Thomas & Marx Sirs: Because your article under the heading Third Parties in your issue of Aug. 8 was so fair, interesting and informative. I think you may be willing to print this letter which combines thanks with slight correction or explanation of certain statements. I should like to let your readers know that by no means do I believe that "the international quality of true Socialism has to be soft pedalled in this country.'' I believe that it has to be carefully explained in language that American workers will understand. Because I am an international Socialist I do not regard my Socialism as in some strange way essentially unique and I have repeatedly avowed our immense indebtedness to Karl Marx. No Socialist can be too dogmatic just now about the "sample life'' concerning which your representative asked me. I am inclined to think that proper land taxation would, if anything, facilitate--not, of course, the ownership of great estates--but the general possession by those who so desire on terms of occupancy and use of some lands around a house for grounds and garden. At any rate. Socialism wants to stress the fact that with intelligent management of the machinery and resources we have we can build a civilization on abundance rather than want. This, may I add, will take time, but I believe in the practicability .of the slogan: Socialism in our time. I was glad to see the recognition you gave to the young workers in the National Office. As I go round the country I am impressed with the enthusiastic way in which not only young workers but old timers with youthful spirit are rallying to the service of the party. NORMAN THOMAS

P.S. I liked the portrait! New York City

Thomas' Ideal

Sirs:

TIME, August 8. says of Socialist Candidate Norman M. Thomas. "The New York Port Authority is his governmental ideal."

Please amplify.

GEO. I. SULLIVAN

Philadelphia, Pa.

Created by treaty between New York and New Jersey to develop, improve and co-ordinate harbor and terminal facilities, the Port of New York Authority is an independent interstate agency. Its non-salaried commissioners are appointed by the two Governors. Each State contributes to it $100,000 annually. By issuing its own bonds amortized by tolls, it built the Outerbridge Crossing (Staten Island to Perth Amboy. N. J.); the Goethals Bridge (Staten Island to Elizabeth. N. J.): the Bayonne Bridge (Staten Island to Bayonne. N. J.); the George Washington Bridge (Manhattan to Fort Lee. N. J.). It also owns and operates profitably the Holland Vehicular Tunnel, is now planning a second vehicular tube under the Hudson. It is building a 16- million-dollar inland terminal to be used as a receiving centre for all less-than-a-carload railroad freight. An efficient, businesslike, self-sustaining public agency, it is comparatively free from petty politics.--ED. Smart Farmer Sirs:

Upon the broad side of a barn on a farm in central Washington, appears the figure of the tobacco bull, in the identical gallant pose given him by bill posters everywhere. And on this barn, as on 10,000 others, the cow member of the cast regards Her Hero with the same wistful admiration and look of fond desire which caused the clubwomen of a California suburb to request the removal of the poster, as duly reported in TIME (July 4).

The Washington farmer who owns this particular barn shows a capability in advertising which we believe should be noted in your pages. So that all the world may read he has affixed to the poster in large bold letters: FRESH COW FOR SALE.

A. B. HASLACHER

San Francisco, Calif. Unbossed Nominee Wilson Sirs: TIME. Aug. 15. discussing the recent Missouri primary says "Though his man lost the Senatorial nomination, he [Tom Pendergast] succeeded in naming the Democratic candidate for Governor, Francis Wilson." This statement is not founded on the facts. While it is true that Mr. Pendergast supported Wilson, he, Wilson, received a plurality of more than 160,000 over his opponent, State Senator Russell Dearmont. Of this vote Wilson received a total of 105,000 votes in Jackson County (Kansas City and environs) thus winning his nomination by 50,000 or more votes in rural Missouri. The issue of "bossism" raised against Wilson was a "dud" and he would have been nominated had the election been confined to St. Louis and rural Missouri. Incidentally Mr. Pendergast has long disavowed any intention of controlling Missouri's Democracy-- is known to many Democrats as a public-spirited citizen, liberal contributor to charity and loyal friend. Many Missouri Democrats think it is about time that the party had some organization somewhere in the State. W. F. MURRELL Kirksville, Mo. East & West Washington Sirs: Eastern Washingtonians esteem Governor Hartley wise, thrifty, fair in curtailing vocational courses, restricting activities at University of Washington (TIME, Aug. 8). Long have Washington residents east of the Cascades held that U. of W. has been stealing thunder rightfully belonging to Washington State College at Pullman. We here interpret "Controlled Washington'' educational policy as restoration of vocational school supremacy to W. S. C.. elimination of duplicate educational facilities in Washington's two great schools. Washington's former timber operator has smashed one log jam. that of State extravagance and retrenchment of U. of W. is quite in line with his eight-year record. Many know former President Suzzalo as a leading educator, few know he was a No. 1 politician, able to wangle from a west-side-dominated legislature large appropriations for west-side U. of W., already wealthier in lands than Washington State. The latest Hartley move indicates ultimate supremacy of W. S. C. as the No. 1 vocational school, U. of W. as the State's college of liberal arts, which many eastern Washingtonians feel is sound and wise.

