The Welles Speech
Sirs:
Sumner Welles's view on foreign policy (TIME, Oct. 25) sounds more realistic and more in keeping with our ideals than any other plan proposed so far. If someone with experience in domestic administration like ex-Governor Harold E. Stassen of Minnesota would promise to appoint him Secretary of State, they might well win the 1944 election and give us a top-notch government.
EDWARD A. MODENE Cincinnati
Sirs:
It appalls me to think that Mr. Welles has lost his power to put his fine thoughts into action to men who would rather act than think. . . . Can we free Americans do nothing more than applaud Mr. Welles and all other lost leaders?
(MRS.) ISABEL B. BEACHER Bethlehem, Pa.
Sirs:
"We have lived and we are living in a rotten world. . . . Only by handling the old structure roughly, only by conquering our inertia, only by daring to venture on new ways, can we hope to see a better day."
I suggest a full page in every interested news organ throughout the land, to impress this historic last paragraph upon a public which doesn't so much need full pages of studied information as it does full paragraphs burned deep into them.
W. J. TAYLOR Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.
Political Gas-Burners
Sirs:
I am a Texan in every respect, and so much for that. Your appellation of Connally as a "political gas-burner" (TIME, Oct. 4) and "minor statesman" (Oct. 25) from Texas was no surprise. It was merely putting the thoughts of a number of people into words.
His latest utterance on the course of the postwar U.S. is a typical example. The entire bill is in generalities only. He accused Ball of trying to emasculate his bill--a eunuch cannot be emasculated. . . .
S, E. ABLES Houston
Help!
Sirs:
I remember a bricklayer who never spoke more than two words. One was "bricks," the other "mortar." Once after a long layoff he fell down a well. When he hollered "Help!" a moth flew out of his mouth.
Your writer of captions for letters reminds me of that guy. He carries "Curt, clear, complete" to its irreducible minimum. . . .
Nudge him, won't you, or he'll have to tell that Indian chief whose entire vocabulary consisted of "ugh" to move over.
JAMES WHARTON Weems, Va. > Ugh.--ED.
Thomas in Texas
Sirs:
The confidence of the people of Texas in the accuracy of your magazine was considerably shaken by the story about the Thomas case (Oct. 4). The legend under the picture of "C.I.O.'s Thomas" that "In Texas, an invitation to join a union is against the law" is not only misleading but it is untrue.
The law . . . defines a labor organizer as "any person who for a pecuniary or financial consideration solicits memberships in a labor union . . ." and the law requires that such persons register with the Secretary of State and procure an organizer's card. There is no charge for the card and the Secretary of State has no discretion in issuing it. ...
The story about Mr. Thomas' arrest ... is garbled. The arrest was by the sheriff of Harris County because Mr. Thomas . . . violated the law by soliciting individual persons to join a labor union without an organizer's card. . . .
The sentence of $100 fine and three days in jail was rendered by a District Court in Austin, Tex. against Mr. Thomas for contempt of that court's order restraining him from soliciting members in a C.I.O. union in Texas without an organizer's card. . . .
The law which Mr. Thomas violated was enacted for the purpose of enabling persons who were being solicited as members of a labor union to identify the person soliciting them as a bona fide labor organizer. . . . The law was passed for the protection of labor organizers and labor unions. . . .
GERALD C. MANN Attorney General of Texas Austin, Tex.
> TIME floundered in a sea of misinformation. The fact remains that Texas' permit law is no great encouragement to organized labor.--ED.
Plato and TIME
Sirs:
My hearty thanks to the editors for the copy of TIME containing the review of The Republic (TIME, Oct. 18). I found much pleasure in reading the review and am gratified to learn that the book was deemed worthy of so much consideration. If you will look at p. 72 of The Republic, you will find that Plato and TIME are on the table at Hosannah Hill.
CHARLES BEARD New Milford, Conn.
> On p. 72 Mrs. Smyth, one of Historian Beard's Socratic-dialoguers, passes through Professor Beard's study at Hosannah Hill, selects therefrom copies of TIME and Plato's Republic.--ED.
Rotation
Sirs:
On reading your account of Senator Lodge's report on the war (TIME, Oct. n) I find that you have omitted what is to the serviceman the most important point--the proposal, where possible, to return soldiers to the states after a certain amount of time at the front.
In this area men have been stationed ever since the war with no hope of seeing home--that is 20 months now. . . . We can take 20 months but the possibility of 30 or 40 months of isolation is hard to face.
Rotation of troops should be planned now. (SERVICEMAN'S NAME WITHHELD) c/o Postmaster San Francisco
Willkie & Johnston?
Sirs:
Never have we more greatly needed great leadership. Wendell Willkie gives the promise of this more than any man on the political horizon--great in high and honest purpose and equally great in ability and breadth of vision.
His running mate must be no political hack but a man of the same quality and character. Happily he is at hand. Eric A. Johnston, the most progressive president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in its history, who by his vision, breadth and ability has made an impression upon the world far beyond our borders. . . .
