Letters: Nov. 22, 1926

Glib, Ignorant

Sirs:

I have just read with utter amazement a glaringly inaccurate statement in TIME Nov. 8. I refer to your reference to “one Katrina Borah” as Luther’s second wife. Glib ignorance of an elementary historical fact which affected a great human movement so profoundly as did the marriage of Martin Luther to Katharina von Bora the Protestant Reformation reflects no credit on the reputation of pretensions of a. magazine such as yours (sic.). Katharina was Luther’s first and only wife. His marriage to her, being that of a former priest to a former nun, raised a fury of opposition against him and against the religious movement of which he was the leader. Although he had, repeatedly, urged his fellows in the evangelical party to take wives to demonstratetheir Christian liberty, he himself waited until comparatively late in life because of the constant jeopardy in which he lived. The estimable Katharina bore him five children who survived infancy and herself followed him to his grave.

FRANKLIN CLARK FRY

Pastor, Evangelical Lutheran

Church of the Redeemer Yonkers, N. Y.

TIME reported that Senator Borah was interested in tracing his ancestry to Martin Luther’s wife’s family. To TIME’s Political Editor a mild reprimand for his ignorance of Church history. Katharina von Bora was, indeed, a fine woman. According to McGiffert,— she escaped from a convent, by the aid of Luther, who endeavored to secure a husband for her, upon which she intimated, anticipating Priscilla Mullins, that she would prefer Luther himself. —ED.

Gob Flayed

Sirs:

In TIME, Oct. 25, the word “Gob” is used as referring to enlisted men in the Navy.

In the footnote at the bottom of the same column you state:

“In recent years has become a synonym for ‘Sailor.’

” You should have added to this statement-“by many of the general public, but it is greatly disliked by officers and men of the Navy.”

I have been in the Navy continuously more than 39 years and never heard the word used as referring to a sailor until during the recent World War. It is only the recruits or some new men in the service that do not object to the use of the term. All the officers and 90% of the men regard the word as an insult on account of its offensive real meaning.

I therefore request that you do not use the word again as meaning a sailor, or if you believe in its use after reading the above that you do not send me any copy of your paper in which it is used. Feeling sure that you will see the justice of the foregoing, and wishing success to your paper without the use of any such offensive terms.

N. E. IRWIN

Rear Admiral, U. S. Navy,

Commander Destroyer Squadrons,

Scouting fleet, United States Fleet.

Gonaives, Haiti.

Samuel G. Blythe, famed Saturday Evening Post writer, once wrote: “A gob is a sailor, a man of the American navy, a bluejacket, and the term is self-applied.” TIME preferring the authority of Admiral-Subscriber Irwin, will relegate the word to the category of objectionable slang.—ED.

Raked Over

Sirs:

Your usually comprehensive magazine has miserably failed of late to expose or even mention the “exploits” — not to use a cruder term — of the Prince of Wales at Biarritz and Paris.

I have just returned from Europe (including Biarritz, Paris and London), and I know what I am talking about. The Prince is constantly allowing himself to be seen with persons such as —— —— and —— —— whom he even invited to private suppers at Biarritz. In a word, perhaps the most respectable woman of his own choosing with whom the Prince “plays around” is —— ——. . . .

When I was in London, I found that the Court considers the situation extremely grave. Whenever possible attempts are made to keep photographers from snapping the Prince, so that the pouches under his eyes and his general run down appearance will not come to public notice. Just at present when the United States is being glutted with such pro-Prince propaganda as H. R. H.* I depend upon TIME to paint the truth, the whole truth. Now please let me apologize for “raking you over the coals.” There are worse magazines than TIME — bunches of them! When I opened my “back mail” upon landing I found half a dozen magazines trying to boptlick up onto my doormat with “premium offers,” like so many mongrel puppies.

If I subscribe to Good Housekeeping I can get a cookbook free, which is at least sensible although of course I have a cook book ! But what do you suppose I can get with the solemn Literary Digest? They offer me, perhaps as an antidote, the “complete works of O’Henry in one volume!” (“Free! Completely free!”)

