Lack of Unity

Sirs:

. . . In TIME, June 8 you say, in part: "The winning of the war has not begun and . . . its losing has gone on apace. . . . Last fortnight came evidence that the Navy is keeping secrets from its Army superiors even in the vital Canal Zone."

It is these things, and others like them, which keep me and my wife, with three sons in the Air Corps, and two others to go, and five nephews now in, worried unnecessarily, and miserable. Thousands of parents feel as we do. Please hammer away at this lack of unity. Surely somebody can do something about it.

R. D. BAKER

Warren, Pa.

Sirs:

What in hell are we supposed to do, sit and wait for another "bloody monument to divided responsibility," as Pearl Harbor is described by Colonel Hugh J. Knerr [TIME, June 1], before the powers that be, in the Army & Navy, skip traditional arguing and realize the vulnerability their collaboration deems?

Of all things to be bickering about, air power, the very lifeline of the efforts of both their forces! General Headquarters demanded satisfaction after Pearl Harbor. Let's investigate Colonel Knerr's theme before another large-scale investigation is necessary.

--*

Military Police Detachment

Camp Polk, La.

> A lot of Army-Navy-Air cooperation is still lacking, but there were some healthy signs of its beginning at Midway on June 3. -ED.

Rationing in S. A.

Sirs:

All petroleum products transported by tankers are being rationed in Central and South America, and the Caribbean. As a fine example of cooperation, I quote below a letter written by President Martinez of El Salvador, which has just crossed my desk:

"President of the Economic Coordination Committee,

Dear Sir:

With regard to rationing of petroleum products for agriculture, I take pleasure in attaching a detailed statement of the consumption of oil, gasoline, and greases in my hacienda (farm) 'Tihuilocoyo,' in the Department of La Paz.

I have in use two tractors: one 'Caterpillar' 4O-h.p. diesel, 1937 model, and another a John Deere diesel model 'A', I also have a 10-h.p. diesel motor for other purposes.

As in past years, I desire to plant 200 manzanas (346 acres) of cotton of the coming crop.

Hoping that the information given will be sufficient to enable you to 'assign me the proper quota for this year, and thanking you in advance for whatever attention this request may merit, I am your servant and good friend,

MAXIMILIANO H. MARTINEZ"

You will note that this letter is signed by General Martinez as a simple citizen and not as President of the Republic. Contrast his attitude with that of the fuss made by our Senators and Congressmen and others in position over "X" cards, so well described in the last two or three Air-Express editions of TIME.

D. W. RAMSEY, JR.

West India Oil Co., S.A.

Havana, Cuba

War Bonds in S. A.

Sirs:

Miss Myriame D. Sherower of 1491 East 33 St., Brooklyn, and P.O. Box 709, Caracas, Venezuela was in here this week to volunteer as an international minuteman for the sale and promotion of war bonds and stamps in Venezuela.

She hopes to interest the members of the large American colony there in authorizing their home companies in the U.S. to deduct regularly from their salaries for the systematic purchase of war bonds.

The point is War Bonds can't be taken outside this country. Miss Sherower seemed to think it would help a lot if TIME might make some mention of this, because TIME'S Air-Express edition, according to her, is the only publication that is read with any regularity down there. . . .

HERBERT A. SCHWARTZ JR.

Assistant Director of Publicity

Treasury Department

War Savings Staff

New York City

Pro and Con

Sirs:

. . . Your literary critic committed in my eyes and in the eyes of everybody I spoke to a really unfair attack on the greatest living exponent of the German literature in his article on Franz Werfel's Song of Bernadette in TIME, June 8. . . . Only Thomas Mann is in the same class as he is.

The last sentence, which calls him a man without genius, who only in a few pages becomes a great artist, is as vile a slur as I ever hoped to see in your pages. . . .

ADOLPH LOEWI

Los Angeles, Calif.

Sirs:

Would the man who wrote the review of Franz Werfel's book, in the current issue [June 8], care to hear that he has done a perfect bit of prose? Who writes your book reviews ? They are always superior; this one, supreme. Now I shall have to read the book --which I didn't want to do.

ANNE GOODWIN WINSLOW

Raleigh, Tenn.

No Isolationist

Sirs:

May I take exception to this statement? "In the 25th Pennsylvania district, Representative Charles I. Faddis, Democrat, profoundly isolationist, named widely as a Congressional obstructionist (TIME, May 25), had insisted on his right to an X-card (for personal, unlimited gasoline supply). Six days later he was soundly beaten by Dr. Robert Grant Furlong." (TIME, June i.)

