Mrs. Coolidge's Hair

Sirs:

When will Mrs. Calvin Coolidge have her hair bobbed? An INS (International News Service) article reported previous stories as rumors and subsequent denials made. TIME substantiated early reports. Were you correct?

A. M. LUCAS

Syracuse, N. Y.

Sirs:

In your Aug. 10 issue of TIME I was much surprised to see under heading of People on p. 22 the rumor--"Mrs. Calvin Coolidge bobbed her hair"--printed as a fact. You know, of course, this has been disproved.

GRAHAM ROHRER

Middletown, Pa.

Sirs:

Over the phone from her Littles Point (Swampscott) Summer home this noon, TIME-reader Mrs. Frank W. Stearns, regarded as like a mother to Grace, said:

"Of course Mrs. Coolidge has not bobbed her hair! In the first place, why should she wait until she got to Plymouth, if she had any intention of doing so? In the second place, Mrs. Joel T. Boone, who has just ended a three weeks' visit with us here, after a day spent with the Coolidges at Plymouth, assured me there was no truth in the bob-story.

"The Coolidges were our guests here July 3-6 (Fourth being Cal-birthday), before they went up to Plymouth. Mrs. Coolidge then wore the pretty crocheted white lace (note: Mrs. Stearns wasn't positive about the fabric--thought it might be silk or silk-and-wool) beret, with a small feather or some other ornamental touch. Her black-hair was tightly folded up under the cap. The resultant smooth hairline at the neck probably gave careless observers the bob idea."

EDWIN F. COLLINS

Boston, Mass.

TIME was misled by newshawks who beheld Mrs. Coolidge in her beret (see cut). Mrs. Coolidge's black hair, streaked with grey, is still long.--ED.

Crusaders & Drinking

Sirs: TIME'S headline in the July 27 issue "For Drinking" captioning story of James Goodwin Hall's record-breaking flight to Cuba is misleading. Famed Crusader Hall neither flew to Cuba to get a drink nor to indicate that the Crusaders favor drinking.

The Crusaders believe in temperance and that it can never be obtained until the 18th Amendment is repealed; they do not advocate the return of liquor or drinking; one has never left the country, the other has never ceased. The 32,000 speakeasies in New York make record breaking flights to Cuba to get a drink a foolish pursuit. Even here in the Nation's Capital and right in the shadow of the White House, the Department of Justice, the Prohibition Bureau, and the Methodist Board of Prohibition, Temperance and Public Morals, thousands--yes, thousands--of speakeasies have been raided.

Neither Aviator Hall nor The Crusaders advocate drinking, but TIME'S headline writer indicated they do. Let alert TIME Editors give him a thoroughgoing reprimand.

THE CRUSADERS

(Signed) JOHN F. DRYDEN

Executive Commander

(Signed) RUFUS S. LUSK Executive Vice-Commander

Washington, D. C.

The instant Crusader Hall alighted at Havana, President William Pawley of Curtiss Aviation Co. of Cuba handed him a Cuban cocktail. After gulping it, Crusader Hall ejaculated, "That alone was worth the trip!" Then he ordered another.--ED. Convict Kylsant

Sirs:

In TIME, Aug. 10, is a cut of Lord Kylsant entitled "Convict Kylsant." A convict in England is one sentenced to penal servitude. Lord Kylsant was sentenced to 12 months in the Second Division, and to call him "convict'' is apt to be considered libelous.

In view of the enormous ground covered by TIME its accuracy is so remarkable that we feel all puffed up with pride when we detect an error!

MILINKA WALDEN

Washington, Ind.

The status of a criminal is fixed, not by the kind of sentence which is imposed but by the verdict rendered by the court: A convict is "anyone who has been adjudged guilty of a criminal offence by a court of competent jurisdiction" (Encyclop. Brit.). Lord Kylsant was convicted of the crime of issuing a false prospectus of his Royal Mail Steam Packet Co.'s debenture stock. His sentence to twelve months in the second division merely excludes him from hard labor. Until the judgment of the court is reversed by another, Lord Kylsant remains a convict.--ED.

Limps, Warts, Canary Legs

Sirs:

I was glad to see your Aug. 3 reply to subscriber Riecher's criticism in re physical characteristics of Messrs. Capone and Chiang. These personal comments (unknown to many of us) treated in your own particular style make TIME just a little different from the other periodicals.

I hope that I may still rely upon you for my mind pictures of people whose names make news.

This is from a subscriber whose entire weekly reading consists of the morning paper, the evening paper and TIME.

JOHN W. F. HOBBS

Somerville, Mass.

Sirs:

We fully agree with the Editor's comment in answer to A. W. Riechers, apropos Capone, Chiang, Hearst (Page 2, TIME, Aug. 3) when he says: "Physical characteristics are an inevitable concomitant of personality. And personalities are the stuff of which history is made. TIME, historian, must continue to notice noses large & small, waists wasp or fat."

