Proving Grounds
Sirs:
Herewith a copy of a letter to my former tank driver, who is still with the outfit in Germany:
"Dear Sergeant Neibauer:
"I read in TIME (Mar. 12) that the tank drivers at Chrysler threatened to strike because the proving grounds were dusty. . . . This brings to mind several problems confronting your union. . . . Have any representations been made to the management concerning the Tetter mines which are scattered all over Siegfried Proving Grounds? Has a vote been taken on a strike on account of the quantity of German 88s that keep getting into the tanks? Has the movement to secure a 20-hour day received any support? Particularly, I have been wondering about a problem that makes these proving grounds almost unbearable--that is, the number of dead and wounded tank drivers that show up in the tanks tested there. Did you and the rest of the crew get paid overtime for the extra work you put in cleaning up the blood I threw all over the fighting compartment at Bastogne Proving Grounds? . . ."
WILLIAM G. SEARS Major (Enroute to U.S. Army Hospital)
The Voice
Sirs:
You may be interested in an account of a major feat by TIME Correspondent Tom Durrance.
On one of our recent trips, Tom and I were stabled together. . . . Not more than five minutes after he crept aboard his cot, Mr. Durrance began his performance. He started with the classical buzz-saw motif and ran through other conventional numbers. . . .
Satisfied that he was limbered up Mr. Durrance . . . broke into a major theme of astonishing virtuosity: an outboard motorboat is drifting in a rock-girt bay, with no other sounds than the slap of waves on the hull and the seething wind. Then come a series of reluctant, coughing gasps as the pilot tries to start the engine. At last the motor responds to his desperate tug, and the little boat dashes across the bay, the puttering sound of the engine reflected faithfully by the towering cliffs ahead. The boat goes faster & faster, and at last races altogether out of control. We see the pilot wringing his hands and hear his frightened moans as, the boat roars for the rocks, and crashes with a series of hellish explosions, the broken propeller thrashing against the stone. . . .
But Durrance was not content with a single masterpiece: [there were] the leaky balloon; the old streetcar; the stealthy assassin (gurgle and choke); the delayed-action infernal machine; the badgered bear with its refreshing and vigorous variant, the dog with bone . . . [and] the difficult aircraft motif. He flew a four-hour mission, involving several hundred planes. . . .
Tom awoke refreshed. His work takes nothing out of him. He asked me how I felt. I forget what I said. I hope he has too. . . .
BOB STROTHER
c/o Postmaster
New York City
Entertainment, Not Morals
Sirs:
The implication in Theater (TIME, March 12) is that Commissioner Paul Moss served a novitiate in censorship as a member of the National Board of Review, which you call "watchdog of cinemorality." For nearly 30 years the Board has been actively and outspokenly against censorship: its reviewers classify and recommend films on the basis of entertainment, not morals. . . .
JAMES S. HAMILTON
Executive Director
National Board of Review
New York City
P: Is Cerberus neuter as well as neutral?--ED.
Basket Case Rumors
Sirs:
. . . You made a statement that there have been no ''basket cases" (loss of four limbs) in World War II (TIME, Feb. 26).
On March 7th, a wounded war veteran spoke in our plant for the Red Cross. He stated that there are four wards of basket cases in the Tilton General Hospital alone.
IRENE G. HOFFMEYER
West Orange, NJ.
Sirs:
. . . There is a whole ward of the . . . hospital . . . devoted to these pitiful cases. They are brought in at night so the squeamish public will not have to know they exist. I think it's a shame that the public gets all its news so sugarcoated. . . .
ALVIN SINGERMAN
Los Angeles
P: Shame, rather, on Reader Singerman for believing false rumors. Says Surgeon General Norman T. Kirk: there have been no basket cases in World War II; no man losing all four limbs could live.--ED.
Hazing Homicide
Sirs:
The story "Boys Will Be Boys" (TIME, March 5) about the boy who was killed while being initiated into a college fraternity is one that should rouse to action every citizen of the U.S. . . .
JOHN L. BATES
Meadville, Pa.
