Isms
Sirs:
I read with interest E. Vance Clark's letter giving Banker Childs' childish illustration and over-simplified definitions of socialism, communism, fascism and New Dealism. I, too, have been regularly receiving the reactionary propaganda letters circulated by his banking firm. To me they reveal an amazing lack of understanding of current conditions and needs. . . .
Our top-flight industrial and financial tycoons would be more useful citizens . . . if they could but be persuaded to take a course of study in political economy and the various current social theories. . . .
For a beginner like Childs, I would recommend, at first, simple light fiction like Bellamy's Looking Backward and Equality. . . . After digesting these, he might pass on to the classical economists, and for dessert swallow a bit of Henry George, Veblen, Stuart Chase, Coyle, Loeb, and the Brookings Reports. Until his course is completed, Banker Childs should stick to his bond business, as his lectures on political economy can be no more helpful than Hitler's on democracy.
IRVING H. FLAMM Chicago, Ill.
Sirs:
Banker E. Vance Clark chortled so heartily over the definitions of Socialism, Communism, Fascism, New Dealism as taught by C. F. Childs & Co., investment dealers, that he fails to note the absence of any definition of Capitalism or Old Dealism. How would this do: Under Old Dealism: the bankers milked the cows, then took them on mortgages, but kindly permitted the farmers to feed them in return for the manure.
JOSEPH F. DERF Cumberland, Wis.
Sirs:
Supplementing Childs' bulletins on isms, communicated by Banker E. Vance Clark, may I add:
Under Hooverism you sell both cows for taxes and eat turnips.
WEBB WALDRON Westport, Conn.
Sirs:
. . . There should be one more heading:—Under Capitalism you sell one cow and buy a bull.
T. W. HARRON San Francisco, Calif.
King Jazz
Sirs:
After reading your account of Professor William Louis Bailey's rendition of the New
Testament [TIME, Jan. 30], I should like to suggest that he name it the King Jazz Version.
LEWIS BROWNE Santa Monica, Calif.
Ignorant, Screwy
Sirs:
TIME brags that seven out of ten of its readers are college graduates. After reading so many ignorant and screwy letters written to you, I don't know whether it's smart for me to finish college.
MALVERN DORINSON Livermore, Calif.
Chamberlain-Bonnet Axis
Sirs:
Can you inform a puzzled reader whether the greater menace to Democracy lies in the Berlin-Rome axis, or in the Chamberlain-Bonnet axis?
KENNETH BROWN Chicago, Ill.
Mad-Dog School
Sirs:
Harvard's Hooton . . . has tooted dangerous stuff [TIME, Jan. 30]. If minuscule anthropometric differences exist between prisoners (not always criminals) and the non-penal population, so are body measurements likely to differ between grocery clerks and mailmen, bellboys and musicians, the rich and the poor.
It is a far cry between body measurements and criminal behavior. Many ofthe physical anomalies that prisoners do show can be attributed to vitamin deficiency, general impoverishment during youth, sometimes to police sticks.