Porent Posters

Sirs :

. . . I have been on duty with the Army Recruiting Service for over two years recruiting aviation cadets for the Army Air Forces, and we have never had a poster that compares with James Montgomery Flagg's excellent "I Want You"--until last January when Mr. Stan Ekman of Chicago designed an Army aviation cadet poster, a picture of which I enclose [see cut]. . .

Mr. Ekman's poster does everything you say a good war poster should do. "It tells its story simply, at a glance and for keeps--to plain citizens and highbrows alike."

This poster is good enough to have helped the Sixth Service Command recruit more aviation cadets during the month of July than any other Service Command in the U.S.; is good enough to be reproduced by the War Department as a standard Army Air Force recruiting poster, and is good enough to have made TIME Magazine with Jimmy Doolittle, carrying the heading "Fly to Tokyo--All Expenses Paid" (p. 17, TIME, June 1).

The original of Mr. Ekman's poster was presented to Lieut. General Arnold by the commanding general, Sixth Service Command.

THOMAS W. DE MINT

Captain, Infantry

Services of Supply

Office of the Commanding General

Chicago

Anti-Panties

Sirs:

Sad indeed will be any civilian exposed to mustard gas while wearing a pair of rubber panties for a gas mask [TIME, Sept. 7]. The average rubber pant is of similar thickness to a surgeon's rubber glove; it is well known that these gloves become dangerous to wear after 15 minutes' exposure to mustard-gas vapor. This particular grade of rubber is not only an inadequate protection but even accentuates mustard-gas burns as well as permanently contaminating the rubber itself. Mustard gas is soluble in rubber and a droplet that would produce only a small blister on bare skin may spread through the entire rubber surface, in time, and burn the whole enclosed area. . . .

True, the activated charcoal-soda lime will stop the vapors of all war gases . . . from going through the orifice of the tin can, but it will not stop damage to the skin, eyes, lungs by the mustard-gas vapor that goes through the rubber. The fact that rubberized fabric is used in military gas masks has probably served for the foundation of the A.W.V.S. fallacy. But the gas mask is of an entirely different grade of rubber and is quite thick in comparison to rubber underwear.

Even the rationale of giving every civilian a gas mask is questionable. . . . After all, just because you have a gas mask does not mean you can go to the corner store for a loaf of bread during an air raid. Mustard-gas (or other blister gas) droplets falling during an air raid or the vapor of these materials left on the ground arid streets after a raid will injure skin and contaminate clothes, shoes, and hair regardless of gas mask. Is the A.W.V.S. going to suggest that we sew together 13 pairs of rubber panties in order to sniggle enough rubber sheeting from the war effort to make a suit of protective clothing (that wouldn't be protective anyway) ? Much better, let civilians obey air-raid rules, stay indoors in a blackout room with the windows blanketed and cracks stuffed as well as possible with wet paper (mustard gas will not cross a water barrier because of its poor water solubility), lie down on the floor with head in arms. Little gas will penetrate such a "gas mask." If vesicant gas is suspected by a peculiar odor or presence of oily mist, spray or droplets, an immediate bath with plenty of soap and some water will minimize its effects on the skin; irrigation of the eyes with 2% baking soda solution will protect them against damage. Breathing through a cloth dampened with baking soda solution will protect against such little vapor that gets inside a house but not against street or high local concentrations. . . .

DAVID FIELDING MARSH

University of Georgia

School of Medicine

Augusta, Ga.

> To Professor (of Pharmacology) Marsh thanks for a provocative critique of the homemade-panties gas mask reported (reservedly) by TIME.--ED.

Steel Mess: Postscript

Sirs:

CONGRATULATIONS EXCELLENT HANDLING REESE TAYLOR RESIGNATION [TIME, Sept. 7] BUT MY REPORT WAS NO PART OF THE CAUSE. IT MAY ALSO OCCUR TO SOME READERS THAT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFICULT FOR HIRELING LIBBEY TO SPEND FOUR MONTHS AND THOUSANDS MILES GOVERNMENT TRAVEL PREPARING AN "UNAUTHORIZED" REPORT. PERHAPS YOU MEANT THE CONCLUSIONS.

