Blaine's Refusal

Sirs:

In your issue of May 23 you state the following: "The fact remains that no man in U. S. history has ever refused his party's highest call to duty." Was this not the case in the campaign of 1888, when the Republican leaders after the fifth ballot at the National Convention sent a cable message to Elaine who was at the time visiting Andrew Carnegie in Scotland, asking him to accept the nomination and the reply was: 'Too late. Blaine immovable. Take Harrison and Phelps."

PAUL JACKSON

Lake Grove, L. I.

General Sherman and Calvin Coolidge, too, declined nominations before the nominations were made. The fact that remains is that no man nominated for President by one of the major parties has refused to run.--ED.

TIME Pencils

Sirs:

Your issue of May 9 article "O. C. D. Housed'' refers to TIME pencils. What may this be? a special pencil manufactured for TIME? a pencil TIME likes to call its own but is actually a standard brand? one of particular coloring or lead?

JOHN L. KELLY

Upper Marlboro, Md.

TIME pencils, fat, soft, red and labeled, are Eberhard Faber products, 7 in. long, .418 in. diameter, .165 lead. At least two other companies make the same type (Joseph Dixon Crucible Co. claims to have originated it). They are used mostly in grade schools and newspaper offices, bear trade names like "Elementary," "Childlend," "Beginners." To any subscriber in good standing who so requests, one good TIME pencil will be sent gratis.--ED.

Southern Yankees Sirs:

In your article captioned Prohibition p. 14 in May 30 issue, you answer Mrs. Charles H. Sabin's question "Who is ashamed of being a Yankee today?", "Any Southerner." I think this is quite unfair, both to Mrs. Sabin and to us Southern folks.

The Civil War and its bitterness are too long past and Southern people have learned the greatness of Mr. Lincoln, who tried so hard to avert that war. We have also learned much more about our neighbors in the North, and that quality in men and women is not restricted to any section of the country. We respect and love our real worthwhile Northern neighbors quite as much as they could wish. We are too often misunderstood I think, and when ignorance and prejudice occasionally seem to be still harbored by all sections of our country, I feel that it may be worth the effort to try to correct (if possible) some of these thoughtless errors.

A gentleman from Boston was talking to me one day down in south Georgia. He berated the railroads and the train service terribly. The fact was that what he said about them was only too true, as I told him. I asked him to step into the Old Colonial Trust Co.'s offices when he returned to Boston and tell them all that he said to me, as they owned every foot of that railroad.

He was not long in apologizing to me. In fact there was no apology needed, for I agreed with him entirely. But he saw the point. He turned out to be a most charming gentleman from Boston, while I was born and reared in South Carolina. . . .

BENJAMIN A. DANIELS

Tampa, Fla.

Sir, On p. 14 of your issue of May 30, under Prohibition, "Who's Ashamed?" you carry a footnote, "*Answer: Any Southerner," as your cryptic comment on Mrs. Sabin's address over the radio. . . .

I would like to know who authorized you to speak for all Southerners and circulate around the world through the medium of your magazine that we blush with shame when labeled "Yankee."

Millions of Southern sons who served in the World War, among whom can be found the Army's outstanding hero, did not like the molly- coddling label "Buddy," sparkled under the affectionate dub of "Yank," did a good job, came home and are proud of it. There are legions of these Yankees in the South today, native sons, proud of their heritage, regretting nothing which their forefathers did, convinced that they were right through & through and who would take up tomorrow where they left off if there was a sufficient Cause but who fully realize that the true United States lay not to the North but to the the South and with this responsibility upon them, would fight all over again to preserve the Union.

There is a new order in the South today. In 25 years it will again be the leading section of the country. Come on down and be convinced.

THOMAS F. LITTLE

Chattanooga, Tenn.

Minnehaha

Your circulation and display departments should appreciate the makeup of Miscellany in the issue of May 23, when that department included news of the twin cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis--the only "twin cities" located in the same state. (St. Paul: ventriloquist arrested using his "dummies" in attempt to collect wages. Minneapolis: auto crash victim claims to be left with inferiority complex). . . .

Had you used news of but one city you would have been surfeited with accusations of failure to give proper recognition to news of the other. I hail from those parts and I know. . . . FRANK J. NEWELL

P. S. St. Paulites abroad detest the time-honored quip: "I hear the Twin Cities are to be combined and will be called Minnehaha--'Minne' for Minneapolis and 'Haha' for St. Paul."

Chicago, Ill.

Sweet of Jake

Sirs:

Your May 30 issue fell hard for Jake Handler's usual modest claims that Henry Romeike-Public Service are the biggest & best of all press clipping bureaus.

I note Jake kindly admits Luce's Press Clipping Bureau is "second" largest. This is sweet of him.

Jake says Romeike-Public Service outfit sent the George Washington Bi-Centennial Commission 39,771 clippings in February.

Luce sent them 56,043 in that month.

Jake says they have sent the Commission 76,203 clippings so far this year.

Luce has sent them 166,658 clippings this year.

Whady'mean, "second" largest?

