Letters – March 7, 1955

Monday, Mar. 07, 1955
Letters

Royal Popularity

Sir:
I read your Feb. 21 article, “Royal Popularity,” with great interest. The article is done accurately, shows comprehension, and gives a clear and exact picture of the political situation in Cambodia, and an impartial description of the personality of our venerated sovereign, King Norodom Sihanouk … Would you allow me an annotation concerning the general elections in Cambodia? … His Majesty decided to hold the elections (in April) of his own free will because he thinks internal order and security is re-established now that the Viet Minh troops have withdrawn …
NONG KIMNY
Ambassador of Cambodia
Washington, D.C.

Perjured Expert

Sir:
Re “False Witness” [Feb. 14]: it’s nice to feel that our nation has at least three patriots, in Herbert Philbrick, Whittaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley, whose anti-Communist testimony is consistently reliable.
Publishers Cameron and Kahn evidently are, as you imply in your story, devoted almost exclusively to the handling of books like Harvey Matusow’s False Witness that other publishing houses want naught to do with. TIME did a good job.
LESLIE HOWARD LORBER
Syracuse, N.Y.

Sir:
… The whole sordid episode should focus the public attention on the integrity and morality of those agencies presently in existence for the purpose of safeguarding the nation’s security. “The FBI has known for years that Matusow was a squalid liar” says TIME … Our entire security program and the morality of the men who administer it, and the philosophy behind it, should be subjected to painstaking investigation and reappraisal. J. Edgar Hoover and Attorney General Brownell should welcome such an examination …
LEWIS S. GROSSMAN
Detroit

Ghee Whiz!

Sir:
Why make “ghee” of butter [Feb. 14] when there are plenty of people who have not tasted butter for years and could afford it if it were 40^¢or even 50¢ a pound?
B. LITTLEFIELD
Phillips, Me.

Sir:
I haven’t eaten butter since I was a WAC in Africa … With butter selling at 70¢ a Ib. and vegetable fats selling for 28¢, my family eats the frugal choice. However, is that a good reason to give it away at 42¢? If I could buy butter at 64¢ a Ib. (the price we taxpayers paid), I’d buy ten pounds at a time without its affecting my margarine purchases … If my example is any criterion, the Department of Agriculture’s bitter butter problem could be solved in a few short weeks … Golly, I’d like to go into that department with my old WAC broom …
MYRTLE CAMERON WOOD
North Hollywood, Calif.

The Soul’s Explorer (Contd.)

Sir:
It was refreshing to see your article on Carl Jung and modern psychiatry [Feb. 14]. It was made very clear that the Freudians, in their attempt to escape traditional religion, have erected another religion …
(THE REV.) THEODORE POPP
Unitarian Church Grafton, Mass.

Sir:
Dr. Jung has transformed Freud’s unconscious into a religious edifice while simultaneously reducing religion to a psychological phenomenon. Basically he is a religious philosopher and epistemologist …
WARNER L. LOWE
New York City

Sir:
… Suddenly I am aware of so many levels of consciousness I begin to feel like a human layer cake.
RUTH MANLEY POWERS
Boston

Sir:
“Freud’s great contribution was his discovery of the unconscious mind …” The statement is often made, and it is fantastic. I was one of the first to help make Freud’s name known in America, and before that time I had read a score of books about the unconscious, or subconscious mind …
UPTON SINCLAIR
Corona, Calif.
– The idea of an unconscious is as old as the hills. Freud’s discovery of its topography put it on the modern map.—ED.

Sir:
… Jung objects to acknowledging that religion is related to the sexual emotions. But to some people it seems reasonable and satisfying to feel that the Creator and the creativity in man are akin … The pervasive secrecy about sex—our own iron curtain—is what leads Jung to complain that Freud was making the brain “an appendage of the genital organs.” A more tolerant observation of Freud would suggest that he was only trying to help disturbed people get their genital impulses re-established to a wholesome place in their philosophy of life. Suppose he was a little belligerent and tactless about it—he was pioneering, he had a hard row to hoe. He may be excused if he did not finish discovering all that humanity will come to understand in the years ahead …
MARTHA JARRELL RAPER
Oakton, Va.

