Franklin D. Roosevelt

Sirs:

"All who have meant good work with their whole hearts, have done good work, although they may die before they have the time to sign it. Every heart that has beat strong and cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind it in the world, and bettered the tradition of mankind. ... Is there not something brave and spirited in such a termination ? . . . When the Greeks made their fine saying that those whom the gods love die young, I cannot help believing they had this sort of death also in their eye. For surely, at whatever age it overtake the man, this is to die young. Death has not been suffered to take so much as an illusion from his heart. In the hot-fit of life, a tip-toe on the highest point of being, he passes at a bound on to the other side. The noise of the mallet and chisel is scarcely quenched, the trumpets are hardly done blowing, when, trailing with him clouds of glory, this happy-starred, full-blooded spirit shoots into the spiritual land."

From the last paragraph of AEs Triplex, by Robert Louis Stevenson.

GUSTAVUS S. PAINE New York City

Sirs:

I was cooking supper when the news came. After that there was a feeling of numbness and the supper didn't matter. . . .

FRANCES REYNOLDS Houston

Sirs:

SUGGEST RENAMING IMPENDING CONFERENCE ROOSEVELT MEMORIAL PEACE CONFERENCE.

EDWARD N. LUTHER Ellendale, N.Dak.

Sirs:

... So that we and all the peoples of the days and years to come may dutifully and lovingly honor Franklin Delano Roosevelt's great beneficence and vision, let us, the people of America, suggest to all the leaders and common folk of the world that the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Court of Nations be erected to house the conferences and meetings that are to come in the days of peace. ... If his spirit pervades its halls, we Americans as well as all freedom-loving peoples of the world will be well represented....

SIDNEY WEGER Washington

Sirs:

... I am a soldier, and I am proud to have lived and fought during an era which produced so great and sincere a leader of this country. The ideals for which he stood and fought will live always if we are intelligent enough to preserve them. At the coming San Francisco parley, may the leaders of the conference remember these ideals. To insure this, I humbly suggest they put another chair at the table--to remain there for Roosevelt. Let it be a material reminder to them and the world of the things for which this great man stood.

RICHARD C. GELULA

Army Air Forces New York City

Useless Controversy

Sirs:

All Protestant, Catholic and Jewish spokesmen who spend their time bickering over religious controversies should recall again an incident of this war which I will never forget.

It's the one about the four Chaplains who went down with a torpedoed troopship not so long ago. They had worked feverishly toward the successful evacuation of the vessel. They had given their life jackets to four soldiers who were without them. They were, all together, trapped with no chance of escape. They were last seen standing on the deck in prayer. They died side by side.

I would say their actions proved the utter uselessness of all the sharp religious controversy I have read about in the last three issues of TIME received here. I would say to Archbishop McNicholas that the actions of Catholic Chaplain John P. Washington, one of the four heroes of that troopship, prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that there most definitely is a "common denominator in religion." I would challenge Bishop McConnell and the other signers of the statement made public by The Protestant to say how Chaplain Washington was serving the enemies of democracy. I would ask all Jews who were so indignant at the Roman Catholic conversion of Rabbi Zolli if they were also indignant when they heard that another of the four, Jewish Chaplain Alexander Goode, worked, ministered, sacrificed and prayed till death, alongside Protestant and Catholic leaders. I would say to the Rev. Broady of Findlay, Ohio that the boy to whom Methodist Chaplain George L. Fox gave his life jacket was also a Unitarian who renounces the Divinity of Christ. . . .

DAVID B. ALLEN

c/o Postmaster San Francisco

New Blood for the Pacific?

Sirs: With no son or husband to lose in this war, I consider myself well qualified to present an unemotional plea for the troops that have been active in the European theater of war since June 6th. It is not only unjust but certainly inhumane to send to the Pacific area the combat troops that have fought so valiantly since our landings in Normandy. In the sense of the word "patriotism," almost a year of constant warfare should be enough for anyone to ask.

