European Union
SIR:
I APPRECIATE DEEPLY YOUR VERY FRIENDLY ARTICLE ON EUROPE [Oct. 6]. I AM IMPRESSED BY THE THOROUGHNESS AND PRECISION OF WORK YOUR EDITORS HAVE DONE. THE ARTICLE GAVE ME SOME VALUABLE INFORMATION I DID NOT HAVE BEFORE. MY THANKS AND APPRECIATION TO THE TIME STAFF, NOT LEAST THE ARTIST. JEAN MONNET PARIS
Sir:
I enjoyed your article on Jean Monnet on a United Europe. I believe that the partnership of Europe and the U.S. would create not only a new force for peace but also the strongest force yet conceived.
ERNEST R. HEINZER San Francisco
Sir:
Your cover story on Jean Monnet and the European Common Market, where you took a very complex man and a complex economic situation and made them understandable and interesting reading, is the reason I am a TIME subscriber.
One small point: Jean Monnet did not originate the phrase "arsenal of democracy." Jean Monnet was alleged by Judge Samuel I. Rosenman, in his Working with Roosevelt, to have used this expression in late 1940 in a conversation with Justice Felix Frankfurter, and Frankfurter then urged Monnet not to use the phrase again in public so that Roosevelt could put the phrase to greater advantage in a speech.
However, in the New York Times of May 12, 1940 (about six months earlier), Jack Gould's article, "The Broadway Stage Has Its First War Play," quoted the late Robert Emmet Sherwood as saying that "this country is already, in effect, an arsenal for the democratic Allies." Sherwood, in his biography Roosevelt and Hopkins, treats this phrase gingerly.
CHARLES K. ROBINSON Newark
Preparation for Survival
Sir:
Your story on America's preparations for war [Sept. 29] was both timely and excellent. It reflected the vast awakening of the people and Government that has been so desperately missing for the past 50 years.
We have finally realized the fact that our security and very lives are challenged. This time we will not be caught napping.
NILES JACKSON '64 Colgate University Hamilton, N.Y.
Sir:
The rash of hole digging, which you gleefully report, looks like moderate response to your efforts at creating an American war spirit. This is the old "Beast of Berlin" routine all over again.
Conceivably, the American press could create a Frankenstein beyond the control of our responsible leaders. Alerting the public to the dangers of the Communist threat is one thing. Arousing the worst facets of American emotionalism is another. The difference is responsibility.
ARTHUR C. EHLERS Shirley, Ill.
Sir:
Race suicide, whether by H-bomb, fallout, or simple starvation in the months following successful survival of these, and destruction of the human cultural heritage are not justified by any issue now facing us, anywhere in the world.
We must refuse to walk into the H-crematoria you are cajoling us into, in the name of the dubious semantics of "freedom."
WILLIAM S. VERPLANCK Professor of Psychology University of Maryland College Park, Md.
Sir:
Your account of the bomb-shelter activities was stimulating. It's good to read of Americans preparing for Pearl Harbor before—and not after !