The People

TIME'S Feb. 16 account of what various commentators were saying about the U.S. people (Smug, Slothful, Asleep?) brought an outburst of letters from the people themselves. Many letters-to-TIME have reflected indignation over such issues as the Roberts report on Pearl Harbor, the retirement applications of Admiral Kimmel and General Short, the Lafayette (ex-Normandie) fire, pensions for Congressmen, Mrs. Roosevelt and OCD. But the latest batch --more than 100 of them-- went much deeper. Some excerpts:

Sirs:

. . . What the hell do these critics want us to do-- roll hoops with red, white & blue bunting wrapped around them, or turn cartwheels in the street every time a Nazi general dies of heart attack? . . .

HOMER L. KYLE Lincoln, Neb.

Sirs:

Heartiest congratulations. . . . [The article] should be required reading for every American citizen, whether in the United States or abroad.

ARTHUR BLISS LANE Minister to Costa Rica American Legation San Jose, Costa Rica

Sirs:

. . . Was a slothful "people" responsible for Pearl Harbor, General Johnson? That sounds suspiciously like a cheap bit of red herring pulling to sidestep blame for your uniformed colleagues. "Worldlywise experts" indeed! . . .

The people of this nation are following the leadership (such as is provided for them) in the crisis as slavishly as any medieval chain gang. Thank your stars if your castigation doesn't produce the kind of sullen rancor which could one day destroy you. What this nation needs right now in these tax-ridden days is a pat on the back-not a slap on the mouth with the back of an ungrateful, irresponsible, alphabetical hand. . . .

MURRAY A. CAYLEY

First Presbyterian Church Rochester, N.Y.

Sirs:

... We are achingly eager to help, to know, to act and we have been for a long time. . . .

Every man and woman in the nation should be drafted at once for war work. Those of us who can't fight can learn to make airplanes. Those of us who can't make airplanes can darn the airplane-makers' socks or cook their meals. Some of us can register those who are drafted. Some of us can answer telephones and lick stamps and run errands. Surely there is a place for everyone.

All of us can spare one to six hours a day on active participation in the war. We are in danger! Why aren't we asked to do, ordered to do it? ...

ANNE B. MOUNT

Lynchburg, Va.

Sirs:

. . . What do the critics expect the people to do ? They are not "excited" and are "silent" about the war because they are sad, embarrassed, and confused. Sad, because the war unsettles everything and because we have to do the job over again we thought we did in World War I. Embarrassed, because the country was caught unprepared and because we and our allies, at this stage of the game, are being continually outsmarted and defeated. Confused, because outside of those in the service or in defense activity they feel they can do nothing but buy bonds, pay taxes, etc. . . .

As for the fear of losing the war, that is unthinkable.

DONALD C. BOYCE Galveston, Tex.

Sirs:

... NO WAR APATHY THIS AREA. MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN WORKING LONG HARD HOURS ON CIVILIAN DEFENSE. ARMY AND NAVY ACTIVITIES MOST SATISFACTORY. BUT WE ARE DISMAYED BY THE INEPTNESS OF WASHINGTON'S CIVILIAN DEFENSE LEADERSHIP AND THE PIDDLING EFFORTS OF WASHINGTON BUREAUCRATS TO SOLVE OUR ACUTE ENEMY ALIEN PROBLEM. . . .

GEORGE MORELL

Publisher Palo Alto Times Burlingame Advance Redwood City Tribune Palo Alto, Calif.

Sirs:

The people are ... bewildered, resentful and slightly sick at the stomach.

1) Bewildered. By lack of leadership and information. The people fail to appreciate the "inescapable opportunity" in achieving world supremacy and will need plenty of tall talking to convince them that fighting in British Somaliland will save the old homestead in Vermont. . . .

2) Resentful. Over aiding Japan up to wartime, over wearing a chip on the shoulder with little (except on paper) to back it up, over leaving MacArthur in the lurch, over commissions and soft jobs for the favored and honors for the "fellow travelers."

3) Sick, etc. Of doubletalk. Of reversing the field. Of those phony Whitmanesque radio programs which ring in Valley Forge, Gettysburg, San Juan Hill, with boastful asides to Adolf, Benito, et al. Instead of facts we get dreamstuff.

PETER DRAKE JR. Pembroke, N.H.

Sirs:

. . . The people are not asleep. Have not been asleep. I wrote my Congressmen, June 6, 1940, that Japan and Germany would be a combination hard to lick and urged action by our Government. It is our Government that is, and has been, asleep. Pearl Harbor, the Normandie and the labor situation prove that. . . .

TOM LLEWELLYN Tupelo, Miss.

Sirs:

... I am constantly in touch with the class which Damon Runyon calls the "little people," and I am very sure that they are aware of the gravity of the situation and prepared to do what they can. . . . Most of them feel that they can contribute only by paying in money to the extreme limit of their ability to pay. . . . They are deeply concerned and moved and ready. . . .

D. D. OLDS Office of the Collector Internal Revenue Service Treasury Department Tacoma, Wash.

Sirs:

. . . Who is lulling us to sleep? Our own Government through newspapers and radio keeps us ignorant of our usefulness in winning this war. . . . All we have been asked to do so far is a little more walking instead of driving our cars and, last but not least, "Buy Defense Bonds," invest our money with interest. After years of war in Europe isn't it obvious that money will not buy victory . . .

V. ANDERSEN Chicago, Ill.

Sirs:

... It is obvious to anyone whose living does not depend on constant alarums of one kind and another, that the people of the United States are more thoroughly aware than ever before in history of the fact that we are at war. . . .

Since we, the people, are doing all the things we are doing to fight the war, and since we can't all be radio commentators or newspaper columnists, I want to make just one suggestion: If these gifted gentlemen will tell us ... just what in the hell more we can do about this war, we'll be glad to listen. . . .

ARTHUR L. COLEMAN

Holland's Magazine Dallas, Tex.

Sirs:

. . . First, that dumb look on the face of the nation comes, not from apathy, but from shock, and as any doctor will tell you (and any of the new First Aiders), shock is extremely serious and must be handled with great delicacy or it may prove fatal, no matter what the cause. . . .

We were stunned by Pearl Harbor. . . . We were thrilled to the core by the unanimity, speed and wordlessness in Washington on Dec. 8-11. The 500 words of that man were all we wanted to hear. Five years of wind-letting on Capitol Hill could not have expressed the American will as clearly. . . .

And then, labor got back to normal with strikes for higher pay or a closed shop or a wrangle between leaders; capital wanted exemptions here, guarantees there; little business screamed at being pinched; the farmers (in Congress, not on the farms) refused to have a ceiling on foodstuffs; grocers began profiteering (sugar 7.8-c- a lb., canned goods almost doubled in price); this group and that group wanting special privileges; our home guards were ridiculed without any constructive advice about how to make them work; our volunteer services were deemed a nuisance without any solution being offered. . . .

The little people are quite willing to see the Bill of Rights in abeyance, Congress in limbo, themselves regimented, man, woman and child, for all-out effort toward all-out Victory. In plain words, the little people are fighting mad. . . .

We were caught once with our pants down. Well-now we've got our sleeves rolled up for something more useful than thumb twiddling. "For God's sake let's get going" that's the cry of the little people from the Bay of Fundy to San Diego, from Key West to Seattle-"Give us jobs to do." . . .

MRS. DEAN STEWART Independence, Kans.

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