Be-diapered Grandsons
Sirs:
"Down the colonnade that is called the President's Walk . . . there awaited him a highball, . . . two soap-smelling, be-diapered grandsons. . . ." (TIME, Jan. 1).
Is it true that Franklin D. Roosevelt 3rd (aged 1 1/2) is still wearing diapers?
A. ELSON
New York City
> Franklin Roosevelt II says Franklin Roosevelt III has "outgrown" diapers. --ED.
Stogie
Sirs:
TIME to apologize. Smoking a pipe for about 50 years has not made me forget the city of my birth. Why, I was raised on Wheeling stogies [TIME, Feb. 12, p. 16], and what could a poor boy do if it had not been for those grand old stogies--the sweetest smoke ever put out?
TODD LUNSFORD
Boy Scouts of America,
St. Petersburg, Fla.
Sirs:
. . . Possibly you will be interested in knowing how it got the name of "stogie" and its association with our pioneering history.
Wheeling, in the days of the great hegira to the West, was considered to be the end of Eastern civilization and the jumping off place into the great Indian country. After their arduous trip over the national pike (now U. S. Route 40) the emigrant New Englanders were ready for a breathing spell and a general overhauling of supplies and equipment. Also it usually took a few days to make arrangements to be ferried over the Ohio River at this point.
The New Englanders, being true devotees of the weed, generally brought with them a supply of the Connecticut leaf which they would take to the cigar maker in Wheeling to be rolled into cigars. . . . The New Englanders mostly traveled in Conestoga wagons which was shortened to "stogie" by the Virginians and the travelers became known as the "stogie fellers" and the product of their tobacco as "stogies."
T. P. PARKER
Wheeling, W. Va.
> Reader Parker could be wronger, but not much. The Conestoga wagon was made in Conestoga, Pa., which had been named for the Conestoga Indians. To Conestoga went teamsters hauling lumber, tooling the team with one hand while they rolled a cigar with the other. Later Conestogas, or stogies, became favorites of the wagon trains freighting from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, where the drivers would sell the supply they had rolled along the way. Hence, Pittsburgh stogies. Wheeling came in on the freight.--ED.
Sirs:
The writer of the article on Mayor John Hale Levi (TIME, Feb. 19) did not report the name on the box of stogies correctly. It should have been SHARTZ'S HIGH GRADE STOGIES. I might add that these stogies have been manufactured in Gallipolis, Ohio for over 60 years.
JOHN E. HALLIDAY
Gallipolis, Ohio
Wrath
Sirs:
DO TIME'S EDITORS CONSIDER THEIR CINEMA CRITIC AN ACCREDITED JUDGE OF BOOKS AS WELL? AND DOES TIME'S BOOK REVIEWER AGREE WITH HIS ASSOCIATE'S OPINION OF JOHN STEINBECK'S "GRAPES OF WRATH" AS A "SOSO BOOK" OF "PHONY PATHOS"? i DON'T.
GUILD COPELAND
Boston, Mass.
> Of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, TIME'S book reviewer said: "It is Steinbeck's best novel . . . one of the most impassioned and exciting books of the year. . . . Steinbeck is a writer, still, of great promise."--ED.
Sirs:
Re review of The Grapes of Wrath (TIME, Feb. 12): If your worthy cinema reviewer had limited himself to a critique of the film instead of indulging himself in those stupid criticisms of the book on which the film was based, his review would have benefited considerably therefrom. . . .
MIRIAM HUBBEL
Columbia, Mo.
Nomination
Sirs:
The death of Lord Tweedsmuir leaves the office of Governor General of Canada vacant. . . .
In the writer's humble opinion it has always been the wish of the people of Canada to have the Duke of Windsor take up permanent residence in our country.
I sincerely believe that the King by such an appointment would receive not only the wholehearted thanks of the whole nation but also the thanks of the people of the United States and Great Britain. . . .
The Duke of Windsor is a born diplomat who has much political and military knowledge and experience, and by now has the spiritual and moral experience that--so it seems--he so greatly needed when he abdicated the Throne of England in favor of his brother. . . .
The Duke of Windsor has always shown the sincerest enthusiasm and deepest interest in Canada and its people, and during his many visits to the Dominion he won the warmhearted acclaim of the whole nation. . .
He is the one and only person that this country needs in these troublous times to cement the two great races in Canada into one loyal mass. . . .
MORRIS GOODMAN
Montreal, Canada
Cinemasses
Sirs:
What do you mean by "cinemasses" [Feb. 12]?
WILLIAM KENNEDY
Cleveland, Ohio
Sirs:
Your coinage of words is contributing both to the wealth and to the clarity of the American language--with but one exception: your word cinemasses.
The word should be hyphenated, but where? Before or following the m?
ALLAN M. WILSON
Washington, D. C.
> Before the m.--ED.
Women at Work
Sirs:
To some statements on p. 29, TIME, Feb. 12, I wish to take exception:
Eve Curie's biography of her mother gives no indication that Pierre Curie was ever Marie Sklodovska's Physics Professor.
It is unlikely that Professor Curie thought his daughter Eve "something of a flibbertigibbet"; she was less than 18 months old when he died.
