Letters, Aug. 9, 1937

San Francisco’s Bridges

Sirs:

In behalf of patriotic Americans and particularly as representing several hundred thousand men who served their country in the great World War, I am writing to protest against your eulogy of the Australian radical, Harry Bridges, particularly in view of the inaccuracies contained in the article in question [TIME, July 19]. Real Americans are interested in ridding this country of alien agitators who impose upon our hospitality and who attempt to destroy the very government under which they live and have their being, and yet we find a national publication doing much to offset our own activities and to place upon a pedestal a man whose name is anathema to all real American citizens. . . .

From a charitable standpoint, I am inclined to the belief that you have been “sold a bill of goods” by the alien Australian.

H. L. KNOWLES Chairman

Radical Research Committee The American Legion Department of California San Francisco, Calif.

Sirs:

Hearty congratulations on your article on Harry Bridges. It was amazingly accurate and fair—not a slurring adjective in the whole three pages. . . .

ELEANOR D. BREED

San Francisco, Calif.

Sirs:

Just so long as magazines like yours seek to immortalize on their front pages such political miscreants as this Harry Bridges which you name “Labor’s Harry Bridges” so long will it be impossible for the country to find high-grade statesmanlike men for its leaders. As an alternative to this policy of exhibiting diseased labor mentalities why not try printing an accurate unbiased descriptio and photograph of some of our famous men whose efforts have been to make America, not destroy it?

BURTON H. PITCH

Kansas City, Mo.

Sirs:

After months of bellywash on the subject, we at last get a good close-up view of who Alfred Renton Bridges is, and why. Your “C.I.O. To Sea” story struck me as one of the most objective and at the same time interesting pieces of reporting in a long while.

LYNN B. FALCH

San Francisco, Calif.

Cornfed Crawlers

Sirs:

Your recent article [TIME, July 12] about digging worms in Maine omits one interesting detail. On the road running between Belfast and Waterville and between Belfast and Augusta, I have more than once seen signs reading “Cornfed night crawlers.” The first time I saw this sign, I was puzzled and stopped to ask a farmer what it meant. “Worms, and fat ones,” he explained with scorn for my ignorance.

ELIZABETH S. WILSON

Mount Desert, Me.

Bumstead’s Compass

Sirs:

So pleasant is it to find an inaccuracy in TIME’S able, accurate reporting that this reader hastens to point out that honor is not given where honor is due in TIME’S report of the Russian Moscow-Vancouver flight [TIME, June 28].

Says TIME: “Navigator Beliakoff used the sun compass invented by Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd.”

Fact is the sun compass was invented for Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd by unassuming, expert Chief Cartographer Alfred H. Bumstead of the National Geographic Society. The worthy Admiral has publicly said that without it he could never have reached the Poles. Modest Cartographer Bumstead would never tell you this himself.

STANLEY RAYFIELD

New York City

TIME erred in crediting the invention of the sun compass to Admiral Byrd. It was devised by Cartographer Bumstead in collaboration with George Washington Littlehales, chief engineer of the Naval Hydrographic Office, after Byrd requested something better for his purposes than the magnetic compass. The Bumstead-Littlehales sun compass, which contains a clock and a latitude adjustment, works on the principle that the compass direction of the sun at any time of day depends on the latitude and the sidereal time.—ED.

Hewbee Earle

Sirs:

Please be advised that Mrs. George Earle’s Christian name is Huberta—undoubtedly the feminine of Hubert—her father’s name, and she is, therefore, called Hubie

(pronounced Hewbee) by the Governor; not Hebbie, as you would have us know [TIME,

July 5] K. J. KURZ Germantown, Pa.

Archbishop & Americans

Sirs:

I am enclosing letter from Chaplain Don which is an answer to one I directed to Archbishop of Canterbury.

The letter is self-explanatory and I wish you would publish it in an early issue. It would be unfair to the Archbishop not to publish it, so please do.

