Revolving Army?

Sir:

I keep feeling we are sitting on our front porch while the back stoop burns. If we really are facing a battle for our lives with 25 million Russians, 10 million Chinese, and no telling how many more, what are we doing talking about an army of 3 1/2 million? . . . P:Why can't each of us learn a fighting job right alongside his regular work? Train us in shifts; form a "revolving" army. Let every able-bodied man between 25 and 45, say, join a unit and train a full six weeks twice a year . . . Between times, we could go back to turning gun-barrels or planting corn. Given permanent units, and scheduled service, we would soon have fighting outfits ready to take the offensive if worse comes to worst . . .

Louisville BAILEY GUARD

What Is McCarthyism?

Sir:

In your Feb. 5 report on President Truman's new Commission on Internal Security and Individual Rights, you state: ". . . But no one wanted the throttling kind of thought control inspired by McCarthyism . . ." Exactly what is "McCarthyism?" Some new kind of nasty word that parlor pinks have dreamed up? ... Can you produce anything to show that Senator McCarthy has ever said, or even indicated, that he wanted to impose conformity or thought control on anyone? . . .

WILLIAM H. THIBODEAU Houlton, Me.

Sir:

Many of us, disappointed and disheartened by the vacillating and muddling of the 81st Congress, went to the polls in high hopes of rectifying that situation. Now we find, to our dismay, that all we have seemingly accomplished has been to further the power of such petty and irresponsible men as Senator McCarthy, who seem interested only in furthering their own selfish, political interests.

That such a man could have the power to wreak personal vengeance on Senator Margaret Chase Smith because she had the courage to criticize his conduct is deplorable . . .

JAY N. FISHBEIN, M.D. Providence

Sir:

. . . Senator McCarthy has spread his rat poison so carelessly that the freedoms for which we are fighting will die from his medicine long before the Russians could ever get here.

_.. .TV. KARL H. PECK

Kingston, N.Y.

Basketball's Inventor

Sir:

TIME, Feb. 5, states that the American Y.M.C.A. invented basketball. To be correct, it was invented by my father's uncle, James Naismith, while he was an instructor at a Y.M.C.A. training school at Springfield, Mass.

Using two peach baskets and combining the fundamentals of "duck-on-the-rock,"* lacrosse and Rugby, he began the game as a diversion for the students during the winter months of 1891 . . .

MRS. MARK H. GORDON Fort Bragg, N.C.

P:YMCAer Naismith invented basketball as a game for other YMCAers who, as TIME said, speedily exported it to China and the rest of the world.--ED.

Revolt in the Legion

Sir:

Hurrah for Martin Merson and his stand against the highhanded methods of the American Legion [TIME, Feb. 12] ! . . . As an amputee--who has spent much time and money attempting to get help with special equipped autos and better artificial limbs for arm amputees--I say that if the Legion spent 1/100 of the time helping those who need it that they spend politicking . . . they would come nearer expressing the wishes of many vets.

W. T. GROUSE Houston

Sir:

Legionnaire Merson's fight ... is an example of a man who thinks more of his country than of American Legion politics . . .

CAROLINE DICKEY Toledo

Sir:

. . . Many have wondered why I quit the post I belonged to. Your article states it very clearly. I am ready to join again any American Legion post that intends to be representative of its members . . .

CLARENCE T. GATES

Collingswood, N.J.

Boston Ban

Sir:

Walter A. Brown's concept of sportsmanship, in banning Koreans from the Boston Marathon [TIME, Feb. 12], smacks unpleasantly of the Russian method of winning basketball games in China by changing the rules . . .

It can't be true that Americans will allow

Brown's testy ruling to stand . . . Neither is it the first Boston ban that has aroused America's ire ...

ROBERT T. OLIVER State College, Pa.

Sir:

... A most unsportsmanlike pronunciamento.

CARL J. BYERS

Corinth, N.Y.

Eight, Not One

Sir:

In your Feb. 12 story, "Whatnot at Harvard," the incorrect statement is made that "Walter Gropius . . . designed the [Harvard Graduate] center."

The new center has been designed by The Architects Collaborative." I am only one of eight partners in this firm.

WALTER GROPIUS Cambridge, Mass.

A Turn of the Switch

Sir'

It is sad indeed to see TIME [Feb. .5] join the claque of critics who applaud with such glee any assault on television . . .

As a TV owner--with a reasonable background of education--I have seen my first opera, my first ballet, a President, the U.N., and some of the best, tightest-packed hours of drama--all for free. Certainly there's a lot of tripe, too. So were some of the courses I took in college ... In my home, I, like anyone else, can always turn the little switch off.

T. LEAMING SMITH JR.

Framingham, Mass.

Land of Tomorrow?

Sir'

As a faithful TIME reader for 20 years, allow me to praise you for your biographical notes, beginning with France's Premier Rene Pleven [TiME, Jan. 29] and continuing, in your Feb. 5 issue, with Brazil's President Getulio Vargas. They are marvelous syntheses of unprejudiced, impartial and accurate facts . . .

CAMILO CRUZ SANTOS Bogota, Colombia

Sir:

My Man of the Year: President Vargas. What a comeback!

ANDREW RIOSA Caracas, Venezuela

Sir:

I have just finished reading your article on Brazil and President Vargas ... If you will pardon my presumption, I just couldn't "wait till tomorrow" to tell you how disgusted I was with [it], Brazil's jungles, the country's illiteracy . . . seem to be your favorite topics . . .

From our jungles we obtain rubber, quinine and lumber for our (and your) soldiers . . .

Our illiterate people may not know how to read or write, but they certainly know that English is the major language of the U.S., that Washington, D.C. is its capital, and that Mr. Harry S. Truman is its President. How many literate North Americans know that Brazilians speak Portuguese? That our capital is Rio de Janeiro and not Buenos Aires or Caracas? Or that Dr. Vargas won his election over the government and army candidates ?

Speaking of President Vargas . . . you say he is "the hemisphere's shortest chief executive." When will you stop measuring chief executives by their physical stature? As we say in Brazil, "Tamanho nao e documento"-i.ieaning, "Height is no document". . .

RAUL DE SMANDEK Vice Consul of Brazil Los Angeles

*A boyhood game played by Naismith in his native Canada. A fair-sized rock ("duck") was aimed from some 20 feet at another sitting duck on a rock. "When the duck was thrown in an arc," wrote Naismith, "accuracy was more effective than force."

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