Citizens v. Veterans:
I am mad and swelled up. I have just read three newspapers and also heard the ''Voice of the United States News" over the National Farm and Home Hour, all commenting on the overriding of the President's veto of the "Veterans Bill." Practically no notice is taken of the fact that this was 40% Veterans and 60 % Political Jobholders Bill. Incidentally, the gentlemen who voted to override the veto raised their own wages $1,000 per. The other $500 will come later. I understand that Senator Borah offered an amendment to cut out all salaries over $6,000 but did not get to first base.Now it is possible and probable that some veterans are in want, but it would be a brave man who would claim that any political jobholder is actually suffering for necessities.
Have you the intestinal fortitude to publish this letter along with a list of the gentlemen who voted to raise their own $8,500 per? . . .
ELLIS BURNETT
Taft, Tex.
The Independent Offices bill carried $103,000,000 extra-Budget funds for veterans, $125,000,000 for Federal employes. In the House, 209 Democrats and 97 Republicans voted to override the President's veto. The following Senators so voted:
Democrats
ADAMS GEORGE REYNOLDS ASHURST HATCH RUSSELL BACHMAN HAYDEN SMITH BONE LONERGAN THOMAS BULOW LONG (Okla.) CARAWAY McADOO THOMAS CLARK McCARRAN (Utah) COPELAND McGlLL WALSH COSTIGAN McKELLAR WHEELER DILL NEELY DUFFY OVERTON
Republicans
AUSTIN GOLDSBOROUGH PATTERSON BARBOUR HALE REED BORAH HASTINGS ROBINSON CAPPER HATFTELD (Ind.) CAREY JOHNSON SCHALL COUZENS KEAN STEIWER CUTTING KEYES TOWNSEND DAVIS LA FOLLETTE VANDENBERG DICKINSON McNARY WALCOTT FESS NORBECK WHITE FRAZIER NORRIS GIBSON NYE
Farmer-Labor
SHIPSTEAD
--ED.
Sirs:
Why not form a new organization to be called the ''Let's Get Our's" League? The veterans have been so successful in raiding the Treasury that I see no good reason why the rest of us common citizens shouldn't get our slice of the booty. We could wear a uniform similar to the Legion's, and this would be sufficient to provide the necessary excuse for our forays. Anyone not a Legionnaire would be eligible to join; and since this would mean some 100,000,000 people, we could all dive into the pork barrel with three big cheers and a hip, hip, hooray. Our numbers would be ample to throw the fear of God into a considerable body of chicken-livered Congressmen who become panicky at the mere mention of veterans' votes. The disgusting spectacle of a lobby so powerful that it can override the veto of even President Roosevelt is a thing calculated to incite some kind of action on the part of every right-thinking American. Why does not TIME, who has launched such an excellent exposure of the armaments racket (which exposure, by the way, I think should be reprinted and broadcast over the country), also bring into broad daylight the men and methods directly responsible for the Legion's highly organized raiding of the Treasury, and so bare another national evil? You would be performing a real service--providing you too were not intimidated by the certain threats of canceled veteran subscriptions'.
ROBERT L. GREENE
Detroit, Mich.
Sirs:
Why not launch a movement to publish the names of all individuals who receive compensation from the Government for disabilities resulting from the War?
The American Legion, I understand, is considering such a step and I believe it would serve a useful purpose and should receive the support of all people who sympathize with needy veterans but who resent the misappropriation of Government funds to ablebodied, self-supporting men.
Publication of the list will undoubtedly arouse public indignation in many cities.
C. D. LOCKWOOD
Houston, Tex.