Our present system of rotation (if it may be called that) is pathetically ludicrous. The only way for a soldier on the front to be replaced is to be killed or badly wounded.

Why should a man, because he is a good soldier" and lucky, be asked to do-more than his share? . . .

I suggest that the men who have fought steadily since D-day (or before, Heaven forbid!) be sent home from Germany and given surveys. ... A large percentage would volunteer for extra service in the Pacific if given the opportunity for advancement and additional compensation. A volunteer army recruited from the troops who fought in Europe would be an army with a high morale.

Why not new blood for the Pacific as well as new equipment?

MARGARET CHITTY

Jacksonville

Angel's Face?

Sirs:

Please print more of Eric Johnston's faces (TIME, April 9). He is the greatest jollier in this hemisphere. . . . His face is beautiful as a heavenly angel's and when he turns on his smile it would set the heart of a wooden Indian on fire--which would ruin the Indian. Look how he slipped the leading halters on to Phil Murray and Bill Green, and made them drink too. So, for him they both swore that black was white! Anyhow, he got them to agree for once. Please do print more of his faces.

HORATIO W. MYRICK South Hadley, Mass.

P:I Herewith a picture of the only face Eric Johnston has.--ED.

Tanks & Tank Drivers

Sirs: With the utmost repugnance I read the letter quoted by Major William G. Sears in your April 2 issue. . . . The comparison made by the Major between the situation under which the Chrysler tank drivers threatened to strike and the conditions under which tanks are driven by men in battle is not only malicious, but shows a disregard of the very rights and principles we are fighting for. To insinuate that workers should tolerate any condition where they work because our men are going through worse is nothing short of mean, and presupposes that total war is the normal state of this country and the world. . . .

The Major loses sight of the fact that the Army is doing all it can about the German 88s, the long hours Army men have to drive, and the number of dead that come from tanks. Has the Major investigated to find out whether Chrysler is doing all it can to keep the dust down, or whether the dust is part of the test? . . . Does he know that the threat of strike has its legitimate uses and is most often brought to bear on management to force it to improve working conditions? The Major also loses sight of the fact that management, more often than not, is not doing all that can be done to increase production where increases are needed, that faulty management more than strikes has caused shortages, in spite of what the press says and what the advertisements claim. . . .

E. NARRO Eugene, Ore.

What Century?

Sirs:

Book-banning Boston has nothing on this Army Air Field. Our Commanding Officer ordered the one Post Library copy of Black Boy by Richard Wright (TiME, March 5) destroyed. Though we be in the Army, what man has a right to try and dictate what we will or will not read? What century is this?

(AIRMAN'S NAME WITHHELD) Deming Army Air Field Deming, N.Mex.

Postwar Shipping

Sirs:

Under "Shipping" in TIME (April 9), giving a summary of an article by Lewis W. Douglas entitled "What Shall We Do with the Ships?", we note Mr. Douglas refers to a postwar American merchant fleet of 20,000,000 tons and leaves the impression that a fleet of that size would cost the country from $200,000,000 to $300,000,000 a year in subsidies for its operation.

The U.S. Maritime Commission has indicated a postwar fleet of approximately 15,000,000 tons. A great part of this tonnage will be operated in the coastal and intercoastal trade and does not receive operating subsidies, since such trades are barred to foreign flag ships. Furthermore, only about 35% of American vessels operating in liner service in foreign trade receive operation subsidy. In 1938 American flag tonnage (dry cargo vessels) in foreign trade was about 3,200,000 tons, and it is estimated that if we carried 50% of our foreign commerce, we would require only 5,800,000 tons. On this basis, can anyone contend that the Americans are trying to "hog" the shipping of the world, when we know that foreign flag lines in the year 1938 operated about 21,000,000 tons in the U.S. foreign trade, of which over 8,000,000 tons were employed in liner services ? . . .

By all means let there be a wider discussion of this tremendously important subject and let the actual facts be presented without distortion. . . .

J. F. GEHAN

Vice President

American Export Lines, Inc. New York City

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.