Women in War
Sirs:
In your issue of Oct. 23 you say that TIME welcomes letters from the war zone.
The attached, received a few days ago, is, to me, a good example of what has come to be known as the British sense of humor.
ARTHUR GOODFRIEND
New York City
Dear -----:
I am so very sorry I haven't written to you sooner. You must think it very ungracious of me, but we've had a lot of war about for the time of year, which has kept us busy. . . . I leapt into my country's breach wearing a tin helmet, dungarees and a lace brassiere.
I am now an ambulance driver! In other words, I rattle round pitch dark streets in a three-ton furniture pantechnicon. God help my poor bloody patients. I bet I cause more casualties than I succour.
We haven't been bombed by any Germans yet, but are waging relentless warfare against Air Raid Wardens, who come round at all hours of the night banging on the door and shouting that they can see a crack of light through one of our windows. The dog has gallantly bitten two of them, but they have retaliated by reporting him to the police. We are thinking of resorting to stink bombs! We have five people living with us, and are getting our family life organized on a communist basis. Daddy hates every minute of it, but mother has risen to the occasion like an old war horse. After all, she dates from the Franco-Prussian War, so this is nothing new to her. By the way, why isn't America in this scrap? It was Roosevelt who pushed us into it.
I am probably getting married in three weeks' time. With these blackouts one can't go out in the evenings, so matrimony seems the only solution. . . .
I am re-reading Jane Austen's books, which enthrall me. They seem so much more real and important than anything happening at the moment. The only other thing that is nice to remember is that we went to the last of the Beethoven concerts and came home drunk with happiness. No more concerts now. Besides, dammit sir, you can't go listening to German music these days--switch on the Gilbert & Sullivan.
Please write sometime. I need cheering. Tell me that normal life is still going on.
With best love,
L.
Kent, England
Sirs:
. . . The writer is a gently nurtured woman used to the comforts of a charming house. She is also a professional violinist. The women of England are doing their bit regardless of caste.
(MRS.) V. M. H. FAIRCLOUGH
New York City
Dear -----:
I wrote to you just before war began, since when life has been pretty hectic. I was mobilised with my Women's Auxiliary Fire Service on the 1st, and to my horror discovered all arrangements had been changed, and that we had to live at the Fire Station in the most vile discomfort. In fact things got so impossible we all resigned in a body, but improvements were promised and are actually in hand, so that I suppose gradually conditions will improve. The first night I slept on a table, but now on a camp bed & a sleeping bag, as, after being perfectly sickeningly hot, it has turned icy cold. We are five in a room, but hope that will be altered as there is no room to move and until I went home and got a tin jug & basin for our room, 24 women had to wash at the kitchen sink, amongst the cooking & washing up! It really was the limit and I thought I should really have to chuck it. It wasn't so much the discomfort as the feeling one was a prisoner, but now we are getting 48 hours on duty and 24 hours off which has very much changed the situation. The bulk of the girls are youngsters; of course I get fearfully tired of spending hours with the very young but I daresay they feel just the same about the aged. [N.B.--The writer is over 40.] I enjoyed my first leave tremendously and went into the country to see Mother. Lots of our friends are drifting back to town through sheer boredom. I fancy I shall be mentally deficient when the war does end. This sort of pottering about is quite destructive to the brain and one can't settle to anything never knowing when one will be called out. . .
As ever,
J.
>To many another who sent letters from abroad, TIME'S warmest thanks. --ED.
hitler
Sirs:
Yes, by all means: "hitler" should be an improper noun as designated!
F. H. ARISMAN
Chicago, Ill.
Sirs:
I do surely agree that "hitler" is a good & proper word.
ELSIE HOUSTON
St. Louis, Mo.
Sirs:
No, I don't agree with Reader Smith that we should strive to give Mr. Hitler generations of free advertising by incorporating his name into our language. . . . It seems to me that the suggested word "hitler" savors too much of yielding, because of temporary emotion, to the childish impulse to "call names.". . . If I want to do something along that line, why not incorporate the word "Munich," using it to signify "a bloodless coup achieved by bad faith, trickery and deceit. . ."
R.G. COLE
Chicago Ill.
Sirs:
If reader W.B. Smith's suggestion is followed, "Chamberlain" would be a suitable synonym. Or was aid furnished to Poland as promised. I missing news of it?
GUNHILD ORPE
Chicago Ill.
