Speculator Relief (Cont'd)

Sirs: I didn't know there were any left. For Melville Phillips to admit (TIME, July 16) himself "a speculator" and his "account under-margined." Mr. Pecora must be falling down on the job.

Though the New Deal is one large and grand philanthropic organization, you Mr. Phillips are the original "forgotten man." You might apply to Jesse for a loan, if and when his bank makes 'em; you might call on the New Deal if you have a gold contract to abrogate; or an airmail contract that needed cancelling; or if you are a professor; or you could probably get first-hand information for a divorce; but when the New Deal thinks of you as a "speculator"--in the words of Joe Penner, "you nasty citizen."

H. E. YOUNG

P. S. Perhaps you could get a Government check to apply on your margin account by having Mr. Wallace kill a few of your pigs or plow under some of your corn.

Toledo, Ohio

North Dakota's Frazier

Sirs:

The following residents of North Dakota and readers of TIME would greatly appreciate your publishing a review of the congressional career of Senator Lynn J. Frazier of North Dakota.

JOHN EHRMAN, WM. J. MOELLER, GEORGE C. HELLICKSON, GEO. S. MYERS, GUS B. BROSE, IRVING W. COOK

Bismarck, N. Dak.

The record of Senator Lynn Joseph Frazier of North Dakota is as follows:

Born: On a farm in Steele County, Minn., Dec. 21, 1874.

Start in life: School teacher and farmer.

Career: When he was 7 his parents, pioneers from Maine, moved from Minnesota to a 400-acre wheat farm near Hoople, N. Dak. in the Red River Valley. His family, though thrifty and prosperous, believed in making the children scratch for a living. He was sent to rural schools, later graduated from the Grafton, N. Dak. High School and Mayville State Normal School in 1895. With money earned teaching he entered the University of North Dakota at 23. He cooked for a dormitory, lived with a roommate on $6 per month, played centre on the varsity football team, was voted "most likely to succeed" in his class (1901). When he left college he returned to manage the farm for his widowed mother. It became known as the best in the State. In 1903 he married Lottie J. Stafford of Crystal. One spring night in 1916 he drove his buggy into Hoople to take his daughters home from school. The druggist told him there was a telephone call for him from Fargo. The steering committee of the Non-partisan League wanted Farmer Frazier to be on hand at their convention next day. He said he might be able to get away the following night. At the convention a delegate proposed him for Governor thus: "Lynn Frazier is the only dirt farmer on the list. If the farmers of North Dakota can't find a dirt farmer to be their candidate they might as well go home and slop the hogs." Frazier was nominated. At that time he knew nothing, cared nothing about politics, had never been to the State Capitol at Bismarck. He was elected that year, re-elected in 1918 and again in 1920. Next year broke a scandal over the Scandinavian-American Bank at Fargo, which handled State financial operations particularly in connection with co-operative farm enterprises. William Langer, lately ousted Governor (TIME, July 30 et ante) was then Attorney General. He led an expose of the bank's methods, showed that a Frazier-appointed examiner condoned violations of the banking laws. In the resulting turmoil, Governor Frazier was recalled. In 1922 he defeated the late Senator Porter J. McCumber (Fordney-McCumber Tariff) for the Republican nomination. Election to the Senate followed that autumn and he has been there ever since.

In Congress: He is seldom heard. He lays no claim to being a politician, statesman or orator. When he rises to deliver his awkward, repetitious remarks, his fellow Senators sidle out of the chamber, the press gallery yawns. Unlike his dapper young colleague, Gerald Nye, who once bitterly complained when newshawks departed from the gallery as he started to speak, Senator Frazier does not resent inattention. He is a member of the Agriculture & Forestry, Mines & Mining, Post Offices & Tost Roads, Tensions, Indian Affairs Committees.

He has voted for: Bonus (1924--'32--'33-'34), Government operation of Muscle Shoals (1931-'33), RFC (1932), Repeal (1933), AAA (1933), NIRA (1933), abrogating gold contracts (1933), St. Lawrence Waterway (1934), cotton control (1934), stock exchange control (1934).

