Too Awful
Sirs:
I think I have read your journal from the initial issue and at times with a great deal of interest. Sometimes the scoops you have made, and the way in which you have made them, have really been a credit to journalism, hut I wonder what happened when you tried to write up the article in the Dec. 14 issue on the King and Mrs. Simpson. You tried to be funny, you tried to be almost everything, and succeeded in nothing. I do not know any better frustration in journalism than this article. It seemed now and then that you were really getting somewhere, but you always ended up by getting nowhere, and when you tried to describe Mr. Baldwin leaving his hat and getting overheated, it was just too much for any of us who knew Mr. Baldwin. Really it was awful.
GEORGE H. LOCKE
Chief Librarian
The Public Library of Toronto Toronto, Ont.
Masterpiece Sirs:
Your report of the British monarch's abdication in your Dec. 21 issue was one of your masterpieces. It was accurate (according to my best information). It was unprejudiced. And I prophesy that history will view the affair with the same perspective you have so ably employed.
HUGH BULLOCK
New York City
Moved
Sirs: Despite being a long TIME subscriber, a LIFE charter member, a reader of my brother's FORTUNE,an enthusiastic listener to "March of Time," I've never before told TIME how good I think it is because I'm no writer of letters-to-the-editor.
But I am moved to offer my congratulations by TIME'S achieving the impossible in outdoing itself. I refer to the Edward-Simpson resume in the Dec. 21 issue. For writing, for journalism, for wit, for rationality, it is, I think, unsurpassed in its field. I had become so fed up with the hysterical, pathetic, impassioned and -- warped newspaper accounts of this now famous imbroglio that I've not bought a paper for several weeks.
Not, in fact, since I returned from England where 1 am familiar enough with people of all classes to realize that TIME has caught the reactions of the British public far more accurately and honestly than any other publication or paper. Concerning the reactions of New York movie audiences, let me say that their inclinations are usually painful to civilized people. Characterized by sloppy sentiment, curious changeability, delirium and misplaced loyalties, they are not the reactions of the British masses. After all, the majority of the British people are not those who stand in the streets and yell, and I feel that, while saddened by the necessity of Mr. Baldwin's course, they none the less understand and approve it. ...
ALONA FRIEND
Boston, Mass.
Master to Bishop Sir:
Had Bishop Edwin Holt Hughes (TIME, Dec.
21) delved a little deeper into the history of venery he might have learned that the "Blessing of Hounds" is a very ancient custom, handed down from the days when the stag, the roedeer, the boar, and the hare were the chief sources of supply for the winter larder, and their capture depended very largely upon the qualifications of the hounds which brought them down. Similarly, in certain European countries the blessing of crops and fields at the time of sowing, of vineyards, and of fishing vessels still prevails.
And were the good Bishop more familiar with modern fox-hunting he would know that preserving foxes, rather than killing them, is the major concern of most organized hunts. In America, where earth stopping is not practised, when a fox is hard pressed he goes to ground,-- (''hole" to you. Bishop, Matthew 8:20, and Luke 9:58), --and lives to run another day. The real object of a foxhunter is not to kill a fox, but to observe the wonderful skill and perseverance of a well-trained pack of hounds after a quarry conceded to be the most cunning, the most baffling, and the most difficult of capture of any four-footed animal; and second, to enjoy a healthy gallop across country, which is not without its hazards.
During my 25 years of fox-hunting I have been present at a few kills, but never have I beheld a woman, either decent or indecent, holding aloft a fox's brush (or tail, to the Bishop), with the field of 30 or 40 yelling "Trophy.
Trophy." If fox-hunting were as Bishop Hughes describes it, then ''God save us," but, thank God, it ain't.
STERLING LARRABEE Master of Hounds The Old Dominion Hounds Flint Hill, Ya.
Man of God
Sirs: TIME'S reporting of the Shepard award to Evangelist Harry Ironside [TIME, Dec. 14] is of particular interest to those who knew this outstanding Fundamentalist during his years in Oakland.
That Ironside demands no fixed fee for his services is no news to those who remember that his family was supported for many a year by his earnings in a small local book shop. After a full day's labor Ironside would preach evenings and still find time to prepare three services for Sunday.
Plymouth Brethren do not ordain ministers-- TIME errs slightly but will be promptly forgiven if it will continue to report activities of this mighty, self-sacrificing man of God whose life and faith have been an inspiration to thousands.
BRUCE McCoLLUM
Oakland, Calif.
Besodden Heart
Sirs: It did my besodden heart good to read your fine account of Tractman Ironside in the Dec.
