In Memoriam
Sirs:
All week I have been waiting impatiently for this week's issue of TIME, [April 23], knowing that in its usual clear fashion it would frame into words the thoughts and tears and hopes and fears of all the 137 million Americans who this week bade farewell to our beloved President.
Your simple account of how his death touched the armed forces, the man in the street, the great and near-great, near & far, and your eloquent tribute to him and to his brave wife, said completely what I have sought to convey to my children. It will be reverently put in their diary as the "requiem" in his memory.
And it is all the greater because you did not see eye-to-eye with him.
A memorial like this issue of TIME renews my faith in the undying eternal greatness of our beloved country and in that precious term "American." God bless you for portraying it so truly.
ROSE K. HERRMANN Scarsdale, N.Y.
Sirs:
Please permit me to commend your current issue of TIME, especially the space and fairness with which you dealt with the life, accomplishments and death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. For more than eight years it has been my privilege and honor to be Rector of "The President's Church" in Washington (St. Thomas'), where I have come to know him and to appreciate his sterling qualities as a man with a genius for friendship, a charm of personality, ideals of true democracy, world vision, an underlying religious spirit and a surprising knowledge of the Bible. . . . HOWARD S. WILKINSON Rector
St. Thomas' Church Washington
"Horizon Unlimited"
Sirs:
Yesterday I received from General Surles in Washington a copy of the April 2 issue of TIME with its splendid covering of 'the most recent Allied airborne operation and the British and American forces which executed it. You have once more placed before the British and American public the achievements of our airborne troops, whose gallantry and fighting hearts have no superiors. In grasp of subject, in recognition of sound airborne principles, and in vividness of description, I think you have set new standards.
The last airborne operation was a gem of its type. Sooner or later we shall have others, each, we hope, equally good in its own particular class--dropping in front of an armored spearhead or seizing an airhead from which to build up other strong forces. ''Horizon unlimited," indeed.
M. B. RIDGWAY
Major General, U.S. Army, Commanding
Sirs:
What the heck is an Old School Tie? Is it the "tie that binds" type of tie, or something to adorn a gentleman's neck? I take it that an Old School Tie is something to be worn by graduates of English schools, . . . but whether every graduate wears the same kind or whether the members of one club wear one kind of a tie and those of another club, another. ... I have no idea.
The reference is usually casual in the pages of your magazine and seems to take for granted that everyone knows what is meant. But today at our local Rotary Club I asked the group near me what was meant by an Old School Tie and did not find any who knew. . . .
ROBERT W. HEMPHILL Norton, Kans.
Modern Indulgence?
Sirs:
As a layman, deeply conscious of my own enormous shortcomings as a Christian, I cannot agree with most of the answers to the question: "What is wrong with the Christian church today?" [TIME, April 16]. Our religion, particularly Protestantism, has become a social uplift movement instead of a transforming force in the life of the individual as intended by the Master. We go to church for the sake of conscience and a "good feeling," hear words of indulgence which should be words of the severity of truth, and then mistake the good feeling we have for true religion, forgetting God betweentimes. The result is that our religion is purely emotional and somehow fails to find expression in our lives as individuals. Is that to be wondered at?
One of the truly great interpreters of Christianity, Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), saw the error many years ago in Denmark and wrote in his Journals:
But this, in my opinion, is what demoralized Christianity, and Protestantism in particular: that a clergy which is worldly in every particular, instead of admitting that it is indulgence from a Christian point of view, has reversed the position and made that worldliness into something Christian, something far nobler and truer than real self-abnegation [and] poverty. . . . The world has seen through that, and the clergy is consequently without influence.
I cannot improve on that statement as an indictment of our modern-day sale of indulgences.
", O. B. ADER
Tucson, Ariz.
Draft Nurses?
Sirs:
In reference to your article on the drafting of nurses [TIME, April 9], I would like to add a few comments. I feel qualified to do so since I am a member of the Navy Nurse Corps. Of course I admit there are many nurses who are doing vital work in the Corps, but unfortunately there is another side to the issue.
Why pick on nurses alone to be drafted when we figure that some work we are doing definitely does not require a degree in nursing? ...
As a rule, eight to ten nurses are working in the diet kitchen on this compound, whereas one nurse-dietitian could be used plus capable WAVES or civilians to do the work that we are now doing. . . .
A graduate dietitian enlisted as a WAVE and found herself swabbing decks. . . .
This is only one example of things we can't fail to see and start to wonder about--especially when we hear radio pleas and read newspaper articles on how desperately the armed forces need nurses.
All we ask is this--we know we're needed and we willingly lend all our support, but we're not blind to existing conditions. As for myself, give me some real nursing, instead of K.P. for the duration.
(NAVY NURSE'S NAME WITHHELD) Oakland, Calif.
Sirs: Your article was well covered in its reasons why we nurses are not joining the Army.
There's one more, however, which we think is very important, that you could have added--especially for the majority of the younger ones: our brothers, cousins, sweethearts, and friends all write us not to join. "It's no place for a lady," "I wouldn't have my sister in it," "Don't get in unless you have to," they say, and we know this is not propaganda. . . . As for us girls, we love our country and will count it a great privilege to serve it, but we gotta keep peace in the family, you know. So a draft is the only way they'll get us. (TWELVE REGISTERED NURSES) Atlanta
D. Duck
Sirs:
I seldom find reason to question TIME'S accuracy, but I would like to mention that I was highly incensed by the Cinema editor's wanton attack upon my friend Donald Duck's personality (The Three Caballeros, Feb. 19). The editor's erroneous reference to Donald as a "combination of loud little boy and loud little duck" is evidence that he does not realize how faithfully Donald portrays the inescapable fact that life at best is usually a series of frustrations for the average guy. If this character of yours knew Donald as I, and countless others, know him, he would readily understand the seemingly "incongruous case of hot pants" of which he accused the duck. Personally, I didn't blame Donald a bit for his enthusiasm in regard to the young ladies. EDWARD C. BUHRER Captain, U.S.A.A.F. Newburgh, N.Y.
^f TIME'S Cinema editor feels that an animated duck is liable to be more frustrated than ever if he insists on pursuing an animate lady friend.--ED.
Who Is Gertrude Stem?
Sirs:
U.S. soldiers may have been shouted down by this character Gertrude Stein in Paris [TIME, April 16], but I shall not be! Who is she that she can criticize our Army for not being "gay" after they have been torn from their homes and friends, spent years in training and months in mud and dirt of foreign lands liberating a French people who were too decadent a nation to do their own fighting!
It's too darn bad if the French are disappointed. Our men have only been fighting a little more than three years, have not seen the last of Europe's mess, and only have Japan to defeat after a 30-day furlough (perhaps) in the States. . . .
And since when has being serious, doing your job, and not always getting drunk been something to be frowned upon? It's easy to see why France fell if that is the typical French attitude. As for Stein, the self-styled "genius," some one should tell her a few truths about what's been going on while she's been in hiding till France was liberated. From what she says, however, I doubt if her genius mind would understand it.
JEAN K. MAIER
New Rochelle, N.Y.
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