Letters, Nov. 30, 1936

Man of the Year (Cont’d)

Sirs:

There is only one candidate for the honor of Alan of the Year. His name is Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

GEORGE L. KRAFT

Knoxville, Tenn.

Sirs: You would please every loyal Democrat if you make James A. Farley your Man of this Year. Only through his statesmanship was the unprecedented Roosevelt victory at the polls in November made possible. Jim Farley showed the way and the Nation followed. It was Jim Farley who discovered Roosevelt in the first place. . . .

MICHAEL McMANUS

Brookline, Mass.

Sirs:

Who is the man who turned Italy from a second-rate Kingdom to a first-rate Empire in three months of 1936? Mussolini deserves your Man of the Year recognition.

HAVEN S. SAMUELS

Worcester, Mass.

Sirs:

. . . How about Lou Gehrig? . . .

M. CORNBLUM New York City

Final judges of who will be TIME’S Man of the Year are TIME’S editors. Nevertheless, readers’ nominations are sought.

Score to date: Roosevelt, 2; Mussolini, 1; Edward VIII, 1; Farley, 1; Gehrig, 1.— ED.

Illinois Facts

Sirs:

Lest an erroneous impression prevail, I am impelled to direct your attention to the paragraph in your issue of Nov. 9, p. 26 which includes this statement: “Despite lukewarm support from Chicago’s Kelly-Nash machine, Democratic Governor Henry Horner piled up a 293,000 lead in Cook County. . . .”

The statement represents a conclusion which does not square with the facts. The Democratic organization in Chicago and Cook County,despite efforts of anti-Roosevelt forces to prevent the achievement of party harmony after the April primary, presented a united front in the Nov. 3 election.

County Chairman Patrick A. Nash and Mayor Edward J. Kelly unreservedly called for and worked for the election of the entire Democratic ticket. The straight ticket was emphasized in every phase of the campaign. When inspired rumors of the type familiar in all election campaigns were spread, by the opposition, to the effect that Governor Horner would be slighted, Chairman Nash and Mayor Kelly took the unprecedented action of personally sending to each of the more than 3,500 county precinct workers a telegram reinforcing the party position of wholehearted support for every candidate on the ticket.

These preballot box rumors perhaps may be the basis for such statements that the Democratic organization gave Governor Horner only “lukewarm support.” Like many such pre-election rumors, this is without basis in fact.

BARNET HODES

Corporation Counsel City of Chicago Law Department

Chicago, Ill.

True it is that Mayor Kelly included Governor Horner in a pre-election statement endorsing the city, State and National Democratic ticket, but the facts remain that Boss Kelly cut Governor Horner at the Democratic National Convention in June, that Mayor Kelly sat on a campaign platform with Governor Horner just once, that the Kelly-Nash Chicago machine temporarily buried the hatchet with the Horner downstate faction for the single purpose of holding Illinois for the Democracy Nov. 3.—ED.

Interesting

Sirs:

I think it would be interesting to know how the Matanuska colony in Alaska voted in the Presidential election.

No returns from Alaska are shown in your latest (Nov. 9) issue.

LINDSAY PETERS, M. D.

Alameda, Calif.

Citizens of U. S. Territories are not eligible to vote in Presidential elections, send no Senators or Representatives to Congress.—ED.

Heyd’s Alma Maters Sirs: TIME for Nov. 9, under Medicine, refers to A. M. A. President Charles Gordon Heyd as Canada-born and educated.

True, he was graduated from the University of Toronto in 1905, but later entered the University of Buffalo, received his doctor’s degree there in 1909, has since pursued a career of which both his Alma Maters are justly proud. . . .

WILLIAM G. COOK

Alumni Secretary

The University of Buffalo

Buffalo, N. Y.

Adorable Animal

Sirs:

TIME’S story entitled “Vanishing Koala” in the Nov. 16 issue went straight to my heart—so much so that I am enclosing my check for $50. If you want to use it to start an American Society for the Preservation of the Koala or if you want to send it to Mr. Noel Burnet it is all the same to me. But in all seriousness I want to do something to help toward the preservation of this adorable animal, so perfectly described by your writer as ”a cuddly, button-nosed little creature.”

