Rest of the Story
Sirs:
Mister, you sure started something when you wrote that article in TIME, March 18, titled "Innocent in Wall Street," in which you mentioned the ad in the Wall Street Journal in which I advertised for a partner with $15,000 to help me dig a well and me getting in a mess with the SEC.
Since you printed that article, which I did'nt figure made any news, many newspapers throughout the U. S. and many magazines including the Saturday Evening Post, have written similar articles.
I expect that most people just naturally have good wishes for all other people and feel good when they hear or read of happy endings and so very many mighty nice folks scattered around the country wrote me and were considerably worried, that I would like to write you and relieve that worrying by telling the rest of the story.
I never figured for a split minute that we could miss a big well unless we dug her sideways. I just naturally beleived it was just a case of digging and making a hole. And that cost money because drillers and roughnecks, truckers and swampers have to eat.
Anyhow, I dug the well, at 4205 feet, we hit the prettiest most porous honeycomb oil saturated lime that I ever saw, we dug almost 100 feet of that oil saturation and this morning just before seven o'clock, she blew way over the top. . . .
When I put that ad in the Wall Street Journal, if I had had $50,000 in cash money, a man sure would have had to twist my arm a long time to make me offer an offer like that, but it was just a case of I figured that the oil was there, I had the drill rigs and the equipment, the drillers and roughnecks wanted to go to work but it took collective money because it had to be cash money.
Anyhow, the well is dug, and she is in, for one of the prettiest bullies I ever did dig anywhere in more than twenty five years, I am enclosing a picture showing what she looked like going over the top and so the nice folks that were worried and wrote me can quit worrying because everything turned out just exactly right. And I sure want every one of them to know that I thoroughly appreciate their kind thoughts toward me.
I have received so many letters that I feel like a movie star with his Public. And I figured they and others would like to know of this happy ending. If it is an ending.
C. A. EVERTS
Dallas, Tex.
Ice Cream Dollar
Sirs:
Will you please see that the child crusader whose picture appears on p. 23 of TIME for May 13 gets the enclosed dollar for ice cream? Thank you.
YOURA QUALLS Radcliffe College Cambridge, Mass.
He says thanks, too, wonders if Reader Quails would mind if he gave her $1 to the Children's Crusade fund. He is 13 year-old Eugene Lewis of the Colored Orphan Asylum in the Bronx. One of the brightest of the Asylum's 170 orphans, Eugene is a baseball player and trackman, stars in all the school plays.-ED.
Ex-Crusader Sirs:
TIME, MAY THIRTEENTH, P. TWENTY-ONE SAYS I HAVE "CRUSADED FOR MONETARY INFLATION." IN MY ENTIRE CAREER I NEVER DID. IF YOU WILL CEASE CALLING ME DOCTOR, I WILL FORGIVE YOU FOR A DAMAGING MISSTATEMENT.
SAMUEL HARDEN CHURCH
Pittsburgh, Pa.
As TIME said, Doctor ("$1,000,000 for Hitler") Church is now safely back on the Gold Standard. But in 1931 he advised printing $1,000,000,000 in silver certificates-he called it "expansion" of the currency. Entitled to be called Doctor (Litt. D., LL. D.), he may also be called Colonel, having once served on the staff of Ohio's Governor Hoadly.-ED.
White Paper
Sirs:
Comments on your review of American White Paper, issue of April 29.
An interesting article that reveals much more than it tells (connotes more than it denotes). To paraphrase some of the language in the review, is this not another goddam piece of propaganda? Here is a striking sentence, "If our history has a lesson, it is that in these times one must pray, above all things, that public opinion will be wise and well informed." How informed?
There is a strong intimation in the article that the authors of American White Paper feel that public opinion was not well informed, for in another place in the review it is set out, "Throughout the 18 months covered in the book the President is pictured as bound and gagged by laggard public opinion."
There is a strong feeling among many of us that it is the "laggard public opinion" alone that has so far kept us out of this war in Europe. Nine out of ten of our people still want to stay out, but the propaganda has already convinced nine out of ten that this country can not afford to stand by and see the "democracies" (?) lose. Thus we have already been brought to brink of war.
