Pretended Portraiture
Sirs:
What, a Bunyan on the Achilles heel of TIME? Your supposed portrait of John Milton (TIME, March 17) is believed by authorities (J. F. Marsh, G. C. Williamson, et al.) to be actually of [John Bunyan], the author of Pilgrim's Progress. Your cut showed but part of the picture; a staff and pilgrim's bottle are really in the left background, and what appears to be a representation of the risen Savior is in the upper right. The portrait belonged to Capel Lofft, who believing it to be of Milton, published an engraving of it in 1792. Lofft, like TIME, was evidently unaware of the authentic Faithorne engraving, which is the National Portrait Gallery's choice among portraits of Milton, although Lofft presented the Gallery with his pretended portrait in 1839. Experts acquainted with the various portraits of Milton and Bunyan will hardly approve your selection; and Milton himself might say of it what he said of Marshall's unflattering portrait in 1645:
You who really know my face,
Fail to find me in this place.
Portraiture the fool pretends;
Laugh at the result, my friends.
On the other hand, I salute your reviewer for his wise, penetrating account of Logan Pearsall Smith's Milton and His Modern Critics. . . .
WILLIAM R. PARKER Department of English The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio
"Those Horrid Books"
Sirs:
Although I am one of this thoughtless generation (13), I generally read TIME. In the Feb. 24 issue I came across your brilliant (oh, yeah!) expose of comic books. I was amazed: "An overseasoned, indigestible, nerve-shattering, eye-ruining diet of non-comic murder, torture, kidnappings, sex-baiting." Brother, don't make us laugh! . . .
This is a little bewildering to me. We're reading those horrid books, but are they more horrid than the world where people are killing each other? In the U. S. where we race around in cars butchering humans?
I believe I speak for every "real" boy and girl in the U. S. when I say: "Quit getting grey hairs worrying about us and see what can be done about the world we're growing up in."
MARCIA RAHN Billings, Mont.
Forces of Evil
Sirs:
. . . Have read the letter from Mary Rohrabaugh of Youngstown that says, "I hate war" [TIME, March 10]. Who doesn't? Lincoln, too, hated war, so did Washington, so does all the civilized Christian world; but the time to cry out against it is past when the evil forces in the world make it inevitable. Lincoln and Washington mourned the sacrifice of the youth of our land to war in their day, but they had no choice. . . .
These are not easy times for youth; but looking back through history was there ever an easy time? Each generation has its problems to face. Do you want this one to throw up its hands and give up in defeat?
BETTY Fox Boston, Mass.
Sirs:
I like TIME. I wish that TIME would refrain from using the term "isolationist." No one in the U. S. is one. We all realize that the world is constantly growing smaller.
The term "continentalist" is much preferred. The term "isolationist"'has been falsely branded upon farsighted individuals who strongly disbelieve that our entrance in the European struggle is essential to our future well being. . . .
H. C. HOWELL
Rochester, N. Y.
Sirs:
This American suggests that disciples of Union Now [between the U. S. and the British democracies] consummate their exotic love affair personally and leave the rest of us out of it.
If in the future we as a nation are to espouse every damsel who would be kept, be she designing or just plain willing, we're going to find ourselves in a hell of a fix.
GEORGE VAN SCIVER II
Bethlehem, Pa.
Sirs :
As an American college student, I am much dismayed by the fact that, in the eyes of the nation, we appear to be a "slacker" multitude with appeaser sentiments. I have read your magazine, observed its characteristic fairness, so I sincerely hope you will print this letter. . . .
When the portent of the impending life struggle between democracy and dictatorship first dawned upon our nonchalant minds, we "looked upon ourselves and cursed our fate" for having been born to bear the brunt of mistakes other than our own. But that has all changed. We now feel privileged to have been conceived in a period when we can not only watch, but take an integral part in, the awakening of a great democracy. Like the painful mass reactions of a newborn babe, the movements of our democracy are quick and wasteful, but we students are doing everything we can to speed and direct our country so that it may beat "that damned Hitler," as we call him. . . .
