Safe Medusa
British Husband & Uncle
Sirs:
Kindly give me your authority or the source of your information for the statements pp. 19 & 20 of the March 7 issue, concerning the existence of a chain of subterranean forts which guard the French frontier from the English Channel to tl e Mediterranean.
I am in the difficult position of trying to convince a British husband and British uncle, who might credit :" if they had read it in their London Times, but read it as ''ridiculous nonsense'' in the American" press.
RUTH S. MAcNiven
Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana
The existence of France's chain of subterranean forts is well known to military authorities of all nations, but to convince British husbands or uncles, let them read a long descriptive article (with map) on the subject by Editor-in-Chief Stephane Lauzanne of the semi-official Paris Matin, published by the New York Times April 12, 1931.--ED. First Class Postage Sirs:
How can TIME . . . fair and impartial in all things . . . make such a brazen misstatement as that in your article, issue of April 11, headed "Taxation," subhead "Communications." "Post Office Department begging Congress to increase first-class postal rate to make that service self- sustaining."
The most casual inspection of the annual operating statements of the Postal Department would reveal the illuminating fact that first-class (letters) is the only service to show a profit--that it nets the Government from 50 to 90 millions of profit annually.
The same statement also shows that the tremendous losses sustained by the department are in handling second-class mail, newspapers and magazines. Deficit on this class. 1931. 97 millions. Average annual loss, five-year period, over 90 millions. Uncle Sam paid out nearly $5 for every dollar of revenue from this class last year.
These facts are usually carefully concealed from the general public by the beneficiaries thereof. TIME is hereby CHALLENGED to publish this statement of facts. . . .
GORDON E. SMALL
Cincinnati, Ohio
TIME erred, gladly stands corrected. The Post Office Department's figures for fiscal 1931 showed: ist Class $46.905,962.72 profit 2nd Class 96,674.617.93 loss 3rd & 4th Classes both showed deficits. --ED. Shoelace Institute
Sirs:
The writer was intensely interested in your article entitled "Pencils" in your issue of March 28.
We have a condition in the shoelace industry very similar to the pencil industry, but we lack an institute or an association of our manufacturers to try to stabilize conditions, like is being tried by the pencil institute.
Would appreciate your advising us where the pencil institute is located. . . .
D. LlPSCHUTZ
General Shoe Lace Co.
Louisville, Ky. Lead Pencil Institute can be reached at 726 Jackson Place, Washington, D. C.-- ED. Pennsylvania's Swick Sirs: The following constituents of Congressman J. H. Swick of Beaver Falls, Pa. would like to have you publish the record and achievements of Mr. Swick.
C. A. WHITE J. M. GRIER W. C. MUSICK LEWIS VINCENT
J. W. LlTTELL
Beaver Falls, Pa.
The record of Representative Jesse Howard Swick of the 26th Congressional District of Pennsylvania is as follows:
Born: At New Brighton, Pa. Aug. 6, 1879.
Career: Scion of the soil, he studied at Livingstone Academy, taught school, attended Geneva
College at Beaver Falls. From Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia he got an M. D. degree in 1906, returned to Beaver Falls (1930 pop.: 17,147) to practice his profession. Byway of the presidency of the Beaver Falls Bureau of Health he entered local politics. During the War he served a year overseas with the Army Medical Corps. But small-town medicine was too small a field to suit him. Extending his activities, he became president of Beaver Falls State Bank and of Model Candy Co., first vice president and director of Moltrup Steel Products Co. As a cog in the Mellon Republican machine in western Pennsylvania, he was first elected to the House in 1926, is now serving his third consecutive term. In Congress: A rear-rank private in the G. O. P. infantry, he is obedient, dutiful, conservative. No speechmaker, he did not utter a word on the House floor (except to answer roll calls) during the first three months of the current session. Though his attendance is good, he is unknown to many of his colleagues and to the Press at large. He modestly writes his own biography in the Congressional Directory in a line and one-half. As a physician he brings his medical knowledge and experience to bear on legislative questions arising in the World War Veterans' Legislation and Pensions Committees of which he is a diligent member. He voted for: Tax Reduction (1928), Jones ("Five & Ten") Law (1929), Reapportionment (1929), Farm Board (1929), Tariff (1930), "Lame Duck" Constitutional Amendment (1932). He voted against: Farm Relief (1928), Bonus 50% Loan (1931), "Lame Duck" Constitutional Amendment (1931). He votes Dry, drinks Dry. Legislative, hobbies: Pensions for widows & orphans of War veterans; extension of the Ohio River barge system 80 mi. beyond Pittsburgh. He once proposed that veterans be treated by private doctors. He put through a bill increasing the capacity of the Pittsburgh veterans' hospital by 300 beds. Because .of his Republican regularity, he does not openly agitate his liberalized pension scheme to which the Hoover Administration is opposed. His political dream is the improvement of the Beaver, Mahoning and Shenango rivers in his section. He got the War Department to survey these streams for possible developments. His critics declare that his activity for "pork barrel" legislation helps to keep him in his House seat. Outside Congress: Fairly well-to-do, he owns a row house in Foxhall Village, a development in Georgetown, lives there with his wife and young son. He drives a Pierce Arrow, wears glasses. likes to pitch horseshoes, take long solitary walks. Formal Washington society interests him little or none. Beetle-browed, tightlipped, he dresses well but inconspicuously. His smoke: cigars. Impartial House observers rate him thus: A quiet and obscure legislator, he is typical of the Congressional rank & file of whom the country at large never hears. He does small satisfying chores for his constituents and leaves leadership, speechmaking and publicity antics to others: locally a good representative, nationally he is only a regular Republican voice that answers when the House clerk calls "Swick." His term expires March 3, 1933--ED.