FREDERICK I. LIBBEY

Washington

>TIME meant what it said the first time (Aug. 31): that WPB Consultant Libbey was not authorized to give the report to the Washington Post.--ED.

Philosopher's Hope

Sirs:

I have read with much interest the account of Indian events and persons in TIME, Aug. 24. I admire the impartiality with which highly controversial matters are treated. I deplore the present conflict in India, but I do not think it would be possible, as the Congress party demanded, to hand over the Government to a professedly representative collection of Indians hastily assembled in the middle of a war, and bitterly at odds among themselves on many important questions. Apart from the difficulties necessarily involved in a change while a Japanese invasion is imminent, the replies to Sir Stafford Cripps made clear that a British withdrawal now would leave India in chaos and anarchy, if not actually in civil war, which would result in an easy conquest of India by Japan.

I still hope that a compromise may be reached, perhaps by the British Government inviting suggestions from commissioners appointed by the Governments of the United States, the U.S.S.R. and China, such suggestions to be made after conference with Indian leaders. Such articles as yours are extremely useful in helping American readers to understand the very complex problems involved.

BERTRAND RUSSELL

Malvern, Pa.

Voice of TIME

Having made my living (from time to time!) in radio acting and announcing for the past twelve years, it seems incredible that I should feel the slightest curiosity about a fellow Afra member! But I do, and that fellow is Westbrook Van Voorhis, whom you fellows were smart enough to sign up exclusively for the MARCH OF TIME broadcasts. He is so distinctly superior to any other announcer on the air--both in his dramatic narrative and his commercial "plugging"--that I marvel at the lack of publicity and recognition regarding him. Surely, anyone who has ever faced a microphone realizes that he has the toughest assignment of anyone who appears on the show, and everyone realizes what a consistently super job he turns in, week after week. His sharp sense of the dramatic, his absolute command of his voice, and his flawless sense of timing --those things don't "just happen," and especially under the intense pressure that is inevitable on the MARCH or TIME.

Personally, I'd like to know a little something about Mr. Van Voorhis . . . and I'd even like to see what he looks like. And maybe thousands of other people feel the same way. . . .

EDITH DOWTY

Evanston, Ill.

> Tall (6 ft. 1 in.), brown-haired Cornelius Westbrook Van Voorhis, 39 this month, has been on the MARCH OF TIME since 1931 (when it made its debut). He was signed exclusively by TIME, as its Voice, in 1937. Until then he had worked for some 50 programs, under at least five names. No longer anonymous, "Van" is now introduced under his own name to the world each week on MARCH OF TIME'S weekly broadcasts.

Onetime cadet at the U.S. Naval Academy, he inherited $100,000, quit the Academy, decided against a legal career (his father and grandfather were New York judges), finally took a slow trip around the world. An actor next, he played in twelve flops in 18 months, quit to try radio. He was an announcer on a small local station when TIME discovered him. In 1932 he married Constance McKay, whom he had met when she was the heroine of a Broadway play in which he was the villain. They have an eight-year-old daughter, Nancy.

Since Pearl Harbor he has helped MARCH OF TIME cinema make many films for the armed forces, has been guest narrator on several Government-sponsored radio programs.--ED.

Tenderhearted

Sirs:

I was reading the story you had in your magazine about wood ticks. I felt so sorry for the guinea pig and bunny. Why don't science use Japs to experiment on? Why should it pick on the poor animals?

JEAN FALLBACHER (age 13)

Chicago

"Conveniently (?) Forgot"

Sirs:

It is at least puzzling to read your story on Henderson's speech to the war workers-- TIME, Aug. 31. While you indicate correctly his stating that: "1942 farm incomes will top those of 1939 by nearly 75%. Wage earners will get 70% more than in 1939," you conveniently (?) forgot to include that he also indicated industry's profits as being upped nearly 400%. I looked throughout the issue for that item, but couldn't find it. Wasn't that considered newsworthy enough for inclusion? . . .

