Heartbeat for Penicillin

Sirs:

From TIME (May 15) I quote the following: "Dr. Fleming (who discovered it) ... has got nothing out of it but praise--doctors generally do not patent drugs."

To hell with all mankind when, because of its indifference to the great men who alleviate its pain, it permits them either to starve, die of broken hearts, or pass their last days in acrimonious obscurity.

To Dr. Alexander Fleming, inventor of penicillin, I bequeath $1,000, just to show that the great painkillers of humanity have a few friends with hearts that beat for them. . . .

Will you kindly expedite the enclosed check to Dr. Fleming.

ARTHUR CREMIN New York City

P:TIME has forwarded Reader Cremin's check for $1,000 to Dr. Fleming.--ED.

General Wainwright

Sirs:

Your stark, epic portrait [TIME, May 8] of General Wainwright is the most challenging pictorial document of the war. His face illuminates all the tragedy, stoicism and heartbreak that men everywhere are enduring. As a shaming denunciation of "life as usual" and as a great inspiration for sacrifice it is unsurpassed.

ALICE GREEN SCHRYVER Polo, Ill.

What Went On

Sirs:

... We (of the New Jersey Field Club) have recently received a letter from Lieut, (j.g.) Conrad W. Swift of the U.S.S. Alcyone that, in my opinion, exemplifies the value of TIME to the man in service:

". . . My job aboard is that of communications officer. . . . Recently I had a new man assigned to me for communications duty and I insisted that he master the complicated plan that was being fitted together for a pending operation. He did what I thought was an excellent job. Came the operation, and we were there in the grandstand seats. At times we even got onto the playing field. It was impossible to get closer! Roberts lived in, around, about and through that operation. He observed it first hand.

"On arrival back in port after the operation I found a stack of four or five TIMES waiting for me. Roberts and I started going through them. Pretty soon he looked at me with a bright light in his eye. He had been reading the particular edition of TIME that told of the operation. 'So help me,' he happily exclaimed, 'this is the first time I've known what the hell went on out there.'

"That's not so far from the truth, either! That is what I meant when I mentioned 'great American journalism.' The welter of detail sometimes gets so confusing on this end that it's a pleasure to sit down and read the story after someone has taken the time to whittle down the detail and reduce everything to its proper proportion. . . ."

GEORGE H. MARTIN

Newark

Candy-coated Heroes

Sirs: I believe your criticism of Frank Kluck-hohn's close-up of Major Richard Ira Bong (TiME, May 1) was unjustified. If the facts given were correct, and you did not seem to question them, I see no reason why a reporter should refer to Bong in "warm, sympathetic" tones. . . .

Bong is unquestionably an excellent combat pilot. He is risking his life daily (as are millions of others). He is the American Ace of Aces. For these things let him be given all possible credit. But these facts do not make him a charming social companion, a diplomat, or a conservative flyer and driver. . . .

In TIME and other publications we read of a young ace's spectacular achievements and glowing accounts of him personally. At his death eulogies were written. From my cousin, who was flying in England at the same time, we learned that the young ace had gone "kill crazy", wanted to run his count to unprecedented heights. He had become unconcerned about the safety of his wing man, came home day after day alone. Other flyers grew understandably reluctant to accompany him; he started making flights alone, and was shortly after reported missing. . . .

With present restrictions we get little enough of the full truth of the war as it happens; please let us not have candy-coated heroes.

JERENE C. CLINE Hollywood, Calif.

Willkie Letters

Sirs:

In Letters [TIME, May 1] you give us excerpts of seven assorted lamentations over the explosion in Wisconsin which blew Wendell L. Willkie's hat out of the ring. Would you have us believe that the opinion of your readers is unanimous that Wisconsin voters were dead wrong and Mr. Willkie is dead right . . .?

WILLARD J. SEDER Swissvale, Pa.

Sirs:

. . . Nary a line ... to express the sheer relief with which most of us viewed the elimination of this political charlatan, this masquerader. He may now take his rightful place among the three other horsemen of apostasy in New Deal administration. . . .

JULES KERSTEN New Orleans

Sirs:

. . . One can draw but one conclusion, viz.: that TIME agrees 100% with said writers or that it received no letters from the other side of the fence. . . .

A. H. CARPENTER Chicago

Sirs:

... I believe it has been TIME'S policy in the past to publish letters from those who agree and from those who disagree on any controversial subject. As much as I hope that the letters you have published represent a very large percentage of those you must have received concerning Willkie and Wisconsin, it is hard to believe you received none expressing contentment over the election. . . .

ROBERT L. VANDENBERG Lieutenant

Santa Barbara, Calif.

P:I Nevertheless, at the time of going to press, that was the fact. TIME herewith prints some of the first anti-Willkie letters it has received since the Wisconsin primary.--ED.

Flowers for General Old

Sirs: TIME'S story "Battle of Asia" [March 27] leaves off where the real work began. Colonel Cochran ably planned and executed the first night's glider-borne operation, fortified by loan of two of Brigadier General William D. Old's troop carrier squadron planes and pilots (American). Beginning D plus 1 night, General Old fired his American and British squadron planes into "Broadway" (code name for strip) at a rate that would have left the dispatcher at LaGuardia dizzy. I counted as many as ten transports circling simultaneously, waiting clearance to land.