He has voted against: Reapportionment (1929), Hoover moratorium (1931), Economy Act (1933), sales tax (1932).

Legislative hobbies: Farmers, Indians, peace. In the forefront of any farm relief agitation, he proposed last winter that the Government refinance farm mortgages with new currency, at a cost of $9,000,000,000. He threw his whole weight behind the Kellogg-Briand pact to outlaw war, hopes that some day the U. S. will make armed conflict unconstitutional. In appearance he is tall, bald, hulking. He dresses carelessly. He belongs to no church, goes to none.

Outside Congress: He lives with his family in an unpretentious house at Takoma Park, Md. when Congress is in session. His boys are named Vernon and Willis. One of his girls is named Lucille. The girl twins are called Unie Mae and Versie Fae, in memory of his university. Unie is married. The Fraziers keep no servants. He drives a black Studebaker sedan. When some one else is using it, he takes a street car. He does not own dress clothes, has never been to a White House function. Social intercourse outside his family interests him not at all. He does not drink or smoke, but does not care if others do. He has a reputation of being tight with his money, but last spring he privately disbursed $500 in small gifts to needy folks back home. He takes pestering by newshawks good-naturedly, avoids conferences with men of finance and industry, of which he knows or cares to know nothing, but will talk for hours to any farmer or farm inventor.

Impartial Senate observers rate him thus: a sincere, plodding individualist who votes with the Progressives, of more than average intelligence, a man whose cumbersome mannerisms make him seem far duller than he is. He will not be unhappy if his constituency retires him to his beloved farm at Hoople. His term expires Jan. 3, 1935.--ED.

Sex Sensation

Sirs:

Your report in TIME for July 16 of the conference on education for marriage and family social relations was exceedingly satisfactory in the first paragraph; but later paragraphs overemphasized a sexy sensational discussion that occurred in one of the seven sections of the conference. Less than 60 of the more than 300 members of the conference heard the radical-remarks ascribed to Dr. Dickinson and Dr. Dearborn, and the final report of the group made no reference to this brief discussion. . . . However . . the readers of TIME are entitled to a scientific interpretation of these remarks, as follows:

Dr. Dickinson's statement that in his consulting work he has found a great increase in the number of engaged couples who confess pre-nuptial relations, should be evaluated in the light of the fact that in recent years he has become a world-renowned leader of medical research concerning birth control. Dr. Dearborn is a psychologist who helps people with their mental troubles. . . .

The scientific conclusion of the whole matter is that statistics collected by such specialists offer no proof, and in fact, no indication of what may be the situation among young people in general. Remember that only engaged couples who are anxious about their sexual affairs would be likely to consult such specialists as Dr. Dickinson and Dr. Dearborn. That . . . will explain why their opinions were opposed by the overwhelming majority of competent persons in the conference.

M. A. BIGELOW Chairman, Executive Committee

American Social Hygiene Association

New York City

Sirs:

For some while I have made a present of a yearly subscription to TIME to my son, a very fine young man, who is engaged. Not questioning the truth of the article in your July 16 number "Scholars on Sex" but the wisdom of publishing it. Published by a magazine of your standing, I believe it will do more to encourage immorality than any picture, play, or book of today. Consequently I shall not renew my subscription. . . .

H. TAYLOR Los Angeles, Calif.

Sirs:

... I would like to inquire what good purpose you think could be served by the article . . . entitled "Scholars on Sex." I am not sure of the page numbers as my wife has expurgated them. . . .

DAVID T. PARKE

New York City

Sirs:

Your article "Scholars on Sex" . . . does grave injustice to the Social Hygiene Movement and to this Society. . . .

Specific instances of the unfair and inaccurate reporting are as follows:

Lester W. Dearborn is not President of the Massachusetts Society for Social Hygiene. He is not a member of the Staff. He is a part-time lecturer.

