The March of Time
Sirs: We were in that front-row seat when the curtain rose on "The March of Time" this p.m. We got a wonderful thrill out of your vivid portrayals. Welcome back on the air! MRS. MARY DICKINS
Chester, S. C.
Sirs: I understand now why the Columbia Broadcasting Co. wanted "The March of Time" back on the air even at their own expense! We heard our first "March of Time" last night. It was thrilling, it was grand. To Columbia for giving it to us blighted radioites, to TIME for putting on this air newsreel, our thanks.
JOHN H. LlNDSEY
ANNE LINDSEY SALLY (aged 9) TOMMY (aged 11) Chicago, Ill.
Sirs:
TIME MARCHES ON AND THE LEGION OF APPRECIATIVE RADIO LISTENERS FOLLOW IN ITS WAKE PERIOD MY HEARTIEST CONGRATULATIONS AND THANKS FOR THE MOST PLEASANT THIRTY MINUTES OF THE WEEK
JACK BOLTON
Annapolis, Md.
Sirs: ... I was on board the Prince Henry of the Canada Steamship Lines returning from Bermuda to Boston on Friday night and was able to get the radio operator to tune in on "The March of Time." About half of the passengers listened in and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all--especially since we had been riding a hurricane for nearly two days. I am sorry I cannot furnish you with a picture of about 50 or 60 passengers huddled around the great mass of furniture and rugs that were upset as a result of the gale we had been through. However, we all enjoyed immensely "The March of Time" and it was the only radio program we heard on the entire voyage. W. J. MCDONALD Boston, Mass.
Sirs: Welcome back on the air. Your program tonite was splendid. It's the outstanding feature of radio. Please keep your program on. Don't ever think of suspending again. W. E. STERN
Irvington, N. J.
Sirs: Oh boy!--Am I glad! Was I thrilled!--A big hand to the Editors of TIME and also to Columbia Broadcasting Co. for their co-operation in restoring the TIME program to the radio. I am sure that I am just one of a vast audience who feels this way about the most interesting program ever broadcast over the radio. ANNETTE ROBIN
New York Citv
Sirs: Tonight at 6:30 C. S. T., I tuned in with great anticipation to greet "The March of Time" as it returned to the air. I was disappointed to find that you had degraded this program with propaganda. Your item on the National Economy League in which you had the speakers for that organization give figures in great detail and in which you did not allow the spokesman for the American Legion to go into detail as to why the Legion is taking a stand for pensions of the widows and children of veterans yet to die, was plain "Big Business" propaganda--nothing else. Your item on the cruise of the bus "Diogenes" was also pure one-sided propaganda on the Prohibition issue; and in this item in order to get your idea over you had to belittle the Salvation Army by having it represented I imagine by a bunch of "night club" entertainers who naturally put the reverence that would be expected from that class of artists into the illustration of the S. A. singing. In this also you affronted the ex-service men of America, although I realize you did not intend to do irreverence to the Salvation Army. It just had to be that way in order to get over your Prohibition propaganda. . . . F. L. BODEN
London Mills, Ill.
Sirs: May I take a moment of your time telling you that "The March of Time" heard today was like meeting a dear friend. I do not usually get stirred up about many things on the radio outside of the great music or the current political speeches, but for days I have waited for your program today.
We were happy to find that we enjoyed the program as we had anticipated--which is more than most anticipations work out to--and thank you and your magazine for pleasure and information worth more than the yearly subscription. BURKETT D. NEWTON
South Pasadena, Calif.
Sirs:
Damn this Daylight Saving Time By which I missed "The March of Time." To miss a train or business deal, Because our clocks are without keel Can cause a nation loss of gold E'en worse than all the misers hold. But when, from ether waves, we too, Lose out on one that's all too few, The blood boils hot till crystallized: And all 'cause clocks are jeopardized.
CLARENCE E. YOUNT
Ashtabula. Ohio
Bachelor McReynolds
Sirs:
I have just read your paragraph on p. 21 of the issue of TIME under the caption People of the 29th inst. wherein you summarize a reported Hearst Press picture of Justice James Clark McReynolds and Mrs. McReynolds.
Are you trying to kid your readers or has the distinguished jurist put over a fast one on his friends and associates including TIME?
Washington knows the Justice as the distinguished leader of the bachelor brigade.
NATHAN BOONE WILLIAMS
Washington, D.C.
Associate Justice McReynolds is indeed a bachelor, and a gallant one. He declined last week to divulge the lady's name. Said he: ''I don't think it would be proper to subject her to embarrassment just because I invited her to attend the theatre. They just snapped the picture without asking permission.'' -- ED.
