Tortugas Friends
Sirs:
As I sit reading your Fort Jefferson article in the Feb. 4 issue, an early scene comes into view.
A wounded Northern soldier, Charles Pander Willard was detailed to tend the lighthouse on Loggerhead Island of the Dry Tortugas reef.
At the same time Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd was imprisoned at Fort Jefferson under suspicion of complicity with Booth in the assassination of President Lincoln.
Dr. Mudd had hobbies, so did the lighthouse keeper. The prisoner was allowed to whittle; the lone keeper of the light fiddled, painted, collected rare corals and ran down huge turtles which gave those islands their name.
These inmates became friends, as the soldier, Willard, my grandfather, made necessary visits to the prison for his supplies. They exchanged corals for walking sticks, violin bows for turtle shells. Your tintype of Dr. Mudd shows him whittling another cane of hard wood, one of which is in my collection. My grandfather's painting of his lighthouse home, and the little sailboat Jenney of Loggerhead is on my wall before me.
HOWARD WHITFORD WILLARD
New York City
To Artist Howard Willard all thanks for a TIME-worthy account.--ED.
Closed Key
Sirs:
Your very interesting publication carried an article about Garden Key, Dry Tortugas, Florida [TIME, Feb. 4].
At the conclusion of this article you made mention of the President's intention of turning the Key into a National Monument. You did not, however, state that Dry Tortugas is one of the closed ports of the U. S. and therefor closed to all commercial or pleasure craft.
J. A. MOFFETT 2ND
New York City
Right is Reader Moffett, nephew of Federal Housing Administrator James A. Moffett. Under Navy administration, not even airplanes were permitted to fly over closed Tortugas. But as a National Monument it will be opened to visitors.--ED.
Golfing Bankers
Sirs:
... In your issue of Jan. 28 the article on Percy Johnston and Frank Houston of the Chemical Bank & Trust Co. quotes Mr. Houston as follows: "You can't be a good golfer and a good banker at the same time."
. . . Mr. Houston has apparently overlooked the fact that there are exceptions to all rules. Mr. Orval W. Adams, executive vice president of the Utah State National Bank of Salt Lake City, Utah is a very good golfer. He plays the canyon course of the Salt Lake Country Club around par and has had a handicap of as low as seven. As to his ability as a banker ... he needs no handicap. His bank has paid dividends all through the five years of depression and in 1934 paid an extra dividend and also gave all employes a bonus of 10% of a year's salary as a Christmas present.
I might add that President Heber J. Grant of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon Church) is also president of this bank and is a good golf player as well. WALTER L. ROCHE
Salt Lake City, Utah
Sirs:
... I think that the very nice young lady who interviewed me and quoted my statement in regard to golf got it a little mixed. What I said or, at least, intended to say, was that it was hard to be a banker and a good golfer at the same time. However, I know that there are many outstanding exceptions and this is probably only an alibi for my own shortcomings at the game.
FRANK K. HOUSTON
President
Chemical Bank & Trust Co. New York City
Treason By Aliens
Sirs:
TIME'S basic legal axiom is no more a legal axiom than is Nazidom's "New Justice" justice.
"Outside Nazidom it is a basic legal axiom that no man can commit treason against a country not his own" (TIME, Feb. 11, p. 19).
". . . An alien or a stranger born, for so long a time as he continues within the dominions of a foreign government, owes obedience to the laws of that government, and may be punished for treason or other crimes as a native-born subject might be. . . ."--Secretary of State Daniel Webster, 1851; Justice Field of U. S. Supreme Court, 1872.
"Treason against the United States, shall consist ... in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."--U. S. Constitution, Article 3, Section 3. It was well illustrated in Carlisle v. U. S. (16 Wallace 147), from which I have just quoted, that this definition applies not only to citizens of the U. S., but also to resident aliens whether or not they intended to continue such residence.
DAVID FERBER
Albany, N. Y.
Russian Claims
Sirs:
In the Russian story 60% Blandishment in the issue of Jan. 14, you have apparently been misinformed.
The assignments of Russian insurance claims in the case of Dougherty v. Equitable Life Assurance Society were not procured by any Soviet agent. The Soviet Government had no interest in any manner, shape or form, directly or indirectly in the litigation. In fact the assignors themselves were for the most part White Russian refugees who lost their Soviet citizenship vhen they fled from Russia, or citizens of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Esthonia. One was an American citizen.
As their policies protected their claims "with ill the property of the Equitable wherever located," and many of the claimants are dependent upon this insurance, they felt justified in pressing the claims in New York. But in doing so hey acted as individuals, represented by a New York law firm. WILLIAM NOYES
Brooklyn, N. Y.
Table Tennis
Sirs:
As the referee of the recent International Table Tennis Matches between Viktor Barna, the world's champion, and several of our New York and American table tennis stars, I was extremely pleased to see your fine Sport article
Table Tennis" in Feb. 4 issue. . . .
