Letters, Nov. 11, 1946

Angles in Shortages Sirs:

Did TIME have its editorial tongue in cheek when reporting “Playing the Angles” [Oct. 21]? Are . . . readers to assume that American citizens have become so completely demoralized that they must court dishonesty in a thriving black market, must lie, cheat and connive in their frenetic clamor for meat, soap and automobiles, and disown their offspring to obtain an apartment? . . . Not only have we an ample supply of meat, but thousands of Canadians are donating meat coupons to the Canadian Meat Board to help feed the starving Europeans. . . . I have no wish to be smug, but surely if Canada can do it the U.S., with an even vaster supply of foodstuffs and materials, should be able to.

Toronto James E. Evoy

Icy Hold Sirs:

Referring to your front cover of Oct. 21− your ice man cometh, but he droppeth his ice before he arriveth, unless he reviseth the manner in which he holdeth his tongs. . . . PAUL RAINEY Georgetown, Ohio ¶ He always gets there.—ED.

Faith in Europe Sirs:

I am … thoroughly disgusted over the article by Mr. Paul Hutchinson [TIME, Oct. 21 ]. . . . I claim that Commandment No.1 is: Faith in people and their destiny. How dare Mr. Hutchinson condemn Europe’s spiritual future. . . . We are carrying on a Holy War against Communism, and how does that prove lack of religious feeling? The reason the political parties call themselves Christian … is that they are true Christians. The bulk of the parties is made up of conscientious religious men & women who, through Nazi persecutions, suffered for their faith. They kept on believing, and paid for their spiritual stubbornness in concentration camps. . . . I was engaged as interpreter in your War Crimes Organization, speak five languages. . . . I used the opportunities I had to talk to the ‘man in the street” in almost all the, countries west of Russia’s sphere of influence. … I also made friends with and frequently visited the D.P. camps in Germany. These Europeans had nothing, and their prospective material future was more than dark; but their optimism and dignified faith was strong and unshakable. Europe is not spiritually beaten. I only wish I had the eloquence of Cicero and Shakespeare’s vocabulary to tell you why, instead of being Norwegian struggling with a foreign language. . . .

INGRID GRIGGS SWeetwater, Tex.

Track Jumper Sirs:

In your issue of Oct. 14 you state: “After 14 years in receivership, the C.A. & E. finally chuffed out last week.”

Now, gentlemen, you have often aroused my admiration for your frequently delightful choice of words, as well as for your apt new use of many an old one. I bow humbly to your practiced use of almost an industrial idiom, but, never did I expect you to jump the track when confronted with a commuter electric line like the C.A. & E. I’ll bet your description popped circuit breakers all the way from the front platforms of the shiny new C.A. & E. cars clear back to the power house. . . . Don’t you agree “chuffed” just isn’t the word?

STEPHEN P. DAVIDSON Parkersburg, W. Va.

¶ Right is Reader Davidson. “Muffed” was the word for TIME.—ED.

Tito & the Jackdaw

Sirs:

So the Roman Catholic Church has excommunicated Tito and a flock of his workers [TIME, Oct. 21]. Reminds me of the famous excommunication of the Jackdaw of Rheims—remember? (The Jackdaw had stolen the Cardinal’s ring.)

The Cardinal rose with a dignified look; He call’d for his candle, his bell and his

book!

In holy anger, and pious grief, He solemnly cursed that rascally thief! He cursed him at board, he cursed him in

bed; From the sole of his foot to the crown of

his head;

He cursed him in sleeping, that every night He should dream of the devil, and wake in

a fright; He cursed him in eating, he cursed him in

drinking, He cursed him in coughing, in sneezing, in

winking; He cursed him in sitting, in standing, in

lying; He cursed him in walking, in riding, in

flying, He cursed him in living, he cursed him in

dying!—Never was heard such a terrible curse!! But what gave rise To no little surprise, Nobody seem’d one penny the worse!

DAVID R. HANHART Madera, Calif.

The De Havilland Twins

Sirs:

In the cinema section [TIME, Oct. 21], there is an interesting review of the movie, The Dark Mirror. The picture deals with twin sisters, one of whom is described by the text as a paranoiac, a killer, and the other sister as a normal, sweet girl.

Accompanying the text is a picture of Miss de Havilland, knife in hand, underneath which the caption reads: “Sister is psychoneurotic. . . .” This statement is misleading. The reader is apt to get the impression that the term, psychoneurotic, means the same thing as paranoiac. . . .

JOSEPH L. FETTERMAN, M.D. The Neuropsychiatric Institute Cleveland ¶ Sister was psychotic; TIME’S Cinema editor must have been a little neuro-psychic.—ED.

