Capone-on-the-Cover
Sirs:
... I was . . . considerably surprised when my attention was called to the title page of your magazine of March 24. In other words, I do not understand why the title page of a magazine intended for boys and girls of high school age should be graced by the likeness of Alphonso Capone.
This note is not written in a vindictive spirit at all. It is merely an attempt on my part to express to you the honest conviction of our teachers and myself, that, in this day and generation, the likeness of the individual to whom I have referred has no place in a magazine whose business it is to set standards for American youth.
WM. M. STEWART
Supervising Principal Etna Public Schools Etna, Pa.
Sirs:
... I take this opportunity to say when my subscription expires, I shall discontinue.
Cause: March 24 cover. Your outfit must indeed be very hard up for subjects to portray a character of the reputation of this individual and the wonderful characters you have heretofore exhibited should feel proud to see the place filled where they have appeared previously.
Lucius G. LEONARD
The London Assurance Corp. New York. N. Y
The admirable news-article entitled: The Coming Out Party, dealing with the life and works of Al Capone, omits one news-note. Among the people who saw him before he left the "pen" was his lawyer: U. S. Congressman Benjamin M. Colder, a son-in-law of Mastbaum, late satrap of cinemaland in Philadelphia.
MURIEL B. HUTCHINGS
Germantown, Pa.
Sirs:
... An insult to every subscriber and an outrage to public decency; and I have a mighty good notion to tell you that you need not send another copy of your otherwise good magazine to me. I think the reputation of your publication has dropped at least no per cent.
LOWEN E. GINN
New York, N. Y.
Sirs:
. . . Could you not find some one more fitting? . . .
MRS. EDWARD MARTIN
Narberth, Pa.
Sirs:
MAY WE HAVE YOUR PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE PICTURE OF CAPONE AND YOUR STORY CAPTIONED QUOTE COMING OUT PARTY UNQUOTE ON PAGES FIFTEEN AND SIXTEEN OF CURRENT NUMBER OF YOUR MAGAZINE STOP OF COURSE WE WILL BE PLEASED TO GIVE
YOU PROPER CREDIT STOP PLEASE RUSH ANSWER COLLECT
MIAMI DAILY NEWS JAMES M. COX OWNER-Miami, Fla.
Sirs:
O: what a shock was ours today! . . .
WM. THOMSON HANZSCHE Editor
The Presbyterian Magazine New York, N. Y.
Sirs:
In my estimation you have performed the most courageous piece of publishing in the current year. Never, I think, was I so shocked as when I first beheld that leering countenance within our beloved red borders. My first reaction was that you men had gone out of your minds. But then, out of a sense of loyalty, I read what you had to tell about this figure and I perceived your purpose. . . .
I can easily imagine what a torrent of protest you must be receiving and simply want to send you my sympathetic support. You have held the mirror up to nature with an unflinching hand, true to your motto "TIME brings all things." Not all things are good, and the straighter we look the bad ones in the face, the sooner we will achieve that state of perfection for which destiny must intend us. ...
PETER S. ELLIS
Chicago
Sirs:
I experienced first a feeling of amazement, then one of curiosity and finally resentment. . . .
J. GEIGER, M. D.
New York, N. Y.
Sirs:
TIME has seen fit to display, on the cover of the current issue, the features of the man Capone, thus placing a depraved miscreant of the lowest type on a level with the leading men and women of the day, whose portraits heretofore have occupied that place of honor.
By this action you have committed, in my judgment, the most flagrant offense against good taste and even decency that has appeared in any reputable journal in recent years. The least you can do is to apologize humbly in your next issue for the insult offered to our foremost citizens as well as to your interested readers of whom I am one.
DAVID G. MARKHAM
New York City
Sirs:
. . 'Tis a bit revolting.
C. F. LANDIS, Mgr.
Pomfret Club, Easton, Pa.
Sirs:
... I am intensely interested to know what theory of the science of magazine publication, or a magazine such as TIME, justifies the glorifying of crime to the extent that the picture of the country's most notorious criminal should be featured as the cover page of the country's leading magazine. . . . DAVID G. DEVORE
The Fisher-DeVore Construction Co.
Cincinnati, Ohio
To the People of Chicago:
On behalf of the editors of TIME, I urge the Chicago readers of that magazine to send in written opinions as to the judgment and good taste in presenting Mr. Capone with the honor of a front page picture.
