Jews in Harlem
Sirs:
Please do not renew my subscription which expires this month. Reason: Races in April 1 issue. . . .
After presenting an excellent analysis of the Harlem riot, the writer declares that Harlem's unique assets are flagrantly exploited by whites; Jews own the successful colored bands, the Cotton Club, all Harlem's saloons, its brothels, its $50,000,000 a year policy game business . . . its markets and most of its real estate.
The implication is obvious. A reader in California, Illinois, Texas and any other State outside of New York can come to but one conclusion: The Jews are flagrantly exploiting Harlem and are solely responsible for its plight. Have you proof that Jews own all the saloons? Have you proof that Jews own all the brothels? When a statement of a derogatory and libelous nature is made, it must be backed by facts in order to show that the statement is not prompted by prejudice and malevolence. .
Your magazine has a great influence on its readers. When a magazine of your high calibre prints an anti-Semitic item, the damage is far greater than one printed in a less reliable periodical.
JACK BRAVERMAN
New York City
Sirs:
... I feel that your magazine has lost its
appeal to me, a Jew and, an American, and am,
therefore, canceling my subscription.
MAX KATZ
Brooklyn, N. Y.
Sirs:
. . . Since when is [Policy Racketeer] Dutch Schultz, quondam resident of these parts, a Jew? If you have names of persons who are conducting a policy racket. I know of several agencies to whom such information would be extremely helpful.
Conducting or owning a brothel is a crime, as defined by Section 1146 of the Penal Law and unless you have information substantiating your assertions you have committed a gross libel upon a whole people. . . .
ABRAHAM WILSON
Counselor at Law New York City
Sirs:
Even non-Jews must protest when TIME stoops to contemptible indoctrination of hatreds ba failing to qualify the last three sentences of paragraph 13 under Races in its April 1 issue.
TIME is derelict in reportorial duty when alleging cons without such pros as:
1) Persecution's lash has brought no white man closer to the Negro than the Jew.
2) The Jew's philanthropies Negroes have been second to no other white man's.
3) Jewish sponsorship of Negro entertainment, in Harlem and out, has tempted its greatest white patronage and brought stardom to many a colored entertainer.
4) The Jew's landlordship to the Negros is one of circumstance rather than design, for Harlem's color once was predominantly Jewish-white, and when the better Negro sought a better-than-slum home only the compassionate Jew would suffer him to rent such a domicile. The influx of all other Negroes soon forced the Jew out but into the housing business. . . .
CHAS. L. APPLETON
New York City
In its generalization on Harlem TIME erred in the following particulars: 1) Harlem saloons are owned and operated mainly by Italians, not Jews. 2) Prostitution in Harlem, disregarding ownership of property on which it takes place, is a business conducted chiefly by Negroes, not Jews.
In Harlem "Dutch" Schultz, whose real name is Arthur Flegenheimer and who has been publicly accused of controlling the policy racket, is generally believed to be a German Jew. The important "bankers" in the policy racket have Jewish names.
Harlem's famed dance bands (Duke Ellington, Cab Galloway, Mills Blue Rhythm) are controlled by Mills Artists, Inc. Mr. Irving Mills is a Jew.
TIME regrets if its errors as well as its facts created an impression that Jews were solely responsible for Harlem's woes-- an impression as inadvertent as it is false.--ED.
Negro Lawmakers Sirs:
I should like to congratulate TIME for the splendid presentation of facts relative to the racial disturbances in New York City [TIME, April 1]. I consider it one of the best summations ever edited.
TIME made one serious error: the present reapportionment bill before the legislature would reduce Negro representation to the State Assembly to one member from two: not increase it to three as you reported.
You are correct in stating that Harlem's two assemblymen hold the balance of power in the lower house and that they are to have no State Senator nor Congressman.
HOLLISTER STURGES JR.
