Flying Tiger Blood

Sirs:

... All credit to TIME'S brilliant correspondent Jack Belden for the thrilling report on "Tex" Hill [TIME, Aug. 3]. But he might have drawn a truer picture of Texas' David Lee Hill had he known more of the blood that courses in his veins.

Every Sunday morning at 9 o'clock Texans tune their radios to the "Church in the Hills." . . . The warm, steady voice they hear, bringing a homely but scholarly message of Christian faith, is that of Dr. P. B. Hill, aged father of David Lee Hill.

P. B Hill was a Texas Ranger 50 years ago, and he is chaplain of the Texas Rangers today. He left the saddle, the mesquite, the Rangers' campfire and their dogged trail of the lawless to become Texas' best-loved Presbyterian minister. . . . For years he was a missionary to Korea, his two boys and his wife accompanying him.

Some while ago he resigned a successful pastorate at the First Presbyterian Church in San Antonio to retire to a home on the headwaters of the Guadalupe River at Hunt. . . . Just a few months ago he came down to Floresville to bury his lifelong friend and comrade-in-arms, Captain Will Wright of the Texas Rangers. . . . The great crag of a man, in his closing prayer, with a level voice directed the thoughts of his listeners to "Cap" Wright's son--on foreign service along with many another Texas boy. You might never have known, except perhaps for the light in his old blue eyes when he looked up at us, that his own boy was off in China, ranging the flaming sky with the Flying Tigers against a new foe on a wider frontier. . . .

ROY L. SWIFT

San Antonio, Tex.

Comparative Ignorance

Sirs:

I was surprised to read in the Aug. 17 issue of TIME an article on the illiteracy of English schoolchildren as reported by Chester Williams.

... If the rest of the questions are on a par with the one quoted about the Mississippi I am not surprised that he failed to get an answer, and I very much doubt if when it comes to settling world problems, but geographers--!

S. P. PADOVER

Washington, D.C.

Sirs:

The geopolitical "amateurs" of Europe were greatly amused by the kindergarten . . . map of "scholarly" Professor Renner [TiME, July 13]. On the basis of the "rennerized" map of Europe . . . and inspired by the professor's "democratic specifications," we have drafted a map of the U.S. as it might look if our European moppets were allowed to play with it [see cut):

1) The crooning cowboys of Wyoming, Montana, etc., should constitute the Czecho-polska State of North America with San Diego, which will be renamed Memel, as their only outlet to the sea;

2) The blues singers of Arkansas, Georgia, etc. would be forced to constitute the Balkan Union of N.A. This state should not be allowed to control the Mississippi delta, nor have access to the Atlantic seaboard. For their unimportant trade, Pensacola, to be renamed Salonika, will do as their only port;

3) The Herrenvolk of the Midwestern and Northeastern States will constitute the German-Magyar American Bund, which will have a common frontier with the enlarged Mexican Federation of Latin States.

But if our children would ever try to draw such a map they will get from us a sound thrashing and be cut from their daily rations of vitamin B.

D. DEM. DIMANCESCU

Berkshire, England

Information Please

Sirs:

In the event of a Japanese invasion of the Pacific Coast what would be the effect in the occupied territory upon: 1) the titles of real estate; 2) equities of corporations in occupied territory; 3) U.S. currency and bank accounts?

Millions of people who like to consider themselves rather well informed do not know the answers to these questions.

FRANCIS HILDICK

Pasadena, Calif.

> They should ask the Jap.--ED.

Scared

Sirs:

This "Politics-Before-War" attitude scares me plenty. Is this what we are fighting for? I hope the last issue of TIME I read before sailing for combat duty leaves me in better spirits than the recent ones--and I don't want to wait until after the November elections.

CORPORAL JOSEPH B. GREEN

Camp Hulen, Tex.

The Spirit of Research

Sirs:

You are to be heartily congratulated on your policy of emphasizing the increasingly widespread public indignation toward the Administration's too great concern for its political neck as well as its slovenly handling of matters pertaining to war-effort production. . . .

When the final history of this era is written, I wonder who will appear in the more favorable light--the leaders of the present Administration who have, if nothing else, taught large groups in this country to say, "I don't have to work if I don't want to. The Government will take care of me. It owes me a living," or the technologists, engineers and scientists, as exemplified by such topnotchers as Ford, Kaiser, and Kettering, to name but a very few, who have put the real punch into our war effort. It seems to me that this latter group of men are far more typical of the original American spirit, the spirit of searching, of seeking and of accomplishment. . . .