Sirs:
Why use the word "hitler" to signify lying? Why not use "balfour"? . . . Lord Balfour lied to both his friends, the Jews and the Arabs, promising to each what he could not give to both and what he gave to neither. With the British a lie becomes a terminological inexactitude which is praised by the world as diplomacy of a high order. . .
HENRY ECKHARDT JR.
Bayside N.Y.
Sirs:
My suggestion for smart-aleck Reader Smith is a swift kick in the pants.
MARGARETA GIESELER
Denver, Col.
>Reactions to Reader Smith's suggestion that "hitler" be welcomed into the language as a lower-casenoun or verb, meaning a lie or to tell a lie (TIME, Oct. 23) were about equally divided pro & con. --ED.
Cash in Hand
Sirs: I quote TIME, Oct 16, p. 93-- "Willys, licking its chops over an impending $2,500,000 RFC loan, has slicked up its two series (Speedway and De Luxe). . . ."
If TIME'S editors will look in Standard Statistics, they will find that on Sept. 14 Willys-Overland Motors, Inc. received an initial payment of $1,500,000 on a $2,500,000 loan from RFC, in accordance with an agreement worked out and approved by the Board of Directors on July 29.
ALBERT G. PETTINGILL
Chicago, Ill.
>TIME erred, congratulates Willys-Overland on the rapid conversion of its birds from bush to hand.--ED.
Troubles at Pabst
Sirs:
In your Oct. 9 issue you had an article in your Theatre section in which I am vitally concerned, and which, with your kind cooperation, I would like to correct.
In that article your Milwaukee correspondent says that the character "John Steele" in my play, To the End of Time, is John Lewis. I merely wish to say that I have no control over anybody's personal opinion. Nor is that particular feature in his report the one that motivates this letter. What I have in mind is a certain very important inaccuracy--albeit undoubtedly an inadvertent one--in your article: your correspondent said that I obtained my finances from the "antilabor overlords" of Milwaukee. That is not true even in the very slightest degree! And if ever it becomes necessary for me to prove it I can do so beyond any doubt. Of course, many merchants, manufacturers, bankers and other businessmen bought tickets in blocks of fives (the series) to see the plays I produced in Milwaukee. But so did many doctors, lawyers, bookkeepers and stenographers. But neither the series, nor To the End of Time was sponsored or financed in the manner your article described.
As regards the statement that the Milwaukee critics "booted the play around." That is quite true--but there are several vital reasons for that which have absolutely nothing to do with the merits or demerits of the play.
As to the mention of the half-empty houses: both legitimate theatres in Milwaukee are huge 1,600-seat houses, and with very few exceptions, no attraction that plays Milwaukee can boast of even half-empty houses. A half-capacity audience in Milwaukee is a distinct compliment to a play. . . .
MYRON C. FAGAN
Milwaukee, Wis.
La Noche Triste
Sirs:
Yesterday night, as I was beginning to read, in the French translation, the first chapter of the sixth part of Jakob Burckhardt's excellent work Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien, one of my sons, who is always first to read TIME on arrival, entered my library visibly in a passion and there was in his voice a ring of indignation:
"Don't you remember, Dad," he said, "how deep were our feelings, when we heard our radio first news of the war? It is our destiny, it is each of us who is concerned--you said presently--it is the survival of our civilisation that is at stake, and this night when the terrible news of such a cataclysm reaches us will be forever la noche triste. And our whole household was in tears. Next day, Rio de Janeiro, almost a desert, silent, immersed in melancholy, looked like a cemetery. And the Press unanimously expressed this bitter sorrow of our Christian people. Now, look here, Dad, what this American paper, the very paper we like so much, dared to say against us Brazilians." And presently he stretched out TIME, Sept. 11, and there, almost unbelieving the testimony of my eyes, I began to read, under the epigraphs Latin America, Death for Sale:
"In four continents of the world there was bitter sorrow last week over War. But in the fifth, the carrot-shaped continent, there was frank rejoicing.
"South America's reaction to the conflict was almost entirely economic, almost entirely bullish. . . ."
"The parrot eats our crops"--my son interrupted my reading--"and poor parakeet gets an ill name. . . . Their bitter sorrow in North America must be the effect of a certain embargo they are removing just now in a hurry. While Brazil was the first Government to proclaim neutrality, the United States was reacting economically. . . ."
"Shut up, son," I said. "Don't you see you are committing the very sin of quick generalisation that is incensing you so much just now? Beware, as injustice always begets injustice. . . ."
