Letters, Sep. 29, 1952

Language, Bolted & Otherwise

Sir:

I recall that last spring, W. T. Radius [April 14] lent Eisenhower Cicero’s advice to run [“Those whom Nature has endowed with the capacity for administering public affairs, should . . . enter the race . . .”]. Against his eloquent antagonist, however, the general could better use Cicero’s art than his counsel. We may, perhaps, excuse him as Shakespeare excused the speech of another army man seeking office:

Consider this: he has been bred i’ the wars

Since ‘a could draw a sword, and is ill-schooled

In bolted language; meal and bran together

He throws without distinction.

—Coriolanus, Act III, Scene 1

L. B. SMEDES

Oxford, England

Sir:

… I have just finished reading the texts of three Stevenson speeches, and should like to advise you Republicans to keep those speeches away from that fine and sincere man, General Eisenhower, or he too will see that we have a truly great man running on the Democratic ticket—and cast his vote for Stevenson.

JOANNA BUCK

Ann Arbor, Mich.

Sir:

It is rapidly becoming apparent to the sensible voter that his choice between presidential nominees is narrowing between a demonstrated leader who has earned the free world’s confidence on the front page and a brilliant orator whose phrases might best be relegated to the political cartoon section . . .

VIRGINIA VRANICAR

Hatboro, Pa.

Question & Answer

Sir:

In 1938 we in Wisconsin looked down our pristine noses, clicked our chaste tongues and said: “How could Hitler come to power in sober, intelligent Germany?”

. . . Today we bow our heads in shame and humiliation as we feel the eyes of the nation and hear: “How could McCarthy happen in ‘sober, intelligent Wisconsin?”

I wish I knew the answer.

GRACE M. BRUSH

Madison, Wis.

Sir:

The astounding victory of Joe McCarthy . . . comes at first as quite a shock . . .

The realization now comes to me that this is truly a damning of the present Administration for its unwillingness to rid our Government of subversives . . . The only right way to end “McCarthyism” is to vote for Eisenhower and rid the Government of those elements that have created a need for “McCarthyism.”

FRANCIS W. PERRY

Duxbury, Mass.

Curious, If Not Accurate

Sir:

John Hersey’s whimsical study [Sept. 8] of what has happened to the Yale class of 1936 doesn’t surprise me in the least. Even back in 1936 they were a dispirited lot.

Mr. Hersey . . . dredges up a staggering variety of medians, averages, proportions, percentiles and per capitas about his class . . . The resulting potpourri suggests that his 829 classmates have been successful to an extent that is frightening.

Mr. Hersey’s chauvinism for Yale ’36 has . . . roused me to analyze the record of my own class, Harvard ’36. What a difference! What a breath of unclean air!

Of the 900 members of the Harvard class of 1936, only 300 reported, 200 live incommunicado on Capri, and there never was any accounting for the remaining 400. Geographically, we have dispersed all over the country since graduation: Boston, East Boston, Melrose, Newton Center, Newton Falls. Whereas only one Eli went Communist, our entire class, as everyone knows, is Communist . . .

In business . . . 50% (the figure, if not average, is equitable) have never worked, and those who have tried haven’t liked it …

Our class seems to have gotten around a bit more than our Yale cousins; 87% (the figure, if not median, is modest) have given up exercise entirely . . . 70% (the figure, if not average, is round) practice polygamy, the remainder dream about it …

The Harvard class of 1936 watches TV all the time. We buy no books, but 43% of us (the figure, if not accurate, is curious) snatch the comics from our children. Speaking of offspring, we have had 1,365 of them. Of these, 52% are children. Of the remaining offspring, who are not children, 90% plan to go to Yale.

JULIAN BACH JR.

New York City

Come, Come, Smith

Sir:

We Christians must welcome the just rebuke meted out to us by Gilbert K. Smith in his well-reasoned defense [Sept. 8] of Jelke and his playboy and playgirl friends. How foolish of us to prefer an attitude to sex which is not in keeping with “sound economic activity in this cold, commercial world.” My only criticism of his otherwise pleasantly logical argument is that he appears to show signs of some of the narrowness which he so rightly discerns in us. Surely the dope peddler’s vocation is just as commercially sound as the pimp’s. The teenager has the money, the peddler can use the money; both parties are satisfied and one of them profits monetarily by the transaction. Come, come, Smith, let’s have a little less intolerance, please.