I believe that an analysis of Dr. Furlong's nomination will disclose that another --and more significant --factor caused the defeat of Mr. Faddis. When the Pennsylvania Legislature in special session this year redistricted the State, Congressman Faddis was forced to move from Greene to Washington County, was further forced to campaign in unfamiliar but highly pro-Labor districts of Allegheny County.

Results of this move proved disastrous for him. He found a Labor vote cracking back at his pronounced and announced opposition to both C.I.O. and A.F. of L. wartime activities. The skimpy 20% vote which turned out at the polls was a highly organized one and one which remembered only too clearly that Mr. Faddis had been the sole local lawmaker to vote for the Smith Anti-Strike Bill.

So far as his obstructionist and isolationist tactics are concerned, here is his record on war bills: for the Draft Law, for Lend-Lease, for Axis Ship Seizure and for extension of the Draft Law. With the vote turnout as small as it was, the X-card issue was hardly a factor; Congressman Faddis was defeated almost solely by a vengeance vote of Labor.

WILLIAM C. O'TOOLE

Associate Editor

Bulletin Index

Pittsburgh, Pa.

Sirs:

. . . Perhaps he has obstructed New Deal domestic measures, but he has consistently supported President Roosevelt's foreign policy. . . .

Faddis' votes for repeal of the neutrality bill, destroyer-bases exchange, Lend-Lease, conscription extension, etc. give proof of his internationalism. It is because of this record of his anti-isolationism and of his opposition to Nazi propaganda that Representative Faddis has been receiving the votes of my Republican family. . . .

MARY LOU CHALFANT

Washington, Pa.

> TIME apologizes to Ex-Congressman Faddis, is glad to set the record straight. --ED.

Henker's Hell

Sirs:

All I want to know is, how long has he or she who wrote "Heydrich's Inferno" in the June 8 issue been out of sophomore composition class? And where were the editors when the copy went through?

And oh, the irony and pity of it!

JOHN E. GROSSMAN

Fort Trumbull

New London, Conn.

Sirs:

Congratulations on "Heydrich's Inferno" . . . a piece of writing almost worthy of the great Dean Swift. This essentially non-Teutonic mixture of humor and hate is another hint that Germany is not going to win this war.

HENRY M. STEBBINS

Madison Heights, Va.

Sirs:

"Heydrich's Inferno" is a masterpiece. . . .

HELEN MATHEWS PALMER

Charleston, W. Va.

Crow Meat

Sirs:

In your report on the rubber situation TIME, June 8, you say there is no rubberless tire in sight, and that "There is no chance that any civilian will be able to buy a new tire until 1944 --at the soonest, Positively."

Well, that's about what we civilians expect, but that word "positively" sounds a little too positive to me. You remind me of the fellow who once proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that a ship would never be able to propel itself across the Atlantic with steam because it would require more fuel than the ship could carry. He proved it with actual, unassailable figures. Positively.

When you speak so positively about American ingenuity you are just cooking up a mess of crow meat which you may be asked to eat before 1944.

DEAN POLLOCK Milwaukie, Ore.

> It would be a savory dish and TIME would willingly eat it.--ED.

Objective Reporting

Sirs:

Congratulations upon your TiMEworthy handling of the Chinese situation in your issue of June 1. As one who has some knowledge of the Orient and of Oriental psychology, I know how much the Chinese will appreciate real help at this time, and how long and resentfully they will remember it if we give them nothing but cash and conversation.

Your handling of this matter was superb. Historical changes have always been brought about by significant causes so obvious that it seems incredible they weren't properly understood. Nearly always, however, they were obscured by contemporary trivia which seemed more important at the time.

Continue your objective reporting, concentrate your literary focus upon the truly significant, group events so they are seen in their proper perspective, and you will do your country a great service, as well as reestablish the "power of the press." And we need that far more than we think we do at the moment.

ERLE STANLEY GARDNER

Temecula, Calif.

Untroubled Waters

Sirs:

For the past several months widespread, senseless rumors affecting adversely the recreational business of shore resorts along the Atlantic Coast line have been refuted as entirely untrue.

Yesterday I opened my copy of TIME and was amazed to read on p. 17 of the June 8 issue under the heading "Wartime Living" that "Vacationers will find little to do on either Coast. The troubled shore waters of the Atlantic are often coated with oil. Bodies wash ashore on beaches often enough to shock swimmers." . . .

