Letters, Dec. 7, 1936

Man of the Year (Cont’d) Sirs: For Man of the Year—Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

LEWIS HELTERMAN

Brooklyn, N. Y.

Sirs: Roosevelt is the standard bearer for an onrush. Were he not here, another would have carried the banner, less capably perhaps, but still carried it. Edward VIII has started a movement toward the disintegration of the oligarchy of England which will affect Great Britain profoundly and Europe as well. Comparisons are odious, but I vote for the originator—King Edward as Man of the Year—or maybe I should vote for Wally.

H. W. FOSTER New York City

Sirs:

My nominee for Man of the Year: Franklin Roosevelt.

STEWART M. OGILVY Hartford, Conn.

Sirs: May I be the first to make a nomination for your Man of the Year for 1936? For this honor I would name King Edward VIII, ruler of the empire upon which the sun never sets.

All his life Edward has been destined to be a king—and the dawn of 1936 saw that destiny fulfilled. Popular throughout the world as the Prince of Wales, he has become even more popular as King Edward, and has won the admiration and respect of his subjects.

And as for being newsworthy—he seems to have a corner on that! His ascendancy to the throne, his precedent-breaking airplane flights, his charming informality, his bachelor status, and last, but certainly not least, his friendship with Mrs. Simpson have been the newspapers’ joy and delight.

How about it, TIME? OLIVER WILEY

Troy, Ala.

Sirs: I give you the Man of the Year: Franklin D.

Roosevelt. He did it again! Praise be to Roosevelt! PAUL E. LAMALE

Wabash, Ind. P. S. I am not on the WPA.

So far in nomination for Man of the Year, and running in the order listed, now are: Roosevelt, Edward VIII, Mrs. Simpson, Landon, Farley, Mussolini, Gehrig, Dr. Townsend, Mr. Simpson. The poll closes Dec. 14 at 5 p. m.—ED.

Teddy Bears Sirs:

The plaintive screed by Noel Burnet under Animals in TIME, Nov. 16, relative to the koala “Teddy bears” of Australia is not without its points. But rather than ask for a Santa Claus, why doesn’t he offer for sale an enlarged colored picture of the bear & cub, such as you have reproduced, with the proceeds going to the present and future care and protection of the bears? If the picture were well done I would gladly pay a dollar for one to give to my little girl.

E. C. RICH

Colorado Springs, Colo.

Until further notice, TIME will forward to Ethel Schroeder of Lyndhurst, N. J., donor of $50 toward the koala’s welfare, all suggestions and contributions for the little beast’s relief.

In November, 1902 President Theodore Roosevelt, hunting bear in Mississippi, refused to shoot a cub brought into camp for him to kill. This illustration of Roosevelt I’s compassion was cartooned by Clifford K. Berryman of the Washington Post, who sketched the cub as a cuddly, koala-like animal, thus created the “Teddy bear” which became T. R.’s totem until the Bull Moose movement of 1912. First toy Teddy bears were made in Germany by famed stuffed Toymaker Margarete Steiff, who is believed not to have copied the koala.—ED.

New Balloons

Sirs:

In reporting Dr. Millikan’s successful investigation of cosmic rays in the upper stratosphere [TIME, Nov. 16], the great reduction in price of stratosphere sounding balloons evidently suggested real news interest. But that price reduction does not mean that manufacturers had formerly been making huge profits; it is result of an entirely new process of manufacture developed by intensive industrial research.

The older balloons were hand-fashioned sheets of rubber stock—a laborious task at best. The new balloons are made by a radically new process perfected by the research laboratories ol he Dewey and Almy Chemical Co. and known as the Kaysam Process. By it, virgin latex is cast to give a hollow ten-inch ball of rubber gel, which can then be expanded by air pressure into a four-foot balloon. After drying and curing it is ready for use.

Because of the peculiar physical properties of he latex rubber, the cured balloon can be expanded with a very slight pressure to at least 16 ft. in diameter before it bursts. In the expanded balloon the latex rubber is stretched so that its thickness is in the neighborhood of .00006 in. It is their ability to expand to such great size that makes these balloons so well-adapted to stratospheric work.

