Jack-Rabbit

Sirs: I have just had the fun of reading your breezy article under the caption "Atavism" (TIME, Jan. 17). As a Western Jackrabbit to an Eastern Jackass may I not congratulate you? The five columns which you so generously devoted to my little home town, are yellower than Hearst at his best. As a matter of fact, you have out-Bonsfilsed Bonsfils--and that is a mighty hard thing to do--in old woman's gossip, and in exaggerated and distorted fact. . . . (DR.) JAMES A. COCHRAN

Denver, Col.

Sirs:

Apropos of your article (in this week's number) "Napoleon among the jackrabbits" is the following amusing and true incident.

Last September, out in Denver, I was standing in the entrance to the Brown Palace Hotel when a small newsboy approached and asked me to buy a paper. "Buy a Post, lady." "No, thank you." I answered. "Oh, buy one," he insisted, "why not?" "Well," I jokingly answered, "I'm afraid it's a bit too yellow to interest me." "Yellow! why lady, you're color blind. This paper's green and red."

JACQUELINE STEWART

Easton, Md.

Sirs:

After reading your article in the current issue of TIME headed "Atavism" I cannot resist the temptation to comment.

We who are out here snuggled in the bosom of the Rockies, perhaps know better than you of the ensuing battle for newspaper supremacy.

I have lived in Denver practically all of my life and have not known of any other newspaper than the Denver Post, but now I am learning to read the Evening News.

Not to make this letter too long, I THOROUGHLY WISH THAT EVERY CITIZEN OF DENVER COULD HAVE THE CURRENT ISSUE OF TIME AND I AM VERY SURE THAT IF YOU WILL SEND OUT SOME SAMPLE COPIES THEY WILL TEND TO RAISE YOUR CIRCULATION.

L. H. LORIE

Buick Motor Co. Denver, Col.

Cultured

Sirs: Nearly two years ago, I wrote you regarding a flippant reference to Negro students at Hampton Institute in Virginia and you replied: "I agree with you--we were thoughtless and unfair. . . . Through you, I apologize to any of the 11,000,000 whom we may have hurt. What amends can we make ? It seems to me that the best possible amends is for us to resolve in the future to be as fair as we were up to the time of this unfortunate article. . . ." Has your resolution of March 24, 1925, been forgotten? Apparently, for TIME in its issue of Jan. 3, has turned back to the would-be humor about the Negro of 30 years ago. For, in telling of the ejection of Mrs. Blanche S. Brookins, a colored woman of culture and intelligence and an interstate passenger, from a Pullman car in Florida, TIME says: "They (the passengers) heard one Blanche S. Brookins, Negress, snorting and scolding: 'Yoh all let me 'lone yoh whaht trash. I gotta ticket!' " Knowing Mrs. Brookins and her family, having attended college with her cousin, a prominent Negro physician of Florida, such would-be cleverness is painful to the point of bordering on nausea. Perhaps TIME could well do a little house cleaning to its own advantage--getting rid of such individuals in its organization who can think only in the stereotypes of two or three decades back. WALTER WHITE

Assistant Secretary National Association for the Advancement of Colored People New York, N, Y.

Let Subscriber White turn again to TIME'S account of Mrs. Brookins' ejection and read the footnote: "This is one version of Mrs. Brookins' utterances. The other is that Mrs. Brookins was mannerly; that the conductor was loud, vulgar, abusive."--ED.

Again, Ten

Sirs: Recently a reader submitted his list of the ten greatest Americans, demanded to know which subscribed to TIME. May I suggest ten interesting Americans, not necessarily the most interesting, and inquire which subscribe ? list: H. L. Mencken James A. Reed William E. Borah Charles H. Mayo Nicholas Murray Butler John Erskine Graham McNamee* Will Rogers Alexander Woollcott David Belasco

EUGENE G. PARKER

Clemson College, S. C.

Dr. Mayo and Dr. Butler are subscribers. Editor Mencken receives an exchange copy. -- ED.

Fire, Friends

Sirs: In TIME, Jan. 10, appears an article relative to the great calamity which befell this institution on Sunday morning, Jan. 9, when fire entirely destroyed Main Hall, our oldest and best-known dormitory. In the article you make the following statement:

"One hundred fifty students rushed out, mostly in pajamas ; they lost most of their belongings, and the school's loss, fortunately covered by insurance, was $300,000.00."

I am writing to tell you that this statement in regard to the school's loss is an error. We suffered a loss of more than $300,000, but the insurance . . . was only about 10% of the . . . loss. We carried $25,000 insurance on the building . . . $9,500 on the contents.

You will readily understand that under the conditions, when we must go to our friends and the public for financial support in order to rebuild Main Hall; it is a serious matter to us to give out the impression that our loss is entirely covered by insurance. May I ask, therefore, that you kindly correct this error in your next issue? If you will oblige us by granting this request and place your correction in a prominent position in your magazine so that it will be noticed and read by most of your readers we shall greatly appreciate it and in the meantime I beg to remain, J. M. DRUMM

Treasurer, The Mercersburg Academy Mercersburg, Pa.

