For President: Roosevelt-Willkie
Sirs:
Regarding the next Presidential election, here is a plan that would give complete unity of action during the war and would save a lot of expense and campaigning. Let one united convention nominate Roosevelt for President and Willkie for Vice President, with the agreement that if the war ceases before the expiration of the term, Roosevelt would immediately resign, whereupon Willkie would automatically become President.
REV. ALBERT ALLEN BIRD
Penfield, Pa.
Benito, Il Furbo
Sirs:
... In Italian drama and opera, il furbo [applied to Mussolini--TIME, June 21] ... is a not-too-sinister trickster and cheat whose schemes, for a time, prosper greatly. Invariably, however, he overextends himself and becomes involved in a fatal tangle. Only the intervention of providence, or some powerful protector who can make selfish use of his talents, saves him from final disaster. He emerges with his life, but shorn of all his gains.
M. J. BAKER
Le Sueur, Minn.
Racial Disunity in America
Sirs:
The reprehensible race riots of the past couple of weeks (TIME, June 28) may serve to good purpose in throwing a spotlight . . . upon the menacing growth of racial consciousness in America. Undoubtedly many have listened in recent months to a strangely swelling chorus of ominous predictions having to do with prospective internal conflict after the world war is settled. One hears of "real trouble coming up"; of "somebody" (unidentified) who is "going after" this or that "minority group." . . .
Yes, the propaganda seeds of viciousness have been well planted--already their poisonous, ugly little heads shoot up. . . .
But listen--listen closely ! Do you hear it--that sour note in the background that helps create the discordant theme for a copyrighted tune called New Order? Remember when it was composed? . . . One verse had something to do with the Sudetenlanders--that ravaged, long-enduring little band of people huddled away in Czecho-Slovakia. Through the anguished, hoarse-voiced howls and sobs of one Mr. A. Hitler, the world audience was introduced to a curious new circumstance--namely that some of the people born in a country weren't necessarily a part of that country at all. . . .
It was this same Mr. Hitler (or one of his crew) who said that "taking America would be an inside job"--easily engineered by working upon the strains and stresses of racial disunity. . . .
FRANK LEBELL
Hollywood
Sirs:
. . . We work and drill pretty damn hard here at Camp Wheeler, preparing for the time in the near future when we are going across to fight the enemies of democracy. . . . Your article on Detroit's little race riot makes us begin to wonder whether we should be shipped to Africa or Detroit. . . .
I for one would just as soon run my bayonet through the foremost young man in your race riot photo as I would through any other enemy of democracy. And I think there are plenty of other bayonets down here to back me up.
(PvT.) RICHARD RUSSELL
Camp Wheeler, Ga.
Most Important Officer
Sirs:
Your write-up on Navy chaplains (TIME, June 21) was very interesting. ... To an enlisted man, his chaplain is his most important officer. It is good to know that so many fine men of God are now in the service.
DOUGLAS E. JOY, U.S.N.R.
Camp Peary, Va.
Weaver Birds
Sirs:
On p. 45 of TIME, June 21, you have a short account of the African Kenya bird, locally called weaver bird [which builds its nest vertically instead of horizontally]. I enclose a photo of a tree full of weaver birds' nests. The photo was taken in Urundi.
DIANA FITZ HERBERT
New York City
WAACs in Control
Sirs:
In your article in TIME, June 21, on WAVES doing control tower work you state the WAACs have shied away from it. ... Here at Turner Field we have five WAACs working in the control tower. The WAACs, rather than shying away, have asked for and received bigger and more technical jobs. . . .
BEULAH W. MITCHELL 3rd Officer, WAAC
Turner Army Air Field
Albany, Ga.
Sirs:
. . . May I inform you that two months ago four of us WAACs began working in the Stockton Field control tower. . . .
(CORP.) MARGARET L. DEFREITAS
Stockton Field, Calif.
>Let TIME's Army & Navy editor stop shying away from WAACs.--ED.
Two Plus Two
Sirs: The dogmatism of Bernard Baruch (TIME, June 28) on the proposition that two plus two equals four reminds me of the late dynamic Thomas Balmer. . . . When he was Western representative of the Butterick Publishing Co. (Delineator), 40 years ago, and I was a budding young advertising man from Honolulu, he took me to lunch in Chicago. While waiting for the English mutton chops at St. Hubert's Inn, he popped the question, "How many are two and two?" I baruchly gave the answer, "Four, of course." "Young man." he sternly corrected, "you will never succeed in advertising until you learn that two and two can make 22."
CHARLES R. FRAZIER
San Francisco
Cartoonist Soldiers
Sirs:
Your issue of TIME, April 5, reached this outfit just at the close of the Tunisian campaign. In reading each and every line from cover to cover, as all of us do, I came across "Cartoonist Soldier." . . . Dave Breger, principally through Yank, has contributed no little to the raising of spirits among troops in this theater by his excellent cartoons. . . .
However, we of this outfit have among us a cartoonist of no little repute, namely Captain Herc Ficklen [who spent] most of his nights throughout the campaign turning out splendid cartoons. . . .
I am enclosing one of Herc's cartoons done by him last night, depicting a very desirable event looked forward to by many people of this old world. . . .
JOHN M. DAVIS 1st Lieutenant, Cavalry
c/o Postmaster
New York City
Polysyllables to Memorize
Sirs:
Like the Declaration of Independence, the preamble to the Constitution and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, the Supreme Court's "ringing polysyllables"* should go down in history. It is the fourth great statement of the fundamentals of democracy, and like the other three, every child should memorize it so that when he grows up he will learn to love it. ...
DONALD H. KUPFER
Los Angeles
*"If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion. . . .
"Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard."--TIME, June 21.
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