Hamilton's Birth
Sirs:
In your issue of March 26, p. 57, with regard to the sesquicentennial of New York's oldest bank you say: "Prime mover behind the new bank was a brilliant young bastard from the West Indies named Alexander Hamilton." In justice to one of America's most illustrious founders and possibly the possessor of the most brilliant mind of them all, and in general as a matter of fairness, do you not think that when such a bald statement is made you should give the whole story? It is my understanding that Alexander Hamilton's mother was a most lovable woman of impeccable character, that she was mistreated and deserted by her husband and that divorce was not possible on the island of St. Croix where she lived: that neither she nor her real husband, Alexander Hamilton's father, a young Scot who came out to the island from his homeland, with whom she lived until his death after her separation from her husband, could afford the prohibitive cost of the journey to the mainland or elsewhere where she might have obtained a divorce: that under the circumstances she and Alexander's father lived together openly with the full condonation and understanding of the entire populace of the island. It is hardly fair then for you not to tell "the whole truth." I also seem to recall that about a year ago you made such a bald statement with regard to another great Scot, Ramsay MacDonald. . . .
GWALTNEY WESTWARREN
Greensboro, N. C.
Sirs:
All praise to TIME for bringing out the noteworthy but little-known fact of Alexander Hamilton's illegitimate birth.
Hamilton was, I believe, some kin of mine, and I have always been mighty proud of him on two counts:
1) He had the courage and farsightedness to advocate payment in full of the country's obligations (no more the universal custom then than it is now) and the ability to get his proposal carried out.
2) Bastard that he was, he made himself acceptable, socially and every other way, to snobbish General Washington; and that in a day when "Who were you in England?" was the first thing people wanted to know.
Let TIME and all other clear thinkers give full credit to any man who can really make a name for himself, starting at zero or less. And let present-day illegitimates take heart to overcome their misfortune. I bet some of your readers will take you to task for your outspokenness. To such, say I, give a charming but supercilious smile such as Hamilton would have bestowed on such small-mindedness.
ISABELLA MACOMB V. LELAND
New York City
Dartmouth Tragedy
Sirs:
Your attention, I feel, should be called to . . . inaccuracies in your sensationally worded report of the Dartmouth tragedy as printed in TIME, March 5.
Your statement, "he [the janitor] had told the fraternity's Graduate Body, owners of the house, that the furnace was worn out and ought to be replaced," is not true. The furnace, an American Radiator Ideal Steam Boiler, was installed nine years ago and all official investigators agree that the boiler is in first class condition. Merton Little, the janitor, denies making the statement credited to him. What he did say was that during severe winter weather he had felt that the boiler was not large enough to properly heat the house. . . .
LAURENCE C. CAMPBELL
President
Theta Chi House Corp. of Hanover, N. H. Barre, Vt.
Danbury Bakers
Sirs:
Our attention has been called to an article in the March 5 issue of TIME having to do with prices said to have been charged by bakers in Danbury, Conn, during snowstorms in that section early in the month. It is our understanding that according to the reports these bakers charged 25-c- for a loaf of bread.
We have checked into this story very carefully and can find no substantiation of such statements. Our members inform us that during that period they baked night and day to provide consumers with bread when there was a scarcity in the market, and at no time did they charge other than their regular price.
It was rumored that young boys purchased bread at bakeries and then peddled it house to house at two loaves for a quarter. However, we were not able to verify this, but the fact remains that no commercial bakers engaged in any such practice as referred to in your article.
ROBERT E. SULLIVAN
Executive Secretary New England Bakers Association
Boston, Mass.
SCADTA Survivor
Sirs:
On Sept. 3, 1926, I had the misfortune of running into the first long-distance airplane passenger line accident whilst traveling on a hydroplane of the SCADTA line in Colombia, South America. Due to the fog the pilot lost his bearings and, being lost over the mountains while trying to find his way out, we crashed against a tree in the jungle. My passenger companion, Col. William Morrell of the Gulf Oil Co., was killed right on the spot. Through a miracle I came out of the jungle alive.*
Due to internal injuries suffered and loss of blood I suffered a nervous shock which caused me untold amount of suffering during six years, three of which I spent in the charity ward of a hospital a total mental, physical and financial wreck. During the later part of that time, and while I was trying to get back to normalcy, I well remember how anxious I was to get hold of magazines above the ordinary kind that give news and facts on the most important phases of life. If I had had TIME to read I am sure that many hours of agony would have been made more bearable. Consequently, realizing that there are quite a few poor sick souls in hospitals that enjoy good magazines, now, what I do after reading TIME is to send it to the hospital addressed:
Social Worker,
__________Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pa.
For The Use Of The Male Charity Ward
I just hope that some of your readers will do the same. . . .
