The President's Health
Sir:
The sympathies of the whole world have been extended to the President and his immediate family in his recent illness, but it seems to indicate some instability in the American form of government that such a happening can create such a fluttering on the stock exchanges of the country. The long-drawn-out illness of the late King George VI and the frequent illnesses of Sir Winston Churchill in the latter years of his Premiership caused no stir whatsoever in the British stockmarkets. Doesn't this point to the urgent need of a reappraisal of the functions of U.S. government and those of the Chief of State?
Geoffrey McClintosh
North Vancouver, B.C.
Sirs:
We are told that surgery makes the President fit for another four years in office, in fact, "he is better than ever." Before his illness, we were is told that he was "as good as ever." If he is improved now, he must have improved from some former condition of poorer health. If he was in "excellent health" before, he cannot have "improved" now, unless there is an adjective better than "excellent." I believe the American voters would be interested in an evaluation of the President's health from physicians who vote Democratic as well as from those who vote Republican. I'm sure, also, that the public will want to know if Mr. Eisenhower (for whom there is deep affection) is being exploited by politicians who have little interest in the President's health and welfare, but an overweening interest in the maintenance of their political power and privilege.
R. K. TAYLOR
Birmingham
The Intellectuals (Contd.)
Sir:
TIME, June 11, reaches the peak of its flavor in its cover story on American intellectuals. I can appreciate the soul-searching as well as the researching that must have accompanied your effort.
WALTER B. SMALLEY
Washington, D.C.
Sir:
Your exciting article was like an Elvis Presley singing to the kids--I squirmed, I fidgeted, and inside I glowed.
HARRY BADION
Culver City, Calif.
Sir:
Has America been a great country because of, or despite, its intellectuals?
J. J. OVERLANDER
Northfield, NJ.
Sir:
The position as well as the esteem of the American intellectual is as low as his income.
CHARLES R. HULBECK
New York City
Sir:
TIME states that the American intellectual's "perennial problem has been to reconcile himself to a society that has always refused to accord him--or anyone else--the special regard given his European counterpart." I submit that American society does give other types much the same respectful interest which Europe saves for its intellectuals. I refer, of course, to the movie star, the baseball or football hero, the jazz-band conductor, the very successful businessman or industrialist.
EDGAR ANSEL MOWRER
Washington, D.C.
Sir:
Thank you for an excellent study on a subject so highly deserving of appreciation by every thinking American. We fail to appreciate superior intelligence and rob our young thinkers of their sense of belonging. As adults, we are compared by achievement or financial success; ideologically, we worship the common man; and socially, the most acceptable is the "regular fellow." Clearly, this is not a very fertile climate for the independent thinker.
FELIX R. BREMY
Paterson, NJ.
Sir:
I think the reason why people in the U.S. don't appreciate their eggheads is that they haven't an eye for a fast buck and also are a little stupid.
SVEN ANDERSSON
Orebro, Sweden
Sir:
The inadequacy of liberalism as a coherent, substantive political and social philosophy predated the fall of Alger Hiss. The inchoate symptom of the liberal's ineptitude did, in fact, arise with his failure to recognize the menace of Communism. John Dewey somewhat prophetically characterized liberalism as "hardly more than a temper of mind vaguely called forward-looking, but quite uncertain as to where to look and what to look for" (Individualism--Old and New). It is evidently this aimless drift of muddled and poorly formulated ideology that has given birth to the need for philosophical refurbishing.
PETER KECATOS
Brooklyn
Sir:
It is unfortunate that Sidney Hook's statement "there is no distinction between being an intellectual and being intelligent" is not true. The low esteem in which many intellectuals are now held is caused by the vast gap that frequently exists between the two. A school can pump intellectuality into even a moron's head, but intelligence can only be acquired by one's own efforts, and the working of one's own mind.
J. B. DAWKINS
Monroe, La.
Sir'
The ultimate test of an "intellectual" is communication to human beings. Without it, we who "ain't" no intellectuals could never understand them. TIME'S Education Editor is clear and succinct in his communication.
