Time Marches On
Sirs:
This evening I heard the announcement that the "March of Time" would be heard hereafter but once a week. I wish to say that this means that the daily broadcast of the finest program on the air has been discontinued, for the "March of Time" is so considered by me and a host of my friends and is looked forward to as a nightly source of education with regards to the events of the day.
LEWIS BOTTORFF
Lincoln, Neb.
Sirs: What's this I hear about your being on the air only one night a week? The half hour part is fine, but the once-a-week part takes a lot of joy out of life. If you only knew what a body blow it is to lose this splendid program.
Please bring about a change of plans--please.
MARGARET GREENE
Orlando, Fla.
Sirs:
More power to TIME and its return to the air as a weekly. Its daily dramatization had lost the punch of the once-a-week broadcast. It was a real thrill for this more than six year cover-to-cover reader to react again to the stirring episodes of our recent history.
Because of poor reception it was not clear to me if in the impersonation of the President's voice, TIME had again received permission to use it or had disregarded for this once. Nor am I sure that it was the same voice that had been used in past broadcasts.
Like the anticipation of a sizzling steak dinner after a tramp in the woods. I am looking forward to the delights of our Thursday night "March of Time," particularly in such a year as this.
L. J. BARRON
Wildwood, N. J.
Thirty-four months ago at White House request the "March of Time'' agreed to stop its simulations of the President's voice. Last month, with the President again a candidate, the White House withdrew its objections and "March of Time" Actor Bill Adams resumed his role as the voice of Franklin D. Roosevelt.--ED.
It was with great pleasure that I heard your broadcast of Thursday night [Oct. 15] in which you reviewed the news covered by the "March of Time" since its inception, and announced that it will henceforth be presented under your own sponsorship. I look forward to a bigger and better "March of Time" than ever before.
I should like to know if it would be possible to secure a copy of the script used in the broadcast.
LEOPOLD LIPPMAN
New York, N. Y.
Scripts of the "March of Time's" review program are available gratis. Write "March of Time." care of Columbia Broadcasting System, 485 Madison Avenue, New York City.--ED.
Queen Noino Sirs: In regard to your news item on Onions, TIME, Oct. 26, p. 84, please be advised that the "possibilities of a contest for the unsavory [very unAmerican! ] job of being U. S. 'Onion Queen' " has been explored by the Farmersville Junior Chamber of Commerce, Inc. through its staging of an annual onion festival. . . .
Miss Doris Garrett, Leonard, Tex., high-school girl, was crowned Queen Onion here June 2 at our Centennial Onion Festival and was featured in a parade of eleven floats and two bands and two drum and bugle corps. Eight thousand people saw her crowned by Congressman Sam Rayburn, Chairman of the Speakers' Bureau, Democratic National Committee.
Through our festival we have tried to sweeten the breaths of the Nation's millions of onion eaters by suggesting that they eat the sweetest onions in the world--North Texas Bermudas grown on North Texas' black, waxy soil.
Prior to July 1, visitors at the Texas Centennial Exposition at Dallas received no onions on their hamburgers. Through our efforts visitors may now have their onions on their hamburgers, and sweet onions, at that.
G. EDWARD BOLGER
President
Junior Chamber of Commerce, Inc. Farmersville, Tex.
Admirable
Sirs:
A most admirable article is the one under Medicine entitled "Great Pox" in the Oct. 26 issue of TIME. I hope that your newsmagazine can help to break down the antiquated and false modesty sort of resistance offered by the press and radio against disseminating knowledge regarding syphilis and venereal diseases. Dr. Parran is right.
Facts are facts whether they are medical or industrial and they should be so treated. Much education of the general public and high-school students in particular, is needed regarding sex matters and venereal diseases. Keep up the good work and perhaps something may ultimately be accomplished.
If our cattle or hogs were infected with what not, the Government, to stamp out the disease, would turn every farm upside down at what cost the Lord only knows.
Your popular discussion is splendid. I congratulate TIME for its courage.
DORSEY BRANNAN-- Morgantown, W. Va.
Civilian Employe
Sirs:
Permit me to thank you for the publicity given my letter in the Oct. 19 issue of TIME relative to the eligibility of President Roosevelt for membership in the American Legion. Your comments on my letter definitely establish the fact that President Roosevelt is or has been a member of three American Legion Posts but passes lightly on his eligibility by stating: "every Legion post is the final judge of its members' eligibility." Section 2, Article IV of the Constitution of the American Legion, Department of Pennsylvania states: "Each Post shall be the judge of the qualifications of its members." This has always been construed to mean that the Post can qualify that its members must be former members of the Navy if a Naval Post, former Marines if a Marine Post, advertising men if in an Advertising Men's Post, etc., and also gives the Post the right to deny original membership to any ex-service man it does not want in its organization. It does not, however, give the Post the right to say who is or is not eligible for membership in the American Legion. That is clearly set forth in Article IV, section 1 of our National Constitution which states that, "Any person shall be eligible for membership in The American Legion who was regularly enlisted, drafted, or inducted or commissioned and who was accepted for and assigned to active duty in the army, navy or marine corps of the United States." The Constitution of the U. S. provides that the heads of the War and Navy Departments must be civilians and we think we properly identify Mr. Roosevelt as a former civilian employe of the Navy. . . . PAUL B. DAGUE
Past Dept. Vice-Commander Department of Pennsylvania The American Legion Downington, Pa.
