Oboe Notion Sirs:

No champion of ladies' bands am I, but unless the female method of tone production tillers radically from that of the male it seems almost libelous to attribute drooling to their horn players (TIME, March 25 ). Closer observation would show you that it is condensed moisture from the breath rather than saliva which accumulates within the tubing of brass instruments. As for ascribing the difficulty of French horn playing to the necessity of passing ' breath "evenly through some 16 feet of tubing, a matter of sustaining tone, a more fundamental problem is that of even starting the designated tone owing to the multiplicity of overtones which may accidentally take precedence. Turning to the two woodwind musicians to whom you refer as "oboe players," actually only one ot them is playing the oboe. The other is playing the English horn, readily distinguished from the oboe by the metal pipe extension of the reed mouthpiece and the wider spacing of keys. Incidentally this musician gives a fair illustration of the modern method of tone production on this type of instrument whereby pressures are more concentrated about the mouth rather than throughout the head. Still the old notion persists that the oboe player eventually goes crazy, for only recently I had to calm such anxieties in the parent of a promising young musician.

JOHN S. LIVERMORE

Monroe Junior-Senior High School

Rochester, N. Y.

Sirs:

... My 12-year-old son is taking oboe lessons, in training for the local high school had heard stories that oboe-playing endangered the brain, but when I asked our local family physician about it, he said he had never heard of it. and could not see how the damage would come about. Now in your last issue (March 25, p. 50) you speak of "the doctors treatises which warn all oboe-players against congestion in the head." W ill you please advise me whether this statement is facetious, and if not. what is your authority for it? I know that the oboe is an expensive instrument, but if it also turns out to be dangerous, something must be done.

PAUL T. STONESIFER

President The Pittsburgh Synod of the

Reformed Church in the U S Mt. Pleasant, Pa.

Sirs:

. . . Only crazy oboists I have discovered were crazy anyway. .

ALLAN P. STERN

Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Not insanity or congestion in the head but pain in the tongue, sometimes inducing chronic sore throat, is the oboist's occupational hazard. Wind & brass players are subject to emphysema (enlargement of the lungs). Curious readers Ire referred to "Occupational Diseases of Musicians" by Robert Pollak in the February issue of Hygeia.--ED.

Nebraska's Mullen

Sirs:

"Kansas' once-potent Democrat Arthur Mullen . . ." (TIME, March 25, p. 14) The Old Man" (affectionate alias by majority of Nebraskan voters) was never Kansan was is and will continue to be potent . . . non-meddler in patronage, reluctant recommender. Still Nebraska claims wholly. Kansans please quitclaim.

L. K. SHOSTOK

Lincoln, Neb.

Sirs:

. . Because Arthur Mullen is from Nebraska--we cannot be blamed. We can do nothing. Because TIME gives him to Kansas--we rejoice and are duly grateful. May your circulation be tripled, if the gods please. . . .

W. H. LAWRENCE

Lincoln, Neb.

Regretful of its error, TIME gladly gives Democrat Mullen back to Nebraska.--ED.

Arkansas: "Why In Hell?"

Sirs:

. . . May we not ask, why in hell you didn't tell the world that General MacArthur is a native of Arkansas? Our State is cussed and discussed for everything from illiteracy and share croppers to flood and drought and when something to its credit unexpectedly turns up it should be given a break. . . .

DUDLEY V. HADDOCK

Secretary

Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce Little Rock, Ark.

Arkansas : ''By God, Sir

Sirs:

In your issue of March 18, you give a partial list of municipal defaults and near defaults. You will excuse, I am sure, my honest offense at your neglect of the Grand Old State of Arkansas.

By God, Sir, when "better defaults are had, Arkansas will have them." Not for nothing has this great Commonwealth defaulted three times since the great "Wall" (1861-65). I would like you to know there is one unfailing characteristic we of the Bible Belt are proud of in Arkansas from Chicot to Washington County and from Miller County to Mississippi County: we can, and by God Sir, will break each and every agreement or promise we made to any blue-bellied Yankee. . . .

Please give credit where credit is due. JOHN STANISLAW RICHARDSON

Kansas City. Mo.

