Less Yelping, Please

Sirs:

. . . Only one thing riles me--this demobilization racket. I don't care for myself, but I do for the men. Here is a ship that must be kept in efficient operation at least for a few months longer. . . . I did have 96 men and 9 officers; now I have 77 men and 8 officers, with 16 additional men and two officers eligible for release already. And there are no replacements at all. At least, I haven't been able to find any, nor has anyone else I know.

The thing that riles me is that the 16 men left are the most experienced, highest rated, most capable, and most deserving, yet I have to hold them as "military necessities" because it takes trained machinists, electricians, radiomen, etc. to run these complicated little vessels, not raw draftees out of boot camp. It would be all right if the infernal politicians and radio broadcasters would cease yelping about demobilization and keep off the air and refrain from keeping the men all stirred up. . . .

I guess the trouble is that the average American is too selfish and shortsighted. He wants peace and a big navy and world security, but he wants and expects someone else to do all the work for him. . . . Perhaps we are not a great people essentially, except in our wishes. Perhaps we'll lose the peace. Perhaps we deserve to. ...

(NAVAL OFFICER'S NAME

WITHHELD)

c/o Fleet Post Office

San Francisco

Black TIME, White Wright

Sirs:

I refer to TIME's "piece" [Sept. 24] on the Imperial Hotel of Tokyo, Japan: I happen to be the architect, and the time-honored formula for an untimely finish seems to be already well into its second stage where TIME is concerned. The formula is: first, Success, then, Arrogance, then Downfall. I refer to an all too arrogant falsehood in the piece, which was not only a gross misrepresentation of my sentiments but proving in black & white that TIME can be a reckless liar.

Let my secretary speak. Quote from Eugene Masselink:

"Dear Mr. Wright: TIME'S quotation of your conversation with them ... is entirely false. I was present when you spoke over the telephone to them and in reply to their questions you said: 'No, I have received no request from Japan nor from anyone to rebuild the part of the hotel that was damaged--but even if I were to receive such a request I would have to turn it down because I am much too busy at work building in my own country to go to any other country to build at this time. Besides, I prefer independence to interdependence.' You repeated this statement several times. Eugene Masselink, Secretary to Frank Lloyd Wright."

Now, the term "Japs" is (of course) journalese. I have never used the slang myself and I never will. . . .

Recently, speaking of "NonObjective Art," I suggested that TIME (among others) take a course in "Non-Adjective Writing." But the matter now seems more hopeless. So, I disrespectfully suggest that we, right here and now, drop the whole Art Department of TIME as a malicious libel not only upon the entire subject of Art but all honest artists everywhere.

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

Spring Green, Wis.

P: The facts: Domei reported the hotel management's request, and TIME disrespectfully condensed arrogant Architect Wright's adjectival reaction.--ED.

Annapolis Commentary

Sirs:

Your article on the Naval Academy [TIME, Oct. 8] was one of the better commentaries that have so far appeared, but much of vital importance was overlooked.

First, no one has yet publicized the fact that this institution utterly lacks continuity of administration from the superintendent on down through the department heads. Can you imagine any great seat of learning changing presidents and heads of departments every two years? The result is a complete breakdown in policies and in control of personnel. No chief here ever gets to know thoroughly the qualifications of the great number of men who do the real work. Each new department head, in from sea, perhaps carries on that quality of arrogance you mentioned by assuming omniscience in the new work he is undertaking: the direction of a staff of instructors in an educational effort. Although he is no longer on a ship, he generally behaves as though he were, ordering changes in methods as though he were fully conversant with the running of an academic organization. In two years, he leaves to give place to another head. As for his staff of teachers, he gets what the Bureau of Personnel orders to service at the Academy. Such personnel is often very rusty on the subject to be taught, and keeps just a jump ahead of the midshipmen. It must be stressed that this "keeping a jump ahead" is common practice and is universally condoned and approved here. . .

Let's have another Academy on the West Coast. That would put the challenge to the present Academy to justify its preeminence. . . .

(NAVAL ACADEMY PROFESSOR'S

NAME WITHHELD)

Annapolis

Sirs: After 20 years' service in the regular Navy as an enlisted man, and after having seen both regular and reserve officers perform in time of war, I am in favor of abolishing the Naval Academy entirely. Young college boys fresh out of school learned the ropes faster, appeared much better educated than the general run of Academy graduates. What is more important: they could think.

R. L. SHARPE

Minneapolis

Sirs:

TIME'S story on the Naval Academy was received with mixed emotions and varying degrees of indignation and satisfaction. . . .

The general feeling was that the writer of the article knew his stuff.

