Sirs:
The title of your column The Presidency, at least insofar as the May 10 issue is concerned, is a misnomer. Why not make it "Pan the President?" The problems which necessarily plague the leader of a great democracy in wartime you term a "mess." Then, from out of the depths of your infallible wisdom, you conclude--"The mess was, in the last analysis, of his own making." . . .
SAM HOUSTON
Hollywood, Calif.
> Neither TIME nor Franklin Roosevelt is infallible (see below).--ED.
Sirs:
. . . Your utter hate of F.D.R. and his Administration and, essentially, for all his works--[is] splattered venomously over most of the first pages of the May 10 issue. . . .
PRIVATE STANLEY WELLS
Wm. Northern Army Air Field, Tenn.
Sirs:
"Over the White House the air was black with chickens coming home to roost. . . ."
Well, not venom perhaps--call it a subtle sarcasm. . . .
PATRICIA M. ELLIS
San Francisco
Sirs:
... I think you do a public service in your candid presentation of the Presidency v. Lewis, which is the type of balanced presentation of facts that is too little available elsewhere.
HUGH R. MACMICHAEL
New York City
Sirs:
. . . Printing stuff like that about John Lewis. What are you trying to do? Start another civil war at a time when every effort of mind and body should be turned to the task of winning this war and planning for the future? . . .
ERNEST A. LINCOLN JR.
Miami
Sirs:
. . . Your analysis of the coal dispute between the President and Lewis is so distorted, so bitter toward the President, so relatively charitable toward Lewis, that anyone not acquainted with TIME's habitual method of sensational and "out on a limb" journalistic style would actually believe you favored Lewis over the President. . . .
LEON S. MINCKLER
Asheville, N.C.
Sirs:
The write-up . . . on the coal strike was grand. It places the blame where it belongs --on the Administration. . . .
PRIVATE HOWARD BORNET
Fresno, Calif.
Sirs:
Regardless of what TIME says, President Roosevelt is doing a splendid, bang-up job of leading this country in the most crucial period of American history. . . .
A. A. DOMONT
Muskegon, Mich.
Sirs:
. . . If others feel as I do they must wonder at your mild-mannered treatment of Mr. Roosevelt. . . .
You are quick enough to lay into Mr. Lewis (and I, too, agree), but why kiss F.D.R. by utterly diffident reporting . . . ?
C. C. DEWEY
Wyndmoor, Pa.
Sirs:
If the opinions and reactions of several hundred soldiers at Fort Jackson, making up a good cross section of our fighting men, are at all worth considering, then you're not just "all wet" but thoroughly soaked when you say that John Lewis "defied, thwarted and outmaneuvered the head of 135,000,000 people." . . .
After all is said & done, what American would want to think of our leader as a "Superman". . .? We'll be content to leave those attributes to comic strips and Der Fuehrer. . . . Our President is a man, a mere mortal, whose "chickens come home to roost." We don't expect him to be infallible. . . .
GERTRUDE KOZAK
Fort Jackson, S.C.
Spaatz Strums
Sirs:
. . . We are in receipt of a letter from General Spaatz acknowledging the guitar* and thanking our employes for it. He enclosed an official U.S. Army Air Corps photograph of himself holding the guitar (see cut) and stated "it will be put to good use."
KENT WATSON
Consolidated Steel Corporation, Ltd.
Orange, Tex.
The Taste of Peace
Sirs:
In recent months I have read so much nonsense on the unconditional surrender of our foes I thought perhaps a comment from a soldier might be appropriate.
Has there ever in history been a complete victory? . . .
If this must be a negotiated peace, as I believe, would it not then be wise to put out feelers from time to time for the possibility of terms that would be acceptable to both contestants, much as candy in the making is tested at frequent intervals until it meets with the desired taste and consistency?
To physically invade Japan, I believe, would cost from three to five million American lives, and I doubt there are many Americans who deem this price worth the result.
Lest it be assumed that I have grown tired of this war, let me point out that is not the case. I am neither defeatist nor pacifist. I fully appreciate the necessity of carrying this war to an end which will be satisfactory to the United States and her Allies, but let's not deceive ourselves into thinking that we will be the only gainer and our enemies the only losers. . . .
IST LIEUT. ROBERT C. DAVEY
New Guinea
Best Composers?
Sirs: In my opinion the inclusion of Monteverdi, Palestrina and Chopin in the twelve best list of composers voted by the musicologists is almost as absurd as the inclusion of Tin Pan Alley Gershwin by the Stanford students. And where are the two greatest symphonists of our time--Sibelius and Shostakovich ?
JOHN D. SADLIER
Springfield, Ohio
Red-Tape Menace
Sirs:
Plaudits to TIME, May 3, for its article on the red-tape menace. My only criticism is that the article wasn't strong enough. ... In the supply depot where I now work, there are in one office 450 people doing a job that could readily be handled by 150. As many as six different types of forms, each conveying identically the same information, occupy the time of six different clerks. . . .
Having struggled unremittingly but futilely for months against the tangle of red tape which menaced my own department, I eventually evolved a definite philosophy on the subject, which, reduced to five rules and slightly expurgated, are here offered as both guide and warning to those who hope ever to overcome that perplexing maze of confusing anomalies known as the Army system:
1) Polish the apple (this one was extremely difficult to expurgate).
2) Pass the buck.
3) Make five copies.
4) Get a receipt.
5) Don't think (this one is particularly applicable to all ranks below that of sergeant and above that of captain). *
Nonexistent Monopoly
Sirs:
. . . TIME presents in its issue of May 3, 1943, a commentary on the operations of the International Telephone & Telegraph Corp. (I.T. & T.).
In a paragraph dealing with American Cable & Radio Corp., a subsidiary of I.T. & T., the statement is made that "With U. S. Government help, American has broken R.C.A.'s radiotelegraph monopoly in Russia, Algeria and the British Empire."
... I can only assume that this factual misinformation came from a source considered by you to be reliable. In any event, the statement is utterly false and is completely refuted by the facts.
R.C.A. at no time has owned radiotelegraph stations in Russia, in Algeria or in the British Empire, nor has it engaged in any communications operations within those countries. Hence, it can have had no monopoly either to be broken or perpetuated, and obviously, the breaking of a non-existent monopoly would scarcely require the help of the U.S. Government. . . .
W. A. WINTERBOTTOM
Vice President
R.C.A. Communications, Inc.
New York City
*TIME, March 22: Guitar Virtuoso Spaatz has no guitar with him in Tunisia. TIME, April 12: Consolidated employes have purchased and air-expressed a guitar to the General.
*Name withheld.
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