From Here to Washington
Sir:
I wonder if you realize what the televising of the Kefauver Crime Committee hearings has done for the American people? . . .
Bringing these sessions into the homes has done much to stir us up. Will it last till the next election? Will it last long enough to make us take the trouble to look into the integrity of the person to whom we are giving . . . our vote? I sincerely hope so ... It is up to us ... to get the right men & women to head our government from here to Washington . . .
MRS. RAY REED
Lafayette, Ind.
Tradition
Sir:
I bow low in admiration to your writer who pulled: "Tradition is that chorus girls get mink coats the same way minks do" [TIME, March 19]. One of the greatest opening lines ever put to paper . . .
STEPHEN G. FREEMAN
Balboa, Calif.
Quick Way to Socialism
Sir:
I have just finished reading . . . the arguments for & against a federal sales tax [TIME, March 19]. It was a great disappointment to me that you failed to mention, as one of the greatest arguments against such a tax, the effort involved in collecting it.
As a small retailer, I have been spending most of my time for the past three weeks trying to interpret the price control regulaions and make out the necessary charts, that, in addition to all the other bureaucratic atrocities I have to contend with-- such as federal and state income tax, withholding tax, social security, unemployment insurance, workmen's disability insurance, excise taxes, etc., etc.
I can't think of a quicker way to drive all small businessmen to socialism than by loading them down with more government regulations . . .
J. KELLEY ROBERT
Corning, N.Y.
Ticker-Tape Appeasement
Sir:
In discussing "The Problem of Peron" [TIME, March 19], you expressed a certain despair and doubt that Washington could ever turn the Argentine dictator away from totalitarianism. It is my belief that this is not the Problem of Peron but the Problem of Evita, and I offer . . . the following solution:
More than being President of Argentina [which she will be some day, anyway) Eva Duarte Peron would ove to be officially invited and welcomed to the U.S. . . . [with] a White House formal dinner, a royal escort up Pennsylvania Avenue, a ticker-tape shower and parade along New York's Fifth Avenue. Here, whatever her other attributes, is a glamorous woman who could intrigue the men and dazzle the women . . .
Are we unduly squeamish because some might say we are attempting appeasement? ... We could not buy Argentina's friendship through a $125 million credit, so why not try something truly friendly? . . .
BERNARD K. FRANK
Portland, Ore.
High Prices & Wisecracks
Sir:
Your March 19 compilation of Mike Di Salle's quips and anecdotes was interesting enough. But ... I submit that there is more to the price problem than ... the circumference of his stomach . . .
J. R. PHELAN
Long Beach, Calif.
Sir:
Congratulations and thanks for your warm and human article on "Uncle" Mike Di Salle, U.S. Price Controller.
The people of Toledo are proud of Mike, and know he will succeed in his new job, if any man can.
PFC. BARTON L. BENDER
San Antonio, Texas
Sir:
I'm not impressed . . . nor are thousands of good American citizens who can't make ends meet because of high prices and the "pass-the-buck" philosophy of present-day economy. Something has to be done about it besides making socalled, good-natured wisecracks . . .
DONALD KISSANE
Pocatello, Idaho
Pleasant Memories
Sir:
... I am very upset about the way you quoted me in the March 12 issue.
Since the death of my husband Monty Banks I feel I have no ties in California, and this is the only reason I am selling my Santa Monica home. I have very pleasant memories of ... California, and certainly I am not "fed up" with it as you say.
As to Los Angeles itself, I played a concert in the Philharmonic Auditorium there on March 6 and I have never been so warmly received by an audience in any part of the world . . .
America has always been good to me ...
GRACIE FIELDS
Vancouver, B.C.
Fossilized Europeans? (Cont'd)
Sir:
TIME'S March 19 review of Perry Miller's article ("What Drove Me Crazy in Europe") raises some interesting questions. It is difficult to understand how Professor Miller could spend so much time in European universities without learning anything about the educational system.
He seems to imagine that all students should study sociology in order to understand contemporary society. He admits that many European students live in poor lodgings. Intelligent students (and others are eliminated by stiff examinations) learn enough about social conditions first hand . . .
