSTER CARLING

Hollywood, Calif.

¶ So be it.—ED.

Dark-Brained Compliment

Sir:

To be slurred by the dark-brained [editors] of TIME [Oct. 4] is, in my opinion, one of the greatest compliments that could be paid me and my work.

These same dark-brained [editors] are certainly fine specimens to presume to suggest or imply suitable funny-paper diet for American youth . . .

Of course the real peeve of TIME, as regards the Chicago Tribune’s Dick Tracy strip, is this: Dick Tracy has a regular daily readership of 90 million! TIME can’t touch this.

Easy, boys! Easy! You’re outnumbered.

CHESTER GOULD

Woodstock, Ill.

¶ Let Comic-Stripper Gould anchor his figures; the Chicago Tribune—New York News Syndicate estimates Dick Tracy’s readership at 25-30 million.—ED.