Sirs:
. . . I think it is about time the fraternities got together and agreed upon some ceremony which will not shock the public; if this goes on parents will be justified in boycotting such educational institutions where cruel treatments are practiced. . . . I hope the parents of Robert Perry will bring a civil suit against the University for the death of their son; and the fraternity and its members should be indicted for such kind of homicide as the laws of the State of Missouri allow.
JAMES R. WALTERS
Little Rock, Ark.
Ungnarled Nimitz
Sirs:
TIME (Feb. 26), which gives the cover to Admiral Nimitz, contains a grand story on him. We are all delighted with it. But there is the statement that "Nimitz reached for his pen, gripped it in a hand gnarled by rheumatism. . . ."
He has no gnarled hands, nor has he rheumatism. Actually, he retains all of his physical wellbeing, with perhaps the exception of the loss of the tip of one finger.
OFFICER'S NAME WITHHELD
Headquarters of Commander in Chief U.S. Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas
Sirs:
. . . Newspapermen habitually refer to midshipmen of the U.S. Naval Academy as "cadets"--a term which specifically applies to boys at West Point and other military schools. . . . Naval Academy men for obvious reasons do not like the inference.
Furthermore, "Cadet" Nimitz is wearing the uniform of an ensign, in peacetime full dres. . . .
E. W. SWEETLAND
Lieut. Commander, U.S.N.R.
Naval Training School
Harvard University
P: TIME'S apologies to ungnarled, ablebodied, ex-Midshipman Nimitz (see cut).--ED.
Dictaphones & Dictographs
Sirs:
You seem to be having your troubles with a dictating machine trademarked Dictaphone. Because your editorial treatment involves an evident misconception of a fundamental point of law concerning the use of trademarks, I'd like to set the matter straight for the benefit of all concerned. On p.18 of the March 19 issue you use the word to denote a phonographic apparatus to take dictation -- but with a small "d" as a common noun instead of a capital "D" as a proper noun, denoting a trademark which it is. (It's like saying joe doakes, smoking a camel, drove off in his ford to buy some listerine.) On p.92, in an item about a spy movie, you refer to "hidden dictaphones" when you mean a secret listening device. Well, Dictaphone just isn't that kind of machine and Dictograph, a trademarked voice-transmitting device, isn't really used by criminal investigators, local or federal, to overhear remote conversations. (They usually have their own small delicate apparatus privately built for them.)
After all, these manufacturers have property rights in the names of their products just as you have in the name of your magazine.
PAUL B. WEST
President
Association of National Advertisers New York City
P: Hereafter TIME will mind its Dictaphones & Dictographs.--ED.
Gum-Chewing Newspaper
Sirs:
Just what in hell, we ask in all sincerity, is a "gum-chewing newspaper?" (TIME, March 5).
(M/SGT.) EUGENE J. POTTER
(S/SGT.) ROBERT W. DIETSCH
Tampa
P: Ever hear the New York Daily News (for one) crack its gum?--ED.
Unusual?
Sirs:
I had been warned not to go to Washington without train accommodations, appointment made, and counting on three or four days before seeing my man.
I arrived on the morning of Feb. 28, got a taxi with ease, acquired hotel accommodations, saw the gentleman in WPB without waiting, settled all business, ate all my meals without standing in line, and was able to visit friends before taking a train back to Jackson, with sleeping accommodations acquired without reservation. Is this unusual?
JAMES T. CANIZARO
Jackson, Miss.
P: Is a jackpot unusual?--ED.
Why?
Sirs:
I am 29 years of age . . . blind in one eye, weigh 124 pounds, as compared with my normal 160, and I know what it is like to be under Jap bombings, strafings and groundfire.
The above is written only to prove my right to ask the following questions:
1) Why are there so many healthy 4-Fs left in America when they are able to serve?
2) Why does Congress hesitate to pass a National Service Act? If a man can be forced to die for his country, why should he not be forced to work for it?
(CPL.) W. ESKELUND
c/o Postmaster
San Francisco
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