Letters: Domestics Under the Eagle

Sirs: Now that the NRA bird, eagle or hawk (TIME, July 31) spreads its protective wings over U. S. workers, household servants excepted, many thousands of us (I am not acquainted with the statistics in regard to the number of persons employed in domestic service) shall continue to work from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. or later when guests are entertained, often on 24-hour duly when there are children or others who cannot be left alone, with one weekly day off—after the work is done and dinner prepared —for “wages” which range from $15 per week to “exchange for room and board,” the former any place from a damp basement up to a musty attic, badly heated, ventilated and lighted. There seldom is a place where friends may be received. All one’s personal affairs are pried into and discussed. Meals are usually good but must be eaten on a kitchen board, sometimes cold, always in a hurry.

Full details would fill a good-sized volume, but when it has been conceded that the worker is at a disadvantage and not always able to strike a fair bargain, hence “collective bargaining,” why has no legislation been enacted which will protect persons seeking domestic employment who invariably are in dire circumstances and with no one to depend upon, when there are so many employers willing to take advantage of the situation?

ALMA JACOBSEN

Oakland, Calif.

The A. F. of L. knows of no union of household help in the U. S. No effort to cover servants has been made by the NRA. Individual employers are expected to act in patriotic spirit, like Mrs. William Kissam Vanderbilt who last week signed the President’s blanket code with sole reference to her domestic staff.—ED.

Slum Clearers

Sirs:

. . . We are reminded to inquire why the dot and comma hounds in your editorial department overlooked TIME’S negligence in reporting the National Conference on Slum Clearance which was held in Cleveland, Thursday and Friday, July 6 and 7—the first convention of its kind— and which brought together 420 of the nation’s foremost housing experts, city planners, and social workers, from 34 key cities of the country. Out here in the provinces, we thought this quite a TIME-worthy event, and our citizen committee which arranged the conference under the auspices of the city government was disappointed not to make the grade. CLAYTON GRANDY

Cleveland, Ohio

The Slum Clearance conference was indeed TIME-worthy. To it went Editor Harold Sinley Buttenheim of American City Magazine; President Appleton P. Clark Jr. of Washington Sanitary Housing Corp.; New York’s Ralph Borsodi, economist who grinds his own flour at home and whose plan for making the unemployed produce their own necessities was adopted last autumn in Dayton; Howard Whipple Green, Cleveland statistician, author of exhaustive studies of Cleveland’s population and buying power; Eugene Henry Klaber of American Institute of Architects; Cincinnati’s able Lawyer Alfred Bettman, vice president of the National Conference on City Planning; Sociologist Edith Elmer Wood, author of Recent Trends in American Housing. The conference talked & talked, adopted resolutions endorsing most opinions advanced. Chief opinions: 1) slum dwellers should be moved to homesteads on city outskirts, encouraged to provide their own food, maintain their own cottages; 2) the Federal Government should eliminate blighted areas with part of the $3,300,000,00 public works fund; 3) all slum property should be converted into public parks. —ED.

Hatteras Horses

Sirs:

Chincoteague is far from being the only place in the East where there are wild horse roundups (TIME, Aug. 7).

There are far more wild ponies on the Carolina “banks” than at Chincoteague. As the owner of one of these “wild” horses I enclose some photos of a pony round-up on the Hatteras banks. This round-up was for the purpose of dipping them as a preventative against ticks.

Commonest belief as to their origin: the descendants of Barbary ponies brought to the Colonies by Sir Walter Raleigh.

VAX CAMPEN HEILNER

Spring Lake, N. J.

“Colored”

Sirs:

Greatly interesting are your letters from readers, but the most amazing thing here as elsewhere in life is the number of people who know so many things that are not so. In TIME, July 31, a North Carolina editor tells you that the Negro objects to being called “colored” and tells you why. Now will he explain why the leading organization of that race in this country calls itself the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People? They chose their own name.

STODDARD SEELYE

Swarthmore, Pa.

Good Girls & Sailors

Sirs:

To the King comes curt, clear, complete newsmagazine TIME each week for perusal. Encountered up to your issue of even date were no knocks, no adverse criticism, no subtle insinuations regarding Naval personnel. Breaking this great, good record is the following: “Her job was to steer home ‘good’ girls looking for sailors, before they got into trouble.”

I consider the sentence inappropriate, unTIMEly, not newsworthy. It may well have been deleted prior to publishing or omitted entirely in the brief. Reason: misleading.

