TIME's Chance
Sirs:
I suppose people wouldn't write letters like this one if they were back in the States where bars and music halls take up spare time. . . .
I never liked TIME or LIFE until I was drafted, which was two and a half years ago. Since then, however, I've watched their circulation and influence in the Army. . . .
Soldiers, like all Americans, read news and editorials and either swallow them whole or discredit them entirely, depending upon what newspaper or magazine they had. I'm talking about 95% of soldiers. But those who read TIME neither swallow nor discredit immediately what they read. . . .
The point of what I want to say is ... that you have the first honest and yet successful news organ there has ever been. And that is a fact which defeats some of the real diseases our country has, including its lack of moral and spiritual strength. . . .
I hope against everything that you realize night and day the chance your magazines have to change and clean up the American spirit, and force American taste and thought to better themselves . . . you have the chance to do what every thinking soldier overseas longs will be done every time he thinks of home. . . .
(SGT.) HARRY WILLIAMS
c/o Postmaster Miami
> TIME's thanks to Sergeant Williams for a heartening letter; and TIME's sober assurance that it realizes its share of the responsibility of the U.S. press and the challenge it faces.--ED.
Lovely Old Madison
Sirs:
It may interest you to know that there is still a town in the U.S. not marred by the war or the New Deal.
I was driving from Pensacola to Jacksonville, Fla. when dusk halted me in the lovely old town of Madison. Going to the old red brick hotel, I was shown to a nicely furnished room with private bath. Being hungry, I hurried down to supper. The old colored waiter shuffled to my table and I asked him what was cooking. "Roast beef, baked ham, fried chicken and T-bone steak," he replied. I ordered the steak . . . and he shuffled out. Presently he set before me tomato juice and avocado salad. This was followed by the steak with French-fried potatoes, Golden Bantam corn, a dish of green field peas, ice tea and hot biscuits with country butter. For dessert there was a generous piece of banana cream pie with real whipped cream . . .85-c-.
R. W. WILSON
Pensacola, Fla.
Presidential Base on Balls
Sirs:
A pop bottle on your head, smarty! For characterizing the man who said "We waited it out, and we got a base on balls" (TIME, July 26) as Pitcher Roosevelt. . . .
BILL ROGERS
Wright Field
Dayton
Sirs:
TIME adds nothing but confusion to a Presidential metaphor when, in commenting on F.D.R.'s characterization of U.S. Martinique victory as a "base on balls," it adds: "But many a pop bottle was still coming Pitcher Roosevelt's way. . . ."
Any baseball fan knows 1) that Mr. Roosevelt's role in "waiting it out" was that of a batter rather than a pitcher, and 2) that pop bottles are traditionally reserved for umpires.
ARCH FARMER
Chicago
> Some pitchers are pretty fair hitters; pop bottles are sometimes carelessly aimed.--ED.
Advertising Art
Sirs:
Regarding your July 26 issue: Would you kindly have that Indian on p. 12 lower his sights a bit, down about to "The Insect World" in your Miscellany column.
There's a very interesting target on p. 13.
Thanks.
D. MORRISON
Detroit
Fight-Russia Poll
Sirs:
I saw in TIME, May 24 issue, Reader Gallaway's sensible criticism of the soldier who awaits war with Russia. . . . Could this be general sentiment? . . .
I went out and polled 100 men. . . . Most of these men are in the Air Corps, with I.Q. scores somewhat above those of other Army branches and of the general population. The results:
If soldiers have their way, U.S.-Russian relations are entering the most tranquil period of their history. To the broad question, "Do you think the U.S. will fight Russia?" came a definite "No" (61%), with doubtfuls or undecideds 20% and "Yeses" 19%. To the moral question, "Should it?" came an even more decisive "No" of 80%, with doubtfuls 12% and "Yeses" 8%. . . .
I believe that other branches, because of the income and allied issues, would tend to be even more "liberal," even less "anti-Russia." . . .
(CORP.) ERMAN W. BURGER
c/o Postmaster
New York City
Cover Reminder
Sirs: The artist's sketch of the Senate in the background of the Senator George cover (TIME, July 19) must have reminded others as it did me . . . [that] when we were kids in school we had to listen to what the teacher was saying. We couldn't read or sleep. Maybe we had to listen because our minds were growing and capable of learning.
VERNER EBINGER
Clarkston, Wash.
Turkey's Territorial Aspirations
Sirs:
One nation which unhesitatingly chose to resist the Axis rather than collaborate, at a time when help could only be nominal, was Greece. By resisting, Greece did incalculable service to the anti-Axis cause: she exposed the phony Italian war machine, and she upset Hitler's timetable against Russia.
It is therefore to be hoped that the references to Turkey's territorial aspirations in your issue of July 12 are false or, if true, that the victorious Allies would not even consider them. These cessions of territory could only be made at the expense of Greece.
Greece entered the war, not only to defend herself, but also to regain at the peace table Greek-inhabited territories. . . .
