Deep Sea Mail
Sirs:
I, with the rest of my shipmates, must take exception to paragraph six of J. A. Stiver's letter in the March 5 issue entitled ''Deep Sea Mail."
At the time I read the article 1 was on the President Lincoln. In the fo'c'sle there were men whose total international date line crossings came to well over 260. most of them on mail-carrying ships. No one of us had ever heard of "slowing up'' for the date line, let alone the taking on of mail.
Perhaps Mr. Sliver was attempting to pull TIME's leg, or had had his pulled so realistically that he actually believed such deliveries take place. The impossibility of such a thing is seen upon analysis. Mr. Stiver states that there were no copies [of TIME] in Seattle, as none had been printed while he was en route from Chicago. That being the case, how could copies not printed at the time sail ahead of him, presumably on one of the C.P.R. ships, be dumped off in the north Pacific, and be awaiting the arrival of the President Cleveland? I am truly curious. I have sailed that stretch plenty of times, and never once have I seen a "post box" of any description. But of course we live and learn. . . . ALFRED C. AITKEN JR.
Third Officer 5. 5. Holhnoot! San Francisco. Calif.
To Mariner Aitken a gentle rebuke for being ignorant of one of the oldest hoaxes of navigation, mid-ocean mail delivery.-- ED. Salem's Witches Sirs:
". . . and preachers sagely nodded while Salem witches screamed and shriveled" ("Wall Reunion." TIME, July 9). Does "shriveled" mean some shrinkage or withering due to natural causes--or did a TIME writer, like those Puritan preachers, nod? In either case, because no modern delusion is more widespread or persistent among intelligent and otherwise well-informed persons than that concerning the manner in which the victims of the 17th Century Witchcraft Delusion perished, will you tell TIME readers exactly how many men and women, in all the American colonies, were ever burned for witchcraft? J. FRANK DAVIS
San Antonio, Tex.
Sirs:
. . . Do witches shrivel so quickly on the gallows that preachers find it convenient to stand by nodding sagely the while?
CHARLES H. WATSON
Brookline, Mass.
Sirs:
. . . "Vas you dere, Sharlie?"
H. C. SHURTLEFF, M. D.
Philadelphia, Pa.
"Witches" were burned in Europe, in South America and Mexico, but in Massachusetts they were hanged, with the exception of one who was "pressed to death." The 19 hanged at Salem were all put to
TIME, July 23, 1934 death within a few months in 1692, eight being executed at once in a final demonstration which produced a public revulsion against the practice. The one pressed to death was Giles Cory, 80, who had refused to plead at trial. He was laid on the ground, bound hand & foot, and stones piled upon his body until his tongue protruded. The Sheriff poked Cory's tongue back inside with his cane.--ED.
Filling Pews
Sirs:
In connection with your kind reference to my study of church attendance on p. 29 of TIME for July 2, may I, in fairness to the nation's churches, add as follows:
. . . The big decline was from 1900 to 1928. Since 1928 these 1,000 churches have shown an increase in attendance of about 1% a year or a total of 5% since 1928.
Although church attendance in itself may mean nothing statistics show it is the best simple barometer as to a church's vitality and activity in all directions. It compares with "check transactions'' as a barometer of business conditions.
ROGER W. BABSON
Babson Park, Mass.
Churchmen Flayed Sirs:
Because of the serious injury inflicted upon organized religion it is regrettable when one of its leaders interests himself as did the Rt. Rev. Charles Fiske, Bishop of Central New York, to the extent of publishing a severe criticism in a church paper--the Living Church--(TIME, July 9) on the strictly personal family affairs of President Roosevelt and his family. Quote: ''Let me give brief expression to our sense of shame and humiliation that in the family of our Chief Executive there should be recorded two Reno divorces. . . . Seems to us to be a family disgrace, a disgrace to the nation, and a disgrace to the Church. . . . We need another 'new deal.' "...
In my opinion religion is primarily the relationship between each individual and his Creator. The churches are simply organizations of these individual spiritual emotions formed for the purpose of extending the greatest good to the greatest number. When the leaders, in their arrogance and bigotry, express sentiments as did the Bishop on such strictly private, personal, intimate family affairs as the Roosevelt divorces, then the churches become . . . disgustingly meddlesome and fail to perform their purpose. . . . We certainly are in need of a "new deal" in organized religion. . . . The "Living Church" is fast becoming the "dying Church."
L. J. EFIRD, M. D.
Tampa, Fla.
Sirs,
... It would seem to me that only a very narrow-minded person would hold President and Mrs. Roosevelt responsible for the actions of their adult children. As adults--parents and grandparents--can we not review our lives and blush as we recall many acts committed by us that were contrary to the teaching of our parents and violations of our family tradition? . . .
In the editorial "backing up Bishop Fiske's position" the Living Church felt constrained to take the President and Mrs. Roosevelt to task because they have not "seen fit to give any public intimation that they do not regard" the actions of their children as "wholly regular, normal and consistent with the Christian religion." . . . The silence President and Mrs. Roosevelt have maintained is just another earmark of their good breeding. I am of the opinion that members of the Cloth are the very last to whom to look for such narrow-minded and biased points of view. . . .
GEORGIA S. RAPER
Columbus, Ohio
Bored Citizen
Sirs:
"The American people didn't elect Roosevelt's family to the Presidency"--Guy Emery Shipler in The Churchman--TIME, July 9.
TIME will win the undying gratitude of a vast number of frightfully bored U. S. citizens if it can effectively convey that undisputed fact to Mrs. Roosevelt.