GEORGE J. LINET

U. S. S. King San Diego, Calif.

Drive to Tahoe

Sirs:

Appearing in your Aug. 7 edition of TIME, in the Aeronautics division, is an article stating that it takes 10 hr. of hard driving to drive from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe. I wish to correct that statement.

Any good driver can make the trip in six or seven hours. For the whole distance nothing but good roads prevail.

I once drove the distance in 4 hr. 20 min. in a Ford from a small town 40 mi. north of San Francisco. I always drive to Lake Tahoe in not over five hours. . . .

It might be a good idea if Easterners were to got acquainted with California. We think nothing of distances out here.

RICHARD S. ROGERS

Napa, Calif.

Sirs:

Statement in your Aug. 7 issue commenting on “Tahoe Takeoff” that “it takes 10 hr. of arduous driving to make the trip by motor” from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe is entirely erroneous. A very comfortable trip, including time on ferry from San Francisco to Berkeley, and a stop for luncheon or dinner on the way, is eight hours. Five or six hours if in a hurry and no stop for meal. Distance only 220 mi., splendid highway, but ferry kills valuable time. . . .

RUPERT L. LARSON

Los Angeles, Calif.

TIME’S source for the time to Tahoe was the Automobile Club of America, toward which a raised eyebrow for not keeping up with swift California.—ED.

Gandhi Speaks

Sirs:

Considering that Poona and the editorial offices of TIME in New York are nearly 12,000 miles apart, the write-up (TIME, May 22) on Mahatma Gandhi’s fast was fair and accurate but for the following:

1)Vichy water was replaced by an Indian Spring water which was found superior.

2)Vallabhai Jhaverbhai Patel is not in a sanatorium in Vienna but in a cell in Yerovda jail where he was Mahatma’s companion before the latter’s release.

3) The telegram was sent by Vithalbhai Jhaverbhai Patel, onetime President of India’s Legislative Assembly and elder brother to Vallabhai. Vithalbhai was on a lecture tour to the U. S. last winter.

Not mentioned was the fact that the fast was partly due to an American woman, Nila Cram Cook, 22, left a widow by a Greek with a four-year-old son, who last year became Gandhi’s disciple, was detailed by him to work among the Harijans (Untouchables) in Bangalore, got into unscrupulous hands, contracted debts and a bad reputation, was recalled.

Poetess Sarojini Naidu’s daughter is not Latmaja but Padmaja (TIME, June 5.). Gandhi does not croak but only frogs do on this side of the world. Gandhi speaks.

B. B. MUNDKUR

Pusa, Bihar, India

Relief

Sirs:

Most pleased with your frontispiece this week. Marie [Dressier] was a relief, with her intelligent face and much better looks. She far surpassed the last six weeks’ display found on your covers.

EINAR T. LINDEN

Santa Monica, Calif.

Brosson & Sissor

Sirs:

TIME, launcher of expressive and practical new words, use following expressions in your People column instead of uncertain nephew or niece and clumsy sister’s son or brother’s (laughter:

Brosson = Brother’s son.

Brossor =Brother’s daughter.

Sisson = Sister’s son.

Sissor = Sister’s daughter.

F. WOODS BECKMAN

(Subscriber since first number)

Altoona, Pa.

Do other readers second these nominations? To TIME they sound ingenious but extreme.—ED.

Clicking Campaign

Sirs:

Do you think the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. would be interested in knowing that I regard their campaign in TIME as the best educational advertising I have ever read. Heretofore I have thought of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad’s series as ranking first in make-up and appeal.

There is really no good reason for my troubling myself and you with this statement, except that, were I an advertiser, it would please me to know that my stuff had clicked.

S. R. KALISKI

San Antonio. Tex.

TIME & Bass

Sirs:

TIME brings all things, yes even luck to a would-be fisherman. This afternoon the writer had spent over two hours trolling, casting and still fishing in the waters of beautiful Peninsular Lake but sans any success, when he remembered that he had fortunately brought a copy of TIME .along to while away the time while still fishing. I picked up the magazine from the back of the skiff and had been reading for about three minutes when I was startled from National Affairs by the whirring sound of the unwinding reel. For the next three minutes TIME and all else was forgotten as I fought with and finally landed the largest fish I have ever had the good fortune to catch. It was a 3½lb. small mouth black bass, a very good sized one for this particular lake. My copy of TIME was well doused during my struggle with said fish, but I have dried it out and will finish it this evening. . . .

JOHN W. HOLZMAN

Cincinnati, Ohio