San Diego, Calif.
John Rankin's Low
Sirs:
"Demagogue" John Rankin did more than hit a "new low" [TIME, Feb. 14] in his attack on the soldiers' vote bill. His sneak attack upon democracy and racial minorities is on a par with the Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor and the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia. ... A lot of good American boys, according to Rankin, have died in vain. . . .
(SERVICEMAN'S NAME WITHHELD)
Tinker Field, Okla.
Sirs:
. . . The most disgusting example of race prejudice and dirty political utterances that I've ever had the misfortune to hear. I'd like to assure Mr. Rankin that servicemen, like elephants, have long memories.
(SERVICEMAN'S NAME WITHHELD) Alameda, Calif.
Sirs:
As an old-time Republican, even I am ashamed of the poisonous words which so-called "Representative" Rankin from Mississippi poured out recently in Congress. As an American, I am even more ashamed of the silent members of this body who drank it all in without a word of protest. . . .
PETER S. MCCALLUM
Chicago
Sirs:
... Is he the sort of man who's gonna shape my future?
(SERVICEMAN'S NAME WITHHELD) Lowry Field, Denver
-- Not if Samuel Edgerton Lumpkin, 35, World War II veteran (medical discharge), ex-football player and Speaker of the Mississippi House, can help it. Mississippians have guaranteed this popular, rising political figure powerful support if he will go after John Rankin's job.--ED.
Sirs:
. . . The unwholesome battle being fought over the soldiers' vote bill in Congress is a bit nauseating to the men in the service. Those Congressmen who parry back & forth over whether we should vote by federal ballot or by state ballot are not fooling any of us. ...
(SERVICEMAN'S NAME WITHHELD) Scott Field, Ill.
Sirs:
Congratulations for your realistic reporting that exposes the doings of Congress in their true light. Being a Southerner, I have special reason to be enraged at men like Rankin, who continually refuse to allow the South to recover from the wounds she received during the Civil War and the Reconstruction. . . .
(SERVICEMAN'S NAME WITHHELD) Boston
Sirs:
Your outspoken rebuke of Congressman Rankin is worthy of the best American journalistic tradition. I'm proud to be one of your subscribers.
ARTHUR GOLDMAN Philadelphia
Sirs: . . Can TIME truthfully say it represents the opinion of all its readers with true impartiality as nearly as does John Rankin when he rises to make Congressional halls ring with old-fashioned Southern oratory, advocating States Rights, the poll tax, white supremacy and regard for Southern--nay, all --womanhood ?
Editor-Publisher The Summit Sun Summit, Miss.
> Letters received were overwhelmingly damnatory of Mississippi's Rankin.--ED.
Sirs:
. . . The men's interest is on practically anything else but elections or politics. I am convinced that the only way the majority of soldiers will vote is by placing ballots in their hands, practically lining them up and marching them to ballot boxes or mail boxes at the various military posts. . . .
Return to the Living
Sirs:
TIME'S STORY [FEB. 14] ON THE HOLLYWOOD FREE WORLD ASSOCIATION V. THE MOTION PICTURE ALLIANCE FOR THE PRESERVATION OF AMERICAN IDEALS INDICATES NO EDITORIAL PREFERENCE FOR EITHER ORGANIZATION BUT REVEALS IN COMIC STYLE AN ANTI-HOLLYWOOD BIAS. WE FILM-MAKERS REALIZE OUR COMMUNITY IS A GORGEOUS SUBJECT FOR SATIRE. WE GRANT, OR ANYWAY MOST OF US DO, THAT WE ARE THE WORLD'S FUNNIEST PEOPLE. YOU CAN WRITE MORE JOKES ABOUT US THAN YOU CAN ABOUT PLUMBERS, UNDERTAKERS OR FULLER BRUSH SALESMEN. HOLLYWOOD IS GUILTY OF DELIBERATE WITHDRAWAL FROM THE LIVING WORLD. IT SEEKS TO ENTERTAIN, AND WE SUSPECT THAT THE SUCCESS OF THE WITHDRAWAL IS WHAT MAKES HOLLYWOOD FUNNY. BUT LET TIME MAGAZINE VIEW WITH ALARM OR POINT WITH PRIDE, BUT NOT LAUGH OFF HOLLYWOOD'S GROWING RECOGNITION OF THE FACT THAT EVERY MOVIE EXPRESSES, OR AT LEAST REFLECTS, POLITICAL OPINION. MOVIEGOERS LIVE ALL OVER THE WORLD, COME FROM ALL CLASSES, AND ADD UP TO THE BIGGEST SECTION OF HUMAN BEINGS EVER ADDRESSED BY ANY MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION. THE POLITICS OF MOVIEMAKERS THEREFORE IS JUST EXACTLY WHAT ISN'T FUNNY ABOUT HOLLYWOOD. TIME MENTIONS "ROOM-TEMPERATURE BURGUNDY AND
CHOPPED CHICKEN LIVER" AS THOUGH THESE LUXURIES INVALIDATE POLITICAL OPINION. TIME, WHOSE EDITORS EAT CHOPPED CHICKEN LIVER AND WHOSE PUBLISHERS DRINK ROOM-TEMPERATURE BURGUNDY, KNOWS BETTER.
ORSON WELLES Hollywood, Calif.
