Ohio's Fess

Sirs:

The following residents of Ohio and readers of TIME would greatly appreciate your publishing a review of the Congressional career of Senator Simeon D. Fess of Ohio.

HENRY R. HATCH GEORGE W. COTTRELL WILLIAM X. GATES HENRY PIRTLE H. ROBINSON HYDE

Cleveland, Ohio

The record of Senator Simeon Davison Fess of Ohio is as follows: Born: On a farm in Allen County, Ohio, Dec. 11, 1861. Start-in-life: Country school teacher. Career: Son of impoverished log cabin dwellers, he was four when his father died. At twelve he was sent to live with an elder sister, did farm work summers, got a little schooling winters. Aged 19, he passed an examination, received a license to teach. With his earnings he sent himself to Ohio Northern University at Ada. On the day in 1889 that Ohio Northern graduated him, aged 27, that Methodist stronghold also appointed him professor of history. Equipped with a law degree, he became president of Antioch College, vocational school at Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1907. Five years later he entered politics as delegate to the State constitutional convention, where he was the author of an amendment creating a State department of education. Same year he successfully stood for election to Congress from the 6th (later the 7th) District of Ohio. He was successively re-elected until 1922, having resigned Antioch's presidency in 1917. In 1922 with strong female and Dry support he won his seat in the Senate, defeating Democratic Senator Atlee Pomerene. In Congress: Except for one innocent flutter toward Progressivism in his early days in the House, his Congressional career has been marked by the strictest party regularity. He thinks regular, talks regular, votes regular. As chairman of the Republican National Congressional Campaign Committee in 1918--'20--'22. he did yeoman service by helping rally heavy G. O. P. majorities in the House. For him no Republican can do wrong. Having frequently compared Warren Gamaliel Harding's "moral leadership" to Abraham Lincoln's, his maiden speech in the Senate was a spirited defense of the discredited President's administration. Never a member of the Ohio Gang, he nevertheless branded each investigation of its misdeeds as "an orgy of slander, a spree of muckraking, a riot of vituperation and incrimination."

With Calvin Coolidge. whom he admired tremendously and whose frequent White House guest he was, he indulged in long intimate hours of what Senator Pat Harrison called "political mumblety-peg." Senator Fess was bitterly disappointed when President Coolidge refused to run for a third term, was more responsible than anyone else for keeping alive the "Draft Coolidge" movement. Having declared that "The Republican Party cannot accept an internationalist as its standard bearer," Senator Fess was defeated in 1928 as an anti-Hoover delegate to the Republican national convention, of which he had been designated keynoter. But at Kansas City he subsequently made his peace with Hoover. When the Muscle Shoals lobbying scandal compelled the G. O. P. to oust Claudius H. Huston as national chairman in 1930, Senator Fess took the job. His ardent Dry leanings proved a party liability in the 1930 Congressional elections. He resigned in 1932. In the Senate he has voted for: the Bonus (1924), tax reduction (1929), Hawley-Smoot tariff (1930), moratorium on War debts (1931), RFC (1931), Economy Act (1933), overriding the Roosevelt veto on veterans' compensation (1934), St. Lawrence Waterway Treaty (1934). He voted against: Government operation of Muscle Shoals (1931. 1933), direct Federal relief for unemployed (1932, 1933), Repeal (1933), legalization of beer (1933), National Recovery Act (1933), Agricultural Adjustment Act (1933), abrogating gold contracts (1934), cotton control bill (1934), raising the income tax (1934) A self-proclaimed reactionary, he suspects all New Deal legislation, believes the Democratic recovery program is composed of "mere relief measures." Legislative hobbies: As party whip he has found little time to pursue any personal legislative bent except public education. For years he was chairman of the Library Committee, which governs the Library of Congress. He fought the League of Nations in the stormy '20's, favored U. S. participation in the World Court. In appearance he is red-faced, small (5 ft. 6 in.), a neat dresser. His addresses, delivered in falsetto, are usually admonitory, pedagogical. When his party was in power, he used to wear a wide political smile. Now an annoyed frown is usually to be seen behind his pince nez. His lack of humor makes him a perennial target for opposition wags. No one questions his sincerity and within his own ranks he is respected for his devotion to his party. He is a devout Methodist, a 33rd Degree Mason, and the author of fresh-water textbooks on history, physiology, politics, civics. Outside Congress: His wife, Eva C. Thomas, died in 1925. By her he had three sons. One, Lehr, was House parliamentarian under Speaker Longworth. In Washington Senator Fess lives alone at the exclusive Carlton. He spends as much of his time as possible on his seven acres at Yellow Springs, where, emulating Henry Clay, he practices his speeches pacing a flagstone walk and addressing the birds. He is no sportsman. "My golf stick," says he. "is a hoe." Impartial Senate observers rate him thus: a dependable party wheelhorse, inoffensive, pleasant, industrious (his critics call him "fussbudgety"), of average intelligence and below-average imagination. As long as the U. S. has partisan government, his type will be needed and appreciated for its untiring loyalty and routine diligence. His term expires Jan. 3, 1935.--ED.