Leesburg's Place

Sirs:

In TIME, March 25, under the caption Crime, do you refer to a raid in or near Leesville, which is 55 miles south of Lynchburg, Ya., or do you refer to a raid near Leesburg, Ya., which is 36 miles west of Washington, D. C., which raid was made on March 16 and 17, by Federal, State and local revenue officers?

In the raid made near our town, one Federal agent was killed and one was seriously wounded. Two stills were destroyed and eight men were arrested, one of which was the "Killer."

This is one of the very few times that Leesburg has been the center of news of nation-wide interest--can't you spare us a line?

Hoping that now you will put us in our right place. . . .

J. ALLEN JOHNSTON

County Clerk's Office

Leesburg, Ya.

To historic, horsy Leesburg, one-time (1814) unofficial capitol of the U. S., all credit for its part in current crime news.-- ED.

Fisher's Compass

IN BEHALF OF CAPTAIN WILEY, U. S. S. MACON AND MYSELF YOU ARE REQUESTED TO CORRECT YOUR ACCOUNT ABOUT RADIO COMPASS ON MACON IN TIME MARCH 25. MACON COMPASS ORIGINALLY DEVELOPED BY GERHARD FISHER RESEARCH ENGINEER FEDERAL TELEGRAPH CO., PALO ALTO. RADIO COMPASS WAS INSTALLED BY FISHER ON MACON AND DEVELOPMENT COMPLETED BY FISHER AND MACON PERSONNEL RESULTING IN RADIO COMPASS SUPERIOR TO ANY OTHER KIND. KRUESI HAS NO CONNECTION THIS FISHER RADIO COMPASS ON MACON.

FISHER Consulting Engineer

U. S. Naval Station

Sunnyvale, Calif.

MacArthur's Record

Your interesting story of General Douglas MacArthur's career (TIME, March 25, p. 18) is marred by some erroneous statements:

1) ''When Lieutenant Douglas MacArthur violated all etiquet expected of a military observer and charged up the hill with the Japanese soldiers at Mukden. . . ."

Lieutenant MacArthur was not a military observer at all nor at the battle of Mukden. The American observer of that name was his father, Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur, and that fine old Civil War Veteran did not charge with the Japanese soldiers on that occasion. Lieut. Douglas MacArthur was on duty at San Francisco when that battle was fought and the whole statement is erroneous.

2) "He was graduated first in his class ami First Captain of the Cadet Corps, which is all you can do at West Point, a record matching those of John Joseph Pershing and Charles Pelot Summerall."

Cadet MacArthur did graduate first in his class but why drag in Summerall who graduated No. 20 and Pershing who graduated No. 30 in his class!

W. Winans

Washington, D. C.

TIME divides the points with Reader Winans. 1) Lieutenant MacArthur was aide-de-camp to his father at Mukden, performed as TIME said. 2) TIME'S error.

--ED.

Rogers' Reading

Sirs:

On March 24 I attended a theatre in Wooster and saw Will Rogers reading TIME in Life Begins at 40. Has anyone else noticed it?

M. SHEPPARD

Shreve, Ohio

Many another noticed, reported.--ED.

Credit

Sirs:

Credit where credit is due.

From an obscure item in your Miscellany department I concocted a fiction story which recently sold to Detective Fiction, a Munsey weekly publication.

The check received for the yarn, if handed to Roy Larsen. would keep me in good standing with your circulation department for some years to come. Hence reading TIME is a damn good investment for a writer.

Here's for a bigger and better Miscellany column--and thanks.

JACK BEATER

Fort Myers, Fla.

Color Snapshots

Sirs:

In your March 18 issue of TIME you published an article regarding our product -- Dufaycolor film, and while we received many favorable comments and much publicity from this article there are several discrepancies which have proved quite embarrassing.

1) The statement was made that we were now ready to supply paper prints, whereas in the interview we stated that we expect to be able to supply paper prints in the near future, which you will realize is quite different when viewed 'from the reader's standpoint.

2) In using the name of Defender Photo Supply Co. you listed them as a subsidiary of Du Pont Film Manufacturing Corp. ... Defender Photo Supply Co. is an independent company having no connection with any other photographic manufacturing company. . . .

