Deathbed Scene
Sirs:
Whoever wrote the story of Pope Pius' death (TIME, Feb. 20) has fathered a moving piece of writing. If the next Pope is seen to compromise with totalitarianism, the deathbed scene of Pius XI will indeed seem to be taken from a new Goetterdaemmerung ; starring the vestiges of freedom still clinging to Europe.
FITZHUGH DADE
Henderson, Ky.
Open Letter
Sirs:
In TIME of Feb. 27 you mention that some Catholic friends of the [Chicago Newspaper] Guild assailed Bishop Shell's "scabbery" but after "a quiet word from Bishop Shell's office," ceased.
This is not true. "The Serfs of St. Gregory," one dozen lay Catholics, were not silenced. We will not even be quiet until his Excellency forsakes his role of strikebreaker.
Receiving our Open Letter Concerning Bishop Sheil were:
Cardinal Pacelli, The Colleges of the Sacred Curia, 15 U. S. Archbishops, 25 Bishops of Ireland, 244 Chicago pastors, 600-odd curates and nuns of Chicago; more than 1,500 top AFL, CIO, and independent union leaders; F. D. R. and Eleanor, Bernard Shaw, Warden Lawes, Mrs. William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Stalin, Marion Davies, Lord Tweedsmuir, The Anglican Archbishop of Canter bury, de Valera, Harry Bridges, James Joyce, Mayors Kelly, Hague and LaGuardia, Robert M. Hutchins, the Sure Shot Exterminating Co., et al.
Yours for Catholic Action.
GENE J. BRADY
The Serfs of St. Gregory Chicago, 111.
Untouched Ferry
Sirs:
In TIME, Feb. 27 you have an article on the dog show of the Westminster Kennel Club and under the picture of the best dog the cap tion, "Mr. Thomas couldn't touch the devil." In fairness to the breed of Doberman Pinschers . . . I would like to state a few reasons why Mr. Thomas couldn't touch Ferry.
He was last year's German Sieger or champion and as such is required to have passed certain training tests. This naturally leads him to be wary of strangers. While on the bench he is doing his duty of guarding and consequently is not friendly to spectators.
This dog had only been in this country for about two weeks and in addition to a new master he was surrounded by a mass of people all speaking a strange language, enough to make any dog somewhat touchy. . . .
STEWART LINDSAY
Owings Mills, Md.
Such a Beating
Sirs:
The sailors from a German training ship were not "pelted with rotten eggs and tomatoes while goosestepping down Havana's fashionable Prado" according to footnote on p. 22 of TIME, Feb. 13. They were pelted while quietly sitting at a cafe, the Saratoga, behaving like gentlemen. I was there the entire time. . . .
GEORGE D. NICHOLS
General Motors
Parade of Progress, en route
Fort Myers, Fla.
Sirs:
Your special remark to artikel "Panama" Feb. 13, that the german sailors was pelted with rotten eggs and tomatoes in Cuba is untrue and on insult to us Cubans. Any visitors no matter if they are American, English, German etc marines or Jewish imigrants is allways looked up with respect here.
What happened here was that a spanish bum and red did throw some Orange peels at a german marine while they paid their respect to our great martyr "Marti" at his monument with a flower design. . . .
That Spaniard got right on the spot such a beating from the public and police that he will not forget soon. . . .
PEDRO DE LA TORRE
Havana, Cuba
Current Events Test
Sirs:
Your recent quiz was excellent [TIME, Feb. 27]. My score was 27 wrong out of the 105 questions. I will graduate from high school this June and I would like to know if my score is very good for a high-school TIME reader.
RALPH ROWE
South Enola, Pa.
Sirs:
For a 100% score on your test, students merit graduation; teachers, promotion.
Louis A. BLEDSOE
Superintendent of Schools
Sorento, Ill.
-Last year's averages: High-school students 36, college students 48, TIME readers 88.--ED.
Divine Arrogance?
Sirs:
For the first time in the many years that I have been a reader of TIME I regret the anonymity of your writers. ... It requires an intellect outstandingly brilliant and out standingly self-reliant to be able and daring enough to sum up the lifelong teaching of "America's Greatest Philosopher" [John Dewey] with a statement at the same time devastating and so unobtrusive that most readers will pass it by: "exploring endless variations on a single theme: experience is the best teacher" [TIME, Feb. 20].
To point out that the net result of a 530-page book by ten famed representatives of pompous and well-financed "progressive education" is just another case of "fuzziness in academic thought" requires either divine arrogance or childlike simplicity.
