Munitions

Sirs: Your comment on "Munitions Men" in the current number (TIME, March 5) is a genuine satisfaction to many of your readers. The seriousness of the European situation is made very clear in recent books--which my own observation in Europe this last summer confirms. The time to safeguard peace is now. Such measures as that sponsored by Senator Vandenberg to eliminate profits from the munitions business will help--but beneath all else there must be the Peace Sentiment. . . JAMES W. FIFIELD, JR.

East Congregational Church Grand Rapids, Mich.

Sirs:

As a subscriber to TIME, I want to thank you for turning the spotlight on the munitions manufacturers through both TIME and FORTUNE. Keep it up.

JOSEPHINE SCHAIN

New York City

Sirs:

... In the face of facts such as you quote from FORTUNE under ''Munitions Men'' we humble preachers and preachers-to-be get that helpless feeling that a fly in a reptile cage must have. However, I hope at least half a million of our intelligent readers absorb these exposures, brief though they evidently are, and do a little concentrated thinking and praying. I was moved to immediately find the first colleagues I could at this midnight hour and I read the article to them. . . .

CHARLES F. UNGER New Brunswick, N. J.

Kegs in the White House

Sirs:

This clipping is of a letter which appeared in the Nebraska State Journal a few days since. Is there any foundation for its statements?

I. G. COURTNAY

Lincoln, Neb.

The Nebraska State (Lincoln) Journal's correspondent quoted The Fellowship Forum as follows:

"A Christmas dance was given at the White House for the younger members of the Roosevelt family. The stately front hall was piled with kegs of beer for the occasion. They were covered with tablecloths. Tables, and cooling and tap equipment were specially installed for the occasion. Mrs. Roosevelt, her daughter and her two daughters-in-law received the guests. As the party imbibed to satiety, all formality was laid aside and hilarity was unconfined. In a corner sat the President shaking hands and chatting with all who chose to greet him. Guests, tired from dancing in the historic East room, sauntered into the imposing hallway to quaff 3.2 beer. Never before, in the memory of man, were the sacred precincts of the executive mansion so used. Order and decorum characterized all White House functions under previous administrations. Probably never before, in its history, was the entrance to the mansion piled with beer kegs, brought in to quench the thirst of a president's family and friends."

The Fellowship Forum, a hangover of the Ku Klux Klan. is published in Washington by one James Scott Vance, who also publishes National Farm News. It is edited by Gilbert Owen Nations, law professor at Washington's American University (Methodist). The paper is militantly Dry, bitterly anti-Catholic. Typical headlines: CWA ROMANIZED ROME IN INTERIOR DEPARTMENT PRESIDENT'S SON SEEKS WHISKY COMBINE Facts of the White House party held Dec. 30: Beer (3.2) was served from linen-draped kegs in the hallway. There was no special cooling equipment. There was enough beer for about two glasses for each of 500 guests. The party was formal, sedate, somewhat dull. If any guest ''imbibed to satiety" he did not show it by hilarity. The President came downstairs, watched the dancing, chatted with guests for about an hour, then retired.--ED.

Lloyd for Pu Yi Sirs: It occurred to me. when I saw the cover of your March 5 issue, that you might do Henry Pu Yi an everlasting favor by tipping him off to the fact that he might well get Harold Lloyd to double for him in the pinches. . . .

J. S. MILLER

Milwaukee. Wis.

P.S. What's become of Harold anyway? Did he have the grace to back off the screen before we got tired of him, or did he think it well to retire before the divorce mill got him?

Following two years' professional inactivity, wealthy Cinemactor Harold Lloyd is currently making a new film, Cat's-Paw, for release next autumn. Married since 1923 to onetime Film Actress Mildred Davis, he has remained a safe distance from the divorce mill.--ED.

Sirs: Re: Hon. Bicycler Henry Pu Yi, late front cover subject. Controversy on his cranial adornment (if it be such), and the artistically gripped stalk of cauliflower mangled an intended bridge party. Is he wearing a crown or is it part of the background? Is he holding a Ja-pansy or Manchurian orchid?

R. W. AMBACH

Providence, R. I.

In the composite painting. Manchu Emperor Pu Yi's headpiece is a Buddhist crown denoting spiritual authority, the only crown worn in Pacific Asia. The object in his hand is a jade sceptre called Ju Ye (pronounced Ru-I), fashioned as a conventionalized lotus.--ED.

Supplement Sirs: I would be very pleased to have my name placed (in the mailing list of TIME'S Letters Supplement. I have heard so many complimentary remarks in regard to this Supplement that I regret that I was not quick enough in my request to receive the first issues and if it is possible lo make this request retroactive I would be more than obliged.

