Forest Fire Prevention

Sir:

In the lead story of your May 2 issue, summarizing the mood of the people and the call of the open road, TIME said:

". . . He wanted to speed or crawl as the spirit moved him; to read new Burma-Shave signs, flip cigarettes at rural mail boxes, or park and fall into a stupor with the sun on his neck." . . . Even before Maine's catastrophic forest fires of 1947, Maine, with most other states, was trying to educate people and discourage them from throwing live ashes from automobiles or other moving vehicles. TIME, instead of condoning this criminal practice of flipping cigarette butts as an amusing sport, should . . . point out the dangers of such carelessness . . .

HORACE HILDRETH Portland, Me.

P: TIME was reporting, not condoning; agrees with Maine's ex-Governor Hildreth that live cigarette butts are not amusing playthings.--ED.

Owls in the Tower

Sir:

In Roger Tory Peterson's Birds Over America, he says . . . "The secretary of the Smithsonian Institution has issued instructions that no one is to clean up the tower. It is to be left just as it is--a permanent haven for owls."

In TIME [April 25] I read this: "[Dr. C. G. Abbot] has worked as a research associate in an eleventh-floor retreat in the Smithsonian's 102-year-old tower, which was reclaimed from bats and owls to give him working quarters" . . .

I sincerely hope the owls have not been taken advantage of ...

EMMA J. GIFFEN

Albany, Ga.

P: The owls are still taking advantage of one of the Smithsonian's smaller towers.--ED.

Up in the Air

Sir:

What will happen to those Russian designers when the Communists discover that their "Moscow Skyscraper of the Future" [TIME, May 2], which so derisively does not copy the Empire State Building, emulates instead, of all edifices, Colonel McCormick's eminently capitalistic structure, the Chicago Tribune Tower?

HERMAN FOLKMAN

Chicago, Ill.

P: The Kremlin has beaten Reader Folkman to the punch: because of "American influences," the Soviet Academy of Architecture is now in the throes of a "reorganization."--ED.

Command Performance off Sicily

Sir:

Your report of the ambassadorial appointment of Vice Admiral Kirk states that he "ran the Navy's show in the invasion of Sicily" [TIME, May 2]. In this operation Admiral Kirk commanded one of the Task Forces under the command of Admiral H. K. Hewitt, U.S.N. Admiral Kirk was the [U.S.] Navy's commander at the invasion of Normandy.

DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS JR.

Pacific Palisades, Calif.

P: TIME ran aground; Cinemactor Fairbanks, a special operations officer with the Eighth Fleet in the invasion of Sicily, is on course.--ED.

Heavy Weather off Quonset

Sir:

Of all the boorish and heartless exhibitions of snobbery, Captain Donald F. Smith's conduct in connection with "Miss Quonset Point" [TIME, May 2] ranks among the more nauseous of modern times. Courtesy to a "sweep-woman" could not possibly have besmirched his dignity as his act has besmirched the Navy . . .

O. E. WOLF St. Louis, Mo.

Sir:

... I can't for the life of me see why this conceited, egotistical captain thinks he is any better than Mrs. Clauson . . .

I think that . . . they should hold another ball, and have the captain excluded from the list of guests.

JAMES HOWARD BAY East St. Louis, Ill.

Sir:

Who in the hell does Captain Smith think he is?

PAUL K. MURRAY

Rochester, Pa.

Sir:

. . . You . . . have held up to public ridicule . . . one of the finest and most gentlemanly officers with whom it has ever been my pleasure to be associated.

Captain Smith graduated from Annapolis in 1921, entered aviation in 1926, and has been flying ever since. In his younger days, the captain once won an award as top dive-bomber pilot in the Navy. During the war he served overseas on aircraft carriers . . . with one tour of duty as director of Naval Air Transport Service. Since his arrival at Quonset Point in February 1948, his relations both with the local civilians and the civil service employees have been of the highest order. An example of his thoughtfulness and loyalty to his civil service employees occurred just before Christmas of 1948 when a disastrous fire swept the engine overhaul shop at Quonset. The captain went to considerable effort to insure that the hundreds of employees of this engine shop all be retained on the civil service payroll until a new shop could be constructed months in the future.

I realize that in any organization as large as Quonset there are bound to be a number of misfits and malcontents, people who would be dissatisfied or critical of any authority. It is my firm conviction that at least 98% of both service and civilian personnel in the Quonset area are behind their commanding officer 100% and feel that he has been done a tremendous and undeserved injustice . . .

FRANK M. NICHOLS

Quonset Point, R. I.

Sir:

... It seems that the Navy with its great traditions has no better luck in producing officers and gentlemen than the Army. Maybe the Air Force with its more democratic spirit can do better . . .

JOHN F. O'FLINN

University, Ala.

Sir:

I thought one of the prerequisites of a Naval officer was that he be an officer and gentleman. The Captain is a good example of the "snobs" that are turned out at Annapolis to live in luxury at the expense of just plain people like Mrs. Clauson . . .

FRED E. DARCH Alameda, Calif.

Smellies

Sir:

Your April 18 issue carried a story dealing with scented movies. Reportedly, one Hans Laube left this country because there were no takers. A humble observation is that 90% of Hollywood's output definitely smells . . .

BOB RAYE Fort Wayne, Ind.

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