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. . . Regarding your May 26 statement: "For the first time in 100 years it looked as if U.S. shipbuilders might recapture the transatlantic speed record for ocean liners."
It is correct, if your limitation as to ocean liners is interpreted to mean only those vessels designed and built for passenger carrying . . . but U.S.S. Lake Champlain during Operation Magic Carpet, with her crew reduced to 2,000 to make room for 5,000 G.I.s as passengers, crossed the Atlantic from Gibraltar to Norfolk at an average speed of 32.048 knots, despite the fact that she was once forced to slow to 20 for a period of eight hours, because of rough seas.
LOGAN RAMSEY Rear Admiral, U.S.N. (ret.) Philadelphia
¶ If aircraft carriers were eligible to compete with ocean liners for the Atlantic blue ribbon, U.S.S. Lake Champlain would own it, to hang in her wardroom.—ED.
Just Girls
Sir:
I was surprised when I read that article about the girls' geometry class in Los Angeles and how they weren't able to figure that problem [which Albert Einstein solved—TIME, May 26]. Anyone in my geometry class (I'm a schoolboy in Tucson Senior High) would have been able to figure it out in half an hour at least.
' Oh well, I guess it was because they were girls.
GUY R. BATEMAN Tucson, Ariz.
Bright Young Men
Sir:
With amused interest I read in your May 26 Personality sketch of Walter Lippmann that he was one of the "bright young men called to Washington" during the Wilson Administration. Reflecting on the change of times, it would be almost impossible today to "call" young brain power into governmental service. To be sure, there are those who may "apply" for a job, fill out wordy dossiers on themselves, wait months for Civil Service classification (a process which insures mediocrity), and then undergo the humiliating "402, FBI-security" snoop.
If any young Walter Lippmanns want to donate their services to the Government, they should be prepared to give up six to eight months of their time for such ponderous bureaucratic processing. Unfortunately, with any sort of "socialist and argumentative" background like Mr. Lippmann's, a candidate need not even apply, much less be called . . .
J. WINCHESTER FRASER Washington
Doug In the Manger?
Sir:
Congratulations on your May 26 reporting of MacArthur's slur at generals in the White House ... I never cease to marvel at the many facets of the MacArthur personality, but this one really takes the cake. What makes Mac think he is an exception to the old political axiom—that generals make poor presidents? It smacks of an inflated ego, plus a childish fit of pique, i.e., "if I can't have it, neither can Ike . . ."
HENRY S. KIRCHNER Englewood, N.J.
Sir:
I wonder if it is as clear to General MacArthur, as it must be to most American voters, that his notion that no general is qualified for the presidency places him in a Doug in the manger attitude.
ARTHUR L. H. STREET Minneapolis
Ike v. Montaigne
Sir: