The 4th at Rothenburg

Sir:

Your very excellent article on John J. Mc-Cloy and ... his desire to spare the historic city of Rothenburg, Germany [TIME, June 20] brings to light a historical coincidence not generally known . . .

Mr. McCloy's service in France during World War I was with the artillery of the 4th Regular Army Division, and it was during this service that he saw and was so deeply impressed with the beautiful city of Rothenburg. What McCloy did not know in April 1945 was that it was his same old outfit, by sheer coincidence, that was preparing to capture Rothenburg from the Germans--by destruction if necessary.

His plea to General Hodges to spare the historic shrine, if at all possible, was transmitted down ... to HQ 4th Infantry Division, where ... a volunteer patrol was sent ... to the Nazi commander . . . and succeeded in arranging the German evacuation of the city, which fell the next day . . . without a shot being fired . . .

GERDEN F. JOHNSON President

National 4th (IVY) Division Association Schenectady, N.Y.

Down-to-Earth Transfusion

Sir:

Too many bull sessions in marble halls; too many beribboned brass hats; too much religious hate among clergymen; too many economic prophets of doom--that's what keeps the European mess boiling.

Why not [let] men who are down to the kitchen-door level ... do business with housewives, mechanics, retailers, schoolteachers, printers, bakers and the other millions who compose the German population?

Recruit working salesmen from such down-to-earth American manufacturers as Fuller Brush . . . Turn these salesmen loose in Germany and let them begin to export American products and American ideas. It is this sort of a blood transfusion Germany needs.

A. H. PATTERSON Sheepscott, Me.

Rules, Down Under

Sir:

... "From Moscow to Melbourne the action and drama of [soccer] thrills crowds who consider American football slightly less exciting than watching grass grow" [TIME, June 6] ...

In Melbourne ... we play a game . . . which makes all the other football codes look as interesting and as fast as cricket appears to Americans. The game is known as Australian Rules Football ... In the city of Melbourne, an average of 130,000 people travel to league and association club matches every Saturday during the winter months . . . The game features the best attributes of soccer, rugby and gridiron football, and it eliminates the disadvantages of the latter in that it is only on rare occasions that anyone is hurt. Long kicks, high marks (catches) and accurate, speedy passing of the ball are the fundamental attributes. The game is continuous, and there are very few interruptions in the play.

During the war, many Americans saw and learned to play our game . . .

DAVID NINON Melbourne, Australia

Twists & Turns

Sir:

Re your story on the founder of the J.C. Penney chain [TiME, June 20]:

Was not this same Drygoodsman James Cash Penney the slumber-loving millionaire

J.C. Penney who, having his sleep disturbed on his palatial Florida estate by a well-liquored cacophony from across the lagoon, had the notorious Al Capone tossed in the clink for disorderly conduct, which, in its legalistic twists & turns led ultimately to the conviction of Capone on a federal tax charge? . . .

H. E. TROMMER New York City

^ Reader Trommer's is one version of an apocryphal story. According to another version, Capone's highjinks disturbed the sleep of J. C. Penney's house guest Herbert Hoover who, in turn, put Capone in jail. The solid facts are: 1) Penney's estate was on an island nearly a mile across the lagoon from Capone's; 2) Hoover was a house guest at the Penney estate in January 1929; 3) Miami police arrested Capone at least three times in April and May 1930 on charges of "being a public nuisance and source of annoyance to the community"; 4) Capone was finally indicted and jailed for income tax evasion in October 1931, at President Hoover's direction.--ED.

Luminous, Leggy & Lewd

Sir:

In the Art section you often mention the nudes that artists paint, or draw . . . "His sunny, splashy little portraits and paintings of apple trees in blossom and luminous, leggy nudes" [TIME, June 6].

They can draw them or paint them, and show them in the galleries, but if you photograph one in the gallery and print the picture in your magazine, TIME will be banned as indecent, lewd and pornographic. Rather silly, isn't it? ...

J. F. RAAB San Pedro, Calif.

P: There's always Marcel Duchamp's leggy nude (see cut).--ED.

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