The term "Imperial Russia" gives the wrong impression, too. Marie taught as a governess in Russian Poland.
Minor points, these, yet they distort the picture Eve Curie has given us of her illustrious father and mother.
RYNTHA OLDHAM STURGES
Vienna, Va.
> 1) Pierre Curie was in charge of the physics laboratory in which Marie Sklodovska went to work; 2) Eve was a lively baby; 3) Poland was a part of Imperial Russia.--ED.
Sirs:
A cover-to-cover reader of TIME since the first copy I saw shortly after you began publication, I have composed many a letter to the Editor, but now for the first time put one on paper. Your article Women at Work (Feb. 12) compels me to be one among many, no doubt, to send you congratulations.
This article is an excellent example of TIME'S extraordinary ability not only to report, but also to interpret facts accurately, and thus tell a story, which, while dramatic and colorful, is still true to the situation.
. . . I should guess that there are few people who could write that article. It would interest an old subscriber to know how it was done. . . . Has the principal author lived long in France? Is he married to a French woman?
If the answers to the two questions are both "yes," the article is still good; if "no" it is quite remarkable.
CHARLES T. TIDBALL
Mount Vernon, N. Y.
> 1) Yes; 2) No.--ED.
Steam v. Diesel
Sirs:
On what basis did you make the statement (TIME, Jan. 8, p. 49) concerning low maintenance costs for Diesel power? Where comparative tests have been made between Diesel and steam locomotives, the steamers (God bless 'em) came out on top. Furthermore, the City of San Francisco (S.P-U.P.) is said to be the most expensive train to operate per mile when all costs are considered: i.e., fuel, crew wages, maintenance, interest payments. The last item is roughly four times that of a steam locomotive of the same capacity as based on cost. The fact so loudly touted of the lower fuel costs of Diesels can't be denied, but fuel costs are by no means a major item.
GEORGE B. BUTTON JR.
WALTER G. WELLS
Williams College
Williamstown, Mass.
> Not No. 1 on the expensive list, but No. 2 is S. P.-U. P.'s City of San Francisco. No. 1 is the Diesel-drawn streamliner City of Los Angeles. But according to a 1939 survey of streamline trains by Manhattan consulting engineers Coverdale & Colpitts, the lowest maintenance cost found was the Rock Island's Diesel-drawn Kansas City-Dallas Rocket (5.7-c- per train mile). End of the steam-v.-Diesel statistical battle is not in sight.--ED.
Dies's Illness
Sirs:
Can you insert at no very distant date a few lines in TIME indicating what complaint Martin Dies is ill with? We do not understand why he is always "ill at his Texas home" and yet still head of his committee. Does he attend Congress at all?
V. C. ROBNIS
Palo Alto, Calif.
> 1) Sinus infection. 2) His recent two-month absence from Congress was his lengthiest since his committee was formed.--ED.
SPCLJ (cont'd)
Sirs:
MY SPCLJ MEMBERSHIP CARD IS ENDORSED BY JOHN W. MACNEV, PRESIDENT, WHOM I KNOW TO BE ATTORNEY JOHN W. NEVILLE OF THIS CITY.
JOHN SLATTERY
Detroit, Mich.
Sirs:
Anent Elmer Samson's enquiry on the SPCLJ, issue of TIME, Feb. 19th.
The questionable distinction of being founder and president of this organization is mine, I am afraid. It was little more than three years ago that our cause was first brought to light in your invaluable publication (TIME, Jan. 11, 1937), and I am proud to say that our little group has worked valiantly and tirelessly in the face of discouraging odds. . . .
J. W. MACNEV
President
Society for the Prevention of Calling Lavatories John
Detroit, Mich.
> J. W. MacNev's letterhead reads: John W. Neville.--ED.
Sirs:
If Elmer Samson, who writes in your Feb. 19th Letters column, asking about SPCLJ and SPCSCPG, is inquiring just so he can figure out how to organize a Society for the Prevention of Asking Where's Elmer, he is too late. We have had a SPAWE here in Cleveland ever since the American Legion brought the damn question up.
ELMER BLAIR
Cleveland, Ohio
Bolsheviki
Sirs:
The current Russian perfidy reminds me of some doggerel read several years ago, title and author forgotten, going approximately:
I was walking down the street one day
When I met a man most furious;
His lowered brow and somber look,
I confess, made me quite curious.
"Who are you, sir?" I gently asked,
Not wishing to be cheeky.
He turned on me and fiercely said,
"I am a Bolsheviki"
"Aha!" said I, "I'm glad of that,
For, very often, I
Have wondered what you people want,
And then have wondered why."
"What do the Bolsheviki want!"
He rolled his eyeballs upward.
"What do the Bolsheviki want?"
He rolled his eyeballs downward.
"Why do the Bolsheviki want?"
His arms stretched in the air.
"Why do the Bolsheviki want?"
He raved and tore his hair.
"The Bolsheviki want because--
His hands stretched toward the moon.
"The Bolsheviki want because--
He fell down in a swoon.
So now it's all made clear to me
By this creature tall and gaunt
That what the Bolsheviki want
They want because they want.
Maybe it's not funny at all.
H. W. GUERNSEY
New York City
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