And may we add, by way of further comment, that there can be no clear-cut, vivid description of a person in real life or of a character in literature without mention of his dominant physical features. We must know the characteristics that differentiate him from his fellows for then, and only then, can we become interested in him. We must know, for example, that the poet Lord Byron was lame and that his schoolmates were proud to imitate the "Byronic limp." We remember Cyrano de Bergerac all the better by reason of his big nose. And this recalls Chaucer's Miller in the "Prologue" to the Canterbury Tales who sported a wart on his nose, and out of the wart grew a tuft of red hairs (lines 552 to 556 of the "Prologue"). My pupils ten and 15 years out of school will always remember the Miller by this description of his nose when they may have forgotten that he was an immoral scamp, could steal corn, and take toll three times.

Wel coude he stelen corn and tollen thrycs.

Yes, all great literary artists, Chaucer, Shakespeare and all the others have employed clear-cut descriptions of dominant physical features to make their characters living personalities. We know how true this is in our own day and age. We must have all the available facts about the Movie Stars, and if our favorite Prima Donna sings like a bird, we must know if she has legs like a canary. Humorous as this may be, isn't it the truth?

GEORGE W. LYON

Pittsburgh, Pa.

Whiskers

Sirs: When you read proof on p. 15 of the Aug. 3 issue, did no one yelp when whiskerless Governor Murray (Oklahoma) was seen in a cut next to "Red River War," in which he was referred to as "bewhiskered?" Or do you construe the possession of a generous mustache (as has Governor Murray) as admitting the appellation "bewhiskered?"

ORRIN T. PIERSON

Howells, N. Y.

To TIME, a whisker is a whisker whether it grows out of chin, ear, nostril, facial mole or upper lip.--ED.

Big Dick's Feat

Sirs:

Must a headmaster be a contortionist, or is "Big Dick" Richards an exception? TIME does not specify, but the description (Aug. 10) is vivid: "Throwing his leg over the arm of his chair and scratching the back of his head. . . ."

Perhaps if the rest of us could do that, ideas would be more plentiful.

D. G. HARING

Syracuse, N. Y.

Hog on Ice

Sirs:

Your correspondent, Mr. Stewart (p. 4 of Aug. 10 issue) displays what ve like to call a "British deficiency in humor," branding as unreasonable a plainly fantastic expression.

On the farm, some 70 years ago, and I presume up to now, it was often said of a man that he was "independent as a hog on ice: if he can't stand up he can lie down." The explanatory half of the saying dropped out of use as obvious. TIME might have more pertinently retorted to the gentleman from Indiana.

H. A. SMITH

Buffalo, N. Y.

Reed Utility

Sirs:

Your recent story concerning the difficulties confronting Oilman Doherty (TIME, July 20) brings to mind the fact that Jim Reed is a brother of the owner of one of the largest utilities in Iowa. John Reed's system operates a short distance from the Missouri line. Perhaps interest in the "peepul" parallels his interest in the Reed family.

R. H. CRAXFORD

Indianapolis, Ind.

John A. Reed, brother of onetime Senator Reed, is vice president of Iowa Railway & Light Corp. ($35,000,000), centring in Cedar Rapids, selling electricity to central Iowa cities, operating a Cedar Rapids trolley system, an interurban line to Iowa City and a statewide bus line. Iowa Railway & Light is, as yet, nowhere in competition with Vice President Reed's brother's foe's Cities Service Co.--ED.

Runner Newton

Sirs:

Some kind friend has sent me a copy of your publication of Aug. 4, 1930 wherein is a picture of myself and a really gorgeous column of fiction. No doubt you printed what you thought was right but you have my word for it--for what it is worth--that there is hardly a true statement from top to bottom. . . .

This is what might have been stated. Newton's South African public placed a petition on the Table of the House asking for consideration and redress. [Some Kaffirs had been given hold-ings closer to Newton's farm than he liked.-- ED.] General Smuts, after a personal interview, took immediate steps to right the matter, but within a few days of his action was thrown out of the Government and replaced by General Hertzog as prime minister. General Hertzog ridiculed the matter in the House and was backed solidly by all the Backveldt. Recognizing the government as corrupt I left South Africa and was welcomed in Rhodesia, whose citizens subsequently subscribed and sent me to England to break running records there. After this the South African public. led by the Advertiser of Durban, subscribed in shillings a sum of some $6.000 as compensation. I am still in close touch with all the principal papers in South Africa and Rhodesia and am happy to know that the public there have by no means forgotten me.