Other scientists are using the balloons to carry radio broadcasting devices into the stratosphere to send back useful data which will be of great value in long-range weather forecasting. Pioneers interested in transatlantic air service are also using them to get weather data. An expedition from M. I. T. will use them in a hurricane study.

And out of these scientific studies will doubtless come distinct benefits to industry, farming, aviation, commerce.

It is interesting to note that at the Blue Hill Observatory of Harvard University radio meteorographs have already been carried to heights of 108,000 ft., reporting all the while the temperature, pressure and relative humidity at the different elevations.

Yes, indeed, that price reduction in stratosphere balloons does have news value. ROBERT J. GRAY

Dewey and Almy Chemical Co.

Cambridge, Mass.

Hibben at Novo-Devichi

Sirs:

It is possible that both U. S. Ambassador to France William C. Bullitt and Mr. Dawson P. Adams may be mistaken in their divergent opinions concerning the present whereabouts of the remains of the late John Reed.

Four years ago, when about to sail for Russia, I found in my cabin on the Olympic a letter from a friend asking that I place a wreath on the tomb of Paxton Hibben.

Arrived in Moscow, I took the matter up with the authorities and was informed as follows (I quote):

“Behind the mausoleum [of Lenin], at the base of the Kremlin wall, runs a tree-planted walk, and all along it are the graves of revolutionary heroes, and the common grave of many who died in the October Revolution. Sverdlov is buried here, and Dzerzhinski, Nogin, Podbyelski, Krassin, John Reed and others. Set in niches in the Kremlin wall are funeral urns containing the ashes of others of the honored dead including those of Bill Haywood, Charles Ruthenberg and Paxton Hibben, all Americans.”

Thus it will be seen that the Soviet Government believes it buried the body (not the ashes) of John Reed behind the tomb of Lenin. But it should be noted that the same document quoted above states that it had buried the ashes of Paxton Hibben in a niche in the Kremlin wall.

But no such niche could be found by the Curator of the Kremlin when it came time for my wreath-laying and it was only after several days of search that, quite by accident, a woman came forward who remembered the funeral of Paxton Hibben and it was she who finally led me to his grave in the cemetery of the ancient Novo-Devichi Convent on the outskirts of Moscow. LIONEL TOMPKINS

Cincinnati, Ohio

One of the most brilliant men ever graduated from Princeton (1903), Paxton Hibben had successive exciting careers in diplomacy, politics, war correspondence, the A. E. F., post-War famine relief, authorship (Constantine I and the Greek People, Henry Ward Beecher: An American Portrait, An American Report on the Russian Famine). A lifelong liberal, he requested that his ashes be taken to Moscow. Following his death in Manhattan in 1928, they were.—ED.

Merriam’s Cutter Sirs:

On p. 65 of the Nov. 23 issue TIME errs in reporting Governor Merriam used a dirty acetylene torch to cut the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge chain. A brand new Airco-D B emergency cutting outfit was shipped via express from our Jersey City factory for use at this history-making event.

H. W. SAUNDERS

Air Reduction Sales Co. Berkeley, Calif.

No Politician Sirs:

Your article in issue of Nov. 16 with reference to Walter A. Huxman, Governor-elect of Kansas, is not only inaccurate but grossly unfair.

Your description of Mr. Huxman as a “second-string politician” is not in accord with what we regard the true meaning of that term in this State. “Second-string” is defined by most dictionaries as something inferior or second rate, and the word “politician” is not exactly complimentary. Mr. Huxman is not a “second-string politician”—as a matter of fact he is not a “politician” at all.

It may be true that Harry Woodring and Guy Helvering urged Mr. Huxman to make the race for Governor of Kansas but they did so with thousands of other citizens of this State who had come to recognize the character, honesty and outstanding ability of Mr. Huxman.

After Mr. Huxman’s nomination and during the campaign, Mr. William Allen White had the following to say in his Emporia (Kans.) Gazette: “Since the beginning of the State men like Walter Huxman have been shining lights and dependable leaders in this commonwealth. They have rarely won official distinction. In the sixties and seventies and eighties they were called ‘the silk-stocking democrats,’ men of education, of talent, of character, of vision.” I doubt if you would call that the description of a second-string politician. . . .