Next Door

Sirs:

. . . In TIME, Jan. 10, you. . . slur at old Joe Ransdell's whiskers. And why pick on poor little old Toombs County, Ga., when you have the whole state of Illinois right next door. Clean up your own front yard before digging in the ash can in our back yard. Get the beam out of your own eye, etc., etc.

G. G. NESBITT

Shreveport, La.

TIME "picks on" no man, county or state; has lately reported outrages at Herrin, Ill., Cicero, Ill., Chicago; also in Indiana, Ohio, Washington, Texas, Russia, China, Rumania, Java.--ED.

Red

Sirs:

I do not like the red border on your January publication. It cheapens the appearance.

J. ARTHUR REDNER

Battle Creek, Mich.

Sirs:

The addition of the red border is a marked improvement to TIME, though at first I was afraid to have the change, fearing a loss of dignity in the appearance of a magazine that is so useful to many people. . . .

WILLARD CURTIS RANK, M.D.

Newark, Ohio

Contest

Sirs:

It may interest your readers to know that the Mark Twain Society has inaugurated a contest for the best letter on the subject: "Why I Like Mark Twain." Letters should reach us by Aug. 1, and must not exceed 300 words in length. A prize of $5 is offered.

CYRIL CLEMENS,

President, Mark Twain Society 37 Gray Avenue Webster Groves, Mo.

In Washington

Sirs:

In TIME, Oct. 25, under "Investment Bankers" you say:

"Several cities in Washington have defaulted on their bonds. Now no one buys their new issues."

This is doubly false; therefore doubly libelous. Cities in Washington have not defaulted on their bonds, and every new issue is in such demand as to make the field to would-be investors somewhat unattractive.

Some local improvement districts in certain cities in Washington have been known to default; but local improvement bonds are not the obligations of cities in Washington.

You should employ brighter men to edit your financial news. RAYMOND R. FRAZIER

President Washington Mutual Savings Bank Seattle, Wash.

TIME erred. There is a financial-- and legal distinction between bonds of the two types. The Committee on Municipal Securities of the Investment Bankers' Association of America, whose meetings TIME reported, wanted the Washington legislature to "force the defaulting communities to pay every dollar of past due indebtedness." --ED. In Minnesota

Sirs:

In recent issue of TIME [Dec. 27] you give list of Minnesotans who are now high in governmental activities. You forget to mention Pierce Butler, Associate Justice, U. S. Supreme Court, St. Paul resident. . . . T. S. DOBRIN

Minneapolis, Minn.

Dr. Frank's Character

Sirs:

Quoting from TIME, Jan. 17:

"Two leading citizens of Wisconsin both of whom talk well, talked last week: John J. Elaine, retiring Governor, U. S. Senator-elect, disciple of the late great free-speech Liberal Robert M. LaFollette; Glenn Prank, President of the University of Wisconsin. . . . Friends of Dr. Frank said he made Governor Blaine look like a Bourbon monkey."

That is a spicy news item, but it is not TRUTH.

Governor Blaine talked on Nov. 3, 1926. President Frank set a watch at the door of his mouth until Jan. 1927 when Governor Blaine was no longer Governor and was on his way to Florida, then he spoke words of learned length and thunderous sound. What element does that disclose in President Frank's character?

T. H. CORFIELD Madison, Wis.

There are Smiles

Sirs:

I have wondered for a long time what was wrong with the Gov'ment. Woodrow's set smile made me very nervous. Cool Cal's expression of smelling Limberger cheese has worried me to the point of despair, but this picture of Brother Wayne Bidwell Wheeler [Attorney for the Anti-Saloon League--TIME, Jan. 10] has caused me to wish that I could consult an honest and fairly reliable Bootlegger. . . . ROBERT W. HAWKINS, M.D.

Brazil, Ind,

Gloating Friend

Sirs:

In the department PEOPLE, TIME, Jan, 8, Rube Goldberg, comic strip star, spoke as he might well have spoken after visiting a destitute old couple, in company with a "common reporter" from the New York Evening Post. Justice perhaps for Goldberg; much less than justice for the "common reporter."

This reporter, Norman Klein, has startled New York's staid local rooms in two years' work there. Among his beats have been exclusive stories on the Hall-Mills murder trial, the Berlin-Mackay marriage, the Navy-arsenal explosions, "Daddy" Browning's peach-growing affairs, many another confection of nation-wide publicity not a few of which TIME has covered. . . .

Common Reporter Klein's by-line appears go frequently on p. 1, the Evening Post, that his friends gloat, while his rivals murmur alibis to rival city editors. He contributes honest, intelligent features to magazines. He has hunted mountain lions, with bow and arrow, in Mexico, He started the "wear overalls" thing, that nigh broke clothing-makers' hearts in 1920-21, while on a Chicago newspaper.

Admirer of intelligence, Common Reporter Klein likes TIME. So do I. But, TIME, "common reporter" is inaccurate.

L. W. THOMAS

Chicago, Ill.

*Radio broadcaster.