Jordan, Shortridge & Brisbane

Sirs:

Enclosed clipping supplements your appreciation of Dr. David Starr Jordan in TIME of June 8.

A great and fearless man. Dr. Jordan did not hesitate to say ''Arthur Brisbane knows no more about Evolution than--*Sam Shortridge (U. S. Senator from California) does." And--"Unfortunately Darrow is as ignorant concerning Evolution as Bryan is."

Bryan is dead but Brisbane continues to lead the blind.

C. A. McCORMICK

San Francisco, Calif.

*Sam Shortridge must typify Dr. Jordan's ideal of ignorance.

In the clipping. Dr. Jordan was hailed by Stanford's 1931 class orator as one of the three great U. S. Educators of the past 50 years. The other two: the late Charles William Eliot of Harvard, the late Andrew Dickson White of Cornell.--ED.

Colyumists' Education

Sirs:

That venerable columnist, Arthur Brisbane, is alleged to have accused Funnyman Will Rogers with being educated at Eton and Oxford. I am a longtime admirer of Rogers and have always suspected that he was not as "dumb" as he attempted to act. Is Brisbane's accusation true?

JOHN BURCH McMoRRAN

Syracuse, X. Y.

Will Rogers' education: Willie Hassell School, Neosho.,Mo.; Kemper Military Academy, Boonville, Mo. for "a short time."

Arthur Brisbane's: four years at a Fanwood, N. J. country school; five years "abroad.''

Joked Will Rogers last fortnight: "I am as ashamed of my early years spent at Eton and Oxford as all the rest of their alumni is."--ED.

Collector

Sirs:

I am in the sixth grade of school at Ortega. We have been studying Europe. I watch the Foreign News in TIME every week. I have gradually collected photographs of the heads of most of the countries of Europe. However I have not seen a picture of the president of Switzerland, 1931 President Meier, which I would like to have to complete my collection in my school notebook. I would appreciate it very much if you would publish his picture.

HERMAN ULMER JR.

Ortega, Fla.

Collector Ulmer is hereby obliged:

Switzerland's 1931 President is not

Councilman Albert Meyer but black-mustached, half-bald Dr. Heinrich Haberlin, 62, who has just learned English

(President for 1930 was Dr. Jean Musy). Born Sept. 6, 1868 in a small town in the canton of Thurgau, Heinrich Haberlin studied law at the Universities of Zurich, Leipzig and Berlin, then rose in the small

Swiss Army to the high rank of colonel of infantry.

In 1904 Dr. Haberlin's native Thurgau first sent him to the National Council (lower house). In 1920 he moved up to the Federal Council (comprised of President, Vice President and "Cabinet of Five"). In 1925 he was elected its vice president--and in Switzerland the vice president is customarily elected president the following year. Thus Dr. Haberlin was president in 1926, vice president again in 1930, is president today, may become vice president again, president again, and so ad infinitum--ED.

Justice's Children

Sirs:

In a recent issue (TIME, May 25), under a heading "Common Practice" you state that Chief Justice Russell of the Supreme Court of Georgia is the father of 18 children, whereas the accompanying picture contains only 13. I have seen elsewhere in print that the Governor-elect is "one of 13 children." I am interested in knowing whether the Chief Justice has five other children by another wife, or by the same wife, who are dead or otherwise absent from the picture, or whether "18" as stated in your article was a misprint, and intended to be "13." HOWARD GOODWIN

Northport, L. I.

Five of Chief Justice Russell's offspring died--three by his first wife (Minnie L. Tyler) who herself died in 1886; two by his present wife (Ina Dillard).--ED.

O. Henry Kin Sirs:

Being a cover-to-cover reader and original subscriber of your distinctive publication, I find under the heading Books an article about O. Henry (TIME, June 28). In this I find a flaw: "No near relative survives him." You say that his second wife was Sara Lindsay Coleman. This is correct. At this time she is living at Weaverville, N. C., eight miles from Asheville. He also has a living daughter by Mrs. Sara Lindsay Coleman Porter. Both are writers of short stories. Two months ago Mrs. Porter visited Mars Hill College (17 miles from Asheville) and read one of her unpublished short stories. She also gave a talk on O. Henry and his works.