Insull

Sirs:

. . . Let us remember that until Samuel Insull, et al., are tried and found guilty, presumptively their innocence is established.

GERSON HORWITZ

Detroit, Mich.

Sirs:

. . . Chicago has made a Roman Holiday of the return of this 74-year-old man to the city he calls home. I do not know Mr. Insull, but, although I lost in his company, yet I feel his motive was not to defraud. He was a victim of the times. He is not the only one in these United States. . . . And how soon Chicago has forgotten Mr. Insult's benefits to the city!! This man is being crucified before he has an opportunity to testify.

The cancellation of my subscription is to take effect at once, please. MARGARET E. FESSLER

Hubbard Woods, Ill.

Sirs: Your article anent Insull in the May 14 issue left me with the following impression: Bighearted, genial Sam Insull was a true friend of the peepul. He had saved up a little nestegg of $100,000,000 out of his earnings as a secretary to Edison and felt reasonably well-fortified against a rainy day. He disliked money and hoped he never made another nickel, But he was continually hounded by common folk insisting that he take their savings to invest. Sam didn't want to do it. He had planned on putting his own money into some power companies he thought of forming. But Sam knew that there were unscrupulous persons about all ready to rob the unwary investors and, friend of the common man that he was, he generously gave up the thought of investing his own money and instead accepted the people's money thereby enabling them to acquire pretty stock certificates they otherwise would not have had. But some big bad men thought to worm their way into the companies he had formed and, rather than permit this attempt to divert benefits from the beloved peepul, honest old Sam spent their last nickel in an attempt to prevent it. Bunk! Your attempt to make a martyred hero out of this old fellow is nauseating. . . . You say that "in place of small local operating plants he built big utilities -- and built them well, for they still stand, still make money." What of it? ... Did old Sam build these big plants in order that people might have the benefits of Iower rates which large capacity makes possible? He did not! . . . . . . Who cares about who Insull married, about how many electric trains his son had or where said son went to school? . . . Why not tell us about the excessive rates his utilities charged? . . . Nor does anyone care about seeing his paunch as depicted on the frontispiece of TIME. ARTHUR W. DEW

Washington, D. C.

Sirs: ...Time usually cleverly dramatizes the news and for the first time I have seen it obviously unfair and attempting to raise class hatreds. CLARENCE MARK

Morris Plains, N. J.

Anent the vituperative letter of one George Eustis Corcoran (TIME, May 21) relative to your publication of Samuel Insull's bashful physiognomy and the reporting of the Astor-Gillespie folderol, may we accept the compliment of "Being on a level" with TIME. . . .

It may interest Mr. Corcoran to know that five members of the Police Gazette staff subscribe to TIME individually.

To Mr. Corcoran, nerts, and the offer of a free subscription to the Police Gazette if he prefers it to TIME. . . . BOB MAXWELL

Associate Editor The National Police Gazette New York City

Neglectful Wives (Cont'd)

Sirs:

I presume that you published the letter headed "Neglectful Wives'' | TIME, May 21] in the hope of receiving some spirited replies. Here's one.

The average woman, after repeating the experience of baking a cake correctly a dozen times, should be able to do it well. She needs only to wash several hundred diapers to be able to do that well. The constant repetition alone should be sufficient, if one starts out right, to have the home run smoothly, and we modern young women . . . feel that we have earned the right to see what is happening in the world and to see if we cannot do something about that, too.

To be conversant with the facts of present-day government should certainly not cause any woman to neglect her home. . . . My husband enjoys discussing national, international and even his professional affairs with me; he certainly does not think our twin babies are neglected because I have read TIME and a few other journals. . . .

Does the intelligent masculine mind pride itself on the state of the world today? There is too much room for improvement and our children will in their turn ask us, as we asked of our parents: "Why did people permit such things to happen?" I at least, as a parent and a woman, do not want to feel that I can hide my head under a pile of cake batter and say: "I was too busy in the kitchen, my dears, ask Daddy." . . .