Safe Medusa
Sirs: At last I have found something that I can contradict in the pages of TIME magazine, on very good authority. I refer specifically to p. 54 of the April 11 issue of TIME magazine. The notice is headed "Slip" and refers to what is, without a doubt, a remarkable accident record of 795 days [at Remington Typewriter's Syracuse factory ]. However what we take exception to is the statement made by F. E. Redmond, director of the educational bureau of the Associated Industries of N. Y. "It is the greatest individual factory safety record in the history of the civilized world." The Toledo plant of the Medusa Portland Cement Co. is now in its fifth year, without a lost time accident and to date of this letter, April 11, 1932, has 1,467 days to its credit. In addition to the remarkable record which has been established at our Toledo plant. I am listing below the number of consecutive accident-free days at other plants of the Medusa Portland Cement Co. York, Pa. 942 days Manitowoc. Wis. 922 " Bay Bridge, Ohio 893 " Newaygo, Mich. 853 " You will notice that the record of all these plants is in excess of the figure in the article. In 1930 all eight plants of Medusa Portland Cement Co. operated with but one minor lost time accident and the company was awarded the Joseph A. Holmes Certificate by the U. S. Bureau of Mines.
M. W. WAPLES
Manager
Advertising Department Medusa Portland Cement Co. Cleveland, Ohio
The Remington record was figured on a basis of "man hour exposure"--with some 1,600 workers Remington went some six million man-hours without an injury. But the National Safety Council, while re- affirming Remington's record, points with pride to Cement as having the best safety record as an industry.--ED.
Queen Mary & Chair
Sirs:
After believing implicitly in every word printed in TIME, I am surprised to find three mistakes in a paragraph of five lines which appeared in your March 7 issue. This reads:
"Queen Mary, having sat in a chair exhibited at the British Industries Fair, looked pleased when a rich American rushed forward, bought the chair, and 36 more just like it."
First, although this chair was bought by an American, it was not a "rich" American. Second, only one was bought, and not 36. Third, there was no "rushing forward" by either the Queen or myself.
It was a carved Chippendale chair reproduced in antique pine, instead of the usual mahogany, and was bought because of its design, along with several other pieces. While I was in this exhibition booth, Queen Mary came in. The "pleased look" was not for me, but merely the manifestation of the royal goodwill towards all loyal Britishers.
At any rate, this chair will be made in America, adding to our American homes not only beauty, but also the unexpected approval of British aristocracy. We might go so far as to present one of these to TIME, to show our appreciation of being called a "rich American."
HOLLIS S. BAKER
Baker Furniture Factories, Inc. Allegan, Mich.
Half-Pound Babe --
Sirs:
1 noticed in your issue of April 18 under Miscellany that the world's smallest baby is a Kansas City boy weighing i Ib. . . . I enclose a clipping from a local newspaper, showing a picture of THE WORLD'S SMALLEST BABY, a Miss Mercer, of Wards' Station, Columbus County, N. C., who tips the scales at a mere half-pound.
Wards' Station is about ten miles from White-vine, therefore I claim all honors for the Mercers, Whiteville, Columbus County, and North Carolina.
ISADORE E. GOLDSTEIN
Whiteville, X. C.
Small Babe Mercer, 6 in. long, weighed 12 oz. at birth. Three weeks old and weighing 8 oz., she was thriving last week in Chadbourn, N. C. on two medicine droppers of milk every two hours. A finger ring would fit her wrist.--ED.
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