The Illusory Dream

Sir:

A year ago, your Jan. 2, 1950 issue pointed out that there is a trend for people to "exchange part of the American dream of opportunity for a new and perhaps more illusory dream of security." You went on to say: "The depths to which Germans had descended would not be impossible for Russians, Britons or Americans--if they managed to achieve sufficiently bad political leadership and a sufficiently reckless disregard of moral law . . ."

As a result of our pursuit of the "illusory dream of security," our government planning has brought us into a situation in which we do not have enough steel, doctors, nurses, aluminum, copper, tin, zinc, radio parts, rubber, homes, lumber and building materials . . . [Instead] we find that, as a result of planning, we have high food prices--even though we have an oversupply of food; we have inflation . . . and now we have the threat (technically) of war . . .

Truly, you pointed out a year ago, it is now "the task of leadership ... to bring love of freedom in ordinary men to bear upon events--before the extremity of the torture chamber is reached." We certainly need "more confidence in our own values of freedom than we have shown during the last . half-century. We need to find ways to transfer our conviction into effective political unity of free men everywhere . . ."

Your Jan. 2, 1950 appraisal of the results of the drifting of the first half-century was alarmingly foresighted and correct. It could be read again by everyone with profit.

DONALD H. BUTLER

Pittsburgh

Birthday Note Sir:

Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight,

Make me a child again, just for --one week's issue!

On Sept. 20 last I became 72; but on Dec. 18 TIME makes me 71. Keep it up, as long as you please.

UPTON SINCLAIR Monrovia, Calif.

P: And in April, when his novel, Another Pamela, was published, Author Sinclair was 71--as TIME said.--ED.

In Praise of Pogo

Sir:

For your all-too-brief six paragraphs on Pogo, his pals and their admirable creator, Walter Kelly [TIME, Dec. 18], allow me to thank you on behalf of the untold legions of other Pogo admirers . . . Like the maraschino cherry on a sundae, Pogo always receives my first consideration . . .

JIMMIE HOUSTON

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Sir:

. . . What's the idea of giving Li'l Abner eleven columns [TIME, Nov. 6]--and Pogo only one and a fraction?

PHILIP GRAY Bar Harbor, Me.

Popcorn

Sir:

... In the Dec. 11 issue, in which Theater Owner Charles Skouras is reported to be mourning the vanished movie patron, [TIME] scorns Director John Ford for "Rover-boy characters," "boisterous comic relief" and "shoddy taste in material"--i.e., good Showman Ford turned out No. 3 box office Rio Grande instead of sticking to the arty scripts that are the cause of much of Messrs. Skouras' and associates' trouble . . .

When your critic and others . . . learn, as Director Ford obviously has, that the public likes that "shoddy material" . . . Mr. Skouras' popcorn will find more customers.

RALPH G. EDWARDS New York City

The Alternatives

Sir:

Re your Dec. 11 listing of the six courses open to the U.S. and its allies in Asia:

I suggest that your Course No. 5 loses strength by including so much.

We have two definite commitments in the Far East, which we must meet at all costs: 1) the safeguarding of Japan and bases acquired by such effort and bloodshed; 2) the freedom of South Korea from aggression . .

These two objectives should keep us busy without your suggestion of "full support of Chiang Kaishek" and his army of 500,000. Why support a regime that stands for poverty, war and corruption to the average Chinese? . . .

HELEN M. FARNSWORTH

Winchester, Mass.

Sir:

How can there be any question of a course other than No. 5 ? Thank you for stating the issue clearly.

There seems no possibility of conquering the Communists in China without the help of General Chiang . . .

ROSE V. KERR Greeley, Colo.

Sir:

... Withdraw from Korea, give materiel aid to Chiang Kaishek, and get the people of China to revolt against their Red leaders by a nagging strategic bombing of their land . . .

CHAS. OVERILL

Newport Beach, Calif.

Sir:

I would like to propose another course of action in addition to the six you listed . . .

The proposition of our day is peace, and our common enemy is the war which will deny that peace to us and generations to come. I plead with all who will hear to avoid the final catastrophic failure of war. I plead not for appeasement born of fear, but for honest negotiation, long persisted in until understanding comes . . .

Let us serve notice on the few who have our fate in their hands that we will not accept war or threat of war as the best solution of any of the problems that plague the nations. Let us reason together, even when we and they are most unreasonable. Let negotiations continue for years if necessary; any time is short compared to the endlessness of death . . .

The proposition is peace, not only for us in our time, but for all men through all time . . .

MRS. PAUL BRINK Palo Alto, Calif.

Sir:

. . . Course No. 1--that of waging all-out war against Russia--you quickly rule out by saying that the American people do not favor such a course. You are probably right. We are being much more clever.

For some time Russia has been warring against us, but have we been tricked into striking back? We have not. We have faced the situation squarely, and tried to talk our way to victory. But we have also been resourceful. We have consistently outguessed the enemy by giving him everything he wants. In this way we have been able to keep the leaders in Moscow perpetually off balance. Imagine their surprise and consternation when we turned China over to the Communists, and then, by a crafty stratagem, kept the Chinese Nationalists neutralized on Formosa while engaging these same Communists in armed combat. Small wonder they are baffled!

But the sheer genius of our entire approach has lain in our determined refusal to admit for a minute that Russia is at war with us. We have thus been able to thwart her war aims and achieve what gives promise of being a permanent state of peace, for we are not obliged to fight back.

I can hardly wait to see where we out-maneuver them next.

R. C. GIBSON

Rosalia, Wash.

Consent to Murder

Sir:

A casual quotation ... in your Dec. 11 review of The Blue and the Gray struck me as being the most succinct, powerful summary I have seen of the democracies' present-day perilous situation: "If thou wouldst but consent to be murdered peaceably, there could be no strife."

ROBERT H. LEHMAN New York City

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