I should think the Australian Government would be ashamed of itself to permit these animals to die out and to allow their only benefactor, Mr. Burnet, virtually to starve due to his lone uphill fight to save them. Can’t California do what Australia is apparently unwilling to do? Hasn’t California many eucalyptus trees originally brought from Australia, and among the California eucalypti can’t some of the twelve varieties the Koala feeds upon be found? California is a greathearted, energetic State. Will Californians interest themselves in the Koala?

Anyhow, here are my $50. I can’t think of a better place to have this worthwhile movement start than in the pages of TIME.

ETHEL SCHROEDER

Lyndhurst, N. J.

Though no espouser of Causes, TIME will gladly transmit to Naturalist Burnet Mrs. Schroeder’s $50.—ED.

For Hinterlanders

Sirs:

Under Theatre I find your reviews of the new plays in Manhattan very interesting, but we in the hinterlands cannot learn from TIME whether a play runs for three performances or for 300. I suggest, therefore, that once a month you publish a list of the plays that are still running. A little table like the ”To Be Continued” list in the New York Sunday Times would be welcomed, I am sure, by thousands of your readers. . . .

I. E. KNAPP

Pensacola, Fla.

As the Broadway theatrical season progresses, TIME periodically runs, and will continue to run, a list of Best Plays.—ED.

Undelayed Dorothy

Sirs:

In your Nov. 9 issue of TIME appeared an article relative to Captain James A. Mollison and his recent transatlantic crossing, during the course of which he established three new records.

We take this opportunity to call your attention to the fact that the Bellanca low-wing monoplane “The Dorothy” used by Captain Mollison was not purchased with the idea in mind” of entering it in the Johannesburg Air Race. The deposit on the aircraft was received on Sept. 10 and Captain Mollison arrived in the U. S. the latter part of September, first coming to our factory on the 28th. The Johannesburg Race started at dawn from London on Sept. 29. The delivery date given Captain Mollison when placing the order was October 15; our pilot tested the machine on the 14th and it was ready for Captain Mollison on the date promised.

We feel that you will want to correct the impression erroneously given in the news item that the airplane was ordered specifically for the Johannesburg Race, and that it was unable to participate on account of late delivery.

H. L. THOMPSON

Assistant Secretary Bellanca Aircraft Corp.

New Castle, Del.

Pepper’s President’s English

Sirs:

On at least two occasions TIME has referred to the oratorical gifts of young, Alabama-born Senator-elect Josh Lee of Oklahoma. I would call your attention to the eloquence of another Senator-elect who likewise is young and Alabama-born: Claude Pepper of Florida.

While reporting a murder trial in a North Georgia mountain town last year, I heard Pepper make an argument to the jury which almost had me in tears—and I was used to such things.

His oratory is unimpassioned, but his command of the President’s English is beautiful to behold.

Watch for Pepper in the Senate. When he talks—well, it’s something.

RANDOLPH L. FORT

Instructor in Journalism

University of Alabama

University, Ala.

Näive Grandmother

Sirs:

Your dramatization on the air of the story of Grace Bedell and Abraham Lincoln was splendid, a vivid and fitting tribute to the kindliness of that great man and a touching finale to the quiet drama of my grandmother’s life.

The original letter my grandmother wrote to Lincoln was believed lost until about seven years ago. Then a Mr. Dondero, member of Congress from a Michigan district, acquired it from descendants of Lincoln.

Grandmother appreciated the letters she received from all over the world relative to her “grow a beard” suggestion to the President.

Blindness handicapped her last years but she bore this affliction, not with pity-seeking sorrow nor with despairing indignation, but rather with a calm and philosophical acceptance. She accepted reality bravely. “I dislike making a fuss,” she often asserted.

Her championing of Lincoln in the face of some of the Democrats in her own family was partly a childish whim, partly an indefinable urge to help the under dog.