Legislative Correspondent Kingston Daily Freeman Albany, New York
Balloon Men
Sirs:
In connection with "Balloon Body," TIME, March 25, so many of my friends have asked whether it referred to me and my accident of Nov. 26 last, that I have been moved to write you for verification of my belief that another person was meant. . The accident which befell me, occurring in New Jersey, resulted from an automobile collision, our car overturning twice with me on the " down side " in the rear seat. Three ribs were fractured, the 3rd, 4th and 5th right.... Shortly after admission to the hospital I noticed a swelling in the face and in the scrotum. then in the hands and soon the entire body tissue was involved. The scrotum swelled to the size of a football and had to be lanced twice for fear it would burst. Eyes swelled shut, face and neck became so distended my friends did not recognize me the following morning .
X-ray the next day showed a collapsed left lung, thus leaving only a leaking right lung functioning, the puncture admitting air at every breath to all the body tissues.
On the third day the swelling began to subside although the arms and limbs could be pressed in as one would press a soft bicycle tire. There was no pain attendant on this swelling which subsided day by day. After 17 days I was able to be removed home and in another month was again at work. The last areas of swelling were in the scrotum and about the fractured ribs... We two involuntary balloonists are exceedingly fortunate, my unknown fellow inflationist no doubt feels he owes a good deal to Dr. Atkinson as I do to the surgeon who attended me and saw me through. . . . JOHN PAUL CULLEN
Chevy Chase, Md.
To Balloon Man Cullen congratulations and assurances that he was not the subject of TIME'S report.--ED.
Sirs:
Yesterday I read in TIME, under Medicine of the case of the "Balloon Body" resulting from a hit-&-run accident in Newark. In this morning's Oregonian another case of this rare condition is described.
Several features of the two cases are similar: 1) "Ballooning" of the body from the air under the skin.
2) Cause: both accidents were the result of traffic accidents.
3) Treatment: the treatment described in TIME has the approval, evidently, of the local doctors for treatment of this case.
4) Recovery likely as in the Newark case. . . .
R. P. MERCER
Portland, Ore.
Sirs:
The enclosed clipping from the Los Angeles Evening Herald & Express would indicate that our local "Balloon Man" was hit shortly after I read about one you described.
EDWARD EGGLESTON
Los Angeles, Calif.
The Los Angeles man was also struck by a hit-&-run motorist the day after
TIME'S story appeared. He also suffered general emphysema, was also deflated through a needle. -- ED.
Long
Sirs:
Why does TIME insist upon playing up the moron from Louisiana by draping his funny ace on the front page of the greatest news
magazine of our day [TIME, April 1]. . .. What Senator Long wants is publicity, and he is getting it. Why don't you completely ignore him for a while?...
CARL B. DRAKE JR.
St. Paul, Minn.
Sirs:
... TIME with Huey's picture on the cover remained on the local newsstands for only a short time To attribute its disappearance to an orgy of buying or political prejudice would be an even bet.
Whether the Senator is sincere or not in his fight rests solely with himself and time In either case he has offered a mental aspirin. In the so-called masses in the form of the proverbial ship on their horizon, which horizon had been up until his initial "Share-the-Wealth" speech. bare of any indication of rescue from the barren beach of want and suffering
Obligations of the State of Louisiana are selling above par which far from indicates that his alleged "dictatorship" has in anyway impaired the commercial advancement of the state. . . .We didn't know we were entitled to representation in the national government until he was elected to the Senate.
WALLACE LINCOLN
New Orleans, La.
Sirs:
Whether the placing of Huey Long's picture on the front cover of TIME'S April 1 number was by design or otherwise I wish to extend to you my congratulations. Argument avails nothing with this type of demagog, so one is driven to resort to the method you have so ably used here in meeting their libelous attacks that of holding them out to the public as plain fools.
ARCHIE W. MOORE university, Va. Sirs:
Wonderful!
Didn't think you could do it. Humor and subtlety. . . .
CHAS. I. LEVINSON
St. Paul, Minn.
Sirs:
. . . It seems to me that you could select pictures of persons who have rendered worthwhile service to the country, thereby give them publicity in a first class magazine. . .
CHAS. KNOTT Beaufort, S. C.
