Letters, Sep. 17, 1951

Seltzer on Right & Wrong

Sir: If ever the American public were given a heaping dish of nourishing food for thought, it was served up in your Aug. 27 reprint of Louis B. Seltzer's editorial in the Cleveland -Press.

For this down-to-earth piece of writing and timely document of good common sense, which should be digested by every adult in these United States, I nominate Seltzer as TIME'S 1951 "Man of the Year." BEN F. HOLZMAN Beverly Hills, Calif.

Sir: . . . Our country needs more men like Seltzer. MABEL I. MORRISON Chicago

Sir: . . . In a sentence: Babbittry triumphs over Christianity . . . We are not likely to be any different, as long as students only want to know, and schools teach, the shortest way to a buck. Idealism has replaced sex as the forbidden topic of conversation. J. H. SUMMERELL Detroit

Sir: . . . This country is suffering from malnutrition of the soul, and the watery broth of lip service and frosting of morality are not going to get it back on the road to recovery. Our too many religious cooks have added so many man-made seasonings and garnishes to the original all-nourishing Christianity that we are in the stew instead of its being in us . . . MRS. CHARLES R. ALLERS JR. Pittsburgh

Sir: . . . It is perhaps not proper for me to air any criticism after having been in this country for only nine months [but] what strikes me most are the manners & morals of young people (5 to 25) here . . .

An alarming portion of young people in Cleveland (where I live) seem rude, insolent and very vague about what is right or wrong. This includes seemingly trivial things: shouting at people walking by, rude jokes about girls, exaggerated "sex-interest," exaggerated "money-consciousness," and disinterest in anything worthier than crime novels, gangster films and certain magazines . . . ADOLF A. PERLES Cleveland

Sir: . . . Many of our citizens do not even seem to know what is basic to their happiness, and seek to assuage their discontent and to escape their confusion in movies, radio, TV, books and so forth. The modern housewife is content to buy an electric mixer to mix her box cake and to open some cans, in preference to creating an appetizing meal. Her husband argues with his boss for shorter working hours and more pay, and expects the Government or anyone other than himself to make his life secure and comfortable . . . MARY ANNE HAYES Ann Arbor, Mich.

Sir: "Can't we tell right from wrong?" Asks a question . . . but it does not furnish the answer . . .

The answer was given more than 19 centuries ago, when Jesus Christ declared the supreme importance of spiritual things, and the relative unimportance of what is called material success . . . RAY BROWN Ottawa, Canada

Advice from Abroad

Sir: I, for one, am tired of hearing and reading about the nation's declining morals . . .

Let us work at our lives and jobs with the earnestness with which we have been arguing about the lives and jobs of others. ANSON B. GARDNER JR. Engineering Section H.Q. EUCOM c/o Postmaster, New York City

Great Game