Lien, Bacchus

Sirs:

In connection with your item on the appointment of Rodney Prior Lien as Ohio's superintendent of banks (TIME, Jan. 8), the record also should show that Ohio's director of liquor control is Jacob Bacchus Taylor.

HARRY MCCREA

Canton, Ohio

Plumley's About-Face

Sirs:

". . . Said Sub-committeeman Charles Albert Plumley of Northfield, Vt, thumbing his Yankee nose at the British: 'I'm sick and tired of just match, match. This matching game is absurd. I want a winning team.' " (TIME, Jan. 1).

From 1920 through 1933 Charles Albert Plumley was president of Norwich University. During his years in that office the football team of Norwich University won 28 games, lost 72 games, battled for a tie in six. . . .

All good Norwich men will appreciate this about-face by Congressman Plumley.

BRYAN DEGNAN Pittsford, Vt.

Elimination

Sirs:

Reference to Jan. 8 issue and the resolution introduced in Cambridge, Mass. Council, not with any reflection on the spirit of this resolution, would not the elimination of the names Lenin and Leningrad from every piece of printed matter in Cambridge automatically eliminate them from the resolution?

WALTER M. WOOD

Portsmouth, Ohio

Amused Finns

Sirs:

As a cover to cover TIME reader I wish to ask for a further clarification of your statement in the issue of Dec. 25, on p. 23, col. 3, where you wrote, "To keep their U. S. reputation as good debtors (which privately they consider highly amusing)". . . .

Who in Finland regards this reputation as highly amusing? Is it the people or the Government? Be a little more specific so that your readers can understand this rather overwhelming revelation. If it is true that the Finns regard their reputation as amusing, then we in the U. S. will have our last illusions of Europe dispelled.

FERGUSON C. STEWART

Grand Forks, N. Dak.

Sirs:

... I wish to state that I do not believe [the Finns] understand what their reputation means to the hero-worshipping younger generation in this United States.

When my youngest son, age twelve years, saw the picture in LIFE of the Finnish Minister making the payment, he said "Gee, Mother, any kid must be proud to be a Finn!"

At least to that age group of Americans, they are an object lesson in paying one's own way as he goes. I hope no one will quote in his presence your parenthetical phrase.

ROWENA ROGERS

Eugene, Ore.

Sirs:

Will you kindly advise why being a "good debtor" is so sidesplitting to the Finns? . . .

DOROTHY D. SPRINGER

Elmwood, Wis.

>The Finnish debt to the U.S. is, as international debts go, small: some $8,000,000. What amuses the Finns is that most U.S. citizens, disregarding their many more manly virtues (and the fact that it was not a war debt), think of them only as "the people who pay their war debt."--ED.

Readers' Bait

Sirs:

Sorry you disliked my life of an average New Yorker (TIME, Dec. 18). . . . A cousinly misunderstanding is no fault of the average journalist. The average editor who employs Englishmen to write about you and Americans to write about the United Kingdom is not really to blame. The poor fish is the average reader who on both coasts of the Atlantic selects the worm to taste before he swallows the hook. Even you, mighty angler that you are, must not tell them the bait is phony; otherwise, we shall all go short on Fridays.

DOUGLAS MACDONALD HASTINGS

London

> Phony is phony, even if editors starve.

--ED.

20-Year Record

Sirs:

The ardor of many a 1940 Presidential aspirant might well be chilled by a glance at the following obituary record: every President elected at 20-year intervals since 1840--Harrison, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Harding--has died in office.

CHARLES McFAY

Cambridge, Mass.

Sirs:

Due to the fact that every President who was elected for each 20 years after 1840 died either at the hands of assassins or a natural death, don't you think the conventions of the various parties should choose a Vice President with unusual care?

FRED GRAF

ED JONES

Fort Recovery, Ohio

Sirs:

A suggestion to the Democrats for 1940--why not Hull for President and F. D. R. for Vice President? This would avoid (not evade) the third-term difficulty, yet give the ticket the Roosevelt magic. It would also be interesting to see Mr. Roosevelt presiding over Taft, Vandenberg, Glass, etc. This plan would also release abstaining Mr. Garner for some sort of Boys' Work.

MARVIN DEAN

Los Angeles

Hull's Family

Sirs:

Is it possible that what you print of Cordell Hull's family be true?

SAMUEL MUKTARIAN

Buffalo, N. Y.

Sirs:

"Cordell was the third son by seven months . . ." (TIME, Jan. 8).

What a thrillingly "curt" reference to a unique biological phenomenon!

DANIEL NUGENT

Santa Barbara, Calif.

Sirs:

"Cordell was the third son by seven months." I can conceive of the possibility of this being true, but it is the first time that I have heard of brothers or sisters being closer together in age than ten months. Please assure me that no typographical error has been made.

