McNutt's Homecoming

Sirs:

In the excellent and informative article on Paul McNutt in TIME, July 10, you overlook one fact of great importance; a fact which ought to be understood by the American people, since Mr. McNutt is already so much in the public eye and is so ambitious for the Presidency.

You do refer to Labor's opposition to the former Governor of Indiana because of his use of militia in strikes. The important thing, however, is not that Governor McNutt called out militia; many Governors do that. The important thing is that he invented a new form of executive tyranny; namely, the perpetuation of military law long after the emergency for which the troops were called out was over, and almost all of them had been sent home. This kind of law Governor McNutt maintained for at least two years in Sullivan County, Ind. and for some six to eight months in Terre Haute. Under this, a major of militia had power superior to all local authorities and courts; he could and did order men to be held for various alleged offenses, including street corner speaking, subject, not to civil law, but to a military court.

The Governor's power to establish such military rule, under his own discretion, was sustained in the lower courts and was never properly fought out through the higher courts. Labor was, of course, opposed to this semi-Fascist arrangement, but for various reasons did not make, by any means, the vigorous fight that should have been made. . . .

NORMAN THOMAS New York City

>TIME showed Mr. Thomas' letter to Mr. McNutt who replied as follows:

Sirs:

Actually, I suspended no civil processes in any instance. The courts remained open and functioned in a normal way. Troops were sent to Sullivan and Vigo counties as a symbol of the authority of the State and its determination to preserve order. Over a period of time there was a progressive reduction of the number of troops until finally we had only one squad on duty, although martial law technically was continued.

There may have been a period when the situation was so tense that it bred trouble and when it was necessary to disperse groups congregating on street corners. . . . State assistance had been sought by the judge, mayor, sheriff and other officials who had admitted themselves unable to cope with the general uneasiness.

. . . Labor knew, as did others, that troops were dispatched for the purpose of protecting both sides. It surely must be significant that organized Labor raised not a hand against my confirmation as Security Administrator by the Senate. . . .

PAUL V. McNUTT Indianapolis, Ind.

Rhode Island Reds

Sirs:

I suppose those Pawtucket (R.I.) WPA pickets whose pictures you published, TIME, July 24, would be regarded by the Dies Committee as Rhode Island Reds.

EDGAR R. MCGREGOR Wheeling, W. Va.

"We Are Rising"

Sirs:

Major R. R. Wright is a really remarkable individual for more reasons than you had space to tell in your excellent report of the National Negro Bankers' Association convention (TIME, July 17, p. 60). After four score restless years most men are ready to lay down their arms and leave the fighting to younger men with stronger bodies. But the Major is just beginning, and there is no telling when he will stop. . . .

Occasionally, the calm and quiet of his private office becomes dull and uninteresting. In such instances it is no rare sight to see this 84-year-old bank president in one of the cages, himself, serving patrons and dictating letters to a secretary at the same time.

A philanthropist from New York was touring the South three-quarters of a century ago. He stopped at a shanty in rural Georgia where a handful of little colored boys and girls were being taught their three Rs. The teacher implored him to say a few words of encouragement to the students. When he had finished he asked the children if there was any message they wished him to take back to their friends in the North.

For a few moments there was silence. Then a little dark boy with a sparkle in his eye rose to his feet.

"Yes, Sir," he cried. "Tell them we are rising."

That little boy was Richard R. Wright.

THOMAS W. YOUNG Journal and Guide Norfolk, Va.

Banana Fish

Sirs:

Reader Miller's facetious reply (TIME, July 10) to Reader Griswold's bonefish query (TIME, June 26) is completely misleading. There are banana fish, and the best bait is a chunk of not-too-ripe banana. Banana fish are caught in the harbors at Guam in 90-100 feet of water. Resembling the bonefish in many respects, non-gamey banana fish are frequently mistaken for them in the Guam fish markets. Calling the true bonefish (Albula vulpes) a banana fish is another common error among sports anglers who haven't yet tackled the banana fish.