The scientist and engineer are asked to solve every problem but that of government. Should the highly technical world which they designed be left to the control of relatively ignorant politicians? One needs only to look at the handling of the rubber shortage to see that men of the caliber usually found in Government service cannot cope with a technical problem. . . .

We have technical men superior in imagination to any in the world. Let's make more use of them on the management side of the war and later in the search for universal and permanent peace. Let's use the men to whom the words "can't" and "impossible" are unknown and who know for a fact that there is no problem so tough that it will not succumb to the organized application of "the scientific method." . . .

JAMES W. MULLEN II

Anniston, Ala.

Of Mice & Mental Cases

Sirs :

Though Clarence W. Schroeder and others may be able to show a correlation between insanity and certain types of city areas (TIME, Aug. 17), who has ever proved whether living in those areas causes insanity or whether potentially insane people drift to those areas? A piece of cheese does not create the mice that are found nibbling it. . . .

PHYLLIS F. REAMER

Chicago, Ill.

To Think

Sirs:

My thanks to TIME for keeping me informed with up-to-the-minute coverage and especially with your remarkable coverage of what has gone before that makes the news of today. It is difficult for an Army man to follow the daily newspapers. As a matter of fact, I imagine it is difficult for anyone to follow the daily newspapers. Perhaps I should say it is more difficult for Army men. TIME has been invaluable.

I wish, too, to commend your efforts, indeed, your prodding, to awaken the American people to the peril which they seem loath to admit is present.

There may be times when you step out of line--there may be times when some of us disagree with you. But that, too, makes for great journalism--and it also makes for more thinking on the part of your readers. If you can make people think, you have done your country and mine a service.

HARLAN S. CAMPBELL Sergeant, U.S.A.

San Diego

Feline Miracle

Sirs:

TIME [July 13, Flight from Mt. Athos] contains one half-mistake of an amusing kind. It is true the rules of the monastery bar all female animals, but it is not true that at the present time this really excludes cats. There is, in my experience, a superfluity of female cats and kittens. I once inquired into the origin of this outrageous breach of the monastery law, and the monk to whom I was talking told me that in the Middle Ages an abbot of extraordinary piety was greatly troubled by mice and rats. He prayed for help to the saints and received the answer that in consideration of his piety his tomcat would be allowed to kitten. This happened and the monks have not felt at liberty to interfere with the results of a miracle. I have never found any literary evidence for this episode, but, as the monk pointed out to me, its truth is proved by the presence of kittens and it is a fact that many miracles are supported by inferior evidence. . . .

KIRSOPP LAKE

South Pasadena, Calif.

> To the superior knowledge of Dr. Lake, retired professor of ecclesiastical history at Harvard, TIME bows.--ED.

Your Boys

Sirs:

... I want to let you know how all of us in the British army feel, now that we have been joined as comrades-in-arms by your boys. And what a fine crowd of chaps, too. Believe me, no matter what some of your isolationists and foolish people in your country may say, we are getting on fine with Uncle Sam's boys, and I think I can say that all the British Isles is taking them to their hearts. ... I was recently on leave in London and it was indeed a grand and encouraging sight to see so many of your smart-looking boys. . . .

You've no idea what a marvelous feeling it is to us in England, after being alone so long, to see all your boys, and realize that behind them stand 130 million united Americans with all the resources of the "Arsenal of Democracy." . . . It was a marvelous sight the other day to see an American plane over the Straits. We are all hoping that soon we shall be fighting side-by-side on the European continent, knocking several different kinds of hell out of Hitler. . . .

R. A. PAGE

Watford, England

Sirs:

Your persecution of pre-war isolationists is certainly not conducive to the unity we should have to win the war, and is highly unfair. The pre-war isolationists could, if they wished to start a discussion, show that history has shown most of their predictions to have been correct. But they are abandoning all discussion and doing all they can to win this war, and you should do the same.

The attack made on us by Japan, the declaration of war by Germany and Italy, made the question of isolation or intervention a "moot" question. Everyone agrees that we must defend ourselves against the attack, and teach the attackers a lesson, and put them where they can't renew an attack in the future.

In this situation, for you to sow dissension, by attacking the pre-war views which did not agree with yours, is unpatriotic, almost treasonable. All pre-war differences must be forgotten in a united winning of the war.

G. P. BULLIS

Ferriday, La.

> Sometimes when it is pertinent TIME mentions the pre-war views (isolationist and interventionist alike) of men in public life. Of his honest views no man has reason later to be ashamed, whether or not they turn out to be correct. Most isolationists were and are patriotic men, and Reader Bullis cannot deplore more strongly than TIME any attempt to persecute them for their pre-war beliefs. -- ED.

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