Out of His Era?

Sirs:

. . . Now is the time for greatness. The general level of our two possible Presidential candidates leaves one with a sickening feeling of being hamstrung and hog-tied by the two Chicago conventions.

Ever since the Wisconsin primary we have been hoping desperately for some kind of miracle that would make available to us the greatest man in American public life for at least a generation: Wendell Willkie. It is not one of the least ironic facts of our "greatest democracy on earth" that in one way or another we have either assassinated, rejected or shamefully repudiated the greatest democratic leaders this country has produced--among them Lincoln, Wilson and Willkie. We believe the worst that history will be able to assay against Willkie is that he lived out of his era. And whose shame is it if the American people had not the discernment and vision and integrity to accept the One World idea until possibly a Third World War has made it in fact a One World destroyed ?

Both parties have left us with a shopper's choice of taking either a White House ham or an Albany cold fish!

MIRIAM GALLAHER MARY LESLIE HARRISON Charleston, W.Va.

P: Readers Gallaher & Harrison's appraisal of Wendell Willkie was posted before his death. History will record his place, which TIME thinks (TIME, Oct. 16) will be a high one.--ED.

The Campaign

Sirs: WE HAVE BEEN PRESENT AT AN EVENT WHICH TIME HAS GROSSLY MISREPRESENTED. WE ARE REFERRING TO YOUR BADLY DISTORTED, WHOLLY INACCURATE DESCRIPTION OF THE DEWEY RALLY AT THE LOS ANGELES COLISEUM (TIME, OCT. 2). IF YOU ARE CAMPAIGNING FOR ROOSEVELT, WHY DON'T YOU SAY SO. . . . WE PREFER "SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP OF A HIGH ORDER" RATHER THAN "A VETERAN VIRTUOSO PLAYING A PIECE HE HAS LOVED FOR YEARS. . . ."

JUNE AND FRANK SUNDERLAND Los Angeles

Sirs: . . . It so happens that I live just across the street from the Coliseum, and I was interested in watching the crowd as it trekked across the Park. High-school youngsters (nonvoters) were present in droves, and we saw a great many families (with three or four children, some toddlers) hurrying to get there in time for the glamorous entertainment promised. Add to these the hundreds of adults who, regardless of politics, would walk miles to see a Hollywood star, and we have a crowd made up, in great part, of movie admirers, not Dewey voters. "Ginger Rogers will introduce" were magic words. Yes, it was the stars (their attendance advertised days in advance) who drew 'the crowd. . . . Without them, Dewey would have faced a half-empty Coliseum. . . .

ANNETT HUNLEY Los Angeles

Sirs: At the rate the American people are descending into utter moral and mental degradation, under the New Deal, I wouldn't be surprised to see Roosevelt's speech to the teamsters placed side by side with the Gettysburg Address in our history books. Two comments I heard on it rate notice, I think. Said a lady, "I thought I was listening to the Great Gildersleeve running for the office of Mayor of Summerfield." Said a bewildered man: "I didn't know we had a canine vote in the U.S."

EVVA S. TOMB Toledo

Sirs: I am wondering if the Republicans are so hard up for reasons to defame the President that their nominee, Mr. Dewey, resorts to accusing the President of descending to "the depths of demagogy" because the President quoted from Mein Kampf in warning against false tactics. The Bible frequently quotes the Devil to warn against evil. . . .

M. GEORGION Rutherfordton, N.C.

Sirs: . . . Since when is it newsworthy to have a Presidential campaign trip run on a well planned schedule? Could it be that any trace of planning or thinking ahead in connection with that office makes it such a phenomenon that it is worthy of space in these hard-to-get-paper days?

And about his [Dewey] aloofness, cold personality and so on. Maybe it is high time for some generous doses of such medicine. For twelve years now, the nation and the world have been regaled with a surfeit of first names and backslapping. We have been "Dear Albened" to near death and personalitied until we are squirming.

KENNETH CLOUD Manomet, Mass.

Sirs: After reading and listening to accounts of the public's reactions to the speeches of our Presidential candidates, I'm undecided as to whether we need a statesman or a showman in the White House. . . .

MOLLIE MARSON Hollywood

Barons v. Peasants

Sirs: You write about Poland: ". . . land economy built around baronial estates . . . " (TIME, Oct. 2). Yes, this was true 150 years ago. In prewar Poland 82% of the land belonged to small farmers or peasants. I cannot believe that TIME researchers get their stuff from Hollywood script writers.

ANDREW EBERHARDT Evanston, Ill.

