"Jude" & "Beck"

Sirs:

Footnote on p. 14 issue of July 24 asks: "Could mules, long trained to walk only between the cotton rows, be driven atop the beds to pull a plow there?"

TIME'S education on the principles and practices involved in cotton farming is sadly lacking. A few TIMEly hints are dropped herewith.

The average mule would take great pleasure in walking on the "bed" or row should he find his driver wanted him to walk elsewhere. However it would be impractical and unnecessary to drive friend mule atop the bed to plow up surplus cotton.

Most Southern cotton farmers will, hitch "Jude" and "Beck" to a riding "planter" equipped with a 12 in. "middle buster" and a seedbox filled with Maize or Kaffir, "gee" and "haw" aforesaid mules into their accustomed places between the rows, and at a single operation plow up the government's row of cotton and reseed the row with a feed crop. . .

CARL BIRDWELL

The College Store

John Tarleton Agricultural College

Stephenville, Tex.

Cohorts

Sirs:

The advertisement of the Des Moines newspaper in the July 3 issue of TIME prompts me to propose a question for treatment in your columns. In the advertisement the newspaper is proud--and justly so, apparently--of its cohorts of children who distribute the newspaper daily.

Now without going into the merits or demerits of the employment of children as newsboys (personally I am in favor of it because, perhaps, I used to have a "route" in the summer time) my question is: Do not newspapers in general oppose the proposed child labor amendment to the constitution of the U. S. and is it not for that reason that this worthy amendment languishes?. , .

CAMERON M. PLUMMER

Prescott, Ariz.

While no statistics are available, the National Child Labor Committee states that the majority of U. S. newspapers now favor the child labor amendment. Selfish motives are difficult to identify in the opponents since the newsboy problem never has been agitated in connection with the amendment. However, 21 States have laws affecting newsboys which are generally inadequate or ill-enforced-a fact possibly attributable in certain instances to the influence of venal publishers. In 35 States boys under 12 are permitted to sell or distribute papers.

A sharp distinction should be made between the carrier and the "newsie." The newsie, an "independent merchant," hawks his papers at all hours on the street, is subject to physical and moral evil. States and municipalities could oversee him. but hardly any city does an effective job of it. The carrier of morning papers is also a problem, when he is a 10-year-old, getting out of bed at 3 a.m. to serve his route. In contrast, there is little to be said against boys acting as carriers of afternoon papers in residential districts, and much in favor of it. They sacrifice a couple of hours of play time every after noon, but they learn punctuality, dependability, business acumen, thrift. Usually they are well supervised by their employers. Thus: the Des Moines Register & Tribune cooperates with parents, awards college scholarships to its best boys.-ED.

Peabody & Saratoga Water Sirs:

I beg to express appreciation for the honor of being singled out on your pages with my picture in connection with the reference to my as sociation with the development of the Spa at Saratoga Springs.

I confess to great surprise that your usually so efficient staff should have made such serious errors in references made on p. 28 of your issue of July

24 to my association, as a Commissioner of the State of New York, with the development of the Saratoga Spa. I cite your statement: "He [Peabody] formed a private corporation, Saratoga Waters Corp., leased at nominal fee the right to bottle the waters. . . . The State purchased the Peabody lease for more than $350,000." There is absolutely not a word of truth in this nor any basis to be found in any way for the scandalous attack upon my character which this statement makes. . . .

The Saratoga Waters Corp. was organized by Mr. Louis W. Noland and Mr. Leslie R. Rounds, who is now Deputy Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in order to carry out the terms of a lease negotiated by Mr. Noland and Mr. Rounds, who were to manage the same, with the then Saratoga State Reservation Commission in 1915. I was not at that time a member of that Commission, having had to resign because my obligations as a Government Director and Deputy Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York prevented my longer continuance in any other official position.

Mr. Noland was the Secretary of the Commission, having been so appointed because of his experience in the Poland Spring Water Company. That Commission advertised for six months in Europe as well as America, as I recall, for bids to lease the sale of the waters for a period of

25 years. At the date fixed in the advertisements for the receiving of the bids, not one was presented that had merit in the opinion of the then Commission. Thereafter, Mr. Noland, knowing of the desire of the Commission to secure for the State a profit from the sale of the waters, through an experienced handling of the same, secured the co-operation of his friend and former associate in the Poland Spring Water Co., Mr. Leslie R. Rounds, to study the situation and propose a bid for the leasing of the sale of the waters. A bid was finally worked out which paid to the State a royalty running from 3-c- to 12-c- a gallon for every gallon of these waters sold by the corporation and provided in addition that, after a profit of $30,000, the State should receive 60% of all further profits. The lease was drawn by the eminent counsel of the Commission, Judge C. C. Lester.

After the terms had been agreed upon, Mr. Noland associated Mr. Martin Wilmarth, a merchant of Glens Falls, in order to give some financial strength and counsel. He, also, had the promise of a personal loan of a moderate sum rom his and Mr. Wilmarth's friend, my brother "Charles J. Peabody. These four men held all he stock of the Saratoga Waters Corp.--my brother having been induced by Mr. Wilmarth to take stock instead of making a loan but giving to Mr. Noland the option to purchase that stock at par, the cost to him; which option Mr. Noland later exercised after my brother's death, so that no profit was made by my brother, who made the small investment solely for the sake of furthering the desire of the Saratoga Springs Commission to have the waters properly handled under the lease.

