War Is Not the Evil

Sirs:

For 20 years I've been an ordained clergyman and an active supporter of the Federal Council of Churches. I've been a chaplain in the U.S. Army for 28 months, 16 of them overseas. With regard to the extreme pacifist leanings of many clergymen and church organizations, and especially with regard to the current campaign being conducted by the Federal Council of Churches (TIME, April 5) against hatred of our enemies, I have something to say.

Americans do not hate easily. I've been through some of the toughest fighting in the Pacific, and yet I've seen no sign of real hatred in the hearts of our soldiers, sailors and marines. I've heard many speak with contempt for their foes, with disgust, dislike and many times with pity--but never with hatred. The Church, however, may arouse hatred against itself by a foolish campaign against a straw man (hatred) at this crucial moment. . . .

War is net the evil which demands the Church's attention. Jesus didn't campaign against war. He fought dishonesty, injustice, oppression and selfishness. Above all, he taught the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. War is only a means to an end. . . . This total warfare of ours against the evils spawned by the burgeoning greeds and lusts of the Axis powers will be in vain, unless we can win the churches to a new crusade for the spirit exemplified by Jesus' Good Samaritan. World justice and human welfare, rather than comfort and wealth within one's own nation, must be the Christian goal.

JOHN SHADE FRANKLIN

c/o Postmaster

San Francisco

A Slate for Normalcy

Sirs:

It is none too early to think seriously about the forthcoming national election. . . . [Here is] my slate:

For President John W. Bricker

Vice President James A. Farley

Secretary of State Robert A. Taft

Secretary of War Colonel Robert McCormick

Secretary of Navy Hamilton Fish

Secretary of Treasury Frank Hague

Secretary of Interior Burton K. Wheeler

Secretary of Agriculture Martin Dies

Secretary of Labor John L. Lewis

Postmaster General Joseph W. Martin Jr.

Attorney General Edward J. Flynn

Of course I realize that the Secretaryships are appointive offices, but while making up the slate, I suggest these candidates as competent, capable and conservative. . . .

With such a ticket in the field we would sweep the country, wipe out every trace of New Dealism, return to normalcy and establish an administration which, while nothing to be exactly proud of, would certainly bring about a surprising degree of harmony. . . . Here's a ticket we zoo-percenters can stand on in the brave new world ahead. . .

A. H. PATTERSON

Hartford, Conn.

Soul Shown

Sirs:

You can publish news from the four million corners of the earth. Your staff of researchers can come up with answers to make John Kieran chew his nails. You can feed congressmen, governors, the FBI, even F.D.R. with the most esoteric dope. You can swing public opinion and sway private enterprise, but dammit all, TIME, when you print an article like "From Mud to Melody"* you are showing us your soul.

JAMES WHARTON

Weems, Va.

Inside Private Wexler

Sirs:

If Private M. R. Maben thinks he's going to be too ebullient when he returns (TIME, May 17), I suggest he work in a boiler factory. I personally have been trained for combat duty, but inside of me I'm just like Ferdinand the Bull--I just want to smell the flowers when I return.

(PvT.) ALBERT WEXLER

c/o Postmaster

New York City

George Pullman's "Opportunity"

Sirs:

TIME, May 3, says "on the day Abraham Lincoln's funeral train arrived in Chicago, George Pullman found his opportunity. Mrs. Lincoln was on that train and she wanted to go through to Springfield that night. George Pullman's offer of his car was accepted." This is incorrect. Mrs. Lincoln was too ill even to attend her husband's funeral at the White House April 19, and did not leave her room there until May 22. Then she went to Chicago, not to Springfield.

WILLIAM H. TOWNSEND

Lexington, Ky.

> TIME too trustingly repeated a cherished legend of the Pullman Co., gladly sets straight this footnote to history.--ED.

Hair Nets for Gentlemen

Sirs:

. . . German officers with hair nets appear to have aroused the curiosity of your book reviewer (TIME, May 31).

I spent some time in Austria a few years ago and lived with an ex-Army officer who, I noticed, never retired without first putting on a hair net. As a matter of fact, our maid insisted that I wear one too. On me it didn't look good.

ROBERT E. CLARK

Maywood, Ill.

Beauty and Bravura

Sirs:

Your article in TIME, May 31, on the subject of Vladimir Horowitz and his technique interests me, particularly because I disagree with the implication . . . that Mr. Horowitz is the pianistic kingpin, technically speaking.

In my humble opinion, he has at least one equal in technique, who towers over him as interpreter. This gentleman is Artur Rubinstein. This man plays with a magnificent brilliance and bravura, matching Horowitz at his best, but in addition, he plays from the heart, which is something I have never found Mr. Horowitz able to do. ...

ALAN JOHN SEN

Wyomissing, Pa.

Sirs:

The "electric virtuosity" of Vladimir Horowitz seems to have stunned your music editor into a state of complete oblivion. No mention is made of the beauty of Horowitz' tone production, nor of his sensitivity of nuance. . . . To compare Schnabel's heavyhanded, sluggish renditions, that are euphemistically called profound, with Horowitz' almost divine interpretation is quite unthinkable. As far as Rubinstein is concerned, a hearing of his slow movement of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto and that of Horowitz will do much to show that in the hands of Rubinstein, the piano is primarily a percussive instrument, while Horowitz frees the piano of its limitations and makes of it a malleable instrument of song which enables him to interpret its literature entirely unhampered. . . .

REVA HAMBOURGER

Skokie, Ill.

Samson and Lewis

Sirs:

. . . When Samson got so strong that no one could handle him they cut off his hair and he became weak. Why not cut off John L. Lewis' hair?

Lewis is a vain man. . . . Vanity is perhaps his one weak point. Shaved bald, he would look ridiculous. It is hard to be ridiculous and forceful at the same time. . . .

B. W. ROBERT

Phoenica, N.Y.

*On the new popularity of the ocarina and the tonette, especially among soldiers --TIME, May 31.

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