Aircraft Report
Sirs:
Congratulations on a magnificent piece of reporting in the Army & Navy "Report" in the Oct. 11 issue!
E. E. WILSON, President
United Aircraft Corp.
East Hartford, Conn.
Sirs:
TIME, Oct. 11, spreads a misunderstanding re superiority of American planes. You fail to mention that it is our plane plus an American pilot which are superior to an Axis plane and pilot.
. . . I for one (no birdman) will lead a cheer for the Air Forces any day. . .
WARREN P. SNYDER
Captain
Camp Haan, Calif.
> Combat reports have made Artilleryman Snyder's observation a truism. --ED.
Unity & Union
Sirs:
Your piece (TIME, Oct. 18) about the Presbyterian question at our [Episcopal] General Convention succeeds in completely misstating the facts, which are:
1) The movement of recent years toward Presbyterian-Episcopalian union is a movement against, not for Church Unity in the large and real sense.
2) The movement has been led by a determined and reckless group in the Episcopal Church who want to have their way at any cost.
3) Bishop Manning, who has been working conscientiously and hard for the cause of Church Unity since long before some of his opponents ever dreamt of the subject, has fought to point out that the present proposals are away from and not toward any real unity.
4) A very real dissension threatened within the Episcopal Church. If the Episcopal Church counts for anything at all in the Reunion Movement, such a dissension could only have hurt the cause.
5) The net result at our Convention is that the tension has been lessened; the Episcopal Church is likely to be more united within itself on the subject. It is worth noting that the resolution was finally passed in the House of Deputies without a single dissenting vote. We are going to try harder--but better--to work for a solution of the problem.
(Rev.) W. D. F. HUGHES
Grace Episcopal Church
Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.
Copper Camp
Sirs:
I would like to be at your desk when the returns come in from the irate citizens of Butte, Mont. Your book review of Copper Camp (TIME, Oct. 4) must have stirred up the animals, "the wolves of copper." . . .
HUGH MACDOWELL
Lynchburg, Va.
Sirs: Butte, Mont. may have a book all to itself but why should anyone from there be happy about it? Natives from the "World's Richest Hill" have a good reason to be damn good and mad at the editors of TIME for the disparaging remarks cast upon their fair city when you referred to it as a wench, dissipated and uncorseted. Either term used singularly and in the mildest sense surely borders on infamy. . . .
It is not the body but the soul that really counts and in this respect Butte shines. . . . True, it is somewhat scarred, but those scars have resulted from the evils of a boom industry. . . . There is a quality of warm friendliness in all of the residents in Butte that fills everyone who has ever lived there with a desire to return. Butte is proud of its colorful past, but to be looked upon as still a legend is indeed heaping insult upon injury. . . .
CHARLES L. BECKSTROM
Lieutenant, U.S.N.R.
Barberton, Ohio
>Let irate Reader Beckstrom turn his guns on the authors of Copper Camp, latest of the WPA guidebooks, which TIME quoted.--ED.
The Wag of the Met
Sirs:
Speaking of Caruso and his operatic antics in your Oct. 11 issue, I believe top honors should go to his trickery in a performance of La Boheme. Before the death scene, he removed two of the rollers from the ancient iron bed. . . . Every time the consumptive Mimi (Frances Alda) dared move, the bedstead shuddered, groaned, and gave every sign of collapsing.
Alda finally gave up, turned her back on the audience, and stuffed the sheets in her mouth to stop the hysterics. . . . For this and other jokes during the evening, each artist was fined $100. They agreed it was worth it.
HOUSTON MAPLES
Arlington, Va.
The Himmler Cover
Sirs:
Don't you think that without much thought, you could have selected someone more deserving than Himmler, the head of the police department of Nazi Germany, for the front cover of TIME--Oct. 11? . . .
This is the second time I have brought to your attention the subjects that you use on TIME covers. . . . I enjoy your magazine, but can get along without it.
FRED M. SIMON
Philadelphia
Sirs:
To show the picture of Himmler on the cover of TIME reserved for honorable and respected men and women is downright insulting. . . .
WOLFRAM HILL
St. Paul
> TIME'S cover is not "reserved for honorable and respected" characters but for newsworthy people. TIME reports the news--and some news, like some people, is bad.--ED.
Sirs:
This week's cover, Himmler, just hit the spot. It came out in time for the Jewish Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) which was yesterday, Oct. 9. You could have called it the "Angel of Death." I had it before me during that day of prayer and meditation. . . .
EDMUND KALMAN
Philadelphia
Two-Gun Man
Sirs:
Carrying his hands in his pockets where they gripped pistol butts was no idle gesture with Big Bill (Colonel) Starling, whose forth coming retirement as head of the White House Secret Service detail you announce in TIME, Oct. 4. . . .
During the Versailles Peace Conference days--so the anecdote goes--he was credited with the saving of the life of Clemenceau when Cottin fired at him twice. Starling and the late Dick Jervis (then head of the White House detail) were riding in an open car behind Clemenceau's. . . Cottin stepped from a crowd and fired at Clemenceau. His first shot grazed the head of the aged statesman. Before his second bullet could go--so said witnesses--Starling had put a bullet in his hand, deflecting the second. . . .
SCHUYLER PATTERSON
Lieutenant, U.S.N.R.
Detroit, Mich.
Man of the Year
Sirs:
I hereby nominate B. M. Baruch. . . . Mr. Baruch is not only giving his time to help our country while using the bench in the park for his office, but I know for a fact many hundreds of men he has helped with college education without being reimbursed. He sent me to Europe for study--yet will not let me repay him. . . .
C. C. GRAVES
Hartford, Conn.
Sirs:
. . . I would like to suggest a likable Irishman, General Montgomery of Eighth Army Fame. . . .
MRS. G. BRACKENRIDGE
Ottawa, Ont.
Frank Myth
Sirs:
What's the chance of persuading you to refrain from referring to frankfurters in the future as "the soldiers' favorite food?"
Some non-TIME lunkheaded researcher evidently took a casual look at Army Supply Forces figures once upon a time and concluded that the vast quantities . . . of frankfurters listed there meant that we have a great and abiding love for that item. . . .
All soldiers groan "what again?!" every time they see those things laid out for us to eat. We eat them--sure; with work-sharpened appetites like ours, we'd eat almost anything--even spinach 41% of the time! . .
(Pvt.) ANTHONY T. POUNCEY
Grinnell, Iowa.
> The non-TIME researcher: the Army's Quartermaster Corps.--ED.
A Candidate Speaks
Sirs:
A recent issue of TIME [Sept. 6] published an article referring to the refusal of the Ecuadorian Government to visa my passport to return to Ecuador. . . . I count on your fairness to publish this letter in defense of my honor as a public official and as candidate of the people of Ecuador for the Presidency of the Republic.
Never have I fomented nor participated in any military sedition. I have limited myself at all times to affirm vigorously the principle of free suffrage and to defend my administration for its free suffrage against those who plotted intrigues seeking to undermine that suffrage. Once these plotters even fomented a "strike" in the Senate. At the same time, I have stood beside those who opposed the electoral fraud of 1940 in which workmen were shot to death to keep them from entering polling places. This occurred after I left the Presidency in 1935. . . .
J. M. VELASCO IBARRA
Santiago, Chile
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.