The Private & the Pentagon

Sir: TIME'S March 22 cover hits an alltime high.

Cohn's snarl and Schine's lurking smirk qualify them for Madame Tussaud's . . . Sad, sad days are these, when Ike, Dulles, Wilson et al. hide while two juvenile delinquents such as these ride by.

F. L. ZIMMERMAN Sturgeon Bay, Wis.

Sir: That one young, previously unknown employee of a subcommittee of Congress can intimidate the whole Army from the Secretary down, and attempt to dictate what they are to do with one particular draftee, is incredible ! . . . Isn't there anyone in the Army of sufficient intestinal fortitude to have told Cohn to go peddle his papers?

L. W. COMSTOCK Norristown, Pa.

Sir: The present McCarthy-Stevens controversy appears to be one of the cheapest frame-ups since Martin Dies was victimized by the fellow-traveling elements of the Roosevelt regime. I, a Democrat, should like to register my opinions . . . Private Schine was, at the time of his induction, just within the 26-year-old limit, and the kind of controversial public figure the Army does not like to han dle. Did his draft number just pop up, accidental-like? Or, as his friends accuse and enemies smirk, as everyone believes, was it drawn? Why wasn't he given a special com mission and/or a special job? Photographers, pharmacists, private detectives et al. get special jobs, and a lot of other people too, like Elliott Roosevelt (who worked his way up to the rank of brigadier general) .... Anyone who has been in the Army can cite cases of special preferment . . .

ANNESLEY T. WILLIAMSON Darien, Conn.

Sir:

Just finished reading "The Case of Private Schine" . . . and is my blood boiling! There are many men in the armed forces, including myself, who do not relish the fact that they have to serve any time in the service of their country, but who do so out of a deep sense of loyalty . . . Private Schine . . . should get the same treatment I received . . .

Reading about an issue of this sort makes me wonder what effect this will have on the already too low re-enlistment rate of the armed forces today. If you were a G.I. what would you think? . . .

S/Sgt. WILLIAM K. Di MARZO U.S.A.F. Greenville, S.C.

Sir:

... In fairness to Joe, he even now doesn't appear to have made anything more than a cursory, routine request for a commission for Schine. The loud noises and irresponsible threats emanate from one source--Roy Cohn. McCarthy appears in this instance to be guilty, at most, of misplaced confidence and excessive delegation of authority ...

ELLIS L. SIDERS Stockton, Calif.

Maine Guide

Sir:

Your March 15 article, "Woe Throughout the Nomes," reads: "As it was in the beginning, piercing lamentations arose last week from Wallagrass, Maine to San Ysidro, Calif." Being a "Mainiac" for some 23 years, your reference to Wallagrass has me stumped. Maine has its Waldo, its Winnegance, and its Wiscasset; but where, pray tell, is its Wallagrass?

ALAN C. PEASE 1st Lieutenant, U.S.A. Fort Benning, Ga.

P: Every real Mainiac knows it's across the way from Allagash and quite a piece from Chemquassabamticook Lake.--ED.

More About Delinquency

Sir:

It was frightening to learn that policemen had been assigned "beats" inside seven of Philadelphia's public high schools. But, after reading "The New Three Rs" in TIME, March 15, I was relieved to know that our pupils are still freshmen compared to the "graduate" accomplishments of New York City's young delinquents.

FRANK HALL Philadelphia

Sir:

... In fairness to the New York City school system, to its 37,000 teachers and its 900,000 pupils . . . this letter should receive the same publicity as your article. We do not deny that there has been an increase in juvenile delinquency here in New York. It is part of a mounting problem which confronts the entire nation, and it is a problem which is shared alike by public and private schools.

However . . . items picked up from a New York newspaper and reprinted in your magazine are entirely uncorroborated. For instance: "At Manhattan's Haaren High . . . five fires were set in a single classroom in a recent week. Only two were reported by the teacher for fear his disciplinarian slip might be showing." . . . There were two fires, both set by one pupil. Prompt action was taken. The pupil was caught, he appeared in court and was placed on probation. Within the memory of the principal, no comparable incident has ever occurred at that school . . . "A teacher recently stopped a fight between two students. Later that day, he found his new car scratched and marked up by one of the boys. He reported the matter to the principal, but was told, he said, that . . . it was beyond the school's jurisdiction." As a matter of fact the boy was caught, and he paid $28 to repair the damage . . .

Delinquency is recognized throughout the country as a very grave problem, and "just the facts" should be sufficient to help us to gain the facilities and improvements required to combat the evil . . .

WILLIAM JANSEN Superintendent of Schools Board of Education Brooklyn, N.Y.