Sir:
… Much misinterpretation and false information has surrounded Dr. Jung and his concepts, and your contribution is a big step forward in lifting this veil from the contributions of one of this generation’s great minds. You have performed a great service.
RICHARD E. FRIEDMAN
Los Angeles

Sir:
… To all purveyors of such psychiatric poppycock I pen this limerick:
The frustration of Johnny Carruther
Must stem from this fact and none other:
There just wasn’t room
To return to the womb
Occupied, at the time, by his brother.
J. D. DUNHAM
Taft, Texas

The King-Size Smile

Sir:
TIME, Jan. 31 observes that the day of oblivion for old-style TV & radio commercial announcers rapidly approacheth . . . It is one thing to have a star performer or personality wearing the sponsor’s colors to thrill an eager world, but when it comes to the bread-and-butter job of selling the product, the commercial announcer with the “sincere” tie and smile and a king-size amount of oral persuasion will be around for some time. Why? The sponsor needs him.
RON RAWSON
New York City

Sir:
Your story . . . states: “In Houston, [Ed] Sullivan agreed to preside at the opening of the new $9,000,000 Prudential Insurance building, but first arranged for a display of his sponsor’s cars in the lobby.” The Prudential building was . . . opened in Houston 2½ years ago . . . Mr. Sullivan had no part in the opening ceremonies. Mr. Sullivan [made a] telecast from the lobby of the Prudential building in January.
WILLIAM A. GOLFER
Prudential Insurance Co. Houston

The Lady from Philadelphia (Cont’d)

Sir:
I was out of the city, and I didn’t have a chance to tell you how much I enjoyed your story regarding my daughter Grace [Jan. 31] . . . It is one of the finest stories written about her since her entry into the theatrical field. The family . . . hopes that Grace will continue to merit your approval.
JOHN B. KELLY
Philadelphia

Sprite in a Snakepit

Sir:
Your photograph of the 70 French women writers [Feb. 14] was striking . . . The 70 separate efforts to attract attention by such a histrionic pose would upstage the efforts of all Hollywood. The photograph’s composite effect was that of a snakepit of malcontents. The obvious comment to your statement that these 70 women had turned out 256 novels while producing 82 babies is—more babies and less books. It seems my home land is writing itself into oblivion.
GEORGES BARNÉ
New York City

Sir:
Your picture of French women novelists was exactly what you said it was—a “pause”-maker. But who, for the sake of your younger male readers, is the blonde sprite with the white Puritan collar in lower right? . . .
R. J. BUCK
New Haven, Conn.
– Reader Buck refers to Monique Watteau, who at 25 has passed up a stage and cinema career for writing. First published novel: La Colère Végétale (free translation: The Vegetation Is Vexed). For a closer view of Novelist Watteau, see cut.—ED.

Rearmed Moralists

Sir:
. . . I was astonished and shocked at your mean attack on M.R.A. in your Feb. 14 issue. To break silence on this global work with quotations from a report [issued by the Social and Industrial Council of the Church of England] which, to say the least, does not represent the general opinion of church people in this country, plus cheap gibes . . . is unfair and unworthy.
IVAN E. POULTON
London

Sir:
Your “Report on M.R.A.” was . . . straight party line—recognizable at the first sniff . . .
L. FLEMING
Chobham, Surrey, England

Sir:
I . . . have a particular interest in M.R.A. because of a very sad incident involving a close member of my family who became all wrapped up in this movement just this past summer . . . My heart aches for anyone who falls prey to this group, and I hope some day to hear that the group has been abolished. I know from experience that everything that is written in your article is true . . .
MRS. WOODROW RADLOFF
Lakeside, Ohio

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