Needless to say I shall continue to read : Vogue, TIME, The Atlantic, Scribner’s The Illustrated London News, Punch, Country Life and The Saturday Review.

MARY ELIZABETH ROBBIN

Boston, Mass.

Blonde Sinner Praised

Sirs:

After seeing What Every Woman Knows.± I am just a bit peeved at your little publication. Who says that What Every Woman Knows is a play worthy of first consideration ? To my mind it is not half as good as The Blonde Sinner which I saw against the advice of your theatre column and enjoyed immensely.

While I understand how news of the world can be revealed from Cleveland, I do not understand how you can review New York shows from there.

EDWARD G. KING

Chauncey & Co., Stock Brokers

New York, N. Y.

TIME’S dramatic, music and art critics are resident in Manhattan. —ED.

Vitaglass

Sirs:

The evident interest of your readers in ultraviolet light and heliotherapy leads us to inform you that actinic glass which transmits this radiation is already available on a commercial scale.

“Vitaglass,” the discovery of Mr. Lamp-lough (TIME, Nov. 1) has already been installed in several hospitals in the U. S. It is available through Vitaglass Corp., 50 E. 42nd St., New York City.

P. H. JENNINGS, President

VITAGLASS CORP.

New York, N. Y.

Denial

Sirs:

Mr. Bernarr Macfadden and the Macfadden Publications, whom I represent, have called to my attention an article which appeared in your publication under date of Nov. 1, 1926.

It is, of course, unnecessary for me to call your attention to the fact that the statements contained in such article entitled “THE PRESS” are malicious and libelous.

A footnote to such articles states “Publisher Macfadden sells stock to the public in $5 lots, indicating that bankers do not consider him a good risk.”

You can also well appreciate that the publication of this latter statement must of necessity cause financial injury to my client and affect his credit, which, for your information, I might state has always been of the best.

Unless you take immediate steps to correct this libelous statement, I shall be constrained to take whatever action my client may deem advisable to protect his rights in the premises.

JOSEPH SCHULTZ

New York, N. Y.

TIME will publish Lawyer Schultz’s denials of TIME-statements, if specific, concise.—ED.

Sensation

Sirs:

You do great injustice to Bernarr Mc-Fadden.

His magazine, Physical Culture and the pictures of nudes, doing the “daily dozen,” bad as you describe them, once were good enough to cure me of tuberculosis and anemia. His work really saved my life, and at a time too, when Battle Creek postal authorities barred him from the mails.

Bernarr McFadden preached the “daily dozen” exercise system twelve years before Walter Camp got fame thereby. He glorified the human body, sensibly, 20 years before Lasky & White & Zeigfeld made millions by so doing jazzily. And I’m

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sure millions of men and women owe a great debt to McFadden for health and happiness.

You’ll never find one salacious thought in any of his own writing. I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts on that. He may have sub-editors who may make mistakes. But here’s the thought: First, sound animal nature and physique is the basis of the best human life: Second, normal sex is the mainspring of life, whether one be preacher, poet or TIME’S best copyreader. Therefore physical health and healthy sex, whether expressed in picture or words, can never be “vulgar” or “pornographic” except to super-sensitive souls or the neuters which seem to be rapidly increasing. McFadden’s fiction is sensation, I agree. But so is all healthy life—in its crucial moments. If you will read McFadden’s editorials regularly you’ll discover he is one of America’s greatest prime movers—for normal sex development and sound healthy living. . . . Let McFadden alone, TIME. He’s a friend of everyone’s. He’s an honest man, and he’s got one of the finest little . families you ever saw. You’d better get acquainted with him. Turn your artillery on something else.

MCFARLAND

National Press Club

Washington, D. C.

