S.O.S.
Sirs:
After reading about Lieut. General Somervell and the S.O.S., I wonder if the fighting men in today's ground forces still have the same opinion of their buddies in Services of Supply that their daddies had in World War I.
There was a song that was very popular with the doughboys of 1917-18. They used to sing it with feeling while they sloshed around in the gumbo behind the lines, waiting for a field kitchen that either arrived late or not at all. The music was Where Do We Go From Here, Boys? and the parody was by then Infantry Captain Guy Gillette, now senior U.S. Senator from Iowa. The opinion:
"Mother, take down your service flag,
Your son's in the S.O.S.
He's S.O.L. but what the hell,
He never suffered less.
His face is pale but that's from ale
Or else I miss my guess. Oh,
Mother, take down your service flag,
Your son's in the S.O.S."
RICHARD D. CLEAVES
Alexandria, Va.
Poetic Justice
Sirs:
Let the destruction of the Czech town of Lidice be repaid courteously yet with devastating effect.
When the war is over and won by the forces of freedom, let the city of Berlin have its name changed by the victors to Lidice, to the end that the arrogance of their leaders and the brutality of their Himmlers and Heydrichs may be forever remembered by the German people.
Let Lidice, obliterated in Czecho-Slovakia, come to life again in the conquered Reich as the capital of a country whose pride and perfidy have become a stench in the nostrils of free men everywhere and a horror in the sight of God.
TOM LENNON
Los Angeles, Calif.
> Another poetically just idea, sometimes suggested, is to offer Prussia to the Jews of Europe as their post-war homeland.-ED.
Scrap Scrap
Sirs:
TIME, June 22, holds the "low ceiling price" responsible for a shortage of iron and steel scrap and argues that "an increase of only $1 a ton would bring in enough added scrap to keep the mills running full blast." Here are the facts:
1) The ceiling prices of scrap, while far below those reached in World War I, are well above those generally prevailing since 1920; 35% above those existing in August 1939.
2) These prices have been set after consultation with the trade and have generally been accepted as reasonable by buyers and sellers alike.
3) These prices have not impeded the flow of scrap. Consumption of scrap, in the first five months of the year, as reported by the Institute of Scrap Iron and Steel, Inc., rose from 14,730,000 gross tons in 1940, to 22,127,000 in 1941, and to 23,235,000 in 1942. Consumption during the past month (May) was the largest in history.
4) An over-all increase in the general level of scrap prices, instead of increasing supply, might reduce it, since it would invite owners to hoard for still higher prices.
5) The OPA, after consultation with dealers, brokers, mills and foundries, and the War Production Board, has frequently modified the internal structure of scrap prices, by reclassifying scrap, by establishing new grades, by reducing or eliminating previous differentials and by altering geographic price relationships. . . .
6) The structure of scrap prices is under continuous investigation. . . . The price schedule may be modified in detail, but it is not to be expected that the general level of prices will rise.
CLAIR WILCOX
Price Executive
Iron and Steel Branch Office of Price Administration
Washington, D. C.
> TIME did not "argue" as Mr. Wilcox says. TIME merely reported the opinion of certain engineers, just as TIME has previously reported all the arguments advanced, in his own defense, by Mr. Wilcox's letter. Fact remains that Mr. Wilcox's policies, which have failed to bring out the abnormal quantity of scrap that is needed, can certainly be questioned as penny-wise and pound-foolish.-ED.
Good Ol' Days
Sirs:
... I like to think back to the "prewar" days when:
"Ceiling" was a haven for flies at night and required new paper every other spring; a "fireside chat" was an event when the neighbors gathered on a cold winter evening and shared red apples and popcorn; "priority" definitely meant women and children first in case of fire or flood; sugar was kept in a barrel in the pantry and all Daddy had to do with it was haul it home in the spring wagon when the crops were sold; should the word "blitz" appear in the local paperwell the typesetter had gone berserk after a night out with the town boys; hose were called stockings and came in three shades, black, brown and white . . .; "rationing" was perfected when Cousin Mary and all her kids came to spend the afternoon and decided to stay for dinner (I mean supper) and the food went 'round; when there was a "draft" you closed the door and "register" had something to do with the society set; "V" was the letter between "u" and "w" followed by "X" which had nothing to do with Senators and gas rationing.
The only way to digest the present letter setup is to get a steaming bowl of alphabetical soup under your belt. In the good ol' days the outstanding letter organizations were the U.D.C., D.A.R., B.P.O.E., V.V.C.T.Uoh, yes, there was the G.O.P. too ! It takes them all to make the U.S.A. and when they are replaced by other symbols of democracy, we'll still have the U.S.A. . . .
MRS. J. R. MITCHELL
Catlettsburg, Ky.
