Post-Mortem
Sirs:
TIME is to be complimented on its realistic treatment of the 1940 Roosevelt convention, a political farce constituting the greatest travesty on American democracy the U. S. has ever known. . . .
CURTIS S. MILLER
Minneapolis, Minn.
Sirs:
I wish to congratulate TIME for the superb restraint exercised by its editorial staff in reporting the most un-American activity of the year to date: the proceedings of the Democratic Convention in Chicago. I had not believed it possible that over a thousand Americans from all parts of the country, representing both labor and capital, could be made to lie down and roll over by a man at the other end of a telephone wire. Of course the late Huey Long said it could be done, but I never took much stock in Mr. Long or his pronouncements. It was the most disheartening story you have printed since the fall of France. . . .
L. A. BROWN
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Sirs:
In your July 29 issue, by your deliberately hostile choice of words, you attempt to make the Democratic Convention appear cheap and vulgar by emphasizing the superficial and ignoring all that is important. Your descriptions are insidious, almost blasphemous. Your reporter saw nothing that his vulture eyes could not see; he saw very little above the belt, as attested by "his little paunch sagged"; "potbellied Tom Garry"; "the paunchy Kentuckian. . . ." None of this mental retching is proved by facts or results, so must have existed only in your reporter's jaundiced view. . . .
HARRY GRALL NEWTON
Austin, Tex.
Sirs: TIME SURPASSED ITSELF IN ITS REPORTING OF THE CORNIEST SHOW OF THE YEAR--THE RECENT DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION. DID SENATOR HILL "BAY" INSTEAD OF "BRAY" BECAUSE THE DONKEY AS A SYMBOL OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY HAS GONE TO THE DOGS?
MRS. R. L. ZIMMERMAN
Galveston, Tex.
Sirs:
It is because I accept your reporting of the Democratic Convention at Chicago (TIME, July 29) as a fairly accurate picture of those dismal proceedings, that I am inclined to despair of our ever attaining political maturity in this democracy.
On the other hand, the fact that you were free to report the event with objective candor is, in itself, reassuring. It suggests to me that, to face the problem squarely, we need to become as politically high-minded as we are broadminded.
WERNER WILKENS JR. New York City
Sirs:
Thanks for your spade-calling report of the Democratic National Convention and a minor correction: It was Wright Morrow of Houston and not Wright Moody who nominated John Garner "monotonously for what seemed like hours." Perhaps Mr. Morrow was endeavoring to hold open a little longer the sluice gates of Democratic processes; at any rate, to a lot of us Texans his speech was all sweetness, erudition and light, by comparison.
HENRY O. WEAVER
Houston, Tex.
Sirs:
Your account of the Democratic Convention, with all its trimmings, is far the best that I have seen. . . .
H. W. GETZ Moline, Ill.
Sirs:
Re your rambling account of the Chicago Convention (TIME, July 29) we would like to say this: If it weren't for TIME'S noble format, we would have thought we were reading the Chicago Tribune in one of its more hysterical moments.
Why not give your reporter a bonus and leave of absence with pay so he can work full time for candidate Willkie directly? . . .
GAR ROUTT
STELLA EVANS
Chicago, Ill.
> Those who believe that TIME gave a distorted impression of the Democratic Convention at Chicago, should have been there. Only complaint TIME received from a person who claimed to have been at the convention follows. --ED.
Sirs:
TIME has printed many untrue things about the Democratic Convention in July 29 issue. The people in the galleries were yelling during the Convention, "We want Roosevelt," because I was there myself. It is the first time I ever enjoyed any convention that I was at so far. When they just heard the name "Roosevelt" they cheered, screamed and yelled. Whoever took the report of the Convention doesn't like Roosevelt and I think that before election comes in November he will vote for Roosevelt. Roosevelt will get all his votes from Willkie yet. Just wait and see. . . .
HELEN TUMISS
Danbury, Conn.
Bumptious
Sirs:
AS MAYOR OF SAN FRANCISCO I FEEL YOUR MAGAZINE HAS DONE AN INJUSTICE TO ONE OF THE OUTSTANDING NEWSPAPERMEN OF THE WEST, PAUL SMITH, EDITOR OF THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, IN YOUR JULY 29 ISSUE. YOU REFER TO HIM AS A "BUMPTIOUS YOUNG EDITOR." WE OF SAN FRANCISCO AGREE THAT HE IS YOUNG BUT DISAGREE THAT HE IS BUMPTIOUS.
ANGELO J. ROSSI
San Francisco, Calif.
> Bumptious also (and proud of it) were the famed San Francisco editors (from James King and Charles Webb of frontier days to the late Fremont Older) who created a Great Tradition of aggressive, independent, politically active newspapermen.--ED.
Solution for Snitchers
Sirs:
Your sympathetic reporting of the exploits of those daring young airplane snitchers [TIME, July 22] has evidently colored my viewpoint of the whole delicious, delightful affair. There's two kids after my own heart and it has captured my imagination. Thus this letter.
