TIME & Youth

Sirs: Ten-year-old Ann Gardner [who surmised that she might be TIME'S youngest reader--TIME, June 9] is indeed a young reader of TIME--but enclosed is evidence that my little girl--not yet six--had the TIME habit several years ago. . . .

In case you wish to use this letter and snapshot, for the sake of my daughter's future peace of mind please do not print my name or address. This village is so very small.

K. R.

> The copy of TIME which young Miss R. is perusing is dated July 3, 1939, which dates her as, at the time, not yet four. TIME suspects that her attention is drawn more by the pictures than by the text, but there is no doubt of her interest.--ED.

Sirs:

I like to read your magazine too, and I am only eight years old.

JOANN JOHNSON Wabash, Minn.

Sirs:

I have just read the letter by Ann Gardner. I have been reading TIME since I was six. I am seven now. I have just been promoted to the fourth grade.

EMILY Jo BENNETT Dallas, Tex.

Sirs: I take exception to Ann Gardner's letter saying she is your youngest reader. I am twelve now, but I have been reading TIME ever since I could read and my mother often read to me out of TIME instead of story books long before I could read.

Another complaint I have to make. We should have two TIMES a week in our home as Dad leaves for his office before I get up and takes TIME with him. I could use it every day in school--only there the teachers make a grab for it. Some day I'll have a subscription of my own.

JOE R. GUNN III

Mill Valley, Calif.

Not Sin, But Self-Faith

Sirs:

I think your comment upon Mr. Justice Frankfurter, in TIME, June 9, was sneering and untrue. The trouble with the young man who wrote it, as Artemus Ward said of some other people several years ago, "ain't ignorance, but knowing so much that ain't so."

I have had the privilege of Felix Frankfurter's friendship for 30 years, and I have never found him touched by the conceit you say characterizes him. Not that that is a sin; it is usually a mark of self-faith. Besides, if your charge were true, how would it affect his usefulness on the Supreme Bench, of which, you admit, he is its deepest scholar ? ... HERBERT BAYARD SWOPE

New York City

>It doesn't.--ED.

Toes Undamaged

Sirs:

I have read with quite some amusement the criticism of one F. N. Gladish (guide, trail cook, horse wrangler) from Tete Jaune, B.C., which appeared as one of your published letters in TIME, June 2.

Mr. Gladish apparently criticizes General Robert E. Wood for having used an old Krag rifle on his hunting trip to Canada. ... I happen to know as a fact that General Wood, together with Colonel William J. Donovan ("Wild Bill") and a neighbor of mine, Mr. Russell B. Stearns, joined me in a hunting trip to the Yukon Territory in the fall of 1939. I also happen to know that on this trip General Wood led the party by bagging three grizzly bears, as well as an excellent trophy of the white mountain sheep. I further know that our toes are still intact and on that trip I saw no evidences of destruction of bird life. . . .

H. WENDELL ENDICOTT Boston, Mass.

Strikes on Defense

Sirs:

In order to stop strikes on defense, I suggest that Roosevelt appoint Westbrook Pegler Secretary of Labor.

TOM FRAZIER JR. Bowie, Tex.

Sirs:

APPLAUD C.I.O. RADIO TALKS BY REUTHER, THOMAS, FRANKENSTEEN . . . BUT SUGGEST YOU REPUBLISH PICTURE OF EIGHT STRIKERS BEATING FORD WORKER LAST SPRING AS MOST ELOQUENT ANSWER. URGE CONTINUED USE OF ARMY AS LONG AS IRRESPONSIBLE C.I.O. HOODLUMS USE MOB VIOLENCE.

W. J. KING Washington, D.C.

>TIME believes most of its readers remember that picture.--ED.

Sirs:

In your June 9 issue you ask (referring to Roosevelt's recent speech): "Did his voice reach the logging camps in the Puget Sound area?"