I have stated at some length the foregoing to indicate, doubtless, the manner in which careless reading of records on the part of your organization led to the false statement respecting myself.

For the sake of correcting the record, which is possibly of some importance to many of your readers, may I mention the fact that the Corporation of Yaddo was organized at the instance of Spencer Trask in the year 1900 by Edward M. Shepard, as counsel, under the name of Pine Garde. Mr. and Mrs. Trask and Miss Pardee and myself became trustees of that corporation, the name of which was changed to Yaddo after the death of Katrina Trask Peabody.

This corporation, which you speak of as "a philanthropic institution" and say further; "Yaddo's 490 acres pay no taxes," does pay taxes on a fair percentage of the acreage which the courts decided are not now being used for the purpose of the Fund. That which is used for the benevolence intended was decided by the Supreme Court, Appellate Division and the Court of Appeals of the State of New York to be not liable for taxes. Therefore, the directors of the corporation have no right to use the funds in paying taxes other than the courts have decided the corporation liable for. Miss Pardee and I both pay full taxes on property occupied by us. ...

GEORGE FOSTER PEABODY

President & Treasurer Yaddo Saratoga Springs, N. Y.

Secretary W. P. Beazell of the Saratoga Springs Commission further corrects TIME by stating that the sum paid to commute the Saratoga Waters lease was not "more than $350,000" but $285,000. Royalties on water sold had netted the State an average of $19,300 Per year--ED

Ten Best

Sirs:

As everyone knows, many critics, authors, colyumists, etc. delight in compiling, at each year's end, lists of the ten best books, plays, cinemas, jokes, and whatnot of the year 19--. Such lists, when published, always evoke a mild storm of criticism, applause and condemnation and often set lesser minds to thinking up lists of their own. In view of this strange phenomenon I have often wondered why some of TIME'S avid readers have not broken into print about January 20 with a list of the ten best articles appearing in TIME during the preceding year. That someone will compile such a list sooner or later is inevitable. Therefore, in an attempt to forestall those who are patiently waiting for 1934 to dawn, I offer my selection of TIME's ten best stories for the first six months of

1933. . . . In making up this list, I have not been guided by any definite yardstick of values. Some articles were chosen because they were essentially dramatic, some because they presented a highly technical problem in terms clearly understandable to the layman, some because they contained excellent and lasting biographical material. I do not attempt to define what I mean by "best"; if others wish to work out a definition, I sincerely hope they will do so. Until then, here is my list:

1) "Death of Coolidge"--Jan. 16.

2) "O'Neill into Opera" (The Emperor

Jones)--Jan. 16.

3) "Bottom," "We Must Act" & "Money &

People" (The banking crisis)--March 13. (Actually three articles, but presenting a unified picture of a momentous week in U. S. history.)

4) "First Englishman" (Noel Coward)--

Jan. 30.

5) "Resurrection" (The brewing industry) --

April 3.

6) "Senate v. Sun" (Farm relief)--April 10.

7) "No Giasticutos, No Hyfandoge" (The

circus)--April 17. (Last year's article on the same subject was better.)

8) "Hearst"--May 1.

9) "Profound Mouse" (Mickey Mouse) --

May 15.

10) The special illustrated section of the London Economic Conference--June 19. And although it could not be included in the above list, may I add the most amazing and the most amusing story that TIME has ever brought to me--that of President Roosevelt posing as a Cascaret salesman (May 29).

ALLEN D. ROWLAND

Philadelphia, Pa.

Do all readers agree with Subscriber Howland's selections?-ED.

TIME in the Movies

Sirs:

Would you kindly settle dispute which arose over the use of TIME Magazine in Edward G. Robinson's Little Giant?

1) Was TIME used by mutual consent without remuneration on the part of either party (Warner Bros, and TIME, Inc.)?

2) Did TIME reimburse Warner Brothers?

3) Did Warner Brothers pay TIME, Inc. for the privilege of using its magazine?

A. T. FLYNN

E. T. LIPPMAN

New York City

TIME received no money, paid none for its appearance in Little Giant. TIME will appear in cinemas whenever required, provided the part it is to play is a creditable one.-ED.

Bouquet of Blooms

Sirs:

TO TIME A BOUQUET OF SUMMER BLOOMS STOP SECRETARY DERN IN SPECIAL RADIO PROGRAM FOR CONSERVATION CORPS BOYS READ EXCERPTS FROM LETTER FROM REGULAR ARMY OFFICER ALDRICH TO TIME PUBLISHED JULY 17 TO INDICATE USEFULNESS OF THE CORPS AND HOW NEAR AND DEAR IT WAS TO WAR DEPARTMENT STOP LIKE MANY OTHERS THE WAR DEPARTMENT TURNS TO TIME FOR FIRSTHAND NEWS OF CURRENT EVENTS AND ITS OWN ACTIVITIES.

JOSEPH T. WALKER JR.

Boston, Mass.

Lieut. Aldrich turned his letter to TIME over to the Fort MacArthur C. C. C. district publicity officer, as required by regulations. It was Secretary of Agriculture Wallace, not Secretary of War Dern, who broadcast excerpts from the letter on a C. C. C. program in which the President also spoke-ED.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.