Monday, Dec. 17, 1928
Lie Upon Lie
Sirs:
... In your issue of Sept. 17 you again pile lie upon lie! You report that when Field Marshal von Mackensen visited the Kaiser at Doom, the latter asked about his prospects for restoration, and that Mackensen replied: "There is not the slightest evidence that the people desire your Majesty's return."
Wilhelm II, according to your story, blushed furiously and left the room, only to return later and assail Mackensen for the latter's failure to appear in uniform. Thereupon the Field Marshal is alleged to have repeated his former statement in effect.
I am authorized by Field Marshal von Mackensen to make the following direct statement from him:
"The article of the magazine TIME is a complete fabrication. You are authorized to describe it as a swindle. His Majesty has never put to me such a question as that set forth in the article; never has a conversation with him even touched on that theme. The article lies and deceives its readers with an obvious purpose."
The TIME article further asserted that Zoubkov, who married the Kaiser's sister, sent a copy of his memoirs to Doom, inscribed: "To Wilhelm, the Genius of Our Family. From Alex, Your Affectionate Brother-in-Law."
I am authorized to say that no copy of this book was ever received at Doom.
I wonder whether you are not mistaken in assuming, as you plainly do, that the bulk of your readers are tormented, like yourselves, by an acute feeling of inferiority which makes them rejoice when the mighty are brought low. I am pretty sure you are mistaken.
S. MILES BOUTON
Special Correspondent: The Baltimore Sun The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Berlin, Germany
TIME notes (with thanks to Baltimore Sun's Bouton) Field Marshal von Mackensen's denial of incidents originally reported in German newspapers. Difficult it is, however, to believe that Monarchist von Mackensen never talked monarchy with his onetime Monarch.--ED.
Numbering Presidents
Sirs:
I have before me the portraits of all the men who have been President of the United States. They number 29. I have counted them carefully. Yet on at least five occasions since election TIME has gravely and informatively told its readers that Herbert Hoover will be the 31st President. I add his portrait to the row--it only makes 30. Kindly explain.
C. W. HALL
Akron, Ohio
TIME follows the almanackers' custom. in numbering the Presidents as they have come. Thus, though George Washington had two terms he is numbered only once.
But Cleveland, between whose two terms came Benjamin Harrison's, was both the 22nd and 24th President. Should Calvin Coolidge be reelected in 1932 he would be President Number 32 as well as Number 30. -- ED.
Lajpat Rai Bayonetted
Sirs:
In TIME'S issue of Nov. 26 under the heading of Milestones an item stated that Lala Lajpat Rai, of India, died of heart disease.
It is a well-established fact that Rai died from the effects of bayonet wounds which he received from a British soldier on Oct. 30, the day Sir John Simon visited Lahore. Rai at this time had been leading a peaceable demonstration against the reception of Simon. . . .
England has no more right in India than she has in Ireland, or Egypt, or in South Africa, and with the help of God she will one day yet be forcibly ejected from them.
J. P. McCoy
Cleveland, Ohio
Rosenwald's Example
Sirs:
I wish to congratulate you upon your well chosen news in Medicine. I was especially pleased to note that you commended Julius Rosenwald's latest philanthropy in establishing a clinic for the middle class. I wish others would follow his good example, for nowhere is there a greater need than help for the "poor and proud" in serious illness, by endowing good Hospitals so they can make rates that can be met by people of moderate means. . . .
I am an old subscriber, started with No. 3 and all my children are subscribers to TIME.
HENRY R. SLACK, M. D. LaGrange, Ga.
Absence Explained
Sirs:
TIME readers in Rhode Island will understand why Aram J. Pothier, once Governor of Rhode Island, was not among the New England Governors present at ceremonies in the new North Station in Boston.
For TIME'S other readers it might be well to explain that Governor Pothier died about one year ago. Since his death Norman S. Case has been Rhode Island's Governor and is the Governor-elect.
E. K. BACON
Providence, R. I.
Tammany Tales
Sirs:
I am under the impression that to be a member of Tammany Hall one must be a member of the Roman Catholic church. Will you please advise me if this is correct and if so whether Smith was the only Presidential candidate belonging to Tammany.