Why not find a way to give the kids a break? Take them out of durance vile and put them both to work at the airport. They'd eat it up and love it! Can we afford to toss these human chips to the four winds when the day may come when they will be needed to rekindle the everlasting American flame in the breasts of a thousand and one more kids?
If these kids are worthy (and I think they are), give them a bellyful of work around the airport, give them a chance to satisfy the restless surge of the blood of pioneers, pirates and soldiers that courses through their veins. And if they don't make good I'll publicly withdraw all my endorsements.
They broke the law . . . sure they did! . . . Justice, to my mind, does not consist in making punishment fit the crime but rather that punishment fit the criminal. . . .
To save this country from encroachers and despoilers we are going to need all that wild piratical blood. My ancestor (remember Commodore Edward M. Preble of Old Ironsides fame) rode into this Ohio country as an itinerant Methodist preacher . . . a pistol in his belt and a jug of Monongahela whiskey tied to his saddle. He was a pioneer, ripe for a fight or a frolic at any moment. He found both, aplenty!
Let's give Benny and Don a break . . . and judge them five years from now. Those kids have something inside them that clicks with me and I'm determined to find out what it is and give them a boost.
JACK PREBLE JR.
(Former Lieut. U. S. Air Service)
Steubenville, Ohio
> Frustrated Flyer Donald Blood, 14, was let off with one-year probation; now staying close to home, he will start high school this fall. His buddy Benny Byrne, 15, is staying indeterminately in a correctional institution, pending release for good behavior. Reason: he previously snitched a camera lens and some radio parts, thinking they would come in handy when he got to be a war aviator.--ED.
Military Secrets
Sirs:
May I say that if the military and naval files of any future enemy of the U. S. are shy even a scrap of information about this country and its defenses, etc., I am quite sure that the articles appearing in your magazine will help to fill the want to the nth degree. . . .
DOUGLAS GOTT
New Haven, Conn.
> TIME gives away no military secrets. Its object is only to place in the hands of U. S. citizens facts that are already in the hands of potential enemies.--ED.
Fearful
Sirs:
Your "Strategy" under National Defense, July 22, p. 19 . . . has me so upset and fearful for the fate of our nation and people that the only ultimatum I can foresee is destruction of all that took so many years to build up. We all want cold, clean facts--but must they all be so disheartening? Cannot you probe--dig in--and "dish us out" a few encouraging remarks?
JEANNE HALL OSGOOD
Saginaw, Mich.
> When TIME can report the encouraging fact that U. S. citizens and particularly their statesmen have looked at the problems of national defense without blinking, TIME ought soon to be able to report many more encouraging facts.--ED.
Portrait of a Man
Sirs:
Thank you for your portrait of a man under "Free Speech, Hell!" in July 22 issue. The face of Al Williams is the traditional American face, strong, clean, purposeful.
The career of Al Williams as you outline it goes well with the face. If America is to preserve what men of Al Williams' stamp fought and died for in '76, 1812, '61 and in 1918, more of our other men will have to become a little defiant, a little harsh, a little less inclined to seek the easiest way. The entire country would be a lot better off if every individual read your bit on Williams.
KATHARINE FOSTER
Editor
The Jacksonville American
Jacksonville, Fla.
Strategic Geography
Sirs: Thanks for your mid-spread feature of the strategic world areas at this crucial time--the most timely lessons in geography I have ever seen.
LOUIE D. NEWTON
Pastor
Druid Hills Baptist Church
Atlanta, Ga.
Sirs:
CENTER SPREAD COLOR MAPS GREAT HOPE MORE ON WAY.
EDWARD N. DOAN
Columbus, Ohio
> From time to time when there is occasion for it, TIME will publish more strategic maps in color.--ED.
The Big Parade
Sirs:
. . . Within the past few days, after much ballyhoo for "preparedness day," the newspapers announced that the Army would put on a parade in this city and others, of tanks, armored trucks, large guns and other apparatus. There was much to do, and everyone was all set to see the might of the Army. There was one armored truck that I could have shot through with a twenty-two, one nicely painted French 75, that certainly had never been shot, a few ordinary trucks and a group of disinterested-looking infantrymen riding them.
We are a small isolated community, perhaps it was thought that that was enough to impress us, but the same outfit paraded in Phoenix and Other fairly large cities of the Southwest. I am inclosing a brief editorial from the Arizona Republic* of July 23rd to witness. . . .
GEORGE O. BASSETT, M.D.
Prescott, Ariz.
* Said the Arizona Republic: ". . . The 'demonstration' was such as to cause many thunderstruck comments in the streets from folk who had gathered to view Uncle Sam's armor against dictatorial aggression. . .
"The ambulance was significant. There was only one. If the outfit had flushed a war-minded tribe of Apache with bows and bone-tipped arrows, one ambulance would not have been enough.
"Perhaps it was all a mistake. Perhaps the army of the U. S. really has something able to scatter a troop of teen-age Boy Scouts armed with quarterstaves. Perhaps if it hasn't, it has hopes of getting it through the vast sums of money that are being appropriated for that purpose, not to mention even in a whisper the sums that have been appropriated heretofore.
"In these realistic times the United States public would be foolish if it did not adopt the policy that seeing is believing. . . ."
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