JOHN Louis HORN
San Rafael, Calif.
Schulze on Schmalz
Sirs:
Three weeks ago I read your article "Schmalz" [TIME, Jan. 30] and I was terribly disappointed. Having no intention of becoming an official heckler I tried to forget about it. But every time I hear We, the People on the radio I must think again: "schmalz" and I feel miserable all over. ... I talked it over with a girl with whom I hardly ever agree on anything but she thinks too that you made a mistake. We are both Germans and we should know. I for instance would call "schmalz" an especially sacchariny tenor-voice or a speaker who puts too much feeling in his words, but We, the People is absolutely no "schmalz."
CHARLOTTE SCHULZE
Glencoe, Ill.
Newton Comes of Age
Sirs:
Oblique credit to TIME for an interesting occurrence in Newton, Mass.
In TIME, Oct. 7, 1935, you referred to our suburban paradise as "smug." . . . Largely because of resentment at this maltreatment, the Newton Community Forum was organized to bring light and truth into our congenial self-sufficiency.
It should therefore interest you to know that this illegitimate child of yours came of educational age this week, hit the headlines in Boston papers by presenting Democratic ex-Governor Ely of Massachusetts, Communist Earl Browder, and Fascist Lawrence Dennis in this Republican bailiwick debating "What lies ahead for Capitalism." Twenty-five hundred packed the hall built for 1,500; hundreds were turned away; people came from all over the metropolitan area and from points as distant as Concord, N. H. and Providence, R. I. The air was charged, the argument occasionally abusive, but no blood was spilt. . . .
WALTER M. TAYLOR
Executive Secretary
The Newton Community Forum
Newton, Mass.
Service
Sirs:
TIME'S timeliness occurs too often to be mere happenstance. Last fortnight Thomas G. Thompson, Director of the Oceanographic Laboratories of the University of Washington at Seattle and Friday Harbor, wrote me that Matthew Fontaine Maury and Williard Gibbs were two of the world's most unappreciated geniuses. I had never heard more of Gibbs than his name, and was casting about in my mind to know how to get the best slant on him in the least time and with the most efficient method. Lo and behold: TIME'S Gibbs article [TIME, Feb. 20], for which my personal thanks. This is service with a vengeance!
CAMERON McR. PLUMMER
La Grange, Tenn.
-- Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873), U. S. naval hydrographer & meteorologist, laid the foundation for international cooperation in charting winds & currents on the high seas.--ED.
Misona
Sirs:
It seems to me very unfortunate that our nation and the area it occupies has no other proper name than the United States of America. In the first place there are 21 other united states in the Americas. In the second place this name permits no adjective. . . .
Your erudite editors and readers have both proved resourceful in coining words. ... I sincerely hope that a name can be suggested which . . . the people of this land and our neighbors south and north will gladly welcome ... to refer to a "native of the United States."
To start the ball rolling I suggest Misona, adjectival forms Misonan and Misonian. This is suggested by the Mississippi and Missouri, our two greatest rivers, and Arizona, which symbolizes our rich mountains and unique and fertile deserts. I do not doubt that better linguists than I can suggest better names. . . .
A. PIERCE ARTRAN
Lecturer on Reptiles
Los Angeles, Calif.
Antiquarian Jitterbug
Sirs:
I was very diverted by your story of the Folk Dancers [TIME, Feb. 20]. It was accurate as well as picturesque. . . .
I deeply appreciated your references to myself but I fear you ranked me too high as No. 1 antiquarian jitterbug. There are several authorities in the U. S. who would readily compete for that proud place. By the way all biologists have big ears.
May I comment on your statement that many folk dance steps are as old as "all get-out." Actually they are older I think. I am unable to place "all get-out" accurately in time but I should not put it earlier than the covered-wagon period. The folk lore often expressed is probably thus: a wheel comes unstuck and papa has to fix it. "All get out" he calls and the family climb down with patient resignation.
This is only the theory of a friendly stranger. If you or any of your readers can give me the real low down on all get-out, I'll be a regular subscriber even when I get back to England.
DOUGLAS KENNEDY
New York City
> According to the best etymological authority TIME could muster, Reader Kennedy's shrewd guess comes as close as anybody's; but "all get-out" is older than covered-wagon days.--ED.