14 issue. Now deep in Hollywood sin, I still recall my Plymouth Brethren upbringing when old Ironside used to swing it out from the pulpit in Oakland, Calif. He could swing it, too. Good as Joe Yenutti when he gets in the groove.
Ironside used the total immersion system-- used to put on hip boots and dunk converts and some who didn't want to come in just then but who slid to Jesus on his bass notes. He used to circulate queasy looking gents through the oddie who'd tap you when you were just going good, say, on "Blood of the Lamb," and ask you to put in with The Faith. One of those guys gave me the rap once and I was about to hop over when my brother hissed a "Beat it," out of the side of his mouth without missing a bar of the hymn. The guy beat it, too. So I never was saved. But if it ever happened I'd like Ironside to be in on it. He lays it solid. ROBERT FENDER
Paramount Studio Hollywood Confusing Sirs: In the Dec. 14 issue of TIME, on p. 60, col. 3, under Art, you state that "there is the able Italian Giorgio de Chirico, who, besides his familiar studies. ..." In the Dec. 14 issue of LIFE, on p. 27, under the reproduction of The Sailors' Barracks, by Italy's Giorgio de Chirico, is the remark that "The colonnade is her trademark." Now, admitting that de Chirico is Italian, an artist, and interested in horses and colonnades, I am curious to know whether "he is a she or she is a he." It is rather confusing, you must admit.
RICHARD B. ALMY
Auburn, New York
Giorgio de Chirico is a man.--ED.
Double Interest Sirs:
Your article, TIME, Dec. 7, under People interests me doubly.
Whether porters become "Porter" or merely cease being "George," I remain
GEORGE PORTER
Wallingford, Conn. Georges v. Electromaster
Sirs: Your issue of Dec. 7 failed to mention that the S. P. C. P. G.* is a trifle more than a "joke," that it does everything in its power to help "George," that its last known public appearance was in the U. S. Patent Office in July 1930. Electromaster, Inc., manufacturing cleaning and scouring powder, intended to market the product under the trade-mark of "Let George Do It" and for that purpose filed a trade-mark application. Opposition #10833 was filed by the Society. The Notice of Opposition recites that the society is "unincorporated under the laws of all States and having an office and place of business at in West Monroe St., Chicago, Illinois, not to mention the B. & O., the D. L. & W., the Santa Fe and points west." Four grounds for opposition are set forth; the second goes as follows: "The mark which we are opposing comprises the hateful admonition, 'Let George Do It'.
Now it is doubtless true that the Georges have performed most of the useful work of the world since the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, but the facile and facetious manner in which responsibility is delegated to us by Tom, Dick and Harry and others too lazy and too incompetent to assume it themselves is decidedly irksome to us Georges. . . . Besides, why should George do it?" . . .
In its answer, Electromaster, Inc. reserved "advantage of exceptions which can or may be had or taken to errors, insufficiencies, uncertainties, misstatements, ambiguities, witticisms, and imperfections in the Notice of Opposition contained." The answer continued to state that "Respondent denies that Opposer has a place of business at in West Monroe Street, Chicago, Illinois--the address given is in a respectable section of the city. Respondent has made due and diligent search to locate Opposer's place of business on the B. & O., the D. L. & W., and the Santa Fe, said search having covered all except the draw bars, and has also investigated 'points west' and has been unable to locate Opposer or any of its members and therefore denies that the Opposer or any of its members even exist.
"Respondent denies that the trade-mark 'Let George Do It' is a hateful admonition; and further denies that the Georges have performed most of the work of the world, or any material part thereof, or that any of it has been of any value to humanity, and demands strict proof thereof. Further answering, Respondent is not concerned, or in any manner interested, excited, pleased or horrified regarding the responsibilities delegated to the Georges by Tom, Dick and Harry, or any others, or that such responsibilities are decidedly irksome to the said Georges, because they have a way of avoiding the seriousness thereof. Besides, why shouldn't George do it? ...
"Opposer's legal capacity to oppose Respondent's application is hereby denied. Opposer's humorous capacity is admitted." In its Reply the Society stated, inter alia, "Oh well, let the applicant have its way. We have no desire to engage in acrimonious debate. . . . We laugh in scorn at the suggestion that we do not even exist. Twenty-thousand strong we laugh--Ha Ha! (ironic laughter). We have our traditions to uphold. A George never engages in acrimonious debate--well, hardly ever.
But we warn you . . . George will not do it.