P: When World War II broke upon Poland, 39% of it was owned by i% of the landholders. Most of them were nobility.--ED.

What to Do with Germany

Sirs: In the judgment of a law-abiding, peace-loving citizen, interested in the progressive culture of civilization, Mr. Morgenthau's plan for postwar treatment of Germany (TIME, Oct. 2) is not too drastic.

In a community of individuals, when a gang of criminals organizes to molest, terrify and murder indiscriminately the rest of the citizens, an organized police force apprehends them, by force if necessary, turns them over to lawful judicial hands.

The community from which the criminals came does not necessarily hate them; nor, on the contrary, does it take measures to set them up in business again with the admonition to "be good boys." They are corralled until, or if, they can be re-educated to take their places in society with at least reasonable moral sense of responsibility.

Why should this plan, recognized as fundamentally necessary in a community of individuals, be opposed by intelligent men like Messrs. Cordell Hull and Henry Stimson, as a basic plan in considering the community of nations?

JANET S. WRIGHT San Marino, Calif.

Sirs: . . . Perhaps Mr. Morgenthau has not realized his own barbarian tendencies. Or perhaps he has not been informed of the fact that just such tendencies, prevalent among the leaders of Germany, were the basic cause of the present war in Europe. Elimination of the finer qualities of a nation can do nothing more than bring forth, more strongly than ever, their tendencies which resemble Mr. Morgenthau's disease.

On behalf of the young men still in diapers, of this and other countries, who will do the fighting and dying in World War III, I extend sincere encouragement and hopes of good luck to Messrs. Stimson and Hull.

STELLA JOHNSON KING Washington

Sirs: . . . If America permits the Germans to keep their heavy industry, we shall have no right to be surprised if we shall read in TIME of Sept. 14, 1964:

"The robot bombs, which through their simultaneous attack on 89 American cities have brought this national disaster, were assembled in German factories of agricultural machines, locomotives and other industrial establishments which in 1944 were considered harmless."

Let the victims of 1964 thank those who, in 1944, were too refined to be fanatical Naziphobes.

K. KAUFFMANN-GRINSTEAD New York City

Sirs: By this stage of the game it should be apparent to any American, with either foresight or memory, that there can be no hope of a free, peaceful world without a strong, independent, democratic Germany. The Allies would find the role of oppressor as difficult as did the Nazis. . . . As long as men are dominated there will be Hitlers to take advantage of depression and chaos. The only reparations that we could extract from a defeated, devastated Germany are the dividends of a peaceful producing nation's commerce and trade.

After fighting so long for freedom are we to destroy freedom in the moment of our victory? Are the indiscretions of Versailles to be rejuvenated after all these years?

(PVT.) MIKE McELRATH Seal Beach, Calif.

Parson Weems Again

Sirs: Was it not Parson Weems (TIME, Oct. 2) who invented or at least popularized the equally famous lie about Washington saying his prayers in a snowdrift?

R. SANDS

Grand Rapids

P: Lie--or legend--it was Parson Weems. Wrote he: "In the winter of '77, while Washington, with the American Army, lay encamped at Valley Forge, a certain good old Friend, of the respectable family and name of Potts, if I mistake not, had occasion to pass through the woods near headquarters. . . . As he approached the spot with a cautious step, whom should he behold in a dark natural bower of ancient oaks, but the commander in chief of the American Armies on his knees in prayer?"--ED.

"We Three"

Sirs: We three "unimaginatively dressed" British women take great exception to the account from your correspondent in Paris (TIME, Sept. 11). After five years of war it is a little tedious, to say the least, to pick up one's newspaper every day and to read of and see pictures of "elegant" Parisiennes, who have not apparently been limited to 48 clothing coupons a year, as we have.

It may interest your readers to know that the average British woman's life during the war has consisted of working sometimes for twelve hours a day six days a week scrambling for busses and trains, getting meals, housework, laundry, mending, shopping.

. . . Perhaps even your correspondent and the "elegant" Parisiennes would not feel imaginative after a night in an Anderson shelter, emerging the next morning probably to find that they have not even any "unimaginative" clothes left.

We would like your correspondent to give us her suggestions on how to be elegant and imaginative on 48 clothing coupons a year and the amount of time we have available to glamorize ourselves. We would like to point out personally, apart from having to put up with the above, that husbands of two of us have been killed during this war and the husband of the third is serving with the British Forces in Italy.

M. MACDOUGALL ANNA CUNDY JEANNE DOLLERY Reading, Berks, England

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