President's Body
Sirs:
Referring to "Sacred Subject" (TIME, Nov. 5, p. 14), by no stretch of the imagination can it sensibly be inferred that Mr. Gay offered an insult to our President. Unlike the demagogic gesture of Chappie, his remarks were consistent.
No doubt the highly sensitive Democratic ego, unused to power and position, would pull a fit of hysteria at even a hint that the chief of the clan was not perfect, but others of ordinary sanity are not upset when facts are mentioned.
Why must this subject be taboo? Are we not entitled to discuss and weigh the physical fitness of our public servants as well as their morals, patriotism and statesmanship? If not, then...we can safely prophesy that this generation will not pass away before a despot sits in the White House and we can righteously withhold our pity from the milksops, nincompoops and sycophants, who then make up the population, as unworthy of any other fate than to bear the cruel hand of oppression....
R. M. MARQUIS
Platteville, Colo.
General & Justice
Sirs:
Has the statement made by General Hugh S. Johnson that he discussed NIRA with Mr. Justice Brandeis ever been withdrawn, denied or confirmed?
H. F. BIRNBAUM
New York City
Said General Johnson on Sept. 14: "During the whole intense [NRA] experience I have been in constant touch with that old counselor, Judge Louis Brandeis....He thinks NRA is too big, and I agree with him." To date that statement still stands undenied.--ED.
Noncombatant Commanders
Sirs:
In TIME, Nov. 5, p. 10, there is this sentence: "Commander Belgrano is the first Legionary who never got to France with the A.E.F. to reach this topnotch position in the organization."
Was retiring Commander Hayes ever a member of the A.E.F.? Some years ago TIME reported that Commander Paul V. McNutt was never a member of the A.E.F. McNutt, it appears, served in Camp Benjamin Harrison, that great cradle of pensioners. The Legion has had 19 National Commanders and in point of fact there have been several who were not in the A.E.F....
C. H. COLLIER
Berkeley, Calif.
Sirs:
...Paul V. McNutt, the much-hated autocrat of Indiana, although he had a good, safe, well-paid berth in Texas during the War, did not hesitate to shove aside those who had suffered hell in Flanders Field and grab for himself the fat salary and honors which the real soldiers had won....
(MRS.) MARY BAEN THOMPSON
Greensburg, Ind.
Sirs:
...Paul V. McNutt, present Governor of Indiana, former Commander of the American Legion, never saw France till the War was over ten years....
N. A. IMRIE
Columbus, Ohio
TIME erred. Of the 20 (including two honorary) national commanders of the Legion, four never got to France during the War: Paul V. McNutt, Osee Lee Bodenhamer, Edward A. Hayes, Frank N. Belgrano Jr. Commander's salary: $9,000.--ED.
Real Facts
Sirs:
I wish to call your attention to the errors of four years ago [TIME, Oct. 6, 1930]. The real facts are: In the picture are myself and my son, Anthony--not my husband. I am the inventor, not my husband, as the article states. Am writing a book on this subject....
MRS. CATHERINE C. RYAN
New York City
Four years ago TIME reported that Reader Ryan had sued various railroads and steel corporations, including U. S. Steel, for $500,000,000, charging infringement of patents on self-locking nut & bolt devices invented by her late husband. The suits are still pending, and Mrs. Ryan, now 64, is about to publish a book called A Stolen Invention. She explains that the suits are for $250,000,000, not $500,000,000; that she, not her husband, was the inventor. Mrs. Ryan also says she has invented puncture-proof tires and an air cushion to ease the landing of persons who fall from airplanes.--ED.
Robot at Raleigh
Sirs:
"Last week Alpha, the robot, made its first public appearance in the U. S.... on the fifth floor of R. H. Macy & Co.'s department store" (TIME, Nov. 5).
Alpha's memory seems to be no better now than it was at the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh on Oct. 8 when his master displayed him at 25-c- a look to record-breaking Fair throngs with pockets full of New Deal tobacco crop money.
Alpha, in appreciation for getting his picture in Raleigh's News & Observer, whose circulation is up 10,000 copies in the first 18 months of the New Deal, was to answer inquiries as to which paper he read.
First time the question was asked Alpha caused Inventor May no end of embarrassment by croaking: "The Raleigh Observer-Times" Blaming the lapse upon the damp weather, Professor May quickly dictated a new wax cylinder, had Alpha repeat over and over in a cockney bass: "I read the News & Observer." But flushed tobacco farmers were not impressed, paid more quarters to see the hootchy-kootchy.
