Evening star., 1947-02-19
US. Answers Its Fan Mail
Worldwide Radio Audience Writes More Than
$4,000 Letters to Voice of America
Rv Ne,pbold Moves. yr.
Last of a Series of Three Articles)

helped And don't think the good will
is confined to the person we wrote to.
These things get around in communi-
ties"
Miss Bailly, cool, brisk blond with
q business-lik manner, signs all our let
ters herself, in behalf of the Govern
ment They are actually written, how
ever, by staff of 19 men and women
comprising the audience mail section,
headed by Austrian-born Ernest Land.
Between them, the members of the sec
tion can handle nearly every language
spoken in the civilized world.
Our Troops Escape, So Far.
Only about 10 per cent of the mail re-
ceived at Voice of America headquar-
ters in New York Is answered by form
letters. These are mostly stock queries
having to do'w with immigration regula-
tions, application for Red Cross help,
and so on.
The only letters which are not an
swered come from obvious cranks or
from people who seem bent on insulting
the Government or poking fun at it.
Nothing was done, for example, about
the Viennese shoemaker who wrote in
accusing American occupation forces of
girls who resisted their amorous ad-
vances. He said if the Voice of America
did not answer him, he would throw all
the occupation troops in the Danube.
The listener service took chance on 1t,
and so far the man has failed to carry
out his threat.
It is harder to spot the hecklers. Re-
Gently, however, Mr.. Land and his asso-
ciates were confronted with letter
from former Nazi who said he knew
it was lie that America is in the hands
of Jews who sit around reading funny
papers and chewing gum. He would
appreciate it, he added, If the Voice OF
America sent him some funny papers
and some chewing gum.
I'VE arrived at the conclusion says
Mr.. Land, that this fellow was trying
to tell us we were lot of Jews who read
the funny papers and chewed gum. We
therefore ignored him.
Some Are Hard to Answer.
Questions about the way the United
States treats it's Jewish citizens recur
frequently in the mail from Europe, and
are typical of those serious and legiti-
mate, queries to the answering of which
the listener service directs its most
careful effort.
M. zylbercan of Paris was one who
recently asked the Voice of America
about how Jews fare here. He was
told the United States is not perfect in
it's social handling of the problem, but
that our melting pot" works in such a
way that Jews, as Americans, have the
same general rights, privileges and
duties as other Americans
Many of these questions are hard to
answer, none more so than those involv-.
ing race relations. Mr.. and Mrs. Lenz
of Stuttgart wanted to know whether
it was all right for their daughter to
marry colored soldier billeted in their
house. They were told frankly what the
girl could expect in various sections of
the country if she married him and
came to the United States to live.
Not all the letters ask questions:
many correspondents want to lecture
the Voice of America. Willy Mueller
of Berlin was one of these. He had no
use for us: We had caused the war he
said, and look what mess we were
making of things! Point by point, the
listener service rebutted his charges.
"You object to our attitude" he was
you re-examine your own?" Z
DR.. Dong Sun Lee wrote from Korea
in "a beautifully ideographed pages that
he thought we were giving too little
attention in our Korean broadeasts to
the important subject. of ancestor wor-
ship. The listener services reply, still
in the process of composition, may be
shorter than DR.. Lees letter, but it is
good bet it will be equally scholarly.
With a special few of its correspond
ents, the Voice of America seems to
have established a warm, personal
friendship. One of these is 12-year-old
Christiane Baier of Grenoble, France.
She writes frequently and insists that
the United States Government call her
by her first name in its answers. 1t
does.
One of the things currently bothering
Christiane is that she doesn't like to go
to school. 1t is, she says, nasty old
school and, moreover, her arithmetic
teacher is stinker.
Uncle Sam has advised her to stick it
out, but he says he knows exactly how
she feels.