“Well,” she has often told us, “I did think that Mr. Lincoln looked very—well, homely. His features were large and rather uncouth. I guess it just occurred to me that he would look better if he wore a beard.” While laboriously composing her letter to the great man (and she made only one draft of it) she suddenly became aware that the implications of her note might “hurt his feelings.” To add a bit of possible salve she accordingly told the President that the “rail fence around your picture looks real pretty.” This referred to the pictorial fence bordering the campaign pictures of Hannibal Hamlin and Abraham Lincoln.

Her conclusion, after a careful summary of reasons why Lincoln should grow a beard and a really masterful and wholly feminine appeal to his vanity, was naively blunt: “Answer this letter right off—goodbye.”

GEORGE D. BILLINGS

Minneapolis, Minn.

Unjustified Jung

Sirs:

Dr. Carl Gustav Jung (TIME, Nov. 9) makes as rash and unjustified a statement as he did in 1930 when in a Forum essay he said that white Americans had acquired a Negroid and Indian behaviour. Again it seems that Dr. Jung hears the bells but doesn’t know where they’re hanging. By attributing to Franklin D. Roosevelt “the most amazing power complex, the Mussolini substance, the stuff of a dictator absolutely,” the analytical psychologist Jung overlooks the subtle but nevertheless gravitating difference between a leading statesman supported by more than 19,000,000 out of 31,000,000 voters, and the power-craving dictators of Old and New who rule by force, coercion, andintimidation.

Dr. Jung spends now and then a few weeks in the U. S., but even if he had spent all of the time of his last sojourn in America in thecompany of Mr. Roosevelt, as a scientifically inclined psychologist, he could not have justified his sweeping statement. As is so often the case with European scientists and “observers,” the American mentality, the American concept and interpretation of democracy, and the true causes on which these are based, are foreign to Dr. .lung. He discovers Negroid and Indian traits in our mentality while he doesn’t see that the Negroes, Indians and we whites have been molded by the same American environment. He accuses Mr. Roosevelt of “the Mussolini substance” while it should be evident even to the most casual observer that Mr. Roosevelt is following in his whole career the best traditions of American statesmanship; and that—and this conclusion is directly due to Dr. Jung’s own theories!—the American people would not be so overwhelmingly confident in Mr. Roosevelt, particularly not the intellectual strata, if there was even the slightest evidence of an Adlerian “power complex” in him.

It has been said by authorities and lay-folk that psychoanalysts, commonly called “Analysts,” are rich-men’s doctors. If so, it would be obvious where Dr. Jung, whose personal acquaintance with Mr. Roosevelt is but the very slightest, gained his information about the man.

Not as a partisan, which I am not, but as a deeply and vitally interested observer I may call to mind that Mr. Roosevelt has been called a “dictator” by his rich. Old Guard opponents ever since the people made him President of the U. S.

WINNIE SPARKS

Albuquerque, N. M.

Sick

Sirs:

Reading your account of the young Cuban girl who knows nothing of this world and wants no contact with it [TIME, Nov. 16] gave me an idea. An idea that all-knowing TIME could tell me where, in modern times, people gowhen they are moneyless and sick of life, yet afraid of suicide. There used to be monasteries. Perhaps there still are. Kindly tell me where one is, and its entrance requirements.

FRANK WALTON

Elmhurst, Ill.

Let Reader Walton first decide whether he inclines toward a Catholic or Episcopal order. If it be Catholic, his nearest source of monastic information is Monsignor Robert C. Maguire, the Chancery Office, Chicago. If Episcopal, let him consult with Bishop George Craig Stewart’s office in Chicago. In either case, his problems will receive the attention of psychologists, theologians.—ED.

Highway Aid

Sirs:

Re TIME, Nov. 9, p. 41: first-aid stations in filling stations are already a reality, as transcontinental travelers well know. Nearly 1,000 stations have been so equipped. The movement was started by the Fracture Committee of the American College of Surgeons some years ago and then taken up by the American Red Cross. The latter organization now trains the station employes in first aid and through local chapters supplies materials for the station and road signs designating its location. . . .

C. E. YOUNT JR., M. D.

Prescott, Ariz.

Reader Yount’s estimate of the Red Cross highway first aid drive does not do the society full justice. The Red Cross has so far equipped 1,250 filling stations, drug stores, restaurants to succor motor accident victims.—ED.