Friends

Sirs:

. . . You print an article concerning William Lorimer [TIME, Nov. 1] that certainly demands correction and repudiation, and you print a picture which mere acquaintances recognize at once as not being his likeness. . . . You state that he was put in jail seven years after the crash of the LaSalle Street Trust & Savings Bank, because the government found his banking schemes fraudulent. Mr. Lorimer was acquitted by a jury in the Criminal Court of this county, after a lengthy trial of the charges growing out of the failure of that bank, and, the indictment in the Federal Court, as I remember it, and I follow these matters quite closely, was never pressed to trial after his acquittal in the state court, so that William L. Lorimer was not put in jail, because the government found his banking schemes fraudulent.

Again, it is not necessary to hold any lengthy brief in his favor, because you are probably already informed of his side of the case, but I should like to lay this before you: that a careful reading of the testimony before the two Senatorial Committees and the various trials that grew out of his election to the Senate, indicated that he had some zealous, but unwise friends, who were mainly responsible for the nasty situations which developed after his election, and that he, in line with his conduct all through life, would not squeal on them in order to save himself, and these friends were not courageous enough to take the burden on their own shoulders. . . .

I am a subscriber to your paper and value its unique features and the quite independent way in which you handle men and affairs. Naturally, mistakes will creep into a publication dealing with a multitude of matters, so I do not mean to be critical of you in this connection, but simply place the facts before you, so that you may do justice to a much maligned man in a later issue.

MARSHALL SOLBERG

Solberg, Hummeland & Winans

Chicago, Ill.

William Lorimer was, for at least a few weeks, in jail, although later acquitted of bank frauds. And he was expelled from the U. S. Senate for bribery. To Subscriber Solberg, thanks for his clear presentation of the Lorimer side.—ED.

23¢

Sirs:

For the first time in several years I was able to satisfactorily keep in touch with current news while spending the summer in a very tiny village of the Italian Alps. Perhaps it would interest you to know how 1 provided for having TIME forwarded to me without having to bother you with my change of address. At the postoffice I had a copy of TIME weighed and bought the necessary folders on which I wrote my Italian address. These folders I left with the caretaker and each week he wrapped TIME in one and placed it again in the mail. For the small sum of 23¢ I received ten weeks of TIME and on my return I had three issues waiting for me which had been held while I was making the trip back.

ALFRIDA T. KRAMER

New York, N. Y.

When Subscriber Kramer again travels TIME’S circulation department will be glad to spare her caretaker trouble.—ED.

For the Cover

Sirs:

I am an original subscriber to TIME and take as much interest in your front covers as I do any other part of your magazine. I have been hoping week after week to see the picture of William Lyon Phelps appear, but have never yet seen it. Is it not sufficient achievement that he has endeared himself to a hundred million readers of his articles that you could give him space one week ?

MILDRED FUNK

Springfield, Ill.

Original Subscriber Phelps has twice appeared pictorially among the pages of TIME (May 15, 1925, and January 25, 1926.)—ED.

Nelson’s Ship

Sirs: In the article [TIME, Oct. 18] describing the dedication of the new chapel at Mercersburg Academy, you write of metal scraps from Nelson’s Trafalgar Flagship Victoria to be melted into a bell. The act of calling H. B. M. S. Victory, Victoria reminds me of the nice middle-aged lady from the United States, who was being shown over the Victory. A bluejacket guide pointed out the raised brass plate on the quarter deck, and said: “That madam, is the spot where Lord Nelson fell.” The lady replied: “Dear me! I almost fell over that myself.”

W. F. JACOBS

Commander, U. S. Navy, Canal Zone

Cristobal, C. Z.

Candid

Sirs:

Keep on being candid whether you are talking about Jews, Catholics or Protestants. TIME can never be accused of being partial.

ROBERT E. BRUCE

Port Deposit, Md.

* Martin Luther : The Man and His Work, by Arthur Cushman McGiffert, onetime (1917-26) President of Union Theological Seminary, preceding Henry Sloane Coffin (TIME. Nov. 15).

* H. R. H., a biography of His Royal Highness, by Major F. E. Verney

* Doran ($2.50).—ED.

± Play by Sir James Matthew Barrie, currently successful in Manhattan.—ED.