Perhaps you can tell me if the Hartley economy move at Washington is inspired also by decreased revenues from downtown Seattle business property owned by the University, a great source of income. This seems indicated. Does any other U. S. university hold such valuable business property in the heart of a metropolis? . . . JOHN GROVER

Managing Editor Western Newspaper Ass'n Spokane. Wash.

Sirs:

. . . Under the guise of extra-curricula, many silly subjects were pursued at the State University by enthusiasts too lazy or unfit to do worthwhile work and credits given for canoeing, home economics, aesthetic dancing, tennis, etc., all at great expense to taxpayers.

This belittled and interfered with fundamental education of the young men and women preparing for their life work. And because Dr. Suzzalo tried to form a political machine of alumnae to get more & more money, he was asked to resign, and no doubt is able to carry on his fine work better in a privately endowed and managed institution.

Regent Winters is a fine citizen, a successful business man. and is doing splendid work in ending some of the educational rackets as practiced at the University of Washington.

JOHN W. EDDY

Seattle, Wash. oover Sirs:

In your issue of Aug. 22 you stated that the odds in Manhattan are 25 to 1 that the next President of the United States will have in his last name the letters "oover."

I believe this is a ridiculous statement on your part and very unfair to the Democratic candidate. If this statement is true, kindly mention the names of those offering such generous odds.

ALFRED SILVERMAN

Woodmere, N. Y.

Let Alfred Silverman spell out the name of the Democratic candidate and he will see that it as well as the Republican candidate's contains the letters oove and r. Takers of the long end of the bet have against them only Norman Thomas and Death.--ED. Weak Sister Sirs: I am positively indignant this morning, upon reading in your magazine of Aug. 15, the section National Affairs--The Presidency. The gossipy insinuating idea of publishing an article of the weak sister of a great man--Mr. Herbert Hoover-- Is TIME out to belittle Mr. Hoover? If so, why? Such tactics are pursued only by the weak, and ill bred. If TIME disapproves of Mr. Hoover's policies, well and good, but tell us your reasons in a big way. Don't insinuate, don't sneak in behind and then waste the time of your readers with such trash. I am ashamed to have your issue on my table. (MRS.) MABEL POTTER PAYNE

Clarendon, Va.

TIME'S business is news, not policies, politeness or protection of public characters. When the sister of the President of the United States writes an article about her brother. TIME'S duty lies clear before it. But what did Mrs. Payne find that was disgraceful in Mary Hoover Leavitt's article? It was evidently considered entirely commendable by President Hoover's good friend Harry Chandler, who published it first in his Los Angeles Times.--ED. Marxian Depravity

Sirs:

I guess Groucho Marx wouldn't like it so much if he thought, as I did at first, that you meant he personally was "depraved" (TIME, Aug. 15). Friends tell me that he is a very nice gentleman, good to his wife and not a bit a loose character. . . .

EMILY LEVINE

Brooklyn, N. Y.

TIME'S words, "talkative, cool, depraved," were meant to describe the character portrayed by Groucho Marx, not his proper private character.--ED. Ziegfeldiana Sirs:

In your almost adequate account of the picturesque showman, the late Florenz Ziegfeld (TiME, Aug. 1), you failed to tell of his first independent production. When he left his first job with Buffalo Bill's show in the West ... he worked his way through the small western towns with a one man show of "dancing ducks and invisible fish." He would place his half-dozen ducks on an overturned box, under which was a coal oil lamp which heated the box and caused the ducks to move from foot to foot as if dancing. He carried a fish bowl full of water and no fish: hence "invisible fish."

Perhaps Ziegfeld was also responsible for the story of the gentleman who boarded the train with a large box in which were many air holes. Another man . . . asked what was in the box. The gentleman answered, "A mongoose." The traveler asked what a mongoose was. He was told that it was an animal which ate snakes and he was taking it to a friend who had delirium tremens. The second man asked to look in the box and finding it empty he exclaimed. "What kind of mongoose is that?" He was told that it was an imaginary mongoose to eat imaginary snakes.

CHARLES EDWARD THOMAS

Indianapolis, Ind.

Other Ziegfeldiana: He liked buttoned shoes but did not dare wear them. He had scores of guns, was an adept shot. To his elaborate camp at Lake Edward, Que. he shipped hundreds of Louisiana bullfrogs, put them in a fenced bay. fed them crushed biscuit. When he wanted frogs' legs for lunch, which was often, his daughter Patricia would go out and shoot some with her .22.--ED. Clear, Concise Sirs:

Congratulations and many thanks for the clearest and most concise article on Denver I have ever read (TIME. Aug. 15).

JOHN W. LAWRENCE

Kansas City, Mo.

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