Man of the Year
Sirs:
Are nominations for Man of the Year in order? If so, I hope I am the first, because I can save you a lot of head-scratching and elbow-bending by giving you your man right off. He is, naturally, General Douglas MacArthur, the man who won the war against Japan.
The General's qualifications are too obvious to mention. It is common knowledge that he conducted one of the great strategic military campaigns of all time. He outgeneraled and outfought the minor-league Japs like the major leaguer he is. And now, his masterly administration of beaten Japan should be enough to convince all doubters that he is a major statesman, too.
What else can you do but choose him, TIME, if you propose to be consistent with history ?
JOHN McGUIGAN
Minneapolis
P: Nominations are now open.--ED.
Mrs. Richardson & Mr. Crump
Sirs:
I wish to thank TIME [Sept. 24] for taking an interest in my fight against E. H. Crump and his political machine.
We cannot claim to be a government by the people when in some states only those who can spare the $2 for poll tax are allowed a voice in their government. Mr. Crump takes advantage of the poll tax to further his political status. . . .
It is the duty of every American to eliminate all political machines, large or small, so that the Constitution of the United States of America may live on as an inspiration to the world at large. We cannot hope to lead the world as a symbol of freedom and humanitarianism when we allow dozens of would-be Hitlers to thrive in our own country. . . .
MRS. LEE RICHARDSON Memphis
Too Much Protocol
Sirs:
The daily press reports that Colonel James H. Douglas Jr., who had been "under consideration" for appointment as U.S. member of the Allied Commission in Italy, is not taking the job. TIME [July 9] reported that he had accepted it. Did TIME err?
O. PETRUCCI New York City
P: No. U.S. officials chose Colonel Douglas for the post, got his acceptance and the tentative agreement of British officials. Protocol demanded so long a delay in announcing the appointment that Colonel Douglas withdrew his name. Rear Admiral Ellery Stone is still the U.S. Commissioner.--ED.
Dreadful Distortion
Sirs:
Here is a photograph of the Selma Burke plaque of President Roosevelt. . . . Comparing it with the photograph published in TIME [Sept. 17], you can see how dreadfully the latter distorts the sculptured head, elongating it from tip of chin to tip of crown, what would amount, I think, to at least two inches. . . . I will say, however, that the plaque was extremely hard to photograph, especially with flash, as the light would bounce off the bronze into the lens of the camera. That is undoubtedly the reason the A.P. photographer took the picture from such an extreme offside angle, thereby distorting the sculptured head.
On account of this distortion I am not surprised at your caption and comment. It is too bad that you did not have an opportunity to see the actual plaque, which only slightly idealizes Roosevelt.
SARAH NEWMEYER Publicity Director The Museum of Modern Art New York City
P: TIME'S apologies to Sculptress Burke, and the back of its hasty hand to the A.P. photographer. Herewith a better photograph.--ED.
It Takes All Kinds
Sirs:
Brigadier General Harry Vaughan has seen fit to make an unwarranted, unjust, and wholly unintelligent criticism of the Protestant chaplains of the United States Army [TIME, Sept. 10]. If General Vaughan were merely expressing his personal opinion as a private citizen his remarks could and should be ignored. But this is not the case. General Vaughan occupies an official position, and his remarks are open to the interpretation of being official Army opinion. . . .
General Vaughan seems to think that when chaplains are sent into the Army by a bishop (as is the case with Roman Catholic chaplains), this will insure the selection of only men of the highest type. I have had a wide acquaintance with Roman Catholic chaplains in the Army and have found them in every case to be men with whom I have been proud to be associated. I have not found them any more devoted to their work or efficient in the discharge of their duties than Protestant chaplains are. There are superior Catholic chaplains and inferior ones. There are superior Protestant chaplains and inferior ones. And there are all grades in between--just as out of a hundred good generals there are bound to be one or two like General Vaughan. . . .