Right now, the average college student, like myself, when he hears himself called appeaser, is only one degree below boiling point!
ROBERT B. WILCOX Modesto Junior College Modesto, Calif.
Working Tools
Sirs:
From 1930 to 1940 business kept me mostly on the European continent. Having listened to many people in many countries, it became my opinion that there was one important factor to which most of their ills could be traced, namely: Little accurate news and difficult access to that news.
The thinking man simply had no tools to work with.
If this.opinion is substantiated, then Henry R. Luce, by publishing TIME, FORTUNE and LIFE, has done more than any man to preserve the American way of life. . . .
JOHN VAN STIRUM
Upper Darby, Pa.
For Preparedness Sirs: TIME, March 24 says: "One idea current in Washington, however, was that neither side at Allis-Chalmers--union or management--cared passionately about settling the dispute." Reference is then made to the fact that I contributed to the America First Committee.
Let there be no doubt in the minds of TIME editors or anyone else as to our company's interest in settling this strike or as to my personal attitude toward war.
No one in America detests Nazi barbarism more than I do. I am in favor of giving fullest aid to the democracies, and pray for their success. Of course, I am heartily in sympathy with our preparedness program. Like thousands of others, my endorsement of the America First Committee is based on the sincere belief that the U. S. should not actively engage in the war, unless defense of our own country makes such a step imperative.
Our company is vitally interested in settling this strike. We have been willing to give concessions on practically every point in dispute --including a wage increase--but we cannot afford to turn control of our production over to any labor organization.
MAX W. BABB President
Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co. Milwaukee, Wis.
MacPhail & Black Sirs:
Mrs. Dorise Nielsen [may be at present] the "only" but not "Canada's first . . . woman M. P." (TIME, March 17).
How about Ontario-born farmer's daughter Agnes Campbell MacPhail, elected 1921, re-elected 1925, 1926, 1930 and 1935, defeated 1940, representing Grey Bruce, Ont.?
Or Chicago-born Mrs. Martha Louise Black, elected 1935 for one term, representing fabulous, romantic Yukon country?
Despite occasional boners like this TIME is still best 17-c- worth (in Canada including tax to beat Hitler) on the newsstands.
LESLIE Fox B. C. Press Gallery Victoria, B. C.
>TIME'S apologies for overlooking Canada's MacPhail & Black.--ED.
Dog Robber
Sirs:
A question about . . . your March 10 issue:
What is a "dog robber"? . . . Surely the officers at Fort Dix are neither practicing vivisection nor eating dogs. Perhaps it is a military slang expression? . . .
FRANCESCA L. HUBBARD Pasadena, Calif.
> Right. In Army parlance, a dog robber is a soldier detailed as an officer's orderly.--ED.
No Bones Sirs: Miss Leah Harkavy's letter in the March 10 issue [about conditions at Fort Dix] indicates an apt taste for hashing humor, interest and a few facts. I am a recruit at Fort Dix and, although I must compliment the little lady as an expressive and amusing creature, I cannot endorse her sorry implications.
We make no bones about it here. There is mud, we do for the most part sleep in tents, and inspections are rather regular ad infinitum. There are other things usual and customary to Army life. This IS Army life and those slight trials and tribulations are to be expected. We at Fort Dix and our fellow warriors all over these United States are not sacrificing this year of our lives to spend vacationing. This is business. . . .
As to mud. Wherever earth and rain meet there'll be mud. It must be in plenty of other places outside the Dix area. Just a guess, of course. When I was a kid I loved it. Remember mud pies? . . .
About soft coal. Yes, it was pain for a while. But a very short while. Plenty of hard coal now. I wonder what the boys in Europe use. Think about that.
And those horrible tents! Alas, they are warm. They are private. Alone under canvas with a few other fellows seems preferable by this soldier boy to a full house of conflicting personalities all trying to play 30 different radios at once. That's the barracks. When summer comes we throw back the roofs and presto! air conditioning! I'm afraid it's tents, two to one.
