Man of the Year
Sir:
May I, a Latin American, propose the President of the U.S. for Man of the Year?
BARBARA BURTON La Ceiba, Honduras
Sir:
He may not be infallible, but as the harassed mother of a lively one-year-old I want to nominate Dr. Spock.
CYNTHIA BAKETEL SYSTROM Fort Smith, Ark.
Sir:
The pen is mightier than the sword--that man of letters ("Dear Mamma") Harry S. Truman.
LOWELL WHITE Denver
Sir:
Nikita Khrushchev--he gave the free world a most surprising new image of a Soviet leader. If Russia's intentions haven't changed, at least they have a human being to amuse and entertain the West.
MARCEL FONTAINE Liege, Belgium
Sir:
Chief Justice Earl Warren (and he will go on to become the next President of the U.S.).
ROGER STANTON Detroit
Sir:
How about Woman of the Year? Princess Margaret--whose single decision stirred the civilized world.
LUCILLE VENEKLASEN Chicago
What to Eat Before Banquets
Sir:
In TIME, Nov. 28 there is a fine article about the opening of the Metropolitan Opera season and especially a revealing word picture of my husband and myself. I feel that the last paragraph of this article demands an explanation inasmuch as we are the grandparents of 15 wonderful children and far be it from me, and I am sure from TIME also, to give them false ideas as to the "naughtiness" of grandpa and grandma at the ripe ages of 75 and 55. So here is the story of the Amsterdam episode.
There was a large banquet that evening honoring Monteux's 75th birthday. Having had experience with banquets for some 50 years, the Maitre decided we had better have a four-course dinner before leaving, be prepared, as it were, for the inevitable fruit cup, tasteless mashed potatoes and chicken, topped off by the usual melted ice. So we ordered an iced melon, sole au vin blanc, new potatoes, endive braised, Edam cheese and toasted crackers, fresh strawberry ice, and Vienna coffee with whipped cream. This is why we were late, why I am on a diet and tea, tea, tea. Why Monteux would not hurry a fine dinner for any old banquet.
DORIS MONTEUX New York City
The President's Pronouns
Sir:
Please, when our President was just out of the hospital, couldn't someone have corrected his thanks for welcoming "Mrs. Eisenhower and 'I'"? What will some of these culturally snooty countries think of America's grammar! And on the first page of your National Affairs [Nov. 21] section.
ORA M. WILLIAMS Takoma Park, Md.
Sir:
How can us English teachers continue to fight the Battle of the Pronoun? Us are about to concede defeat on "it is me"--but it'll be a tough struggle before us accept "to welcome I."
BILLIE HALLBERG San Mateo, Calif.
The Controversialist
Sir:
Concerning your Nov. 28 article on the Fund for the Republic: What I said was that I was a kind of 18th century conservative, in the sense that I wanted to keep alive today those ideas which are the finest flower of the 18th century, the ideas contained in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. If an American who holds these views is a displaced person, the country is worse off than I had supposed.
The award of $5,000 to the Plymouth Meeting (Pa.) library, for resisting pressure to discharge an employee, was not made by me, but by the board of directors on the recommendation of a committee of directors.
Your statement that I had said I wouldn't hesitate to hire a Communist omits one of my qualifications and omits the point. I was discussing a theoretical possibility, not something I had done or planned to do. I said that any such appointment would have to be made by the board and that I did not know what the board would do if the question arose.
The reason I was willing to answer a hypothetical question about a theoretical possibility is that the point is basic. The practice of judging people in terms of labels rather than in terms of themselves is contrary to the principles of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. It may deprive a man of his livelihood and reputation without regard to his individual case and without due process of law. The practice of disposing of people by condemning the organizations, churches, nationalities and races to which they or their relatives or acquaintances belong is contrary to the American tradition of fair play. It cost AI Smith the Presidency. It cost Emmett Till his life.
Individuals vary widely in their understanding and adherence to the purposes of organizations they belong to. Jobs vary widely in their "sensitivity." There is a theoretical possibility that I might sometime meet some sort of Communist qualified for some sort of job. I have not met one yet and do not expect to. Yet the possibility exists . . . As you pointed out, I am against Communism. I am for justice, even justice for Communists. I have stated my position publicly many times in the last 20 years.
ROBERT M. HUTCHINS President Fund for the Republic New York City
Profits & Prophets
Sir:
Your Nov. 21 cover story on the New York Stock Exchange was first-rate. But you left the impression that it is necessary for participants in the Monthly Investment Plan to concentrate on a "single company." Actually, one can diversify by rotating several different stocks. Furthermore, a small investor can select any "mutual plan" (i.e., investment trust) that is listed on the "big board."
DAVID C. BAILEY Asheville, N.C.
Sir:
The revolution in stock ownership is not being wrought by Keith Funston and his New York Stock Exchange. It is the work of thousands of service-minded over-the-counter dealers and their salesmen down thousands of Main Streets across the land. The exchange may spend more money for advertising than in the old days, but its imagination is still tightly sandwiched between Trinity Church and the East River.
