Theodore & Franklin
Sirs: Right "slab dab" on the first page of TIME, Jan. 27, you ask the question, as to where the late "Teddy Roosevelt" would have stood on the "New Deal" well I am quite sure that he would stand just where, The President is standing, or something so near like it, that no one could tell them apart.
True the N.R.A. and The A.A.A. were thrown out by the Supreme Court, but like many great men, and things they gave most abundantly of themselves, to the American People, while they lived.
And any one who may have been under the impression that they were voting for "Dear Teddy" when they were voting for Franklin D, well they were not far of the real course.
I see more real joy and happiness among our people under the President, than I have for many years previous, and so if the Pres. and his ideas are to blame well give me more of the same.
You just show me any body that is entirely perfect and I will show you, an Angel floating in the stratusphere, with a golden harp, and a pair of silver wings and an old fashioned night shirt. JOHN V. CAFFREY Denver, Colo.
Sirs: What would Theodore Roosevelt say regarding the New Deal? He would slap Franklin on the back and say, "You are doing bully, Franklin. You know my old gang has changed since I was here and it will take a Roosevelt to clean up after twelve years of Mellon reign. Take my old Big Stick and go after them. You can do it!" JOHN W. SECREST Oklahoma City, Okla.
Small Rugged Person
Sirs: I won a scholarship at "Miss Spence's School for Girls" [TIME, Feb. 3] and was educated there from 1910-17. After graduating I went back to teach Latin, English and History, thereby paying for my tuition at "swankless" Barnard.
You may be interested in the following facts:
1) Miss Spence was the daughter of Scotch working people. Wealthy New York families started a school for her because she had been so able a governess to their children.
2) The school had the following objectives: good character, good manners, good English. Mathematics and Science might be and were weak but sloppy consciences, courtesies and uncivilized speaking, reading or writing were promptly disciplined or the culprit was dismissed.
3) No one ever mentioned the drawing room. The mark of a "gentlewoman" was consideration of others. Being late for an engagement was "ill-bred, vulgar, irresponsible or ostentatious."
4) Once a week "the resident pupils" were taken on field trips, also any day girls whose parents approved. Among the places visited and reported on were: Ellis Island, Washington Market, churches, banks, skyscrapers, the Juvenile Court, City Hall, The National Biscuit Co. plants, a silk stocking factory, the Botanical Gardens, the Henry Street Settlement, a large hotel kitchen.
5) Every year a three-or four-day visit was paid to Miss Berry's School in Georgia and those interested were taken to the Pine Mountain School in Kentucky.
6) I saw Miss Spence five days a week, eight months of the year for more than eight years. She was a small rugged person with a quick step and a determined eye. I never saw her shocked but once--that was at the news that the Lusitania had been sunk. She did not call for smelling salts. She called the school together and announced neither she nor any institution she was connected with was neutral under the circumstances. WINTHROP B. PALMER (Mrs. Carleton Palmer) New York City
To Winthrop Burhnell Palmer & to many another Spence alumna, thanks for eye-witness portraits of able Schoolmistress Spence.--ED.
Santayana's Spark Sirs: As TIME's review of copious The Last Puritan (Feb. 3, p. 75) was characteristically pithy and succinct, so TIME-worthy were the picture-cover of the author and the intimate comments anent his banker-build and the routine of his days on that philosophers' Olympus where years ago he found his peace.
No shame to those who will falter long before reaching the end of the novel; but lucky are the few in whom its appearance alone may fan to a momentary flame long-smoldering sparks once kindled by the man, Santayana....
To compare with the many who, even as President Roosevelt, "sat at the feet" of the immortal Royce are the hosts who dog-trotted at the heels of George Santayana. ERNEST SCHEIN Chicago, Ill.
Sirs: ...Your review of The Last Puritan pleases not less by its critical insight than by its leisurely and arresting treatment of a little known personality and a unique book. . . .
There is one bit of self-revelation in the last page of the book of which your review-did not take advantage that is needed to complete your picture of its author. In the epilog Mario is made to tell Santayana that, "The trouble with you philosophers is that you misunderstand your vocation. You ought to be poets, but you insist on laying down the law for the universe." And that, Santayana remarks earlier in the volume, is "simply the tragedy of the spirit when it's not content to understand but wishes to govern."... B. H. KIZER Graves, Kizer & Graves, Lawyers Spokane, Wash.
Pittsburgh's Wherrett
Sirs: If the picture on p. 6r of TIME, Feb. 3, is my good friend Harry Wherrett then I am Haile Selassie. C. B. WlLLARD Fort Smith, Ark.
Reader Willard is not Haile Selassie and the photograph was not of his good friend Harry Wherrett. With a rebuke to Keystone Photos for misbranding a print and apologies to Mr. Wherrett, TIME gladly publishes an authentic likeness of the president of Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co.--ED.
Moderate $63,000
Sirs: I respectfully call your attention to your article in TIME, Feb. 3, about the history of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. The photograph, supposedly of Mr. Wherrett, was a big mistake.
Another big mistake was for you not to mention that Mr. Wherrett is receiving a very moderate salary, considering the size of his company, and in comparison with the salaries of presidents of other big companies of the country....
The Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. never missed a dividend during the Depression, and now when times improve, they declare extra dividends to the people who have staked their money and confidence in the company.
How many companies have such a record! Company after company have men drawing salaries from $75,000 to $150,000 a year, yet cannot pay a cent of interest to a stockholder. No man is worth even $50,000 a year to his company, when he cannot make an income sufficient enough to pay the stockholders some income on their investment. CLARA L. CARR St. Mary's, Md.
According to income tax figures made public by the Treasury last month, President Wherrett received $63,000 from Pittsburgh Plate Glass in 1934.--ED.
Patman's Reception
Sirs: Your statement in the Feb. 3 copy of TIME on p. 30, about my trip to California to speak to independent merchants, is not a correct statement of facts.
A committee not only met me at the train, but a committee boarded the train several miles before reaching Oakland to welcome me to Oakland and to California. After being joined by the delegation at the train, a breakfast was served, which a number of the leading business men of California attended, after which a committee from the California legislature requested that I appear as a witness before their committee at the University of California on mass distribution. I testified before the committee.
At noon there was a luncheon. Places were prepared for 500. More than 650 were present. That night thousands attended the speaking at the large auditorium in Oakland.
I was given a good reception and was not disappointed in any way, and from letters received and newspaper accounts, I have reason to believe that those who sponsored my appearance there were also pleased. My speeches were on the question of independent business and not on paying the adjusted service certificates or so-called bonus. I was never more cordially received at any place, and was never given a greater ovation than at the luncheon and at the mass meeting that night.
Your statement is not only a reflection on me, it is a reflection on the independent merchants of California.... WRIGHT PATMAN House of Representatives Washington, D.C.
Sirs:
...Mr. Patman arrived in Oakland, Calif, on Jan. 21, at 7:30 a.m. and at his request and for obvious reasons no plans for his reception were made. However, Albert L. Walters, Manager of Allied Independent Merchants and Home Owned Businesses of California Inc., ...did leave Oakland, Calif, at an early hour, drove to Richmond, Calif, and boarded the train there and was, from that time and until the Congressman boarded the train in Oakland for his return, in his company.
...Furthermore, he considered the Bonus Bill at that time a closed incident and devoted no time to it but he did tell us plenty about the chain store methods.... E. J. HYMAN Healdsburg, Calif.
Representative Patman did indeed discuss chain store methods. To him and his hosts, apologies.--ED.
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