Our "Thursday Night Soldiers" are for a part college grads. . . . They are trained by an excellent staff of exceptional officers and are even required to attend special schooling courses at night.
As recruits we did move frequently. It was necessary to segregate us prior to final adjustment in a regular regiment. Somehow it never rained on the days we moved.
And hospitals overcrowded with only acute cases. Bosh! We call 'em "fatigue cases." Anybody can get in with warranted ailments.
Plenty room for more too. . . .
Those cracks about the mess hurt my feelings. While we have no chefs from the Waldorf (yet) the food is good and plentiful.
Drop around some time when the bugle pipes "chow"--only don't get in the way ! The spirit, energy and will to win first place in the mess line has caused more soreness of body and limb than a season's play at Notre Dame's left tackle. . . .
And so on down the list. Maybe I just happen to be with a bunch of guys who can take it. ...
PRIVATE ALBERT H. BENDIX Fort Dix, N. J.
Sirs: Let Leah Harkavy ask any unbiased draftee being trained by officers and non-commissioned officers of the National Guard, whom she sneeringly terms "Thursday Night Soldiers" if they are not, on the whole, efficient and understanding tutors. . . .
These former National Guardsmen during peacetime gave their time and effort to maintaining a cadre around which a large part of our pressingly needed Army of the United States is being formed.
If, as Miss Harkavy points out, "these little men stand around discussing among themselves how to train the draftees," they do so on their own time, after wearying hours on the parade ground. They do so in a sincere effort to pass on to these trainees the knowledge and high morale which is their diploma for six months of unpleasant winter training.
Because they understand the difficulties of sudden transition from civilian to military life, they patiently spend their free hours in planning how to best aid the trainees in avoiding the mistakes they themselves made in bridging this gap. . . .
The "Thursday Night Soldiers" are fully aware that they are not seasoned in the sense that our professional soldiers are. But like the citizen soldiers who have always sacrificed their security and economic opportunities whenever the United States has been faced with emergency--these "Thursday Night Soldiers" are willingly giving every ounce of loyalty and ability to their country. . . .
CORPORAL ROBERT M. ALLEN
Fort Lewis, Wash.
Sirs:
I am one of the "Thursday Night Soldiers" referred to by Miss Harkavy and would like to give TIME readers a somewhat more accurate description of a draftee's life in the Army.
I am stationed at Camp Murray, Wash, and, while I undoubtedly lack the delightfully feminine but apparently adolescent outlook of Miss Harkavy, I feel that I can give a much better eyewitness account of the life of a selectee.
At Camp Murray, "the poor soldier boys" of Miss Harkavy's letter are living in new barracks with hot and cold running water and central heating systems. The guardsmen, on the other hand, live in tents, walk half a mile to take a lukewarm shower and try to keep warm over a Sibley stove burning wet wood.
The guardsmen have to instruct the selectees in military subjects and also furnish K. P.s for the "poor soldier boys"; apparently to keep their sisters from complaining that the boys are getting dishwater hands. A guardsman cannot come in physical contact with a selectee even to show him the correct position in which to carry a rifle or to adjust his pack. We must never, never refer to the selectees as draftees or conscripts because this might hurt their feelings.
Of course I'm probably not nearly as well informed as Miss Harkavy; I've only lived in the mud six months and she has undoubtedly visited Fort Dix at least twice on visitors' day, but I'm proud to say that despite poor living conditions and wet weather we are soon going to have a well-trained, efficient Army. . . .
E. W. MARTIN, Sergeant
Camp Murray Tacoma, Wash.
>TIME feels that Reader Harkavy, who wrote good-naturedly but scath ingly about Fort Dix, was not primarily bent on criticizing Army administra tion or the National Guard, but on highlighting what almost everyone now knows -- that conditions at some camps are more primitive than at others. -- ED.
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