Hereditary Representative Sirs:
TIME, Aug. 22 mentions that the Rev. Richard Blackburn Washington, a Catholic priest of Hot Springs, Va.. had visited Albany to meet Governor Roosevelt and had expressed himself regarding the Governor as being ''the same type of sturdy American as George Washington," and that "George Washington and Franklin Roosevelt may be called two of a kind."
While the reverend gentleman is entitled to his opinion and also to express it publicly, as an-other member of the Washington family, a direct descendant of two of George Washington's brothers, and speaking solely for myself, I wish to disclaim the Rev. Richard Blackburn Washington's pronouncement as above as representative of the opinion of all of the members of the family of George Washington, and feel that Father Washington is indulging in hyperbole in classing Franklin Roosevelt and George Washington as "two of a kind."
On the other hand, the writer of this communication is of the opinion that no President of the U. S. has been confronted with more difficult problems or has been subjected to more unfair criticism and abuse, which he has met with unflinching fortitude and stamina, than Herbert Hoover, whose Americanism is of the highest order.
Future historians, I believe, will accord him a place in this particular not only with George Washington but also with Abraham Lincoln.
W. LANIER WASHINGTON
Hereditary Representative of General Washington in the Society of the Cincinnati Westport, Conn.
Washington's Baptism
Sirs:
That story of George Washington's asking to be baptised, and being baptised, with total immersion by the Baptist chaplain John Gano, which you quoted from The Delta in your issue of Sept. 5 as a rediscovery overlooked by biographers, was fully discussed in the third volume (p. 277) of my biography of George Washington published two years ago.
In a pamphlet published by William Jewell College six years ago the claim was made that Washington was converted to the Baptist creed and rebaptised into it at Valley Forge. I dissected the legend, and showed how incredible it is even though it is supported by a chain of affidavits from direct descendants.
It contradicts everything we know of Washington's life and character. Gano was not at Valley Forge but with General Clinton. There is no hint of it in Gano's own correspondence or his biography and it is one more proof of the fact that affidavits are among the most untrustworthy documents on earth.
Fable though it certainly is, it is, however, far better supported than the enormously popular story and the ubiquitous picture of Washington leaving his comfortable headquarters at Valley Forge and going out in the snow to pray so loudly that he was overheard by Isaac Potts. The authority for this propaganda is pitiful when carefully examined, yet like the utterly imaginary legend of Betsy Ross it will probably never die. I have found that few people are grateful to one who destroys favorite falsehoods, though it seems a pity to me that a few whole-cloth inventions should crowd out of the public interest so many of the superb and fascinating things Washington really did do and say.
RUPERT HUGHES
Los Angeles. Calif.
Junior World Series
Sirs:
New Orleans TIME-readers will be much disappointed at finding no mention in the issue for Sept. 12 of the American Legion Junior World Series played at Manchester, N. H., Aug. 30 to Sept. 2, and won by the New Orleans Pa-pooses over another team of youngsters from Springfield, Mass., in four thrilling games of baseball.
HARVEY S. NEWGARDE
Sergeant-Major
U. S. Marines New Orleans, La.
Jade
Sirs:
Re: "Toad-Tiger" (jade), Art column, p. 27, your issue Aug. 29.
Information given us at various times on our many travels by those in authority in many places in foreign lands always placed violet-tinted white jade as the highest in grade and value. A few of these places where it was seen were: the Emperor's Museum in the "Forbidden City," Peking (now Peiping), China (time, about 11 years ago), finely carved Buddhas and other ornaments; Mandalay and upper reaches of the Irrawaddy River, Burma, India, bead necklaces, etc.; Tibet, lama's hand prayer wheels, etc.
The muddy-looking white jade was used for mouth pieces for tobacco and opium pipes in China due to its cheapness. This was also on sale in Harbin and places in Manchuria.
We were given to understand that the jade in China came principally from Burma, India and that none was found in China but was sent there because the Chinese are expert carvery and know its worth. It was classified to us as follows: violet-tinted white, some slightly amber tint, white (pure), apple (light) green, darker shades of green, muddy (yellowish) white, etc. A common test is extreme hardness and its coldness to touch regardless of weather.
The New Zealand green jade used in making their lucky "Tiki charms" and other objects is supposed to be of meteoric origin. It is rare and when found is in a buried mass. I am not an expert. This is not written in criticism. . . .
IRA W. STRATTON
Reading, Pa.
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