Letters

Instrument-of .Progress
Deal 3zr-s.Will i o , aIlow me to say that

M A N who brmgs the mad around

has
been stagger~ng under volume .of comlnunlcatlons to us on thefineRedllchFrantz analysis of ,bhe Flfth Amendment
controversy (Does Silence Mean G d t 2,
June 6, 1953 ) Over 200 requests (from
33 state;) for reprintshavebeen
received to date,totalreprmtssent
out
running close to 20,000. (See rates
below )
Natlon-wlde attentlon a r t d e received
resulted in a temporary radloand TV
career forco-authorNorman
-Redlich.
ComJune 30 he debatedMcCarranmittee Counsel Robert Mortls on ABCs
Town Meetmg of The Air Topic. Is
the Flfth Amendment Bemg Misused 2
Ten days earlier he and Moms aired the
same toplcover WOR-TVs Amerlca
Speaks forum.
A NewYork
attorney, Redllch is
retinng from the spotlight for the time
being to devote hlmself to.addltlonal
pieces for T h e Nntiotz. If you want
coples of the very mterestmg Town Hall
debate you can writetoTown
Meetmg, 123 West 43d Street, New York.
Youll knd next weeks issue a real
antldptefor summer doldrums Theres
a brilliant revlew by ProfessorCharles
Alan Mrlght of thecontroverslal book
The
Strange
Case of Alger HISS,
by theEarl Jowitt (see back cover for
offer to N d t ~ o a readers on the Hiss
book). In addltlon, novelrst Ira Wolfert
contributes a fasclnatingstudy
of the
HISScase.
Speakmg oE novellsts. do you know
whathappenswhen
a brlght young
Amerlcanwritergets
tapped by Hollywood?NelsonAlgren(TheMan
with
theGolden Arm) gottappedandthe
story 1s a hllarious one. H e shares it wibh
Natron readers m a coming Issue There
WIN alsobe
a second Algren plece on
whats happening
to
intdlectuals
in
America.
M. S.

[Reprcnts of

Does
Szlence
Mean

G d ? are: IO cents fo, n n g l e copier;

$7.50 per 100; $25 for. 500;

thoma~zd.]

$45 per

your last several issues, particularly those

containing the serial-edltorial The PresentDanger, havebeen the best In my
thxty-five years readlng of The Nntron.
Llberallsln
has
become a by-word in
many quarters. In your critical, rational,
searching hands it has been turned Into
an Instrument of enllght,enmcnb and
progress
I dont know haw better to show my
appreciatlon than by helping to Increase
T h e Nntzons circulatlon. I 1ncIosemy
check, for which ,please sendsubscriptlons to the persons mentloned
below. . . .
N e w YorR
DAVID
WEISSMAN
L.

young parentshave been dented clemency five years ago? As more and more
factors pointed towar& doubt and urged
clemency, what sort of government was
Itthatgrew
more inslstent on deakh?
Wasitafraid
to lek them Lve?The
, officlal ratlonale thatwhat
Greenglass
copied made posslble the Korean war
should be treated as an affront to intelIlgence, Ureys statement and Einstelns
Indorsement dlsmiss it. . . .
It was clear that the Rosenbergs could
have escaped death by a confession.
Even those who believe th.em guilty
must a d m m their moral courage during
two years in the deathhouse. . . .

B h r m n g t o n , Izd.

DELL H. HYMES
, .

On the Rosenbergs
Dent Sws: Somethmg seems to have departedfrom my sense of dignity-as a
human bemg with the executlon of the
Rosenbergs. Promment personsmgovernment were dmppolnted that they dld
not confess, inform, and beg for mercy.
I am an engmeer in a dtvlslon highway office. Every slngle one of my assoclates is a professing
Protestant
or
Roman Catholic. Nearly every one said
that the Rosenbergsshould have been
tortured before khey were executed.
They all clalm to be Intelligent and e&cated. All of them say Senator McCarthy
is dotng good work. . . .
HAROLD G . MITCHELL

N e w Phzlddelphla, Ohro
Dear Srrs:, T h e N ~ ~ O
wasJ Z
among the
few with the courageto ask. clemency
for the Rosenbergs, and I am proud to
:
B
be one of Its readers In thls ~ t showed
deeper concern for our country than
those who sought kheir death. Not only
Communists ar? appalled. Humanitarian
opposltlon to the death penalty, the
light-er sentence glven the undoubted
sples May and Fuchs, doubt of Greenglasss testimony and motlves, contrasi
wlth the Czech pardon of Oatls, the
haste with which the Supreme Court
was rushed into extraordinary sessionthese things lead
many
to f.ed that,
whether or not the convlction was well
founded, the punishment was determined not by the m c r h of the case but
In terms of th,e cold war,
Abroad this executlon wdl be thrown
mourfaces
for a long time to come.
Here at home it shows how far the wxr
orientation has triumphed; wouldtwo

Dear Sirs: I have wntten the followmg

letter to the Representatives of my state
in Washlngton :
The rnlghty people and government of
the Unlted States have just destroyed with
a current of electrlcity two personalities
-two unlque human belngs whoseexact
hkenesses will neveragarn appear in the
universe. Regardless of the ratlonale
lustlfymg such an unspeakable and 1rreversible procedure, the act of execution
is unworthy of any soclety callmg Itself
avdized or mature. . . . I am writmg
wtth the hope that you will consider legd a t i o n abolishing the barbarlc practice
of capltal punishment.
Anl2

A ~ b o l ;Micb.

ROBERT R. KOHN

Ormandys Shenanigans
Denr SUE I have Just read Mr. Haggms

revlew of the Phlladelphla Orchestras

last New York concert (May 23 Issue)
As anex-member of the great P h ~ l a -.
delphla Orchestra I can confirm Mr
Haggins vlew that beinga member of
that organaation under Mr. Ormandy IS
Indeed mlserable It was a contlnually
frustrahng exp-erlence to be forc,ed to
play Bach, Brah.ms, and so on 2 la
Ormandy.
I w,as pleased to notethatthere IS one
crltic in thls country who can see through
the shenanlgans of Mr. Ormandy, as dld
thecrltlc of the London Tzmes after our
filst .concert in Royal Albert Hall. This
crrtlc,havmg nothmg but praise f a r the
orchestra Itself, found it difficult to
understand how, a man such as Mr.
Ormandy could be the conductor o so
great an orchestra.
St. Loz~zs,M o .
JOSEPH PEPPER n
I

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