Mysterious Marcher

Sirs:

I usually accept my copy of TIME as being very close to the truth. It is surprising, therefore, to read in the Manitoba Free Press that the man you mention as a masseur in the late King George V's funeral is Constantin Cotalan, a member of the highest Rumanian military order of "Mihai Viteazul." . . .

Lou ADELMAN

Secretary

Winnipeg Rugby Football Club Winnipeg, Man.

Sirs:

... In the Feb. 10 issue of TIME there appeared under the heading Great Britain "Rounders & Bounders," the detailed story concerning one Masseur Stoebs, a commoner, and his appearance with the royalty group parading behind the coffin of the late King George V.

I showed same to one of my office friends, a loyal Briton.

Naturally he refused to believe that the TIME expose was true and to substantiate I was shown a copy of the Daily Mirror (London) . . . and there was the duplicate of the picture of the Masseur Stoebs which appeared in TIME. The caption of the picture of Masseur Stoebs in the Daily Mirror was as follows:

"Foreign representatives in the procession through London. In civilian clothes among them is a member of the Rumanian order of Mihai Viteazul, the equivalent to the British V. C., representing Transylvania."

H. B. FLETCHER

Hartford, Conn.

Sirs:

. . . We have carefully looked over all the pictures we have preserved of [George V's funeral] and we fail to find any such figure as that of Mr. Stoebs anywhere, at any stage of the procession, much less next to King Carol. . . .

NELL AND BURGESS DEMPSTER

London, England

Sirs:

Will your self-correcting service dispose of the following item which I clip from the Manchester Guardian Weekly for Feb. 7, 1936. It concerns, of course, the mysterious stranger in the funeral procession of the late King George V.

E. J. KNAPTON

Norton, Mass.

In good faith and upon the best available information TIME identified, with picture, the mysterious marcher in the London funeral procession as Masseur Stoebs. Having discovered its error TIME now apologizes to all concerned. The Manchester Guardian identifies the mysterious marcher as follows:

"The name of the marcher is Constantin Golovan, and he is a school teacher in the Rumanian village of Drago-Slavele, in the district of Muscel. M. Golovan is a member of the highest Rumanian military order of 'Mihai Viteazul' (Michael the Brave), which was created in 1916 and corresponds to our Victoria Cross. . . . M. Golovan came to the funeral of King George as a member of the delegation of this order, which comprised also a Rumanian general and two colonels. A sublieutenant in a Chasseur regiment during the War, he won the coveted honor by valor in the field. . . . "In October 1916, under fierce enemy fire he succeeded in cutting an Austrian barbed wire entanglement and led a storming party to the capture of an important ridge position. By this deed he not only gained the highest military order of his country but a claim to be one of those to represent Rumania at the funeral of the King of England. Also he has inspired a Fleet Street legend that will be as difficult to kill as that of the Russian Army passing through England in trains during the War."--ED.

Molokai Impression Sirs: It is to be regretted that in your interesting and informative article on the "Return of Damien," in TIME, Feb. 3, you did not correct the general impression that the entire island of Molokai is a leper settlement, hence the name "Molokai" a bit loathesome.

In fairness to that beautiful little island it should be known that the leper settlement occupies only about six or seven square miles on a low lava flow peninsula which projects from the foot of the sheer cliffs, 1,500 to 2,000 ft. high, forming the imposing north coast of the island. The settlement is accessible from the remainder of the island only by a very steep and narrow foot and horse trail, carefully guarded. In fact the settlement is closer, insofar as accessibility is concerned, to Oahu than to the remainder of Molokai.

The main part of the island (area about 255 sq. mi.) is made up of a mountainous east end covered with perennially green forest and a drier west end covered with cattle ranches, thousands of acres of pineapples, and the Hoolehua-Palaau and Kalanianaole homesteads and house lots of the Hawaiian Homes Commission--totaling some 7,500 acres--on which that Commission is successfully rehabilitating some 1,250 Hawaiian farmers and their families. There are now about 410 "patients" at the settlement and a population of near 10,000 on the main island.

G. K. LARRISON

Hawaiian Homes Commission

Territory of Hawaii

Honolulu

Sirs:

As one of the 7,000 non-leprous residents on the island of Molokai, and as one of the two physicians on leeward Molokai, I would like to clarify and correct the wrong impressions held by most people on the mainland, which were. no doubt, strengthened after reading your otherwise excellent article on Father Damien. The general impression seems to be that Molokai is inhabited solely, or, at least, largely by lepers.

The territorial leprosarium, commonly called "Kalaupapa," which cares for some 500 lepers, is located on a relatively small peninsula jutting off the windward coast of Molokai. . . .

The incident of leprosy on leeward Molokai has been and is no higher than on any of the other islands of the Hawaiian Archipelago. . . . Amongst the causes of death in the Hawaiian Islands leprosy ranks very low. being under one percent, and, of course, all of these deaths occur in the two hospitals for lepers. . . .

LAURENCE WIIG, M.D.

Government Physician and Registrar Kaunakaki, Molokai, Hawaii

Supreme Court Relief

Sirs:

TIME unusually well-read and well-informed ought to answer a question that bothers my humble mind void of any legal enlightenment.

There is a great deal of agitation for a Constitutional Amendment curbing the power of the Supreme Court. We will not go into the question as to whether the Supreme Court, has gone into the business of framing laws rather than interpreting them, although current events clearly show that that question is debatable.

What I do like to know is why a Constitutional Amendment should be required when Article 3, Section 2 of the Constitution expressly provides for relief in case the Court's decision is liable to cause unsatisfactory conditions. The section referred to reads:

'. . . the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law, and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make."

