Believe or Not
Sirs:
Believe it or not, Robert L. Ripley, creator of the "Believe It or Not'' Series has just reached Sydney on the luxury liner Mariposa.
Ripley was delighted with Sydney Harbour. He was amazed to know that the Sydney Harbour Bridge is one of the biggest of its kind in the World. He was astonished when he saw the Laughing Jackass and found not a beast, but a bird that laughed at its own jokes.
He talked with Ornithologist A. H. Chisholm who told him about the Bower Bird, the bird which paints the inside of its nest. He was delighted with a luncheon which I hurriedly arranged, where he met Ministers of the State--men who were former speakers in the State House Assembly and the Federal Senate.
It took some persuasion to make him believe that some of the sheep out here wear shoes to protect their feet from the burrs.
All these things interested Ripley, but the thing that grasped his interest and made his eyes sparkle, believe it or not, were two copies of TIME that I gave him--the first he had seen in Sydney.
GEORGE FITZPATRICK
Superintendent
New South Wales Community Hospital Sydney, Australia
"Ditched, Dammed & Drained"
Sirs:
I read newspapers and periodicals every day of my life and I must say that I get information out of TIME which I find in no other publication. For instance the causes which led to Governor Roosevelt's being a cripple (TIME, Feb. 1).
I read in TIME where you said that Governor Murray of Oklahoma in a speech at Charlotte made use of an expression wherein Hoover was a great engineer for he had ditched, dammed and drained the whole country in the short time he has been president (TIME, Feb. 29).
The point is that Governor Murray used the expression as being original with him when it was to the contrary--and his audience didn't know any better. Since I read what Governor Murray had to say about Hoover. I have heard many prominent Democrats in political speeches pay their respects to the President in exactly the same words which Governor Murray used in his Charlotte speech. I don't know that the speakers tried to convey the impression that they were the authors of this bit of sarcasm thrown at Mr. Hoover, but I can say that every time the expression was used it brought down the house.
On more than one occasion, TIME has furnished me with information which I was unable to procure from any other source and so I am asking you to print the name of the author of this most excellent piece of Democratic thunder and the occasion on which it was used.
W. G. Cox
Burlington, N. C.
Up rose in the Senate on Dec. 10, 1930 Mississippi's Democratic Pat Harrison, arch-baiter of the G. 0. P., to remark: ''For the last 18 months Herbert Hoover has shown that he has not only ditched the United States but he has drained the whole world." The alliteration was later expanded but Senator Harrison is credited with giving the phrase its first political currency. He took it from a constituent's letter. The letter has been lost; the constituent remains nameless.--ED.
Shanghai
Sirs:
Allow me to congratulate you on the abie way you have reported on the situation obtaining here in my home-town of Shanghai. TIME'S version of this undeclared war has been much clearer than that of some of the prejudice-laden and propaganda-diffusing reportings of most of the local journals published in the English language. Chinese and Japanese publications need interest nobody who wish to see things as they are. . . .
Being well acquainted with some of the relatives of retired Chinese Admiral Tsai, I can tell you that C.-in.-C. Tsai Ting-kai is no son of the said Admiral. As to the commander's alleged article of faith re "real poets" and "goose-steppers" I would advise you and your readers to take that with the proverbial pinch of salt.
JANG Sux
Shanghai, China
College Men in Politics
Sirs:
Your list of young college-trained men prominent in U. S. politics (TIME, April 25) overlooks Georgia's 34-year-old governor, Richard B. Russell Jr. Son of Georgia's Chief Justice Richard B. Russell Sr., he received his legal training in the State University, was a member of the House of Representatives at 23, its speaker pro tern at 25, its speaker at 27, and Georgia's youngest governor before his 34th birthday. He has reorganized the State government and balanced its budget. Now he is a candidate for the unexpired term of William J. Harris, deceased, as U. S. Senator from Georgia.
WRIGHT BRYAX
Atlanta, Ga.
Sirs:
Under the heading Education your latest issue, dated April 25, comments on Governor Cross's article in a recent issue of the Forum wherein he advises political careers for young men. I notice that your footnote omits mention of U. S. Senator Huey P. Long.
Inasmuch as you go to some trouble to point out that there are more than a few "young'' college men in Congress. I feel that Senator Long, who is a Tulane University graduate and not yet 39 years of age, should surely be included.
PETER M. TAMBURO
Washington, D. C.
Sirs:
May I call your attention to your omission of one of Georgia's distinguished sons in your list of young men in politics (TIME, April 25), the youngest Congressman since Henry Clay--W. Carl ton Mobley! He was elected to fill the unexpired term of Samuel J. Rutherford, late representative in U. S. House of Representatives. . . .
LEGARE HILL OBEAR
Washington, D. C.
