A List of Good Germans

Sirs: . . . About 5% of the German people dared to vote against Hitler as late as 1934, were courageous enough to help the oppressed ones and to exercise humane acts under mortal danger. On these true Christian Germans, these descendants of Lessing, Goethe, Mozart and Beethoven, the inevitable new edifice of the German state must be based. They must take over the jobs of city mayors, of foremen in factories, of presidents in scientific societies. . . . But how can they be found out? I propose that a list be made up of all such Germans who committed dangerous actions to help innocent victims of Nazi persecution. . . . Let such a list come from refugees, Christian and Jewish and Russian and Polish and French and Norwegian. Each refugee knows a few such Germans. Let these refugees know that the names procured will be kept completely secret. . . . This list will be given to the commanders of the victorious armies of the United Nations who shall put these good Germans to the job of initiating the rebirth of the true German nation. RUDOLF SCHINDLER, M.D. Chicago

Booby Traps, 1840

Sirs: Referring to "The First Booby Traps" (TIME, Feb. 1), mention is made of Gabriel Rains, who first experimented with such devices. I have a letter written to my grandfather, William Alexander Carter, who went to Florida with the 2nd Dragoons in 1836. This refers to the Seminole Indians. "Adjutant's Office -3rd Artillery Fort Peyton, May 4, 1840."

"Dear Carter: . . . We have a little Indian news lately. Capt. Rains, 7th Infantry, placed a shell on an Indian trail and covered it with a shirt. An Indian came and removed the shirt when the shell exploded and wounded him severely. Capt. Rains then put four shells in a blanket and placed them on another trail. The Indians discovered and resolved to catch him in his own trap. So they collected their warriors to the number of 85 or 90 and surrounded the spot; they then by means of a cord exploded the shell. Down goes Capt. Rains with a Sergt. Corpl. and sixteen men. On coming to the place he found an old "Koon" (sic) dead. Whilst he was kicking or turning the Koon over with his foot the Indians rose up and fired. The men behaved very handsomely, at once formed and extended. The chief of the party was twice seen to step out and fire at the Sergt. who was very active in forming his men; the third time he struck the Sergt. when he (the Sergt.) turned and rushed at the Indian until he got to pretty close quarters, he then fired and killed the rascal. When their chief fell the Indians fell back and slackened their fire considerably--in the meantime Capt. Rains had been shot down. The Sergt. seeing the effect produced on the enemy charged them boldly then rapidly retreated and thus succeeded in getting clear with Capt. Rains and other wounded men. We had two killed, Capt. Rains and four others wounded, the former mortally being shot through the lungs. . . .

Your friend, Randolph Ridgely." EDWARD F. CORSON, M.D. Plymouth Meeting, Pa.

> In spite of this and other contemporary reports that Rains was mortally wounded in this encounter, he survived to become a lieutenant colonel in the regular Army. As a brigadier general in the Confederate Army in 1860, he set modern warfare's first recorded boody traps (TIME, Feb. 1). His 1840 wound troubled him until he died in 1881.--ED.

Horace Taft

Sirs: TIME'S ARTICLE ON MR. TAFT AND THE TAFT SCHOOL (FEB. 8) SUPERB IN EVERY WAY. CONGRATULATIONS TO THOSE RESPONSIBLE. DUTTON NOBLE Business Manager Taft School Watertown, Conn.

Sirs: TIME erred in stating only Dr. Peabody remains "of the generation of schoolmasters who built the U.S. private preparatory-school system" [TIME, Feb. 8]. Seventy-nine years old, long good friend and obviously contemporary of Groton's Peabody, Rev. Dom J. Hugh Diman, O.S.B., founded distinguished St. George's School in Newport, R.I. After his conversion, and subsequent ordination as an English Benedictine, he became prior of the Benedictine monastery in Portsmouth, R.I. At that time Father Hugh founded the School of St. Gregory the Great (Portsmouth Priory School). Portsmouth may become the first Abbey school in the U.S. No other man is the beloved founder of two "prep" schools. TIME should double its list. GERALD MCGUIRE New York City

Wheat and Cotton

Sirs: The paragraph [TIME, Feb. 1] referring to wheat and cotton would indicate that in view of surplus on hand, wheat and cotton should not be grown this year. Such an argument omits such factors as these: Many wheat growers can grow nothing else owing to climatic conditions. Many wheat growers produce as a part of rotation, which they do not wish to upset. While there is an overall surplus of wheat, there is an acute shortage of some needed varieties. In view of postwar needs, the surplus on hand is not excessive. There are similar qualifications in the care of cotton. . . . ARTHUR H. JENKINS Editor Farm Journal Philadelphia