Absolutely no. What he said has had no effect. For eight years Roosevelt and his stooge, Madam Perkins, have preached and encouraged class hatred, and now, just because he has plans to help England, he pretends everyone must accept whatever terms of settlement are offered, and forgets we are still those "underprivileged," "poorly housed," "undernourished" people. . . .

Business must still be put in its place and we the people must have a just proportion of the profits from our labor. . . .

Yes, Franklin has shown us our rights, and England or no England we are damn well going to get them. . . .

C. J. BUSH

Seattle, Wash.

Consolidated Contracts

Sirs:

In your article on the labor situation in TIME, June 2, you stated that Consolidated Aircraft had signed a contract with the C.I.O. The fact is that the company has a contract with the International Association of Machinists, affiliated with A.F. of L. ...

W. DESMOND MORENO San Diego, Calif.

> TIME erred; Reader Moreno is right. --ED.

Something To Look Up To Sirs:

In the June 9 issue of TIME regarding Blood and Sand, some cinemad misanthrope states: "Tyrone Power, as many a U.S. female knows, is cute. Neither Juan Gallardo nor Rudolph Valentino nor any other Latin male was ever cute."

Because Tyrone Power was unfortunate enough to be endowed with pleasing physical traits, his acting ability must be made subordinate. . . . It is not only unfair to every U.S. female but to all American men that must have something to look up to. ... We will be looking forward to your physiological criticism of Billy the Kid, starring Robert Taylor.

BERNARD PORTER Long Beach, Calif.

Saddest, Cruelest, Truest

Sirs:

The saddest, cruelest, truest revealment of frustration: Artist Baker's cover picture on TIME for June 9, captioned "Aging Dictator."

. . . Benito Mussolini can well say with Macbeth:

I have liv'd long enough. My way of life

Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf;

And that which should accompany old age,

As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,

I must not look to have. . . .

Baker has told too much. God pity Mussolini.

AUGUST BURGHARD

Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Sirs:

I hold no brief for Mussolini but I am disgusted with your cover portrait. It makes him look like a diseased bull kidney in an agricultural department yearbook. . . .

JENKINS LEE Baltimore, Md.

Sirs:

Your cover portraits by Ernest Hamlin Baker are masterpieces of color and cunning.

JAY RUTHERFURD Lima, Peru

Sirs:

These are certainly times that try men's souls but, fortunately, there is still in America such a naivete to make a foreigner, like myself, smile quite often.

Your delightful Americanese and your innocence of the facts are indeed very amusing and I must say that I enjoyed, after all, your article on Mussolini entitled "Imperial Bullfrog" which is such a remarkable contribution to the widespread political illiteracy of the American people on foreign affairs. . . .

GlAN GlACOMO DI MONSALVO Washington, D.C.

Broadcast

Sirs:

Extract from a broadcast by Adolf Hitler from South America, Christmas, 1943:

My beloved Sheep:

It is with the greatest pleasure that I address you today from our newly-organized countries. As you know, only the U.S.A. is so obstinate as to remain unfriendly to us, but our bloodless victory will soon be complete there, also.

You remember how my great heart was troubled in 1940-41 by their obstinacy, which might have been a menace to our world peace aims. Happily all danger is now over. They have defeated themselves by strikes, by criticism of their President, and above all, by their glorious hatred of what was once known as Great Britain.

To celebrate the end of their childish resistance I now decree that the Fourth of July, known to them as Independence Day, shall be known henceforth as "Laugh at America Day." Let 24 hours of continuous laughter at their stupidity ring through our New World on that date. I myself shall be on the air in New York to lead you in that great laugh chorus.

I also decree that, from now on, the 25th of December, formerly called Christmas, shall be celebrated as my birthday, Hitler Day: or, if you insist on the affectionate diminutive, Doelfchen Day. This will remove the Jewish taint, once and for all, from that holiday.

KATHLEEN HOWARD Hollywood, Calif.

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