"Lafayette, We Are Here"
Sirs:
Issue of Oct. 21, p. 17, "General Pershing's 'Lafayette, we are here.' " Not his. Col. Charles E. Stanton, U.S.A., now of San Francisco, spoke for ''Black Jack" at Picpus Cemetery, and coined the phrase. When Stanton wrote his speech in advance of delivering it, Pershing read it and inked his O.K. on it. The manuscript belongs to the Family (club) of S.F. The phrase is its preoration. Furthermore, Pershing gave Stanton credit some years ago in a letter published in Collier's.
EDWARD F. O'DAY Del Monte, Calif.
Tenor's Consternation
Sirs:
It is my custom to sing tenor in a church choir, it is also my custom to peruse the current issue of TIME when the service is other than musical, also it often happens that a young lady soprano reads over my shoulder with me, to our mutual profit.
What was my consternation on turning to p. 63 of the Oct. 28 issue to see the dreadful picture thereon. How can I explain that your magazine is not that sort? How can I dare take another copy to that sacred place next Sunday, without her questioning my taste in literature?
If I bring up the subject she can easily deny (and properly) having seen the pornographic exhibit and put the onus on me, and my efforts at explaining that this was not the usual sort of picture for you to print, or me to look at, will be increasingly difficult if she claims not to have noticed it at all.
Please, in future put a little mark on the cover showing that the copy, so marked, is all right to go to church. . . .
L. F. SILVERS Elizabeth, N. J.
The "pornographic exhibit" was a reproduction of "The Studio," first-prize-winning picture at the 28th annual Carnegie Institute International Exhibit of Paintings at Pittsburgh.--ED.
News Pictures
Sirs: I think I see what you are trying to do-- make a picture of the big news of the week like the London Illustrated News does. I think you've done not badly, in fact very well on the two occasions of the Supreme Court and the ZRS-4 Ring-Laying. But why not rely, as does the Illustrated News, on the camera? The day of the spot news sketcher has passed I'm sure!
MORTON T. EMMERSON St. Louis, Mo.
Sirs:
How about a drawing by your artist of President Hoover cracking his egg at breakfast? How about Ethel Barrymore making up before the show? Everything else you've drawn for us we've seen in photographs.
(MRS.) ETHEL RASCHE
New York, N. Y.
1) TIME will print photographs when, upon the news of a given week, it sheds more light and interest than the factual imagination of TIME'S artist's pen & pencil. 2) Subscriber Rasche suggests unphotographical scenes of the kind which, when of proper significance, TIME's artist will execute.--ED.
Florida's Trammell
Sirs:
The undersigned TIME subscribers ask that you publish the record of Hon. Park Trammell, U. S. Senator from Florida. E. J. SMITH JR. P. PAUL DEMOYA H. M. WISE R. A. TUNLEY EVANS CRARY Stuart, Fla.
The record of Senator Park Trammell of Florida:
Born: In Macon Co., Ala., April 9, 1876.
Start in life: Picking oranges in Florida groves, clerking in Tampa stores.
Career: As a babe-in-arms he was carried from Alabama to Florida. Grade schools at Lakeland gave him his education. He kept books. Ambitious, he went to Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn., studied law for a year, was graduated a full-fledged lawyer (1899). Back in Lakeland, he put out his shingle. Business was poor. He became a salesman, traveled four days each week, practiced law three. At 24 he was elected Mayor of Lakeland, thus first exhibiting the flair for practical politics which carried him later to the Senate.
Since 1900 he has not been out of public office. His job-holding record: Mayor of Lakeland (two years), State Representative (two years). State Senator (four years), State Attorney-General (four years), Governor of Florida (four years), U. S. Senator (twelve years).
In Congress: He has served in the Senate continuously since 1917, being now in his third term. He voted for Tax Reduction (1928), Flood Control (1928), the Jones (increased Prohibition penalties) Law (1929), the Cruiser Construction Bill (1929), Farm Relief (1927, 1928, 1929), Radio Control (1928), Boulder Dam (1928), Reapportionment (1929). He voted against nothing of importance.
No active prohibitionist, he votes Dry, says he does not take drinks.
Legislative Hobby: High tariff rates for Florida truck and citrus.
