"Dear Cousin"

The U.S. showed a burst of energy last week. The President grappled with the problem of the nation's debilitated military strength. The State Department moved on a new tangent into the mess of the Middle East. In collaboration with Britain and France, U.S. policymakers outsmarted Russia at Trieste. Meanwhile, some private citizens seized upon and wielded a propaganda weapon which might be as sharply effective as anything so far contrived in official quarters.

Manhattan's II Progresso Italo-Ameri-cano had run a full-page ad last January calling for a committee of 100,000 to get at least a million letters off to Italy posthaste. Points to be made to relatives in the old country: food and relief has been coming from the U.S., not Yugoslavia or other Soviet satellites; Italy's hope for peace depends on the U.S.

The idea was picked up on all sides. Speaker of the House Joe Martin, who ranks second only to the President of the U.S., gave it his official blessing. Send airmail letters, urged Speaker Martin. "A 15-c- stamp might turn the tide for peace." New York's post office noted that airmail letters to Italy increased forthwith 100%. Martin's hope, and the hope of Italo-Americans, was that these exhortations from the world's greatest internationale, the U.S., might turn the tide of international Communism--that letters from son to father, brother to brother, cousin to cousin, might help win needed votes in the all-important Italian election on April 18 (see FOREIGN NEWS).

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