King's Ordeal

Sirs:

How do you get a King to pose for his photograph for TIME'S cover (Leopold of Belgium, Nov. 22)--particularly a colored photograph ? I've always understood that taking a colored photograph meant several hours' hard work for the sitter, and considering the divinity which hedges a King how does he put up with such an ordeal?

ALBERT G. PETTINGILL

San Francisco, Calif.

Reader Pettingill senses the truth. Although permission to photograph King Leopold III in color had not been granted by the Royal Chancellory even to leading Belgian illustrated magazines, recently His Majesty graciously agreed to sit for a color photograph. TIME'S Photographers Leigh Irwin and Nicholas Langen arrived one morning at the Royal Palace with 16 suitcases of equipment. One of the King's aides met them, ushered them into the King's 40-ft. by 60-ft. study where, with the active assistance of palace servants and electricians, they spent a busy half-hour setting up their camera and six batteries of lights (each containing seven flash bulbs), so as to provide exactly the best lighting effects on anyone sitting in the King's chair. At precisely the appointed hour the King entered through his private door. He shook hands, chatted in English and French with the photographers, showed that he knew the rudiments of color photography. Then he sat down at his desk. In three minutes with His Majesty at his desk, Irwin & Langen made the final nice adjustments of their equipment, set their camera for an exposure of 1 50th second and shot. The flash bulbs went off with a loud explosion and a blinding flash--they were made for 110 volts and the palace circuit carried 220 volts. The apologetic photographers explained that something had gone wrong. The King amiably agreed to pose again provided there would not be another such explosion. He left the room and returned in ten minutes after adjustments had been made. Another three minutes posing, better behaved flash bulbs and the picture which TIME selected for its cover was taken.--ED.

Mind on Game

Sirs:

Re letter of Mr. V. A. Robertson, TIME, Nov. 22, p. 8.

Did TIME have its mind on the game when it selected this picture [of Helen Wills Moody in action]? Or on something else?

LAURENCE S. MORRISON

Hartford, Conn.

TIME had its mind on reporting the news--in this case, the career of an energetic sportswoman, both of whose feet were seldom on the ground while she was playing tennis.--ED.

Noses in News

Sirs:

May I question the accurateness of your nose for news?

After an evening of research at the dinner table, it has been decided the facial postures of Drenchers Litvinoff and Eden (TIME, Nov. 22, p. 21) are not due to any political, social, or cultural affiliations of either, but rather to the stage of tea drinking reached by each. It would seem that "Red Litvinoff" is on his first cautious sip from a full cup of tea while "Tory Eden" is draining the dregs. Let TIME'S Editor try and finish a cup of tea without putting his nose into it.

MRS. SAMUEL GOULD

Chicago, Ill.

There is no telling what people will do when in their tea cups.--ED.

No Services

Sirs:

In TIME'S Judiciary article appearing in the Nov. 15 issue, it is brought out that the Supreme Court by a 5 to 4 majority held that a $10,000 gift made to an employe for "valuable and loyal service" in 1931 was not taxable as income.

This is quite contrary to the conclusion reached by the Court. The Court pointed out that the taxpayer never was an employe of the Unopco Corp. and that the stipulated fact was that the disbursements were not made or intended to be made for any service rendered or to be rendered, or for any consideration given or to be given by any of the recipients to the Unopco Corp. or to any of its stockholders. . . .

M. Z. MCGILL

Philadelphia, Pa.

Reader McGill is correct. TIME erred in following the reports of the Associated Press and United Press which gave a mistaken impression. The case concerned a gift voted by stockholders of one corporation to employes of an other corporation, part of whose assets the first corporation had acquired but whose stock had been sold to a third party. Since the employes in question did not work for the stockholders who voted them money, the Court held that the money could not be considered a payment for services.--ED.

Beaus v. Beaux

Sirs:

Not once, but twice! ''Beaus." My Webster's says "beaux." Which?

MARIE LEONCE WALL Thomasville, Ga.

Let French-born Marie Leonce Wall read H. W. Fowler's Modern English Usage for the Anglicized version.--ED.

