Mail-less Maine
Sirs:
In your issue of Jan. 21 you have an article on beautiful mail boxes.
Up till this fall wc used to rather pride ourselves on our well-built boxes for mail, but this winter Mr. Farley has decided to put us back where we were 32 years ago and take away R.F.D. from the oldest route in Maine.
Washington's excuse is poor roads and so few residents, but the school team has only missed three days all winter catering to the children's services.
Within one mile we have 28 adults and children entirely cut off to shift for themselves without any mail.
A number of us voted New Deal but this is antagonizing rural voters as nothing has done for many years.
E. ANDERSON Scbago Lake, Me.
Notes on Abyssinia
Sirs:
As Abyssinia figures quite frequently in the news of today [TIME. Feb. 25] I was wondering whether the following excerpts from an interview appearing in one of the Oslo, Norway, newspapers would be of interest to you:
"The 28-year-old medical doctor, Carl Thorstein Scott, who has just returned from Abyssinia where for a year and a half he was court physician to the last descendant of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, relates that since May 1933 he has treated over 20,000 patients in the great hospital at Dessye, most of them for various lung troubles--Abyssinia is a mountainous country; many also suffer from venereal and tropical diseases. . . .
''The Crown Prince frequently paid friendly visits to the young physician at the hospital to the great consternation of his solemn lifeguard of sometimes 3,500 magnificently armed men. He was born in 1909 according to Ethiopian calculation of time, but in 1915 according to our calendar. His name with titles looks like this: Mgorash Moered Atmatch Asfa Woosen. He is a very munificent monarch who talks many languages, a stately young man who lives in Dessye and governs that province, so to speak, to learn the art of ruling the entire country. . . .
''It is a beautiful country inhabited by good people. Their religion is Old Testamental and their customs are in many respects medieval. But they are a happy people. The common man earns enough in three days to live without doing anything the rest of the week. Twenty-five days' work suffices to permit him to live two months in leisure and meditation. . . .
"The Abyssinians are incredibly proud nationally--proud of their thousand-year-old culture, their country, their independence. They have never yielded to subjection and have checked all attacks on their borders. Italy has tried to conquer the land three times, but every time they have been beaten back by the brave people, and now it looks as though again an attempt is being made to assail the free land which is a member of the League of Nations. When leaving Abyssinia the young physician was not allowed to proceed north through Sudan on account of difficulties at the border. The Italians had in fact forced their way several miles into the country and the inhabitants were irate. The matter was instantly reported to the League of Nations, but there is probably not much hope that Abyssinia will receive help from the Great Powers.
"When asked whether the country could defend itself, the doctor replied: 'At any rate they will defend themselves, to the last man if necessary. Besides they have a fairly modernly equipped army with flying machines and instruments of warfare.'
"In reply to a query about the Japanese in Abyssinia, it was stated that they have a large concession on cotton growing.''
GUDRUN NOMEDAL Chicago, III.
Tennessee Tidings
Sirs:
Bald-headed Miles Spencer went turkey hunting one morning before day. An owl saw his bald head and flew down, caught Mr. Spencer in the bald spot. Place, Nails Creek. Tenn.
Will Hogan and his wife and two boys were driving to Dickson, Tenn. a pair of young mules; the mules became frightened at the train and ran away with the wagon; Mr. Hogan and his good wife were both thrown out and one of the boys got his head stuck in a ten-gallon can of lard before the mules stopped.
On little Turn Bull, Tenn., a boy named Art Lankford stepped out of the old log schoolhouse and walked up the hill a ways and caught hold of the tail of a bull yearling, the young bull started to run, they both landed in the old schoolhouse in books hours.
J. T. CUNNINGHAM Jingo, Tenn.
To TIME'S readers far & wide, all thanks for TIME-worthy reports.--ED.
California Geography
Sirs:
In your article regarding Mrs. Rhoda Tanner Doubleday [TIME, Feb. 18] you state she was at the Valley Club at Santa Clara. Calif. I am not trying to claim any doubtful distinction for our city, but this occurred at the Valley Club in Montecito adjacent to Santa Barbara. . .
In your article regarding "Rudy" Vallee [TIME, Feb. 18]--Mrs. Vallee's father is Chief of Police at Santa Monica, Calif. and not Sacramento. . . .