A. P. RHODES

Lakeport, Calif.

> A typographical error was made. Seventeen months is correct.--ED.

SS.

Sirs:

TIME, Jan. 8, 1940, "Statues of SS. Peter and Paul. . . ."

I should like to know your authority for the abbreviation SS. for Saints. According to my Webster if it were small ss it should be interpreted "shilling--shilling Peter and Paul"; if capital SS, either South-South or Southern Southern Peter and Paul. And I judge the correct abbreviation should be StSt Peter and Paul. I may be wrong, or am I?

RICHARD L. BARTLETT

Natick, Mass.

> According to TIME'S Webster and The Catholic Encyclopedia, SS. is a proper abbreviation for Saints.--ED.

Dzug, Dzog, Dzugu, Jook, Juke

Sirs:

I note in TIME for Dec. 25 the correspondence concerning the dialect terms juke-box and jook, and the citation by Mr. T. F. Koch of Gainesville, of my paper on jook which I wrote when an undergraduate at the University of Florida. I wish to point out what has been brought to light regarding jook by recent research.

At the December 1938 meeting of the American Dialect Society in New York City, Alonzo Turner read a paper entitled "West African Survivals in the Vocabulary of Gullah." Gullah is the dialect spoken by a group of Negroes living in an isolated part of South Carolina. . . . According to Mr. Turner's studies, Gullah jook-house (phonetically, dzuk haus), meaning "a disorderly house, a house of ill repute," is related apparently to words in two West African languages. In Wolof, dzug or dzog means "to lead a disorderly life, to misconduct oneself." In Bambara, dzugu means "wicked." . . .

WILL McGUIRE

Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, Md.

Rousing Vote

Sirs:

A rousing vote of approval to TIME for its forthright and scathing article, which places the blame for Philadelphia's misgovernment and plight (TIME, Jan. 8) squarely where it belongs. If any scandal calls for national publicity, it is the Republican plunderbund's 50 years of public-be-damned despoilment of our city, to pay for which that party now resorts to taxing the pay envelope of the lowest wage earner. The tragic irony of "honest" (or stupid) Mayor Lamberton's inaugural words, "If it [my administration] fails, you can blame the Republican Party," must be obvious to all but Philadelphia's majority of smug and supine voters. Also TIME-worthy is the Mayor's earlier advice to city employes that loyalty "is the finest attribute of all ... loyalty to your city and to the political leader who may have gotten you your job."

MILTON PROPPER

Philadelphia, Pa.

Puckle's Gun

Sirs:

In reviewing Quennell's "Caroline of England," page 64, Jan. 15 issue, you mention "Puckle's Machine Gun, designed to discharge round and square cannon balls and bullets. . . ."

To answer questions before they're asked, let's add that Mr. James Puckle took the trouble to explain, 'way back in 1718, that his gun was adapted to "shooting square bullets against-Turks and round bullets against Christians."

Nice fellow, James Puckle!

R. G. RAPP

Mankato, Minn.

Viskniskki

Sirs:

Five years ago, I pointed out to you the inaccuracies in an article you printed about the Portland Oregonian and me in your issue of Jan. 7, 1935, and I closed my letter with the suggestion that your publisher retain me to teach TIME the art of being accurate in its reporting.

I have just read your article on the Philadelphia Evening Ledger and myself in your issue of Jan. 15, and am sorry to learn that, during the half decade since my first letter to you, TIME still has not got the hang of being accurate in its reporting. Let me illustrate this statement with a few examples.

1) You give the name of the paper as the Public Ledger. It is the Evening Public Ledger. The Public Ledger, a morning newspaper, ceased to exist as a separate publishing entity some years ago.

2) You say that Stanley Walker was hired as editor at $15,000 a year. You are "off" by several thousand dollars.

3) In three different sentences you say my last name is Visniskki. It is Viskniskki

4) You say that I am a "suave, stout, egg-bald figure familiar to the office of many a sick newspaper." I admit to two bald spots, but I still have quite a few hairs surrounding said spots and, therefore, simply cannot be egg-bald.

I also admit that I have worked for not a few newspapers, but, come, come, TIME, do you really class as sick such outstanding and successful newspapers as the Los Angeles Times, Indianapolis News, Detroit Free Press, Spokane Daily Chronicle, Spokane Spokesman-Review, Salt Lake City Tribune, Chicago Daily News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Herald and Traveler?

5) You say that I "turned up in the Ledger office last November to make an efficiency survey." The month was October.