CHARLOTTE BARON

Covington, Ky.

. . . Has M. B. Clarke ever tried to "logically absorb facts about government and economics?'' If she finds it impossible, does that mean that all women must be labeled unabsorbing morons? . . .

(MRS.) CLARENCE R. HARRIS

San Francisco, Calif.

Sirs:

. . . Why should women be condemned to be ignorant ninnies all their lives while men know all the interesting things? What is there about baking a cake or scrubbing a floor or molding a child's morals that can compare with the thrill of reading about Big Business and the goings-on of Congress? The cake is eaten, the floor is dirtied and the child does as it pleases so give me my weekly Business & Finance section! . . .

MRS. BETTY EVENSON

Hiland, Wyo.

Intinction and Dunking

Sirs: Most of us who "grew up" during the World War learned to discover propaganda with some facility. For downright, unmitigated thought influence, however, it has been many a day since anything approaching the subtlety of your story, "Common Cup & Intinction" under the cap, if you please, of Religion, May 14 issue, has met my eye. Breakfast in Brooklyn, where I was brought up, consisted mostly in the joy of a large bag of fresh sugar buns and a cup of coffee. As the years rolled by and business took me around the country, I was forced with shame to a realization that dunking is frowned upon by our better people. And now, under the guise of Religion, my dear sirs, do you mean to tell me that the good old custom is likely to enter the best circles, with the sublime nomenclature of Intinction? God bless the Episcopalians--I could have hoped for the Baptists to blaze the trail--but what an inspiring example of Humility! GEORGE P. LITTLE

Chicago, Ill. Sirs: "Common Cup & Intinction" (TIME, May 14). The principle at stake is very simple; the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is, at the command of the Nazarene, "Drink ye all, of this" and any effort to modernize the command by a pseudo-sanitation idea is direct disobedience of our Lord. . . . If the Cup can carry danger, why stop at the Cup? In the act of Intinction, the fingers of the Priest dip into the wine; why not provide him sterile gloves? Why not mask all the congregation who are dangerous in their coughing and sneezing? Why open the Church? Flies can be dangerous, and are seen in Church. Strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel? How many of the congregation drink from the common cups in soda-fountains, and drug stores-- these often rinsed in dirty, greasy sinks. How many churchmen and women catch syphilis away from the Holy Table? Were I to go up to the Holy Table assured that I only was worthy to take the Cup, should I be in love and charity with my neighbor? . . . CHALMERS-FRANCIS, M. D.

Los Angeles, Calif.

Communists on FORTUNE

Sirs: I should like to comment on Paul Macy's letter in your issue of May 21. He assumes that the appearance of the splendid article, "Arms and the Men," in FORTUNE is indicative of a capitalist reformation in regard to war, since FORTUNE'S circulation "is almost exclusively 'capitalists.' " Such a premise neglects a consideration of the nature of man. Let Mr. Macy rest assured that the magazine's circulation among the grande bourgeoisie will decrease in almost direct proportion to its development of a true social consciousness. ... In a word, if FORTUNE produces a few more such masterpieces, while selling at a dollar a copy, there'll probably be no circulation. The "professional Communist's" description of FORTUNE as a "stinking flower of capitalism" is well representative of the party's dreary mentality. Speaking as a Communist, I should prefer to praise its technical excellence, and to deprecate its esthetically revolting preoccupation with the glorification of big business--at the same time offering it as an extraordinarily fine indictment of American capitalism, which has seen to it that the magazine 90% of the populace would doubtless prefer is available to God knows what infinitesimal fraction of that number! ROBERT PREYER

Port Washington, N. Y.

In the two months following the appearance of "Arms and the Men," FORTUNE gained twice as many new subscriptions as in the same period a year ago; renewed a greater percentage of expiring subscriptions. Cancellations because of the munitions article : One. But FORTUNE doubts that anything like 90% of the U. S. populace would read the magazine at any price.--ED. "If" Sirs: For those TIME readers who can't understand and appreciate TIME'S terse, pictorial style-- certainly for those who didn't see the point in the "Suppose Curtis B. Ball . . ." article, there is a little newspaper using only a 900-word vocabulary. Since it is intended for foreigners learning English, deaf elementary-school children (whose handicap retards their linguistic development), Indian children, adult illiterates, etc. may we suggest that those who cannot get the points in TIME subscribe to The American World for the next school year. . . . One of the first words learned is the word "if," which if TIME-readers had understood, would have made the whole article clear. . . . ELAINE SWENSON

Director

Language Research Institute, New York City

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