ROBERT F. HASKIN Chaplain, A.U.S. % Postmaster San Francisco
Green Glows the Envy
Sirs:
Of sour-grapes Private Dawn Van Horn's letter of criticism of the Tysons' $40,000 debut [TIME, Oct. 1], something should be said: 1) the whole letter glows green with envy; 2) the old principle of live & let live is still a good one; 3) it seems doubtful she's as much worried about the needs of "a thousand American girls" as she is about her getting the Van Horn hands on "a fur coat and a swell watch"; 4) someone should tell Private Van Horn what part intolerance played in starting the war she was just in; 5) she'd be the first to complain if those who have it didn't spend it; 6) what's so much more essential about a fur coat and a swell watch than a debut?; 7) "damn" and "hell" are unbecoming when used in the same sentence by a lady in service who shows such interest in what's right; 8) her small-mindedness will make her "when I am broke" both certain and soon; 9) I doubt raising her family on her anti-social jealousies will make them any more sensible than those she envies; 10) everything is relative: she wastes what she can on lipstick and cigarets; the Tysons waste what they can on a debut, but the principle is the same; 11) her letter, after all, isn't green but red.
BILL LOEB
Yale University New Haven, Conn.
Worse Than a Bad Cold
Sirs:
I read with interest your article on venereal disease statistics in the Sept. 4 issue of TIME, but your last statement stopped me cold. You said: "90% of gonorrhea cases are fixed up in six to eight hours." Even the most optimistic observer would hesitate to claim such results. . .
Are you trying to convince people that gonorrhea is "no worse than a bad cold"?
A. G. ROCKWELL JR. Lieutenant (MC), U.S.N.R. % Fleet Post Office San Francisco
P: No. Reader Rockwell's shock was caused by the U.S. Public Health Service, whose official figures TIME used.--ED.
"Decadent Americans"
Sirs -
Re Heinrich Hauser, author of The German Talks Back [TIME, Sept. 24]. Why is it that the German mind must assume that the ultimate end of political action must be the use of armed force?
I was born in the same year as Hauser. I have traveled the U.S. for 20 years, meeting all types, races, creeds, and localities of the country. Had he traveled as I have, I am sure he would know that in every group, area, industry, political party, or what not, there are those who might be classed as "Spartan" and "decadent." . . .
But he has, and I might add most of his writing fellow Europeans have, missed the real point of American entry into the European wars. The average American really doesn't care what form of government Germany or any country has, providing that that government does not intend to use armed force as the means of accomplishing its political ends, domestic or international.
I have yet to see an American "Spartan" or "decadent" who will be pushed around by a man with a gun. . . .
ROBERT S. RADCLIFFE Shaker Heights, Ohio
Sirs:
. . . The answer to Herr Hauser is simple. He is condemned out of his own mouth and by his own acts. Moral values, if one really believes in them, are things one lives up to even, if necessary, at the price of self-abnegation and sacrifice. But Herr Hauser didn't do that. He came to America rather than pay the price for his "beliefs." . . .
ROBERT J. DICKINSON Captain (MC), A.U.S. Galveston, Tex.
Democracy in Italy
Sirs:
The following is an excerpt from a letter received from one of my friends who is a serviceman stationed in Italy:
"The other night I called on a man of the educated middle class here in Italy. He has two sons, about 22 and 25, and a daughter about the same age. They are what we would call the university student type in America, with an added maturity which is common to Europeans of this particular class. We were discussing politics when, to my utter amazement, the older boy-asked just how one went about voting for candidates for public office and how a government was chosen under a democratic system. . . .
"Here is the educated middle class, the only group who could hope to make democracy and capitalism work, absolutely ignorant of the elementary form of democratic organization after two years of occupation."
. . . Aren't we overlooking completely the crux of the problem of maintaining peace in Europe by allowing such conditions to exist as those described in this letter?
R. W. SEELAND Buffalo
Mmm, More Celery
Sirs:
I can take a hint, and I will see that you get some of Colorado's Pascal celery [TIME, Sept. 24] as soon as the weather turns cool enough to develop its crispy sweetness and incomparable flavor. Colorado celery is so delicious that it doesn't make any difference whether it is salted or not, but it is also good enough that no one minds bending the wrist slightly to salt it. Coloradoans are not "mad" at Mr. Morton, Mr. Carey, the Great Salt Lake, or any other person who has a lot of salt.
LOWELL WHITE Denver
P: TIME'S editor has never had enough celery--ED.
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