No. 56
Sirs:
Your latest item about myself is headed "No. 43" [TIME, Oct. 5] and you say: "Last week the contradictory novelist-politician offered his 43rd volume in the form of a story of the self-help co-operative movement of California." You are nearly a decade behind the times. The item should have been headed "No. 56."
You tell your readers that I have succeeded neither in the world of affairs nor in the literary line. It is not for you to judge my success, and I shall not argue the question with you. I will merely say that I would rather make a try at justice among men and fail in the try than to make the most resounding commercial success out of turning the sorrows and failures of mankind into clever mockery.
This will not teach you anything, but you will publish it, because it will give your readers one more "kick," and that is what you sell them.
UPTON SINCLAIR Pasadena, Calif.
Winners
Sirs:
Can it be that Reader Willett ("Losers," TIME Letters, Oct. 5) has buffaloed TIME'S timely editors, forced them to a weak reply to his implications of impure motives in their selection of Republican Chairman Hamilton as man-of-the-week, led them to select for their Oct. 5 issue two men-of-the-week (Yankee Gehrig and Giant Hubbell), one of whom must be a winner?
SIGMUND BARACK
St. Louis, Mo.
Yankee Gehrig and Giant Hubbell were, in a sense, both winners, each being chosen most-valuable-player in his league the week he appeared on TIME'S cover.--ED.
Riverside
Sirs: TIME (Education, Oct. 5) displays either marked ignorance or a surprising animus.
Riverside Military Academy certainly qualifies as a "migratory" school with its two complete, school-owned and unencumbered plants--in Gainesville, Ga., for fall and spring and at Hollywood, Fla. for the winter. In addition, it is for the fourth consecutive year the nation's largest military preparatory school with an enrollment of more than 630 boys from 36 States and eight foreign countries. . . .
JAMES K. MOONEY
Registrar
Riverside Military Academy Gainesville, Ga.
TIME did not claim or attempt to give a complete list of peripatetic academies in its addenda to the account of William McDonnell Pond's schooner school.--ED.
Wandering Webber
Sirs:
As a graduate of Webber College I challenge your statement in Oct. 5 issue that the most famed educational wanderer is a boys school. Since 1928 girls at Webber have studied in Boston during the fall months and migrated to Babson Park, Fla. each January for their winter semester. Starting with five students, Webber now has 62 daughters of fathers prominent in U. S. affairs who have concluded that Webber, at a cost of $1,550 per year, offers the best preparation to young women for future business and financial responsibilities.
ELIZABETH BRITT New York City
The Campaign
Sirs:
... I am neither Democrat nor Republican but I think you take an unfair advantage of the opportunity to place the President in an unfavorable position.
Each article in your magazine regarding Mr. Landon bears a flowery picture and leaves in the reader's mind a feeling that he is far superior to President Roosevelt, and when you print anything about the President, it is pictured in the darkest form possible. . . .
DEWEY M. FOLEY Washington, D. C.
Sirs:
I enjoyed the picture of Landon in TIME, Oct. 5. It reminds me more & more that every time Landon opens his mouth, he "puts his foot in it."
MRS. W. B. HAM. Somerton, Ariz.
Sirs:
On your "March of Time" last evening it was disclosed that President and Mrs. Roosevelt had given space in front of the White House to a peanut vendor. Must be expecting an elephant will be the next occupant.
PERRY S. WILLIAMS
Minneapolis, Minn.
Sirs:
Lives of Poor Men all remind us
The workingman don't have a chance; The more he works, there grow behind him Patches on his Pants.
So let us all be up and doing;
Cast your vote, however small; For when the Grand New Deal is over
You will have No Pants at All!
GRACE VERNE SILVER Los Angeles, Calif.
Sirs:
... If you lived near Schenectady as we do, and saw the waste, the extravagance, the corruption with which relief is handled here . . . ; 'If you saw how the Democrats are pouring money into this normally Republican territory in an effort to hold down Republican majorities; if you had heard the appeals to class against class which New Deal orators have made throughout this industrial section; if you saw how the New Deal has sent Ernest C. Draper last week, and Frances Perkins next week to this vicinity to campaign; if you saw the scandalous political requirements which an unemployed man must fulfill to get a WPA job; if you saw the same 300-400 men working for days grading a side hill, then after the rain gutters it, working days more repeating the same job . . .: you would not assume the attitude you do toward the New Deal. . . . FRANCIS E. TOWNLEY Scotia, N. Y.
Sirs:
. . . Mr. Roosevelt was a very charming Noah at Charlotte. I sat in the rain three hours awaiting him, and I think I'd gladly do it again. . .
C. B. KlRKLEY
Greer, S. C.
Sirs:
I couldn't live without you but never admired you more than when you spoke those few kind words about Mrs. Roosevelt, when she was bedridden, in your issue of Oct. 5.
My comment has no partisan bias, as I am not a Democrat, but Mrs. Roosevelt appears to be a grand old gal with a fine spirit, and an understanding heart, one who does not deserve the malicious things often said against her. So in the interests of justice and kindness, it was fine of you to give her a break.