CHARLES PARKER
Raleigh, N. C.
Husky Soprano
Sirs:
In your issue of Nov. 5, on p. 69, under the caption of Books, your reviewer describes the voice of Edna St. Vincent Millay as "clear but excitingly husky." With this description I beg to differ, having heard Miss Millay on her trip to Dallas several years ago and also several times over the radio....I recall the sweet clear soprano of her speaking voice distinctly. In her lines from The Buck in the Snow especially, her voice registered high treble. In fact, to me, it was "excitingly soprano."
MARY TAYLOR HALLAM
Dallas, Tex.
Both Reader Hallam and TIME are right. When broadcasting, Poet Millay reads her poems, especially her children's verse, in a childlike treble. But just as often her voice varies with her mood to tragic huskiness. Sometimes her throat plays unfortunate tricks. Last fortnight in Detroit, where she gave a reading, Miss Millay was repeatedly interrupted by coughing in the audience. Each time she would pause, roundly upbraid the coughers. Toward the end of her reading Miss Millay herself was seized by a fit of coughing, to the undisguised glee of her audience.--ED.
Pleased Exile
Sirs:
Your quotation (TIME, Nov. 5) from President-elect Cardenas of Mexico, to the effect that the time has come for that country to prepare for a new life and outlook, gets to the heart of the matter without mincing words. As one who was expelled from the republic when a Protestant mission school was closed (Instituto del Pueblo, Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Feb. 15, 1926), I feel that TIME errs in that it does not state that there is a parallel between the present trouble in Mexico and that of the Orthodox Church and the Soviet Government some years ago. It is only natural that a revolutionary government should turn against organizations which were closely allied to the former regime....Mexico's "New Deal" may not be to the liking of all good churchmen, but as one who planned to give a life of service to Mexico in behalf of religion, and who was prevented from so doing by the present government, I applaud the action of the Revolutionists in the attempt to banish foreign representatives of foreign religion, both Protestant and Catholic....
DONALD M. RUNYON Pastor
The First Methodist Episcopal Church
Corona, N. Y.
Goodfellow Prince
Sirs:
I have just read with melancholy satisfaction your excellent obituary of that prince of good fellows--American mining engineer, Italian nobleman, soldier and ambassador--Prince Gelasio Caetani [TIME, Nov. 5].
May I add a few items? At my suggestion, in June 1924 the University of Idaho...conferred upon Caetani (as we all knew him) the honorary degree of I.L.D. The invitation was extended through Stanly A. Easton, chairman of the Board of Regents of the University, and it was to him in 1904 that Caetani had come seeking employment mining lead ore (not gold) with a letter of introduction from John Hays Hammond. Mr. Easton was at that time vice president and general manager of the Bunker Hill & Sullivan Mining Co. at Kellogg.
At a commencement breakfast given by the mining students in Caetani's honor, the Royal Italian Ambassador, speaking to the students, said: "If any of you boys are working in the mines in the summertime, and you want somebody to help you push the car, you just send for Caetani--that is the way I got my start."...
Prior to a banquet, Mr. Robert M. Belts, a well-known Oregon engineer, came to me and asked me if 1 would re-introduce him to the Prince, for whom he had worked in Alaska, and of course I agreed. As we sat down, Caetani was on my right and on my left was the Mayor of Spokane. Addressing the Ambassador, I said: ''Your Excellency, permit me to introduce Mr. Blank, the Mayor of the city," to which of course Caetani made a gracious but reserved response. Mr. Blank, greatly embarrassed, whispered in my left ear: "Say, I don't know how to talk to this 'ere European royalty." Then I spotted my friend Belts, and gave him the wink, and he approached the head table, and again addressing Caelani quite formally, I said, "Your Excellency, you remember Mr. Belts who was with you in Alaska?" The Royal Italian Ambassador. God bless him, looked up with a start and with a beautiful smile exclaimed: "Why Bob Belts, you god-damned old son-of-a-bilch, where the hell did you come from?" And the Mayor, his eyes sticking out like organ stops, again whispered in my left ear: "God Almighty! I'm not afraid of this guy any more, he talks the same language I do."
...Every inch a nobleman and a gentleman; at home in court, in mining camp, on the battlefield, in the studio (for he took up sculpture later) and in scholarly research, his American friends will always revere his memory, for we "shall not look upon his like again."
FRAXCIS A. THOMSON
President
Montana School of Mines
Butte, Mont.
