Friends (Cont'd)
Sirs:
I wish to applaud with a thunderclap Richard Waller of Le Luc, France, for introducing his splendid idea of creating a family of "Friends of TIME," to guarantee TIME two new subscriptions for every one canceled by saucy letters [TIME, Jan. 14]. . . .
This is my subscription to the "Friends of TIME."
LUDVIK KRECMER
Kearny, N. J.
Sirs:
. . . Reader Longwell's letter (TIME, Jan. 14) of objection and cancellation intrigued me to such an extent that I looked up the Dec. 3 issue to see what terribly immoral or obscene article, with illustration, I might have overlooked Having found the offensive article and reread it, I still fail to see any justification. TIME reported facts. . . .
Having denied to his household the weekly pleasure of reading TIME, do you suppose that, ostrichlike, Reader Longwell will conclude that there are no such things as "strippers" and that what he read in TIME was all a bad dream?
STUART ATWOOD
Watertown, Conn.
Sirs: I nominate for TIME'S 1935 Goody-Goody, 1st Lieut. W. F. M. Longwell, Corps of Engineers, San Juan, P. R.
What is the Army coming to? ...
VERNON E. SANFORD
Millbury, Mass.
Sirs:
... If this is a fair example of the kind of man in the Army at the present time, the Secretary of War should investigate. . . .
WILLIAM H. GORSTINE Rochester, N. Y.
Sirs:
... I am enclosing 50-c- and asking that you kindly enter my application as a charter member of Mr. Waller's proposed club.
W. W. WILSON
Phoenix, Ariz.
Sirs:
A pansy for Reader Longwell, an orchid to Reader Waller. You may have MY 50-c- by just saying "when."
VIOLET G. OWENS
St. Louis, Mo.
Sirs:
I hasten to endorse the idea of "Friends of TIME"--Society for the Combating of Bigots, it might be called (TIME, Jan. 14). I herewith pledge my contribution to offset the Army man's popgun shot fired down Puerto Rico way; it gave me a hearty laugh. . . .
W. L. B. DUNBAR
New York City
Sirs, Please insert my name in the place left vacant by Ex-Subscriber Longwell, 1st Lieut., Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, San Juan, P. R., whose profession is legalized murder but whose morals and ethics otherwise seem impeccable. C. A. SPICKLER
Yardley, Pa.
Friend Spickler's subscription to TIME is gladly accepted. To the volunteer members of "Friends of TIME.'' hearty thanks for their enthusiastic loyalty. However, TIME, astonished that readers took Subscriber Waller's proposal seriously, cannot permit its friends to shoulder its burdens. All money sent for such purpose is being returned.--ED.
Foxy Teacher
Sirs:
Accept the humble congratulations of a schoolteacher and long TIME subscriber on an excellently written No. 1 article in America's No. 1 magazine.
Especially impressed was I with the particularly well-drawn simile of President Roosevelt [TIME, Jan. 14] "saddling" his "colt." "Expert political horseman" indeed is our country's President.
WM. HANNAN
P.S. The $5 bill I expect to use in paying my next year's TIME subscription is bet by me that this letter appears in the next issue of TIME.
Blue River, Wis.
May foxy Teacher Hannan enjoy his winnings.--ED.
Furniture Feeling Sirs:
While attending the winter furniture market here in Chicago and Grand Rapids, I thought you might be interested in the prevailing feeling which exists in the minds of both manufacturers and dealers alike. First and most important, a spirit of wholehearted optimism prevails. This, of course, is caused to some extent by the general upturn in business during the last few months of last year which in turn is necessitating heavier buying than usual at this time of the year.
Secondly, and most significant is the fact that prices generally are considered to be as low as those existing during terrible '32. In fact, furniture generally is today probably lower in price than most any other manufactured article. This is exceptionally noteworthy in view of higher wages and restricted working hours under the NRA, to say nothing of increased costs of raw materials.
. . . The manufacturer is selling his goods at (evidently) a profit: the dealer is buying the goods and seems conscious of the reasonable prices with the strong possibility of an increase in the offing.
Also significant is the fact that all attendance records have been shattered and the multitudes of Buyers are placing their orders eagerly but sensibly.
ERNEST HALF
Pittsburgh, Pa.
To Reader Half, thanks for reporting the pulse-count of the furniture industry. --ED.
