Letters, Apr. 6, 1942

Work More

Sirs:

In TIME, March 9, Reader Donald C. Boyce asks “what do the critics expect the people to do . . . about the war?” WORK MORE!

Working hours in the U.S. are about 40 a week. If one-half of this work is spent on satisfying consumption, a maximum of 20 hours is left to serve war purposes. Let us work an additional ten and step up the flow of war goods 50%. Fifty hours a week will still be below the German or Japanese average. Five o’clock is too early to stop dam-building while the flood rises. The Saturday afternoon is not sacrosanct. Let us follow the Australian example by suspending public holidays. Do MacArthur’s men take the weekends off? . . .

E. G. DOUGLAS

Toronto, Ont.

Sirs:

Thanks for the capital article on Farmer Delair [TIME, March 2]; it can be multiplied many times throughout our land. I keep thinking, however, of the obvious contrast to this fine example—the men (& women too maybe) who wouldn’t put in a good day’s work without “double time on Sundays and time & a half for Saturdays, etc., etc.”

Total war does not mean a 40-hour week or any such foolish notions, and ten-hour shifts should be in order for each working period at regular pay. . . . Those lads on the freighters, the Army & Navy give lots of extra hours too. Pandering to labor unions has got us into a sorry mess indeed. . . .

STEPHEN ROBINSON

Santa Barbara, Calif.

Sirs:

As a footnote to the clamor over the complacency of the American public . . . write the results of a recent Gallup poll into the record. We smug smarties, it seems, have enough gumption to favor total mobilization of both man and woman power for vital production needs. We slothful citizens are ready to sacrifice nonessential jobs, move to other cities, devote evenings and any spare time to the common cause.

Meanwhile Congress tables a bill extending the 40-hour work week (while the majority of the nation would have it stretched to 60 hours), vetoes it because the laborites make a mutual “I’ll vote for you if you’ll vote for me” swap with the farm bloc. So Singapore, Malaya, Java, the Philippines fall for want of equipment. When is this petty conniving, this sabotage for special privileges, to end? . . .

MARCELLA SCHMIDT

Macon, Ga.

Commissions, Not Excess

Sirs:

Under the heading of Insurance in TIME, March 23, the attitude of the Insurance Company of North America against improper excess payments to agents for competitive advantage was badly misinterpreted as indicating a desire to reduce normal commissions.

We do not advocate reducing normal commissions. We do, however, strike at the payment of so-called excess commissions for competitive advantage, believing that such excess should be resolved in favor of the policyholder.

JOHN A. DIEMAND

President

Insurance Company of North America

Philadelphia, Pa.

>TIME’s apologies to I. N. A. for misinterpreting one feature of its enterprising program for reducing the cost of fire insurance to policy-holders.—ED.

8 Months v. 73 Years

Sirs:

On the whole [“White Man’s War?,” TIME, March 2—about discrimination against Negroes in the war effort] is an excellent summary of the situation on discrimination.

As Chairman of the Committee on Fair Employment Practice, I admit for the Committee that we have “as yet got few results.” However, I am sure that TIME is aware that the Fourteenth Amendment has been on the books for 73 years and the FEPC less than eight months. It will take the labor of the Committee over a good many years I expect, as well as that of other agencies, to make our United States Constitution constitutional so far as race discrimination is concerned, but we shall keep plugging and it is helpful to have TIME keep the situation before the American public.

MALCOLM S. MACLEAN

Washington, D.C.

Vulnerable Spot

Sirs:

The enclosed photo shows the Matford Plant of the Ford Motor Co. of France in flames after a recent Royal Air Force bombing raid.

This plant is located 21 miles outside of Paris in the small town of Poissy and was recognized as the most modern and up-to-date manufacturing building in France.

The writer was one of the engineers sent to Europe in 1939 to assist in the completion of this factory and equip it with machine tools for the production of aircraft engines.

The site of this plant was decided after much consideration because of a desire to locate it outside of Paris, beyond what was considered the “Bombing Zone.”