If that provision is not an effective curb to avoid disasters such as followed the Dred Scott decision, why was it included in the Constitution?

WOLFRAM HILL

St. Paul, Minn.

The pregnant sentence from the examination quoted by Reader Hill has not been fully construed, may never be. The Supreme Court itself would probably declare void any law restricting or denying its power to declare laws unconstitutional. It could justify its act although there is not a sentence in the Constitution directly giving the Court the power in question. The Constitution does say "the judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme court. . . . The judicial power shall extend to all cases in law and equity arising under this Constitution. . . ." If Congress passed a law that its present members should hold office for life, the Supreme Court could hardly exercise its judicial power extending "to all cases . . . arising under this Constitution" unless it had the power to declare such an act unconstitutional.

The Court has frequently recognized the validity of such implied powers when exercised by other branches of the Government. Not a sentence in the Constitution directly authorizes Congress to conduct investigations. The Constitution says, however: "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States." The Supreme Court has upheld the legality of Congressional investigations because obviously a legislative body must be able to ascertain facts in order to legislate wisely. The duty to cook a goose implies the right to make gravy.--ED.

Indians' Friend

Sirs: TIME, Feb. 10, under caption "Beatty to Indians" quote: "In 1879 General Richard Henry Pratt (who once proposed apportioning the Indians like so many marbles, nine to each county in the U. S.) founded Carlisle School in Pennsylvania."

Correct: Pratt founded the school. Incorrect: He proposed apportioning the Indians ''like so many marbles" to each county in U. S.

Pratt was a friend of the Indians and considered them human and was the first educator so to do. He fought Congress, Bureau of Indian Affairs, politicians and racketeers to give his Indians opportunity to show their human qualities. Frances E. Willard. W. C. T. U., asked him how the "Indian Problem could most quickly be solved." He replied: "By placing an Indian in every little town in every county you would get the 'Indian Problem' solved most quickly.". . .

His constant urge: "To civilize the Indian, get him into civilization; to keep him civilized, let him stay." As proof he pointed to many of his "boys" who had received co-equal opportunity and had become doctors, lawyers, preachers, priests, business men, mechanics, farmers and athletes. . . .

Following the Pratt idea there would today be no reservation system; the languages, tribal customs and habits would long since have vanished and the American Indian would long since have been but a memory. This idea follows the assimilation of the many racials that have come to the U. S. to be lost in the "melting pot of citizenship." . . .

Pratt was right. ... I was his orderly during my years at Carlisle. I knew him, contacted him right up to the time of his death. His memory is respected, his memory is loved by every Indian who came in contact with him. No one would love anyone who thought of a people as "marbles."

Louis F. PAUL

Alaska Native Brotherhood Wrangell, Alaska

Jack for John

Sirs:

If Dr. Mudd's pardon was signed by President Andrew Jackson as you state on p. 57 of your issue of Feb. 24, it must have been done on a ouija board. Don't you mean President Andrew Johnson?

A. A. O'KEEFFE

Chicago, Ill.

"In the spring of 1869 he was pardoned by President Andrew Jackson." Your history, TIME, your history! I blush for you.

A. LEO LANMAN JR.

Atlanta, Ga.

. . . Did Jefferson cross the Delaware, and was it, perhaps, Cleveland who authored the Gettysburg Address?

FRANK B. WOODFORD

The Detroit Free Press Detroit, Mich.

When he left the editor's desk, Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd was being pardoned by President Andrew Johnson.--ED.

Red; White

Sirs:

In Hearst's San Francisco Examiner appears nn editorial concerning the Moscow scenes of "The March of Time" cinema feature. . . .

A summary of the editorial would be that your "March of Time" reel is not in any sense facts, that it is pure propaganda, that it is plainly false propaganda, that you accepted Russian films without satisfying yourself as to their authenticity.

... As a reader of TIME, a listener to "The March of Time" and a spectator of ''The March of Time" I have found your news quite reliable. I would like to see you vindicate yourself.

V. O. MEENK

San Francisco, Calif.

Sirs:

1 have long suspected that you were a firm with definite fascist leanings. Now I know that I was right.

The March issue of The American Spectator reveals the sinister connection between your company and J. P. Morgan & Co. and how your radio program is under the sway of those fascists, Remington Rand. . .

Your ''March of Time" movie enterprise, with its constant fascist and militarist propaganda, shows more than any of your activities which way your affections lie.

J. LUESCHER

New York City

Sirs: Yesterday in Hearst's New York American I read how your offspring, "The March of Time'' is spreading subversive, communistic propaganda. About ten minutes later I was shown an article in Charles Angoff's left-wing American Spectator berating your fascistic qualities. This, to me anyway, is definite proof of your greatness. Congratulations! . . .

ALVIN M. JOSEPHY JR.

New York City

TIME'S thanks to Readers Meenk, Luescher and Josephy for having reduced to an absurdity this Fascist-Communist teapot tempest. Facts are:

1) Moscow "March of Time" pictures were photographed by "March of Time's" own Cameraman Julien Bryan.

2) Except for the Stakhanov homecoming, no pictures in this sequence were posed.

3) The pictures were neither offered to newsreels nor were, as stated in the Hearst editorial, they obtained "through Soviet film agencies."

4) Sole news angle of current Moscow (not all-Russia) sequence is the definitely recognizable change in Moscow life and manners, startling to all tourists who have not been in Moscow for three or more years.

5) Control of TIME Inc. is and always has been in the hands of its active editors.

6) TIME Inc.'s sole aim on the printed page, air and screen is to present the significant news of the world when it occurs, for what it is worth at the time it occurs without benefit of eulogy or condemnation.--ED.

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