Texas Scratches

Sirs:

TIME, Nov. 9, p. 24, quotes Vice President Garner saying to wife at home election “put an X after each Democrat.” This must be a joke in more ways than one for the Vice President knows that Texans do not vote by placing X after candidate favored but enjoy the privilege denied to users of more modern ballots, of drawing line through name of every candidate you don’t want, varying in shade according to how much you are “agin’ him.” This method is known as “scratching” and is a grand sport resulting m many broken pencils. It also may be classed as an outdoor sport, being often conducted in the wide open, ballots being marked on tables elbow to elbow with friends; on knees in shade of tree; on neighbors’ backs or up against building or fence; with quiet discussion of candidates and remarks of “let’s scratch that so and so.” And when it is all over, every successful candidate and every appointed officer of the State, County or City, from notary public to Governor takes an oath that he has never fought a duel with deadly weapons nor acted as a second in one.

H. L. FENLEY

Lufkin, Tex.

Jones at Harvard

Sirs:

TIME for Nov. 16, under Education, says on p. 87:

“In the opinion of fund-raisers, Harvard’s Tercentenary ranks as a great lost opportunity. President James Bryant Conant, relying on a home-managed, low-pressure appeal, realized only $5,500,000. . . .”

The appeal was not home-managed. It was managed by the John Price Jones Corp., whose management included the editing of the Tercentenary Gazette. Funds were solicited through an alumni committee, in the usual way, of course. A Jones executive was an officer of this committee, and its professional guide. Tercentenary publicity was in complete charge of the Jones organization, through their home office and through representatives stationed at Cambridge.

SCHAFER WILLIAMS

Harvard University

Cambridge, Mass.

The John Price Jones Corp. was retained by Harvard’s Tercentenary Com-mittee for promotional advice & counsel, but declines to take credit either for editing the Gazette or for handling the event’s publicity, which was in the hands of Alumnus Arthur Wild.—ED.

Dander Up

Sirs:

What d’y’mean, “backwoods?” I’m talking about TIME of Nov. 16. Under National Affairs you have this subhead, “Backwoods War”—then you start off by saying, “Labor’s good friend.

Franklin Roosevelt, has a good Arkansas friend.

Utilities Tycoon Harvey Couch, who owns an 863-mi. backwoods railroad line, the Louisiana & Arkansas.” How did you arrive at that “backwoods” business? Ever been down in this country? Does New Orleans and the Mardi Gras mean anything? How about Dallas and the Texas’ Centennial? I’m not going to give you any statistics but you can read. The L. & A. Lines link these two principal cities and freight service via the “backwoods” railroad, New Orleans to Dallas, is second morning. . . .

Ever been to Shreveport? If you want to go from there to St. Louis—and goin class—you’ll ride The Shreveporter to Hope, Ark. and it’s a train, air-cooled V everything. Show me something better “up North!” You wouldn’t call Dallas, New Orleans, Natchez and Shreveport “backwoods,” would you? Perhaps the inspiration comes from your idea of the country we traverse. If it does, then you’re wrong again. The Mississippi Valley isn’t “backwoods.” Neither is the famous, fertile Red River Valley. Neither is the rich, agricultural section of North Texas. (I’m attaching a map showing this country. You oughta read up about us. You’d get a different picture.) Something else. Take a peek at the bond market. L. & A. bonds look all right, don’t they? Try our annual statement for last year! We’re doing better than some who ain’t “backwoods,” ain’t we? (Labor wasn’t starved to get where we are either. Look into that too.) You might presume to call me “backwoods” for presuming to call your hand on the misuse of the descriptive adjective, and you’d probably be right, but I ain’t a-gonna stand by and let you brand a progressive organization that serves a progressive public as “backwoods,” ‘thout gittin’ my dander up. . . .

“Backwoods!” I-I—»? &$#%” —%$#”‘&— er, I’m speechless. Sich igrance!

W. D. GRUBB

General Freight Agent

Louisiana & Arkansas Railway Lines

Dallas, Tex.