But friends, why must you change your fine article back to "ping-pong?" Table tennis is the name of the sport and "ping-pong" is a registered copyright trade mark name of one individual Massachusetts company--Parker Bros., who for money gain have pushed ping-pong as the name of the sport wherever they can, to secure free advertising. The Associated Press and all newspapers have banned the use of the word "ping-pong.". . .
Viktor Barna, Sandor Glancz, Jimmy McClure etc. play table tennis strictly. They are not ping-pongists, nor ping-pong champions, each is a member of the International Table Tennis Federation, which sponsors all international table tennis matches and presents the Swaythling trophy, the Davis Cup of table tennis. . . .
Hundreds of local table tennis players have remarked about your slip to ping-pong.
F. J. MacCoy Jr.
President
New Jersey Table Tennis Association Newark, N. J.
Sirs:
Shame on you.
Fie.
Phooey! . . .
CARL ZEISBERG
Corresponding Secretary Pennsylvania Table Tennis Association Glenside, Pa.
Although it is a registered trademark, ping-pong is the historic name for the game. TIME declines to be drawn into a purely commercial quarrel over the propriety of the name.--ED.
No Race
Sirs:
May I correct a misstatement in TIME regarding a flight made by Roscoe Turner from Miami to Newark LTiME, Jan. 28]. You state "Turner took off ... ostensibly to break Rickenbacker's . . . record," but that a regular transport plane on the same day flew Miami-New York an hour faster than Turner, implying a race.
There was no race and Col. Turner had no intention of breaking any record. He had passengers and stopped to discharge them at Raleigh and Richmond, did not hurry.
The plane Col. Turner flew is the United Air Lines' Boeing he and Clyde Pangborn used in the London-Melbourne race last fall and has a speed of more than 200 miles an hour. FRANK L. CURTIS
United Air Lines New York City
To United Air Lines' swift Boeings, and to able Pilot Turner, all credit.--ED.
Steelman's Shoes Sirs:
Referring to the illustration on p. 59 of your issue of Feb. 11, do we see correctly that Mr. Myron Charles Taylor wears button shoes? If so, he is the first man whom we have seen wearing button shoes in the last ten years or more. . . .
ROGER VERSEPUT JR.
President
Roger Verseput & Co. Grand Rapids, Mich.
Reader Verseput saw correctly.--ED.
Laughing Ladies
Sirs:
Re: TIME, Feb. 11, "Full Dress." I take angry issue with your generalities regarding New York divorces, e. g., "there are always pajamas" and "the woman is always blonde" and "New York wives shrink from the hoary tale." I am a practicing attorney in the city of New York and my experience includes several divorces, but never has Madam X of the story been a blonde, never has she worn pajamas, never has a wife shrunk from the hoary tale.
She has been "brown-haired," "red-haired," "light-haired," "dark." She has worn a "blanket," "black lace step-ins," "dancing tights," "panties," "white nightgown" or "nothing." New York wives have not shrunk--most of them have laughed out loud. . . .
JOSEPH HOROWITZ
Counselor at Law Brooklyn, N. Y.
To Counselor Horowitz all thanks for addenda on New York divorce procedure.
--ED.
98% Praise
Sirs:
THIS WIRE 98% PRAISE 2% CRITICISM YOUR WRITEUP GEORGE CALEB BINGHAM FEB. n. PRAISE FOR BOOSTING GREATEST MISSOURI ARTIST. CRITICISM FOR SUGGESTING MANHATTAN RESPONSIBLE FOR REVIVAL OF INTEREST IN BINGHAM. CREDIT BELONGS TO TAX-SUPPORTED ART MUSEUM OF ST. LOUIS AND ESPECIALLY TO DIRECTOR MEYRIC ROGERS. CURRENT MANHATTAN SHOW IS REPETITION OF ST. LOUIS
SHOW OF YEAR AGO.
TYRRELL WILLIAMS
St. Louis, Mo.
Papal Knight Kahn
Sirs:
You were wrong--but by a day only--when you stated under "Cardinal in Court" that Harold L. Stuart of Chicago was the second non-Catholic to have received the Pius IX Order [TIME, Nov. 19]. Stranger things than that happen in Manila:
On Nov. 18, Leopoldo Kahn, born an Alsatian Jew, now a French citizen and for 46 years a resident of these Islands, was given the Order of Pope Pius IX by Archbishop O'Doherty with all the appropriate ceremony. Don Leopoldo has always befriended the Church, aiding its charities and giving the country twelve good Catholic sons and daughters (by two wives, mestizas both of them). He was in close contact with the Vatican during the late War and is considered a great friend of Catholicism without ever having professed it as his religion.
Sincerely yours, in the interest of news--such as only TIME can give us exiles.
MRS. JAMES L. SMITH MRS. JAMES L. EDWARD
Manila, P. I.
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