Letters: Jul. 21, 1930

“Damned Old Rats!” Sirs: I notice, in your July 7 issue, that a Toledo gentleman takes exception to what you quoted Ethan Allen as having said when he demanded the surrender of Fort Ticonderoga, by quoting Professor Sumner as an authority for what Ethan Allen probably said.

It was my pleasure to have known the Hon. W. C. Todd of Atkinson, N. H. for many years prior to his death. Mr. Todd was old enough to be my father, and I am a grandfather.

Mr. Todd was a man who was very precise in all that he said and did. He had a friend who lived, I believe, at Madison, Wis. whose grandfather was with Ethan Allen at the time referred to. Mr. Todd told me that he had often heard his grandfather say that what Ethan Allen really said when he demanded the surrender of Fort Ticonderoga was, “Come out of there, you damned old rats!”

This certainly seems much more human and natural than to be invoking the Great Jehovah: but of course, it would hardly do for the school textbooks. NATHANIEL D. CHAPIN Cleveland, Ohio

Soup, Jesus, Farmers Sirs: In your issue of June 30, p. 4, Bob Lyle in his letter intimates that 50,000,000 cans of soup might have been sent to starving China by the American Bible Society for the cost of the 5,000,000 Bibles sent by them.

Sending the Bibles was a worthy object, no doubt; but might it not have been well to ponder what Christ would have advised under the circumstances.

Among the starving millions are many “little children,” innocent of the war conditions.

Would not the soup, or its equivalent, have had a tendency to stimulate a respect for and interest in the senders and their Bibles? At the same time creating a market for our big surplus of food supplies, incidentally benefiting our farmers? F. J. MARTIN San Diego, Calif.

Sirs: … It is really too bad that the American public didn’t send soup to make strong soldiers to go on fighting and starving.

I venture to say that the truth in the Bible and the effect of that truth, rightly apprehended, in the lives of those who read the 5,000,000 Bibles sent out by the Bible Society, will do more to bring peace of mind and provision for the body than all the soup in America. When men live, instead of exist, they provide for themselves.

Verily, he talks like a son of B. Lyle. F. H. JOHNSON Otego, N. Y.

Death for Communists Sirs: In TIME for June 23, p. 24, under the heading “Poland” the following news item is found:

“In Lemberg, last week one Samuel Jugend, one Naftali Propper, and one Israel Hirsch were sentenced to death. Their offense: ‘Belonging to the Communist Party.’ ”

The statement has terrible implications. Not even under the Tsar was the death penalty imposed for belonging to this or the other party. There must be some mistake. How do you account for the fact that there are Communists in the Polish parliament if merely being a Communist is punishable by death? … If I get no response from you I shall get the cold facts somehow. IRWINE E. GORDON Cleveland, Ohio

Sirs: TIME stated erroneously . . . that three Communists . . . were sentenced to death; their offense being, “Belonging to the Communist Party.” Where such an unfounded report could be derived is beyond my comprehension, but I beg TIME to use more care and precision before making such a preposterous entry.

Will you please correct the statement in your next issue, [and state] that the offense was not belonging to the Communist Party but that the aforesaid trio are charged by the Polish government as conspirators and traitors to the country and the punishment adjudged is fully justified. JOHN S. SLEZAK Amsterdam, N. Y.

Membership in the Communist Party renders a Pole liable to the penalty of Death because court decisions have established a legal presumption in Poland that anyone who is a Communist is ipso facto attempting to overthrow the Government and is therefor guilty of treason.

Poland will soon adopt a new legal code upon which TIME will report, stating whether Communists will continue liable to the Death penalty after its enactment. At present the courts are somewhat lenient and the Death sentencing of Communists at Lemberg was an exception. According to despatches the accused denied that they were Communists, but the Lemberg Court held that their possession of much Communist literature established the presumption that they were Communists. Upon this presumption and its corollary that a Communist is a traitor they were sentenced to Death. Communist deputies are of course protected by their parliamentary immunity.—ED.

Communism or Chaos Sirs: In your issue June 23, p. 19, under heading “Radicals,” appears an article which has amused me and raised a couple of questions in my mind which I would like to see answered editorially or by one of the numerous readers of TIME.

First: How can a Christian oppose communism when Christ was a communist? He taught it and it was practiced in the Church; in fact to be a communist was the first essential to becoming a Christian, as is proven by the story of Ananias.