Like Hugh Johnson, George V, Adolf Hitler. Alphonse Capone, Primo Camera, Mrs. Roosevelt, Upton Sinclair, Cavalcade & The Four Marx Brothers, Huey Pierce Long was pictured on TIME'S cover because he was eminently newsworthy. -- ED.
Gentlemanly Anacostian
Sirs:
Having the good fortune to be a resident of 'Washington's grubby, outlying Anacostia section" (TIME, April 1, p. 54), I can hardly agree with your ill-conceived choice of the adjective "grubby."
Since we must presume your ignorance to be to blame, let us assure you that Anacostia is not in the least grubby but on the contrary is one of the most attractive sections of the nation's Capital. Its residents in the main are composed of those who do their daily work and carry on their civic duties without fanfare or advertising and they are not inclined to comment disparagingly on others or their places of residence even when the latter may be at such a distance as to lend safety. . .
In other words, if it were not ungentlemanly, we might tell you to go soak your head but, alas, we can only think that you should do so. REX P. MULLIGAN
Attorney at Law Washington, D. C.
Discordant Note
Sirs:
Your report of the Ijams-Roosevelt controversy was adroit (TIME, April 8). The sly reference to Miss Ijams' spinsterhood was especially happy. I warrant that put Miss Ijams in her place! Imagine a mere spinster criticizing such devoted wives and successful mothers as our Miss Perkins and Mrs. Roosevelt.
Criticism that is not constructive is an anathema to us New Dealers. Was there anything constructive in Miss Ijams' remarks? Nothing.
But everything Mrs. Roosevelt says is helpful. Her broadcast on "Every Mother Should Teach Her Daughter How to Hold a Cocktail" is a classic. If she never spoke publicly again, God forbid the thought, that alone would have made her immortal.
Then her advice on how to run a home on 15 minutes a day has brought freedom and happiness to millions of mothers. Some of us considered it an almost 24-hour-a-day job. How we must have dawdled!
Her understanding of the women in the "lower brackets" is deeply sympathetic. With rare clairvoyance she realizes that there are some women who have not a competent housekeeper, cook, upstairs and downstairs maid and gardener and to those women she frankly admits that, even with Rooseveltian planning, they might have to spend a trifle more than 15 minutes a day in their homes.
How did our mothers and grandmothers manage without an Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Roosevelt to guide them?
The only discordant note in the whole Ijams-Roosevelt controversy was struck by Sir Galahad Sproul. A president of a university, with the rich background of Greek, Latin, French and English literature, should have expressed himself, if at all, more picturesquely.
Sir Galahad was just the least mite lousy.
WILAMINA MORROW
Washington, D. C.
Plain Speaker v. Perkins
Sirs:
In best U. S. tradition and style did plain-speaking patriot, Martha Ijams, estimate "the Perkins woman.". . . The Ijams "Don't Tread On Me!" rejoinder to a merely political First Lady, horning in, was a red-white-&-blue honey; and the Ijams last word to a tut-tutting politician, guised as a great educator, star-spangled. Americans, with a stake in their country, tricked by New Dealers into losing their shirts to Old Man Arithmetic, applaud. . . .
EARNEST DOZIER
Redding, Calif.
No. 1 Shot
Sirs:
To TIME and Photographer Peter Stackpole an orchid for No. 1 shot of the year [TIME, April 8]. Such journalistic enterprise encourages TIME-readers to expect the impossible--a picture of Citizen Herbert Hoover snoozing during one of his own speeches.
W. N. AUGSBURGER Editor & Publisher
The Burlington Post
Burlington, Iowa.
Perry's Dream
Sirs:
In your March 25 issue under Sport, you state that in Paris "'the International Tennis Federation voted 42-to-41 for a proposal-- aimed at England's famed Fred Perry--to modify its rules to permit amateurs to perform in tennis cinemas."
This is all very true, but why stop there? Why not add that a two-thirds majority was necessary to pass the proposal, thus Perry's dream of playing in tennis movies and defending the Davis Cup for England went up in smoke.
A. H. CHAPIN JR.
Racquet Publishing Co., Inc. New York City
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