Besides Making Money . . .
Sirs:
Letters of servicemen and ex-servicemen, as well as others, to TIME during the last few months inquire rather pathetically why the postwar U.S. (and the world) is not the marvelous, really Christian postwar society which editorial writers and politicians promised us during the war. The answer is obvious. . . . Society will improve only when the individuals decide to improve . . . morally and spiritually. . . . We of the postwar era are no more tolerant, unselfish, and no more disciplined in our behavior than pre-1939 and far less so than pre-1900. . . .
Until we see other aims in life besides . . . making money and having a good time, usually at the expense of the other guy, we can [be sure] that our civilization--what's left of it--is on the way out. . . .
H. C. FRANCIS London, Ont.
Trot--Don't Run
Sirs:
Senator Taft says that he never heard of "anyone running away from it" [nomination for the presidency--TIME, June 10]. . . . Didn't William Tecumseh Sherman say in June, 1884, "I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected"?
GEORGE H. LATHAM Wilmington
P:He did--and was not nominated.--ED.
Soap & Socialism
Sirs:
... If Unilever [TIME, June 10] can [gross] $1,200,000,000 in a year, I can't for the life of me see why the British Empire needs four billion as a gift from the U.S. Instead of nationalizing a rundown coal mine, let them take over a money-making outfit like that. . . .
W. E. YOCUM Washington
Black & White Lowdown
Sirs:
May I take exception to J. A. Riechman [TIME, June 17]. As a "lowdown white woman" married to a Negro--may I say that it is legitimate, I believe, to live with anyone one marries, regardless of race. May I also say that the people of this country are gradually coming to realize that they should judge people by their individual worth and achievement, which they can help, rather than by their color, which they can't help. Also . . . only one-fifth of the 13,000,000-odd "Negroes" in this country are full-blooded Negroes, and I'm sure the other 10,000,000 colored people aren't [all] products of white women sleeping with Negro men--not by a long shot! . . . Down South the policy seems to be "We sleep with them but we can't--or won't--marry them." Personally, I always thought that anyone a person thought enough of to sleep with was due that person's supreme respect, love and admiration. . . .
(MRS.) EDWARD EMANUEL New York City
Glass & Co.
Sirs:
In TIME, June 10, you state in your obituary of Carter Glass that he wrote the Federal Reserve Act.
This is not so.
The Federal Reserve Act was written by my husband, Edmund D. Hulbert. . . .
He and President Wilson put it into shape. Carter Glass . . . put it through Congress. . . .
(MRS.) EMILY S. HULBERT Chicago
P: Reader Hulbert is partly right. Although Carter Glass is generally credited as the "father" of the Federal Reserve Act, several others--including Banker Hulbert--helped draft it.--ED.
Crown Jewels for D.P.s?
Sirs:
The recovery of the Hesse crown jewels [TIME, June 17] makes interesting reading. As far as is known, the Hesse family was not strictly opposed to Naziism; I would even venture to say they profited by it. Will the Army return the loot to them or will it be credited to reparations? How about using it, and other assets taken from Germany, to pay indemnities for false arrest and loss of property to all those 800,000 D.P.s and to all those who were forced to leave Germany and lost their belongings? Money talks, and an appropriate sum as indemnity--if money can ever cover up for horrors--will make a lot of immigrants more acceptable to their eventual new homestead. . . .
ROBERT DINOLT Leesville, La.
Sirs:
Note and compare: Lieut. Cubage of Lichfield fame is to undergo the embarrassment of a reprimand plus a $250 fine [TIME, June 24]; Sergeant Smith--three years' hard labor and dishonorable discharge.
Therefore, in accordance with military justice, I make a . . . prediction. Colonel Durant of jewel fame will be promoted, whereas the lowly corporal involved will get 30 years. . . .
JOSEPH CARAWAY Moorestown, N.J.
The U.S. Conscience
Sirs:
It is heartening to see by the letter in your May 20 issue that more consciences are being stirred by the famine conditions in Europe.
We in England are not hungry; our trouble is a diet of monotony. Even so, we are glad to share what we have with our neighbors across the Channel, knowing that theirs is an urgent need.
But when we see headlines like "U.S. defaults on wheat shipments," "Farmers offered bonus to release grain," can you blame us if we picture the average American as a well-fed, heartless individual lacking in moral character? In our hearts we know it's not true, but for heaven's sake why don't the people get a grip on things and see that the food gets . . . into the bellies of the starving?
T. S. HENDERSON Beckenham, Kent, England
Sirs:
. . . We won the war; why should we deny ourselves cake so that those people may have bread? If they can't look after themselves, let them starve. We owe them nothing.
