This Year of Politics
Sirs:
I think your recent analysis of the unfolding stratagems of the major G.O.P. candidates has been excellent. This reader holds the conviction that Wendell Willkie's aggressive leadership, honesty, clear and unselfish world outlook will prove to be winning politics this year. To me, one of the most promising features of Mr. Willkie's candidacy is that the Old Guard is opposed to him. In more "normal" political times the evasive, nonconstructive but "politically astute" maneuvers of Dewey, Bricker and the Old Guard might achieve success with voters, but this will not be a normal year.
Unless Mr. Willkie is nominated, many otherwise Republican votes--mine included--will go to our great leader, President Roosevelt, in spite of the New Deal bureaucracy that will accompany his candidacy.
(CORP.) THOMAS G. WRIGHT Camp Claiborne, La.
The People Know
Sirs:
. . . Your story "Mahout" [TIME, Feb. 14] infuriated me. . . . I mean no reflection on TIME'S reporting of the facts--for facts they are--but rather an anger at the inference . . . that the average American is confused and hasn't the faintest idea of what he wants in a new national Administration. That is not true.
. . . The people of this country want only one new or different thing of their Government. That is truth--the kind of blunt, prompt, direct truth that shows that the Government has confidence in the people. The people will return that confidence in kind. There will be no strikes when the Government says "Don't" and means it. There will be no inflation, no griping at taxes, regardless of how high they are. There will be strong, confident faces where now you see only reflections of "what next?" Give us a Government that will say what it means and mean what it says. Let it say it in language that all can understand. We are sick--sick of people saying "The people won't stand for strikes," or "The strikers won't stand without wages increases," or any of a thousand other ridiculous phobias credited to an extremely healthy people. Give it to us straight.
We have had enough of diplomatic appeasement and apologies for it, enough of "Little Steel formulas" made of papier-mache, enough of "States' Rights" shouted from astride pork barrels. . . . We are fed up with weak-kneed Administrations, Congresses, political parties (both of them). Give us even so much as one individual in all those places who will follow the policy of frankness and confidence, and he can have anything America can give. Remember that all political power still is delegated by the people. And they take away. The people know exactly what they want. It's a simple thing, a little thing, but one which seems so rare these days. . . .
C. R. ROGERS Washington
Where Are the Bullets?
Sirs:
In your account of Russian investigation of the killing of Polish prisoners (TIME, Feb. 7) there is a remarkable omission of pertinent evidence: the nationality of the weapons from which the bullets were fired. . . . It is incredible that they should not be identifiable from the bullets. It is equally incredible that some of the fatal bullets should not have been found. Are we to assume that the Russians stupidly overlooked it, that they deliberately suppressed it, or that TIME'S informants neglected it?
JOHN B. WAITE Ann Arbor, Mich.
> TIME had no special "informants," clearly reported what the Russian Government said. Additional "evidence": most of the bullets were 7.65 mm. --a caliber too small for Red Army service revolvers. None of the telltale cartridges was produced.--ED.
Just About a Bellyful
Sirs:
. . . After 365 days away from what we are pleased to call civilization, what troubles me most is to read in TIME about the continuing disunity on the homefront. . . . Out here a guy goes through a physical and mental beating that is likely to shake him to his very spiritual foundations. . . . It's just impossible to put down on paper, censored or uncensored, the sum total of what you go through and have the average guy who stayed behind understand what you mean. I think I know now why the real vets of World War I don't care to talk much about their experiences. . . . I've had just about a bellyful of everything and all that that implies. If it wasn't for letters from a few important (to me) people every once in a while, I guess I wouldn't know just what the hell I'm fighting for out here anyway.
(U.S. NAVY PETTY OFFICER) c/o Fleet P.O. San Francisco
> TIME appreciates the difficulty of conveying battlefront actualities to the homefront, suggests that readers turn to page 102 for a strong whiff of Americans in battle.--ED.
Sad Sack's Dilemma
Sirs:
TIME, Feb. 21: "Most popular sport with U.S. troops overseas is volleyball." Yank, Feb. 25: "Number one sport in the armed forces is billiards."
Above quotes have this sad sack in dilemma. As a soon-to-be A.P.O. G.I., I would appreciate knowing which extra curricular sport trend to build my physique for and still remain on the highest percent side in the popularity polls. Yank or TIME statistics--which gets the good-conduct medal?
(CORP.) HUGH M. JONES Gowen Field, Boise, Idaho
> Both. TIME specified "over seas" sports; Yank did not. U.S. Army recreation kits do not, as yet, include billiard tables.--ED.
The Fighting Callaway-Sinsels
Sirs:
I was delighted, but not surprised, to read in "Young Man's Game" (TIME, Feb. 14) that "Sinsel didn't give up an inch." The Major Chick Sinsel referred to is my cousin, Major Frank Callaway Sinsel. He has been recommended twice for the Legion of Merit. The papers are rightfully filled with stories of first and second generation Americans fighting bravely for their country. But the Major's family has been fighting for this country since the first Callaway landed in Virginia in the middle of the 17th Century. His great-great-grandfather, a Virginia colonel of cavalry, was voted a medal by Congress for his valor in the Revolutionary War. Another ancestor, Colonel Richard Callaway, was one of the Southern financiers who backed Daniel Boone in his wilderness explorations. He was scalped in an Indian massacre while helping to subdue that wilderness. . . .
Chick and I grew up listening to the Civil War exploits of his paternal grandfather who, at 80, was still outraged by his capture and eventual imprisonment in Libby prison for "six months and one day." The old gentleman never forgot that extra day.
The Major's only brother, Fred Sinsel, quit high school and enlisted in the Army the day America entered World War I. . . .
INEZ CALLAWAY ROBB New York City
Credit
Sirs:
YOUR ARTICLE ABOUT THE WORK OF USAF1(TIME, FEB. 21) DOES A SERVICE BY BRINGING TO THE MEN OF THE ARMED FORCES NEWS OF THE LATEST EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES OFFERED. I REGRET THAT SPACE PREVENTED MENTION OF THE IMPORTANT ROLES PLAYED IN PREPARING OUR COURSES AND TEXTBOOKS BY CIVILIAN SCHOLARS AND EDITORS, TEXTBOOK PUBLISHERS, UNIVERSITIES, THE AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EDUCATION AND ARMY, NAVY AND MARINE OFFICERS DOING EDUCATIONAL WORK IN THE FIELD. GODFREY! THEY DESERVE THE CREDIT, NOT ME.
COLONEL FRANCIS T. SPAULDING Colonel, A.U.S. Army Education Branch
> Gosh! (TIME, Feb. 21). Usafi's Colonel Spaulding deserves plenty.--ED.
So-o-o Big
Sirs:
That was a good story on cougar (TIME, Feb. 21), but I can't help wondering where your writers would turn to substantiate the statement that the big cats "sometimes [grow] to nine or ten feet from gorging on deer," or on anything else. . . . There may be something in some local deer that makes cougar bigger in some areas of the country. I don't know. I do know that the biggest "lion" yet killed by a family of brothers who hunt them professionally in three southwestern states and northern Mexico was several inches under eight feet long. These men have killed quite a few lions, too--only they lay their lions on the ground and measure them with a steel tape. Knowing some lion hunters myself, my guess is that any "nine-or-ten-foot" lions were just looked at--like most fish. . . .
ARTHUR L. COLEMAN San Antonio
> Cougar-on-the-paw average about eight feet from nose to tail tip. Cougar skins without cougar in them run longer. From now on TIME'S catamount editor has been directed to bring them back alive.--ED.
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