Letters, Apr. 11, 1955

The Yalta Papers

Sir:

Congratulations on the-best and most exact appraisal of The Yalta Story [March 28]. The subtitle tells practically the whole story in a nutshell: “The peace was lost by ignoring justice and the facts of life” . . .

MAX KOFFLER

Brooklyn

Sir:

I wish I were a contemporary Buddha—or even an octopus— so that I might have more than our allotted number of hands to applaud you for having published those pertinent excerpts of Major General John R. Deane’s letter to General George Marshall, written before the now hysteric Yalta fiasco. Had the late F.D.R. seen fit to heed it (instead of hide it!) during those mollycoddling, vodka-swigging days, God only knows how much more beautiful the world might have been today. “We Must Be Tougher” should be rammed down the throats of every American who still vacillates between the two present global ideologies . . .

JOHN A. MORGAN

Colonel, U.S.A.R.

Beverly Hills, Calif.

Sir:

The revelations from Yalta again remind me of Christ’s prophetic pronouncement: “. . . Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” . . . And F.D.R.’s pious preachment: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity (love), I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”

HENRY J. VON SCHLICHTEN

Pastor

Lutheran Church of Our Saviour

Port Washington, N.Y.

Sir:

Lloyd George, Wilson and Clemenceau were the Big Three at Versailles. Years later, Lloyd George, according to Australia’s war time Prime Minister William Morris Hughes, had this apology to make: “I did my best, but seated as I was between Jesus Christ and Napoleon Bonaparte . . .” How we progressed in the 25 years between Versailles and Yalta! I wonder if Churchill will live to say: “I did my best, but seated as I was between Pontius Pilate and Attila the Hun . . .”

JETHRO HATCH

Tarrytown, N.Y.

Sir:

The Yalta revelations fill me with a sense of shame . . . that my country has negotiated its foreign policy from the stand point of spiritual apostasy and moral weakness rather than of strength . . . The Eisenhower-Dulles regime marks the wholesome arrest of a drift in foreign relations, but something more than a plea for changeless principle is needed. Sin and redemption are still primary reference points for national survival . . .

CARL F. H. HENRY

Pasadena, Calif.

The City

Sir:

Congratulations on one of the most beautiful photo presentations of New York City I have ever seen. The spectacular views in the March 28th issue of TIME will make every New Yorker even more proud of our great city and will undoubtedly stimulate much visitor travel here by your many other readers in the U.S. and throughout the world.

BERNARD F. GIMBEL

New York City

Sir:

. . . Thanks for the beautiful pictures and the line: Who that has known thee but shall burn In exile till he come again . . .

I know, because I moved away and long to get back.

HORTENSE C. WORDEMAN

Hoboken, N.J.

Head of the House

Sir:

. . . Your story on George Meany, on the history and gains of organized labor in the U.S., and Meany’s important part in it [March 21] is good. But there still needs to be a good deal said and written, not for organized labor, whose coffers are filled to overflowing, but for the mass that is not organized. Using 15 million as the A.F.L.-C.I.O. membership, and 45 million not a part of that membership, your figures, gives us a one-fourth and three-fourths ratio.

WALTER J. KROL

Yorkville, N.Y.

Sir:

TIME’s cover painting of A.F.L.’s George Meany is far from flattering; it is more similar to Leo Durocher questioning the ability of an umpire . . .

MARTIN O’CONNOR

Washington, D.C.

Sir:

Talk about realism! I took one look at the cover and felt the sensation of Mr. Meany’s cigar smoke in my nose . . . Congratulations to Boris Chaliapin.

(THE REV.) CHARLES F. UNGER

Clifton, N.J.

Taking Stock of Stock

Sir:

. . . My sincere appreciation for your Feb. 14 article on the intercollegiate livestock-judging contest at Fort Worth. Those of us connected with this type of educational training for our young college men and women feel that the story will aid in a very material way in getting this type of agricultural training out to the general public. It will add prestige to the livestock-judging contest work.