J. C. VAN ALSTYNE

Manager & Vice President

Luce's Press Clipping Bureau

New York City

Sirs:

In your issue of May 30. referring to the late Henry Romeike and his clipping service, you say, "Largest order handled by Romeike in a single month was that of the George Washington Bicentennial Commission to which it delivered 76,203 clippings since Jan. 1, 39,771 in February alone." You add that at the minimum rate of 4'', the cost would be $3,048.12.

These are the kinds of costs that are disturbing business men, multiplied as those costs are by the thousands and aggregating millions of dollars of what to them seem unnecessary expenses. I am writing to the chairman of the Commission today to ask if they will give me a statement of the total amount that has been expended thus far for press clippings. . . .

RICHARD B. WATROUS

General Secretary

The Providence Chamber of Commerce

Providence, R. I.

Magyar & Endres

Sirs:

. . . In your issue of May 30, on p. 20, you have a small item entitled "For Hungary" which seems to indicate that Capt. Alexander Magyar at the last moment decided not to accompany George Endres, who was later killed on arriving at the Littorio Airport in Rome.

I wish to state that the reference to Capt. Alexander Magyar could not possibly have been true because Capt. Magyar is a client of mine and has been in this country for the past year and was not in Budapest at the time Capt. Endres took off to Rome. As a matter of fact, the day that the announcement of the death of Capt. Endres appeared in the newspapers, Capt. Magyar came into my office with a clipping and showed it to me.

... I trust that you will . . . correct any inference that might be drawn from Capt. Magyar's alleged sudden withdrawal from participation in the last flight of Capt. George Endres.

SAMUEL E. LEPLER

New York City.

Fleishhacker Pool & Zoo

Sirs:

Will TIME permit me to correct a grave error made in its issue of May 16. . . . TIME stated that Mr. Herbert Fleishhacker gave to San Fran- cisco its open-air pool and zoo. Mr. Fleishhacker did not give the swimming pool or the zoo to San Francisco. These improvements are strictly public enterprises built exclusively with tax-money, the combined cost of which has been so far, according to records at the City Hall, approximately $1,500,000.

It is true that San Francisco has the following:

Fleishhacker Swimming Pool

Fleishhacker Zoo

Fleishhacker Park

Fleishhacker Booth

Fleishhacker Restaurant

Fleishhacker Mother House

But Mr. Fleishhacker's name is on these improvements (with the exception of the Mother House) because of his position as head of the Park Commission and as a reward for having acted as "sugar daddy" to Mayor (now Governor) Rolph's campaigns.

Mr. Fleishhacker has, however, donated the following:

1) The Fleishhacker Mother House (mentioned above). This is a small building located in Fleishhacker Park and is used as a convenience station by women and children.

2) A Venetian gondola which he had painted white and gave to Fleishhacker Swimming Pool. This, by the way, is probably the only gondola of this color in the world.

3) A few animals to the Fleishhacker Zoo F. O. B.

4) A slide for children was given to Fleishhacker Park. The Fleishhacker Swimming Pool (formerly known as the Municipal Swimming Pool) is not in Golden Gate Park as TIME stated but is over a mile away.

Regarding the "Keep Off the Grass" signs TIME mentioned--Mr. Fleishhacker did not have these removed from Golden Gate Park for the reason that they never existed due to such being an anathema to John MacLaren, who laid out the park and is still, at the age of 84, superintendent of parks. Mr. Herbert Fleishhacker should be commended for the gifts he has made but he should not be credited with large and expensive improvements built with taxpayers' money. In justice to the citizens of San Francisco, I sincerely hope you will print my letter.

PATRICIA COURSON

(A San Francisco Park Commission employee who made many of the checks on the city treasury that paid for what TIME described as gifts from Mr. Herbert Fleishhacker)

San Francisco, Calif.

Prix de Rome

Sirs:

May I call attention to an apparent oversight in the article on the Prix de Rome in your May 23 issue, p. 33?

Referring to a University of Pennsylvania man's winning the award in landscape architecture, your writer says. "The announcement caused excitement because Landscape Architect Chabanne never went to Yale, has nothing to do with the Yale School of Fine Arts."

According to my best information, this announcement should have caused no excitement from a Yale standpoint, because six of the previous eight winners were graduates of the Cornell University College of Architecture, and as far as I have been informed. Yale claims no particular distinction in the field of landscape architecture. Your article creates an impression that Yale holds the same monopoly in the field of landscape architecture, as it deservedly does in the Fine Arts.

Cornell's six winners in the nine competitions were: Edward Lawson, '13; Ralph E. Griswold, '16; Norman T. Newton, '19; Michael Rapuano, '27; R. C. Murdock, '28; and Neil H. Park, '27. . . .

LOUIS C. BOOCHEVER

Director Public Information Cornell University Ithaca, N. Y.

Sirs: TIME for May 23 carried on p. 23 the statement: "The Prix de Rome in Architecture went to George Nelson of the Yale School of Fine Arts. . . ."

Mr. Nelson [graduated in 1931 by the Yale School--ED.] has been a graduate student in the Architectural School, Catholic University of America, in Washington, for the year 1931-32. His drawings which won the Rome Prize were prepared at the Catholic University as a climax to his year's work. . . .

THOMAS H. LOCRAFT, PH. D.

Instructor in Architecture

The Catholic University of America

Washington, D. C.

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