EDITH L. LARCOMBE West Winfield, N. Y.
Troller's Votes
Sirs: As you may know Alaska has a coast line of about 30,000 miles and something like 5,000 fishermen out of a population of 60,000. Those 5,000 fishermen are to a great extent disfranchised under the Territory's election law.
The Territory has a provision giving the voter the right to cast an absentee vote, but it does not do much good as the absentee voter must appear before a U. S. Commissioner on a certain date one week before the election date in order to cast the vote. As a rule there are about a hundred miles of rough water separating those Commissioners.
To illustrate how it becomes inoperative I will cite how about 60 voters here at Deer Harbor lost their chance to vote this last election. They had a chartered boat laying here at Deer Harbor ready to take them to a voting place at Elfin Cove on Icy Strait, but on election day the Gulf of Alaska was in an angry mood--it may have been a grudge against the New Deal--and no boat could cross the bar.
The voters got together, called a meeting and selected a set of election officers and by using the candidates' sample ballots quite a number cast their vote. I suppose it will have to go to the wastepaper basket.
I also wonder what the Supreme Court would rule if the proceedings were brought before it. Perhaps five-to-four that a troller should not vote at all. JORGEN MORTENSEN
Sitka, Alaska
Local Jelly Beans
Sirs:
Inaccurate and contemptible as usual in your story of the American Legion convention at Cleveland! [TIME, Oct. 5.]
"Founded in Paris after the Armistice as a patriotic non-political body, it was in the process of becoming the greatest Treasury raiding machine the nation had ever seen." This because we have won a measure of economic justice from your masters! . . .
Much about "bibbing" Legionnaires, many of whom were local "jelly beans," and the Legionnaires you condemn were only a small percentage of the total number in Cleveland.
"The $1,900,000,000 bonus, its goal of years, had been won nine years before it was due." News or editorial on a falsehood? . . .
FRANK MILES
Editor
Iowa Legionnaire Des Moines, Iowa
Roughhouse
Sirs:
We in Cleveland are realizing that Donnybrook Fair was just an old maids' tea party: we're in the throes of another Legion roughhouse. The maudlin, impudent, vicious, and obscene nuisances being committed here are nothing short of a national disgrace. From disinterested Cleveland citizens I have heard only strong disapproval and condemnation.
I have read that in spite of mortality among members, the Legion has grown to about five times its original size. Will TIME enlighten its readers as to percentages of present Legionnaries who served over there, who served but didn't get across, and who are spurious? Also, which U. S. cities have banned future Legion conventions?
No doubt, with so many State Governors and big shots enrolled in the Legion mob, it is too much to hope that Congress will ever revoke the Legion charter; but at least we can look forward to the day when every major city will have decided to protect its people from further destruction of property, criminal attacks, intimidation, and indignity. For next year's convention, dear buddies, may I suggest the most inaccessible reaches of the Mojave Desert.
STEPHEN S. MAXSON
Cleveland, Ohio
Jealous Legionnaires
Sirs: On p. 14 of the Oct. 5 issue of TIME under Heroes you erroneously imply that President Roosevelt is a member of the American Legion when you say "A fellow-member, Franklin D.
Roosevelt, was already in the White House and another would take his place if Alf M. Landon should win." In order to keep the record straight I would refer you to a letter addressed to the Honorable Franklin D. Roosevelt by Representative Royal C. Johnson under date of Oct. 18, 1932 in which he says in part as follows: "As the member of the House of Representatives who introduced in Congress in 1919 a resolution creating the American Legion as a national and quasi governmental organization, and as one familiar with the constitution of the Legion, I must direct your attention to the fact that no individual is eligible for membership in the American Legion except those persons who served in the military or naval services of the United States during the period of the World War, and hold an honorable discharge from such service.
"As you were not in the military or naval services of the United States during the World War, and do not hold an honorable discharge therefrom, you cannot be a Legionnaire. Furthermore, there is no such thing as an honorary membership in the American Legion--nothing but active membership." I am bringing this to your attention primarily in the interest of accuracy, but more particularly because we Legionnaires are jealous of our membership in the organization and do not welcome a claim to such membership by one whose record consistently has been in opposition to veterans.
PAUL B. DAGUE Past Dept. Vice-Commander Department of Pennsylvania The American Legion Downingtown, Pa. When he was elected President in 1932, Franklin Roosevelt belonged not to one but three New York Legion posts: Fort Orange No. 30 (Albany); Montgomery No. 429 (Rhinebeck); Lafayette No. 37 (Poughkeepsie). He no longer considers himself a member of the Albany post, is still on the rolls of the other two, although by the Legion constitution, a member may not belong to more than one post.
Past Vice-Commander Dague to the contrary, every Legion post is the final judge of its members' eligibility. As War-time Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin Roosevelt convinced at least three posts he qualified as a past member of the U. S. armed forces.--ED.
Pride & Prowess
Sirs:
One certain way for your sterling publication to incur the enmity of Minnesotans is to ignore the accomplishments of the University of Minnesota football team.
