Letters

Dept. of Fashion

Sirs:

Before arguing about a "section on fashions" [TIME, Sept. 12] define what is meant by " a section"? Do not give us a weekly page on fashions. If you do, I stop my subscription. But fashions are part of history. And TIME reports history in the making, does it not ? During the last 20 years women's fashions have undone all the evil they did during 500 years. If men during the next 20 years make as much progress, men will have a reason for being proud of their sex. It is men nowadays who brush the dust off their shoes with their long pants. It is men who have to fasten innumerable buttons before their dress is complete. Fashions are no mean part of civilization. But report them as news, not for the purpose of enabling your readers to wear the latest. I do not have the time to read fashion magazines. That is the very reason why I expect TIME to keep me informed. Report whenever there is anything to report. Whether that is after an interval of six months or six weeks or six days, neither I nor you can foretell. You also report a crime once in a while. But you do not have a weekly crime page. Apply the same criterion to fashions, from both points of view, from that of the hygiene of living and from that of beauty and art.

MAX F. MEYER

Columbia, Mo.

Subscriber Meyer speaks well. More than 100 readers have requested* a FASHIONS department. Therefore, there will be one.š And it will appear as often as there is anything to report.--ED,

Finds no Fault

Sirs: I am one subscriber who has no fault to find with TIME : your idiosyncrasies sometimes irritate my personal taste, as those of other people do; just as mine no doubt irritate theirs--life is like that, thank God ; the world would be a dusty place if all tastes were alike. De gustibus non disputandum. One of the most entertaining features of your magazine is the uproar of people who insist upon disputanding other people's gustibusses. I find delight in watching that weekly circus, even if you do sometimes allow too many encores, permitting obvious pinheads to overstay their welcome. Run your magazine to please yourselves. Don't try to please everybody --it can't be done. Believe me, I know-- I have been editing for 40 years. JOHN PALMER GAVTT

Rensselaerville, Albany Co., N. Y.

Repudiates

Sirs:

Your item concerning "Rhodes Scholar Potency" [TIME, July 18] has been called to my attention.

Following the reported statement of Mr. Fisher a letter of inquiry brought forth the fact that Mr. Fisher repudiated the statements attributed, to him.

JNO. J. TIGERT

Commissioner of Education Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C.

TIME pictured H. A. L. Fisher, Warden of New College, Oxford, a Trustee of the Rhodes fund, as indicating to the press disappointment that the great majority of Rhodes Scholars had reached positions of relative unimportance in U. S. life.

In a letter to the London Times Mr. Fisher said: "I have neither published nor authorized to be published any statement with reference to the Rhodes Scholars. The opinions ascribed to me are almost exactly the reverse of those which I entertain." --ED.

Accurate Memory

Sirs:

Somebody should compliment you on your accurate memory. As your remarks, on p. 16, TIME, Sept. 12 cover matters in which I am deeply interested, may I praise the composer of Chicago Convulsion for recalling so many pertinent details scattered through the past and for making them point so directly at an issue which is much more important than

WM. MCANDREW?

Chicago, Ill.

Not in Reprisal

Sirs:

On p. 22 of TIME, June 6 you publish under the heading CHINA the account of an interview with Miss Faith Williams, the daughter of Dr. John E. Williams, who was murdered at Nanking on March 24 by a Chinese soldier during the outrageous attack on foreigners deliberately undertaken by the so-called Nationalist government. _ You state: "She spoke with more animation of the firing, in reprisal, upon Nanking by a British and a U. S. warboat."

Whoever writes your China articles cannot have followed the Nanking affair with the slightest appreciation of what it was about. There was no firing in reprisal upon Nanking nor has there been by U. S. war vessels upon any Chinese port during the whole period of the present confused conditions along the Yangtze Valley. The firing at Nanking on March 24 by U. S. and British men-of-war consisted solely of a barrage laid about a house on a hill overlooking the city wall and in plain view from the river. In this house were the American Consul, his family, and some 25 other Americans and British, and this besieged party was being attacked and rushed by Chinese soldiers intent upon murdering them. This barrage not only saved the lives of the people in this house, who afterwards escaped over the city wall, but with the first boom of heavy gunfire bugles blew all over the city, officers appeared as if by magic, and the attacks on foreigners most abruptly ceased. I have been informed by at least 20 missionaries who were at various points in the city that this barrage unquestionably saved their lives.

There was no further firing upon Nanking by men-of-war. Your statement as printed certainly presents exactly the view desired by these clever propagandists of the Chinese communists.

GLENN HOWELL

Lieutenant Commander U. S. Navy. Hankow, China

Haiti Under U. S. Rule

Sirs:

Charles Moravia, writing from the Penitentiary of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in your issue of Aug. 15, states that his letter was smuggled out. "That's Haiti under American rule," states this Negro editor of Le Temps.

