Letters, Oct. 4, 1943

Man of the Year

Sirs:

MAN OF THE YEAR: GENERAL DWIGHT D EISENHOWER. MOVE NOMINATIONS BE CLOSED.

WALT DENNIS

Washington

Background for Peace

Sirs:

Whoever wrote the installment of Background for Peace appearing in your Sept. 13 issue should receive the thanks of the nation. Plain, clear, common sense about a matter of the highest importance both to this nation and the world was never more simply or persuasively expressed.

Lucius A. SMITH Faribault, Minn.

Sirs:

… In spite of the fact that it covers only four pages, in my opinion it covers the subject sufficiently well to serve as a textbook for peace. . . .

L. B. MclNTIRE Louisville

Sirs:

. . . Never before among the overabundant welter of discussion about postwar problems has the central root of the trouble been tapped so accurately. . . .

If any preacher seeks a sermon, any statesman a goal, any thinker a philosophy, they (and all the rest of us) have before us the highest purpose of all in leading the inevitable fight against the last barrier that separates us from true universal brotherhood. Not nationalism itself, but its breeding ground —ignorance, stupidity, greed, traditionalism —are the enemies of the people. . . .

HOWARD A. WILEY

Bryn Mawr, Pa.

And a Vote for Culbertson

Sirs:

That was an interesting and enlightening Background for Peace. . . . But there was one thing about it that bothered me — the rather lukewarm and qualified nature of the praise bestowed on Ely Culbertson’s World Federation Plan.

The article did well in pointing out how fine it would be if the world would accept a federation of the same kind as the U.S.

But it also did well to point out what everyone knows — that John Doe in America, and his counterpart in the other sovereign nations of the world are not ready to see their countries relegated to the position now occupied by the states of the U.S.

Since the Culbertson Plan was condemned as a confederation in which too little sovereignty is surrendered by the member states to make possible an effective world government, and since at the same time it was admitted that it would be impossible at this time to obtain enough surrender of sovereignty by national states to permit the creation of a true federation, the implication was that we should work for a United States of the World which, though unattainable now, might be founded at some future date when public opinion had changed and nationalism diminished. . . .

This is no time in which to be working for plans that have no chance of being adopted except in the remote future. This is a time to be working for plans which do not radically conflict with the present ideas and desires of the people of the world for whom the plans are made. . . .

I happen to agree with . . . your article as to the superior merits of a true federation of the world. But I am not going to waste any energy working for this ideal at the present time. I want to back a plan that has a chance of being adopted in the immediate future. . . . The plan for me is Mr. Culbertson’s.

PHILIP MAYER Buck Hill Falls, Pa.

Another Pauline

Sirs:

Surpassing TIME’S (Sept. 6) football coach Pauline in pulchritude and claiming priority in the field is another Pauline—my sister Pauline Foster, who last year completed successful seasons both as football and

basketball coach at Corning High School, Corning, Calif. When her football team trounced (14-0) Coming’s arch rival, Orland, the latter’s coach, Al Nichelini (a former St. Mary’s All-America) . . . moaned “I’ll never live it down that a woman beat me. The sooner the Army calls me, the better.” . . . Pauline is a graduate of the University of California (’36), majoring in physical education, and no tomboy either. . . .

MORRIS LOWENTHAL

San Francisco

Censure as Punishment Sirs:

Your article on Rear Admiral Husband E.

Kimmel and Lieut. General Walter C. Short (TIME, Sept. 6) left me open-mouthed in amazement. . . .

Who in the name of heaven are the “many officers and civilians” that are convinced these two officers have already shouldered censure that should have been visited widely upon both services, and hope the cases are being allowed to die quietly. . . .

Since when is … public “censure” . . .

considered just punishment for dereliction of duty resulting in a disaster of such magnitude? …

(Serviceman’s name withheld) Bend, Ore.

Sirs:

. . . There is no argument on “censure that should have been visited widely upon both services.” But it is possible to expose and correct many costly faults of the two service “systems” only through a trial of these two products of these systems. The two systems survived the last war regardless of inefficiency and loss, and there is much evidence to suspect that there are … those at the top who are determined, above all else, to keep the systems intact. . . .