S. E. T. LUND

University of Tennessee

Knoxville

> In reporting Henderson's speech someone else "conveniently (?) forgot." He said: "Corporate profits before taxes this year will be nearly four times what they were in 1939." Any statement of corporate-income increases before taxes is not merely misleading, but plainly untrue. Actual profits after taxes of 200 leading corporations in the first half of this year were more than 30% below a year ago, about the same as in 1939.--ED.

Gremlins & Kin

Sirs:

Referring to your article on "Gremlins" [TIME, Sept. 14], credit for the discovery of the European gremlin should, I believe, go to an unknown weather forecaster at Le Bourget Airport, Paris. I knew the pilot concerned. (He has since been killed.)

During the winter of 1922, that gentleman (whose weather reports, given in a mixture of bad English and rapid French, had to be heard to be believed; he had already sprung some astonishing surprises on us in the way of forecasts, one of the best of which was an announcement that we might expect the weather to be "squoggy"), was asked by a worried pilot, en route to England, for the weather conditions in the English Channel. He announced solemnly "Gremlins sur la Manche," and left it at that. Further efforts by the pilot to get an explanation were met by a stony silence.

Shortly after, the radio broke down, indicating that the gremlins had already begun work. . . .

Incidentally, your article fails to mention that well-known cousin to the gremlin, the "Hopschneider," who lives on the ski trails in Switzerland and Canada, and emerges suddenly from behind trees in order to cross the skis of runners as they go by. As you dig yourself out and disentangle your limbs, their squeaky laughter can be heard echoing through the pines. . . .

------*

British Air Commission

New York City

Sirs:

Delighted to read of the "gremlins" in this week's issue. They must be distant cousins of the "saskwatchs" who come up from the Penticton beam every night and ride along over the Cascade mountain range on our Trip 4. They jump off over Cranbrook and do an instrument letdown into the Kootenay valley to visit friends there, returning several hours later on Trip 1.

They generally ride on top of the pilot's compartment, belly down, head into the wind with their little fingers spread out over the windshield so that they won't be blown off. Of course, as we are operating a transport line, they behave themselves and don't pull any of the funny stuff their European cousins use to annoy pilots.

Our veteran mountain captains, George Lothian and Lindy Rood, have told me of meeting creatures similar to "saskwatchs" on recent trips across the North Atlantic, and I am sure that your story will prove of great benefit to them. They had felt rather hurt that their supposedly good friends would prove so mischievous.

THOMAS W. KIRKHAM S

upervisor of Passenger Agents

Trans-Canada Air Lines

Winnipeg

Not for Sissies

Sirs:

The photo on p. 59 of TIME, Aug. 24, showing the "troop glider" gave many of us who have recently become glider pilots our first glimpse of the "blitzkrieg boxcars" we will use. Thanks for the preview. . . .

The following verses were written by the men in training at this glider school. Apparently they hadn't read the recent issue of TIME which told of successful pickups of gliders by low-flying aircraft. In any event the verses are indicative of the morale in the Glider Command which you can plainly see is excellent.

ONLY SISSIES NEED MOTORS

. . . You can have your high-powered Cyclones

And your liquid-cooled Allisons, too.

Give me a handful of thermals

And a thunderstorm or two. . . .

We'll load up with sixty Commandos

Five jeeps and a big G.I. truck,

Land in the outskirts of Munich --

Sweetheart, please wish me luck. . . .

Now, after we finish at Munich

And have Hitler's guts in a sack

There's only one question unanswered:

Oh, how are we going to get back?

WILLIAM C. LAZARUS

Captain, U.S.A.A.F.

Waco, Tex. -Name withheld by request.

* To Professor (of Pharmacology) Marsh thanks for a provocative critique of the homemade-panties gas mask reported (reservedly) by TIME.--ED.

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