But more. How in the name of high heaven can we keep out of this war when it is the avowed intention of our leaders, the quadrumvirate mentioned in the papers, "to use every method short of war to assure victory for the democracies?" In the light of these papers the statement, "Whatever happens, we won't send troops abroad," seems wanting in common sense.
I'm no Jeremiah or Micah but common sense can foresee that with the intent of our leaders so patent we shall soon be in this war on the side of England and France; and when that happens Russia, Italy and Japan will be drawn in on the side of Germany. Then we'll have a war on our hands that our children shall not live to see the end of, and in it every vestige of democracy will disappear.
Thank God for the "laggard public opinion" that has so far saved us. Our only hope is that it will stay laggard.
M. A. MATLOCK Little Rock, Ark.
WPA Grant
Sirs:
APPRECIATE YOUR FRIENDLY COMMENTS ON OUR MUSEUM. ONE STATEMENT HOWEVER REQUIRES CORRECTION. YOU STATE (TIME, APRIL EIGHTH): "IN ORDER TO GET WPA GRANTS, THE MUSEUM LISTED ITS PAINTINGS, SCULPTURE, FURNITURE AS MATERIALS." ACTUALLY ALL MATERIAL SO LISTED FOR WPA WERE ELEMENTS SUCH AS DOORWAYS, CEILINGS, PANELING, ETC. TO BE BUILT IN. THESE WERE IN ADDITION TO LARGE CASH CONTRIBUTIONS. WE HAVE THE HIGHEST RESPECT BOTH FOR WPA'S WORK FOR US AND FOR THEIR RIGID FINANCIAL CONTROL OF IT. TIME ERRED.
FlSKE KlMBALL Director
Philadelphia Museum of Art Philadelphia, Pa.
-- To Philadelphia Museum of Art, apologies. TIME was misinformed.-ED.
"Baboon Boy"
Sirs:
On the basis of evidence which was at that time believed to be accurate and complete, the writer gave a brief account of Lucas, the so-called "baboon boy" of South Africa [TIME, April 1].
Since the time of the initial report, however, largely through the efforts of Dr. Dru Drury of Grahamstown, additional information has been discovered. Dr. Drury has been able to interview and to examine Lucas, and has talked with every available person who might possibly have had knowledge of the case.
Although the hearsay evidence about the boy being found by the police is still maintained, nevertheless the previous institutionalization of Lucas at the Grahamstown Mental Hospital, the distance of Grahamstown from Burghersdorp (where he was allegedly found among baboons), and the fact that there is no mention of the baboon incident in the Mental Hospital records, all would seem to discount the existence of a "feral" period in Lucas' life. . . .
JOHN P. FOLEY JR. The George Washington University Washington, D. C.
Salary Philosophy
Sirs:
Re: TIME, May 6, p. 76: General Motors President Bill Knudsen's defense of big salaries.
A few years ago my small son, who had read in the newspaper of some executive receiving $75,000 a year, asked: "Dad, how can a man be worth $75,000 to a corporation?" My reply was to the effect that he could only be worth it if he did not cost the corporation any money; in other words, he would have to produce more than his salary.
I am sure Messrs. Sloan and Knudsen must be able to show General Motors more than they are paid. . . .
This entire controversy reminds one very much of the following story: The automobile of a tourist motoring through Poland became stalled; he sent to the nearest town for a mechanic. The latter, on arriving, looked over the engine, gave it one hit with his hammer, whereupon it functioned perfectly. In response to the query as to what was due him, he asked ten zloty, to which the motorist said: "Surely not ten zloty for giving the car one hit with the hammer!" "Oh, no!" replied the mechanic "one zloty for hitting the motor, and nine zloty for knowing where to hit!" In this story can be found much of the philosophy that pertains to wages and salaries.
WALTER S. HELLER San Francisco, Calif.
Martyr's Marriage
Sirs:
We wish to commend you on your evident fairness in the article on "Mormons and Polygamy" in your issue of April 29.
We feel, however, that we should pay a little attention to your reference to the Dictionary of American Biography and its statement referring to the number of Joseph Smith's alleged plural wives. No sensible person will take this seriously in the light of the undisputed fact that he had no children from any such women. Even Vardis Fisher, author of Children of God, has written as late as in February of this year, that there is no proof that Joseph Smith "had any children from any except" his wife Emma.
