The Fight for Minds
Sir:
Though my English is far from perfect, I am a constant reader of your magazine . . .
I have read with great interest your article on Foreign Relations, "The Strongest Force" [TIME, April 26], and I think the address to the Mississippi Valley World Trade Conference made by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. expresses the right point on your battle of the cold war, as it is conceived by many persons here in this outpost of our civilization.
Indeed this fight is one for men's minds and the effort must be made by ideas which appeal to the aspiration of men's soul. Too many people here have not the slightest idea what they should aim at, how high a standard of living a real democracy can bring.
I think a widespread information system is the most important for this purpose, and especially illustrated magazines should be sold here--with your Government aid--at prices reachable by everyone.
I believe that if you really succeed in making--as Senator Lodge said--American democracy an article of export, the benefits will result quickly for yours and our sake.
SERGIO TOLENTINO Trieste
Hartford Accent
Sir:
... In its caustic review of State of the Union, TIME [May 3] said that Katharine Hepburn's God-given Hartford accent was an "affectation" sounding like a "woman trying ... to steady a loose dental brace" which "limits her range of expression." This affected "bridgework" voice did not seem to limit her range of expression in Woman of the Year, in which your reviewer said she was "just right" [TIME, Feb. 16/1942], nor in The Philadelphia Story, in which he praised her to the skies [TIME, Jan. 20, 1941] . . .
Miss Hepburn's beautiful voice has, thank God, never changed, although sometimes I wish TIME'S critic would.
THOMAS L. ASHWORTH
Watertown, Conn.
P: Unlike Miss Hepburn's voice, TIME'S critic does.--ED.
Citation
Sir:
Kudos to TIME for knowing its horses as well as its "Hushes." (See my letter April 5 issue.*)
A "Citation" to you too for so aptly calling my bluff.
WM. BAIRD JR.
Toronto, Ont.
Exciting Painter
Sir:
In reporting Diego Rivera's newest publicity-winning outburst--this time in the world of couture [TIME, May 3]--you might have added that his wife, Frida Kahlo ... is Mexico's best woman painter . . .
Twice wed to Diego, Frida Kahlo has often painted herself in the costume you show; but oftener in the sin ropa. Several years ago she presented herself on canvas as a stark naked girl standing in the garden of her family home in Coyoacan--in the outskirts of Mexico City and which she still owns--with miniatures from her family tree wafting nebulously overhead ... In many ways she is much more exciting .. . than her husband . ..
WILLIAM C. ESTLER New York City
Hirsute Counter
Sir:
In re TIME'S statement [April 19] that the reason for the frequent baldness among intellectuals was undetermined, and Brooks Shepard's letter [TIME, May 3] averring the time-worn reason that "you can't grow grass on a busy street," shouldn't Reader Shepard be enlightened as to the counter customarily made by the more hirsute intellectuals--that "it can't get up through the concrete?"
NOYES McKAY San Francisco, Calif.
Political Mud & Pillowcases
Sir:
I am sure Mr. Curley will appreciate the vote-getting appeal of your article on "Curley's Boys" [TIME, May 3]. It seemed a bit muddy, but Mr. Curley is long adept at turning mud from his opponents into votes for himself . . .
One wonders ... if Boston has not now almost reached the political depths once reached by Cincinnati and Toledo, and may start presently toward the heights of political cleanliness attained by those two fair cities. . .
J. MERRILL HANLEY Providence, R.I.
Sir:
... It is disturbing to consider this example of what can occur when people avoid their responsibilities as citizens of a democracy--an example all the more pointed in view of the grim traditions of the city as an arbiter of public morals. Do they believe up there that the cause of municipal self-respect is fully served by proscribing books with sexy passages ?
H. A. WYCHERLEY Annapolis, Md.
Sir:
It is the prerogative of Bostonian women to hang lingerie inside pillowcases, but let them hang Curley out in the open, thereby proving that a segment of this nation's people can be staid but not sottish.
JANE T. NAKA Salt Lake City, Utah
For Europe's Well-Being
Sir:
. . . You state that the Beaverbrook press in this country affects more people than any other group [TIME, April 26]. That is to say: that if the London Daily Express opposes the Marshall Plan, then it follows that millions of Englishmen will automatically oppose the Plan . . .