B. C. FRANCIS Santa Barbara, Calif.
Apologies where due.--ED.
Lukewarm Puerto Ricans
Sirs:
In the Feb. 11 issue of TIME, p. 11, under "Balls," I find the following statement: "Fun-loving Puerto Ricans decided to regard the occasion as a saint's festival, knocked off for a whole week." The statement, picturesque as it is creates a wrong impression. Reasons:
1) No saint is President Roosevelt to Puerto Ricans, fun-loving or not. Although personally he is admired as a talented leader, the extension of the New Deal to the island has been delayed for so long that Puerto Ricans are lukewarm toward the Administration.
2) The proclamation of a "President's Week" by . . . ceremonious Governor Blanton ("The Sphynx") Winship, was considered a political move of the Governor to catch the Presidential eye, did not arouse any enthusiasm among levelheaded Puerto Ricans.
3) The inhabitants of the island, moreover, failed to see any reason why funds should be raised to fight a disease which is all but unknown here. The Presidential birthday was, therefore, the pretense rather than the motive of the customary week-end fun at swank El Escambron Beach Club and Condado Beer Garden.
JUAN DE LOS PARLOTES Rio Piedras, P. R.
Muddled Major
Sirs:
Your report of Major Haverfield's declaration concerning illegitimate births in Scotland (TIME, Feb. 18) disclosed a situation most disturbing to lovers of the old country. If the statement that there are 68.9 illegitimate births per thousand population and 11.3 per thousand unmarried women may be taken as correct the number of unmarried women must be well over six times the total population. . . .
EVERETT J. BROWN JR. Attorney at Law San Francisco, Calif.
Sirs:
. . . I find that either Major Haverfield is rotten at arithmetic or else the married women of Scotland and England are most atrociously adulterous. . . .
JAMES E. CONNOR Washington, D. C.
What Major Haverfield doubtless meant was 68.9 illegitimate births per 1,000 live births per year.--ED.
Winchell Humiliated
Sirs:
The Feb. 25 issue of TIME (p. 14 col. 2) humiliates me by putting me in the class of the Associated Press.
In TIME'S Crime department, it says in part:
". . . Night before the decision such a good guesser as Walter Winchell had predicted acquittal in his broadcast."
. . . I never predicted acquittal at any time, either on the air or in the paper. The Sunday night before the verdict was announced, the broadcast contained this:
"It is believed by many that Bruno will be found guilty of murder in the first degree with a recommendation for mercy. . . .''
WALTER WINCHELL Daily Mirror New York City
Milwaukee Gloom
Sirs:
HALF MILLION MILWAUKEE CITIZENS STRUGGLING THROUGH GLOOM AND IGNORANCE ACCOUNT ABSENCE OF MARCH OF TIME FROM LOCAL SILVER SCREENS. URGE IMMEDIATE STEPS TO RESTORE DESERVING MILWAUKEANS TO FELLOWSHIP WITH OTHER INTELLIGENT AMERICANS THROUGH TIME-WORTHY MEDIUM OF VISUAL EDUCATION. PLEASE ADVISE WHAT MILWAUKEE THEATRE WILL TAKE LEAD IN SHOWING THIS OUTSTANDING FEATURE OF TWENTIETH CENTURY BEGINNING WITH FIRST RELEASE. . . .
DR. & MRS. O. A. SANDER MR. & MRS. M. H. HERRIOTT MR. & MRS. CLIFFORD P. MOREHOUSE Milwaukee, Wis.
To intelligent Readers Sander, Herriott, Morehouse, thanks for a sharp reminder. March of Time Inc. is negotiating with Fox Midwest and Warner Bros. chains to exhibit its reels in Milwaukee.--ED.
Rabbi's Zloties
Sirs:
Lord Beaverbrook's moneymaking, stunt-loving London Daily Express was not so generous, Rabbi Yankel Vallach of Lodz not so greedy, as TIME (People. Feb. 25) would have them. If Rabbi Vallach told the Express all he knew about his brother, Soviet Commissar Litvinoff, for 100 zloties, he received a mere $19 and not $1,900--a sum which would have made the good rabbi an exceedingly rich man among his people in Lodz.
U. S. visitors to Poland still exchange their dollar for five and a fraction zloties.
GEROLD FRANK The Cleveland News Cleveland, Ohio
For a decimal fumble, a rebuke.--ED.