CASIMIR ALEU
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Field Trial Cures
Sirs:
As a field trial addict it is a pleasure to have you notice the major events, so it seems perhaps a bit ungrateful to criticize your report on p. 32 of TIME for March 19.
In it you say that Sports Peerless "won the gallery's fancy with his cautious wiggling and creeping when close to birds." I seriously doubt that Peerless used such ''low-down" methods. I feel positive that the gallery of experts at the National Championship could never have had its fancy caught by them. I know no handler who would not far rather have his dog slash up to birds and jump into them than ''wiggle & creep" up to them. So if you want to praise say rather his ''bold, slashing way of going, his snappy & positive location," or similar terms, remembering that even a "setter" seems better if he "stands up" on his birds.
Incidentally Annie's cure is recent and refutes the theory that what's good for field trial dogs doesn't work for shooting dogs and vice versa. Last season Annie was "shot"--the prospects of her coming back seemed negligible. Rumor has it that her cure was shooting over her. She went into the "shooting string"; she found birds; her wages consisted of birds killed to her points. Annie saw a reason for her work and enjoyed it. Now Annie is a "great bird dog."
I know of one young dog who was the terror of the quail. Their range, speed and endurance were doubled by his aid. He would not "break." All winter his trainer struggled. His cure took one afternoon when the desperate man got himself and his helper two fast ponies and put the youngster down on a long strip of cover bounded by vast fields--then being plowed as it was January.--For news of the sole survivor of another SCADTA crash in Colombia's jungles, see p. 36. --ED. They had marked down a number of coveys and simply rode to them at a gallop getting there almost as soon as the dog--who worked out the cover en route. When he pointed they were there and killed him a bird for every find. He found and handled seven coveys and indulged in his favorite pastime--retrieving. He has remained broken ever since and he's a ''swell" shooting dog as well as a ''big time contender" --one can have it both ways--only it's more exercise.
WILLIAM LAYTON
Columbia, S. C.
Hernando Hanging
Sirs:
... Is not understanding the basis of Justice? TIME of March 26 violated, I believe, this obligation of justice by a report headed ''Races" which gave a detailed and, I am sure, from my observation of TIME'S usual factual accuracy, a correct account of the legal execution of three Negroes for the crime of raping a 16-year old girl. . . . TIME in this account violates justice by emphasizing the details of the execution without allusion to the ruin wrought by the criminals upon their victim. Permit me, an absolute stranger to the victim and her family, to recapitulate the crime for which these three Negroes, confessedly guilty, suffered the death penalty.
One day a 16-year old girl of Holly Springs, a Mississippi village not far from Memphis, motored to the city with her aunt and uncle for a happy weekend. Returning by motor, they were held up at 7:30 p.m. by the traffic light at the intersection of two important and exclusive residential avenues. While they were waiting for the light to change, three Negroes, armed with pistols, who according to their own confession were lurking at the corner "to grab us a car," leaped upon the running board of the car, pushed the driver from the wheel and sped south.
One Negro took the wheel, crowding the owner of the car against his wife in the front seat. The other two took the back seat, sandwiching between them the terrified girl, whom they slapped and abused continually until they reached a remote spot past the Mississippi state line. Here they stopped. Two of the Negroes held guns on the girl's uncle and aunt, while the third dragged the shrieking child into the woods and assaulted her. When he returned to the car, each of the others in turn dragged the girl back into the woods and raped her. Then, leaving the family in this lonely spot, the Negroes drove off with the car.
Perhaps sensibilities that could endure the details of the legal execution which was the sequel of this crime will not be too much revolted by the medical record of the little girl's condition following these three violent assaults. But I hesitate to write the harrowing details. . . .
Do you think that your report of the legal execution of these Negroes should have been headed "Races"? Perhaps, if a caption of one word is imperative, and since it might savor of presumption to claim "Justice" for any act of human judgment, the heading might more appropriately have been "Retribution." . . .