I returned to the reading of [Burckhardt's] wonderful chapter on the morality and religion of Italian people during Renaissance:
"It may be possible to indicate many contrasts and shades of difference among different nations, but to strike the balance of the whole is not given to human insight. The ultimate truth with respect to the character, the conscience, and the guilt of a people remains forever a secret; if only for the reason that its defects have another side, where they reappear as peculiarities or even as virtues. We must leave those who find a pleasure in passing sweeping censures on whole nations to do so as they like. The peoples of Europe can maltreat, but happily not judge, one another. . . ."
AFFONSO PENNA JR.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Radiogenic
Sirs:
In TIME, Oct. 23, appears the phrase, "a radiogenic actor." There will be a small fee of $.04 ($.05 in Canada) for each use of this word for the first ten times, the rate thereafter being $.03 per adjective. . . NORMAN CORWIN
Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.
New York City
"Who the Hell"
Sirs:
R. Manley in TIME, Oct. 23, says he wants Germany to win the war. . . . I loathe the idea of Germany winning the war. . . . All four of my grandparents came from Germany. . . .
ALEXANDER E. PULS
St. Louis, Mo.
Sirs:
Mr. Goddam who the Hell am I Manley . . . you fail to say that the present government in Germany has done its "damndest" (I hope my language doesn't offend you) to destroy that great civilization that once existed. . . .
"Who the hell am I to say all this? Well, I'll tell you. I'm an American of German origin."
Louis L. HEYN
Cincinnati, Ohio
Sirs:
. . . I'm of German extraction myself and although I'm no flag-waving patriot, I urgently beseech Mr. Manley to grab the next boat to Europe and enter that world-renowned Utopia, Hitler's Germany, and tear off a few reams of lousy verse for Der Fuehrer. . . .
HERBERT HOPKE
Sherburne, N. Y.
Sirs:
As an American of German extraction I am extremely sorry to see a letter such as Richard Manley's in your valued magazine. . . .
(MRS.) O. E. BARTH
Worcester, Mass.
Sirs:
. . . Mr. Manley in pleading the pro-Nazi cause makes rather "indelicate" statements which are strongly contradicted by available facts. . . . Like Mr. Manley I am an American of German origin. I hope, however, that I can always persuade my reason to prevail over any inherited prejudices.
JOHN B. LUCKE
Morgantown, W. Va.
Sirs:
As an American whose German ancestors came to this country because they loved freedom . . . I should appreciate an opportunity to answer Mr. Manley. . . . Personally, I can think of nothing that would make me feel more belligerent than a Nazi-imposed peace, with its suppression of every individual liberty and every decent human right and its rule by fear and force. . . .
R. M. GARDINER
Berkeley, Calif.
Paradise Wronged
Sirs:
If your article "Bermuda--Paradise at War" appearing in the Oct. 30 issue was an attempt at facetiousness, it falls short of the mark. . . . What good purpose could be served by your strained effort to paint a picture of war hysteria which does not exist, is past comprehension. May I offer a few real facts bearing upon some of the subjects discussed in your article?
Bermuda is just as calm and peaceful as it ever was. Some Bermudians have enlisted in the local forces and are on duty in various parts of the Islands, but if any military restrictions exist, neither Bermudians nor American visitors are aware of them.
There is no food shortage. Not a single golf course has been plowed under to provide for expansion of our agriculture. . . .
As to automobiles screeching through Hamilton, that just isn't according to the facts. The Emergency Act of our Parliament merely gave discretionary powers to the Governor to use automobiles if necessary for the carrying on of government work. The Governor, himself, has no automobile. There are not now, nor will there be any automobiles for private use in Bermuda.
There are ample hotel accommodations available for our American visitors. Normally at this season some hotels are closed until the Fall and Winter inflow of visitors begins. Other hotels which have temporarily closed are maintaining skeleton crews and are prepared to reopen at once. Scores of guest houses have been and are still taking reservations.
The beaches on every shore of the Islands are just as they always have been; golf, tennis, dancing, sailing and deep-sea fishing are enjoyed daily by Bermudians and Americans alike.
Recently assurances from no less an authority than the American Consul from the United States, Harold L. Williamson, were given to the people in the States. Mr. Williamson publicly stated: "Citizens of the United States, it is hoped, may continue to enjoy their vacations in Bermuda . . . the chances of personal danger would seem remote in this colony, removed as it is from the acute war zone."
W. J. HOWARD TROTT
Member of Bermuda Parliament
Pembroke, Bermuda
>TIME blundered, misled by a report from a usually reliable informant. To Bermuda congratulations on her placid changelessness! --ED.
TIME, November 13, 1939
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