Conservation of Space
Sirs:
While buying my $5 auto stamp today I thought about the "three brassieres and two girdles" and said to myself, "so that is where my money goes." Later I reflected that perhaps without the three bras and the two container girdles it might be impossible to stow 40 femmes into one of the famous old eight-horse wagons that were so much in demand during the last misunderstanding.
Truly this is a time when conservation of space in transportation by any meansship, railroad or ambulatorycounts a lot.
A. C. KOLBYE
Philadelphia, Pa.
Mix-Up
Sirs:
I wish to call your attention to the fact that in your June 15 issue of TIME you have reversed the captions for the pictures of Attorney General Bennett and Attorney Bennet.
I am sure that each of these gentlemen wishes to be in the political picture this coming fallbut in the proper place.
WILLIAM J. DEIGNAN
Northampton, Mass.
> TIME's apologies to Messrs. Bennett and Bennet for a picture mix-up which was corrected after a small part of the issue had been printed.-ED.
Permanent Contribution
Sirs:
Congrats to you for giving a hand to Jean Thomas and her Singin' Gatherin' [TIME, June 22]. Miss Thomas has worked untiringly and unceasingly in behalf of this annual event, and she has made a permanent contribution to the best in American folk music. Moreover, in her books, particularly The Traipsin' Woman, she has made outstanding contributions to American regional literature.
AUGUST DERLETH
Sauk City, Wis.
> No mean regionalist himself, chesty, 33-year-old Reader Derleth, who writes 500,000 words a year, has only 40-odd volumes to go before completing his Sac Prairie Saga in progress.-ED.
Erroneous, Misbegotten
Sirs:
. . . The description of Puerto Rico as a "jungled, swampish, feverish, rum-ridden, slum-ridden 'paradise,' " issue of June 15, has shaken my faith in TIME. .
Having been born in Puerto Rico and lived there all my life except for the period of my education in the U.S. I think I am qualified to refute your reporter's sweeping, malicious description.
There are no jungles in Puerto Rico, unfortunately. The Federal Government has been spending thousands of dollars trying to reforest the island. One of the few virgin forests has been made a national reservation to preserve it.
Our island is not "swampish"; it is dry, in fact, too dry for its own good. For years both the Insular and Federal Governments have been carrying out a campaign against malaria by draining and filling in the few swamps, and except in a few places malaria has been greatly controlled. Yellow fever has never been prevalent.
"Rum-ridden, slum-ridden"-a very nice little jingle indeedbut not original. Why pick on slums as a particular characteristic of Puerto Rico when the whole world is "ridden" with them, and even the wealthiest country on this earth?
And as for "rum-ridden," I think the phrase could most certainly have been used to describe the condition of your reporter while there, or wherever he was when he wrote. We export most of our rum.
ESTELLA A. FORRES
Brookline, Mass.
Sirs:
... I feel, with nearly two million native Puerto Rican American citizens, that you owe us an apology. As a subscriber of many years' standing I am surprised and ashamed to see my favorite periodical gratuitously insult our people and falsify the facts in so brazen a manner; to wit: there are no jungles in Puerto Rico; as to swamps, there are some few hundred acres which are yearly being eliminated by reclamation. Surely we have slums in Borinquen bella, but absolutely not in the proportion your article insinuates. As to rum, let me inform you that more than 85% of our production of rum is guzzled in the States and of the remaining 15% a goodly part is imbibed in Cuba libres by our resident continental fellow citizens. And as to our island being feverish, let me tell you that the only fever that we have now in Puerto Rico is the high temperature you have raised in all your readers here. . . .
M. DAVILA DIAZ
Santurce, P.R.
Sirs:
. . . Does the author of that clause of unfounded, sweeping generalization know anything at all about Puerto Rico? In Puerto Rico there isn't any jungle. There isn't any swampland, not any. The Insular Health Department has carried on an increasingly effective job of malaria control for years. And if it is climate you have in mind, I defy you to find one that is more delightful, day in and day out, throughout the year. And what in the world do you mean by "rum-ridden?" A great deal of rum is manufactured here; much the greater part is shipped to the Continent. Naturally, lots of people here drink rum; it is cheap and available. Slums, yes, do exist here. . . . But not until slums are banished from the very heart of Washington and from the rural districts of the South, shall we be justified in throwing up our hands in disgust at Puerto Rico. . . .
MAURICE H. SEGALL
University of Puerto
Rico Rio Piedras, P.R.
Sirs:
. . . How would you like to have the U.S. described as a gangster-ridden, racket-ridden country? . . .
DR. A. PIETRI
Ponce, P.R.
> TIME bows to the understandable wrath of those Puerto Rican readers who protested with vehemence and statistics. Jungled, swampish and rum-ridden were erroneous, misbegotten, unTIMEworthy adjectives.-ED.
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