J. CAMPBELL BRANDON
Tulsa, Okla.
Subscriber Brandon's impressions are entirely incorrect. Many a Jew, many a Protestant, at least one Agnostic, many a Social Registerite belongs to Tammany, of which Members Horatio Seymour (1868), Samuel J. Tilden (1876) ran for President on the Democratic ticket.--ED.
Senhor & Senhorita
Sirs:
A-B-C
Here is your chance to stop making a mistake of which every American publication I have ever read (including TIME, Nov. 26) is invariably guilty--that of referring to citizens of Brazil as "Senors," "Senoras" and "Senoritas."
These words are Spanish whereas in Brazil only Portuguese (not Spanish) is spoken (or didn't you know it?) and therefore the correct spelling is "Senhor," "Senhora" and "Senhorita."
JAMES L. TAYLOR
Penn Mutual Life Insurance Co.
Philadelphia, Pa
Hunt Flayed Sirs:
I wish to add to what Henry Flury of Washington, D. C., has to say regarding G. W. P. Hunt: long time governor of Arizona. 'Unique' indeed is a public speaker, let alone a state executive who deliberately picks his nose while on the public platform. In fact unique is no word for it. 'A great humanitarian who never signed a Death Warrant' but Commitments to the Insane Asylum instead, where ex-condemned on escaping would return on their own volition because the "grub" was so good. 'The State Prison was transformed from a place of horror' to where the convicts were fed on Kansas flour instead of the soft indigestible (4 out of 5) local grown wheat which was good enough for the poor damn ranchers who only paid the taxes. 'His splendid system of roads are famous' for the political organizations he made out of the road camps. In these he made the slight error this year of making the tithe too heavy and Arizona is without her "protector.". . .
Also the lone paragraph on honesty. Mr. Flury has either been out of the state for some time or on G. W. P.'s election committee.
No, 'Labor has never had a better friend' than just before election when every "bundle stiff" shakes the "rattlers" and hits for a road camp where he stays until election day. After that the roads had to wait another two years for a gubernatorial contest before receiving any attention.
The majority of Arizonans will agree with Mr. Flury most heartily when he says it will be a long time before Arizona will see his equal as a democrat. In fact they hope never.
HARRY L. DAVISSON
Berkeley, Calif.
Feeling Bad
From TIME Nov. 26:
"A good, a simple and noble man is Michael Ivanovitch Kalinin. Open house is still his rule to all whom he feels are his brother tillers of the soil. . . ."
Sirs:
F. P. A. has not yet been appealed to but you may force me to it! I'm sorry, but it must be my Harvard English!
JOHN ELLIOTT
Colorado Springs, Colo.
P. S. Don't feel badly, though. I have just entered two new subscriptions.
TIME thanks Double Subscribed Elliott for his correction, and hopes he will profit by Subscriber Feldman's letter below.--ED.
Sirs:
The sentence reads: "They showed him, by a misadventure, killing his buddy and feeling pretty badly about it."
I am quite sure that you will agree with me that the word should be "bad" not "badly" and that he was "feeling bad. . . ."
GEORGE W. FELDMAN
Franklin, Pa.
TIME now feels less bad.--ED.
Nebraska Explained
Sirs:
Nebraska's Cornhuskers (p. 44 of the current issue of Most Estimable TIME) are so labelled because as every sapient editor knows, students at University of Nebraska are recruited largely from the wide, smiling, pleasant areas of the Corn Belt, and because, as to football players, many a lad learned to throw forward passes after having thrown unerringly into wagon boxes hundreds of thousands of ears of white and yellow Nebraska corn.
Likewise, TIME, you have erred when you speak of Nebraskans switching off their radios (subsequent to the Army-Husker game) in their "chilly parlors." Nebraskans do not have parlors, for radio or other purposes, and their sunlit living rooms are never chilly. . . .
TIME also mentioned, in the same issue, one "Sniper" Frank Carter, who indiscriminately shot into windows, at street lights and pedestrians, before he was captured, as having been hanged by Nebraska. Nebraska has long since abandoned the gallows for the neater, more rapid shuffling-off system known as the Hot Seat.
J. H. SWEET Editor
The Nebraska Daily News-Press
Nebraska City, Neb.