Second: When the “Ham, Fish” committee gets through with its investigations, what will it propose? If it should propose to outlaw all communist activities, it will have some job on its hands, because all civilized countries, including the U. S., countenance and practice communism more or less. Take a peep at a few communist activities as officially practiced in these United States and we find among them: Army, Navy, Police, Prisons, Asylums, Reformatories, Public Schools, Libraries, Museums, Public Parks. All these activities are communistic because every man, woman and child pays directly or indirectly for their maintenance, whilst the benefits accruing from them are for the nation at large. Perhaps the finest example of official communism is our “Public Roads.” Would anyone wish to go back to the old Toll Roads? Not much, I think. Communism is here to stay. It was taught by Jesus and practiced by the greatest nation the world has ever seen. It has already been adopted, more or less, by nearly all the world and it will expand gradually everywhere, with a spasmodic burst here and there as in Russia. Bread lines will not always be tolerated.

I hold no brief for any Communist, many of whom are unbalanced, to say the least, but looking forward as well as I can, the issue seems clearly defined and humanity will have to choose between Communism and Chaos. W. BLENKO Eureka Art Glass Co. Milton, W. Va.

Would Citizen Blenko surrender Eureka Art Glass Co. and its profits to the State to stay the advent of Chaos?—ED.

Virginia & Vermont Sirs: It is interesting to read the letter of the Secretary of the Richmond, Va. Chamber of Commerce wherein he contends that Virginians can and do mix with Vermonters. Business men and their organizations have a way of meeting happily upon common ground. Get apart from professional, fraternal and business ties and you will find that it unfortunately is still true that we are damnyankees to many Southerners, particularly the small towner. . . .

Virginia Rotarians may blend well with Vermont Rotarians but beware of sectional feeling when the Southern gentlemen of the jury do their stuff. GEORGE I. SULLIVAN Philadelphia, Pa.

Irvine & Mallory Please revise your statement that Irvine and Mallory tumbled to their death on Mt. Everest (TIME, June 30). According to the accounts of the survivors of the expedition, the intrepid explorers when last caught sight of, were trudging valiantly upward. They even may have reached the summit; no one knows. It is the general belief that they perished from exposure and exhaustion. Certainly no authentic statement has ever been made that they “tumbled.” If you had put an “s” before the word, you would have come pretty close to the facts. F. T. WRIGHT Phoenix, Ariz.

St. Louis Theatres Sirs: . . . The St. Louis Municipal Theatre has a capacity of 9,750, and not 8,000 as your article stated. Hence, you were wrong by nearly 2,000.

I cannot give you the exact number of “legits” that come to our two playhouses, but the number certainly exceeds 15. The average season is four months, and the shows here stay on the average of one week. Thus, 32 shows might play. Dark houses, however, must be considered; nevertheless, a minimum of 25 shows certainly play here.

I an glad I have this most apropos opportunity of “exposing” some of New York’s theatres. You have one theatre, the Masque, with only a seating capacity of 79. St. Louisans would laugh if such a tiny house were built here. Your largest motion picture house, the Rosy, has only 5,920 seats, while our Fox has 6,000. Your average “first-run” houses have a capacity of 1,500 while ours have an average of 3,500.

There is no surprise why your shows play for months, for ours entertain the same number of people in one week. FRED HUME JR. St. Louis, Mo.

Shuberts Sirs: . . . TIME disappointed me by failing to observe that at least five of St. Louis “Muny” Opera’s twelve presentations are controlled by the Shubert Brothers in New York who will receive a fat share of the royalties. Perhaps Nephew Milton Shubert [Manager of “Muny”] arranged that. ROBERT JEROME BOYLAN III East St. Louis, Ill.

Eight Hours in 1918 Sirs: TIME’S timely news anent the Hunter Boys in Chicago endurance flight over 500 hrs. no doubt will be chronicled. Newsy news in connection: the first “endurance”? flight—no refueling ship was then known: in September 1918, U. S. Naval Air Station at Killingholme, England, a N.C. 2, two Liberty-motor flying boat, Curtiss type, built at Naval Aircraft factory, Philadelphia. Four men, oil, fuel, water, armament (machine guns and two bombs), with detonator device fixed, rations and even two carrier pigeons. Total weight: 10,440 Ibs. Flying full-load weight, specially groomed, flew continuously overhead eight hours—record at that time. This experiment was made, and successfully too, for the great effort to bomb Heligoland-Kiel Canal, never attempted due to British opposition. Forty sea planes, mates to above described, were to do the job. Eight hours to over 500 hours in 12 years, that is progress. T. S. DOBRIN Minneapolis, Minn.