A childless widower, he lives in hotels in Washington and Lakeland. His friends consider him a "ladies' man." He tries to suppress the year of his birth, reckons himself "too young" yet to take up golf. Once he played a cornet; now, as a Senator, he touches no musical instrument. His diversions: short walks, the theatre. He wears his hair long and loose, affects horn-rimmed glasses on a heavy black ribbon, is very attentive to his attire. He smokes many an expensive cigar, takes a dry chew occasionally, is shocked at the idea of "shooting crap." He is not socially inclined, rarely entertains, goes to the Baptist Church.
A large full-chested man with a ponderous walk, he offers a striking resemblance in appearance and cast of mind to another native Alabaman-- Senator James Thomas ("Tom-Tom") Heflin. Like Heflin, he mortally hates and fears the Roman Pope but, unlike Heflin, he does not boldly talk about it. Heflin greatly surpasses Trammel in a gift for words, in dramatic emphasis, in "darkey" storytelling, if not in mental ability. About Trammell there is a certain dull pomposity, unrelieved by humor.
He is a politician, not a statesman, with a remarkable memory for names and faces, a cultivated appeal to the masses. He never offends Big Business. He claims (in Florida) that he originated and led the whole movement to reduce income taxes after the War -- a claim justly disputed by the Republican leadership.
Impartial Senate observers rate him thus: No orator, no specialist in any field of national legislation, no sponsor of famed laws, he is only an average legislator, voting regularly with other Southern Democrats on everything except the protective tariff (for Florida produce). What he lacks in brilliance he makes up for in local political acumen and industrious attendance on the Senate floor. His term expires March 4, 1935 -- ED.
Blathering, Daddling
Sirs:
I am tired of TIME'S blathering, daddling stupid, idiotic, fatheaded fumbles. "Washington State's Golden Bears!" What pansy-eyed window-dresser writes your so-called sport news? Everyone, even TIME, should know that California's teams for 40 years have been known as the Golden Bears. California, not Washington, is famous for the discovery of gold. . . .
CHARLES JOSEF CAREY San Francisco, Calif.
Sirs:
The Oct. 21 issue of the greatest magazine in the world is rather wrong about Washington State's "Golden Bears.'' The '"Cougars" reside at Washington State College at Pullman, Wash., and the ''Golden Bears" belong to the University of California.
JOSEPH ROBERTS Seattle, Wash.
Not again will TIME twist California's Golden Bears.--ED.
Disgruntled Gibbering'?
Sirs:
I read with much chagrin and vexation your account American Dental Association meeting at Washington (TIME, Oct. 21). One can readily see that it is the gibbering of some disgruntled reporter.
If, as you state, the President-elect was "typically ungracious" to the reporters, why did they not go to the proper place for information? Why condemn as big an organization as this is for the ungraciousness of one person?
Why did not your reporter seek out Dr. Harry B. Pinney, the able, affable secretary of Chicago? There would have been no rebuff.
Speaking of Col. Robert T. Oliver so disparagingly is also unkind. He it was that organized the Dental Corps and ranks today as its senior officer, has had years of service and during the World War functioned as Chief Dental Surgeon A.E.F., was awarded the D.S.M. from his country and we of the service both active and reserve, love and respect him.
The oversight of Who's Who (your social register) is another proof of its unimportance. He would certainly merit mention as much as the cinemactors and politicians that fill its pages.
EDMUND J. KELLY, D.D.S. Major Dental Reserve Los Angeles, Calif.
Half-Educated Demagogs ?
Sirs:
Your writeup on the American Dental Association was a good one. For if you can go to a convention and see a more high-hatted bunch, their nose in the air, half-educated demagogs, than these self-styled dental fraternity men, you will have to name it. Their conventions are so exclusive you are confronted with a sign, "For Psy Si Members Only." Dr. So-and-So will lecture on this and that, and further along for members of the Si Psy or whatever society that you come to. Get your ticket for members only.
They have more scandal on the top of their tongue than the famous Barber's cat, and for sport they are worse than a lot of chicken doctors. So if ever I should be on a jury there are three parties I would never believe under oath, ministers, policemen and D.D.S.'s.
Says one dentist to another, if you are not a member, the charge of admission is one dollar. How can you expect the younger members to know anything, when the older ones act as exclusive as they do. Let the non-members and the independents get together and put up a man whose motto is "One for all, and all for one."
W. H. MACKAY Dentist Egg Harbor City, NJ.