Bigoted Fanaticism

Sirs:

TIME, with characteristic Jesuit duplicity, deleted from my letter [Oct. 21] that part which it knew would stir honest indignation against such bigoted fanaticism as that of Simon Elwes, who cannot forego religious discrimination even in connection with the dead; and so proposes “a world memorial for Catholic soldiers,” the supreme sacrifice of non-Catholics apparently being unworthy of commemoration.

ELIZABETH EMMETT Peace Dale, R.I.

¶ TIME cannot agree with Reader Emmett that the deletions from her letter changed its gist one jot or detracted one iota from its cogency.—ED.

Sirs:

I have never seen such a bigoted, unchristian opinion expressed in print as Elizabeth Emmett’s denunciation of Roman Catholicism. . . .

It takes something like this letter to awaken us to the appalling fact that America after all is far from being a Christian nation. . . .

HANNAH COURTNEY

Detroit

George Washington’s Fortune

Sirs:

In TIME’S issue of Oct. 7 you state, in commenting on F. D. Roosevelt’s estate, that “George Washington left a fortune estimated at over $5 million. . . .”

Gustavus Myers in History of the Great American Fortunes . . . says Washington’s fortune, at death, amounted to only $530,000. That is a considerable fortune for that epoch. . . .

JULIO ENRIQUE ESTRADA Lima, Peru

¶ Some 15 years ago an enthusiastic typesetter added a cypher to the $530,000 figure, and this piece of misinformation has survived ever since in many a standard reference file, including the Library of Congress’. TIME’S thanks to Reader Estrada for setting the record straight.—ED.

The Real Cyrano

Sirs:

You refer to Cyrano as a Gascon in your review of the new production of Rostand’s play [TIME, Oct. 21]. . . . The real Cyrano, a 17th Century writer, was not Gascon. He was born at Bergerac, a small town not far from Paris.

LEON GILBERT JR. College Park, Md.

¶ Reader Gilbert has a point, but it is a little out of line. Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac was born in Paris in 1619. His father was Abel Cyrano, seigneur de Mauvières et de Bergerac (two estates within 25 miles of Paris).

As one of the famed Cadets of Gascony, Cyrano was known as “triple

Gascon” and “triple brave.” He is said to have fought a hundred duels. Four portraits of him show that the famous nose is authentic.

In his Voyage to the Moon, Author Cyrano described six different ways of arriving at the moon or sun, and in many passages anticipated modern science and invention. Soldier and seer, he died somewhat ingloriously in 1655 —the result of a wooden beam dropping on his head.—ED.

The Comma & the Cross

Sirs:

Referring to the article entitled “Unrepentant Liberal” [TIME, Oct. 7], I wish to say that in his criticism of the Apostles’ Creed, Rev. A. Powell Davies has left himself wide open as an unwhitewashed greenhouse regarding his explanation for his own success. In that explanation, so eloquent with the first person singular . . . one cannot help but detect a tinge of the self-righteousness and lack of ‘humility against which the comma in the Apostles’ Creed so clearly speaks.*

Of course Davies has his crowds to substantiate his explanation. It might be well to remember, however, that Jesus had crowds, too, during the comma period of His ministry. But when He set His face steadfastly toward Jerusalem and the suffering “under Pontius Pilate,” the crowds began to dwindle, until at last He found Himself alone with His cross. The cross, and not crowds, is the center of the Christian faith, even though to some it is “a stumbling block” and to others “foolishness.”

ALFRED H. DAVIES Memorial Presbyterian Church Dayton ¶ Has Presbyterian Davies considered that Unitarian Davies may be striving to make the Cross the center of the crowds?—ED.

Erroneous Impression——Cont’d

Sirs:

To use J. Edgar Hoover as a cruel example for your humor, with no regard for the truth, was inexcusable. Your apology was less than frank. Public cynicism toward the press no doubt stems from the fact that papers like TIME, when departing from truth in order to wisecrack, are disinclined to make the apology as broad as the original insult; thus you compound the evil. As friend and attorney for Mr. Hoover I write to say that your crack could have no result but to undermine the standing of J. Edgar Hoover as a unique, law-enforcing official, one who has impressed on our folkways a concept of law & order while still preserving full civil liberties even for law violators. Why don’t you admit that the implications of the article were unfounded and unwarranted ? Why not say that your face is red? Surely TIME will not diminish in public esteem by such a brave admission of error.

MORRIS L. ERNST New York City

¶TIME admits it; has already [Nov.4] printed its “sincere apologies” to Mr. Hoover.—ED.

* Says Davies (who objects to orthodox Christianity and especially the Apostles’ Creed as inadequate): “The Creed goes: ‘. . . Born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate. . . .’ The comma between those two phrases is the most important part of Christ’s life. After all, the life of Christ is something more than a punctuation mark.”