RUFUS R. PEEPLES

Superintendent

Student Judging Contests

Tehuacana, Texas

Dusty & Miserable

Sir:

In the review of the motion picture Blackboard Jungle, I am intrigued by the pronouncement that “Louis Calhern captures that special look of secret decay that can come from breathing chalk dust for 30 years [March 21]”. While I am considerably short of 30 years in high-school service, I have inhaled a great deal of that insidious white stuff which produces “the secret decay.” (Laymen may not know that some times after a concussion of erasers on the blackboard, the familiar mushroom cloud of dust rises high in the air and results in heavy fallout many feet from the point of origin.) After a long hard look in the mirror, it seemed obvious at first that I had it. What else could account for the receding hairline, the dewlap under the chin, and all those creases in the old epidermis? Yes, that was it, the secret decay, but still was it not a sort of hallmark of noble craft? . . . How about printing a picture of Louis?

H. NORTON JONES.

Westfield, Mass.

¶See cut.—ED.

Sir:

Your Cinema reviewer owes apologies to the hundreds of thousands of dedicated public-school teachers who plan to go on “breathing chalk dust for 30 years.”

ELLIS PAGE

San Diego

Sir:

. . . Personally, if I never see a movie again, I feel my life would progress quite the same . . . but why, oh why, write such reviews as Hit the Deck [March 14]? I don’t believe we should claim that the States has only the best of everything; but, please, don’t rub it in. Instead of writing a review on a bad movie, set up another section called “Current & Miserable.”

SEYMOUR SHWILLER

Major, U.S.A.F.

Brussels

Sir:

I have just read your film critic’s review of One Summer of Happiness [March 28]. I can positively identify him as the man who snores at concerts, crunches popcorn at movies, rattles his program after arriving late at the theater, and carves his initials on monuments.

HERMAN GOLLOB

New York City

Sir:

. . .For about a year and a half I’ve been following your Cinema reviews, and in this time have seen better pictures than ever before. Your magazine is the only one in which I find reviews that don’t sound as if they were written by a Hollywood press agent . . . Your reviewer certainly does a good job—though the puns are sometimes outrageous— but he apparently realizes that not all those who go to the movies are children or illiterates . . .

ANITA TUR

Newark, N.J.

Grey Day for the Irish

Sir:

That statement Frank Leahy, ex-football coach of Notre Dame, makes in TIME, March 21 is the most ridiculous and exaggerated one that I have ever read . . .

JOHN E. GALWAY

Los Angeles

Sir:

Wolfson should have called “signals over” after Quarterback Leahy said, “Louis is one of the cleanest persons I have ever known . . . He is really a ‘better person than 95% of the Catholics I have known, and I have known a lot” . . . Are we to assume that the faculty at Notre Dame University is in the 95%? . . .

J. JUSTIN BLEWITT

Pittston, Pa.

Sir:

. . . I have said on several occasions that Lou Wolfson leads a life that is comparable to 95% of the Catholics I’ve known. As you can readily see, there is a big difference between this statement and the statement at tributed to me. Our press conference room was crowded and noisy; consequently, I can understand why a writer might not have caught all the words accurately. Also, I have never referred to Lou Wolfson as Louis . . . It has always been Lou . . .

FRANK LEAHY

New York City

If Christ Came Back

Sir:

“If Christ Came Back” [TIME, March 21] is a shocking revelation of the spiritual poverty of our age. It appears that some clergy and laymen alike think that what Christ will do at His second coming will depend upon His acceptance by TV talent scouts, or “the nod” from some cleverpoliticians. There are hundreds of references in the New Testament to the second coming of Christ . . . This mass of declarative information is open to all; why, then, the unsanctified guesswork in the letters to the London Daily Sketch? . . .

THEODORE JEROME

Santa Barbara Calif.

Sir:

When one looks about and notes the decadence of contemporary society, it seems a good bet in assuming that were He to return He would say, “Nothing truly represents Me.”

J. F. HARRINGTON

Chicago

Sir: Re the London Daily Sketch’s circulation scheme: if Christ came back, we would happily crucify Him all over again.

GUS FRANZA

2nd Lieutenant U.S.A.F.

Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

The House of Davies

Sir: Thanks for the satirical, entertaining yet appalling article concerning the recent divorce of Marjorie from Joseph E. Davies [March 1]. The present condition of the world becomes easier to understand when some of the political leaders are unable to keep their own houses in order.

(THE REV.) JOHN W. JOHNSON

Diamond Springs Christian Church

Norfolk, Va.