Sirs:
Your item, "Just Too Dirty," (TIME, April 25), is very TIMEly. Perhaps you may be interested in the following additional information concerning college men in politics:
Of 209 State governors holding office from 1915 to 1930, at least 135, or 64%, had attended college. Many of these were fraternity men; at least nine were Phi Beta Kappans.*
Of the 34 present governors listed in Who's Who In America (1930-1931), at least 26 are college men. . . .
It would seem, therefore, that the governor's chair, for one thing, is not as hard on college clothes as our New Haven Diogenes would have us believe.
SAMUEL R. SOLOMON
Syracuse, N. Y.
Speaker on the Floor
Sirs:
Will you kindly settle a controversy pursuant to Speaker Garner's "Plea in Homespun"? (1) Is it customary for the Speaker of the House of Representatives to take the floor to deliver his opinion on an issue? (2) Has the seriousness of and widespread interest in the present movement to balance the budget given publicity to the Speaker's taking the floor which, at another time, might pass unnoticed?
JOSEPH R. NOEL
Chicago, Ill. 1) No. 2) No.
Speaker Garner's tax speech was the first use of his parliamentary privilege to join in House debate. As Speaker (1925-31) Nicholas Longworth descended the rostrum to address the House from the floor five times on such subjects as the Soldier Bonus, a Big Navy and the "Lame Duck" Amendment. Frederick Huntington Gillett (1919-25) spoke five times. During the eight years of his Speakership (1911-19) Champ Clark took the floor 18 times for regular debate and 45 times when the House was in the Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union. His speeches produced much applause with members rising to their feet. Joseph Gurney Cannon (1903-11) spoke four times on the floor, six times in committee and four times (irregularly) from the chair. Thomas Brackett Reed (1889-91; 1895-99) spoke, according to the records, only "two or three times" from the floor whereas Charles Frederick Crisp (1891-95) spoke not at all. On March 15, 1871 Speaker James Gillespie Elaine indulged in an undignified and personal controversy with Representative Butler, also of Maine, on the House floor. Henry Clay (1811-14; 1815-20) spoke so often from the floor that he virtually used his prestige as Speaker to control and color all legislative procedure.--ED.
Imitators
Sirs:
Students of Penn State publish the Penn State Froth, clever college comic magazine. Last week appeared the parody number. Those magazines "parodied" included Liberty, True Confessions, Amazing Stories, and TIME. I am sending you the parody page of TIME. I think you will find it "curt, clear, complete."
Several days ago appeared The Log, comic magazine of the U. S. Naval Academy. It also is a parody on TIME even including the cover design, contents, style. Be sure to read it; it is interesting and cleverly written.
TIME seems to impress college students. There must be a reason.
ERNEST C. MILLER State College, Pa.
Sirs:
They do say that imitation is the sincerest form of plagiarism so I know you will be very interested to receive the copy of To-Day. . . .
Of course, To-Day may be operating under license from you in which case there is no harm done but if not then I feel sure you will be highly flattered at the shadow you have cast in these parts. . . .
Needless to say as a subscriber and cover-to-cover reader of TIME, I thought you would be interested in the exhibit.
DAVID MCMILLAN
Melbourne, Australia
Last November, all within a week, appeared three professional imitations of TIME--To-Day (Sydney, Australia), Now (Manila) and Hoy (Santiago, Chile). All are departmentalized in the TIME manner, reflect its influence in style and format. To-Day ("The Fortnightly News-Magazine"), successor to Stead's Review, has a strong editorial bias against Premier John Thomas Lang of New South Wales, omits "a," "an" & "the" promiscuously, does not stick close to the news. In it Franklin Delano Roosevelt appears as the late great Theodore Roosevelt's nephew, Nicholas Roosevelt as "Teddy's son." Now ("The New Independent Weekly") is slangily edited by Filipinos. It handles news from the U. S. under "Foreign Affairs," has a section headed "Court Squabbles." Hoy ("The Review Which Replaces 100 Books & Magazines") is published by Carlos Davila, onetime Chilean Ambassador to the U. S. and TIME reader. It prints signed articles and fiction.
The Palma Post ("The Mediterranean's English Weekly") also is edited in TIME'S departmental style.
In the U. S. the Literary Digest has imitated TIME'S method of captioning pictures by quotations from the printed text. Likewise the New York Times magazine section has adopted to a degree the same style of cut caption.
Besides Penn State's Froth and the Naval Academy's Log, TIME has been burlesqued by such undergraduate publications as the Harvard Advocate, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket and the University of Washington Columns. Other non-professional imitators have included the Omicron Owl of Tau Kappa Epsilon at Ohio State, the California Chamber of Commerce Journal, the Rochester Ad Club Bumblebee, the Rem Rand News, the Marmon Factory News. The 4th Regiment of U. S. Marines at Shanghai issued their Walla Walla once as a TIME take-off.--ED.
* In 1930, Phi Beta Kappaman Roosevelt defeated Phi Beta Kappaman Tuttle to win reelection as New York's governor.
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