New York Governors
Sirs:
In your issue of April 30 on p. 10 there appears under the subtitle "Career" (i. e. of Alfred E. Smith) in the very first sentence two misstatements of fact, one a very minor matter but the other a little more serious. The sentence reads: "To have been Governor of New York longer than any other man and to have been re-elected invariably by the opposition's futile efforts to find flaws in one's record, is no mean achievement in itself."
In the first place Gov. Smith has not been Governor of New York state "longer than any other man" nor has he been "invariably" re-elected as the returns of the 1920 election clearly indicate.
In regard to the first misstatement, which after all is the only one worth mentioning, you should be informed in the interests of historical accuracy that there have been three men in the history of the state since 1776 that have been elected and who have served for longer terms than Smith will have done at the expiration of his present term. (1) George Clinton was elected six successive times for three year terms-- 1777-1795 and was then re-elected for a seventh three year term in 1801. (2) Daniel D. Tompkins was elected to four successive three year terms and served ten years, 1807-17, resigning to assume the duties of Vice-President of the U. S. (3) DeWitt Clinton was elected to two three year terms and two two year terms and served a little over eight years in all. And if we wished to get "technical" we might say that nine men have been Governor of New York longer than Smith, since six of the Royal Governors held the office for more than eight years, but that would be foolish.
I am well aware of the fact that no less an authority than Gov. Smith himself has been guilty of taking liberties with the historical facts of the office of which he is reputed to be such a student. In his inaugural address on Jan. 1, 1927 he spoke of the "honor and distinction never accorded to any man in all the history of the State" (N. Y. Times, January 2, p. 29). For a man who has (and it might not be unfair to say in view of the above statement, undeservedly) the reputation of having mastered the details and history of his office to make such a misstatement of fact is almost unpardonable. It warrants the assumption that perhaps some of his other statements of fact (of which he is such a master) may bear investigation.
CHARLES R. ERDMAN JR.
Princeton, N. J.
TIME stands thoroughly corrected. Of record-holder George Clinton, first Governor of New York, it might also be noted that he was first elected to be both Governor and Lieutenant Governor. He declined the latter office. His nephew, De Witt Clinton, functioned simultaneously for a time as Mayor of New York and State Senator. It was during its struggles to keep De Witt Clinton down that Tammany Hall first functioned frankly as a political organization.--ED.
Five Sailors Speaketh
Sirs:
Noticing your article appearing in TIME, Jan. 9, 1928 we wish to invite your attention to the following:
The Pullman Officers who "scouted" the Orientals for Pullman Porters have never witnessed the feats of strength performed every day by millions of Chinamen. It is not uncommon to see three or four Chinamen doing work equivalent to a five-ton truck, or to make it plainer, they will pull a load of, from three to six tons uphill and across country.
From where the ship is moored, which happens to be alongside the Standard Oil Dock at Shanghai, we can see two Chinamen bring aboard two fifty-gallon drums of gasoline, weighing approximately three hundred and fifty pounds each, on a YA-HO pole.* Does any Pullman passenger's baggage weigh that much?
Any morning you can see a wheel-barrow/- propelled by one Chinaman trudging along with his load of from twelve to sixteen persons, taxiing them to work in the factories. Can any of the present day Negro porters (Pullman) convey their passengers thusly?
It is evident that the persons who think that a Chinaman can not do the "baggage lugging, berth boosting, window opening" task of a Negro Pullman Porter is badly mistaken and can learn a lot about the strength and endurance of a Chinaman, by spending a week-end** out here amongst them.
Those who knoweth whereof they speaketh. Sincerely yours, five Asiatic Sailors.
D. A. J. HAMMOND, PhMrc, USN.
C. P. LYND, SM3C, USN.
W. M. DAVIS, SK1C, USN.
B. S. GOLDBERG, Ye03C, USN.
F. J. CZAJKA, Ye03C, USN.
U.S.S. Wm. B. Preston Shanghai, China
Mississippi's Stephens
Sirs:
My attention has been called to an item which appeared in your issue of April 23, with reference to Senator Hubert D. Stephens of Mississippi. Knowing as little about your magazine as you do about Senator Stephens and his record, I shall make no gratuitous remarks about it.
I am writing this to inform you that the correspondence which the Senator had with the Secretary of Commerce, Hon. Herbert Hoover [it concerned segregation of Negroes], was given to the press by me without his knowledge or consent. Likewise, this letter is being written by me without his knowledge or consent.
For your edification and amusement, I am enclosing copy of an editorial which appeared in the Meridian (Miss.) Star under date of April 24, concerning Senator Stephens. The editorial is written by one of the most brilliant writers in Mississippi--a man who is a recent-comer to the South and who is regarded as the most independent editor in the State. He has had occasion to study the record of Senator Stephens and to know whereof he speaks. A closer study than you have given the Senator's record will convince you of your unfairness in passing upon his record.
GEORGE W. NEVILLE
Secretary to Senator Stephens
Washington, D. C.
The editorial mentioned by the Senator's secretary praised Senator Stephens for talking little; quoted Mark Twain's steamboat which could not whistle and paddle at the same time; mentioned that Demosthenes, Patrick Henry and Ingersoll had no fame as fighters. The editorial concluded:
"A California woman placed a basket of live clams in her cellar over night--next morning, every clam had caught a mouse.
"If you want oratory get a speaker; if you want action, get a clam.
"A clam may not be 'up to snuff' in modern rhetoric; he may be slow, but he is safe and sure.
"No clam can talk and work at the same time. If the clams had spent the night in 'shelling out' open-mouthed oratory, they never would have caught the mice.
"Speeches and action seldom dwell together.
"Bull dogs bark but little, but they have a reputation for holding on.
"A single bark might sacrifice a bite, so the bull dog shuts his mouth, grits his teeth and concentrates upon the job at hand.
"A man has two hands and one tongue--therefore he ought to do twice as much as he says.
"Senator Stephens believes in talking through doing--
"Less inclined to frothy oratory than to worth while effort.
"Mississippi and the nation need--
"Not talkers, but doers.
"Not orators, but builders.
"Not debaters, but workers.
"Silence is golden.
"Talk is often brass.
" 'Woord is but wynde; leave woord and take the dede.' "
Ajax, Sharkey
Sirs:
Please allow me to correct an untrue statement in the April 30 issue of TIME which read, "Ajax was just a great big, ambitious fellow like Jack Dempsey, given to extended mouthings." This you quoted as having been said by James Joseph Tunney; he did utter a similar statement while lecturing at Yale, but it happened to have been Jack Sharkey, not Dempsey, that Tunney said was given to extended mouthings and similar to Ajax.
HERBERT DAVIS
Ardmore, Pa.
Thrashing
Sirs:
Will you kindly forward to Mr. E. B. Weston, Dayton, Ohio (as you have his address), my sincere thanks for his letter to you, published in the April 30 issue of TIME, where he gives you a well merited thrashing for your bad taste in publishing uninteresting scandal about two unimportant boys just because they happen to have a prominent father,* and then call it "National Affairs"! Fi Done!
J. E. FRIES
Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co.
Birmingham, Ala.
* A bamboo pole carried on the shoulders of one or two Chinamen with the load suspended.
/- A crude affair very much different than our wheelbarrows.
** Our week-end ranges from two and a half to four years.
* James Middleton Cox, thrice Governor of Ohio and defeated Democratic candidate for the Presidency in 1920.