Back to Front

Sirs :

Did you ever stop to consider what a subscriber means when he says he is a cover to cover reader? Which cover comes first? I have often discussed with my friends the actual mechanics of reading TIME. It amused me to find that nine out of ten women read TIME backwards. That is, they start with Books and read toward National Affairs.

I say this amuses me because in the good old days Books was much better reading than National Affairs. However, with the President saying "Hey-Hey" while his son shines, nothing could be better reading than your opening column.

GERTRUDE G. LEVISON San Francisco, Calif.

Sirs:

. . . I'm only fifteen and a Sophmore in high school, but both LIFE and TIME are often discussed in school and it's pretty nice to have them in your home.

I'll admit I don't read TIME as much as I do LIFE, but I try it and I do like Medicine and Miscellany. The only thing I don't like about TIME is the way it is written. What I mean by this is the words you use. All of them are so long you don't seem to take consideration of kids like me who aren't quite as smart as you are.

The fact is I know lots of older people who grumble about it, too. That's why I decided to write this letter. Of course I know this letter won't do any good, but now that I have had my say I will keep quiet.

ELEANOR CHASE Coronado, Calif.

Queer Feeling

Sirs:

We are wondering whether you would be interested in copy of a letter written by the President of Muller & Phipps (China) Ltd. to the Muller & Phipps New York office under date of Sept. 29, which date, you may perhaps remember, was that of a very heavy attack on Shanghai by the Japanese forces. . . .

J. M. HANDLEY

Sales Promotion Department Muller & Phipps (Asia) Ltd. New York City

"Dear Harry:

"For the first time since the 'trouble' started on Aug. 13 Ed Easley and I played golf. Place: Inside race course in heart of Shanghai. Time: Sunday, Sept. 26, 9.00 a.m. Par 35, 9 holes. Unusual hazards. Eight bombers over Pootung--bombs dropping--anti-aircraft gun fire, machine gun fire, screeching sirens of ambulances on Bubbling Well Road. Scores: Rotten.

"Personal--Queer feeling Ed had the day Wing On and Sincere were bombed. I had left the office at 12:15 p.m. with Y. T. Lee for Wing On's. The bombing took place at 1 :05 p. m. Ed thought I had lingered at Wing On's. To satisfy himself called up the house and was relieved when I answered the phone.

"Queer feelings Ed and I had when we found that the same plane dropped a dud 500-lb. bomb in a warehouse not over 150 yards from where our offices are located.

"Queer feeling Virginia had when I phoned her during an air raid and announced that I was at St. Marie's hospital. I had visited there to contact and help to evacuate two Catholic sisters. They left here on the President Hoover. I took them to the Customs Jetty. Their departure was heralded by a Chinese plane and Japanese antiaircraft fire. Virginia today received a phone call from one of the remaining American sisters who stated that the evacuees had left for the States from Manila on the President Hoover which you know was bombed. One of the sisters died in San Francisco the day after landing. . . .

"The queer feeling one gets when huddled in a doorway while shrapnel is bursting overhead.

"The queer feeling you get as at present when the Japanese planes are bombing Pootung not over 600 yd. from where I am sitting.

"The queer feeling we had when Virginia and I saw a Japanese plane burst in the air and disappear in a huge cloud of black smoke which in dissolving showed us tiny silver like pieces of the fuselage as they fluttered to earth.

"That queer feeling our chauffeur had when he heard a 'smack' and discovered an anti-aircraft bullet not over 10 yd. from where he was standing in front of our apartment. . . .

"What a queer feeling when from the windows of your apartment you hear the roar of a Chinese plane--hear the Japanese anti-air craft guns-- see the red and white tracer bullets some of which seem to be coming in your direction--to see the searchlight of the Japanese ships trying to pick up the plane and later actually seeing the Chinese plane not over 250 yd. from your apartment. . . .

"But all the above is picayune compared to that feeling which we who have lived long here have when we see our business destroyed, home broken up, civilians living like distressed cattle, civilians killed and maimed by bombings. . . .

WALTER J. KELLEY"

On No Maps

Sirs :

I was ready to mail my check for a lifetime subscription when, upon reading your book review on p. 80 of the issue of Nov. 22, I found you referring to Spoon River as a "middlewestern small town." This caused me to consult all of the available maps, atlases, directories, and hand books to locate the "town." I even prevailed upon a battery of reference librarians, beseeching them to find the place. All of us are wondering where this "town" is. I fear you have defamed the State of my adoption! To create a town by this name in the columns of your journal is as erroneous as to place Cape Cod near the Presidio of San Francisco, or Independence Hall in Los Angeles. . . .