Small reward for this heroic nation then, to deprive her not only of the promised Dodecanese (taken by Italy from the old Turkish Empire in 1912; given to Greece in 1919, and retaken by Italy in 1922 for no reason and vaguely promised ever since), but also Greek-inhabited Western Thrace which has been incorporated with Greece since 1919! And these territories are to be taken from a nation that is indisputably on our side and given to the canny Turks, still waiting to make sure who is going to win. . . .
CHARLES SPENCER
Bergen Bulletin
Palisades Park, N.J.
> Neither TIME'S story nor Turkey's foreign policy justifies Reader Spencer's alarm.
Turkey would naturally like to have the Dodecanese Islands and Western Thrace--but probably not at the expense of a strong, friendly Greece. For the past decade Turkey has considered Greece the cornerstone of her Balkan relations, in 1936 went out of her way to bury the hatchet with her onetime enemy by an exchange of populations that meant considerable sacrifices for Turkey. About a month ago, an editorial in the No. 1 Turkish newspaper Aksam declared that Turkey had no right to interfere with the peace terms, but would support the eviction of Italy from the Balkans and the east Mediterranean islands, "these rocks which . . . have threatened Turkish security for many years--on condition that they be demilitarized [and] given to a country which does not foster imperialistic designs."--ED.
Thankful Soldier
Sirs:
After reading TIME, I always kneel down and thank God that I'm in the Army. For it is so peaceful.
SGT. V. R. SANDERCOCK
Somewhere in New Guinea
Chinook Jargon
Sirs:
TIME, July 5, p. 40, says that the name of Dr. Good's boat Cheechako is Eskimo for "tenderfoot." Right you are about tenderfoot, but not Eskimo. Cheechako is pure Chinook Jargon; chee meaning new, recent, or just now, while chako means to come, or arrive, or approach. . . .
Forty to 100 years ago, Chinook Jargon (based partly on but not to be confused with the Chinook tribal language) was spoken very extensively by whites and Indians alike throughout the coastal portions of Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and southern Alaska. . . . But the Eskimos never spoke Chinook Jargon; those I have asked never even heard of it. The few Jargon words (such as Cheechako) which are familiar to the Eskimos today have been brought to them by their contact with the whites.
The tongue has fallen into almost complete disuse within the past generation or two, and most of the residents of the Pacific Northwest know nothing of it beyond the few words that have gone into everyday colloquial English use in that region [such as]: skookum, siwash, tilikum, cultus and cheechako.*
CHARLES SHEPARD
Rochester, N.Y.
Mongols Excepted
Sirs:
TIME, July 19, "Battle of Sicily": "General Dwight D. Eisenhower . . . had set in motion the largest amphibious military operation ever attempted--not excepting Xerxes' expedition against Greece (1,000 boats, 200,000 men)."
I would just like to remind TIME that you are, however, excepting the Mongolian invasion of Japan in the 13th Century. In this second effort to dominate Japan, the Mongols used 3,500 ships, the largest amphibious military operation ever attempted./-
GORDON COOPER
Lansdowne, Pa.
> TIME and Reader Cooper both overlooked another amphibious operation: the drowning of Pharaoh's hosts in the Red Sea.--ED.
Aethelred's Opportunism
Sirs:
Referring to the discovery of the sarcophagus supposedly containing the bones of Sweyn (TIME, July 19), it seems opportune to point out that the Saxon king defeated by Sweyn was Aethelred the Unready (or Redeless).
Aethelred, being before his time, adopted a policy of appeasement and paid Olaf, predecessor of Sweyn, -L-10,000 to give up his first raid. After that Aethelred paid consecutively -L-16,000, -L-24,000, and finally -L-36,000, but when the price of peace reached -L-48,000 Aethelred collected a great fleet, ordered a general massacre of the Danish fifth column, and decreed a great levy of troops--his idea of selective service. Politics and traitorous quarrels disrupted the navy and the army; so that Sweyn overran England while Aethelred fled. The policy of opportunism had paved the path for William the Conqueror.
Moral: Preparedness and universal compulsory military training with a unified government are needed to save modern governments from the fate of Aethelred the Unready.
ALFRED ROELKER
New York City
Bum News
Sirs:
. . . In reference to the Mayor Hague controversy and under the heading of "Hold That Line!" (TIME, July 19), you quote me as saying: "Hague is a bum and always was a bum, and I don't think you can whitewash him just because he says he supports the war."
I wish to say that I have made no such statement either publicly or privately. . . .
MICHAEL J. QUILL
President
Transport Workers Union of America
New York City
> Then the news report was bum. TIME'S apologies to Labor Leader Quill. --ED.
* Skookum: powerful, strong; siwash: savage, uncivilized; tilikum: common people; cultus: of little worth.
/- It probably would have succeeded, but for a typhoon that scattered Kublai Khan's fleet and drowned all but 30,000 of his more than 100,000 men.
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