Browning chief., 1945-01-26
4rpe":
S''s Looking at
HOLLYWOOD


with you letter from "Spec" Nc
Clure, formerly of my staff and now
serving with our army in Belgium.
l have found no finer expression
OF what our soldiers think about and
their hopes for the postwar world.
The army nurse to whom Spec
pays tribute in this letter was
Frances Slanger, who was killed by
d German shell October 81, 1914,
just a few hours after she had
mailed to Stars and Stripes her open
letter expressing her appreciation of
the fighting men she served.
Specs letter follows:
Dear Miss Hopper: It is late
afternoon, and here the earth is rela-
lively quiet-as quiet, one might
say, as the army can ever be-a
thrum of distant motors; perhaps
friendly if loud argument or two;
perhaps lone G.I. grievously ad-
dressing his Maker over the latest
evaporation.
II have intended writing you
something of entertainment here,
but since morning have been think
ing of a dead girl whom I never
knew but whom I, doubtless along
with countless others, felt knew.
She was an army nurse, and a
few weeks ago, in answer to the
blessings the wounded and dying
had heaped upon her kind, she wrote
an open letter to the men. 1t ap-
peared in our Stars and Stripes.
And it was a model of a selfess
devotion, humanity, and an in
tegrity one thinks extinct.
"She wrote as a GI. Jane to a
G.1. Joe deeply involved in bloody
business called war, asking not for
understanding, expecting no mercy,
but giving to her limits in both.
Comradeship
"And we knew there wasn't false
word in the letter. We knew it
for our world, and we grinned in
appreciation, knowing that we read
the letter of girl already dead,
and her words fixed beyond altera-
ton. They were sealed with her
blood.
During this war, as both civilian
and soldier, I've seen ideals tram
pied in the mud by those who most
profess to uphold them. I have seen
this too often to have much faith
left. And I have seen. as all who
make an honest effort must a thou
sand forms of BETRAYAL and stupid-
ity. And in WEAKNESS I have told
myself thousand times nothing re-
mained to believe in-that the an
cient enemies of mankind-greed
and ignorance-were too great for
our mortal strength to CONQUER. But
now I know that this is not alto
gether right.
Ore Ray or nope
isb sbsnaf,,I h,,s;nass ~ sie that Iu,Au, ssa. sem
I'D most of our petty lives there is
nobility that will not perish. And
men declaring that nothing is worth
fighting for are known to die with
their faces to the enemy. refuting
by their action the words their lips
have shaped.
"And have seen too manv graves
of those who. loving life as dearly
as I love it. nevertheless died in or
der that something might keep on
living.
"Thev saw this war is won and
the victory is ours. 7 believe it is.
They speak of winning the peace.
That remains to be seen. But this
I do believe: If the common atti-
tude is not changed, if greed is not
uprooted and sincerity restored to
life. if mans ideals are less than
his purse. and the graves are for
gotten. we will not have won the
war: we will not have won the
neace. we will have rather lost the
world.
NV love. SPEC"
IhonRs Ahot Count
s,.naer's onen LETTER tn stars and
Stripes, written just before the she'll
ing began which took her life:
For a change, we want the men