What Price Glory?
DOROTHY FOLSOM
(Mrs. Richard S.)
Chicago
Sirs:
. . . How many people do you think will see this picture who will never read your write-up on p. 15, hence will classify TIME as an admirer of monsters?
J. F. HOMMEL
Kansas City, Mo.
Sirs:.
. . . I never before realized the enormous extent of these underworld operations. But what I don't understand is how the police of a city like Chicago can have permitted such a colossus of iniquity to reach this stature. Is it all a question of graft and rotten politics or are the citizens equally to blame? The most arresting phrase, of course, in the whole appalling thing is Capone's remark: "It's bootleg when it's on the trucks but when your host hands it to you on a silver tray, it's hospitality."
JAMES M. R. EDGAR
Philadelphia
Sirs:
... An insult to decent, law-abiding citizens of this country and an affront to police authorities, whether in Chicago or elsewhere.
W. E. KEEBLER
Omaha, Neb.
Sirs:
Of course everybody knows that TIME is published in Chicago. . . .
H. S. BOQUIST, M.D.
Minneapolis, Minn.
Sirs:
My subscription to your magazine is paid until next December. . . . Discontinue mailing it to me. . . .
JAMES H. HOPKINS
Ypsilanti, Mich.
Sirs:
. . . You may terminate my subscription.
HUGH D. CHAMBERLAIN
Caneadea, N. Y.
Sirs:
... I know other people who read TIME and I shall now be one of your worst knockers. I shall even go out of my way to knock you every chance I get.
W. CHESTER SMITH
New York City
No admirer of "monsters," TIME refuses to ignore their existence, to blink their presence in the U. S.
If it is considered an honor to be pictured on TIME'S cover, TIME is glad that is so. But in selecting national figures for its cover, TIME does not presume to be ''honoring" those figures. If they are outstanding nationally or internationally, that is solely and definitely to their own and to society's credit and not by virtue of anything TIME has done for them. It is TIME'S business to report things-as-they- are.
Vigilant, TIME was aware in advance of the day upon which Gangster Capone would once more be at large in the land. Recognizing him as the No. 1 man of his kind in the U. S., the personification of an "underworld" which continues, perhaps increasingly, to be a problem of the "upper world" and a national phenomenon, TIME estimated Capone to be easily man-of-the-week and acted accordingly. Let objectors quarrel, not with TIME, but with those conditions--whatever they may be--'which bring forth objectionable national "mon-sters."
TIME will continue to publish whatever seems to it nationally newsworthy and significant.--ED.
Boohsts Sirs:
In the interest of veracity why not change your heading LETTERS to BOOHSTS?
L. S. WEBSTER
Pasadena, Calif.
Hoover's "Blackie"
Sirs:
In TIME, March 17, col. 1 of the Presidency, you make reference to the President's military aide, "Colonel Campbell Benjamin Hodges."
Colonel Hodges' name is Campbell Blackshear Hodges. A graduate of this Academy in 1903. Colonel Hodges is the only Campbell B. Hodges to graduate. The middle name Blackshear no doubt accounts for the nickname "Blackie."
MARSHALL S. CARTER Cadet, U. S. M. A. West Point, N. Y.
Four-Fifths Queen
Sirs:
Your lengthy article "MAY QUEEN" in TIME, March 17, is quite a compliment to MAY.
It also corroborates a story about H. R. H. Prince of Wales when inspecting the Canadian soldiers in the trenches.
He came across a picture of the King and Queen in the familiar two ovals, with the words GEORGE FIFTH written under the picture of the King. He said nothing, but wrote under the picture of his mother, "THE OTHER FOUR FIFTHS."
WILLIAM YATES
Green River, Wyo.
"Do Not Choose"
Sirs:
Referring to your comments relative to Mr. Coolidge as "Dam Dedicator" on p. 13 of the March 17 issue of TIME, you state in the footnote on p. 14: "As President, Mr. Coolidge occasionally cribbed passages of geographical description from International Encyclopedia to pad his speeches."
If you will turn to the 13th paragraph of Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay on Spiritual Laws you will note the following:
"I say, do not choose; but that is a figure of speech by which I would distinguish what is commonly called choice among men, and which is a partial act, the choice of the hands, of the eyes, of the appetites, and not a whole act of the man."
HARLEY L. SAWYER
Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
-Democratic nominee for President of the U. S. in 1920.
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