At least some exposure should be made, even if before a secret tribunal, so that unbiased records and facts may be made available to those entrusted with our war effort and so that the public may, after the war, have this on record to judge fairly the progress and wisdom of our leadership.

G. L. PAXTON

New York City

> TIME might have said that “almost all” (instead of “many”) officers think Kimmel and Short’s immediate dismissal was both just and sufficient punishment. It may well be that future historians will blame Pearl Harbor less on the luckless commanders than on national overoptimism, complacency, isolationist psychology and the custom of getting tight on Saturday night.—ED.

Home Thoughts from Abroad

Sirs:

TIME has meant so very much to me these past few months that I have wanted to tell someone about it. … We hear an occasional radio report and see the local newspapers, but they do not fill the bill. When TIME comes, it is read from cover to cover, and we have a feeling that for a brief period we have been back home among the things we know and with people who think as we do. …

In this remote dark corner of the earth . . . there are some things one longs for intemperately. I would probably place a cold Coca-Cola as my first craving. . . . One’s mental state never quite reaches equilibrium, and there is an ever-present longing for the ones we love and life as we would choose to live it. There is much idle talk about how long it may last—a symptom of nostalgia largely, and an attempt to cheer ourselves up. All of us are reconciled to the fact that it looks like a long, long haul from here in. …

JOHN P. NORTH Major Somewhere in India

Contented Cats

Sirs:

A few days ago I stood on the slope of Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado in front of splendid, roomy, completely equipped steel cages in which well-conditioned mountain lions, tigers and African lions were pacing back & forth. The view from the location of the zoo was magnificent, the air was bracing, the inhabitants of the cages seemed . . . reasonably contented. . . .

The President’s Four Freedoms came to mind and … I realized that before me was the complete fulfillment of the conditions of these famous “freedoms.” These cats in their cages had:

1) Freedom of Speech. They could howl whenever they wished.

2) Freedom of Worship. If they had any worshipful instincts, there was nothing to prevent exercise of their desires.

3) Freedom from Fear. No one was going to bother them here. They could never be so free from fear anywhere else.

4) Freedom from Want. All the food they needed, shelter and comfort and advantages of modern conveniences, were assured to them without asking.

Yet, with all this, they could not do a thing they might wish to do beyond the limitations established by their “benefactors.” The first and greatest all-embracing freedom for which both men and lesser animals have always fought and died, if need be—Freedom of Action, freedom to go and do as they pleased —was denied them. . . .

Then I turned to a rereading of the Atlantic Charter, and . . . found scarcely any indication that there was in the minds of the authors the thought of promising the oppressed peoples of the world freedom for personal endeavor. . . .

C. H. ARMSTRONG Wichita, Kans.

Coffee and Dogs on Kiska

Sirs:

That report about hot coffee being found by our troops on Kiska (TIME, Aug. 30) was pretty exciting for a while. We really thought the Japs were just over the next hill. But as the hours wore on and no Japs were found

QUARTERMASTER’S COMMEMORATION it became apparent that the hot coffee report was just another of those rumors which abound on any battlefield.

Aboard Admiral Rockwell’s flagship the mystery of “who left that coffee?” was a favorite topic for gags. Then one of our patrols reported in disgust that there was no live thing on Kiska except a dog. Chief Quartermaster W. T. Meredith commemorated the event in a drawing (see cut).

By the way, more dogs were found next day.

ROBERT SHERROD New York City

Postwar Bermuda

Sirs:

We, in Bermuda, were greatly interested in your [Sept. 6] article … on our new Governor, Lord Burghley. . . .

However, I would like to make one small correction. You say that there “is serious talk of changing Bermuda from a millionaires’ retreat to a popular, popular-priced Atlantic resort for the masses.” That is not correct. We are planning to have as little change in Bermuda as possible; its blue seas and coral strands will offer rest and peace to old friends and new; we visualize Bermuda as a haven of delight for war-seared souls and bodies. To crystallize this ambition, for which we are already busily working, we have adopted the phrase “BERMUDA—after the war—the same enchanted island.”

KENNETH F. TRIMINGHAM

Bermuda