Later in the week Colonel Cochran pulled off another glider, show, opened up a second strip--"Chowringah."

All night every night for over a week, loaded planes left India at few-minute intervals, Burma bound. During the entire operation not a ship was lost, not a passenger or mule scratched, not a pound of supplies damaged. The late Major General Wingate, commanding the ground forces transported, stated "that it was the most incredibly successful enterprise in the history of airborne operations."

Great credit is due Colonel Cochran but don't skip General Old when you hand out the flowers. He's not a funny-paper character or an ex-movie star, but about the best damned air commander in the A.A.F. . . . What's more, he's been feeding, rearming, reinforcing and remuling these forces ever since. And the Jap bloody well knows what's going on now!

LEWIS C. BURWELL JR.

Major c/o Postmaster New York City

Changeable Bank

Sirs:

TIME does produce great changes, but one of the strangest things it has accomplished is moving Dogger Bank from the North Sea to the Bay of Biscay (TIME, May 8). Where are all your accomplished researchers?

JAY P. TAGGART

Cleveland

P: They must have been fishing.--ED.

The Kat

Sirs:

Your article on George Herriman (TIME, May 8) is a fine tribute to a man who in his chosen field had no peer. . . .

Herriman was first and foremost an imaginative artist whose charming and sometimes delightfully wacky comedy . . . symbolized a kind of reality one could not escape. Even when Herriman propagandized ... he was unique and wholly captivating: the introduction into his strip of a lonesome dogie who complained of "Old Sir Taxy-Waxy" and all he did to him at the time Hearst so loudly complained of taxation in California (Aug. 8, 1936 et seq.).

The character's name was "Lil Thin Dyme" or "Doleful Dogie," Sample line: "Ole Taxes Drainger, he done rode me down ... he done mowed me, and he done throwed me down. Ole Taxes Drainger, he sho' did slow me down. His pollatix is 'fulla trix--he herds us hix with bats and brix--Ole Sir Taxy Waxy--he sho' do make me burn!"

Small wonder Herriman had no understudy; no one could replace him. . ..

AUGUST DERLETH Sauk City, Wis.

Chicago's Tribune Sirs: You may be interested to know how one born-&-reared Chicago boy feels about the Chicago Tribune.

I was raised on the Tribune. My first paddling was with a rolled-up Tribune. On picnics in Lincoln Park it was our tablecloth.

In the low days of 1931 and 1932 it was our toilet paper. Before the war I was vitally interested in what happened to Orphan Annie and Dick Tracy and Moon Mullins. What did I care about their editorial policy? . . .

Now I'm in the Navy, it's all different. My town's got as much to gain or lose from this war as any place. I think anybody who uses his paper to obstruct the progress of the war, especially on the home front, should have his head examined (even a funny looking head like the Colonel's). . . .

My whole reaction is disappointment in the Tribune. I think it has let us Chicagoans down. . . .

JAMES O'BRIEN c/o Postmaster Lieutenant (j.g.)

San Francisco

Self-Respect Lost

Sirs: TIME (MAY 1) QUOTES 70-YEAR-OLD GAETANO SALVEMINI AS SAYING "THEY CAN KEEP THEIR MONEY AND GO TO HELL. I WILL KEEP MY SELF-RESPECT." FOR CLARIFICATION OF TIME READERS, HE TOOK THE MONEY. I SIGNED THE CHECK.

ROBERT ROSSEN

Chairman

Hollywood Writers' Mobilization Los Angeles

P: Nevertheless, Professor Salvemini still insists that he did not accept payment.--ED.

Smith on Moses

Sirs:

Bob Moses began his park and public works career when I was governor. As chairman of the State Council of Parks he developed Jones Beach and other state parks from Montauk to Niagara Falls. These parks are the envy of foreign visitors as well as of our own citizens. . . . These and other public improvements have reached into every neighborhood and made life better here. ... In the long run Bob will need no defense from me or anyone else.

Your recent story (TIME, May 1) re soldiers and golf was not fair with respect to the handling of these parks by Commissioner Moses. You left out some very important facts.

First: Bethpage Park is self-supporting and it should have at least two days out of a week to earn the income to retire the bonds and pay for its upkeep. Servicemen play golf free at this park five days a week.

Second: On the New York City golf courses the same privilege of free day five days a week prevails. These courses are also listed as selfsupporting, and must have . . . income from the public to maintain them.

Third: The state and city parks of New York provide an enormous amount of free recreation for servicemen. Golf is the least popular. The servicemen and their commanding officers prefer swimming, dancing and similar spare-time activities.

Fourth: New York City and State have abundant reason to be proud of their parks. They are the finest in the country. They will be still finer when our postwar program is carried out. Obviously it is a tough problem to keep up the highest maintenance standards in wartime. Most people are fair and reasonable about such matters.

ALFRED E. SMITH New York City

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