P-o-s-i-t-i-v-e-l-y not. On this we'll take our stand. Register your old trade-mark if you will, but don't expect us to help you. . . ." For further reference to this case see the Journal of the Patent Office Society, May 1936, P. 369-HENRY GOLDHOR
Newark, N. J.
Discouraging Organization
Sirs: Your issue of TIME dated Dec. 7, p. 80, re The Society for the Prevention of Calling Sleeping Car Porters "George." I wonder how many of your readers know of an organization whose purpose it is to discourage the use of a distinguished Christian name to designate an endroit which invites not even the slightest thought of anything distinguished; I have reference to "The Society for the Prevention of Calling Lavatories John." The Society is of Detroit origin and confine, but it may be that mention of its existence in TIME will prompt the organization of companion chapters in other centers--perhaps even a national unit.
JOHN W. MACNEV
President
"Society for the Prevention of Calling Lavatories John" Detroit, Mich.
Schneider Pupil Sirs:
Congratulations at last for an intelligent account of skiing activity (p. 31, Dec. 21). . . .
My satisfaction with the worth of Hannes Schneider as an instructor lies in the fact that in 1927, though I had never before seen a ski-binding, I managed to beat all others at Dartmouth except one member of the team in the slalom. Before snow fell I had found a book of excerpts from Schneider's The Wonders of Skiing in the library, had absorbed the feel of his technique from the photographs without understanding one word of the German text.
Never forget that the Charles Proctors
(father and son) of Hanover, N. H., and Boston are the best-informed on U. S. skiing--their modesty possibly to the contrary.
ROBERT O. BAUMRUCKER River Forest, Ill.
Trotsky Melange
Sirs:
Your article on Leon Trotsky in the issue of Dec. 28 is a melange of vacuity, stupidity and bourgeois sneers. It was written either out of sheer ignorance, for certain statements and implications have no grounds in fact, or what is more probable, a desire to belittle a movement that will some day sweep you and yours, if I may indulge in a little prophecy, off the face of this planet. I can appreciate your fear but not your attempt to fool others.
Even to suggest that there may be some rapprochement between Stalin and Trotsky indicates a lack of knowledge of this most important of all conflicts in the revolutionary movement; Stalin, the great organizer of defeats for the proletariat, who symbolizes National Socialism at the expense of the world proletariat and the world revolution, and Trotsky, who symbolizes revolutionary international socialism and the fight for world revolution. Even the most wily dialectician (and Comrades Editors, I have grave doubts that the second word in that description applies to you) could not reconcile these two diametrically opposed tenets of action. . . .
ROBERT SHAW Newark, N. J.
Stalin's Stooge? Sirs:
. . . This piece is openly provocative and cannot be interpreted in any other way than calling for Trotsky's assassination. You need only give the implements of assassination to the assassin to complete the task. . . .
DAVID UDELL Boston, Mass.
Sirs: ... I protest vehemently against your vicious call to the Stalinites to murder Trotsky.
They intend to do it no doubt, but your Jesuitic reasoning makes them more anxious to succeed. I never realized your tendencies, but now your fascist horns and tail become visible.
That despicable statement you made about Trotsky will be an eye opener to many of your readers--but it will swell also the numbers of those who will do all to protect Trotsky's life.
ANTOINETTE F. KONIKOW, M. D.
Boston, Mass.
No stooge of Stalin is TIME, and if Trotsky is also no stooge of Stalin, Reader Antoinette Konikow will do well to mobilize the Friends of Trotsky to protect him in turbulent. pro-Stalin Mexico. If he is Stalin's stooge, he will be safe in Mexico and that was TIME'S point. So far as World Revolution is concerned the position of Joseph Stalin is that his left hand constantly assists the Comintern led by Dimitroff to foment World Revolution, while his right assists the Soviet diplomacy of Litvinoff to maintain nominally friendly relations with Capitalist countries. Everyone knows that Stalin and Trotsky profess to be each other's worst enemies, but notably in Spain the disruptive activity of Trotskyists was a direct prelude to the arrival and success of Stalinists who have now taken charge in Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona. The ambiguous relations of Stalin and Trotsky produced the highly ambiguous Moscow Old Bolsheviks Trial (TIME, Aug. 31) of which English Professor Henry Noel Brailsford wrote that it was based on "three manifest impossibilities." Watching the trial, New York Times Correspondent Harold Denny cabled "This correspondent confesses that the psychology of these prisoners, ardently condemning themselves, baffles him."--ED.
*Society for the Prevention of Calling Sleeping Car Porters "George".
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.