ALFRED H. ABERNETHY

Daytona Beach, Fla.

Herewith Mr. Abernethy’s letter from Chaplain Don:

Dear Sir:

Your letter of May 25 has reached the Archbishop of Canterbury.

It seems a pity that some of the American papers should print such utter nonsense about the Archbishop of Canterbury, and that so many people appear to believe it. You underline a certain passage out of the magazine called TIME which you enclosed [TIME, May 24]. In that passage, it is stated that the Archbishop dislikes most Americans. That is totally untrue. He has visited America and constantly speaks of their kindness and hospitality to him. He has also many good American friends in this Country.

It is also stated that the Archbishop is “generally humorless.” He would indeed be humourless if he had used the words attributed to him about being chief spokesman of God to his fellow countrymen. As a matter of fact, he has the keenest possible sense of humour (like most of his fellow Scotsmen) and is one of the most highly sought-after after dinner speakers in the whole of London.

I merely mention these points in order to show you that the particular article to which you draw attention is, for the most part, ludicrously untrue.

ALAN C. Don Chaplain

Lambeth Palace

London, England

TIME is glad to record the opinion of one so close to the Archbishop of Canterbury as Chaplain Don that His

Grace 1) has a sense of humor 2) does not dislike Americans.—ED.

Suite Transfer

Sirs:

In your issue of June 14, under the caption “Medicine” in an article pertaining to the transfer of Frederick B. Snite Jr. from Peiping to Chicago, there are some decidedly unfair statements and I believe in justice to Mr. Snite as well as to the patient, correction should be made. I have particular reference to the statement that Mr. Snite was removing a respirator from China, which might have been used to save the life of a Chinese, and that the crowds along the Railroad from Peiping to Shanghai, gave expression to their feeling about this particular matter. This is a gross misstatement as at no point on the trip from Peiping to Shanghai, were there any crowds, either rich or poor, to look at the train. To start with, the time of the departure of the train from Peiping, was a complete secret and the time was known only to the officials of the Railroad and the immediate members of the Snite family. . . .

Next, as to taking a respirator out of China, which otherwise might have been used to save the life of a Chinese: the original respirator which young Snite was placed in, belonged to the P.U.M.C. (Peiping Union Medical College) and never left that good Institution; it is still there. Mr. Snite donated to the P.U.M.C. one of the latest model respirators manufactured. This respirator was made here in the U. S. and it was given to the Medical College together with other equipment worth thousands of dollars. As an example: during the summer months, the heat is intense in Peiping, with the result that it is necessary for the surgeons there to perform operations in the early hours of the morning. Mr. Snite donated a completely equipped air-conditioner unit to the Hospital. . . .

As far as Mr. Snite, his son and the members of his party are concerned, they are deeply appreciative of the fact that China was very good to them and they are appreciative of what the Chinese people did for the party. . . .

T. D. GRIFFIN Executive Offices Fred B. Snite Chicago, Ill.

TIME’S account of Frederick B. Snite Jr.’s progress through China was based upon usually dependable news agencies whose descriptions agreed with those published by the U. S. Press. TIME is glad to record that Frederick B. Snite Sr., whose son’s Chinese nurses last week helped him celebrate his 27th birthday after 16 months in an artificial respirator, donated a second respirator and an air-conditioning unit to the Peiping Union Medical College.—ED.

Dirty Slur

As one of your original subscribers to both your publications I wish to emphatically resent your sarcastic & erroneous remarks concerning His Britannic Majesty, in the issue of July 26. I have been threatening to cancel my subscription & that of my immediate family numbering six: we, as loyal Canadians resent that cheap yellow journalism & let me state your British & Canadian subscribers feel likewise. Failure to acknowledge this letter will be considered an insult & immediatecancellation will result. Let me repeat I resent that dirty slur.

JOSEPH SULLIVANToronto, Canada

Let slurring Subscriber Sullivan consider his letter acknowledged.—ED.