After Swift
Sirs:
It seems to me that Dr. Townsend must be the reincarnation of Dean Swift and that his modest proposal, $200 a month for all American citizens past the age of 60, is a huge joke [TIME, Jan. 14].
I'm amazed at the naivete and seriousness with which Pundits Sullivan, Pegler and Lippmann approach the Townsend Plan. The situation is really not serious. If everyone past the age of 60, were given $200 and ordered to spend it within 30 days, the scurry of the aged to comply would bring about such a host of deaths from apoplexy, gout, paralytic strokes, falling down stairs, etc. that the majority of aged would be eliminated within six months. And each day's new crop of people passing their 60th birthday would be liquidated in short order. . . .
PAUL F. COREY
Cold Spring-on-Hudson, N. Y.
Sirs:
. . . Pontifical Pundit Lippmann, whose mind is usually keen and whose heart is in the right place, thanks Dr. Townsend merely for his reductio ad absurdum of the whole notion "that if people worked less and spent more they would be richer."
It sounds silly, yet that was precisely our situation during the World War. Fewer laborers were available, who worked fewer hours and less efficiently, but produced more, got higher wages, spent more, and were (or at least felt) richer than they did before or have since. There was practically no unemployment. (Cf. A. Dahlberg, Jobs, Machines, and Capitalism--N. Y., 1932, ch. 3.)
. . . While this abnormal situation continued, there was prosperity, and when it ended, prosperity vanished with it. Now the California doctor wants us to go on a permanent "war" footing, to support an army of retired old people, and shower them with the luxuries of peace instead of war; and he claims that in so doing we shall bring back prosperity and keep it. Maybe he's wrong, but then again he may be right. Who knows? It's never been tried.
H. CLAY REED
Newark, Del. Red Flannels
Sirs:
For your information and future protection, I should like to warn you that the correspondent who sent you the item about my search for red flannels (TIME, Jan. 14) has, I feel, been deliberately inaccurate in his account. This is in no way intended as a criticism of TIME nor is it prompted by a desire to secure a correction of the inaccurate statement.
The advertisement, which was also inserted in the Chicago Tribune and the Des Moines Register, actually drew only four pairs of red flannels. Of these, one was from Boston, by way of Minneapolis (the set I bought), one was in Illinois and two (still in use) in Wisconsin. It would appear that the report that I had 100 responses from the Gazette advertising is an attempt to make it appear that red flannels still abound in Iowa. The title of the painting is to be The Bath--1880 not Farm Life. This further inaccuracy seems to be an even more flagrant attempt to wed Iowa to the red flannels and thus make the article more salable. . . .
GRANT WOOD
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
To Artist Wood, thanks for clarifying the underwear fashion in Iowa. Of the Minneapolis flannels which he bought for $10, Artist Wood told the Press: "It was worth it. These flannels are all that I could ask. They have been washed so often they have faded into a delightful shade of red, approaching scarlet. The knees are appropriately baggy and the general effect is one of authentic droopiness."--ED.
Swiss Presidents Sirs:
In your issue of Jan. 14, under Foreign News, I read about the "stingy Swiss." (Yes, I am Swiss myself.) I do not object to your mentioning the fact that the "stingy Swiss" did not give the new President an inauguration. But I suspect you of not being properly informed concerning the Presidency in Switzerland.
Switzerland has a new President every year. He is a member of the Cabinet, and even as President he attends to his duties as Minister of his Portfolio. For instance, President Minger still is Minister of War. After his term as President is over with the end of the year, he does not fade out of the political picture altogether, but still is a member of the Cabinet. The Vice President of the year automatically becomes President in the following year. In other words, Mr. Minger was Vice President during 1934, and this year's Vice President will be President in 1936.
A man can become and be a good President simply by sitting down behind the Presidential desk, while another man would not be a good President in spite of the elaborate (and expensive, you must admit) inauguration that put him into office.
0. STAUBLI
Lancaster, Pa.
Hunterdon's Curtiss Sirs:
. . . Not once, but twice, TIME states that Hunterdon County's Sheriff Curtiss added an "s" to his name because of John Hughes Curtis, Norfolk shipbuilder, convicted in Flemington in 1932 of obstructing justice. Sheriff Curtiss laughs at TIME. So do his friends in Flemington, his neighbors in Clinton. He has been "Curtiss'' for the last nine years in Flemington, for eleven years before that in Newton, Sussex County. And Sheriff Curtiss directs TIME to consult birth records of Cheshire, Berkshire County, Mass. Is Sheriff Curtiss correct? Is TIME wrong? EDWARD SOTHERN HIPP
Newark, N. J.
