Letters, Apr. 10, 1944

(3 of 3)

—which, arithmetically, is 5,250,000 cabbages for 75 acres. That's Texas. —ED.

Your article concerning the movies for men overseas (TIME, March 6) hit the nail right on the head. The pictures we've had here, for the most part, would suit the taste of a ten-year-old, or would fit in beautifully in some home for the aged.

What we want out here are musicals, preferably in prewar settings, because it gripes us no end to see some dashing young bum in an Army uniform surrounded by beauteous blondes, fighting the battle of "Celluloid."

The first question heard in our quarters after we knock off work is, "What's the movie tonight?"and usually,the reply is: "It stinks." If we don't go to the movies, we just sit around and go "hut-crazy," so we really appreciated TIME giving us a swell plug. . . .

TIME's story, "Better Movies Overseas," was encouraging to read. . . . After being without movies for several weeks we tied up at a Pacific island. ... I found myself sitting through pictures that I'd walked out in the middle of five years ago. ... I was convinced that instead of swapping films with other ships, as is the custom, we were bartering with the natives for ones they had produced themselves. . . .

The recent fuss made by FBI and local agencies in rounding up the polygamists of Short Creek, Ariz, and sundry other points in these parts seems out of proportion with the evil done by these biologically overproductive ladies and gentlemen.

In general these people lead a hard life at Short Creek. . . . Frequent flights over . . . their arid and unproductive farms leave me with the conviction that any man who keeps even one family from starving under those conditions would not have the energy to be sexually acrobatic.

To the credit of these people it should be said that they are generally sincere even though misguided; they are not offensive; they are generally honest . . . self-respecting and respectable in all but the sex angle of the word. Certainly they are no worse than the numerous unorganized sexually promiscuous persons that are to be found in any cross section of our population.

It seems that those who would heckle these people could Letter apply their energy in smoking out the rats who stroll forth under the cloak of church or civic respectability and copulate freely on a clandestine basis.