Tycoon Lincoln

In reading Thayer's Life and Letters of John Hay, I notice that both Hay and Nicolay used your favorite term, "Tycoon," as an affectionate nickname for President Lincoln. Do you know of any earlier use of the word?

DALE WARREN Boston, Mass.

Except in Japan, TIME knows of no earlier use of Tycoon. But as many an oldster recalls, there appeared in 1882 an extremely popular comic opera by Willard Spenser entitled The Little Tycoon.--ED.

Hidalgoans

Sirs:

Referring to TIME'S report of Creager v. Colliers (TIME, Sept. 16).

Hidalgoans do not smile in the sun. They swear audibly, extensively and persistently and R. B. Creager and the Texas Tammany boys (A. Y. Baker et al) are the subject of their most virulent profanity.

Reason: Hidalgoans believe that the A. Y. Baker political machine, built up in the past 20 years by control of alien Mexican voters and the alleged assistance of Republican Committeeman Creager, has grafted the county out of millions of dollars. . . .

Hidalgoans believe Creager's suit against Colliers an empty gesture; doubt its ever coming to trial; hope it will.

WARREN T. KINGSBURY

Editor The Weslaco Standard Weslaco, Tex.

Drammer Enthusiasts

Sirs:

Couldn't you have a map of Chicago like the map of New York in your issue of Sept. 16 under the discussion of "Transportation"?

For instance you would indicate the McCormick house as follows: "Here's where Edith McCormick entatains drammer enthusiasts of the hinterland."

WALTER A. NELSON Chicago, Ill.

Promised: a map of Chicago and environs at earliest opportunity.--ED.

177,000 Fires

Sirs: Your article on "Boomers & Howlers" (TIME, Aug. 19, p. 11) reported well the serious forest fire situation with which "desperate, haggard foresters'" were coping at the time. But in your footnote you came far short of the fact in giving the number of forest fires in the U. S. last year. Not 6,921 fires, but some 177,000 fires occurred during 1928. . . . C. E. RANDALL Forest Service U. S. Department of Agriculture Washington, D. C.

Get Posted

Sirs: Recent issue (TIME, Sept. 16), Religious Department, stated Voliva stanch Fundamentalist believing earth flat. Get posted. Fundamentalists do not believe this. . . .

MALCOLM LOCKHART National Director Bryan Memorial University Association, Dayton, Tenn.

Georgia's Harris

Sirs: Will you please give us the record and a fair estimate of the activities of Georgia's U. S. Senator, William J. Harris. We would be glad to have you publish it in the thorough manner that you gave to Senator Blease of South Carolina. Q. A. MULKEY A. S. TRULOCK H. Q. BELL B. A. NEAL TIME subscribers and Georgia voters. Millen, Ga.

The record of William Julius Harris, Senator from Georgia, is as follows:

Born: Cedartown, Ga., Feb. 3, 1868.

Start in Life: University of Georgia; Insurance and banking.

Career: His natural talents elevated him to the point of owning a bank. Meanwhile he took to politics, became private secretary to the late Senator Alexander Stephens Clay. After the death of Senator Clay Banker Harris was elected to the State Senate without opposition, presently became State Democratic Chairman. His opportunity came in 1912. He was one of the original Wilson men of Georgia, ran the state campaign of that year. In the White House, Woodrow Wilson made him Director of the Census Bureau, later put him on the Federal Trade Commission, of which he became chairman. In 1918 Senator Tom Hardwick was up for reelection, opposed by Bill Schley. The campaign was getting hot when Harris appeared with a letter of endorsement from Wilson. Harris won, was re-elected in 1924 (unopposed), will run again next year. A large portrait of Woodrow Wilson hangs in his office.

In Congress: He is about as regular in his votes as a Democrat can be. He voted for tax reduction and flood control in 1928, for the Jones law and the 15 cruiser bill in 1929. He voted in series for the three farm relief bills in recent sessions, for radio control, for the Boulder Dam, against reapportionment. He is now fighting the tariff bill.

He is a thoroughgoing Dry in speech and practice. He became famous last year for his amendment to the Second Deficiency bill, appropriating $25,000,000 extra for Prohibition enforcement. Although the amount was reduced the amendment carried.

Legislative Hobbies: A resolution authorizing the Government to undertake extensive research in the cause and cure of cancer ("Millions are spent on hog diseases, why not a few on people?"); a bill to place Mexicans and other Latin Americans under the immigration quota, so that they can no longer freely enter the U. S.