Ranged against the opinions of the Beaverbrook press are:
Daily Mail, 2,077,542 circulation Daily Herald, 2,000,000 Daily Mirror, 3,600,000 " And the whole of the Conservative Party-backed press.
You will appreciate from these figures that the Beaver press is far outnumbered. Besides this, the Beaver press is widely read because of the "newsy" atmosphere of the paper. Men of all parties read the paper but do not necessarily agree with the opinions expressed therein . . . Those who do are either isolationists, imperialists, eccentric Tories or Communist Socialists.
The general view ... is that Marshall aid is essential for the well-being of Britain and Europe . . . Lend-Lease in the war meant much to us. Marshall aid in peace will mean just as much. Mr. Churchill in 1940 said something that could be just as well applied to our needs now--"Give us the tools, we will finish the job . . ."
PATRICK A. L. SKINNER Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England
Sir:
. . . No one believes the U.S. is on the offensive, and it is only wishful thinking that makes anyone hope that Britain could, if she wanted to, stay out of a contest for power between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. . . .
BARBARA B. CALDER Aberdeen, Scotland
Pungent Problem
Sir:
As pungent a bit of writing as ever I have read in TIME appears May 3 under the head "The Nickel's Last Ride." That was double-distilled laughing gas which made even this patient smile . . .
JOHN J. WOODS
New York City
Sir: . . . TIME makes no attempt to present the importance, the efficiency and the convenience offered by this vast, unique transportation system. One's perspective is enhanced when he leaves "The Big Town" and depends on outmoded and inadequate transportation offered in other communities in the U.S. . . .
JOSEPH J. ASTA JR. JAMES E. KELSEY
Minneapolis, Minn.
To Lessen Despair
Sir:
I agree with your Berlin bureau chief that we must not be lulled into inactivity by any Communist offer of salve for the nerves [TIME, April 26].
But such an offer would make an opportunity for us to do something far more positive than keeping Ruhr miners and Normandy peasants on the alert to the dangers of Communism, though we must do that, too, of course.
Communism is something that happens to people in despair. We can use any time the Russians may feel forced to offer us, to woo the moderate left away from the extreme left, and the moderate right away from the extreme right, with, a moderate, reasonable and constructive program which will lessen the despair Communism feeds on. By broadening our own base, we can narrow the base of enemies of democracy on both right & left . . .
HELEN BUGBEE
Los Angeles, Calif.
Nor Woman Neither
Sir:
The 1912 South Orange High School Year Book reveals that Alfred C. Kinsey [TIME, May 3] was senior class valedictorian, and further, that the following quotation from Hamlet was considered by the editors to be fitting for Classmate Kinsey: "Man delights not me, nor woman neither."
This should help prove him an unbiased researcher.
Milwaukee, Wis.
Unreluctant Pelican
Sir:
YOUR WONDERFUL REPORT ON SCREEN PLAYS' BIRTH [TIME, MAY 10] LEAVES us BREATHLESS ... I WOULD LIKE TO STRAIGHTEN OUT TWO POINTS, HOWEVER, ABOUT THE PARTS PLAYED IN ALL THIS BY OUR GREAT & GOOD FRIEND DAVID LOEW AND HIS ENTERPRISE PARTNER CHARLES EINFELD: 1) THE 50% INTEREST GIVEN TO ENTERPRISE WAS NOT OUT OF LINE WITH TRADITIONALLY STIFF INDEPENDENT DEAL; 2) FAR FROM BEING RELUCTANT TO TAKE THE DEAL, WE SNAPPED AT IT LIKE A PELICAN FOR A MACKEREL. WITHOUT THE LOEW-EINFELD BACKING AND A CONSIDERABLE POWER OF ENTERPRISE BEHIND US, LITTLE SCREEN PLAYS MIGHT HAVE BEEN STILLBORN . . .
STANLEY KRAMER
Los Angeles, Calif.
What's Going On in Europe
Sir:
I thought you would be interested to know that my husband, who has been in Europe for the past two months, just wrote me to say: "If you really want to know what is going on in Europe, read TIME; their reports are uncannily accurate. People read TIME to know what is going on in their own countries."
EVELYN GARFIELD New York City
* "...First it was a picture of 'Miss Hush,' and now 'The Walking Man.' How about a photograph of the horse destined to win the Kentucky Derby this year?"
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