> Well-fed TIME feels that the public should be kept informed about Hollywood politics, from soup to nuts.--ED.
On the WACs
Sirs:
A salute to you for your Army & Navy article on "Women" (TIME, Jan. 17). Colonel Hobby certainly is balked, and no one knows better than the officers and enlisted personnel on WAC recruiting duty throughout the U.S.
I am a WAC, stationed in El Dorado, Ark., recruiting women specifically for the Army Air Forces. . . . From my experience . . . and from the experience of recruiters all over the U.S., I agree with you that 'the U.S.'s young women are not listening.
We who are members of the Women's Army Corps are proud of our leader, Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby, and grateful for the privilege to work with our men in the Army of the U.S. as soldiers to help in the best way we can to help win this war quickly. We are ashamed of the women of America who refuse to help.
By now, my fellow recruiters and I know all the excuses women can give for not joining the WAC. We know about the girl who doesn't want to leave home and family, the girl whose boy friend or husband doesn't want her to join, the girl who likes her pleasant job too well to leave it. ... We are acquainted with the girl who quite obviously is just afraid of getting her hands dirty, and the girl who would rather follow her husband around from camp to camp than get in the fight herself and help get him home sooner. We suspect that the truth of it is that they don't really feel any personal responsibility for helping to fight this war. . . .
It's the women in the service of whom I am really fond! The women with whom for 13 months I have worked and lived and played. . . . These are the women I call Americans! . . .
HELEN J. NIMBERGER 2nd Lieutenant, W.A.C. El Dorado, Ark.
Mimi
Sirs:
Your Music editor has made a grave error. Bidu Sayao (TIME, Feb. 14) is not the Metropolitan Opera's best Mimi. Grace Moore is.
MABEL MICKLE Denver
Sirs:
. . . Give me Grace Moore's Mimi. Sayao's is much too thin and dull.
MRS. RAY HAKKILA Longview, Wash.
Sirs:
. . . Grace Moore . . .
EARLINE WILLIAMS Los Angeles
Most Famous Athlete
Sirs:
In TIME (Feb. 14) you say: "Not a vote went to the most famous athlete in history: wrestling Jacob."
Have followed sports all my life but never heard of Jacob. Can you tell me something about him?
ROBERT V. ELY Major Camp Hood, Tex.
> "And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. And he said, 'Let me go, for the day breaketh.' And he said, 'I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.'
"And he said unto him, 'What is thy name?' And he said, 'Jacob.' And he said, 'Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.'" Genesis: 32:24--28.--ED.
"Christian Gentleman"
Sirs:
"Sleepy, little W. D. Jones" (TIME, Jan. 24) is evidently my go-year-old father, given an incorrect middle initial. He is not conspicuously short -- about 5 ft. and 5 in. He writes me that he is usually drowsy because the constant pains in his knees keep him awake, so he was no doubt very "sleepy" after a hard trip to Washington, probably alone. Maybe he couldn't get a hotel room and sat up all night, which he would do rather than "impose" on one of his friends. Probably he shuffled along without his hated cane, which I assume you mean by "drifted." When I last saw him four years ago, he was also droopy-jowled, bloodshot-eyed, perky. . . .
Yes, "Sleepy little Jones" is a crackpot on Prohibition, and still maintains his amateur standing so far as I know. All his long and full life he has fought to eliminate liquor because he thinks it is wrong. I doubt if anyone ever fought as hard for any ideal. And he is a crackpot on a lot of other things, too. He is cracked on good schools, pretty parks, Rotary, damn good stories, daily prayers, efficient farming, World Peace, knocking Hell out of the Germans and Japs, giving gifts anonymously to poor people, trying to make sourpusses smile . . . visiting anyone who is sick--including strangers, raising money to support foreign missionaries, etc. When not busy being a crackpot he may find time to look at his small business which he started shortly after Lincoln was shot.
Yes, "Sleepy little Jones" was out-of-bounds and perhaps needed some coaching from the professionals. He should have been given the obscurity he has always sought. A tired, pain-racked, reticent, 90-year-old Christian gentleman, respected and loved by everyone in his community, decided to go to Washington to give his last ounce of strength in a feeble fight for what he thinks is right and you chose to ridicule him personally, a thing no one has ever done before that I know of. I'd like to punch your goddam nose.
PAUL E. JONES Sao Paulo, Brazil
> Consider it punched.--ED.
Too Much of a Good Thing?
Sirs: . . . The only thing wrong with Anglo-American relations TIME, Dec. 6) in Britain is that there are too many Americans in England or, as the Limeys might put it, "too many bloody Yanks around."
It would drive Americans crazy if our towns and villages were swamped with British, Russian or Chinese soldiers, no matter how much we loved them as individuals, no matter how vitally we needed their help.
Once the novelty and the first fine flush of enthusiasm had died down, we would be bound to resent the foreigner in our midst, in much the same manner that small towns near big Army camps almost always come to resent the military. That's only human nature.
... In Cairo, where the British outnumbered us in about the same ratio as we do them here, it was: "These . . . Limeys, they think they own the place!" Which is another way of saying that the major deterrent to friendly Anglo-American relations at present is merely too much of a damn good thing. . . .
(SERVICEMAN'S NAME WITHHELD)
Somewhere in England
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.