Modern Barbary Pirates
Sir:
I'm angry! Re the payment of ransom for the release of our flyers [TIME, Dec. 31], let me quote: "Millions for defense, but not a cent for tribute."
. . . This is nothing but blackmail, and could well be the beginning of another Barbary Pirate Affair ... If I were imprisoned under such circumstances ... I would rather spend a year in jail than to have the U.S. spend one cent in ransom.
THOMAS F. LEECH Lieutenant, U.S.N. Great Lakes, 111.
Sir:
... I am flying the American flag upside down today . . .
Since when is the life of any American . . . worth the shame that has this day befallen a once-free U.S.? . . .
S. OSBORN BALL
Provincetown, Mass.
Cheers & Fears
Sir:
Three cheers for the new department. Personality story on Groucho Marx [Dec. 31] is indeed a nifty job. Lead-off feature is a home run; it helps make a great magazine even greater.
ISRAEL GOODMAN
Louisville
Sir:
. . . Such superficial treatment may be satisfactory in covering personalities like
Groucho Marx, but it is a sad substitute for TIME'S past detailed studies of important persons.
The announcement that TIME is going outside the news field for its writers also has an ominous ring . . .
TOM POWELL
Dunmore, Pa.
Sir:
The picture of me on the cover of TIME has changed my entire life. Where formerly my hours were spent playing golf and chasing girls, I now while away the days loitering around Beverly Hills' largest newsstand, selling copies of the Dec. 31 issue of TIME at premium prices . . . Yesterday, despite the fact that it was raining, I made $13. This is all tax free, for I steal the copies of TIME while the owner of the newsstand is out eating lunch . . .
GROUCHO MARX
Los Angeles
Wrong Face
Sir:
The gentleman pictured by TIME [Dec. 31] as Maurice Hutcheson, son and successor to the president of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, is actually Martin Ashton Hutchinson, Richmond lawyer and leading opponent of Virginia's Byrd Machine . . .
JOSEPH H. HARRISON JR. Richmond
P: Herewith the photos of Hutcheson and Hutchinson, and TIME'S apologies. --ED.
Retorts on Sweden
Sir:
The report on Sweden [TIME, Dec. 31] seems unfair, tactless, self-defeating . . .
It attributes sophistication and vice to social security and to alleged lack of tragedy or misery--ignoring the notorious slimy spots of Paris, Berlin, and U.S. metropolitan cities . . .
It complains of regimentation by "socialists," yet admits that the Social Democratic policy has nationalized only a few industries, is cautious, and has no strenuous opposition . . .
Just such snappish judgments by big-shot Americans . . . make the U.S. suspect or unpopular even among our most traditional and needed friends.
THOMAS D. ELIOT Professor of Sociology Northwestern University Evanston, 111.
Sir:
Hats off for a penetrating report which should dispel many popular misconceptions about the "paradise of the Middle Way." Having recently spent a year in Stockholm, we can testify to the stereotyped arguments on foreign policy ("as if the whole country had been briefed"); to the "invisible wall" that separates many Swedes from one another (and from foreign visitors); and to the apparent placidity of life that covers up intense discontent . . .
DANKWART A. RUSTOW RACHEL L. RUSTOW
Oglethorpe University, Ga.
Sir:
... I could have cabled you more from my bathtub in New York . . .
RICHARD KOHNSTAMM
New York City
Sir:
Although I have some objections to . . . this article, I must congratulate its author ... In surprisingly many respects he has managed to hit the nail on the head.
However, I am afraid the impression of Sweden a reader will derive will be a rather strange and misleading one . . .
As to our attitude towards NATO . . . I will only remind readers in the U.S. that there is quite a difference between having a whole ocean on each side between yourself and the villain and being his next-door neighbor! . . .
Are we happy or not ? Well, in spite of our strong cooperative movement, we have not yet started trying to create collective happiness. That is still a thing left to the individual to find for himself in his very own way, and I guess that in this undertaking we are as successful (or unsuccessful) as most other peoples . . .
SVEN-AKE OLSSON Malmoe, Sweden
On the Fence
SIR:
IN YOUR ISSUE OF DEC. 17 YOU MAKE THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT: "NATIONAL COMMITTEEMAN HOWARD STEPHENS IS PUBLICLY FOR STASSEN." THIS IS A MISSTATEMENT. I HAVE NOT DECLARED AS YET FOR ANY CANDIDATE
FOR 1952 . . .
HOWARD V. STEPHENS
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEEMAN FOR THE STATE OF MISSOURI ST. LOUIS
Resignation on Principle
Sir:
Congratulations on the article "According to Hoiles" in TIME, Dec. 31. It summed up nicely the excitement and perturbation which the advent of "Freedom Newspapers" and their archaic editorial policies have brought to the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
But you slipped on one fact . . . Toward the close of the article the statement was made that "Hoiles fired the three editors who had stayed on when he bought the papers."
That is incorrect. For nearly six years, I was editor of the Valley Morning Star ... I was not fired. Unable to stomach the new owner's editorial policies, I resigned . . .
EDWIN W. PRYOR
Harlingen, Texas
Better Blazon
Sir:
. . . You refer to the newest addition to the Truman Administration escutcheon as "mink coat couchant" [TIME, Dec. 31].
Couchant, hell, you mean rampant.
JAMES B. L. RUSH Winston-Salem, N.C.
P: And headed for a drink at a bar sinister?--ED.
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