Letters, Aug. 2, 1948

The New Look

Sir: . . . While listening to the Democratic convention as continuously as I followed the Republican convention, I observed one striking contrast . . . The Democrats are looking backward on the events of the past, the Republicans are looking forward on the events of the future . . .

(MRS.) C. W. JACKSON Los Angeles, Calif.

Dire Situation

Sir:

May I congratulate you on an excellent psychological report on the really dire situation in which our [Berlin] occupation forces find themselves [TIME, July 12] …

FRANK B. SWINGLEY Chicago, III.

Early Bird

Sir:’

PLEASE INTRODUCE YOUR PAGE 23 REPORTER WHO FOUND “THEY WERE NOT STIRRED BY OLD SENATOR BARKLEY’S KEYNOTE ADDRESS” TO YOUR PAGE 24 REPORTER WHO FOUND “AFTER HIS KEYNOTE SPEECH, ALBEN BARKLEY GOT A SPONTANEOUS HALF-HOUR OVATION AS THE ORCHESTRA BOOMED OUT (MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME.’ ”

VICTOR A. SHOLIS

Louisville, Ky.

CJ TIME’S Page 23 editor obviously

went to bed too early.—ED.

Refresher

Sir:

It was an unexpected pleasure to pick up a leading magazine and find a page devoted to such painters as Sargent, Whistler and Chase [TIME, July 5]. A refreshing change from the emotional, “childlike” painting of today . . .

PATRICIA PARSONS STOUT Bronxville, N.Y.

The Spirit of Silver Creek

Sir:

“The experts regard Silver Creek as the finest dry-fly stream in the U.S.” [TIME, July 12]. What experts? And why better than the Beaverkill or Willowemoc in the Catskills; the West Branch Ausable in the

Adirondacks; the West Branch Penobscot in Maine; Frying Pan Creek, out of Aspen, in Colorado; or the Gunnison, in southern Colorado ? Sun Valley has a trick of producing an expansive spirit in writers, as I know. But is Silver Creek really that good?

HAL BURTON New York City

TIME’S experts (alias Syl MacDowell, alias Field and Stream*) think so.—ED.

Come On In …

Sir:

YOUR CAPTION “YES, MY DARLING DAUGHTER” AND MENTION OF 14% HIGHER INCIDENCE OF RESPIRATORY ILLNESS AMONG THOSE USING A SWIMMING POOL OVEREMPHASIZE DANGERS OF SWIMMING POOLS [TIME, JULY 12]. 14% CORRECTLY QUOTED BUT [FIGURE IS] UNFORTUNATELY ERRONEOUS. CORRECT FIGURE IS 7% AND INDICATES NO STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT INCIDENCE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THOSE WHO USED AND THOSE WHO DID NOT SWIM IN POOL. WELL MANAGED SWIMMING POOLS OFFER NO EXCESSIVE HAZARD EXCEPT IN FACE OF EPIDEMIC OR TO THOSE EXCEPTIONALLY SUSCEPTIBLE TO EAR OR SINUS INFECTION. MODERN MOTHERS MAY SING OLD TUNE BUT SHOULD CHANGE OLD WORDS TO “. . . AND PLOP RIGHT IN THE WATER.”

J. R. GALLAGHER, M.D.

Barrington, Nova Scotia

The Loved One

Sir:

Permit me to congratulate you on the high interest of your issue of July 12, particularly the brilliant, comprehensive and superbly written study of Evelyn Waugh . . .

I single out this precious item because, speaking as a writer and a Roman Catholic, I consider Mr. Waugh the most interesting of contemporary authors from the first standpoint, and the very deadliest from the second . . .

From the true Catholic point of view, his novels are depraved, perverted and, above all, malicious, in the strict theological sense of the word. His favorite characters, like Lady Metroland and Basil Seal in Black Mischief and Put Out More Flags, do evil gratuitously, for the sheer fun of the thing.

I was once connected with a seminary where, in response to a questionnaire, a fair number of students opined that the greatest menace to the good name of the Catholic Church of that time was Father Coughlin. Today, and in my opinion, it is Mr. Evelyn Waugh.

CUTHBERT WRIGHT

Buffalo, N.Y.

Sir:

We should put out another flag for TIME’S prizewinning summary of Evelyn Waugh. This is an incisive, savory and spirited estimate . . .

Waugh has a great talent for vivisection; the results may be acrid-smelling. If he were middle-of-the-road, gentle and soft in his surgery, the pungency would be lost. Let the morticians demonstrate “compassion”; it’s up to the readers of The Loved One just to chuckle.

JOHN H. LERCH Columbus, Ohio

Sir:

When I was “up” at Oxford, shortly after Evelyn “Waw’s” day, there was a rhyme (I don’t know where it came from):

Alec Waugh

Is rather a baugh,

But Evelyn

Makes me laugh.

GEORGE PENDLE London, England

Bald Suggestion

Sir:

The article “Bald Claims” [TIME, July 12] is highly significant from the point of view of modern scientific methodology. Those who have advocated experiment and observation have had a long uphill fight against their opponents, who claim that they can unravel the mysteries of nature by abstruse speculations in an armchair . . .

Patricia Stenz has flung a bold challenge that she would “grow hair on any person” under the observation of the A.M.A. Should she not succeed, her failure would be well advertised, and her business would probably gounder. On the face of it, this is in the noble Galilean tradition of experiment. The medieval thinker, embodied in Dr. Morris Fishbein, rejects experiment and observation, and asserts from his armchair that the thing is impossible. Are the “dead cells” in his scalp, or are they a few centimeters lower?

JOHN D’ERRICO Santa Monica, Calif.-I Is there a doctor in the house?—ED.

More Hickory, Less Twaddle

Sir:

. . . Dr. Grace Fernald’s clinic school at U.C.L.A. [TIME, July 12] unwittingly puts a finger on the fundamental fault of present-day grade school education. Why was a boy who was unable to read or write promoted year after year until he reached the fifth grade ? And how much further would he have been promoted if he hadn’t gone to the clinic school?

For many years I have dealt with the products of our elementary and high school education mills. No longer do I gag over weird English, amateurish spelling, fuzzy thinking and inability to add and multiply.

… I say: More of the good old days of the three Rs and a little hickory rod or harness strap, and less of the twaddle that infests our [educational system].

WILLIAM V. SESSIONS

Associate Professor of Chemistry Wayne University Detroit, Mich.

*Says Author MacDowell in his recent Western Trout (Knopf): “Field and Stream has pro claimed Silver Creek as the finest dry-fly stream in America. I agree at least to the extent that it yields larger fish, on the average, than any inland water I know. The fish are smarter than sin . . .”.