He denies the statements ascribed to him.

The Massachusetts Society for Social Hygiene is an affiliated organization of the American Social Hygiene Association. We both stand for rational sex education. . . . We resent the implication that the organizations are made up of or contain fanatics on the subject of sex. . . .

FRANK KIERNAN Executive Secretary

Massachusetts Society for Social Hygiene, Inc. Boston, Mass.

TIME erred in describing Dr. Dearborn as president of the Massachusetts Society. But many an able Manhattan newshawk heard him say what TIME reported him as saying.--ED.

Cow Triplets

Sirs:

I hope that many of our readers will be interested to learn that the cow's triplets referred to by you [TIME, July 2] belong to a cheerful lad who views football games from an ambulance since he was injured in a high-school game a couple of seasons ago. He hopes to sell enough pictures of the triplets, at 10-c- per picture, to procure the services of great doctors, maybe get well again.

Order from "Bub" Brixey

Tullahoma, Tenn.

DALE BEVAN

Nashville, Tenn.

Sirs:

A good friend of mine, who is a regular reader of TIME, brought to my attention just a few days ago the editorial in your issue of July 2 entitled "Strength Through Joy" which deals with the unfortunate accident of our steamship Dresden on the Norwegian Coast.

In your editorial there appears the following sentence: "At least four women were drowned and more would have perished. . . ." This statement prompts me to write this letter to you to say that all passengers were saved, none were drowned, but unfortunately two women died ashore from heart-failure. . . .

H. MUHLENBROCK Passenger Traffic Manager

Hamburg American Line

North German Lloyd

New York City

T.V.A. Sportsmanship

Sirs:

IN YOUR ISSUE JULY 30 P. 46 CONCERNING TVA YOU STATE "WHEN LILIENTHAL SHREWDLY SUGGESTED THAT GROESBECK BUY UP THE BONDS IN THE OPEN MARKET AT THE THEN RECEIVERSHIP PRICES THUS IN EFFECT PAYING OFF THE BONDHOLDERS AT FIFTY CENTS TO SIXTY CENTS ON THE DOLLAR GROESBECK WAS DUMBFOUNDED." GROESBECK AND BONDHOLDERS COMMITTEE WILL BOTH BE DUMBFOUNDED AT YOUR STATEMENT SINCE SECURITY HOLDERS REPRESENTATIVES WERE SCRUPULOUSLY ADVISED CONCERNING NEGOTIATIONS FOR PAST FOUR MONTHS AND FAIR PRICE FOR BONDS WAS BASIS THROUGHOUT STOP TEXT OF LETTERS RESPECTING NEGOTIATIONS WERE MADE PUBLIC AT MY INSTANCE GIVING BONDHOLDERS COMPLETE INFORMATION AS TO WHICH SEE ISSUE OF TIME JUNE THIRTEEN STOP YOUR STATEMENT LIBELS ME AND TVA SINCE IT STATES AS FACT THAT WE FAVORED SHARP PRACTICE AND DUPLICITY IN DEALINGS WITH INVESTORS ENTIRELY CONTRARY TO THE FACTS STOP I AM SURE THAT AS A MATTER OF GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP YOU WILL MAKE RETRACTION OF THIS DEMONSTRABLY FALSE AND LIBELOUS STATEMENT

DAVID E. LILIENTHAL

Director Tennessee Valley Authority

Knoxville, Tenn.

To TVA's Lilienthal, a hearty apology. Someone (identity unknown) put into circulation the idea of buying up cheaply the bonds of the Knoxville Public Utility which TVA insisted on taking over from Electric Bond & Share. TIME congratulates Mr. Lilienthal as well as Bond & Share's Groesbeck for repudiating such an unsporting idea.--ED.

Tumor Table

Sirs: In your issue of July 23 I note a description of a 175-lb. tumor which was largely liquid. This reminds me of one removed about 1908 by Dr. L. S. Morgan, Missionary Doctor at Tsing-kiangpu, China, which was solid and weighed after removal 72 lb., which did not include any blood or fluid lost during the operation. . . . Dr. Morgan called it "elephantiasis of the scrotum" and it reached the ground when the patient stood erect.