OREN E. ROBERTS

Athletic Director Mars Hill College. Mars Hill, N. C.

Mrs. Sara Lindsay Coleman Porter never had a child. O. Henry's only issue, Margaret, borne him by his first wife Athol Estes, died in 1927.--ED.

Thrill-Seekers Disgusted Sirs:

More regarding the army aviator whose escapade was told of in TIME, June 15. Since TIME Magazine left out what I consider an interesting sidelight, I am supplying it.

About 10 o'clock one morning the commander of Chanute Field, Rantoul, Ill., called the Decatur Chief of Police requesting speed boats, life-saving apparatus and an ambulance as he planned on having the plane from which Flyer Osborne was dangling fly to Lake Decatur, about 50 mi. from Chanute and let the aviator drop himself into the lake.

Word soon spread and Lakeshore Drive was alive with people. Newshawks hurried up and down along the shore with cameras, staging themselves in the most strategic positions. Speed boats roared up and down and motor boats putted about.

Word finally came, after the plane was long overdue, that Jumper Osborne had managed to make use of his auxiliary chute. Disgusted thrill- seekers went back to town.

JESSE B. BIRKS Circulation Manager Decatur Daily Review Decatur, Ill. ,

Fiduciary Trust and Lawyers

Sirs:

TIME'S article of June 8 regarding the Fiduciary Trust Co. of New York was interesting and informative but contained one statement which might be subject to misinterpretation. You said: "To Root, Clark & Buckner (attorneys) . . . the bank will be a big client, also one to whom they can send much business."

Some persons might infer from this statement that the Fiduciary Trust Co. will entrust all legal business of estates and trusts under its care to Root, Clark & Buckner. On the contrary, the policy of the trust company, where circumstances permit, is to employ a client's own attorney in the administration of his estate or trusts.

PIERRE JAY

Chairman

Fiduciary Trust Co. New York City

Statement

Sirs:

On p. 53 of your June 8 issue toward the close of the third column you make the following statement: "Farm prosperity would be the cureall, thought Horace Washington Bowker, head of American Agricultural Chemical, hard-hit by farm depression."

I have no middle name. HORACE BOWKER President

American Agricultural Chemical Co. New York City

Pleased Sourdoughs

Sirs:

Thanks very much for the wonderful boost you gave us (TIME, May 25, June 8). I am enclosing a copy of our paper [Chitina, Alaska Weekly Herald]. I cannot resist thanking you again along with this paper, although I sent you a letter by last boat.

ADRIAN NELSON

Chitina, Alaska

P. S. You will be glad to know that we got a letter from Mr. Thomas A. Edison's private secretary Meadowcroft. He said that Mr. Edison liked our paper very much. We also had a letter from the Governor of our territory, George A. Parks. I was especially glad to get the letter from Edison's Laboratories as I would rather be a helper of Edison than anything else in the world.

Freethinker

Sirs:

In your issue of June 1 President Hoover is quoted: "Like so many benign social agencies it [the Red Cross] sprang from the mind and the heart of a woman.''

With due respect to the President and not to detract from the noble work done by Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton; as a Freethinker, I beg to state that the Red Cross as an organization was proposed and made effective by Henri Dunant, a Swiss Freethinker. Its flag was designed by him--a red cross on a white field, which is the reversion of the flag of Switzerland.

LOUIS G. RODRIGUES

Detroit, Mich.

President Hoover and TIME were talking about the American Red Cross. True it is that Jean Henri Dunant published in 1862 a booklet, Un Souvenir de Solferino, lamenting the carnage of Italy's war against Austria, urging the formation of volunteer societies to remove wounded men from battlefields, hoping all military leaders would "agree upon some sacred international principle." First to respond was President Gustave Moynier of Societe Genevoise d'UtilitePublique, who organ- ized an international meeting at Geneva in 1863 where international Red Cross principles were formulated. Next year was held a diplomatic conference with 26 Governments represented. Here was drafted the Geneva Convention, here adopted the red-crossed white flag. It was in 1877 that the International Committee of the Red Cross appointed Clara Barton, active since 1869, its U. S. representative. At her in- sistence the U. S. signed the Geneva Convention in 1882.--ED.

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