Furthermore, while we had no notice of the publication of the Dictionary of American Biography in time to secure the inclusion of our claims in this connection, we discover the very interesting fact that the alleged biography of Joseph Smith in that compilation was written by Bernard DeVoto who, we note, was born in Ogden, Utah, and who, it is a safe conjecture, either is or was a Utah Mormon, or of Mormon parentage.
In either event, he could not have escaped the Mormon traditions about the "divine principle" of polygamy-divinity wrongfully borrowed from Joseph Smith's alleged but never proven connection with it.
The Utah Church history quotes a sermon preached by Joseph Smith on May 26, 1844, one month before he was killed, in which he very earnestly stated that he had but one wife. Unless and until Utah impeaches his credibility, that averment is accepted by us descendants of the man.
I. A. SMITH
Independence, Mo.
-- Reader Smith is entitled to believe his grandfather Joseph Smith. Many others believe Brigham Young, who declared when Mormon polygamy was openly proclaimed at Salt Lake City that Joseph Smith had 27 secret wives besides Emma. Critic Bernard DeVoto (son of a Notre Dame mathematician, a Mormon mother) admitted that Joseph Smith had only five "official" children by his "official" wife Emma. -ED.
Full Pay
Sirs:
I do not know Mr. Joseph Newton Pew Jr. [TIME, May 6] and it is most unlikely that we shall ever meet. We do not move in the same circles, so to speak, which is, incidentally, more my hard luck than his.
However, I do know one thing about him so newsworthy that I think it should be passed on to you. You will note from this stationery that I am a part time military person and am, I might add, busily engaged in trying to build up the reserve military forces of the U. S. in my own little sphere so that should the time come, God forbid, that reserve military forces are needed, they will be ready to move in with the regulars and function. I remember all too well the late Mr. Bryan's two million men who were to spring to arms overnight.
A number of enlisted men of this battalion are employees of the Sun Shipbuilding Co. It is noteworthy that, no matter how busy the ship building company may be when this battalion is ordered away for its two weeks' field training, every one of Mr. Pew's employees always goes and receives full pay from the company. It seems too bad that there are not more such employers.
EDWARD P. SIMMONDS Major, Commanding United States Marine Corps Philadelphia, Pa.
N. A. M.'s Declaration
Sirs:
In TIME, May 6, page 18, in an article regarding the Republican Party in Pennsylvania, you state:
"Mr: Prentis preferred the presidency of the National Association of Manufacturers whence he could denounce the Wagner Act without being interrupted." This statement is not fair either to me or to the Association. I have personally favored collective bargaining where equal moral and legal responsibility is assumed by both sides for years before the Wagner Act was even contemplated.
The position of the National Association of Manufacturers is set forth in its "Declaration of Principles Relating to the Conduct of American Industry" in these words:
"The employee should have the right to join any labor organization he wishes, or none at all, as he may himself deem best in his own interests. The action he takes in this regard should be arrived at as a matter of his own free will and volition, without coercion, duress or intimidation from any source. Laws and political administrative acts which create suspicion in labor relations and thereby encourage uneconomic practices, will inevitably defeat their own ends by impairing the interests of the public and of labor itself. The functions of industry cannot be performed under conditions of litigation and conflict."
The Association is not advocating the repeal of the Wagner Act. It is convinced, however, that the public welfare demands that it be amended in a number of important particulars.
My special personal interest in the Association at this time lies in its "Mobilization for the Understanding of Private Enterprise." Almost 4,000 manufacturers have already enlisted in this patriotic effort to drive home to the American people the fact that free private enterprise (with reasonable government umpiring to insure fair play) is one of the three inseparable supports of individual freedom. The other two are representative democracy, and civil and religious liberty. The three stand or fall together.
H. W. PRENTIS JR. President
National Association of Manufacturers New York City
TIME agrees with President Prentis' statement that N. A. M. believes the public welfare demands that the Wagner Act be amended in a number of important particulars. TIME meant no more, no less.-ED.
*Sun Shipbuilding pays the difference between its employes' military pay and their regular salary.-ED.
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