Defense Program

Sirs: The melancholy happenings of the last week give point to the old saying, "self-preservation is the first law of nature." Since our statesmen may be as confused as those of other democratic powers may I appeal to you to bring the following seven-point defense program to their attention:

1) Immediate expansion of appropriations for defense needs to $3,000,000,000 per annum.

2) Construction of a navy powerful enough to defend both coasts at once against attack by any coalition of powers.

3) Construction of an air force superior to that of any foreign power.

4) Construction of necessary military roads; mechanization of the land forces; and organization of adequate air defense for all major cities.

5) Institution of compulsory military service: one year in the labor corps (18-19) ; two years in active service; 25 years in the reserve.

6) Immediate suppression of all hyphenated organizations. Members of such organizations as are treasonable shall be deported if noncitizens; imprisoned if citizens.

7) Gradual rectification of national frontiers to include within the U. S. all territory from Alaska to Panama.

Let us not be satisfied with half-measures. Obviously there is only room for one major power on each continent.

HOWARD R. ANDERSON Cornell University Ithaca, N. Y.

White Paper

Sirs: TIME's recent essay-of-the-week on Assistant Secretary of War Johnson contained a reference to the army's sinister "White Paper" relating to the suppression of civil insurrection in this country. Just a fortnight later TIME notes the relation of the transfer of air force headquarters into the Chicago area to "White Paper" detail.

What's in the wind to occasion recurring comment on the contingency of internal disorder here? Do the 1940 elections bear an ominous look? Are all democracies expected to go on a jag every generation or so ? Do Viewers-with-Alarm expect Federal finances to go haywire ? Failing to have his way with the Supreme Court, the Executive Department and now the Senate, is the President expected to resort to a putsch to perpetuate his policies? Are the Nazis suspected of a plan to sabotage American aid to France and England when Der Tag arrives? . . .

TIME always talks hard and fast. If anything is brewing and TIME knows it, let's hear about it.

BOB RIDGEWAY Los Angeles, Calif.

> Officially, the U. S. Army ventures no guesses as to cause or place of any civil uprising. Obviously, however, any plan to use the army assumes a defense of Government from forces threatening Government. Obviously, too, any such threat to Government would be most likely in time of general economic collapse.--ED.

Ski to Perkins

Sirs: Will you tell us something of the life and affairs of Madam Perkins? We are hearing repeatedly that she is of Russian parentage, born in Russia, her name changed from a ski to Perkins when she arrived in this country. Her marriage license is said to indicate that both she and Mr. Wilson were mill workers. . . .

LAURA CHAPIN Alameda, Calif.

> Baseless is the bumptious rumor that Madam Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins (Mrs. Paul Wilson) is really Matilda Wutzki, a Russian-born Jewess. Facts are: Frances Perkins is a Protestant Bostonian whose forbears settled in New England before 1680. Her lifelong interest in social welfare led her to Chicago's Hull House, introduced her to her husband, then secretary to New York's reform Mayor John Purroy Mitchel. Neither she nor her husband has ever been a genuine mill worker.--ED.

Lightning

Sirs: In several recent issues you have given accounts of people struck by lightning on the golf course or other places in the open [TIME, Aug. 15, 22]. Are there records of automobiles ever having been struck by lightning, and does the movement of the car affect its chances of being hit? What danger would there be to the occupants? I think the answer to this question might be of general interest.

W. R. Ridington Dickinson Junior College Williamsport, Pa.

> Records of automobiles struck by lightning are rare. Says an international authority on thunderstorms, Sir George Clarke Simpson, Director of the British Meteorological Office, people riding in an automobile with an all-steel top are practically immune from lightning, even though the automobile itself may be struck. The movement of the car does not affect its chances of being hit. Safe rule in a thunderstorm: drive slowly. --ED.

Jehovah's Witness

Sirs:

On p. 52 of the Sept. 19 issue of TIME appears an article captioned "Face the Facts" which contains many false and misleading statements concerning the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Jehovah's Witnesses are not a sect or cult. They are true followers of Christ Jesus, and " are engaged in preaching the gospel of God's Kingdom under Christ (Matthew 24:14). They do not "engage in periodic spats with the law because its members like to peddle anticlerical pamphlets." . . . Jehovah's Witnesses are putting forth their best endeavors to aid the people to gain a knowledge of what is contained in the Bible. This is done in part by the publication and distribution of books which ... do not contain the words of a self-constituted "Prophet," as you termed Judge Rutherford, but . . . present a clear consideration of the Bible and well-known facts which show its fulfillment. . . .

GERALDINE L. CHURCH Washington, D. C.

> TIME did not call Judge Rutherford a prophet but a pontiff. Last March the U. S. Supreme Court upheld the right of Jehovah's Witnesses, and other citizens, to distribute pamphlets. Far be it from TIME to judge, from among the clouds of Christian witnesses, which are the true followers of Jesus Christ. Jehovah's Witnesses, however, are demonstrably cultists, holding as they do such unorthodox beliefs as that the world has already ended.--ED. Ears Pinned

Sirs:

Anent the streamlined Republican elephant I noticed not only is its stance worthy of any direction [TIME, Sept. 26, p. 4] but in addition to that it has its ears pinned back.

JIM GALLAGHER Allentown, Pa.

Weather

Sirs: Am I right in my recollection that a few weeks ago you promised to quit talking about the weather and do something about it? If yesterday's tropical hurricane is an example of your efforts, I beg you to lay off, and devote yourself to your own business. . . .

HENRY G. PEARSON Newton Centre, Mass.

B. P.

Sirs: . . . Item for your Travel Department: I find that the surest way to meet the Best People on any ship or cruise is to walk around the deck the first day out with a copy of TIME conspicuously displayed about one's person. Before nightfall the above-mentioned B. P. will either be at one's feet in an effort to borrow that copy, or will be at one's throat in an effort to settle an argument born of some article in TIME.

HEDDY D'ORSAY New York City

Pie in the Sky

Sirs: Your facility in answering (TIME, Sept. 19) H. A. Washington's query concerning the Communists' use of "pantywaist," prompts me to ask for similar information concerning another term that seems to have become a fad among political commentators, namely, "pie in the sky.". .

ROSCOE PEACOCK North Cohocton, N. Y.

> "Pie in the sky" comes from a popular I.W.W. song, The Preacher and the Slaves: . . . Work and pray, live on hay, You'll get pie, in the sky, When you die-- It's a lie! The song, written by Joe Hill (executed for murder in 1915) and sung to the tune of In the Sweet Bye and Bye, was intended to counteract Salvation Army propaganda, reflects orthodox radical agnosticism.--ED.

Underconsumption

Sirs: The Sept. 12 issue of TIME notes, that the U.S. Government is buying 25,000,000 lbs. of surplus butter, surplus butter, surplus prunes, surplus this and surplus that.

I wonder how many TIME readers stop to consider that if the 20,000,000 on relief had the price of one pound of butter a year there would be no SURPLUS? . . .

Let the Government issue its own medium of exchange (money), putting a purchasing power into the channels of trade and there will be no more underconsumption. There never has been a Surplus.

H. F. Mcginley

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