He is. TIME was.--ED.
Deaths & Deliveries
Sirs:
In TIME, Jan. 7, there is a letter with the caption "Midwives' Advantage.'' . . . Whoever wrote this letter* did so without having taken the trouble to find out whether the statement he made was true or not. He attributes the discrepancy between the mortality rates of women delivered by midwives and by physicians (not "obstetricians") by saying that the midwives are relieved of responsibility in complicated cases since these are referred to physicians. This is an absolutely untrue statement as far as the statistics quoted by me in my paper are concerned. . . .
The statistics that I gave in my paper represent a continuous series of 95,000 deliveries with 74 deaths. These 74 deaths were the only deaths that occurred in this series and they were all charged against the midwives, while in a good many instances I have statistical proof that the manhandling of the case occurred in the hands of what I call the ordinary ''garden variety" of physician. . . .
WILLIAM R. NICHOLSON
Professor of Gynecology Graduate School of Medicine University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pa.
Citroen's Impossibility
Sirs:
Re: Crack Citroen (TIME, Nov. 5).
One was admiring the luxurious agencies at Paris. Today we realize the cost of the: palais du quartier de l'Europe and the palais du quartier de l'Opera. The light advertisement on the Tour Eiffel was a splendid idea too. What do you think? Ten thousand francs a day! The crossing of Asie by the expedition Citroen was celebrated as a demonstration of French audacity--until it was recalled with a scandalous feeling: it had devoured 25 millions!
How many cars must be sold in order to re-enter this gigantesque publicity? Too late to ask. Citroen finds himself in the impossibility to pay. His megalomania is considered nearly as a crime--but his faillite is not the one of a capitaliste, given that a good capitalist puts his money aside for the "small years" instead of enlarging the fabrics constantly. His fault was to follow the example of not adapting the expenses to the income. . . .
L. K. EMMENBRUUeCKE
Luzern, Switzerland
Wirephoto Scooped
Sirs:
Quote from TIME, Jan. 14, p. 54, under heading "Wirephotos":
"Roll-call ended, New York announced: 'First picture will be an aerial view of the wrecked airplane just found in the mountains in upper New York. A fine shot. Will send it now. '"
Fact is, Syracuse Journal published exclusively a half page picture aerial view of wrecked airplane, also a half page picture of rescue party going up the mountain, the day before the wirephoto started. . . . Journal flew a plane over this area, took photographs and hurried back to the office. The first wire picture was 24 hours late in this city.
HARVEY D. BURRILL Editor
Journal
Syracuse, N. Y.
Altered Oregonian (Cont'd)
Sirs:
INASMUCH AS THE OREGONIAN'S AFFAIRS APPEAR TO HAVE BECOME THE SUBJECT OF A FREE FORUM IN TIME, PERHAPS YOU WILL LET ME EDGE IN. ON THE DAY WHEN TIME [JAN. 21] ARRIVED WITH SAM MITCHELL'S LETTER, SAYING THE OREGONIAN ENGAGES IN REACTIONARY SNIPING, THE OREGONIAN'S LEADING EDITORIAL WAS AN UNQUALIFIED ENDORSEMENT OF ROOSEVELT'S SOCIAL SECURITY PROGRAM. WHEN THE OREGONIAN FIGHTS IT ATTACKS, DOES NOT SNIPE. AS FOR MITCHELL'S NOTION ABOUT WANING PRESTIGE, THE BEST TEST IS CIRCULATION, WHICH WITH US HAS GROWN STEADILY FROM A DEPRESSION LOW OF 92,000-PLUS TWO YEARS AGO TO AN AVERAGE OF 101,000-PLUS FOR YEAR ENDED SEPTEMBER 30 AND 105,000-PLUS AS OF TODAY.
PAUL R. KELTY
Editor-in-Chief Oregonian Portland, Ore.
TIME welcomes Editor Kelty to the "Oregonian Forum," which is hereby closed.--ED.
*William M. Weiner, M. D., San Francisco, Calif--ED.
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