MORTIMER H. COBB New York City

Background for War

Sirs:

... I wonder if you will accept the following suggestion? Of late there have appeared in TIME a series of articles, "Back ground for War." I do not believe the series has as yet been completed, however, when it is I suggest that you offer to your subscribers, perhaps for a price, reprints of each article bound into a single pamphlet. . . .

CHAN PITTS JR. Le Mars, Iowa

Sirs:

I hope you are planning to reprint in pamphlet form your articles on "Background for War." They are just the material I need for use in my two classes in World Affairs and I know there are numerous classrooms all over the country that would be glad to use them.

(MRS.) OLGA S. HAMMAN Social Studies Department San Diego High School San Diego, Calif.

Sirs:

For those who have forgotten, your "Background for War" should be reprinted in circular for general distribution. . . .

G. Kiss Chicago, Ill.

Sirs:

. . . Don't let this important document be buried in the files of your magazine. . . .

HENRY I. TRAGLE Richmond, Va.

>To Readers Pitts, Hamman, Kiss and Tragic, and to the numerous others who wrote TIME asking for such a pamphlet, TIME's reprint of the "Background for War" series will shortly be mailed. Free copies are also available for any other readers who want them--ED.

Leacock's Rescue

Sirs:

TIME's "People" department of the July 17 issue mentions our Canadian economist-humourist Stephen Leacock and the rescue he was involved in recently. Though your staff usually get the background for their stories pretty well, they missed out on this For early in his writing career, in his volume Sunshine Sketches, Leacock dealt with the small-town doings of his home in Ontario. His yarn of the sinking of the Mariposa Belle with a picnic crowd aboard has the same essence of humour as the real affair did last week. The Mariposa Belle starts to sink and finally rests on the bottom of the lake, with the gunwales still above water and all passengers high and dry. The lifeboat, however, which has come out to rescue them is having a hard time with leaks and goes under just as it reaches the side of the steamer. The passengers shout and cheer as the lifeboat crew are saved.

C. R. HAWORTH Montreal, Que.

Pacifist Muste

Sirs:

I think TIME did an excellent job on the review of the Pacifist Handbook [TIME July 10].

I wonder whether some people may not be misled by the phrase "go to the front but refuse to kill" placed under my picture. The fact is, of course, that although that is one of the possibilities for pacifists mentioned in the handbook, there are probably no religious pacifists in the U. S. who would advocate or take that course. Personally, I would refuse to render any service, combatant or noncombatant, under military orders.

There is one other small point. My pacifism is not as recent as the reference to that point might suggest. I was a pacifist during the last War and for several years thereafter and was forced to resign my pulpit during the War because of that. Then I had a period when I was out of both the church and the pacifist movement, returning to both in 1936. . . .

A. J. MUSTE Labor Temple

New York City

Hole-in-one

Sirs:

Let Reader Hay wood (TIME, July 7) stand corrected.

No hole-in-one is luck, since the golfer is playing for the hole. To get the ball in the cup is his aim and objective, ergo, how can you call it an accident?

It is an "accident" only when the ball does not go in the hole, the accident being due obviously and logically, to his faulty playing. . .

FRANK L. MOORMAN Captiva Island, Fla.

Ampleness and Vastness

Sirs:

I have been a reader of your magazine TIME for five years. I believe it is a very interesting publication; but I do not agree with your statement entitled "Louisiana" published in TIME, July 10. . . .

Louisiana State University is a growing institution. It is a school created over the massive pillars of Union, Justice and Confidence. Its student body and alumni are as proud of it as are the ones of Harvard, Yale, Oxford and Cambridge. The wrongdoings of a single man could not make guilty a devoted, scholastically competent faculty and a loyal corps of students that cherish deep in their hearts the alma mater that is making them men of character and good citizens for the future. We enjoy here on this campus the liberties given to us by our forefathers in the Constitution and the Declaration of independence with more ampleness and vastness than any other student body in the nation's universities.