This always seemed strange to me because the plant was actually located in a most vulnerable spot on the outskirts of this small town with the River Seine on the south, a double railroad bed on the west and a main highway on the north, making a perfect target from the air.

The interesting side of the matter to me and perhaps your readers is that the British Air Ministry knew all about this plant, its exact location, and its possibilities. . . .

W. F. WAGNER

Ford Motor Co. Dearborn, Mich.

In Sorrow

Sirs:

This note is written more in sorrow than in anger, regarding your article on India [TIME, March 16]. . . .

Your article cites that in 1857, during the Great Mutiny, the Moslems were sewn into pigskins before being shot, but it does NOT mention the Black Hole of Calcutta, or what necessitated, in the opinion of those responsible, drastic reprisals. Nor does it point out that it was the religious fear of pigskin, rather than death, which broke further mutiny.

Again, you cite the case of General Dyer’s dispersing a prohibited meeting by firing into the crowd; but you do NOT mention that General Dyer was relieved of his appointment in consequence, and died a broken man—in spite of the fact that many of those best able to judge feel that, if he had not taken his drastic action, once again India would have been torn end to end in mutiny and civil war. . . .

Could and should not it have been pointed out that:

There are less than 600 Englishmen in the entire Indian civil service.

The Indian Government has been highly protected AGAINST Great Britain, and that only about one-third of India’s trade—import and export—is with that country.

Britain’s “loot” from India is about 5% on an investment of some 4 billion dollars.

Great Britain itself has trained the leading Indian politicians in British universities to absorb British ideas of Freedom and Democracy.

The real parasites of India are—

1) The 14 million head of Sacred Cows

2) Child Marriage

3) Lack of Sanitation and

4) Certain Indian Princes and so-called “Holy Men.”

To make sudden and drastic changes to India’s administration of 352,000,000 semi-civilized people, with over 45 races with 225 languages, many religions, and diametrically opposed ideas, was—and to many people’s minds still is—an impossibility; and that if there ever were cause for “the inevitability of gradualness,” here is one indeed. . . .

M. P. TUTEUR

Captain, Lahore Division

Indian Expeditionary Force, 1914

Toronto, Canada

>TIME said there was a British case, and Reader Tuteur states it very effectively.—ED.

Mexican Tires

Sirs:

TIME, March 2, contains a story on Mexican automobile tires which is not in accordance with the facts. . . .

You say:

Mexican tires are “made of guayule rubber, with small amounts of Brazilian crude.”

“Even the best of them . . . are none too good.”

As veterans in the field of tire manufacturing and technology with collective experience totaling 50 years . . . we present the following facts. These pertain primarily to passenger tires:

No Brazilian rubber is used.

With the exception of minor percentages of guayule rubber used as a processing aid only, all of the rubber used is imported far-eastern plantation rubber. . . .

Tread rubber is identical in both countries, being the best that U.S.A. technicians have yet been able to develop.

Processing methods, equipment, technical controls and production supervision are comparable with U.S.A. practice. Samples of finished product are periodically road–and machine-tested by parent organization in U.S.A. . . .

R. F. MOODY

D. W. JOHNSON

J. H. DANIELL

Compania Hulera “Euzkadi” S.A.

Mexico, D.F.

Sirs:

. . . As representative of the General Tire & Rubber Co. of Akron, Ohio, I wish to rectify your misstatement in this report.

General Popo tires are made 100% under specifications of the General Tire & Rubber Co. of Akron, Ohio.

All the raw materials that are used in our Mexican tires are exactly the same as those used by the General Tire & Rubber Co.

As far as the wearing qualities of General Popo tire is concerned, it meets Akron’s specification meticulously. . . . We find no difference between the Mexican and the American tire. . . .

C. A. GUIJARRO

General Tire & Rubber Co.

Mexico, D.F.

>TIME was wrong about the content of Mexican tires, neglected to report that they give good service on Mexican roads. But the tire-users whom TIME consulted do not recommend them for U.S. use.—ED.