Mr. Secretary Sirs: In TIME, Oct. 25, we see a photo of Frank Knox, "Secretary of the biggest navy the world has ever seen," in a very unseamanlike pose--holding on to keep his balance. He was aboard a battleship, which rolls slowly, and this one was in a harbor. I'm afraid our ubiquitous Secretary would need both hands and then some to stay erect on my little ship which "will pitch on wet grass."
(Ensign's name withheld) c/o Fleet P.O. San Francisco > Let the Navy's pitch-&-roll men be more charitable. Maybe Good-Sailor Knox was only striking a pose.--ED.
Effect of Tenure
Sirs: At the close of Willkie's speech on the MARCH OF TIME I asked my son what he thought of Willkie as President. He said: "I can't picture Willkie riding in an automobile with the top down, and being protected by a gang of Secret Service men." I was suddenly aware of the fact that for this 16-year-old, as for other thousands of his age and younger, the Secret Service guards, the White House, the President and the Star-Spangled Banner had always been associated with only one man, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
In my son's thinking it bordered on sacrilege for anyone else but Roosevelt to fill this place. It was the same feeling I would have had as a boy in Jamaica, picturing anyone else living in Buckingham Palace but King Edward VII.
WALLACE KIRKLAND Chicago
Which Raleigh?
Sirs:
TIME errs in supposing that the letter in diversified spelynge (TIME, Nov. 15) purports to quote from the Elizabethan Sir Walter Ralegh, Rauleygh, or Rauley. It was written in 1898 by the critic who always spelt his name Raleigh and was later professor of English literature at Oxford. . . .
F. P. WILSON
Columbia University New York City > For failing to spot this classic of Victorian humor, TIME blushes from the ears up.--ED.
Ribbon for the Rifles
Sirs:
Your story "Old Soldier" (TIME, Nov. 15) is a masterpiece. . . .
General Pershing I believe looks back on his tour ... at the University of Nebraska as one of his most satisfying experiences. . . .
When he was leaving ... a delegation from the Pershing Rifles . . . asked him for an old pair of his riding breeches.
"What the devil do you want them for?", asked Lieut. Pershing.
"Well, Sir," was the reply, "we want to take a bit of the yellow of the stripe and a bit of the blue of the breeches and make service ribbons for the Pershing Rifles."
Some years ago in the now-vacant office of the General of the Armies, I asked General Pershing if the story were true.
"You are damned well right it is true," he replied, "I did not have an old pair of riding breeches and I had to give the little devils a brand new pair that had just cost me $45. . . ."
L. R. GlGNILLIAT Brigadier General (Ret.) College Station, Tex.
Sirs:
How fitting that your magazine come out on the 25th anniversary of Armistice Day with its cover depicting that grand "Old Soldier. . . ."
At first reading it seemed an obituary to a living person; on second study it was a powerful and ringing tribute to a man who did his duty, come hell or high water but who, when action was no longer needed, could not carry through measures that might well have forestalled much of today's slaughter and destruction.
In the blind joy of a cessation of hostilities will we again lose the war in the peace?
W. W. RUMMELL Lancaster, Ohio
Man of the Year
Sirs: For Man of the Year--Wendell Willkie, this year and next, 1944.
CORA M. METCALFE Columbus, Ohio
Sirs: Man of the Year: Joseph Stalin.
VICTOR A. CERO Lieutenant Camp Ritchie, Md.
Sirs: . . . Anybody BUT Bolshevist Stalin whose ruthless cruelties, despite the fine . . . fighting of his peoples, are equaled only by those of Hitler.
W. FREEMAN Toronto, Ont.
Sirs:
Sharing the humiliation of his Jewish subjects, he would wear the Badge of Shame among his proudest decorations. ... I nominate . . . Christian X of Denmark.
GABRIEL L. BRODIE Boston
Sirs:
. . . Arturo Toscanini. . . .
HAROLD REIF Portland, Ore.
Sirs:
. . . None other than Admiral William F. Halsey, U.S. Navy. . . .
KAVANAUGH C. DOWNEY Milwaukee
Sirs:
. . Curmudgeon, Inch-builder, press-purist Ickes.
E. PLANTY Rome, N.Y.
Sirs:
My recommendation: Westbrook Pegler
(Corp.) ISRAEL W. KANAREK Grenada, Miss.
Sirs:
George Catlett Marshall. . . .
(Pfc.) H. D. THOREAU
Hammer Field Fresno, Calif.
Sirs:
I nominate the Conqueror of Conquerors, the fiend INFLATION, who lights his cigaret with a greenback, who sits upon the back of Victory, who spurns Justice and Security beneath his feet, and who is served by minor devils Want, Crime and Destruction. Peering over his shoulder show his lieutenant, John L. Lewis. Let Artzybasheff draw him.
ROI PARTRIDGE Oakland, Calif.
The Ayes of Texas
Sirs:
Despite Gerald Mann (TIME, Nov. 15), I'm sure that TIME'S picture of the anti-labor situation in Texas is more accurate than the august Attorney General's explanation of the Manford Act.
I've been here in a non-union war plant for six months, and not once have I been asked to join a union. Everybody is afraid even to talk about unions. The newspapers, the radio and the employers are all cracking down on labor in a big way.
The Manford Act is just a straw in the wind; and believe me, that wind would not blow if the he-men of Texas were not absent overseas fighting for freedom. . . .
GEORGE RUSSELL VAUGHAN
Houston
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