The Atomic Dessert
Sirs:
The recent picture of Admiral and Mrs. Blandy and Admiral Lowry cutting a cake made in the form of an atomic underwater explosion [TIME, Nov. 18] gave wide publicity to the unusual views of the Rev. A. Powell Davies, Unitarian pastor of a "fashionable Washington church." As published ... it did a great injustice to Admirals Blandy and Lowry, who have been tireless in their efforts to tell the citizens of the world of the devastating power and insidious poison of the atomic bomb. . . .
Admiral and Mrs. Blandy and Admiral Lowry were not the hosts but were the guests of honor at a party given by Officers of the Crossroads staff. They had no part in the planning or procurement of the cake.
DAVID H. BLAKELOCK Colonel, U.S.A. FITZHUGH LEE Captain, U.S.N. Washington
Sirs:
. . . Utter astonishment could not describe my feelings when I read the tirade let loose by a Washington minister at two men who contributed such a large part in the defeat of our enemies. He would "damn to hell" these men; he would call down the wrath of God on these men were he a medieval priest; he would put in torment their souls for their base, utter disregard of all the principles of humanity. . . . Who is he? This minister might just as well damn every Air Corps officer, every bombardier, every flame-throwing private, every machine gunner and every rifleman to everlasting hell for using a weapon as destructive as the one he carried in defense of his country. . . .
Personally, it is my belief, and I am sure the belief of the majority of servicemen, that the atomic bomb accomplished at the proper moment a complete demoralization of the Japanese and led to ultimate surrender, thus saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of American men who would otherwise have been lost. God grant that we might have had this bomb at the start of the conflict. God grant that this nation have such a weapon as this if & when our enemies feel the time is ripe to strike another blow at Freedom and mankind. . . .
J. N. TALBOTT
Lieutenant Commander, U.S.N.R. Philadelphia
Fatback & Bristles
Sirs:
This is eating humble pie. The evening of the day I wrote the "fatback" letter [TIME, Nov. 18], out of a clear sky, my mother-in-law complained of no fatback with which to season greens. The good wife and I almost fainted. It was the first time either of us had ever heard the word used. . . .
On reading it first in TIME, I took it to be a bit of South-baiting, a habit I think TIME sometimes has, and which makes my bristles rise. So, I rose for the bait, and took it, hook, line, sinker & all.
Let me congratulate you; it was a well-chosen word, aptly used. For my back bristles, a rubbing with ashes on a cornshuck mop.
Groesbeck, Tex. FRANK BRYAN
-I For a manful apology, TIME'S fellow-suffering thanks to Reader Bryan.--ED.
Freedom & Truth Sirs:
I hope your Protestant readers will view with pity rather than alarm Michael P. Breen's one-man crusade for intolerance [TIME, Nov. 18]. For every Breen type of Catholic there are a million others who, while believing their church to be the one true and apostolic church, still recognize that every non-Catholic has a similar right in conscience to believe the same of his church. Breen does a disservice to the cause of Christian brotherhood by his bigoted and benighted observations.
BERTRAND J. HENNE Escanaba, Mich.
Sirs:
As a Catholic of 37 years' standing, I hasten to deplore Michael Breen's bigoted statement on Protestant rights.
Breen is speaking only for Breen, bigot.
GEORGE T. SPEARS
Buffalo
Sirs:
... At the time I considered this letter either a hoax or, more likely, a deliberate attempt on the part of someone, who is not himself a Catholic, to discredit the Church. For to me, as a priest, it was inconceivable that any Catholic could, under any provocation, express the sentiments contained in the final paragraph of this letter.
In order to investigate for myself, I drove to Reading yesterday and spent a whole day trying to discover "Michael P. Breen." This is the result:
1) No "Michael P. Breen" is to be found in the City Directory.
2) The Breens who do live in Reading assure me that they know no one called "Michael Breen."
3) No Catholic pastor has such a name on his parish list.
4) Officials at the Reading City Hall could not produce such a name.
I am perfectly willing to bet you a life subscription to TIME against a $50 contribution to any charity you may designate that there is no such Catholic. . . .
(REV.) JOSEPH G. MARTEN St. Francis De Sales Rectory Lenni Mills, Pa.
Man of the Year
Sirs:
For Man of 1946, Douglas MacArthur. It's not because he received the greatest ovation of any returning hero of World War II--he hasn't taken time off from his duties long enough to come home to be acclaimed. Neither is it because his exploits of 1946 have received the greatest fanfare--they have received practically none.