Bidder-Upper Kent
Sirs:
Despite his income having been upped [TIME, Nov. 12], Frank Kent, familiarly known among his intimates al Ihe Maryland Club as "Old Doctor Kent 40 years experience and never lost a case." still continues his 1/2-c- per point limit in contract bridge, in which he has established a well-deserved reputation as a bidder-upper. Paradoxical as it may seem, the New Deal, of which he is the severest critic, is pouring more 59-c- dollars into his bank account than did the boom years of the 1920's!
E. EVERETT GIBBS
Baltimore, Md.
Norman Thomas' Weeds
Sirs:
In your issue of Nov. 12. under the heading "Dead Flower," you quote a remark of mine to the effect that TVA is "the only genuinely socialistic project in the New Deal--a beautiful flower in a garden of weeds." I should guess that you have taken your quotation from the front cover of a widely circulated pamphlet by the National Coal Association and that both of you think, as you certainly suggest to your readers, that the "weeds" to which I referred were other provisions of the New Deal, in legislation and administration....
...The "weeds" of my illustration...referred not to New Deal measures, but to other corporations and the general capitalist setup in the Tennessee Valley and elsewhere, among which TVA would have to try to flourish. I was pointing out some of the very difficulties--they have since been made abundantly obvious--which lie in the way of piecemeal planning for the production of power which must be used either by competing corporations or impoverished individuals in a capitalist community.
Strongly as I favor TVA and strongly as I disagree with the philosophy and practice of the National Coal Association, I am bound to admit that the injection of the socialistic TVA into a highly competitive capitalist situation must have some of the effects that the Coal Association deplores. To my mind, of course, the remedy is increasing socialization. The equilibrium which the New Deal seems to seek is impossible.
NORMAN THOMAS
Portland, Ore.
Cabalistic Cookery
Sirs:
I have just read your report on convalescing Philippine Leader Manuel Quezon in a Johns Hopkins Hospital bed, and his quandary as to which physician to obey when he wanted a drink [TIME, Nov. 12]. Senor Quezon had no qualms about what kind of food he wanted when well enough to eat. He consulted no doctor but his own instinct, and ordered his private cook to prepare for him the Spanish puchero--that pot which holds life's essentials for rich and poor alike, emblematic of the national well-being of a healthy people. A cabalistic piece of cookery, this gargantuan dish, a rustic circle of savors where each flavor suffers an elision in the interest of the whole, when cooked in Baltimore, without the typical chorizos and garbanzos, became a mere New England boiled dinner. Vexed, nostalgic Quezon dispatched both Dr. Estrada and Secretary Nieto to Washington to fetch the two puchero essentials.
Mother Spain, as well as her Spanish American offspring, feel in unanimity with Santa Teresa who said that "between the pucheros strolls the Saviour."
PETER BORRAS
Host
Restaurant Madrillon
Washington, D. C.
A puchero recipe of Chef Juan Nieto* of Manhattan's Spanish Restaurant El Chico: Spanish peas (garbanzos), cabbage, potatoes, one fowl, beef (1 to 2 lb.), ham (cubed, about 1/2lb.), spanish sausage (chorizos), lare onion, tomato, pinch of saffron, salt & pepper. Boil slowly for two hours. Serve fowl, beef, ham and sausage on separate platter, garnished with vegetables. Serve broth separately.--ED.
Dried Fruit & Red Cells
Sirs:
...In your perfectly splendid report of the bestowing of the Nobel Prize upon Drs. Whipple, Minot & Murphy (TIME, Nov. 5) you referred to the efficacy of apricots, peaches, and prunes in red cell restoration without indicating that it was with dried fruits that Dr. Whipple worked. I call this to your attention, knowing the widespread circulation of TIME and the multitude of cover-to-cover readers who might get the idea that fresh or canned apricots, peaches, and prunes might be just as effective as the dried fruits.
Of course, the quantity of minerals absorbed in the ingestion of dried fruit is much greater than in the fresh or canned fruit because of the concentration in the dried product.
A recent experiment by Dr. George Alexander Gray of San Jose, feeding apricots, peaches, and prunes to 146 anemic patients, showed that there was a definite, efficient, and economical return of the hemoglobin and erythrocyte count to normal upon the ingestion of one-half a pound of dried fruit per day over a period of from eight to 16 weeks.
L. B. WILLIAMS
Director California Dried Fruit Research Institute
San Francisco, Calif.
* Not to be confused with Senor Quezon's Secretary Manuel Nieto (see above).
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