Information Please

Sir:

It would have been much better if Mr. Trygve Lie had come back from his mission to Moscow [TIME, June 5] with empty hands rather than full of irony and disappointing statements . . .

All we are interested in, and we demand to know it from Mr. Lie, is what Stalin promised to Mr. Lie and what is his plan for cooperation towards peace in the world.

SOPHIE DENHAM Meringouin, La.

Big Bull

Sir:

Congratulations on your bang-up story on the bull market [TIME, June 5]. The whole article was tremendously interesting and only TIME could do a job of this kind . . .

WALTER L. MORGAN

Philadelphia, Pa.

Sir:

... I am amazed at your optimism ... I believe that the present position of this bull market is exceedingly dangerous, and I certainly hope that there are a few people in this country who have the common sense to remain bearish.

A. JOHN BAILLON

St. Paul, Minn.

Sir:

There is an old stock market axiom--"When a bull market hits the front page it is time to sell stocks." Granting that the front cover of TIME is equivalent to the front page, we can test the axiom by making note of your June 5 issue, and observing later how near it was to the top of the bull market.

CHARLES J. DOWNING

Denver, Colo. fl Time will tell.--ED.

Murder or Mercy?

Sir:

Re the death of Virginia Braunsdorf in your story "Murder or Mercy?" [TIME, June 5]: I am compelled to ask the eternal question--"Why?" Similar cases are constantly occurring and yet we seem no nearer getting to the crux of the cause of these tragedies.

It would seem so unnecessary were doctors permitted to put these little spastic and other hopelessly deformed babies to sleep at time of birth. Why permit them to live--when by so doing, they become later an agony to themselves? . . .

CYNTHIA CRAWFORD Washington, B.C.

Sir:

Your write-up of the murder of Virginia Braunsdorf disturbs and disgusts me. You give the impression that a spastic is a hopeless case for which death is the logical, if illegal, solution. You should have at least investigated the records on cerebral palsy, the technical term for spasticity.

Many spastics have achieved distinction in various fields, and most of them, like most other people, are of normal mentality . . . I know whereof I speak. I am a spastic. " VASSAR MILLER

Houston, Texas

Whoop!

Sir:

... In a June 5 Science story, you prattle about a whooping crane "born in captivity." Then you go on to speak of the birth of the baby crane.

Thank you, TIME. Thank you! For six decades I had been so damned ignorant that I thought cranes were hatched from eggs . . .

T. R. ENGLISH Little Rock, Ark.

God, Logic & Windmills

Sir:

In the Philosopher Quinton-Father Cor-bishley controversy on the existence of God [TIME, June 5], it is interesting to note that Roman Catholic Corbishley ultimately defends God's existence on what is essentially a Protestant and not a Roman Catholic position, i.e., justification by faith.

He defends his right to believe in God on the same grounds as Atheist Quinton defends his right to believe in the truth of empirical truth--both are ultimately unprovable assumptions accepted on faith. In this Father Corbishley is right, but according to the Roman Catholic 1949 revised Baltimore Catechism, "Reason unaided by revelation can prove that God exists."

W. BURNET EASTON JR. Appleton, Wis.

Sir:

Philosopher Quinton certainly blundered when he asserted, in reply to Father Corbishley, that the statement "No statement is true unless it is verifiable" is true.

According to logical positivism, the statement is neither true nor false, because it is not the kind of a statement to which "true" or "false" applies. Quinton's reply is therefore, in terms of his own philosophy, (empirically) meaningless, and Father Corbishley scored only an emotional victory.

Buffalo, N.Y. JOHN LOGA

Sir:

. . . Philosopher Quinton's "boop" logic reminds me of the men who saw a windmill near a canal in a windy meadow.

Asked by his companion the principle on which the mill operated, one man replied that water from the house nearby was pumped through pipes to the top of the mill. This water, flowing down to the canal, turned the mill arms, and the revolving arms created the delightful breeze. Raleigh, N.C. MAHALAH DEVINEY

Sir:

. . . How is it that the most pragmatic of men, researchers of the stamp of [Dr. Arthur] Compton and [Dr. Robert] Millikan . . . have come to an abiding, deep-set belief in the existence of a Supreme Being?

Let the logical positivists remember the 350-year-old but still valid words of Francis Bacon: "Small learning inclineth a man to atheism; deeper study turneth him again toward God."

New York City HOWARD L. MORRIS

Spin Call Techniques

Sir:

Re your article on Harvard freshmen and telephones [TIME, June 5]: We would like to say that the residents of Matthews [Hall] North have mastered the technique of spinning pennies in telephones to a greater extent than have our classmates in Stoughton Hall.

To spin the penny through the nickel slot, we employ a small key instead of a screwdriver. And never have we had to resort to a baseball bat or brick! We are proud, moreover, of the cordial relations which we have maintained with New England Telephone & Telegraph Co. The phone in Matthews North is still standing on the wall.

CARLFRED BRODERICK '53

ALAN LEFKOWITZ '53

HAROLD SILBERMAN '53

DAVID STEWART '53

Harvard University Cambridge, Mass.

Sir:

It was with great surprise that I read of our brothers at Harvard having a "new" method of cheating the telephone company.

. . . The intellects of Vincent House here have practiced this noble art for many years . . . and the skill which some of our fellows possess is legendary to the Illinois Bell Telephone Co. ...

Unlike the snobbish New England T.&T. Co., Bell of Illinois has assumed a more enlightened attitude ... It graciously accepts our pennies, and then charges the house 4-c- for every one found.

DAVID STEWART HELBERG University of Chicago Chicago, Ill.

Bellyaches & Doodles?

Sir:

I was delighted to read of the refusal of 28 abstract painters to submit their work to the jury of the December Metropolitan Museum exhibition [TIME, June 5].

May we hope that other snob artists may follow suit, thus removing from public view these annoying enlargements of a slight case of bellyache which the artist too often mistakes for an important esthetic experience.

Brownsville, Texas DALE NICHOLS

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