ELIZABETH M. GARDNER
Memphis, Tenn.
Sirs:
If your account of the Hernando (Miss.) hanging in the March 26 issue is veridical, as I assume it is, the incident is a monstrous disgrace to this nation. . . .
Rape should not be countenanced. Those guilty should be severely punished. But to make a public spectacle of the execution of three Negroes who are dealt with like pernicious animals is shameful beyond words. Mississippi should blush.
RALPH S. SILVER JR.
P. S.--I am neither a Negro nor a minister. Cambridge, Mass.
Sirs:
Issue of March 26, p.10 regarding "Hernando Hanging" impresses the writer that certain sections of the good old U. S. A. have a long, long road to travel.
Keep telling us the truth.
WILLIAM GLADSTONE MERRELLS
Clarksburg, W. Va.
Salvation for the South
Sirs:
As a young clergyman who contributes, after a fashion, to the foreign missionary projects of the church. 1 was very much interested in your March 26 account of the Hernando neck-stretching. An interesting commentary on the cultural level of the South in general and the great Commonwealth of Mississippi in particular. was it not?
I am seriously thinking of proposing to our Mission Board that a school be established somewhere in the North for the purpose of training intelligent and devoted young men and women for work in the cultural and religious wilds of the deep South. . . . Perhaps our expensive personnel could be withdrawn from the foreign field (where the natives are losing interest in our brand of salvation, anyway) and used for this work. The conversion of Mississippi or Arkansas, say, ought to be just as pleasing to God as the plucking of some Chinese province from the burning, and will probably involve a good deal more sacrifice and suffering.
REV. ALSON J. SMITH
St. Paul's M. E. Church
Philipsburg, Mont.
"Fat-Cheeked Rat"
Sirs:
Under Books in your March 19 issue of TIME, you show a photograph of Lion Feuchtwanger, and I failed to see any resemblance to a "fat-cheeked rat," although I do not propose to vie with any member of TIME'S staff to detect a resemblance of a horseface, frog-face, pig-face, or fat-cheeked-rat"-face in man. If you really meant by this statement that his character was ratlike, why not be honest about it and say so?
Let us suppose that President Roosevelt, not that I make any comparison, looked like Mr. Feuchtwanger, would you describe him as looking like a "fat-cheeked rat," or if your editor . . . looked like Mr. Feuchtwanger, would you "describe him as looking like a "fat-cheeked rodent'';' . . .
IRVING I. LEVICK
Buffalo, N. Y.
Sirs:
Are you sure that the picture on p. 69 in TIME, March 19, is a true likeness of Lion Feuchtwanger?
Your short, concise and sharp descriptions always seem to fit the individual, but in this particular case neither I nor any of the friends that I have shown this picture to can find any resemblance to a "fat-cheeked rat."
W. VICTOR SHINKMAN
New York City
Sirs:
I quote from your issue of March 19: "Nervous, twitchetty, bespectacled, he has a big nose, prominent mouth, receding chin, looks like a fat-cheeked rat." . . .
Are you harboring subtle but treacherous anti-Semitic tendencies? . . .
S. MANTON
Kew Gardens, N. Y.
Sirs:
Your descriptions of Homo sapiens in all his parts, form and situations are. to be sure, convincingly accurate, even if slightly brusque.
To you Author Lion Feuchtwanger looks like a fat-cheeked rat. Maybe he does. But surely, of all the numerous species in that large order of mammals, the rodents, you could have selected an animal that would have fitted in with a precise description of Feuchtwanger's singularly rodent-like physiognomy -- and yet would have carried with it not quite so nasty a connotation. Perhaps a fat-cheeked squirrel or beaver might have done just as well. . . .
DAVID F. CHASSY
New York City
No reflection on Author Feuchtwanger's character, TIME'S description traced a resemblance, intended no insult. Let it be beaver or squirrel for those who prefer. --ED.
*For news of the sole survivor of another SCADTA crash in Colombia's jungles, see Green Hell under Aeronautics.
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