LLOYD ROBINSON
South Orange, N. J.
Sore-Toe Advertising
Sirs:
Now, TIME, do you think it was timely to take time to two-time the small-time weekly newspapers by inferring that our advertising is largely made up of patent medicine displays of the ''sore-toe" variety? In your interesting account of the new chain of weeklies on Long Island [TIME, July 9] you grieve many of us by saying they "print the sort of patent medicine advertising typical of smalltown weeklies."
. . . All we can print, you know, is what is bought by the demon space-buyers of the agencies and the fat has been none too plentiful of late years. Let me hasten to add, too, that few weeklies in the Northwest have printed much of what is commonly called "sore-toe" advertising, for the very excellent reason that little such space has been offered. Once a weekly newspaper standby, this type of advertising still appears in reduced volume, but within the columns of the "patent insides" [i. e. syndicated pages]. Many a publisher uses it either because of laziness, local news scarcity, or because he feels the "patents" give his readers a pleasant respite from such red hot local items as "Bill McSwiggerty was riding up Box Elder Crick for strayed cattle this week," or, "Ed Huffnagle was female-ing up at Spooners' Corners Wednesday night."
. . . We must still bemoan the fact that while the weekly editor gets the credit for running advertising of the patent medicine type, the publisher of the "patent" gets the money, for this business is grabbed by the patent-inside publisher on a volume distribution basis. . . .
Even if a little advertising of the corn cure, roup remedy or rattlesnake oil type does appear in the ready-printed portions of many a small weekly, is this frank type of display any more harmful than some run by our larger brothers of the newspapers and magazines? Is a corn cure that is at least harmless any worse than a page spread which infers that the use of Gafoozlers' shaving cream will lead to business success, or that a given mouthwash will end social disappointments, or that 20 mail-order music lessons will make a Philharmonic performer out of a saxophone player who couldn't carry a tune in a bushel basket?
Easy on the weeklies, TIME! We have to buy baby's shoes on the little business you big shots don't corral.
J. RUSSELL LARCOMBE
Editor
Phillips County News Malta, Mont.
175-lb. Tumor
Sirs:
We note an article in TIME of July 2, reporting a tumor weighing 55 lb. We are enclosing a brief report of a case treated in the
Hospital here during this year, thinking it might interest you, and you might want to publish it.
A. M. SHOWALTER. M. D.
Chief Surgeon, New Altamont Hospital
Christiansburg, Va.
Dr. Showalter's report:
The patient recently treated in the hospital was a woman. The tumor was an ovarian cyst, containing 18 gal. of fluid, total weight of tumor and fluid 175 lb. Patient also had two small fibroids on uterus and 29 gallstones in gall bladder, all of which were removed at time of operation. She weighed 295 lb. on admission, waistline 72 in. in circumference, and on discharge patient weighed 132 lb., and waistline 28 in. Patient was in hospital 19 days. Her kidneys were in an extreme condition on admission and practically clear on discharge. Five days after discharge patient reported for dressing and on that date weighed 143 lb.
We treated this patient with gradual reduction through a rubber tube, removing 5 gal. of fluid a day until 16 1/2 gal. were removed. Operation under spinal anaesthetic fifth day after admission, gall bladder was drained and not removed through a second incision, and patient was never seriously ill, nor did she complain except for lack of enough food. . . .--ED.
Taschereau's Whiskers
Sirs:
The writer . . . who is responsible for at least 100 new TIME readers in Montreal, greatly resents your calling our great French-Canadian leader Premier Taschereau--in your article on Canada [TIME, July 2]--sly, old, and boss, especially grey-whiskered. Since when does Premier Taschereau wear a whisker? We are loyal to him because of his decent fair play. . . .
COMTE PAUL DE MONTEFIEREMontreal, Quebec
Premier Taschereau, 67, wrinkled, politically adroit enough to remain in power 14 years, has a grey mustache.--ED. Grand Rapids Mart
Sirs:
On the premise that an able report, correct in every detail and intended to state facts, may yet be, consciously or unconsciously, misleading in the final analysis, we are prompted to take issue with your otherwise very intelligent news handling of the furniture markets (TIME, July 9). Says TIME: "The Chicago mart is not the only furniture exhibit but it is the most important." Later in the report: ''In recent years Chicago has surpassed Grand Rapids as a distributing centre and manufacturer of upholstered furniture.'' . . .
It is known to every furniture merchant and to every wholesale buyer of furniture that the number either of exhibitors or buyers does not constitute a furniture market, a style center or a centralized influence in the creation or dissemination of the product. If that were true, the populations of China and India would be the most "important" people in the world and the potato-bug its most distinguished insect. At the American Furniture Mart buyers may obtain anything from iron nails to beef on the hoof as stated on its own directory of contents. At Grand Rapids buyers come to buy furniture only and furniture only is displayed in its market. There is nothing purchasable made by act of Providence or hand of man that cannot be obtained at the Chicago Merchandise Mart which prides itself on its ability to supply any or all of the world's needs. Grand Rapids does not and cannot aspire to such heights of achievement. It deals principally in furniture and as such is known to as many millions who live in homes as is the distinguished name of Marshall Field for its great variety of merchandising pursuits. . . .
And the leadership is still here. The Grand Rapids Furniture Exposition is still the "most important" furniture market in America. No one, not even Chicago, has absconded with it. ...
A. P. JOHNSON Educational Director
Grand Rapids Furniture Exposition
Grand Rapids, Mich.
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