Picasso
Sirs:
To TIME: loud shouts of joy for its swell article [Feb. 13] on the greatest creative genius since Leonardo.
WALTER REINSEL
Philadelphia, Pa.
Sirs:
Your spread of Picasso deserves high praise.
The layout of the color reproductions of his various periods lends weight to a theory of mine: that artists lean to abstract painting when war is in the air. (Picasso's 1914-15 and 1935-36 periods would correspond to the beginning of the World War and to the Civil War in Spain.)
I feel a decided abstract period coming on right now.
VICTOR DE PAUW
New York City
Sirs:
I enjoyed your article on Picasso, it was very good.
However, if the father of Pablo Picasso was, as you report, Blasco Ruiz and his mother's name was Maria Picasso, then his name would have been Pablo Ruiz y Picasso which will explain why he is known by his mother's name. Now, if he had been born out of wedlock, his name would have been Pablo Picasso, and his father's name would not have appeared in his name at all. . . .
I have heard that Picasso selected his mother's name instead of his father's name because Picasso was more musical than Ruiz.
J. E. HERNANDEZ
Department of Romance Languages
University of Kentucky Lexington, Ky. > Ruiz y Picasso it is.--ED.
Don Juan
Sirs:
MAP FLEET PROBLEM XX, FEB. 2O ISSUE, SHOWING "DON JUAN, PUERTO RICO" SWELL BUT WE SPELL IT SAN JUAN. CORDIALLY INVITE ALL AMERICAN GIRLS COME DOWN SEE US SOMETIME
DON RAMON QUINONES
San Juan, P. R.
> To TIME'S cartographer, one copy, collect, of Byron's Poems.--ED.
Shooting a Professor
Sirs:
Your recent account of a shooting here (TIME, Feb. 6) was written with characteristic colorfulness, but it seems that you sacrificed accuracy to attain this end. The student in question did not shoot his professor until fully a half hour after he was seen cribbing. This move was made after he had confirmed his expulsion from the institution, which is automatic in such cases. What is more important, he returned to his quarters before doing so. ...
WALDENSE C. NIXON
Meharry Student
Meharry Medical College
Nashville, Tenn.
> What seems most important to TIME is that he came back with a gun.--ED.
Deductible Items
Sirs
The American Birth Control League, Inc.received from the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Treasury Department, Washington, D. C. on March 2, 1938 a ruling that the League is exempt from Federal Income Tax under Section 101 (6) of the 1936 Revenue Act, and that contributions to the League are deductible by individual donors in arriving at their taxable net income. This exemption ruling continues in force. At least two of the leading tax service publications noted the ruling in 1938, but evidently it was not observed in the 1939 revision of Simon & Schuster's manual, Your Income Tax, which you reviewed in your recent issue of TIME, Feb. 20. Your review erroneously stated that contributions to birth control organizations are not deductible. . . .
WILLIAM J. MCWILLIAMS
Attorney for the Birth Control Federa tion of America
New York City
Brash Sprat
Sirs:
Let brash sprat Dorinson* (TIME, Feb. 20), compare TIME'S Letters page with Vox Pop Dept. in any other widely sold publica tion, discover for himself: i) that it is vastly more literate than most; 2) that ignorance does not entirely consist of disagreement with Reader Dorinson's necessarily immature, presumably cabbaged opinions on any topic.
HOWARD B. THOMPSON
Cincinnati, Ohio
Gunga Din
Sirs:
I am an ex-cavalry man who saw service in various parts of India, including the Afghan Frontier. The other afternoon I viewed the motion picture Gunga Din. The same night I dreamed I attended a showing of the film accompanied by the late Rudyard Kipling.
My dream version was directed by Billy Rose in collaboration with Bill Minsky. The three inane sergeants were played by the Ritz Brothers; Gunga Din by Louis ("Hot Lips") Armstrong. There were a few minor changes in the story. . . .
As the film reached its heart-gripping ending, Rudyard, noticing my copious tears, remarked it had affected me greatly. "Yes," I said, "I very much regret to see the passing of the 6th Ave. El."
Preparing to leave, Rudyard said, "What is the name of that super colossal, gigantic, soul-stirring epic of the frustrated bugler?" When I replied Gunga Din, he looked just as scared as he did in the original film version. ...
B. O. WHEELS
Jackson Heights, L. I.
Dictators' Dens
Sirs:
May I agree with Mr. Hobbs** in his careful explanation that "There has been no New Deal in arithmetic."
However ... I think both "dens" are too large and of improper construction. They should be combined into one 13x13, constructed of iron bars and containing both the dictators at all times. The finishing touch would be to appoint a few Ethiopians and Hebrews for keepers.
ALEXANDER C. DEAN
Delta, Colo.
U. S. Frontier
Sirs:
... I was rather surprised but no one who read the article concerning President Roosevelt's recent conversation with the Senate Military Affairs Committee [in which the President was reported to have said that France should be considered the U. S. frontier; TIME, Feb. 13] attempted to explain what the President might have said and which might have been construed otherwise by the Senators. I believe that the answer to this would be that President Roosevelt said in effect that the frontiers of democracy were between France and Germany. . . .
B. LOWE KINGSTON
New London, Conn.
Movie Criticisms
Sirs:
I find fault with nothing but your "Movie" criticisms. They are rank!
What do other long-TiME readers think?
SYDNEY A. APFELBAUM Philadelphia, Pa.
CCC Education
Sirs:
I enjoyed reading your article on the CCC and its program [TIME, Feb. 6]. However, I feel that you have not given the educational program in the CCC the space it deserves.
Considering Harrison Gulch to be a typical "Poor Young Men's" camp, permit me to point out that out of 165 enrollees two-thirds of them are taking correspondence courses which are offered by the California State Department of Education. One-half of the enrolled body are interested in completing their high-school work. They will receive credit for work done in camp through the local high school.
Although an average of four classes are held nightly, a clamor for more is being voiced. Vocational subjects attract the majority of students and most of them are learning skilled trades which will be of inestimable value to them when they leave the CCC. Informal activities such as photography, glee club and amateur radio enliven the educational program.
According to the leaders of CCC Education, the 1,500 CCC camps scattered through this country have well-planned educational programs. . . .
PHILIP PANKOW
Assistant Educational Adviser
Headquarters, CCC Company 210
Camp Harrison Gulch
Knob, Calif.
"Grass Roots Press"
Sirs:
Thank you for dressing us up in our Sunday best, even if you did rig us out with a fiddle-player's hat and a necktie sure to get caught in the job-press. Thank you for telling the world that the country newspaper is a going concern.
But with the way neighbors borrow and swap, you do us a sorry injustice by limiting our readers to the total number of our weekly circulation. More accurate would be 17,000,000 weekly copies; 85,000,000 smalltown, rural and homesick metropolitan readers. For ours is no subway sedative completing its life-cycle from press to ashcan within two hours. . . .
H. R. LONG
Publisher The Crane Chronicle
Crane, Mo.
Sirs:
Apropos of "Grass Roots Press" (TIME, Feb. 20), it is heartening to realize that our Bill of Rights makes possible the stabilizing influence in a great democracy of some 10.000 weekly newspapers. A lot of mighty levelheaded editing comes from the lads whose feet are still on the land. . . .
T. T. ALLEN
Detroit, Mich.
Who wondered, after reading "so many ignorant and screwy letters" written to TIME by its 7-out-of-10 college-graduate readers, "whether it's smart for me to finish college."
Who objected (TIME, Feb. 13) to TIME'S figures comparing Hitler's new study with Mussolini's.
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