Too Much To Hope

Sirs:

Your issue of Jan. 10 shows General MacArthur with his hands jammed comfortably into his jeans. . . .

To a potential inductee whose middle-age spread will no doubt fill to overflowing the unyielding dimensions of a G.I. trouser, there comes encouragement indeed. Is it too much to hope that the services will eventually allow pleated trousers? . . .

W. L. OVENHOLSER JR.

Tulsa

> Sartorial privileges of former chiefs of staff do not extend to G.I.S.--ED.

Joking Aside

Sirs:

As one who served as a lieutenant of infantry in World War I, I have always wondered . . . who . . . utter . . . "jokes" about 2nd lieutenants. . . .

It might interest these people to know that wars are won by 2nd lieutenants of infantry, aviation and artillery. . . . When the gory statistics of this war are finally compiled, you will see that ... the 2nd lieutenants lead the list of killed and wounded . . . far out of proportion to enlisted men. . . . These men are entitled to respect--even at the hands of their 4-F countrymen.

J. E. WILLIAMS

Washington, D.C.

In Defense of Woodrow Wilson

Sirs: The news item regarding Professor Bailey's remarks concerning President Wilson [TIME, Jan. 10] was placed under the heading "Opinion." I congratulate you on this heading. Certainly Professor Bailey's "truths" concerning President Wilson's "peacemaking blunders" would be strongly contested by many other historians.

There is no substantial evidence that I know of to support the idea that President Wilson believed that "mankind could attain a kind of international millennium at one bound," or that he confused peace-making with other world needs, or that he blundered in placing the Covenant into the Treaty of Versailles, or that he failed to publicize his League idea before going to Paris.

In address after address he made the establishing of a society of nations for the preservation of peace his chief war objective. . . .

RUHL J. BARTLETT

[Professor of History]

Tufts College

Medford, Mass.

Ike and Homer

Sirs:

In TIME (Jan. 3) "On the supple, affable shoulders of . . ."

Is this a slip or is there really some subtle expressive quality in the shoulders of General Eisenhower? Does he talk with his shoulders as some people do with their hands, their eyes or even with their feet?

Permit me to add that I have always admired TIME's diction, especially the use of epithets which help to picture people for us. Maybe it is a coincidence, maybe it is due to a background of classical training in your editors: the language of this most modern of magazines often reminds me of Homer.

(REV.) WALTER J. COLEMAN, M.M.

Maryknoll, N.Y.

> Articulate General Eisenhower does indeed talk with his shoulders. TIME's talk, as Father Coleman suggests, may occasionally reflect TIME's lifelong admiration of the Homeric epithet.--ED.

Letter from Santayana

Sirs:

... A footnote to your excellent review of George Santayana's Persons and Places (TIME, Jan. 10).

For those who have interest in Mr. Santayana the last letter I received from him [was] dated Dec. 4, 1941. "The longer I live," he wrote, "the more I lean on nature at large and the less on the conceit of human beings."

As to the war itself ... "I think (and hope) that the consequences [of this war] may be far more important and lasting: a really new era in human history, but not all that people on either side think they are fighting for. Words and things were never farther apart than in our uneducated times," to which he adds a footnote: "By uneducated times ... I mean that we are overeducated verbally and without roots in Mother Earth." . . .

VICTOR WOLFGANG VON HAGEN

Santa Monica, Calif.

Sub Hunters

Sirs: That the Army's 480th Anti-Submarine Group did a commendable job [TIME, Dec. 20] we in the Navy's antisub squadrons readily admit. But to say that the Army "was on the job when the going was hottest" and that the Navy took over after Admiral Doenitz' proteges had been thwarted, is a very untrue implication. . . .

One of the more important reasons why the Army operated anti-U-boat groups was the Navy's lack of extremely long-range air craft suitable for low level attack bombing required in anti-submarine tactics. To the Army went all the Liberators being delivered -- and to the Army went the task of long-range patrols beyond the reach of the Navy's patrol planes. When we began to receive the needed bombers we took over. . . .