(THE REV.) EUGENE C. SHATTUCK
Pilgrim Covenant Church, Brooklyn
Kennan's Views
Sir:
Isn't more discussion in order on the alarming foreign policy views being expounded by George Kennan [June 4]? Assuming the worst from the Russians, in what possible respect could a paid Russian agent suggest a more disastrous course for us? "There is a finality, for better or worse, about what has now occurred in Eastern Europe." This line would shield the Russians at their weakest point, disregarding the key area where nationalism is our ally.
Assuming this fellow Kennan isn't crazy, whose side is he on anyhow?
J. G. SCRIPPS
Seattle
40 Tunes & 40 Nights
Sir:
Broadcaster Todd Storz [June 4] should be chained to a chair and forced to listen to the "40 top tunes" for 40 days and 40 nights.
EILEEN LOCKWOOD
Minneapolis
Tugging at the Iron Curtain
Sir:
God be praised! How many Americans, who did not believe us D.Ps when we told them what a madman Stalin was, can now read what his friend Khrushchev is saying about his former master [June 11]. But what a scoundrel Lenin was during his short reign.
R. CHUDLARIAN
Philadelphia
Sir:
As I was reading Khrushchev's heartbroken statement about Stalin's monstrous acts, I was reminded of the night of June 14, 1941 when 60,000 Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians--more than half of them children and women--were loaded into barred cattle carriages. Destination: Siberia. Has anybody heard of the return of these people?
ELMAR LILLENURM
St. Catharines, Ont.
Sir:
Your June 18 analysis of the apparent regravitation of Communist Tito into the Soviet orbit was highly perceptive, and displayed a rare insight into the subtleties of the new Kremlin approach to international relations. Americans must grasp the uncomfortable fact that Khrushchev is attacking the U.S. on its own grounds. By seeking to shed the most odious stigma attached to modern Communism, i.e., Stalinism, Russia purports to have seized the initiative in assuming a constructive, nonaggressive attitude toward the world's tensions.
JOHN H. DOYLE
New York City
Sir:
I cannot help but marvel at, and admire, the completeness of the up-hill-and-down-vale denunciation of Stalin by Khrushchev. It is easy to see how this regurgitation of Stalin, coupled with the current more reasonable sounding party line, will cause unthinking souls to warm to this new face so expertly put on by men who would have us forget that Communism is evil, whether armed or unarmed, frowning or smiling.
FRANK G. RIVERA
Los Angeles
The Negro In the North
Sir:
Your June 4 story misrepresents the Des Moines Register's coverage of news about race discrimination in Iowa. I did not tell Grover Hall of the Montgomery Advertiser that the problem of race discrimination "does not exist" in Iowa. In commenting on Hall's barbs at the Northern press, I said that our problem in Iowa admittedly was smaller than his in Alabama, but that we had covered thoroughly, as important news, race discrimination in this state. The Register has been saying editorially for many years that Northerners have a "moral blind spot" on race discrimination.
LAUREN K. SOTH
The Des Moines Register and Tribune Des Moines
Cheating Made Easy
Sir:
With respect to William Harvey's June 18 "cutlet" for cheating on examinations (formulae on fingernails and a circular note under his wristwatch crystal): for knowing so precisely what was to be asked on the examination without benefit of an espionage system, Mr. Harvey deserved at least a passing grade. Anything he could write on so small a space might just as well have been memorized. Most of the myths students cherish about cheating are about as reliable. Ever hear about the boy with the hearing aid tuned in to a portable tape recorder?
HERBERT GARFINKEL
Hanover, N.H.
Pitcher's Picture
Sir:
Re Henry Koerner's painting of Robin Roberts [May 28]: the look on Pitcher Roberts' face seemed strangely familiar to me. Then I placed it. It is also the look with which the Asiatic pedestrian fixes a motorist who honks at him.
JOHN L. WILENIUS
Taipei, Formosa
Amateur Status
Sir:
Your June 4 issue carries a story concerning the hassle started when Harry Truman criticized the military operations at Salerno and Anzio. General Eisenhower is credited by Harry Butcher in his book, My Three Years with Eisenhower, with telling George Allen that there are only two professions in the world in which the amateur excels the professional. One, military strategy, and two, prostitution.
W. L. JOHNSTON
Arlington, Texas
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