JOHN A. KINNEMAN Department of Social Sciences Illinois State Normal University Normal, Ill.

Reader Kinneman may mail his check. TIME distinctly said that Spoon River was a town on every American literary map, distinctly pointed out it was "unmentioned in geographies."--ED.

Commission Omission

Sirs:

Reader McNulty makes his point in his letter to you (TTME, Nov. 22) that SECommission is difficult to pronounce at sight.

Permit me to suggest SE Commission, to make my point--that your new SEC Commission means Securities & Exchange Commission Commission.

ALEXANDER L. ABBOTT New York City

Sirs:

Shouldn't there be an omission and less commission in your SEC Commission?

FRANCIS A. COONEY Arlington, Mass.

TIME will henceforth omit unnecessary commissions.--ED.

Small Sects Large

Sirs:

In the report of Dr. Clark's book. Small Sects in America, TIME (Nov. 22] mentions some interesting and odd facts about the more eccentric sects, but fails to mention his far more newsworthy comments.

For example, the combined membership of these sects in America is approximately 10,000,000. . . . The appeal of these sects, according to Dr. Clark, is to the economically disinherited. And when these sects begin to ape the larger denominations their member ship dwindles, and new sects spring up as refuges for the poor.

Such statements are quite a jolt to our respectable consciences when we ponder the implication. Why do 10,000,000 poor and needy shun the ministry of our beautiful and costly churches? . . .

As compared with the above mentioned figures, my own denomination seems small indeed: 1,030,029 church members. . . .

CHARLES S. SOWDER Minister First Parish Congregational Church Wiscasset, Me.

Figure of Speech

Sirs:

Re the picture of Mark Sullivan's secretary and the description of her as "a sedate greying personage with tortoise-shell glasses and schoolteacherish appearance . . ." [TIME, Nov. 22]. In its application of "schoolteacherish" TIME is guilty of perpetuating an anachronism. TIME should visit school.

CLOYES T. GLEASON Hanover, Mass.

Man of the Year

Sirs:

For Man of the Year I modestly nominate myself. I am neither monarch, dictator, Fuehrer, President nor even a deposed king. Nor am I a movie star, postmaster, baseball champion, maestro or champion corn busker. I am just an average American business man.

You may well ask on what I base my claim. The answer is simplicity itself. From high quarters I am vaguely referred to as one of the "vested interests." though "divested" would more properly fit me.

It is I who am expected to pay the income tax, undivided profits tax, social security tax, the plus tax, the surplus tax and the nonplused tax. The Robinson-Patman, Wheeler-Rayburn and what-other-Senators- have-you bills are all aimed at me.

I must rear a family, satisfy the labor unions, support the missionaries in Kamchatka and trade in my new car for a still newer car each year. Had I a wife I would have to send her to Florida for the winter.

You already have my photograph in your files. It is that blurred composite picture showing the man trying to keep his ear to the ground, his sore nose to the grindstone, his eye to the future and his chin up, all at the same time. It's a good trick if anybody can do it.

DR. ERNEST A. GRAUPNER New York City

Ownership

Sirs:

In recently published statements of ownership of TIME and LIFE, J. P. Morgan & Co. are listed as stockholders [TIME, Oct.11].

Several friends and I have speculated upon the extent of such ownership, and I have little doubt that numerous other readers of both periodicals have done likewise.

Does TIME care to tell?

SAMUEL BERCOVITCH New York City

In 1922 (before TIME was published) and in 1925, TIME Inc. raised a total of $148,000 by the sale of preferred and common stock. Of this amount Mr. Harry P. Davison subscribed something less than $10,000. Since then the preferred shares in question have been retired, Mr. Davison has become a Morgan partner and his common shares have been registered in the name of J. P. Morgan & Co. for the account of Harry P. Davison. His holdings amount to less than 3% of TIME Inc. stock now outstanding. Some 54% is owned by its editors, writers, business staff and their immediate families.--ED.

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