His postwar activities have matched strides with his wartime campaign against Japan, when he planned and executed the most skillful, efficient and successful campaign of the whole war. ... In his administration of Japan he has set an example for his contemporaries which they seem incapable of following. . . .
MYRL E. BECK Beaumont, Calif.
Sirs:
Man of the Year might well again be Harry Truman. He has swung through one of the widest arcs on the pendulum of popularity and influence in the shortest period of time in the history of man. . .
DONALD F. SAVERY Kansas City, Kans.
Sirs:
My nomination is Winston Churchill . . . symbol of world opposition to the spread of Communism. . . . JOE MICCICHE Los Angeles
Sirs:
May I suggest Justice Robert Jackson? In his speech at the opening of the Nuernberg trials he presented more clearly and forcefully than any other living person, the basic American concept that man must defend his fellow man against injustices. . . .
MARGARET K. BENTLEY
Jamestown, N.Y.
Agreement among Friends
Sirs: Your article on Quakerism [TIME, Nov. 18] is not only well researched and ably documented but it also caught the essentials of the Religious Society of Friends as a movement. Noteworthy is your reference to the Quaker method of conducting business. Not as well known as the meeting for worship, the meeting for business is original and unique. . . .
Particularly in the days when discussions about the veto bog down United Nations procedures, the Quaker method of getting "the sense of the meeting" by creatively weaving together majority and minority opinions into a "minute" acceptable to all might be used much more in government. . . .
RICHMOND P. MILLER
Field Secretary Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends Philadelphia
The Way We Go about It
Sirs:
Where is the traditional American courage? . . . When do we give the Four Freedoms to the oppressed of the world?
Can any other political system show the results we have attained since 1776? It isn't the result of our geographical location. Other parts of the world can reproduce our climate and have vast potential resources. It isn't the stock we came from. So it must be the way we go about it. So why accept "Two Worlds" and allow a totalitarian form of government to exist? . . .
I am a Southern Democrat by birth and I say our election returns are the healthiest sign in recent years. No one man nor group ot men should have too much power. Some namby-pamby writers have indicated that Russia must be carefully handled or she will withdraw from the United Nations. I say she has yet to prove her right to a place in the family of nations. Let her clean up her house and open the doors to the press and let her people hear both sides of every question.
C. W. DUNBAR Captain, A.C. Camp Beale, Cal.
Pro Biavatsky Sirs:
. . . One wonders that TIME'S Religion editor felt that the book Priestess of the Occult rated 2 1/2columns of its valuable space [TIME, Nov. 11]. Gertrude Marvin Williams' book so obviously is written from a biased point of view that it will be surprising to many of her readers to discover that men of such proven intellectual caliber as Thomas Edison, Sir William Crookes, and Alfred Russell Wallace were members of The Theosophical Society. ... If we are not to class them as dupes, then their association with Madame Blavatsky would argue that the Williams portrait of her is something less than true. . . .
JAMES S. PERKINS
President
The Theosophical Society in America Wheaton, 111.
Arms & Frequencies Sirs: TIME and FORTUNE, in recent comment about reproduction of recorded music, have said disparagingly that Zenith's Cobra tone arm cuts out frequencies above 5,000 cycles, and have attributed a much finer quality of reproduction to a pickup ranging out to 12,000 cycles.
Such statements are no more in accord with the facts than is TIME'S statement that pickups ranging to 7,000 cycles ". . . fail to catch the high overtones of a flute." Of all musical instruments, the flute is distinguished by its complete lack of overtones on its higher notes, and the extremely thin harmonic structure of its low tones. The highest overtone produced by a flute is about 2,500 cycles.
The response curve of the Cobra is the result of more than three years' experimentation and hundreds of listening tests. Our human guinea pigs ranged from factory workers to outstanding musicians. We decided on the curve we finally adopted when the nonmusicians voted "Swell" and some of the musicians heard in old records nuances and even instruments that they had never known were there. . . .
We could easily build the Cobra to almost any response curve desired. Some of our first experiments had cartridges peaked at nearly 10,000 cycles. They did not give the fidelity of reproduction, did not make each instrument speak with its own natural voice, as did the curve finally adopted. This curve, measured on response to pure frequencies, peaks at a point slightly below 5,000 cycles, falls away, and then continues out flat to well beyond 10,000 cycles. . . .
There is much yet to be learned about both recording and reproduction of music. Undue emphasis on "high" numerical fidelity has tended to obscure the importance of true fidelity throughout the more important, musically, middle frequency ranges where occur nearly all of the tones and overtones in the music we hear played. . . .
G. E. GUSTAFSON Vice President in charge of Engineering Zenith Radio Corp. Chicago
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