Sirs: That paragraph is ridiculous, even plain silly, because: 1) Large acreages of land are better adapted to wheat and cotton than to anything else. 2) On much of that land "crops the U.S. so sorely needs" would fail and obviously waste the effort of "uncounted numbers of men and machines." 3) Most of the wheatland will produce more units of food in form of wheat than any other crop. In the corn belt there is no substitute better than wheat in the rotations of many diversified farms. . . . 4) Many men in the single-cropping cotton and wheat sections are skilled producers of these crops. They are not fitted ... to engage in other production. Their equipment and machinery are specifically fitted for cotton and wheat. . . . 5) The country is decidedly short of long staple cotton, and there are officials with the "requisite political guts" to persuade planters to raise it. I expect they also have the "power to force" its production but I hope none of them is damned fool enough to try it, at least on the wholesale scale that TIME recommends. There are wise men who take comfort, during this crisis, in the "stupendous carryovers" of even the short staple. . . . 6) The country is none too well supplied with feed to make the meat foods we must have. Wheat is a highly desirable feed for beef, pork, milk, mutton, egg and poultry production. For all the classes concerned, except sheep, it excels corn. . . . The nation is likely to be grateful for any surplus of wheat we may have. . . . 7) If Wallace, Hopkins and their fellow planners succeed in obligating us to undertake feeding and clothing a devastated world, no further material reduction in wheat and cotton acreage or production is wise. 8) A given quantity of wheat will feed more people than the animal products that can be produced from it. It is not so perishable, either as grain or as flour, as meat is. ... 9) One "stupendous" surplus, that of corn, the subject of socio-economic alarm for a decade, has disappeared--within one year of stepped-up animal-foods production. We will, before 1943 is over, be making current meat, milk and eggs on currently produced feed. That is too close a margin. ... A drought of serious proportions is not unlikely. ... M. N. BEELER Associate Editor Capper's Farmer Topeka, Kans.

> All thanks to the farm editors for able rejoinders to TIME'S report that many of the millions of U.S. acres planted to wheat and cotton could be better used than to add to present huge surpluses. Necessarily this change would entail difficulties and hardships. So did the task of making tanks and airplanes grow where once grew Buicks, Fords and Chryslers. And doubtless many a watchmaker would rather assemble watches than fuse-timers. But does Mr. Beeler think that Government-&-Agriculture have met the war as boldly as Government-&-Industry? --ED.

Magazine Exports

Sirs: . . . You state (TIME, Feb. 1): "Only privately owned U.S. magazine which is exported in languages other than English is Reader's Digest. . . ." . . . This magazine, La Hacienda, is privately owned and has been published every month without a break since October 1905, in Spanish. Its counterpart in Portuguese has been published every month since 1911. There are no less than six other magazines published in Spanish and exported to Latin America from the United States which have been in existence more than 20 years--not to mention the 65-year-old "Exportador Americano." . . . ALBRO C. GAYLOR New York City

What Are We Doing?

Sirs: Your magazine and other papers are full of "explanations" why Stalin did not turn up at Casablanca and why he did not even bother to send a delegate. None of these explanations is convincing. Why not just assume that he is utterly dissatisfied with our performance in this talking-war ? At a time when Russia has launched a stupendous offensive after having withstood the most terrific Nazi onslaught last summer, what are we doing? Our troops landed in French Africa on a terrain well-oiled in advance. . . . What happened? After three months, this obviously large and well-equipped army has done practically nothing. . . . We are told that it is raining terribly and continuously in Tunis and that the supply lines are enormously long. Obviously it did not rain in Libya, a few hundred miles farther to the East, and it does not snow during the Russian offensive. ... As regards the long supply lines, one cannot imagine that the difficulties are greater than those of Montgomery in his advance of 1,300 miles, especially as Algeria and Tunis have by far the best road and rail net in Africa. . . . Something must be wrong in Africa. And don't you believe that Stalin thinks so too? . . . How must a man feel whose army has captured and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Nazis in the last few weeks, when he is told that the mighty American army is not able to cope with a few thousand Nazis in three months in its first big campaign, for which it took so much time to get ready and which was heralded so much? . . . FREDERICK H. MEYER New York City

Soldier Citizens

Sirs: TIME, [Jan. 25] on the enlistment of Freddie Bartholomew, as well as many a misinformed draft board, has now completely befuddled the noncitizen soldier or soldier-to-be, in re his becoming an American citizen automatically on his having completed three months' service in the armed forces.

Noncitizens serving in the armed forces may make application for citizenship after serving honorably for three months (or one month if stationed at a basic training center). This application must then be accompanied by the recommendation of the applicant's commanding officer, photographs, and any previous papers he might have. That file is forwarded to the Immigration and Naturalization Service in that district which makes an investigation to see whether the applicant has a record of a legal entry into the country. If such a record is not found, applicant cannot become naturalized; if found, applicant is notified to appear before the nearest Naturalization examiner who examines him as to his willingness to fight on any front, etc. If the examiner is satisfied that he is a fit subject for naturalization, the necessary papers are then made out by the Clerk of the District Court's office and the applicant and his witnesses take various oaths which are required and sign the papers. Applicant then appears before the Federal District Judge and is sworn in as an American citizen. His Naturalization papers are then made a part of his Army records and he receives them only on honorable discharge from the service. CORPORAL JAMES V. MORGAN CORPORAL WILLIAM C. KLUTTZ Naturalization Dept. Army Air Forces Basic Training Center St. Petersburg, Fla.

Woollcott's Last

Sirs: TIME, Feb. 1, Radio section, p. 36: you quote Alexander Woollcott's last words. We have, in our file here at WCCO, electrical transcriptions of that People's Platform broadcast. Mr. Woolcott's last words, as taken from that transcription were: "Well, I mean that I think that the surrounding peoples, these physicians, ourselves, must heal themselves. I can see no suggestion that we are politically competent enough to do the job. I think time may do it." . . . R. L. ANDERSON WCCO Minneapolis

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