Louisiana State University is the shrine of America's democracy; the State of Louisiana the cradle of democratic institutions; the student body of Louisiana State University is America's purest contribution to the true spirit of wholehearted Americanism!

Mr. Editor: I beg God that the freedom of the press would never turn to be an un-American instrument in your hands, used against the building of the great generations of tomorrow!

EFRAIN GARCIA ANGULO Baton Rouge, La.

Late Great Huey

Sirs:

In TIME, July 17, under Louisiana you refer to the erstwhile dictator of that State as the "late great Huey Long." I fail to understand, as a consistent reader of your publication, why you, who have such sensibly liberal leanings, can so describe one who combined most of the despicable traits on the American political scene.

LEONARD S. FLORSHEIM JR. Highland Park, Ill.

>TIME is not sensible of leaning either right or left, but it tries to give the devil his due.--ED.

Egg

Sirs :

I remember some comment in TIME early this year on the subject of the New Zealand man who hatched an egg in his hospital bed [TIME, Feb. 13]. Some readers were incredulous [TIME, March 6, et seq.] The attached clipping from today's Melbourne Sun makes an interesting sequel:

"Auckland (N.Z.).--A hen hatched from an egg by a patient at Waikato Hospital last year is displayed in a special cage at Rotorua winter show. In the cage is a letter from the foster-father certifying that the hen is the one he hatched.

"The man, who had to spend many weeks in hospital, took an egg to bed with him as the result of a wager. He concealed it from the nurses and the chicken hatched and was six days old before they found it."

ALAN STUART Melbourne, Australia

"Frightful Stint"

Sirs:

I resent the crack at the Foreign Service* which you take on p. 16 of TIME, May 20. Many Foreign Service chiefs make their staffs work more than seven hours a day and the great majority of Foreign Service Officers would do so quite apart from any orders from their chiefs. . .

It is felt by many members of the Foreign Service that one of its greatest weaknesses is precisely the fact that we are compelled to spend seven hours a day at our desks. . . . You would scarcely argue, I am sure, that a newspaper reporter should spend seven hours a day at his desk. Similarly, much of the Foreign Service's most important work must be done outside of office hours, which does not decrease the "frightful stint" for the Foreign Service. No other country, so far as I can ascertain, requires seven hours a day of office work from its Foreign Service, nor does any other approach our Foreign Service in the volume of work performed. . . .

JOHN M. CABOT Legation of the United States of America Guatemala

Gasped

Sirs:

I saw TIME's (July 31) story about my friend Charles Grey Grey and gasped at the picture. Someone has blundered. I am sending you a photograph of Mr. Grey. . . .

LESTER D. GARDNER New York City

>Someone blundered indeed. With apologies to British Editor Charles Grey Grey, and the back of its hand to the picture bureau which furnished the wrong picture, TIME herewith pictures the right Charles Grey Grey.--ED.

Helpful Little List?

Sirs:

What's happened to "Current and Choice," your helpful little list of worthwhile movies? The frau and I looked for it the other night for some advice, and not being able to find it, let ourselves in for an awful turkey.

A. J. BIERBOWER Chicago, Ill.

>Let any other readers who miss ''Current and Choice" raise their hands.--ED.

Uncle Walt's Obit

Sirs:

I am sure that welter-wit, that bantam bard that handles Press, achieved in Uncle Walt's obit [TIME, July 3] a new low in TIME-worthlessness. Old Walter never did aspire to gems of purest ray serene but when he smote his modest lyre he always kept his meter clean, nor tolerated in his verse, a limping line or raucous rhyme. Now he has occupied a hearse and rates that smelegy in TIME! Should residents of Frisco's hills endure another seismic wave, they ought to render you the bills--'twill emanate from Mason's grave.

ARTHUR LEVY JR. Wilson, N. C.

*TIME said: U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Joseph Clark Grew, "drives his embassy staff seven hours a day (frightful stint for the Foreign Service)."

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