I ran as a young man of 24-29, not for racing but only for healthy exercise. Then came the War. After the War, at the age of 30 I decided to put up world's records in order that I might make sure that other settlers should get to learn what was awaiting them in the Union of South Africa. I knew that while the Backveldt was in power I, as an Englishman, had no hope whatever of any compensation for the loss of my farm: but I was. and still am, anxious to make the affair so public that in future the government then will find it discreet to act more wisely with others: I fight for others, not myself.

I never ran round the farm: roads suited me better. I used science and a trained mind to accomplish my ends. I intended to write a book on the subject and, if everyone knew who I was. they would as likely as not read it. The book is now completed and I shall shortly be looking for a publisher. I never ran in farm clothes: athletes would not do so. I did not wear leather socks. I did not drink the mixture stated-- sometimes I drank ordinary tea.

Oh well! My best respects to TIME and its Sports Editor: perhaps if I am lucky I may manage to run across him some day and work a different impression on him to the one the article must have made.

ARTHUR F. H. NEWTON

Montreal, Canada

To Runner Newton all thanks for clarifying his legend. Last fortnight, teamed with Peter Gavuzzi. he won the $3.000 first prize in a relay race from Montreal to Quebec and return.--ED.

Van Loon Offsprings

Sirs:

You like accuracy so please get this straight. In one of your last issues, I have forgotten which, as I find them lying around my mother's apartment here, a week or more old, and read the wisecracks without looking at the dates. you copied an article in the division called People, from the Herald Tribune to the effect that Hendrik van Loon, Hendrik Willem van Loon to be exact, had arrived in America and groaned at the prospect of his son's becoming an interpretative dancer (TIME, July 20). And that son you called Hendrik Willem van Loon Jr. That's all very well except for two mistakes, first of all Hendrik van Loon is not at all displeased at his son's conduct and secondly that son is not Hendrik Willem Jr. In fact a jr. in this family does not exist, my parents being neither of them unoriginal have never been at a loss to find brand new names for their offsprings and my older brother and I have gotten sick of seeing ourselves Hendrik-van-Loon-Jr.'ed so I hope you won't mind my putting this straight. My brother, in America, is Henry Bowditch van Loon and I am Willem Gerard van Loon. On the dancing stage I leave off the van Loon as I don't believe in family parties. As to the Iragic parental groan and the reference to the great and understanding liberty Otto Kahn granted his son. that is all a lot of h0013r. Is America still so puritanical that a dancer is held as something inferior to a painter, a sculptor or even an historian? I don't see the difference. An historian merely tells old stories in new words and an interpretative dancer expresses already existing music in movements suitable to his body, which, as every body is different must naturally become new movements. Or is there something disgraceful in a free and healthy body?

I don't know what my father said or did at the dock when confronted with the question of what I was up to but in any case it must have been greatly magnified by gossip-hunters, but I only wish that my parent would desist in future from giving rise to such rotten and unhelpful publicity.

Also I wish many smug writers my waistline.

WILLEM GERARD VAN LOON

Paris, France

16-Year-Old Bankers

Sirs:

I am very interested in finance and have been reading the financial section of TIME for about a year. You would be surprised to know how much a 16-year-old boy can learn about banking, stocks, etc. just from reading that section. I am 16, so I know.

At present I hold the position of president of Purcell Dexter & Co. We make loans to the fellows at school and do a little investing in The New York Stock Exchange. Now, I was wondering if you would suggest anything else we could do along the lines of banking. We are rather handicapped because nobody in the company is over the age of 16. Our authorized capital stock is 25 shares of common stock at twenty-five cents ($.25) par value and 100 shares of preferred stock at one dollar ($1.00) par value. The dividend on the preferred is 12% per annum. The market value of the comnnn at present is eighty cents ($.80). We have two offices in Seattle and one in Victoria, B. C. . . .

HUGH D. PURCELL

Seattle, Wash.

Let wiser banking heads than TIME'S suggest stunts for able Purcell Dexter & Co.--ED. How Amory Looks Sirs:

The picture of Mr. Copley Amory which you printed with your report of the Canadian Biological Conference is very old (TIME, Aug. 10).

Here is a picture of Mr. Amory as his biologist guests knew him. It was taken at the conference by Dr. Alfred O. Gross of Bowdoin College.

HUNT HOLLY Matamek, Canada

Butler's Remark

Sirs:

Your issue of Aug. 10, has been shown ne. On p. u, Army and Xavy column, you iiKiu1 a direct quotation of language supposedly us''d by me. I did not make that remark, nor anything even remotely suggestive of it.

If you are desirous of being fair, you will ghe this denial as much prominence as you did your misquotation of my remarks.

S. D. BUTLER

Major General

U. S. Marines, Marine Barracks Quantico, Va.

General Butler was reported by Universal Service to have declared at Quantico: "The Army banished its Mitchell: the Navy throttled its Magruder; but nobody can keep Butler from talking.'' TIME gladly gives this space to General Butler's denial.--ED.

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