So far as the shores of Cape Cod are concerned the statement is absolutely unfounded and denied emphatically.

Quoting further "on neither coast are lights allowed in beach houses or on cars driving toward the ocean." Again, this statement is entirely false. Houses facing the beaches may use their usual inside lights with drawn shades, outside lights only are prohibited. At present automobiles may drive toward the ocean with parking lights at all times and with downbeam lights on all highways when not in sight of the ocean. . . .

LEWIS C. WEEKS

Executive Secretary

Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce

Hyannis, Mass.

Sirs:

. . . It may be true, to some very limited extent, that "the troubled shore waters of the Atlantic are often coated with oil; bodies wash ashore on beaches often enough to shock swimmers," but if it is true, then at least we may question the unfairness of TIME as well as its bad taste in playing up such horrifying information, horrifying, that is, not only to hotelmen, but to the millions of people, especially sensitive women, who may be planning a sojourn at some beach this summer --with their children, perhaps. . . .

Suppose such incidents actually have been reported at a certain resort? Why stultify and ruin the business of all resorts simply because of a possible isolated instance? . . .

THOMAS D. GREEN

Executive Director

American Hotel Association of the U.S. and Canada

New York City

Sirs:

. . . If you, or the writer of the article, knew definitely of any resort where the ocean water was covered with oil and dead bodies were washing on the beach, you should have been specific instead of leveling a general indictment at the seashore as a whole.

Your statements are certainly not true as far as Cape May, oldest resort on the Atlantic coast, is concerned. We are starting our 143rd season as a popular resort without oil, dead bodies or barbed-wire barricades on our Beaches. We are cooperating with the coastal dimout, using blue lights along our boardwalk and beachfront, but this change has made our resort more, not less, attractive. Otherwise, our resort business is continuing as usual, despite baseless rumors such as you have helped to spread. . . .

F. MERVYN KENT

Publicity Director City of Cape May

Cape May, NJ.

Sirs:

. . . As to the line "bodies wash ashore on beaches often enough to shock swimmers," we have not experienced any of that as yet.

. . . As to the lights along the coast, I believe that a visit to any of the New Jersey beach resorts will show you that the shop windows are still lit, as are the boardwalk lights, although considerably dimmed.

We only had a little oil on the beach here for a couple of days and that was soon removed. None has washed in since. . . .

Louis F. CUNNINGHAM

Publicity Director

City Press Bureau

Atlantic City, NJ.

Sirs:

, . . [Your article] paints a forbidding picture which is not true of Ocean City or of dozens of other resorts.

We are bathing as usual on our beaches, unhampered by oil. No bodies have washed ashore. No lights are extinguished in beach houses (occupants are merely required to lower shades on windows facing the ocean), and cars do not extinguish lights (merely dim them) when driving oceanward. Vacationists are finding the dimout a unique experience, which most of them enjoy. . . .

Atlantic Coast resorts, in which millions of dollars are invested, are fighting for their existence this year. They need help, instead of hindrance. They have something to offer that Americans need --opportunity for rest. . . .

L. D. ANGEVINE

Editor

The Daily Sentinel-Ledger

Ocean City, NJ.

Sirs:

. . . There may be some instances along the Atlantic Seaboard of bodies washing ashore and there may be beaches on the Atlantic Seaboard that are covered with oil. However, I can truthfully state that there is:

1) No oil on the beach at Virginia Beach.

2) That the only restriction on bathing at Virginia Beach is that "bathing is not permitted after sundown."

3) That the only body to ever wash ashore at Virginia Beach during 1941 and 1942 was that of a seaman who was washed overboard while trying to catch a line from a pilot's boat at the entrance of Chesapeake Bay. This could have happened in peacetime. . . .

ROLAND EATON

Managing Director

The Cavalier

Virginia Beach, Va.

Sirs:

. . . The beach is beautiful and unspoiled, and the water is not coated with oil. No bodies have washed ashore so far as I can learn. . . .

DANIEL G. ANDERSON

Rehoboth Beach, Del.

> To any beaches wronged by TIME'S remark, sincere apologies. Florida's beaches have apparently suffered most.

But Governor Edison of New Jersey promised resorts State aid in cleaning oil from their beaches, and bodies of seamen have been washed ashore as far north as Long Island. --ED.

*Name deleted for obvious reasons.-ED.

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