Willkie and Johnston--boy, what a ticket!
C. T. CONOVER Winslow, Wash.
Man of the Year
Sirs:
To replace and outshine any "Man" of the Year--Mme. Chiang Kaishek.
J. F. RALL Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Sirs: I nominate Bob Hope.
SHIRLEY LIGHTLE Detroit
Sirs:
I nominate the U.S. Doughboy.
LOTTA G. PACKER Pittsburgh
Sirs:
For Man of the Year, the man with the pipe, whom I dislike: "Handlebar Joe" Stalin! (SERVICEMAN'S NAME WITHHELD) Camp Davis, N.C.
Sirs:
From an infantryman in the ranks, I want to by-pass my comrades who have seen action, and nominate for a plural throne the three most responsible for the present satisfactory Allied procedure--Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin. (SERVICEMAN'S NAME WITHHELD) c/o Postmaster Los Angeles
By a Graveyard
Sirs:
It is difficult to discuss politics when I am sitting here in sight, of a cemetery where two of my best friends lie, one bullet-riddled, the other shattered by an 88, but your articles "F.D.R. in 1943" and "Dewey at Mackinac" (TIME, Sept. 13) provoke considerable thought.
The two keys to this ring appear to me to be "The progressive movement is weak indeed if there is only one man in the country who can carry its banner" and "Leaders . . . went ahead with preconference plans to draft a policy which would offend no one."
The misfortune of American political operation is that "we the people" do precious little choosing, but must accept, as a general rule, the better of two men (or the lesser of two evils) picked by two squabbling, all-powerful groups in smoke-filled, whiskey-tinted hotel rooms in pre-convention conferences.
Opponents of Roosevelt, including myself in the last election, are quick to cry "dictator" and "bureaucratic fascism" at the possibility of exceeding the Washington precedent of two terms by double. But I realize now that no "dictator" can ever be in power in any country that allows full flow of speech and press--that allows bitter opponents of a national regime in the locally important offices --that sees a "same party" Congress override a veto and give some measure of exercise to its prerogatives.
Are we then choosing, as many would have us think, between a Fourth Term or a Republican New Deal? Or will we rather--as we should do--be picking from the list that man whose personal ability, known international respect and power, and proved leadership can best guide us through those certainly stormy years of reconstruction which are sure to follow?
Whether this should be Roosevelt Again or New Blood Dewey or World Traveled and Respected Willkie is a matter partially for our cigar-smoking hotel-room inhabitants to decide on the one hand and the American public on the other. . . . That this choice might be a fourth term for Roosevelt is irrelevant as far as the fourth term is concerned. What counts is that the American Public may freely discuss the issues and vote without duress, guided by their wisdom.
There is no "Ja" and "Nein" on our ballots and no gun in our backs as we express the opinion or cast the ballot. (CAPTAIN'S NAME WITHHELD) c/o Postmaster New York City
Women on the Platform
Sirs:
Washington, D.C. residents, wary of their recently hired women streetcar operators (TIME,' Oct. 25), may rest their fears, heed experience in San Diego, where women were first employed in large numbers to operate busses as well as streetcars.
Records .of the San Diego Electric Railway show less serious accidents per 1,000 miles for women than men in the 16 months that women drivers have been employed. . . .
More than 400 women--almost one-third the total force--now operate busses and streetcars in San Diego.
HAROLD KEEN San Diego
Behind the Front
Sirs:
I am surprised that you ask for "a name for soldiers who also serve--behind the front". (TIME, Oct. 25). That term, of course, is "G.I."
ARTHUR L. COLEMAN San Antonio
High Gun
Sirs:
I wonder just who is the top aerial gunner of the Army Air Forces. TIME (Oct. 18) gives the No. i spot to Sergeant Arthur P. Benko of the Fourteenth Air Force with 16 Jap planes shot down. I seem to recall that at least two gunners of the 19th Bombardment Group were credited with scores in excess of 16. Montana's much-decorated Sergeant Russell I. Huffman . . . was credited with 19 Jap Zeros shot down before he came home last December. . . .
J. C. MOORE Butte, Mont.
>Combat returns trickle home slowly. Can fighting airforcemen update high gunners' scores?--ED.
Crooked Souls?
Sirs:
In an interview granted recently to a French newspaper, the mayors of Nantes and St.-Nazaire disclosed that during the late American raid 2,700 buildings had been destroyed in Nantes and that 65,000 men, women & children of that city had been left utterly destitute. As to St.-Nazaire, . . . the town which previously numbered 45,000 inhabitants has been practically wiped out and only 500 survive.
For a few crooked souls this may be war on Germany; for any straight and healthy mind this is plain war against France. . . .
M. F. DAVIS New York City
> Unlike Reader Davis, the Allied command could not ignore the fact that St.-Nazaire was one of Germany's main U-boat bases.--ED.
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