MARTIN KERN New York City
Sir:
Editor Frank Knight could find a good example of the picture cliche as reported in TIME'S press section [Nov. 14]. Evidently the photographer wanted to show a natural unposed scene of Exchange President Funston with his family, but, unless Funston's genial smile is radiating enough heat to pop the corn, I'm afraid the family will have to go hungry. Electric corn poppers need a cord connecting them to a source of current.
JANICE MOE Northfield, Minn.
P: Not after the corn is popped.--ED.
The Running Vote
SIR:
CONGRATULATIONS FOR THE NOV. 21 ARTICLE ABOUT THE EAST GERMANS VOTING WITH THEIR FEET. YOUR REPORT ON THEIR ESCAPE FROM THE COMMUNISTS MATCHES OUR INFORMATION PERFECTLY. HOWEVER WE DISPUTE YOUR CREDITING A BRITISH DIPLOMAT WITH THE STATEMENT THAT "ESCAPEES ARE VOTING WITH THEIR FEET."THE I.R.C.USED THIS PHRASE SIX MONTHS AGO IN A NEW YORK "TIMES" AD WHICH WAS HEADLINED "THEY ARE VOTING WITH THEIR FEET." THIS TREND CONTINUES. ALREADY 1955 HAS SEEN MORE ACTUAL ESCAPES FROM COMMUNISM THAN ANY OTHER PREVIOUS YEAR.
ANGIER BIDDLE DUKE PRESIDENT INTERNATIONAL REFUGEE COMMITTEE NEW YORK CITY
Clever Young Egg
Sir:
CYE to TIME [Nov. 14], which out-McCarthys Mary from Harriman through Woodward to BOOKS.
MARGARET L. BRADNER Foxboro, Mass.
Sir:
I was interested in a statement made in the review of Mary McCarthy's A Charmed Life, and I challenge its correctness. The statement was: "She [Mary McCarthy] is quite possibly the cleverest writer the U.S. has ever produced." That, it seems to me, is taking in a lot of territory. How about William Faulkner, "Papa" Hemingway, T. S. Eliot, James Hilton--to say nothing of Clarence Day and Mark Twain? I do not know how your reviewer interprets that word but, according to Webster, clever means "possessing quickness of intellect; skillful, talented."
CARRIE C. CALL AWAY Knoxville, Tenn.
P: Quite.--ED.
The French Have a Word
Sir:
Having read your Oct. 31 review on General de Gaulle's Memoirs, may I quote Charles Peguy ?
. . . and God said: "My trouble . . . ? And if and when the French disappear, Some of the Things I do, Nobody will understand."
Did your reviewer read the book?
R. L. BRUCKBERGER Dominican Saint Anthony's Priory New Orleans
Freedom on Top
Sir:
In your Nov. 14 issue, you report Allen J. Ellender, the Senator from Louisiana, as saying: "He [Governor Harriman] would give away the Indian chief on top of the Capitol dome." Will someone please inform the Democratic Senator that the statue is that of Armed Freedom and not an Indian?
LEO P. BOTT JR. Chicago
P: The 19-ft. bronze goddess, Freedom, atop the Capitol's dome (TIME COLOR PAGES, Aug. 16, 1954) is no Indian, although she sometimes is mistaken for one because her sculptor, Thomas Crawford (1813-57), gave her a fancy, high-crested headgear. Sculptor Crawford originally designed a sort of stocking cap, called a Phrygian cap in ancient Rome, where manumitted slaves could wear it. It was widely worn in France during the Revolution, was known as the Liberty Cap, and had become a leftist symbol. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis (in charge of the Capitol's construction 1853-57) was having no Phrygian caps on the Capitol's dome.--ED.
Poor Man's Paderewski
Sir:
I am a devoted "switcher-off" of all Liberace TV shows--I find it mystifying that women actually palpitate for this odd "curlylocks of the keyboard"--so your fracturing Nov. 21 review of his movie made me feel that all is not lost.
MAGGI C. CARROLL New York City
Sir:
Sincerely Yours deserves praise. This magnificent movie shows that Liberace is also a fine actor. When Liberace was leaving Indianapolis recently, he very graciously posed at the airport with me and signed one of his pictures. I will never get over the wonderment of it all. I have been an active member of one of his largest fan clubs (he has over 162). We have thousands of members in ours.
VIRGINIA PONTESSO Terre Haute, Ind.
Sir:
Your broken-beer-bottle assault on Sincerely Yours is priceless. I found this verse between the slates I leave near my bed every night; we have a slate-writing poltergeist in the house.
Poor Man's Paderewski
(Now doth the pampered spaniel leap Into the ladies' laps, To seek his petting in the shade Of the maternal paps.)
With sunburst jubilating grin And capering aplomb, A mountebank fastidious male Invokes the muse of Mom, Then 'neath the candelabrum's light Makes dull keyboard tom-tom.
The aging moms ideally hug Their precious little whoozums, Thus padding to normality Frustrated lonely bosoms.
But let no carping voice be raised To prate of prostitution; King Humbug rules, and phoniness Is now an institution.
W. S. CROLLY Cassadaga, Fla.
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