[Miller] praises the American college system, in which the student gets a smattering of a great many subjects. He fails to realize that the European gets a thorough grounding in general education in the elementary schools and in the so-called secondary schools (Gymnasia and lycees); the instruction in the latter is more than an equivalent of our colleges. European universities are really graduate schools . . .
LINTON C. STEVENS
University, Ala.
Sir:
I would like to ask Professor Miller . . . whether the uneasiness he felt while giving lectures on the Continent did not come from his own inferiority . . .
JACQUELINE MURPHY
Maywood, ILL.
The Church & the Churches
Sir: Dr. John A. Mackay, president of the International Missionary Council, missionary arm of the ecumenical movement, said in the Princeton Seminary Bulletin, winter 1950-51: "There are two great foes of the Ecumenical Movement which I must mention. One of these is Romanism . . . The other foe of the Ecumenical Movement is a group in the Protestant camp." When their leaders recognize our movement, why do you not give some inkling of it, instead of reporting in your March 26 issue that the ecumenical movement takes "opposition points by envelopment rather than frontal assault"? . . .
The executive committee of the World Council of Churches, Feb. 1, issued a pastoral letter declaring that the socialist thesis, " 'From each according to his ability, to each according to his need,' has its roots in the teaching of Jesus." We deny this! . . . The ecumenical movement, we believe, is endeavoring to establish a one-socialist-world.
The country needs the full picture, including the principles of cooperation of the parallel 20th Century Reformation movement. This has taken shape in separations; new churches; the establishment of the American Council of Christian Churches in 1941; the International Council of Christian Churches in Amsterdam, 1948, Geneva, 1950; the conferences and struggle in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 1949, and Bangkok, Siam, 1949; the forthcoming Pan-American Evangelical Conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, July 16-24, 1951; and the Conference of Christian Churches of Asia, Manila, Philippines, Nov. 25 to Dec. 2, 1951.
We exist. A competitive movement has beneficent assets for the cause of freedom.
DR. CARL MCINTIRE
President
International Council of Christian Churches
New York City
Royal Argument
Sir:
Seeing pictures of your President taken during his visit to Florida [and] meditating upon the fact that you have only one living ex-President ... I wonder why the people of the U.S., out of ordinary humanity towards men elected to such high office, do not choose to have either a King or a Prime Minister.
By making your head of state double in the role of chief administrative officer of the state, you impose burdens upon the incumbent which inevitably must shorten his life ... You could afford a King or an Emperor, and so keep your symbolic head of state out of politics, and free your administrative chief from the burdens of ceremonies and affixing signatures to many documents.
Perhaps King George VI who is a busy man and not too well, could not take up where King George III left off, but there are the Duke of Windsor and the Duke of Gloucester, and the latter has two young sons to start a line of succession. If the spirit of '76 is still too strong for a return to the fold, General MacArthur might consider accepting the robes of Emperor of the U.S.A., with his young son as Crown Prince. . .
DAVID MACLELLAN
Halifax, Canada
Ebbing Resources
Sir:
I enjoy your fine publication each week, yet I have long awaited one of the most vital stories of our time: the need of sound management of our renewable natural resources.
. . . Uncle Sam is strong in peace and war simply because of his abundant natural resources, coupled with industrial know-how. Therefore, wise use of our soil and water resources is a "must." Yet our productive topsoil that feeds half the. world is eroding away. Clear water streams that industries need for production are clouded with pollution and silt. Water that is needed for food production is lost in floods . . . We continue to cut more trees for lumber than we plant. In other words, the nation's most valuable strength is ebbing away--and needlessly, because most of these resources are renewable, unlike oil and iron . . .
Louis S. CLAPPER
Nashville
Incentive Pay
Sir:
Regarding your March 19 item on General Controls Co. and their incentive pay plan: When are the rest of our big-league industrialists going to wake up to the fact that the best way to combat Communism is to make every worker an active, participating capitalist? . . . The employees of General Controls Co., with their $2,000 bonuses, are not going to be much interested in the windy promises of Communism . . .
G. A. CUNNINGHAM
Ward, Colo.
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