Vice President Discovered
Sirs :
In your July 26 issue on Henry Agard Wallace, you state "he had felt so keenly about winning the war that he had violated the President's rule that all-talking-must-be-done-under-the-covers."
Does this mean that you have at long last discovered that our Vice President is not the "dreamer" that you have depicted, but rather an honest man?
I trust that, with your awakening, will come about a cessation of the diatribes you have directed at our Vice President, whose only offense has been that he is not a politician.
GERRY BLUMENFELD New York City
> Diatribes aside, Henry Wallace is a dreamer and an honest man.--ED.
Joe Gould As Is
Sirs:
I am not sure yet whether I am the Joe Gould as is Joe Gould, or a character in Joe Mitchell's profile of me (TIME, Aug. 2), which is historical rather than factual, and if not so long could have been one of the best short stories of 1942. He used poetic license in speaking of the three H's (Hangovers, Homelessness and Hunger) attributing the remark to me. The world owes me quite a few hangovers. I am at home in any place where I can manage to write. And as for hunger, I say that I have slept with Lady Poverty but I am a conservative person and do not consider that an introduction.
JOE GOULD New York City
> To Harvardman Gould: his H in life.--ED.
Bomb the Vatican? Sirs: The most interesting feature of the story of the bombing of Rome is not mentioned in your issue of Aug. 2. ... That feature is the complete unanimity with which the reports ignored a historical fact. . . .
Vatican City is a neutral state and could not be bombed without violating international law, and would not be bombed by the United Nations any more than they would bomb targets in neutral Sweden, Portugal and Spain. . . .
CLEMENT P. QUINN Lieutenant Colonel Lansing, Mich.
Colonel Hobby's Ribbon
Sirs:
... In the March 22 issue of TIME a picture appears of Colonel Oveta Hobby. She is wearing the European Theater of Operations ribbon. Now has she been on active duty in the European Theater of Operations or not? The indiscriminate wearing of that ribbon provokes contempt among us soldiers who . . . literally sweat blood for it. ...
(PFC.) GORDON MARTINSON Somewhere in North Africa
> Comely Colonel Hobby was entitled to wear the European Theater of Operations ribbon because of her three weeks' visit to England last November. At that time, the ribbons were given for service outside the continental U.S., however near and brief the assignment. On July 13 the regulations were tightened, and since then Colonel Hobby's shirt front has been ribbonless.--ED.
Complaint of a "Complacent" Worker
Sirs:
. . . The worker in war industries has been under great production pressure for almost two years, and he is getting a bit tired, both physically and mentally. This fatigue is not entirely from physical effort; a greater part of it is mental. The reasons are simple: he is damn weary of the confusion and turmoil of Washington politics. . . .
Perhaps he hasn't the push and drive of a year ago, for he lacks proper food to stand up under pressure-work punishment. What meat, especially beef, can be bought in this area is hardly fit to eat, and his wife has probably stood in line for an hour to buy it. He can't buy decent cheese, and his milk is so skimmed it is fit only for hog wash. . . .
Stop calling the American worker "complacent," and allow him to buy a roast of beef every week. Throw some chloride of lime on the stink in Washington, and the nation will get its 100% production.
BILL DUFFY
Long Beach, Calif.
Plowless Proof
Sirs:
Your article "Down With the Plow" (TIME, July 26) interested me very much because I have an orchard and vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Calif., which I planted 18 years ago. I have not plowed this place for 15 years on the theory that plowing . . . would do more damage to the soil than good, as these mountains suffer every year from erosion. . . . My trees are more vigorous and produce more fruit than my neighbors'. . . .
ALEX BOZANT Los Gatos, Calif.
Bugs in the Belfry Sirs: The cockroach that invaded The Bronx (TIME, Aug. 2) not only flies and is fond of beer, but is equally fond of rayon, insulation from wires and the goo from radio resistors.
Borough President James J. Lyons' cure of gallons of insecticide poured into sewer openings will unquestionably amuse Bermudians, who have been living with these "buzzards" for a couple of centuries.
The Bermuda cure is the gentle placing of the palm of the hand or the foot upon the Gargantua and sweeping up the resultant mess. . . .
RICHARD A. STEVENS West Hartford, Conn.
Sirs:
. . . Shame on you to flaunt a cockroach before a Navy couple who dream of home in New Jersey, and cleanliness. Don't you know the Southern variety would sneer at your tiny Powers model? . . .
The gas shortage doesn't bother us. We just saddle our cockroaches and drive to town.
JANET EVANS LYON Charleston, S.C.
Pattern's Plumbing
Sirs :
My enthusiasm for the accomplishments of Lieut. General George S. Patton Jr. is quite as wholehearted as yours . . but confidentially, gentlemen, what in God's name is that thing hanging over his eyes (see cover, TIME, July 26) ?
. . . You should be able to unearth another picture of the Junior Patton. . . .
This is no feminine suggestion that the combined efforts of TIME and Lilly Dache be dedicated to making the General photogenic . . . but, in the name of God and claustrophobia, get that man out of that inverted relic of the pre-plumbing era!
JUNE IRMA SMITH Sampson, N.Y.
> Herewith a rare, tin-hatless view of the General.--ED.
(See Below)
Sirs:
I (see signature) find the account of the invasion* (TIME, July 19) of Sicily (see map, p. 26) and the battles ... of Belgorod (TIME, July 19), Orel (TIME, Aug. 2) and the Donets River (see p. jo) difficult to read (see cut, col. 2). . . . Smoothness (in writing) is a desirable quality (see Books).
LYDIA M. REEDER Columbus, Ohio
> Reader Reeder (see above) is right. --ED.
* July 10-by the Allies.
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