Mr. Paderewski's Accent
Sirs:
How many other TIME readers noticed that you contradict Paramount's sound camera in reporting that Mr. Paderewski speaks English without trace of an accent [TIME, Feb. 27] ? L. L. BENTLEY Lancaster, Pa.
-- TIME erred: Paderewski hisses (slightly).--ED.
Umbrella
Sirs:
Re: Paderewski, TIME, Feb. 27, p. 47. "A recent indication of modern decadence, in Paderewski's eyes, was the fuss-&-feathers about Sir James Jeans's statement that there is no such thing as 'touch' in piano playing -- that a pianist will get the same tone whether he hits the key with his finger or the end of an umbrella. Says umbrella-thatched Paderewski: 'Art is a question of personality.
What kind of a personality has an umbrella?' "
Has Statesman Paderewski ever heard of Statesman Chamberlain?
MEYER M. CAHN
San Francisco, Calif.
"Toughest Part"
Sirs:
Thank you very much. How am I going to explain to my Eastern relatives and friends when they find out that you say the section of San Francisco in which I live is "the toughest part of town" [TIME, Feb. 27]?
It was nice of you to give all that publicity to our Exposition, but we who happen to live in downtown hotels will certainly have reason to bless you when tourists roam our neighborhood all night looking for trouble ! As a matter of fact, the neighborhood you have libeled is like any other downtown dis trict in a large city-- it has plenty of bar rooms, gambling houses and houses of assigna tion. But it also includes a dozen quite respectable hotels, the Glide Memorial Church (Southern Methodist), the B'nai Brith Hall, the very newest and swankiest dance-spot in the city (featuring people like Gene Krupa and Buddy Rogers), the headquarters of a large proportion of the city's labor unions, both A. F. of L. and C. I. O., and any number of decent and properly conducted restaurants and stores. . . .
MIRIAM ALLEN DEFORD San Francisco, Calif.
> Do other San Franciscans agree with Reader deFord that their Fair city can boast a tougher part of town?--ED.
Picasso (Cont'd)
Sirs:
I cannot resist placing on record my admiration for the splendid article on Picasso in the Art Section of TIME, Feb. 13. You have found a dynamic style in which to express the complicated explanations of art criticism, at the same time both popular and accurate.
Collectors, art dealers, and amateurs with whom I come in contact in the course of my own work, all have unanimously approved the article. Please give us some more of these thumbnail biographies of artists.
JULIEN LEVY
Julien Levy Gallery
New York City
Fair Refugees
Sirs:
We, a small intransigent group, are organizing the Refugees from the World's Fair.
We feel that there must be other New Yorkers who, like ourselves, look forward with no little apprehension to the impending influx of visitors. . . . Some steps already proposed are:
1) The giving up of telephone listings or the complete severance of telephone service.
2) The use of doormats marked "Unwelcome." 3) The wearing of dark glasses on the street.
4) The carrying of umbrellas for protection in crowds.
5) The stilling of radios to eliminate inter ference from Navy code messages to the attendant fleet.
6) The designation of special parks for picnicking.
7) The launching of propaganda to pro mote travel to the San Francisco Exposition.
New York for New Yorkers. Enlist Now!
E. P. WATERMAN New York City
Un-American Activities
Sirs:
Regarding the story of the D. A. R. exclusion of Singer Marian Anderson (TIME, March 6, p. 38) from Convention Hall, Washington, would it not be advisable to suggest to Congressman Martin Dies that he could make a real contribution by investigating the un-American activities of the so-called "Daughters of the American Revolution?"
MARSHAL L. SCOTT
Minister
First Presbyterian Church
Prattsburg, N. Y.
Alien Voter
Sirs:
"Joe Strecker . . . voted for Al Smith in 1928, ... for Mr. Foster in 1932." But in 1933 he was not yet a citizen, according to TIME [Feb. 20]. What goes on here?
MAC F. CAHAL
Public Relations Counsel
Chicago, Ill.
> Joe Strecker did vote in both 1928 and 1932. Says his lawyer, C. Alpheus Stanfield: "Here in Hot Springs we are broadminded on a question like that." --ED.
Hitler's Double
Sirs:
Recent issues of The New Yorker have devoted quite a little space to a story, which they relate in seeming earnestness, contending that Herr Hitler was killed about four or five years ago and that his place has been taken by a double or doubles since his death. . . .
Has TIME come across anything to indicate that there might be more to this story than wishful thinking?
PAUL MONTGOMERY
Muskegon, Mich.
> Smalltown rumors flourish best in a big city.--ED.
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