(SERVICEMAN'S NAME WITHHELD)

New York City

> All honor to Navy's sub hunters. But honor, too, to Army men foresighted enough to have the very-long-range equipment ready when the going was hottest. Navy's land-based, long-range planes were taken over from Army's prescient purchases.--ED.

Cats, Terns, Eggs, Boobies

Sirs:

In the story of the tern colony called Wideawake Fair on Ascension Island (TIME, Jan. 3), the heading "Boobies on the Runway" is misleading. One of my naturalist colleagues who has recently returned from Ascension reports that he never saw a booby on the airfield or anywhere else in the interior of the island, although many of them live around the shores.

The cats have certainly not been imported by the American armed forces. Cats have been present for a long while. . . . Thousands of the eggs have been eaten annually by the human population. If these eggs are collected while fresh they are replaced by the breeding birds, so if our soldiers eat a few more it is unlikely to cause any great damage in such a vast colony of terns.

ROBERT CUSHMAN MURPHY

American Museum of Natural History

New York City

Intuition

Sirs:

Please tell the writer of "Problems of Plenty" (TiME, Jan. 10) that I have fried chicken, gravy and hot biscuits waiting for him at any time.

I knew all the time that [the] U.S. was equal to greater emergencies than even this war -- my intuition told me so. But since Hitler's intuition had fallen into such dis respect I didn't like to mention my source of information.

Whenever I tried to inform some self-named realist of our tremendous resources, he'd thrust out his bay window (substitute for brains) and ask for "statistics, little lady, statistics" -- you know how men are.

All I could do was go numb. . . . Now I'm all set to educate the realists. This wonderful compiler has put it all down so Mrs. Hinton, housewife, antiquer and garden-weeder not only can see this gigantic problem of limit less resources in peacetime, but can anticipate and relish the coming solution. He is wonderful. Does he have a bay window?

CHICI HINTON

Baytown, Tex.

> Incipient--but no cerebral substitute. --ED.

The Real Christmas

Sirs:

I read with amusement and chagrin the menu which was to be served to all soldiers on Christmas day (TIME, Dec. 27). . . . "Subject to no change except for the most extreme fortunes of battle." To the best of my knowledge, no battle was being fought on or near Fort Benning, Ga.

... I will merely enumerate those courses which we did not get: creamed celery soup with croutons, baked squash, head lettuce with Russian dressing, hot rolls, chocolate nut cake, assorted fruits, candy, nuts, cigarets, tobacco. . . .

(SERVICEMAN'S NAME WITHHELD)

Fort Benning, Ga.

Prediction

Sirs:

Your story (TIME, Dec. 27) concerning failure of American women to rush into WAC uniform states "Soldiers who have been in action want their women to join. . . ."

I did not find this to be true among men with whom I served overseas. . . . Many servicemen feel women in uniform waste too much time with military training, travel, etc. . . .

More important, fellows don't want their girls and wives calloused by military service. They want to come home to the same person they left behind. War-plant work is considered by many as more important, and of greater value to the war effort.

Women working in defense plants and home-front tasks release 4-Fs who are capable of every assignment given G.I. gals in the States.

Prediction: compulsory service for women will meet opposition from male members of the U.S. armed forces.

(SERVICEMAN'S NAME WITHHELD)

Palm Beach, Fla.

Curious, Dead Japs

Sirs:

You find some strange things on Jap bodies. After routing the remnants of an enemy unit from a difficult jungle ridge with flamethrowers, the following items were found on one deceased Nip:

One Ronson cigaret lighter; one Waltham wrist watch; one U.S.-made nail clipper; a colored picture of a tiger (possibly picked up during the Malayan campaign); a helmet with hollow pads in which was secreted a girl's photograph; a mosquito headnet ful of rice. . . . One other item lying near by turned out to be a white silk shirt, made in Sydney. Don't ask me what a Nip would be doing with a white silk shirt.

JACK M. TUCKER

1st Lieutenant, C.A.C.

c/o Postmaster

San Francisco

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