Sir:

Re vandalism in New York schools: Replace all women teachers with ex-Marines and send all men teachers to "boot" camp for the complete course . . .

JACK J. GILBERT Kirkwood, Mo.

Sir:

The condition of the student morale and morals in the New York public schools is little more than parents today deserve. The strip-film projector is no substitute for mother love, the basketball game for rabbit-hunting with Dad. The sooner parents return to the fundamental philosophy of home as the center of family life, the 'better off the kids will be ... Some people acclaim TV as the savior of the family at home. This still avoids the main issue: love and affection for one another ...

PRESTON STEDMAN Bloomington, Ind.

The Man in the Middle

Sir:

I know that TIME does not approve of smears and abuses of the congressional investigating process. In your Feb. 15 story on my candidacy for the U.S. Senate, when you report "the charge before the Dies Committee that he [Yorty] was a Communist," you are party to such smears and abuses. I am sure that this was not deliberate. The facts are that six days before the 1938 California elections, a former inmate of the San Quentin Penitentiary who was then a prisoner in the Los Angeles County jail made an affidavit, the general theme of which was that he had been told that the Democratic candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, and four candidates for the legislature, including myself, were Communists. The chairman of the Un-American Activities Committee, sitting as a one-man committee in Washington, rushed to put the affidavit in the committee's record without notice or hearings of any kind. This gave it libel-proof status, and it made smearing headlines all over California. Despite this desperate effort to win an election by what would have been libelous charges except for the abuse of the congressional committee, all six of us were elected.

You also distort my position in saying that when I took the lead in fighting Communist infiltration of labor, the Democratic Party, and California state government, I "veered so far to the right." For instance, I have always enjoyed the friendship and respect of all legitimate labor organizations. Communism is more of a menace to the center parties than to the right-wing parties; right-wing governments make it easier for Communists to pose as the friends of the masses. Fighting and exposing them by no means indicate I veered "so far to the right." The extreme right-wingers and extreme left-wingers are closer together than is generally realized. The rest of us are in between extremes, fighting to preserve our democracy against both.

SAM YORTY, M.C. House of Representatives Washington, D.C.

P: TIME erred, is glad to set the record straight.--ED.

Whose Man Friday?

Sir:

.... Your March 15 article on Sergeant Friday appeared to be written with the same thoroughness and exactness of a Dragnet script . . . May I also add that Boris Chaliapin deserves to be commended for his unusual cover design . . . HELEN O'DONNELL Port Chester, N.Y.

Sir:

Having served in the detective division of the Los Angeles Police Department for over 20 years ... I feel qualified to make a few observations ... All good detectives must . . . specialize. A detective good on petermen [safe-blowers] would be lost on the hop squad, a ... forgery man on psychiatric detail, a burglary expert on the arson squad, etc.

This Webb person seems to be able to ineptly do all of these things, and from the professional point of view personifies not the true modern-day police detective, but what was formerly known as a "fly cop" [a sharp cop], and "that's a fact, ma'am" ... As for the officers who write asking Webb if he is a genuine member of the police department--they must be constables from Nellie's Apron or Possum Trot. The outstanding characteristic that he portrays is police mediocrity. One day he is looking for a little boy pulling a red wagon and next he is working on an important case ... He doesn't personify the L.A.P.D.'s homicide detective, Le Roy Sanderson, who could, in court, recite from memory . . . lengthy conversations that he had had with suspects, or Loren Miles, who was a quiet, pleasant, affable gentleman . . . who killed 17 men and one woman during his police career . . .

The story of criminal investigation could be factual, instructive and entertaining. Webb has apparently achieved one of these objectives, that of entertainment in a low key (dum du dum dum).

ROBERT F. UNDERWOOD Inspector, L.A.P.D. (Ret.) San Diego, Calif.

Sir:

The musical background to Jack Webb's picture on TIME'S cover ... is decidedly clever but proves once more that few artists know how to read notes. Assuming that the notation of the "dum du dum dum" theme is in the bass clef (which is not indicated), the tones would be in major key instead of the intended minor, unless a flat sign were placed in front of the note B. It would have been quite easy to get along without any such "accidental" by simply putting the theme into the key of A minor instead of G minor. Then you would have A,B,C,A, instead of G,A,B,G, and the resulting sounds would be correct . . .

As a "Tune Detective," I might point out that the Dragnet theme is melodically identical with the first four tones of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony . . .

SIGMUND SPAETH Providence, R.I.

P: Artist Chaliapin thanks Music Pundit Spaeth for a "major" correction on a "minor" matter.--ED.

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