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Because they have preserved a rather large body of old Maya tradition and rites, the Lacandons are of continuing interest to professional ethnologists, as well as to a continuing stream of travelers. ... In 1940, Corporal Gordon Gibler and I lived awhile with them to investigate some murders perpetrated on the group of half-breeds who seasonally enter their area to collect chicle, from which chewing gum is manufactured.
Before starting out for the Lacandon area, an American friend, Ed Myers, brightened
my life by giving me a recent copy of TIME
I carried this in with me and found it invaluable in establishing what ethnologists like to call rapport. The Lacandons were obviously curious about the land from which we came, and we showed them the pictures and tried to explain them. In return they gave us the information we needed. ... As a parting gift we left several items which they had esteemed highly; namely, a pair of blue jeans, two bars of soap, and the battered copy of TIME.
Shortly after our departure, Ed Myers also traversed their territory, taking movies. After becoming friends with the Lacandons and doing them several favors, they told him they would show him a treasure of great value. When the mystic moment arrived, a cloth made of beaten bark was removed from the treasure, placed to protect it from temporal or spiritual harm. As you may have guessed, the treasure was the copy of TIME. . . . HOWARD F. CLINE Assistant Dean Harvard College Cambridge, Mass.
Third and Last?
Sirs:
I wish to point out that the President informed us in 1940 that he would run for a Fourth Term. He said then that he would accept the nomination for "a third and last term," i.e., third and fourth. . . .
GUSTAV ALBRECHT Pomona College Claremont, Calif.
¶ Wrong. What Franklin Roosevelt did say: "When that term [third] is over there will be another President."—ED.
"I Can Hardly Wait"
Sirs: TIME (May 8) inadvertently points up an impressive irony about our country. Slum-raised Technical Sergeant Charles E. ("Commando") Kelly, who owes the country practically nothing, has fought with supreme resource and courage in order that a system of government may survive under which citizens like Sewell Avery, whose general aim is to keep citizens like the Kellys in their place, can defy that government in its own courts. This $64 angle is submitted for Hollywood's $25,000 story about the Kelly family, a movie for which I can hardly wait.
JOHN P. HARDEN 2nd Lieutenant c/o Postmaster New York City
What Is Communism?
Sirs:
In TIME (May 22) you state that Pope Pius XI in a 1937 encyclical said:
"Communism is intrinsically wrong . . ." etc. This is misinformation to many readers, since you forgot to mention that the Pontiff in this encyclical speaks exclusively of atheistic Communism. That adjective atheistic changes radically the meaning of the statement.
(REV.) W. C. HRADECKY Protivin, Iowa
¶ Not until some other kind of Communism appears.—ED.
Rosens
Sirs: