Coarse Libel
Sirs:
I am not in the habit of contradicting fairy tales, when they are amusing and inoffensive. But the fantastic letter published in TIME on Feb. 1 and signed Helen Dore Boylston compels me to send you an answer. It is said in the letter published by you that the King of Albania was and is still married to the daughter of Shefqet Bey Elbasani, a great landowner. This is a libel of the coarsest type. The King was once engaged to the lady in question, but the engagement was ended by mutual consent. She after wards married Djemil Bey Dino, the present Envoy of Albania to Bulgaria, and is happily living with her husband at the Albanian Legation in Sofia. For those people who are willing to learn something, and the breed is not yet quite extinct, I will add that bigamy is in Albanian law a felony punishable by penal servitude.
F. KONITZA
Minister of Albania Albanian Legation
Washington, D. C.
To His Majesty King Zog I of Albania and to His Excellency Faik bey Konitza, TIME's apologies for reprinting in its Letters column a long current untruth.--ED.
Wesleyan's Soong
Sirs:
Many Georgia women cannot understand frequent references to Madame Chiang Kai-shek as a Wellesley alumna when they remember her as a student at Wesleyan College, Macon, Ga. Here are the facts:
Madame Chiang, as Mei-ling Soong, graduated from Wellesley College at Wellesley, Mass., in 1917, as you state in your issue of Jan. 25. She came to Macon, Ga., however, as a little girl of 10 with her sisters. (Madame H. H. Kung, Soong Eling, graduated at Wesleyan in 1909; Madame Sun Yatsen, Soong Ching-ling, in 1913.)
Too young to enter college, Mei-ling was allowed to make her home in the college dormitory. Her name appears in the matriculation book with her sisters' names in 1908: "Mei-ling Soong, Shanghai, China, aged 10." She was privately tutored by a member of the faculty, Miss Margie Burks. During the next four years she spent most of her time under the tutelage of Miss Burks. One year she was at school at Demorest, Ga., in a junior college. In 1912-13 she was regularly enrolled as a freshman at Wesleyan College, and successfully completed the work of this class.
The following year, both older sisters having returned to China, Mei-ling went to Wellesley. One of her brothers was studying at Harvard at the time, and the family wished her to be nearer him.
Of her nine years as a student in America, five were spent in Georgia, most of this time at Wesleyan College, though only one as a regular college student.
EUNICE THOMSON
Alumnae Editor
Wesleyan College
Macon, Ga.
Spray 'Em, Admiral!
Sirs:
A long-suffering public hopes that Admiral Byrd WILL DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! He need never, on any occasion, be mistaken for a bellhop, a street car conductor or train caller [TIME, Jan. 25]. He can avoid such embarrassing moments by merely following the precedent set for him by those men whose stripes or stars or whatnots are the result of long and arduous service: No officer on the retired list wears a uniform, any time, any where. His uniform automatically retires with his active status. No officer on the active list wears a uniform while traveling. In fact, he never wears a uniform off the station or post unless it is unavoidable. Admiral Byrd, apparently, does not possess this "passion for anonymity." But we might point out that even publicity-hungry, head-scratching Smedley Butler manages to pursue his racket of lecturing on "War is a Racket" in civilian clothes with not one of his five medals in sight. Spray 'em with Larvex, Admiral, and pack 'em in mothballs!
KELCEY DEANE
Key West, Fla.
Chapter 1. Paragraph 10, of the Navy's Uniform Regulations states that a retired officer is entitled to wear his uniform if called to active service, has the option of wearing it at other times.--ED.
Kindly Treatment
Sirs:
Under People in TIME, Jan. 25, you have an item about Admiral Byrd, which needs a slight correction. It is true he did arrive ahead of schedule, and some of the committee who were to meet him came after he did, but we knew him at once. However, while we were talking with him, a Salvation Army lass came up with a ticket in her hand and wanted some information about trains. Although we joked about it, we all were impressed by his courteous and kindly treatment of the lady. How different some of the travelers, that stop off from Hollywood and New York, would have treated a similar incident.
W. R. KIMBALL
Ogden, Utah.
Pride & Profit
Sirs:
With further reference to my letter of Dec. 29 and the article which you ran in your Magazine under the title "Associated Press v. Coffee-Pot" [TIME, Dec. 28].
My knowledge of the industry tells me that the term "coffee grinder" refers to a station low in power and small in size, but so faf as I know, it has never had any colloquial meaning with reference to the character or reputation of the station.
Counsel advises me that your footnote explaining the meaning of, as you say, "coffee-pot." to wit: "low in . . . prestige," is libelous per se. Reference to an unabridged dictionary for the words "prestige" and "low" leads me to feel that if the facts are not as stated by counsel to me, they should be.
I wonder if you would be good enough to make a suitable retraction, in view of the fact that because of the proceedings before the FCC to which your article referred, such a disparaging remark will have a very important bearing on the future of my business, which, in spite of all your correspondent may have led you to believe, is considered by me to be an honorable business from which I take both pride and profit.
ROGAN JONES
Radio Station KVOS
Aberdeen, Wash.
Like Abou ben Adhem
Sirs:
When it comes right down to grievances because of the abuse of given names in this country, I feel, like Abou ben Adhem, all those with my name should head the list. The Georges, the Johns and the Fannys really don't know what it means to blush.
(Miss) PANSY GALLAGHER
Philadelphia, Pa.
"Watch Me"
Sirs:
Your issue of Jan. 11 paid me a compliment, but was not accurate in one respect. . . . t said . . . that I had retired [from the superintendency of the International Reform Federation] and failed to note that I had been elected to be President and that larger powers had been voted to the President than formerly to any President of the Federation.
Of course, your statement that I had retired has not made it so, neither does your compliment, that for ten years I have been the Ex-officio No. 1 U. S. Reformer, make it so. . . .
I have not yet retired. Watch me and see. The statement that we have an endowment of $250,000, would, if it were true, cut off the support of the small givers, who for 42 years have been the backbone of our aggressive organization.
Whoever told you that we had that sum, grossly exaggerated the fact. We have a small endowment much less than half that sum, just enough to attract sensible givers, who wish to give to a going concern, nonpartisan, courageous and non-purchasable, always alert to tackle the paramount issue. We are. able to do a vast work, if we had an endowment of a million.
WM. SHEAFE CHASE
President & Editor in Chief
International Reform Federation
Washington, D. C.
Chelan's Location
Sirs:
In the Jan. 25 issue of TIME, your reporter erred in "Townsend Test" article when he states: "Chelan, a Main-Street town of 2,000 population perched high above the Columbia River, some 90 miles northeast of Grand Coulee Dam."
Chelan is situated at the outlet of Lake Chelan, about four miles west of Columbia River and about 90 miles (air line) southwest of Grand Coulee Dam, is about 1,200 feet above sea level. The general description your reporter gave of this beautiful eastern Washington pleasure resort and diversified farming district will prove very distasteful to many loyal Washingtonians who are aware of the regal beauties and productive resources abounding in Lake Chelan district (not in "broad Chelan Valley," because there is no valley in the district that has a width of more than 4 miles). . . .
JOHN A. MILLER
Walla Walla, Wash.
Definition
Sirs:
Will you kindly furnish a definition of the word "stooge" which I see frequently in your columns? I can find it in no dictionary.
R. H. SWITZLER
St. Louis, Mo.
Stooge is defined on page 2,484 of Webster's New International Dictionary as "a foil, esp. for a comedian. Theatr. Slang." --ED.
Chopper's Bottle
Sirs:
TIME [Jan. 18] rightly terms Warner Brothers' recent release, God's Country and the Woman a topnotch picture--perhaps the best of all color productions to date. TIME errs, however, in referring to one outstanding shot as the nonchalant removal of a water bottle from the notch of a falling tree. Our representative during the filming, who served as technical adviser for the tractor-logging shots, and other of our representatives who have had world wide observation of logging operations, assure us that the bottle is not a water bottle--nor does it contain what might be your second guess. It is a common item of the equipment of the tree faller and contains oil to lubricate the saw and dissolve the gum or pitch.
G. M. WALKER
Advertising Manager
Caterpillar Tractor Co.
Peoria, Ill.
No Such Country
Sirs:
TIME errs in captioning the column about the Soviet Union "Russia." There is no such country, has not been since the Revolution. While the official title "Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics" is rather lengthy, surely "Soviet Union" is curt enough.
CHARLES A. RASKINS
Cambridge, Mass.
Let Reader Raskins inspect the latest Statesman's Yearbook in which he will find: "Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (Russia)." In a hair-splitting sense, the late Nicholas II was not Tsar of Russia, but "Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias." Romanov courtiers emphasized that "only ignorant foreigners call our Emperor the Tsar."--ED.
Where? How Much?
Sirs:
The usual, expected, appreciated mop-up job on Trotsky appeared TIME, Jan. 25. But you didn't (nor anyone else) say where he gets the funds to carry on with wife, secretaries, etc. Where? How Much?
A. C. DEVINSLOW New York City
Leon Trotsky is presumably supported by contributions from his followers, and by his pen. Publishers' Catalogue lists 23 Trotsky books and brochures on sale since 1928 and Trotsky is continually busy writing for periodicals.--ED.
Man of the Week
Sirs:
As a charter subscriber to TIME and as an inhabitant of partially inundated Cincinnati, I feel I may suggest that the Man of the Week whose authoritative face should appear on the cover of TIME, is Clarence Dykstra, City Manager of Cincinnati in normal times, Disaster Administrator in flood.
As I write, the only water in my house has been brought in. I have runs in my stockings because the great department stores, high and dry, have been closed for a week to conserve electricity, as a sanitary measure, and to keep people off the streets. My entire household is having typhoid immunization as the Board of Health suggests. There is an old oil lamp on my mantel, a candle on my table. At 4 p.m. I will turn off my electric ice box until 10 p.m. when I may turn it on again. When dark comes we will use only one small bulb and the radio.
Outside, a street car stands on the track where it was stopped early in the week to save electricity. My bath tub is full of water for what we know in these days as "flushing." Three blocks away in the centre of my hilltop suburb is an enormous black iron tank with Legionnaires in charge, where I may get water. We boil it, we boil all water, as Mr. Dykstra instructs, but water has been provided. We are using again at the request of the City Hall, canned vegetables instead of fresh to save water.
I am not alarmed, none of my neighbors are alarmed. So simply, so efficiently have adjustments been made by Mr. Dykstra that life is a little inconvenient but about as usual. In the first stages of high water we citizens were tactfully and explicitly informed by Mr. Dykstra as to what was going on, what to do, how to cooperate through the mediums of the radio and the Press.
You may say it was the co-operation of individuals, public utilities, professions, radio, press, industry, commerce, transportation, amusements, Red Cross, Salvation Army, other organizations, and not Mr. Dykstra. But you can't cooperate in chaos. Mr. Dykstra as City Manager knew all factors, all agencies, their place and capacities, and as such was properly made Disaster Administrator. He appointed a Central Disaster Committee and they, representative of all groups, functioning with City Hall, have seen that each group has had its place and each emergency has been met without overlapping, confusion or bombastic gestures.
Most citizens are at home today and have been all week, at Mr. Dykstra's request that streets be clear for food and relief, and police be free to attend flooded areas. We are watching fire in our homes with care as has been requested because engines and pumpers are needed in the Basin where gas tanks have been undermined and gasoline released by the flood, also because the Water Works, built high above flood danger, are inundated today.
We are also at home because overenthusiastic helpers in emergency are a problem in themselves. No one's feelings have been hurt but we have been given to understand that we can help most by staying at home and will be called if we are needed. If ever there was sure evidence of the value of a City Manager and the City Manager form of government, this great, quiet, unexcited municipality . . would be proof.
HELEN MACDONALD AVERY
Cincinnati, Ohio
Caveat Editor
Sirs:
More than one testator will be disappointed as a result of your sweeping dictum of Feb. 1 under Law. If your John Doe willed and died in New England (except Rhode Island), or in South Carolina, Georgia and perhaps Louisiana, the instrument would be denied probate. The first seven states definitely require three disinterested witnesses for all local wills. Two witnesses only and it is no will. No such indulgence as is often seen in cases of interpretation is granted when the existence of a will is in issue. This is not error-subject news reporting but pure matter of fact--and in the leading paragraph. No doubt you check all these characteristic color statements against some recognized authority. Your "Law" editor should know, however, that there is no one authority for his subject. He takes a 48-to-1 chance every time he relies on knowledge of his own state and has not a sure thing even when supported by a "Uniform State Act." Caveat Editor . . .
GEORGE G. BECKETT
Boston, Mass.
TIME's simplified will was intended for New York State where an interpretation was asked by Philadelphia Lawyer Fridenberg.--ED.
Triple Negative
Sirs:
Did TIME err grammatically, or is there some explanation for the sentence on p. 16, third column under the sub-caption "Super-Mob" (TIME, Feb. 1), "if his crusade fulfills the promise of its first 18 months, no U. S. city can remain unconvinced that it need tolerate rackets no longer than it wants to." In my five years as a TIME reader, I've never before found you guilty of such an atrocious breach of acceptable English.
MRS. C. I. WURSTER
Denver, Colo.
Accepted: Merited rebuke, not for a grammatical error, but for an atrocious triple negative.--ED.
Little Gleam
Sirs:
Dyspeptic Tom Carlyle said that Life was a little gleam of Time. Let LIFE'S editors allow that little gleam to percolate, then would LIFE not err as in the Jan. 25 issue, p. 16. Caption: "On his desk one morning the President found an invitation to his own inauguration. He had this special card (regret) engraved, added a note, gleefully sent it to Admiral Grayson."
TIME, Jan. 25, p. 9, "When this . . . official invitation turned up on his desk, President Roosevelt let out a roar of delight. . . . Back from Chief Rockwell came a sheet of White House stationery, on which the White House's veteran penman, Adrian Barclay Tolley had traced in spidery Spencerian the following message." Then follows the message reproduced in LIFE which LIFE says the President had expensively engraved.
Anyway the delighted President gleefully roared.
Next time let LIFE take TIME by the forelock.
ROY DICKINSON
President
Printers' Ink Publishing Company
New York City
In describing the manner in which President Roosevelt conveyed his prankish message to the Inaugural Committee, LIFE was wrong and TIME was not altogether right. Penman Tolley, who fills in the name blanks on engraved White House invitations so artfully that printing and writing are indistinguishable, penned the reply in Script, not Spencerian.--ED.
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