Letters: Jul. 26, 1963

Hotelman Hilton

Sir:

The TIME cover article [July 19] on Conrad Hilton almost catches the multiple paradox of a financial wizard who thinks and acts like a poet. To many of us who have come to know and love Mr. Hilton, his “vanity” is the terrifying simplicity of the eternal boy who never loses the simple sense of wonder in the appreciation of small things. I met him as a generous benefactor; I have come to respect him as a truly great man whose optimistic faith and courage in the face of harsh realities turn such realities into success stories for protective top aides and doubting boards and trusting friends.

SISTER M. JACQUELINE, S.I., Vice President Webster College Webster Groves, Mo.

Sir:

Mr. Hilton naive? Like an old coon dog.

Free ice water? Yes. Cubes? They’ll cost you. Will the Conrad Hilton cash a check if you have an $8-per-year Carte Blanche card? Yes, for 10¢ per. What hasn’t he thought of? Pay toilets in the guest rooms.

Do I stop at Hilton hotels? Every chance I get. Do I like Connie? Yes. Why? I admire his guts.

DAVID C. BRAIN Lawrence, Kans.

Sir:

Your cover story of Conrad Hilton contains a factual inaccuracy that could confuse future guests of the new New York Hilton and cause ill will for the old man. The New York Hilton does not provide “free parking to compete with the motels.”

Our bill at this hotel for six nights (June 29-July 4) contains a fat garage fee of $28.25 for auto storage. This is almost $5 a day for the car alone.

HOWARD G. WILCOX Chicago

» The New York Hilton erred in informing TIME that parking was free. In fact, the maximum garage rate for 24 hours’ storage is $4.75.—ED.

Enjoyed your cover story of Conrad Hilton and his growing empire!

Word has got around that he has purchased the Leaning Tower of Pisa and renamed it “the Tiltin’ Hilton.”

MRS. R. G. PIRSON North Tonawanda, N.Y.

Just Progress

Sir:

Have you heard of Knoxville, Tennessee’s method of integration?

Our mayor, John Duncan, appointed a group of business leaders. Their assignment: to come up with a plan for orderly desegregation. They met with Negro leaders and worked out the program.

Circulate petitions. In a few weeks there were thousands of signatures, including nearly all the faculty and administration of the University of Tennessee, the top leaders of the TVA and of Knoxville business.

With that backing it couldn’t fail.

Fifty theaters, restaurants and hotels agreed to join our march toward making Knoxville a completely “open” city.

No fuss. No muss. Just progress.

PROFESSOR ALBERT RAPP University of Tennessee Knoxville, Tenn.

Sir:

It’s an excellent report on Emory University [July 19], but I wish you had given credit for integration to the board’s chairman, Henry L. Bowden, who just received the sixth Alexander Meiklejohn Award from the American Association of University Professors for his contribution to academic freedom.

SANFORD S. ATWOOD President-elect Emory University Ithaca, N.Y.

Sir:

I’d appreciate its being made clear that it is the song (Mine Eyes Have Seen the Coming of the N.A.A.C.P.) and not the singer that is “on the other side of the fence” [July 19]. I am an ardent integrationist and card-carrying Unitarian, as well as a folksinger and New Frontier Democrat. If word got around that I was, as you termed it, “bitterly resigned” (to integration), I might well not be invited to another hootenanny in Dallas.

HERMES NYE Dallas

Commercials for God

Sir:

As I am a Presbyterian, my heart nearly burst with pride at the actions of the Rev. Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, but it almost stopped beating entirely when I learned that the United Presbyterian Church hierarchy is actually buying “spiritual ads.”

Likening a spiritual experience to the “better than Brand X” gobbledygook of Madison Avenue [July 12] is positively revolting, and the result will prove acutely embarrassing.

MARLENE PHILLIPS Sheridan, Wyo.

Dangerous Dieffenbachia

Sir:

I feel that the July 19 article on toxic plants and spices would have been transformed from a mere feature article to a genuine public service if you had included a picture of the common house plant, Dieffenbachia, to warn other unsuspecting victims of its potential danger.

JERRY L. AVORN Belle Harbor, N.Y.

A Millennium of Monasticism

Sir:

It was with great pleasure indeed that I read [July 5] the very fine article about Mount Athos and Orthodoxy.

The article is an excellent piece that summarizes in a masterly way the history of the holy mountain and the role that it played and still plays in Orthodoxy.

As to the photographs, they are simply masterpieces that reflect the glory and grandeur of the Byzantine Empire, this bastion of Christianity that for centuries stood as a protecting guard.

ANG. VLACHOS Under Secretary of State to the Prime Minister’s Office Athens

Sir:

Your statement that most of the 1,500,000 Greek Orthodox who lived in Turkey before 1922 were killed or exiled by Dictator Kemal Ataturk is not only misleading but is stated in insulting terms. The proper name is Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who was the legitimate and recognized President of Turkey during his lifetime.

As to the expulsion of the Greeks, let us not forget that in 1919 Greek troops occupied Izmir and its environs in spite of specific Allied guarantees that this would not happen. When exhausted, prostrate Turkey began to rally around Ataturk’s nationalist banner, the guerrilla war against the Greeks developed into a full-scale war. The Greek armies were stopped only 70 miles from Ankara and decisively defeated in the battle of Inonu by the present Premier of Turkey (who took his name from there).

After the defeat of the Greek army, Ataturk arranged the now famous population transfer by way of which the Greeks in Turkey (except for Istanbul) were deported to Greece and the much smaller number of Turks in Greece deported to Turkey. The loss of skilled craftsmen, merchants and farmers hurt Turkey’s economy. Though relations on a people-to-people basis are still far from cordial, Ataturk’s seemingly harsh decision has enabled Turkey and Greece to work closely together within NATO.

CHAPLAIN GILBERT KOLLIN National Jewish Welfare Board Ankara

Floating Process

Sir:

In your story [July 12] on increasing productivity in American industry, you refer to a major innovation at Pittsburgh Plate Glass in setting up a “float process” that will “double productive capacity by adding only 100 men to its current work force of 700.”

This “float process” is the invention of Pilkington Bros. Ltd., at St. Helens, Lancashire, England, and they have licensed the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company to use it.

COMMANDER EDWARD WHITEHEAD President

Schweppes (U.S.A.) Ltd. New York City

The Lollipop Crowd

Sir:

As mother of three children I am well aware of the children’s market [June 13].

Advertising and display methods have turned shopping trips into shopping trials —a decision at every turn of the aisle.

This type of promotion is an unhealthy play on parent-child emotions. It is also an invasion of parental disciplinary rights, with the advertisement or display almost assuring the child of the item.

(MRS.) JOYCE W. SEWARD Southampton, Bermuda

Sir:

On a recent shopping trip, my two-year-old daughter Robin would not leave the supermarket until I had bought her Soaky. When we got home, my wife informed me that Robin had two full boxes of Matey (a competitor’s product).

Madison Avenue certainly has its work cut out with such poor consumer loyalty. THEODORE LIFTMAN Canton, Mass.

Sir:

Believe me, if you say no long enough to those little ones, they really stop asking. Just try it—your children will be better off.

(MRS.) ENID TRAUT London, Ont.