I am sure that the great majority of the American people will agree with me that we shouldn't deprive ourselves of any luxuries just to feed millions of people who mean nothing to us and who are probably better off dead anyway.
RICHARD B. HENRY San Antonio
P:Despite governmental bumbling and individuals like Reader Henry, the U.S. has given the hungry world millions of tons of foodstuffs (example: 9,000,000 tons of wheat) since war's end. Shipments still lag behind promises--but they are catching up.--ED.
Brotherhood of Communism
Sirs:
. . . I note that in TIME, May 27, there are no less than 16 items about Russia, and that no less than 14 of these are anti-Soviet; either derogatory or ridiculing. . . .
I begin to see, I believe, a definite Catholic spearhead rising to do battle with the embryonic Brotherhood-of-Man religion based on Communist lines. The early Christian movement met something of the same opposition, but probably a closer parallel can be found in the history of the rise of Mohammedanism.
But, you say, Soviet Communism is not a religion. And I say, Oh, isn't it?
WILLIAM A. ELAM Van Nuys, Calif.
P: If anti-Christian state worship can be called a religion, then Communism is one.--ED.
Ting Hao!
Sirs:
Ting hao! Correspondent Gray has done it--at last [TIME, June 10]. We who lived in the backwoods of China (Kunming) during the war were well aware of the situation. The corruption of Kuomintang officials was evident throughout the war years, when Americans at home were waxing sentimental over the gallant Chinese. . . . The bouquets have always belonged to the paddy farmer, the coolie, and the ordinary little soldier whose courage, in the face of the decadent regime under which they were forced to live and fight, was the truly fine thing about the China we knew.
PHYLLIS B. DOLLOFF Los Gatos, Calif.
Sirs:
. . . In my experience, even conservative bankers and businessmen, if not themselves involved in the official rape of the people, will bitterly admit that the Communists are more efficient and less corrupt, that they take less from the rice bowl of the common man.
Should our policy in China continue to give the National diehards the comfortable feeling [that] we will support them come what may --a feeling they have been entitled to ever since the removal of General Stilwell--we may well be a principal agent in the promotion of a full-scale and tragically bloody civil war, in which the anti-Government forces will probably win out. This will mean in all likelihood that the Communists will dominate China, that Russia will become China's big brother. . . .
If we are unable through diplomacy to put our weight behind realization of a coalition government, democratic in spirit and action, it would seem better for us and for China that we fold our tents and quietly depart.
PRESTON SCHOYER Pittsburgh, Pa.
Sirs:
. . . It is just too much to swallow that the Chiang Kai-sheks, whom you and everybody lauded to the skies, have suddenly become inefficient and evil. I hope you won't soon be imploring us to fight China. That seems to be the way we do it nowadays. I suppose now Japan is suddenly getting good again. Finland was once just tops in American eyes, now in the depths. Is Argentina now grand again, or are we still supposed to hate her? I just can't keep track of whom we are supposed to hate.
(REV.) OTIS MOORE Garnersville, N.Y.
P: Nobody -- but keep your eyes peeled.--ED.
Adrenaline for Muskegon
Sirs:
Your writer created quite a stir locally with his reference to the 1911 locomotive and two wooden cars tied up here . . . by the recent rail strike [TIME, June 3].
Then, too, someone else said we had four traffic lights . . . two more lights than we had autos! . . . Fred Allen made a crack about the tall grass that was flourishing in front of the Regent Theater. . . .
We have many more traffic lights now (which no one pays any attention to), and the grass has been mowed in front of the Regent. . . .
I'm afraid I cannot refute the statement about our trains, however, having jogged along to Chicago on our Pere Marquette museum pieces at various times. . . .
Perhaps if TIME . . . would pry more into the sleepy backwardness of such outdated towns (and I feel that Muskegon is not the only city that needs a shot of adrenaline), the country would profit. . . .
BILLY L. BENNETT Station WKBZ Muskegon, Mich.
Hydroponic Farming
Sirs:
I read with much interest your "G.I. Garden Sass" story in the June 10 issue of TIME. . . .
The possibilities of turning to hydroponic farming as a future food source stimulate the imagination. However, there are many difficult problems to be solved before such a development could even begin to substitute for soil. . . . It would require a sizable tank to produce our annual grain and potato crops.
Meanwhile, though, it is encouraging to know that we still have enough productive land left, in the U.S. and in the world as a whole, to meet our foreseeable needs, if we use it right. We have found techniques of soil and water conservation in the past ten years which have proved their ability, on millions of acres, to keep our land permanently productive. They are now being used with consistent success by farmers and ranchers in some 1,600 soil conservation districts throughout the country. These districts cover . . . nearly two-thirds of the farms in the U.S. . . .
HUGH H. BENNETT Chief, Soil Conservation Service Department of Agriculture Washington
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