Your statement that Mr. Huxman was promised that the campaign would cost him nothing and that “afterward he would be given a job in Washington with a better salary than . . . $5,000 a year,” is absolutely without foundation.

The intimation of your story is that the only reason Mr. Huxman made the race was for a promised Federal appointment. For your information Mr. Huxman is not now and never during this administration has been in need of any appointment. He is an outstanding member of the Bar of Kansas and recognized as one of the ablest lawyers in this State. As for the inference that Mr. Huxman needs a salary, let me assure you that his income at the present time and for more than a decade past greatly exceeds the salary he will receive as Governor of this State, and that his election meant a personal sacrifice to him.

Your observation that Mr. Huxman was disappointed in his success is not inaccurate. He was naturally interested in the success of the campaign but the main reason was to justify the judgment of his friends and not to further his own personal ambitions. If ever there was an instance where the office sought the man, this was one. . . .

C. E. CHALFANT

Hutchinson, Kans.

Staley’s Beans

Sirs:

As an old subscriber to your esteemed magazine TIME, I wish to take exception to the reference to Mr. Henry Ford as the No. 1 U. S. soybean man, as appears in the issue of Oct. 12. I feel that your article and general information on the soybean industry is very accurate and extremely well written and I think that if you make the proper investigation you will find that Mr. A. E. Staley, chairman of the board of the A. E. Staley Manufacturing Co. of Decatur, Ill. should be considered by all odds the No. 1 soybean man of the U. S.

I think the fact that Illinois accounted for 21,834,000 bu. of the total U. S. production of 39,637,000 bu. in 1935 can be largely attributed to Mr. Staley’s pioneer work in educating the farmers of his own State in the production of soybeans and it is also interesting to note that Mr. Staley built the first soybean plant in the U. S. in 1922, which provided a commercial market for the farmers of Illinois. Mr. Staley realized the possibilities in the soybean industry as far back as 1916 and even sent men to China to study the growing and cultivation of the soybean to be produced in this country. I doubt seriously if Mr. Henry Ford knew anything of the industry until years after Mr. Staley had done the pioneer work. . . .

W. CARROLL MEAD

Baltimore, Md.

Detroit’s Ford may be the most publicized promoter of soybeans, but Reader Mead is right in rating Decatur’s Staley as a potent longtime soybean processor. As a North Carolina farm boy, Professor Staley was first shown soybean plants by a returned missionary, never lost interest in the crop thereafter. A. E. Staley Manufacturing Co., makers of corn products, crushed 5,764 bu. of beans when it opened its bean processing plant in October 1922, crushed 317,202 bu. in March, 1936.—ED.

Hill & Hatrick

Sirs:

In your issue of Nov. 23 and in the course of a story regarding the onetime Hearst Metrotone News, and its change of name, you made this statement:

”When Announcer Edwin C. Hill’s contract expired last month, he was replaced by Announcer Jean Paul King of Columbia and NBC.”

Your use of the word “replaced” without qualification, is far from accurate. When my contract with the former Hearst Metrotone News expired, I was invited to renew it by Vice President Edgar B. Hatrick of the news reel. For reasons entirely personal, I was unwilling to sign a contract of renewal and so notified Mr. Hatrick.

EDWIN C. HILL

New York City

Black Star

Sirs:

In recent issues of TIME . . . and other outstanding magazines, there have appeared newsy, zestful photographs bearing the credit line “Wolff, from Black Star,” “Freudy, from Black Star,” etc. Could you describe the nature of this publication, “Black Star”?

GRADY CLAY JR.

Emor University, Ga.

No publication, Black Star is a photographic and literary agency formed last December by Ernest Mayer, refugee German-Jewish publisher. Black Star handles such foreign writers as Emil Ludwig and Paul Claudel as well as some 50 European, Asian, African photographers. The agency’s name was selected in the hope that some day it might be represented merely by a quickly identifiable symbol.—ED.