H. V. WRIGHT

Edgewood Arsenal, MI

Sirs: Please place my name on the mailing list of TIME'S Letters Supplement and thus swell the number to 2,688! No, I'll count myself lucky if I'm within the first 5,000. And if it is humanly possible, I'd like to have all the numbers of the Supplement from the beginning in order that 1 won't miss any of this type of snappy material. 1 realize that likely I'll be disappointed.

I am enclosing 30-c- in postage to cover cost and am also sending this screed by airmail in hopes I'll come in under the wire.

E. G. Loris WIEBUSCH. M. D. Los Angeles, Calif.

Reader Wiebusch misses the 5.000 deadline, becomes Letters Supplement Subscriber No. 5,609. Until further notice copies of the Supplement will be sent free to all who ask. For extra copies the charge will be 5-c- each, plus postage. The supply of Supplement Nos. 1 & 2 has been exhausted. Address 1. Van Meter. Editorial Secretary of TIME, 135 East 42nd St., New York Citv.--ED.

CWA Clarified Sirs:

Your recent recounting of the birth and development of the CWA program will go far to clarify the entire picture, as it now is. in the public mind in Texas.

TIME is lo be congratulated on an exceptionally able and interesting presentation of this emergency organization's efforts to end depression.

THOMAS HUDSON McKEE Director of Public Relations Texas Civil Works Administration Austin, Texas

Sirs: The CWA is helping artists as you know and this instance may interest you:

Certain high officials here are having their portraits painted by a young woman painter who is receiving from the CWA the sum of $5,000 for each portrait. This fact was told by Mr. Maynard. the Collector of Customs, who is one of the gentlemen being painted. He also showed the picture.

Thinking you might be interested to inquire further into this expenditure of the taxpayers' money, I am writing you.

ELEANOR JAMES

Boston. Mass. The artist sketching Collector Maynard gets $30.60 a week, as do all other CWA artists under the New England scale.--ED. "Shine, Little Glow Worm, Glimmer" Sirs: The review of my book They All Sung in TIME. Feb. 29 was very flattering, but I find that two or three misstatements have crept into your most excellent account. Knowing TIME'S reputation for accuracy, I am taking the liberty of pointing these out to you.

First of all you state that I turned down Izzy Baline's "Marie from Sunny Italy. ' That is wrong. I accepted the song and today, after 27 years, I still have most of the first edition unsold on my shelves. At least I had the honor of publishing Irving Berlin's first and probably his worst song.

You write also that Janet Allen was a secretary when she met James J. Walker. She was in fact a vaudeville actress or as the title pages of some of his early songs describe her, a petite young soubrette.

There are a few other minor mistakes, chiefly wrong publication dates for songs, and my biggest seller has seldom been given the long title "Shine, Little Glow Worm, Glimmer."

Aside from these few points, however, your article is most accurate and sets the spirit of the book as I intended it in a manner most gratifying to me.

EDWARD B. MARKS New York City

Rosenblum's Celts

Sirs: In your Feb. 19 issue on p. 41 the article with reference to the Original Celtics stated that the team had disorganized for lack of competition. In a measure your statement was correct, as the team had dissolved in 1928 due to the fact that the club was too strong for the American Basketball League and the players were shifted around to equalize the playing strength. However, three of the members of the club-- Lapchick, Barry and Dehnert--were taken over by the Rosenblum organization and won the title the last season of this league in 1930-31. In the last three years the team has played independent ball as the Rosenblum's Original Celtics, having four of the original team on the roster. . . . The club has played on an average of 130 games a season and at no time has it lost more than ten. Although they are getting older, they nevertheless are able to give a real account of themselves every time they step on the court and are still the "wonder five'' in professional basketball. The team will have traveled 25,000 miles this season and will visit upwards of 25 States. Their record this season is 80 victories and five defeats to date with at least 50 more games already scheduled. . . . Approximately 300,000 will see this team in action this year. . . . I. S. ROSE Manager

Rosenblum's Original Celtics Cleveland, Ohio

Fighting Words

Sirs:

I notice that "Judge, Jr." in the current Judge classifies as the "Most Irritating Phrase of the Month" your reference to Alexander Woollcott as "Sly Polemist Woollcott." I thought it rather bad myself but when I came to the phrase (in Judge) "TIME Stands Still," I bristled. Those are fighting words to any TIME devotee. I was a subscriber before the red border was instituted and I swear by TIME, any time and all the time. . . .

CHARLES W. HAMILTON

Houston, Tex.

Potatoes for Secretaries

Sirs: After reading your 12th of February TIME--I rushed to the United States Embassy in Paris with a sack of potatoes and some bread for the starving secretaries. I was promptly thrown out. GEORGE W. TREMLETT

Paris, France

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