WALTER H. CARSON

Vice President Dufaycolor, Inc. New York City

1) TIME said '"soon." not "now."

2) Apologies.--ED.

Adam to Sapp

Sirs:

In the March 11 issue of TIME under Miscellany, I noticed an article about Mrs. Christian Sells Jaeger of Columbus, Ohio, claiming descent from Adam.

I too, have the same descent, only my line (going backward) is through the Bents, then Deacon Edmund Rice of Massachusetts, through the English Rices. Howards, de Mowbrays, British Plantaganets. Scotch kings, 19 centuries of Irish kings. Egypt's Pharaoh Nectonidus, whose daughter Princess Scota married Milesius, King of Galicia. Andalusia, Murcia. Castile & Portugal--and Heremon, son of Milesius and Scota, was first of 183 monarchs of Ireland, who ruled that country for 2885 years-- Zedekiah, David, Enos, Seth--Adam. MRS. FRED A. SAPP

Ottawa, Ill.

Lucky Girls

Sirs:

I rush, somewhat tardily, to the defense of the West Point dancers [TIME, March 11; April 1). Though unacquainted with the present generation, I can state flatly that the classes of 1918 and 1919 were no elephants, and I am indebted to them for some of the most glamorous dances of my life. In those days any femme invited to a hop paid all the expenses (railroad and hotel) of herself and the strictly required chaperone, took her kaydet to Sunday dinner because he was allowed no money, sent him fudge afterward (mailed to the janitor who would smuggle it in to him), and considered herself exceedingly lucky. Is it reasonable to suppose that any girl would take all that trouble, or indeed would dance all evening with brass buttons digging into her, if the dancing itself wasn't something pretty smooth?

Did modest "Elephants'" Sierra and Cubbison ever hear of a bid to a hop being turned down?

ELEANOR SEWALL PROSSER

Vassar 1919 Minneapolis, Minn.

Vanishing Symbol

Sirs:

". . . Like baby's diapers on a laundry line . . ." (TIME, April 1).

Astonished was this reader to find your article descriptive of modern housing garnished with a simile made of so swiftly vanishing a symbol of U. S. homelife. Though still unknown to many cities and rural districts, yet firmly established in such centres as Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Massachusetts' Brookline, Jersey's Oranges, diaper services substitute for primitive, disagreeable home 'washing an economical, unstinted flow of scientifically cleansed, soft, swell didys. . . .

RANDALL LEVENSALER

President

Baby's Tidy Didy Service, Inc. Woodside, L. I.

Relief & Babies Sirs:

RE STATEMENT TIME, APRIL 8, P. 30 AND 32. NEITHER MICHIGAN RELIEF ADMINISTRATOR NOR MICHIGAN RELIEF COMMISSION HAS TAKEN STAND ON BIRTH CONTROL. NO INSTRUCTIONS WHATSOEVER AUTHORIZING THE GENERAL USE OF RELIEF FUNDS FOR BIRTH CONTROL INFORMATION HAVE BEEN ISSUED. . . .

WILLIAM HABER

State Relief Administrator Lansing, Mich.

Lines Sirs:

LINES TO A HEADLINE ("Mr. Rexford Guy Tugwell to Direct Relief Fund").

They dizzy me, these New Deal face-cards. They shift. They are not keep-your-place cards. Where ere I turn, there is the smug well>-- Garnished Jack-of-all-suits Tugwell.

ELIZABETH EMMETT

Peace Dale, R. I.

Expl oring Marmoset Sirs:

Since this business of "TIME erred" seems to have become a contest between TIME'S many readers and the editorial staff, allow a news- picture man to come to bat with . . . proof of a TIME mistake.

In the matter of the Russian Ballet (TIME, Music, April i) dark-skinned Toumanova does not own "Mickey" the marmoset, rather the fair Irina Baronova. . . . "Mickey" recently had a near escape from drowning when his exploratory yearnings led him to a toilet fixture into which he plunged, was rescued in the nick of time. "Mickey" was presented to Baronova by Arnold Haskell, author of Ballctomania.

NICHOLAS MORANT

Winnipeg, Canada.

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