The sufferer had the practical turn characteristic of the Chinese and had been using the enormous abnormality--laugh if you will--first as a stool on which to sit, second as a table from which he backed slightly away and rested his rice bowl thereon! The operation was a complete success and shortly afterward the man married a second wife and became the father of several children. . . .

REV. T. B. GRAFTON

25 years missionary in China

First Presbyterian Church

Vicksburg, Miss.

"I'll Bull You"

Sirs:

Anent travesty entitled "Prairie Powwow" (TIME, July 16), is it intended to imply that Premier Anderson was merely "seeing things" on the Saskatchewan prairie?

"Every sensible [hardheaded] Saskatchewanian knows that the tribal powwow of the prairie chicken is a myth." During my (hardheaded) boyhood on a Saskatchewan farm. I have rolled out at 3 a. m. and watched the weird spectacle of dancing grouse, incidentally breaking up the dance with a shotgun, bagging a dancer or two. Decidedly no myth, the dance differs from your facetious description: 1) the grouse do not perform any quadrille figures, 2) the cock grouse keeps up a rhythmic chant which sounds like a repetition of the phrase "I'll bull you!"

ARNE AUSEN

Chicago, Ill.

Let no reader suppose the prairie chicken dance to be a myth. It is a mating demonstration, performed in early Spring. The birds gather on an open grassy spot at early morning. The males strut back & forth, raising the tail and neck feathers, puffing the sides of the neck into little orange balloons. The beak is closed, but the air blown into the crop helps to produce a tooting noise.--ED.

Engineer's Widow

Sirs:

I do not know when I ever saw such a conglomeration of lies as you had in the writeup of TIME, July 16, in this description of myself I do not fit any of them. The 638 was not the engine my husband was killed on and was never a passenger engine, and as to my son being a highway laborer, that was a base lie, he was never on a highway in his life unless he drove over it.* He is a valued employee of the I. C. R. R. and my daughter is married to an official of the M. & O. R. R. Whoever gave you the information did not get it from me. I just want to tell you that I do not like one thing you said and please never attempt it again without my permission.

MRS. CASEY JONES

Jackson, Tenn.

Sirs: In your interesting account of the origin of the song "Casey Jones" . . . you credit "Wallace Saunders, a Negro engine wiper" with originating a "homemade song" about Jones.

But the recurrent phrases "watch the drivers roll," exactly like the wording of the song "Vanderbilt's Daughter" written in Virginia--if I recollect correctly many years earlier-- strongly indicate that either Newton & Seiberg drew chiefly on the older song rather than on any origination of Saunders, or that Saunders merely applied new names and a few facts to the older song as he had heard it.

The latter supposition seems much more probable. And in that case your comparison to Homer is still in all likelihood correct, for he only put into verse the older legends which he had heard. . . .

HORACE E. HILDRETH

Cambridge, Mass.

"Vanderbilt's Daughter," an old Virginia ballad appearing in Eight Negro Songs collected by Francis H. Abbott in 1923, includes lines which might well be the source of parts of "Casey Jones." Samples:

Vanderbilt's daughter said befo' she died dey wuz two mo' roads dat she wanted tuh ride, When ev'vy body wonduh what roads dem could be, 'twuz de Eas' Coloraydo an' de Santy Fee. . . .

He look at de watah, an' de watah wuz low, Look at his watch, an' de watch wuz slow, Look at de fiuhman an' he shuk his head, Said: "Jim, we mout mek it, but we'll bofe be dead."

He reverse de engine, th'ew de levuh back Twenty seb'm jumbos jump'd de track, He holluhd to de fiuhman, say: "Jim, yuh better jump, 'cause two locomotives is about tuh bump." --ED

*TIME said "maintenance-of-way laborer."-- ED.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.