Perhaps Moravia will admit that his country under American direction is infinitely better than Haiti under Haitien rule pure and simple before 1915. At least he is housed in a clean prison and is fed, rather than starving to death in a hog pen as before. There are roads and prosperity instead of goat trails and misery. Hospitals in fact as well as name have replaced the shacks where the poor used to go to die unattended. No longer is it necessary to barricade the iron doors of each shop in the capital against the invasion of savage screaming Caco hordes, bent upon pillage, murder and rape. No longer is Port-au-Prince a filthy sore-spot on the earth whose stench carried far out into the bay. Just what insolence Moravia and his fellow editor-prisoners wrote into their scurrilous little sheets I do not know, but if it be at all like the articles they used to attempt to place before the ignorant public, it is small wonder that they are in jail.

I write this bit of truth so that some of my more gullible fellow countrymen may not be too far misled by the smuggled utterances of this former Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States, appointed to this high honor by means with which I am thoroughly familiar. If you could see Haiti now, under American direction, and compare it with the Haiti which I saw in 1914, before the American Occupation, you might more fully understand my disgust at reading the letter which you published.

LOUIS ESTELL FAGAN

Leon, Nicaragua

Resignation in Order?

Sirs:

Edward Schlee and William Brock, aviators, are authentically reported to have demanded "beer" on their arrival at Munich, Germany, and are shown in photos clicking their glasses with Hon. Charles B. Curtis, American consul in Munich between them as they thus exhibit their contempt of the laws of their own country. If they have no spirit of pride and loyalty for their country's basic laws, most certainly an official representing the great American Government should have. The undignified and contemptuous position that Consul Curtis has placed himself in should at least call for an explanation by the United States Government which pays his salary in Germany in thus disregarding the very serious laws of his own country, and if not sufficiently explained he should be requested to resign, and a more loyal and diplomatic successor be appointed to fill his place.

J. E. LA DOW

Mansfield, Ohio

Epstein Challenged

Sirs:

Whatever Mr. Epstein's failures may be at grammar, I for my part see no need for all the hullahoo that has been raised about it [TIME, Aug. 8 et seg.]. Neither do I hold any briefs for or against his likes as to his own personal ideas of sports and recreation. I know bowling "in an alley," to be a good healthful exercise, although I have never bowled a game in my life. But I have many friends who derive much fun, relaxation and sport from the game. Be that as it may.

But when this braying ass presumes to refer to the Royal and Ancient Game of Golf as an old maids' and sissies' pastime, he merely betrays a bigoted ignorance that, were he but a trifle wiser, he would cease to hold himself open for ridicule from intelligent people.

Still if he persists in his ignorant conclusions, I would like to make him this proposition:

Upon inquiry I find a perfect game at bowling to be a score of 300. Likewise a perfect round of golf is based on a par for most courses of 72, even fours for 18 holes. As I stated before, I have never bowled, only watched a few games, and if he has never played a round of golf, I'll bet him ten smackers, currency of the realm, so to speak, that I can come nearer on a percentage basis to bowling a 300-game than he can come to a par round on any golf course, he to pick out his own course providing it has a par of 70 or over. You, of course, to arrange for a certification of his score by a responsible party and I will have mine certified by the sporting editors of two of our local papers. Now, Mr. Epstein, step out or down.

JOHN M. BLAKE JR.

Nashville, Tenn.

Let Mr. Epstein, challenged, now reply.* TIME, dealing only in facts, can neither applaud nor castigate Mr. Blake's willingness to gamble. Dealing in facts, TIME must admit the existence of gambling in the fabric of this world. Therefore TIME sanctions the challenge. TIME will undertake to oversee the contest, if Mr. Epstein has the vigor outdoors that he has at his escritoire. TIME'S sport department will certify his golf score. TIME'S sport department will communicate with responsible sport departments in Nashville for certification of Mr. Blake's bowling skill & score. TIME will record the facts for readers; TIME trusts that whoever loses the "ten smackers" will pay them cheerfully.--ED.

"Sick on Leave" Sirs: In TIME, Sept. 19, footnote p. 12, col. means 3, you state ". . . . S. O. L., which means 'Sadly out of luck' or 'Sure out of luck." This is the most printable of the many interpretations placed upon this abbreviation by the millions of youngsters drawn into the army, but ignorant of army slang and traditions. It really means "Sick on leave," the most terrible calamity that can happen to a soldier. Now the that Fergusons have disappeared from the Texas horizon and when we have lived down their disgraceful administration, may we hope to receive a kindly mention of Texas affairs in TIME occasionally?

Allow me to express my gratitude to you for the kind of magazine you are publishing. FREDERICK W. FRANCIS, M. D.

Forth Worth. Tex.