President's Pictures
Sirs:
. . . The photographs of President Roosevelt taken by Thomas McAvoy [TIME, Feb. 25] were undoubtedly the best results that I have ever come across and I can understand only too well the technique that must have been necessary during their development to prevent halation, due to the windows in the background. My hat is off to this marvelous achievement in the advancement of photography. . . .
W. RADFORD BASCOME JR. St. Petersburg, Fla.
Sirs:
. . . I also want to be among the first to congratulate TIME and Mr. MCAVOY, TIME for sponsoring the cameraman and Mr. McAvoy for his astuteness in scoring a beat over his competitors. . . .
JOHN F. DOWLING St. Louis, Mo.
Sirs:
Another major triumph for TIME, with due respects to Cameraman Thomas D. McAvoy. The most authentic character study of Franklin Delano Roosevelt ever to be published. . . .
JOHN T. WALL Stone Ridge, N. Y.
Sirs:
I see no objection to candid camera pictures having news value, but it does seem common of you to waste three pages showing off how smart you are. It reminds me of a boy with a new air rifle.
R. B. SCHERR Memphis, Tenn.
Sirs:
. . . As a doctor who pursues photography as a hobby, I am naturally curious about two or three technical details in connection with this striking piece of pictorial reporting. . . .
What type of miniature camera did Mr. McAvoy use, was the film panchromatic, how fast a lens was used and at what aperture?
Even serious amateurs have known for years that ammonia sensitization of motion picture film was practical, even if somewhat tricky, and I am amazed that no news photographer has tried it before.
C. D. ENFIELD, M. D. Louisville, Ky.
Cameraman McAvoy used a Leica camera with a Summar f2 lens, worked with the lens wide open at one-eighth second speed. His film was Du Pont Superior panchromatic, hypersensitized to half again its rated speed by exposing it to fumes of the strongest ammonia obtainable in a closed box for four minutes. Caution to novices: Film so treated should be used within eight hours. After that period it will not only lose its extra sensitivity, but may deteriorate below its original condition.--ED.
Mouse v. Lion
Sirs:
Re TIME, Feb. 25, all credit to Giant Eastman Kodak. But when the mouse outstrips the lion, isn't it TIME-worthy? In 1934 Universal, with its novel Univex, brain child of O. W. Githens and J. J. Shapiro, made and sold more cameras than any other manufacturer in the world, Eastman included. With its new super-lightweight folding vest pocket camera, made of aluminum and with "airflow lines" and retailing for an even dollar, Universal is set to produce 50,000 cameras a day this year.
And many of the 80 millions of rolls of film sold last year were Univex, and at the all-time low price of a dime a roll.
F. G. KLOCK Eastern Sales Manager Universal Camera Corp. New York City
Lusty indeed is the Universal "Mouse'' whose 39-c- camera, first produced in 1933, is now sold in every country in the world except Germany and Russia, far surpassing Eastman in volume of units. Both the 39-c- camera and the new $1 folding model are designed to use only Univex film which is imported from Belgium. Size of Univex pictures: 1 1/2 x 1 1/8 in.--ED.
Sunday Sections
Sirs:
May I call your attention to an error in TIME, p. 46, Feb. 25, stating that This Week would appear with 21 newspapers in place of their old "homemade magazine sections?"
The Detroit Ncws is not discontinuing its own magazine section which is locally edited and contains quite a different type of material from that to be found in This Week. . . .
W. H. MOORE General Advertising Manager The Detroit Ncws New York City
Sirs:
. . . The newspaper that covers Dixie like the dew [Atlanta Journal] issues the new Sunday tabloid This Week not instead of, but in addition to their own splendidly edited magazine. . . .
CHARLES BOROUGHS Atlanta, Ga.
Slug for "Covey"
Sirs:
Calling him "a smart promoter'' and letting it go at that does scant justice to the pertinacious Kentuckian, Euclid M. Covington, who got the idea for This Week some four or five years ago and stuck with it despite discouragement, depression, and doleful predictions of the doubting Thomases.
Thus while knocking out a couple of columns for "Old Joe," you might well have dropped in a slug for "Covey." . . .
FARRIS A. FLINT Brooklyn, N. Y.
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