Residents of this great State have become quite football-conscious in view of the prowess of our teams in recent years.
A sports event of real newsworthiness was the victory recently achieved over the University of Washington. Yet you mentioned nary a word about it in your issue of Oct. 5.
Is it possible that Eastern publications are still wont to minimize the accomplishments of a Midwestern team even though it might be defending a matter so local and provincial as a national championship?
S. HARRY GAINSLEY Minneapolis, Minn.
Let all football addicts take warning that TIME cannot issue a complete collegiate football box-score throughout the season. As in past years, TIME will try to give impartial attention to each section, select each week's most exciting, decisive or significant games. For news of the Minnesota team, let Reader Gainsley hush his complaints and turn to p. 72.--ED.
San Antonio Archdiocese Sirs:
In regard to "16th Archdiocese" in TIME, Oct. 5, ten years, not 43, have elapsed "since the creation of the 15th archdiocese, the Archdiocese of San Antonio. Of this province, formed from territory formerly under the jurisdiction of New Orleans, His Excellency, the Most Reverend Arthur Jerome Drossaerts, D.D. is Metropolitan. Its suffragan sees are Galveston, Dallas, Corpus Christi and Amarillo, Texas and the diocese of Oklahoma. Thus the city in which a permanent Catholic colony was established in 1731, 38 years before Father Junipero Serra first saw the site of Los Angeles, was raised to Archiepiscopal dignity but ten years earlier. . . .
J. M. RYAN
Austin, Tex.
Permit a slight correction in your article on the new archbishopric at Los Angeles (TIME, Oct. 5) where you say that "in 1769, Franciscan Father Junipero Serra with 75 Spanish soldiers and a gang of Mexican muleteers journeyed 900 mi. overland from Lower California to the Pacific, which they reached at the sandpit of San Diego. On Aug. 2, they forded a shallow river among sunburnt hills, discovered a village of unpromising heathens, named it for the feast day of Our Lady of the Angels and pushed on."
Father Serra did not accompany Caspar de Portola on the six-months march to the north, but remained for a year at his newly-established mission at San Diego, where scores of the Spaniards had died of the scurvy and native outbreaks were imminent. With the Portola party when it failed to find the Harbor of Monterey, discovered and named the California redwoods, and stumbled upon the unknown Bay of San Francisco, went Father Juan Crespi, missionary explorer and diarist of the expedition.
Incidentally, Father Crespi was the first Los Angeles booster of record, for he wrote in his diary that "This place has all the requisites for a large settlement." He noted also that the river bed was dry (they did not "ford" the stream), but that it gave evidence of great floods. F. W. ATKINSON
Publisher
Register and Pajaronian Watsonville, Calif.
Space for Taylor
Sirs:
If Arrow Aircraft's claim to 11,000 unfilled orders for a flivver plane rates space as news, Taylor Aircraft's more than 1,000 already-filled orders deserve a full page under Business.
While others planned a low-priced, easy-to-operate airplane, Taylor actually built one that has made flying obtainable to everyone from printer's devil to busy banker. The factory at Bradford, Pa. has increased its floor space three times since January and has stepped up production schedule from six a week to 20 a week and is still unable to keep pace with incoming orders. An auxiliary assembly plant operates at Long Beach, Calif, for the benefit of West Coast purchasers. This high-wing, 560-lb. monoplane is powered by a thoroughly proven 40 h. p. Continental Aircraft engine and has a top speed of 87 m. p. h. It lands slower than many people approach arterial stops. The cost to run it for one hour is less than 52-c-.
You'll find one or two, I'm sure, in the air above airports, in most towns of 25,000 or more population and you'll also find a line of anxious novice and professional wingmen waiting at the field for their turn at the controls. We think this easy-to-buy ($1,470), easy-to-finance ($490 down), easy-to-fly proven airplane is more news than the "expected great things" of other ambitious airplane producers.
JOSEPH F. DONOVAN
Manager
Palo Alto School of Aviation Palo Alto, Calif.
In Those Days
Sirs:
It's nothing to me who perpetrated the music of The Prisoner's Song. Some years ago, when it was heard on every radio program, I felt like inflicting physical violence upon all who tortured me with it. When I was 40 years younger than I am now, the same tune was sung to the following words:
"I wish I had someone to love me, Someone to call me her own; Someone to kiss and caress me: I'm tired of living alone."
In those days, it was all quite romantic; but in those days, we did not have radios; and people who emitted sour notes were not classified as crooners. We just laughed at them, and they faded out. The "Gay Nineties" had their points.
GEORGE ALBERT DROVIN
Philadelphia, Pa.
Sirs:
In the Oct. 5 issue, you have a discussion of the authorship of The Prisoner's Song. The same song, with the familiar music, has been sung in the mountains of north Georgia for at least 40 years. My mother and my grandmother sang it many years before 1924. The music and the general idea is the same as the modern version, but the words have been modernized. Other readers too will probably write giving more exact information of the true source and age of this song.
EDITH WYATT
Mount Berry, Ga.
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