Letters, Oct. 2, 1939

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TIME erred—Sept. 18, p. 10—in stating " . . . The People, by whose consent alone the U. S. can go all the way to war.". . . . Those who have the most to lose—youths under voting age, but old enough to draft— have absolutely nothing to say. For the true voice of The People, how about a referendum with only parents and males subject to draft, voting.

E. K. BACHSCHMID Washington, D. C.

>The principle sounds just; but how about a referendum on tax bills with only taxpayers voting?—ED.

Sirs:

. . . I find myself wanting to tell you, perhaps for a selfish reason, what I think about the war in Europe, and my corresponding reactions to recent issues of TIME and LIFE. The selfish reason is that, being 26 and unmarried, I should be called upon to fight for my country if she went to war. To me there seems to be very little that is startling about Germany's being at war with the rest of the world. She cannot live on what she has, for her manner of coin (goods & services) is barred from the markets. To appraise Germany's actions from a moral standard is, I think, to completely miss the fundamental truth that people won't starve. . . . And confining my view to the international ethics of England and France respectively, it seems to me that they do not possess this survival value; that they will provoke conflict until they are destroyed. . . Naziism was born of circumstances which need not have come to pass; its brutality is not gratuitous but rooted in grinding necessity. Thus while there is truth in the saying that this is a war between totalitarianism and democracy, it is far more true to say the sort of liberty which the democracies know is rooted in and limited by their position as privileged nations. . . . . . . We are a thoughtful people with a remarkably developed social conscience; our times have hardened us to making uncomfortable changes and being somewhat loyal to uncomfortable truths; we are in the mood for an affirmative viewpoint, and, I believe, for a fundamental change in our manner of living together.

JAMES P. RICH New York City

Lochner ot Czestochowa

Sirs:

The somewhat baldish, civilian-clothed "German soldier" in your picture of Czestochowa's Shrine (TIME, Sept. 18) is in his spare time my father, Louis P. Lochner, head of the Associated Press office in Berlin, 1939 Pulitzer Prize winner. . . .

ROBERT H. LOCHNER University of Chicago Chicago, III.

> Let Reader Lochner look again. Behind able Correspondent Lochner stands a German soldier—ED.

Beak-Nose, Gimlet-Eye

Sirs: TIME prides itself in its modern style and yet reverts to an ancient custom in describing individuals by giving facial or bodily characteristics. This, presumably, is to give readers a mental picture of the person. . . . Perhaps many readers would also be interested in TIME'S staff of news gatherers and others including yourself. . . . Why not describe the editor, associate editor, etc., as beak-nosed so-and-so, or gimlet-eyed or shapely, bewhiskered, or opinionated, poker-playing Mr. So-and-so. I think it would be very enlightening to all of us if this were made a permanent feature of your staff list. . . .

H. N. BERGEP Santa Barbara, Calif.