(NAVAL ACADEMY OFFICER'S NAME

WITHHELD)

Annapolis

Plato or the Fleet

Sirs:

Let's face the Annapolis-St. John's fight [TIME, Oct. 15] and call it by its proper name. I say the world has seen this fight in a million times and towns, and that we witness now the capsule battle of our age. As St. John's wins or loses, so will our age be judged.

Domestically and finally, dramatically, we are confronted with the choice: power or freedom.

The Naval Academy, committed to the maintenance of the physical power of America, demands the plant of St. John's College for expansion; the latter needs it. St. John's, with its Great Books course, works to free the mind of every man through discipline, seeing a man's mind as sort of a paralytic who, through proper exercise and acquaintance with how other paralytics have succeeded, will arise and be free.

Through their representatives, Americans make the choice of who gets that land, Plato or the Fleet.

The Fleet can settle elsewhere. If St. John's is kicked out, we shall know that the more apparent freedoms will be the next to go. . . .

ROGER CALLENDER

South Bend

"Ruptured Duck"

Sirs:

As you probably know, the design of the present discharge button is not popular (G.I.S know it as the "ruptured duck"). It's made of plastic; gets upside down in the lapel, and nobody recognizes it anyway. So I went into a little research to see what "inspired" it. It was copied from a design by a German, Franz Sales Meyer (Handbook of Ornament).

RAY BETHERS

New York City

P: Who copied it from a bas-relief originally in Trajan's Forum in Rome.--ED.

Barbarous Americans?

Sirs:

. . . The letter of M. Donald Coleman [TIME, Oct. 1] provides a good analysis of the discord between our soldiers and their French hosts. But Pfc. Coleman says that mutual misunderstanding has created the problem. This is not so. . . .

The American stupefaction at the French mode of life is the awe of the barbarian before the Parthenon; the American resentment of that mode of life is the spite of the barbarian at being unable to destroy it. No worse insult can be growled than, "'They're dirty; they'd rob ya blind,'" for the only cleanliness a Puritan knows is the cleanliness of the body, and the only honesty he knows is the honesty of commerce.

Barred from maturity by the kindly offices of their Puritan elders, our soldiers could hardly be expected to react differently than they have. But they can be suspected of learning from their contact with Gallic civilization, and the very few who have will try to return to France as soon as possible. The very many who have not will remain forever in America, where they will bait Jews, repress Negroes, ban books, and agree with their German confreres on everything except the right of Germany to dominate mankind. True Americans know that this right belongs unquestionably to themselves.

BERT L. CARLSON

Berkeley, Calif.

Arsy-Versy

Sirs:

In our efforts to find arsy-versy [TIME, Oct. 1] in the dictionary, we have been turned absolutely arsy-versy. Or have we?

LIEUT. (JG) J. M. VANLANDINGHAM

LIEUT. (JG) R. B. MOORE

c/o Fleet Post Office

San Francisco

P: Definition, according to Webster's New International Dictionary: Backside forward, topsy-turvy. Synonymous phrase: arse-over-teakettle.--ED.

Patton's Hind Legs

Sirs:

. . . In spite of his brilliant record in fighting the Germans, General Patton is now being smeared on every front page because he retained certain Nazis in political office. I know that there is no one with a more cordial hatred for the Germans than General Patton, but he is also a realist and a practical man. He has always used the means at hand to do his job as quickly and expeditiously as possible. And retaining a few Nazis in key position was a case of using the means at hand.

You can't just go into a country and tear out every vestige of established Government and administration and expect to get the job done quickly and efficiently. I was in both Bavaria and Austria, and I know. You have to use some of the old team for your own purposes until you can get your team functioning. In addition to that, our Military Government teams, in spite of all their publicity, were nothing to write home about. . . .

But even if General Patton was in the wrong and did make a mistake, why couldn't he have been assigned to duty in the U.S. without all this smearing and mud-throwing? Why didn't the powers that be have him reassigned and then point out to the public that it was done to give him a rest? After all General Patton has been overseas for over three years with only a few days at home.

General Patton is a great commander and an honest man. Every time that he has gotten into trouble with me public it has been because he stood up on his hind legs and told the truth. The truth always hurts.

(ARMY OFFICER'S NAME WITHHELD)

Whiteriver, Ariz.

How To Eat Toothpaste?

Sirs:

It was certainly good news for us suicide contemplaters to learn that "people who really want to commit suicide could do it almost as easily . . . by eating a lot of toothpaste . . ." [TIME, Oct. 1].

How do you eat a lot of toothpaste? By diluting it in water and gulping it down? By decapping the tube and swallowing it whole and having somebody jump on your tummy? Or do you just brush your teeth continually without spitting? . . .

J. J. D. BRUNKE

Ottawa

P: Just spread it on a piece of bread.--ED.

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