He does not drink, smoke, or chew. He likes to walk, dislikes to golf. He has not played cards for 30 years, but enjoys hearing music. In physique he is small, slender. His nickname, ''Baldy," has a certain amount of justification, what hairs remain are greying. Every Sunday he goes to the Presbyterian Church.

He is a close friend of Tyrus Cobb and before the latter quit baseball often went to games. He and his wife entertain little, then usually for the younger set in Washington--his daughter is at Bryn Mawr. He is well liked in the Senate, is labeled a "fair" Senator, honest, conscientious, colorless. Every year he makes a few carefully prepared speeches, reads them in a conversational tone without gestures and carefully sends copies to the press gallery for distribution.

On the floor he appears in a dark business suit and introduces a great many bills, usually minor in nature, for his constituents. When the constituents come to Washington he receives them cordially, and leads them proudly to the White House to meet President Hoover.--ED.

Mind, Inc.

Sirs: TIME, Aug. 26, p. 43, under the caption, "Why Go to Church?," tells of the winning of a prize of $1,000 by Robert Collier of Mind, Inc., in a "Why Go to Church?" contest.

The same mail that brought that issue of TIME also brought a letter from this same Robert Collier of Mind, Inc. It was such a good letter that I am sure that all genuine TIME fans would enjoy it:

"May I send you, with my compliments, an advance copy of the September issue of Mind, Inc., bringing out for the first time one of the fundamentals of the healing art which we believe to be as revolutionary as was Pasteur's discovery of the circulation of the blood?

"If you have ever wondered what was the basis for the seeming 'miracles' you so often hear of at shrines and revivals . . . if you are looking for the hidden factor in ALL healing then mail the enclosed card for your complimentary copy of the September Mind, Inc., giving The Law of the Higher Potential.

"'The Law of the Higher Potential' is as fundamental as Einstein's Law of the Universe. . . . It accounts for every so called miracle, every case of healing. It shows how such miracles may become a part of YOUR daily practice."

Such an intellectual giant as is here revealed should be able to herd the boobs into church if anything can. Why go to church? Echo answers: WHY . . .

ELLSWORTH FLEMING, M.D., D.O. Long Beach, Calif.

Large Mart

Sirs. Your article on the building which Mr. Smith is going to be in charge of was very exciting, but contained one possible error, namely, that its volume of 34,000,000 cubic feet made it the largest building in the world.

The Merchandise Mart Building, which we are building here in Chicago, contains about 53,000,000 cubic feet.

ALFRED SHAW Chicago, Ill.

Glasgow, Too

Sirs: On p. 27 (TIME, Sept. 16) under "India" you say: "Proud Indians know that today only two cities in the British Commonwealth have subways: London and Sydney."

''Proud Indians" are misinformed. Glasgow has had a subway for about 30 years.

DAVID BROWN Maplewood, N. J.

"Shoddy Suburb"

Sirs: I was astonished in reading your Sept. 16 issue, to note under the heading "Pomonok" on p. 14, that you called Brooklyn "once an aristocratic little city in its own right, and now a large, rather shoddy suburb of the great metropolis."

In the first place, one wonders what can be your conception of a suburb. The dictionary calls it an outlying district of a city but parts of this great area which you have called "a suburb" are within five minutes' ride of Wall Street, a much shorter distance than the major part of the island of Manhattan is from Wall Street or City Hall. If Brooklyn is "a suburb," where is the city? The last census estimate of the U. S. Department of Commerce gave Manhattan 1,752,000 people and Brooklyn 2,308,500 people. Certainly in point of population, the number of voters and the number of school children, Manhattan is a smaller suburb than is Brooklyn. Of what city then are we the outlying district? . . .

When Brooklyn was "an aristocratic little city" just prior to the agreement to consolidate with old New York, it had a population of about a million people. If that was a "little city" how many cities were bigger? If since consolidation we have grown 130% in number of people, surely you must concede that something was here to attract them more than a "shoddy suburb."

I am pained to admit that there are some very old, run-down buildings in the older sections of this borough but I have visited a great many cities of this nation and I find buildings just as "shoddy" in the old sections of all the older cities, not omitting our great sister borough across the river, known to many, as I presume to this article writer, as New York. Let him step across the river and view the buildings that represent, in the last official assessment of real estate, a little over four billion dollars of hard cash. . . .

LAWSON H. BROWN Acting Secretary Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce Brooklyn, N. Y.

To big Brooklyn, apologies. A better appellation would have been the one given last week by an advertisement writer for a leading Brooklyn department store (Loeser's). She called it Gotham's "rive gauche" (left bank).--ED.