(THE REV.) BRIAN WHITLOW

Gaspé Basin, Quebec

Sirens, Then & Now

Sir:

In regard to Karan Singh & Wife [TIME, Sept. 8], I noted with great pleasure that Theda Bara was exactly right in her portrayals of an Oriental siren.

LEO ABINGTON

Coushatta, La.

Talk & Action Sir:

Having just returned from the Lund Conference of the World Council’s Commission on Faith and Order, I read with a certain surprise the report in your Sept. 1 issue . . .

You quote one delegate as saying that not talk but history brings changes in the Church … Of the more than 100 denominations that have united during [this] century, most have acted since the Faith and Order movement . . . began its work in 1910 . . .

Incidentally, your editors ought to be aware that without the Faith and Order Movement there would be no World Council of Churches uniting . . . 160 denominations throughout the world . . . Public opinion growing out of “talk” brought it about.

HENRY SMITH LEIPER

Executive Secretary

Mission Council

Congregational Christian Churches

New York City

Release-Date Mixup

Sir:

In view of protests we have received from some segments of the press, I feel that I must call to your attention an item on the 1952 Department of Agriculture yearbook, Insects, which TIME ran in its issue dated Aug. 25, which appeared on newsstands Aug. 21 . . . ahead of the Department’s release date.

We haven’t yet found any release time that suits everybody. However, we try to be fair . . . and we assume that the press will be equally fair in respecting release dates.

R. L. WEBSTER

Director of Information

U.S. Dept. of Agriculture

Washington, D.C.

¶ TIME apologizes to the Department of Agriculture for jumping the gun, and promises not to do it again.—ED.

Ambrosia & Indigestion

Sir:

Your report [Sept. 8] of Elliot Cohen’s article in Commentary was ambrosia to one who has long looked for Uncle Sam to speak to the world in a more self-assured voice. Our intellectual heritage is a proud one, and Mr. Cohen’s reassertion that we have a constructive contribution in the realm of ideas as well as in technology to offer the world is an encouraging sign of a possible reawakening of the more mature element of our intelligentsia . . .

HELEN S. HAWKINS

Sierra Madre, Calif.

Sir:

“The Free American Citizen, 1952” left a warm glow of intellectual satisfaction in the reader’s mind, akin to the less esthetic satisfaction produced by a good steak dinner. However, after a little cogitation, this reader, at least, experienced slight mental indigestion.

I think that Mr. Cohen has overlooked the fact that Democracy Americana has not been achieved in spite of the wonderful talent of Americans for selfcriticism, but because of it.

TERENCE NEALON

Carnegie, Pa.

Airlift Be Praised

Sir:

I read your article “Airlift for Allah” [Sept. 8] three times. What a thrill—to read of our big, bumbling State Department actually showing a little imagination. This is the kind of thing they ought to be doing every day in the year—instead of once a decade . . .

ROBERT S. ALVAREZ

Nashville, Tenn.

Sir:

All the money and propaganda poured into the Near East for the next 50 years couldn’t achieve what was achieved in less than a week of “Operation Hajj.”

FERRIS SAAD

Portsmouth, N. H.

Respectful Treatment

SIR:

HAVE READ WITH AMAZEMENT AND DISMAY YOUR CURRENT ARTICLE [SEPT. 15] ON SENATOR IBÁÑEZ, PRESIDENT ELECT OF CHILE, WHICH I FIND IN EXECRABLE TASTE . . . COMMON DECENCY SHOULD DEMAND MORE RESPECTFUL TREATMENT OF A FUTURE PRESIDENT ELECTED IN A FREE AND FAIR ELECTION . . . THE GRATUITOUS ATTACK UPON A MAN RESPECTED EVEN BY HIS OPPONENTS WILL CALL DOWN UPON TIME THE . . . RESENTMENT OF A PROUD, VIGOROUS PEOPLE . . .

F. NIETO DEL RIO

AMBASSADOR OF CHILE

WASHINGTON, D.C.

¶ TIME, which considers accuracy and good sense more important than amiability and euphemism, accurately reported that Chile’s voters had given a plurality to ex-Dictator Ibáñez “in a free and fair contest.”—ED.

Female Circumcision

Sir:

We males in this jungle camp are completely baffled. What, for pity sake, is “female circumcision” [TIME, Sept. 1]?

W. R. S. HENDERSON

Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories, Canada

¶ A custom of ancient Egypt, still widely practiced among the primitive peoples of Africa and other parts of the world, female circumcision is performed by removing all or part of the external genitalia of girls. This is done—usually as a part of prepuberty or premarital rites—for reasons varying from esthetics to the desire to reduce female sensuality.—ED.