Wichita Omitted

Sirs:

Referring to "Curing Cities," TIME, Sept. 19, p. 11, I note twelve other important cities besides Indianapolis have city manager form of government. I have carefully read over the list and I fail to find among said important cities, Wichita, Kan., with a population of over 100,000. Wichita has had city manager form of government since the spring of 1917. We would not take exception had it not been that Wichita is the most important city in Kansas and when such important cities as Kansas City, Rapid City, Austin, New London, etc., are mentioned and we are left out, it hurts our civic pride. If you doubt that we are worthy of recognition refer to aeronautical magazines, map of Kansas, etc.

By the way, Wichita was also visited by Lindbergh on his tour of important cities and aviation centers, notwithstanding that your article some time ago failed to mention it.

Another item of interest might be that 87 pounds of air mail were handled out of Wichita yesterday, Sept. 14, which was just an average day.

CRAIG KENNEDY

Wichita, Kan.

TIME printed the names of twelve important cities, besides Indianapolis, that have city managers. These were not labeled "twelve most important cities." Subscriber Kennedy has no cause for complaint.--ED.

Hamlet v. Webster

Sirs : I note with regret that when Mr. Hofheimer in this week's TIME objects to your saying "to the manner born," and offers some misinformation on the use of "manor" instead you meekly reply that Webster authorizes either spelling. But why bring up Webster? The undoubted source of this, to quote Mr. Hofheimer, "old English expression," is Hamlet. That gentleman, you will recall, replies to Horatio's question, "Is't custom?" by saying: "Ay, marry, is't. But to my mind, though I am native here and to the manner born, it is a custom more honor'd in the breach than the observance,"-- Hamlet, Act I, Sc. IV. . . . W. H. PORTER Detroit, Mich.

Concise & Literary Sirs : To confound those who carp at TIME'S use of "&," [TIME, Sept. 12] refer them to the American edition of the Pocket Oxford Dictionary, whose definitions are concise & literary as though quoted from TIME's very pages. Example: "li-on, n. Large carnivorous beast noted for his courage, roaring, mane & tufted tail, & reckoned king of beasts. . . ." HIRAM PENNYPACKER Cincinnati, Ohio

Boys of '98

Sirs:

In TIME [Sept. 12] I was pleased to read the article you had on the late National Encampment of the United Spanish War Veterans at Detroit. You seemed to see something in us which the average man in the U. S. has missed for the past years. . . . The men you saw at Detroit had an average term of service of 16 months, compared with eleven for the Civil War and nine for the World War. A great many of them were regulars, and also large numbers were not in the Spanish War proper, being too young to successfully lie about their age in '98, but did get in the Army, Navy or "Volunteer Regulars" in 1899 or some time before July, 1902, when the Philippine Insurrection was finally and officially finished. All men you saw with bands on their hats showing service in any infantry regiment from the 26th to 49th (U. S. Vol. Infantry) or 11th Vol. Cavalry were of the 25 Vol. regiments called for in 1899, a year after the Battle of Manila Bay, to relieve the volunteers from the state organizations then serving in the Philippine Insurrection. They were enlisted for two years and served this in the Islands. The regular army and marines were recruited up to maximum, and we had at one time over 80,000 men in the Philippines. While the Insurrection was going on the campaign in China was fought by regulars from the Philippines and marines and sailors from the fleet. The action was continuous from April 21, 1898, up to July 4, 1902, and in the Moro country for years afterwards. . . . Generals Bell, Pershing and Funston were all made Generals while fighting in the Philippine Insurrection, but as all of this came out of the Spanish War and the same men did it all, and all of it is called the "Spanish War" by most everyone, there was no other name to take. Our oath and muster ceremony include the words "To commemorate the memory of the Spanish War, the Insurrection on the Philippines and the China Relief Expedition." . . . Now if you really want to know what in a few years put the something in us, which would bring together 20,000 of the living from the original 436,000 in service from 1898 to 1902, I will tell you. We are of 100% voluntary service, every man a soldier in his heart as well as body. We have about 100,000 in the organization and are growing at the rate of about 10,000 a year. No other organization of any war ever had over one-fifth of their eligibles, and we have better than one of every three living. Last year at Des Moines we had two delegates from Manila, and one from one of our two camps in China. This time we had none. Why should we not stick our chests out at times and be proud to wear the bronze button, which, by the way, is made from metal taken from the Old U. S. S. Maine. which started the whole dam thing. AUSTIN C. ROWELL

Pittsburgh, Pa.

*And more than 200 have protested against it. -- ED. šTIME on Aug. 29 promised: "If 100 subscribers write to TIME requesting a section on FASHION, they have it." ED. * Last week TIME stated that no more letters from Mr. Epstein would be printed. For the purpose of answering Mr. Blake's challenge (and for that purpose alone), the embargo is lifted.--