6) You say that, in my 672-page report, I showed the Evening Public Ledger ownership how to save "a staggering sum," pointing out that one way to do that was "to leave the middle paper-towel rack of three in the men's washroom empty." A delightful story, which I hate to spoil, but if you can find any such recommendation or suggestion, or anything remotely like it, in my report, I will send you my personal check (certified) for $1,000 [for charities]. Of course, if you cannot find in my report any basis of fact for the story, then I am sure you will gladly pay $1,000 of TIME'S money to ... charities.

7) I could point out still other inaccuracies in your Evening Public Ledger story. But why rub it in ? So I close by repeating my suggestion of five years ago:

"The foundation stone for lasting success for any publication is accuracy--first, last and all the time. . . . Therefore, why not induce your publisher to retain Viskniskki to survey you for editorial accuracy? .. . ."

GUY T. VISKNISKKI

Philadelphia, Pa.

P. S. Oh, yes, I almost forgot. The implication running all through your article is that the Evening Public Ledger is a sick newspaper; whereas, I found it basically sound--and it is not for sale.

> TIME cheerfully adds: 1) Except when there is likelihood of confusion TIME generally omits morning, evening, and daily as prefixes to the names of newspapers; 2) $5,000 to Stanley Walker's salary; 3) a k to Visniskki"; 4) a sprinkling of hairs to his head; 5) a month to his stay in Philadelphia.

6) The towel rack became empty soon after Quibbler Viskniskki's arrival: a porter informed damp-handed rewrite men that he had been instructed to leave it so.

For Efficiency Expert Viskniskki's services in pointing out minor inaccuracies, TIME gladly forwards a check for $5.--ED.

Boyish Bok

Sirs:

In TIME, Jan. 15 issue, you described the Philadelphia publisher, Gary Bok, as pink-cheeked, boyish. Are you sure?

At Williams College, where I was his roommate, he was known as The Owl because of his lugubrious features. They used to claim that Admiral Byrd got his start for the South Pole by skiing down his sombre upper lip.

If he's gotten pink-cheeked and boyish, I'm going to enter the publishing business and get my hair back.

CHARLES L. SMYTHE

Cleveland, Ohio.

> Pink-cheeked, boyish Gary Bok loves good food, good drink, good male singing.--ED.

Item

Sirs:

With reference to your item concerning me in People, in the Jan. 15 issue of TIME, I would appreciate your publishing a correction. I never at any time in my life sang "mammy" songs.

MRS. J. ORMOND LAWSON JOHNSTON

New York City

> TIME regrets its error concerning London's famed U. S.-born socialite.--ED.

"Here We Come Full of Rum"

Sirs:

Though the Army reforms are accepted by the officer caste, Hore-Belisha's infringements on their sacred privileges are probably deeply resented nevertheless. Before the World War, Josephus Daniels, our Secretary of the Navy then, "vigorously democratized" the naval service. Because of this he was never popular with the Annapolis crowd, who considered him a small-time busy demagogue-and political crank. A man promoted from the ranks was stigmatized as a "mustang." Whenever naval officers gathered in a French cafe during the War, a popular song was:

Josephus Daniels is a goose,

If he thinks he can induce

Us to drink his damn grape juice!

(chorus) Away! Away! With sword and

drum,

Here we come, full of rum,

Looking for something to put on the bum!

JAMES E. LEBENSOHN, M.D.

Lieut. Commander, M. C., U. S. N. R.

Chicago, Ill.

'30s (Cont'd)

Sirs:

My nomination for the '30s;

"The Jittery Thirties." . . .

RICHARD D. MICOU

Chevy Chase, Md.

Sirs:

Re the '30s.

The heavens lowered in the decade past

Destroying space where hopes and ideals

dwell Men's minds and eyes and hearts came

overcast

By hate and horror. Harbingers of hell

Taught terms of terror-tainted truth with

fears.

Dark clouds of dire dimension soon took

form.

The rumbling THUNDEROUS THIRTIES

were these years

And at their finish broke the dreaded

storm.

RUTH STERNBERG

New York City

Sirs:

I submit "The Alphabetical Age."

R. J. PLEASANT

Tulsa, Okla.

Sirs:

. . . "Troubled Thirties."

HARRY SHRIBER

Pittsburgh, Pa.

Sirs:

I give you the Hoity-Toities.

Maybe we better just skip it--and the '30s!

ROBERT KOTTWITZ JR.

New Orleans, La.

Penultimate (Concl.)

Sirs:

Re the penultimate year of the 20th Century's fourth decade. . . .

MARTIN SCHULTZ

Akron, Ohio

> The debate is concluded.--ED.

Mockery

Sirs:

A freshman rhetoric student recently wrote: "England's Government is a limited mockery."

Judging from the present turn of events, that's not far from the truth.

ROBERT S. BARROWS

Ypsilanti, Mich.

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