Mysterious Pages Sirs: In your issue of Sept. 28, you publish a letter from Mrs. Charles H. Bassett of London, England, where she states among other things: "In our copy of this week's TIME (Aug. 31) p. 19 & 20 have been deleted by the British censor. To ensure that in future we get our TIME intact we are ordering our issue direct from your circulation office." I have for years subscribed to many foreign papers, including TIME, and never have any of them been censored or deleted. Also, it is quite obvious from Mrs. Bassett's own statement, that in England there is no "censor"--since she hopes to get her TIME intact through the post.
In justice to liberty-loving Britons you ought to point out that the "censoring" or, rather, the entire elimination of whole pages is done not by an official censor but by TIME'S own "Puritan" distributors, and is only applied to copies sold on the bookstands of the British Isles.
ARNOLD LEVY
Hindhead, England
Britons who want TIME intact should subscribe direct to Roy E. Larsen, 350 East 22nd Street, Chicago, Ill.--ED.
Hoot, Toot & Whistle Sirs:
Possibly not an alert railroad but an interesting one is the Hoosac Tunnel & Wilmington,
Vt. (known to natives as the Hoot, Toot and Whistle) which last month let excursionists ride in the locomotive cab, fire the 44-year-old engine, ride on the top of cars for 22 of its 24 miles of track up the Deerfield River valley from the east portal of the Hoosac Tunnel.
Given over nowadays to freight, the line runs an annual excursion for the Railroad Enthusiasts, organization of engine lovers that migrates from Boston and other New England points. Manager William B. McCleland and President Harry Pope are cordial hosts to the enthusiasts who know every inch of the line, look forward with glee to the rattles and cinders of the antiquated rolling stock.
Two flat cars are equipped with chairs from the Readsboro factory of President Pope, the Boston & Maine Railroad lends an old day coach for the trip, now reaching only to Mountain Mills, two miles from Wilmington, Vt., where the line's trestle was washed out in the March flood. The remainder of the trip was by automobile.
No arguments existed as to who would fire No. 21, the honor went to George P. Becker, construction superintendent of the F. S. Payne (elevator) Co. of Cambridge, Mass., whose hobby is stoking locomotives.
This year's trip was free from derailments, cows on the track, which last year delighted and delayed the enthusiasts. Only disturbing note was a rumor that the tracks above Readsboro might be torn up.
Another attraction of the erstwhile narrow-gauge line is the switchback at Whitingham Dam, reputed to be the only one east of the Rockies, constructed when the dam (largest earth dam in the world) forced rebuilding of much of the roadbed.
GEORGE C. WHITNEY
Greenfield, Mass.
Unique Experience
Sirs:
I noted with interest your account in the Oct. 19 issue regarding the "Off the Beaten Path" trip operated out of Chicago by the Pennsylvania Railroad. This was a unique experiment in transportation and doubtless will be the forerunner of many such trips in this part of the country just as the trip in the East was the forerunner of many more there.
Your last paragraph suggesting the excursionists riding in the cab and the bleachers on the tender for further excursions was amusing and perhaps a little nearer to the truth than your writer imagined. Several of the younger passengers discovered the front baggage car door unlocked and rode some 15 or 20 miles on the back of the tender on this last excursion. The preference for soot and cinders rather than coach facilities was discouraged by one of the train's crew and the door was locked.
A. C. KALMBACH
Editor
The Model Railroader Wauwatosa, Wis.
Boosters
Sirs: It was with great interest I read on p. 59 of TIME for Oct. 19, the item entitled "One-Day Railroaders," for as Program Chairman, and Past Chairman of the New York Chapter of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, I have handled the details of a number of such trips, and cooperated with the railroads operating them, out of New York, during the past two years.
The Chicago Chapter is the latest offspring of the parent Society, whose membership numbers about 500, few of whom are railroaders. The New York Chapter is a fast growing child almost three years old, and very active. We have over 100 members.
If TIME would be interested in knowing something about the thousands of fans scattered all over the country, who boost and support--but receive no financial and little moral support from--the railroads, let one of its staff join us on our last trip of the year, on Sunday Oct. 25, to the Sayre, Pa. shops of the Lehigh Valley. There is no other industry that we know of which has well wishers who will spend their good money and time to see how the product the industry has for sale is manufactured.T. T. TABER
Madison, N. J.
Perhaps in time the harried U. S. railroads will take trouble to foster their fans in the same way the Army and Navy profitably encourage theirs.--ED.
Who's Who Sirs:
Far be it from me to detract from Hobart College's Who's Who-ing accomplishments, but your statement this week that it is famed for having "more graduates in Who's Who than any [sic] school of its size" has run afoul in my memory of almost identical claims by two other excellent colleges of small matriculation rolls: Hampden-Sydney and the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn. Maybe the publicity men for these schools had better go into a huddle.
CAMERON M. PLUMMER
Bolivar, Tenn.
Reader Plummer's memory serves him well. In 1930, Professor Donald B. Prentice & B. W. Kunkel analyzed college affiliations listed in the 1928-29 Who's Who. Rated by the proportion of Who's Who alumni to undergraduate enrollment, these ten colleges headed the Prentice-Kunkel list: Hampden-Sydney, Amherst, Harvard, Wesleyan, Trinity (Conn.), Yale, Hobart, Williams, Princeton, Haverford.
--ED: Most Embarrassing Sirs:
Your intimation p. 17 Nov. 2 issue that we might through Vancouver plant accept [British Air Ministry] contract too hot to negotiate directly is without foundation and most embarrassing. Canadian branch has not even been approached to construct such planes. Subterfuge has no place in this company's established policy of complying with the letter and spirit of State Department requirements.
BOEING AIRPLANE Co. Seattle, Wash.
Walker v. Runner
Sirs:
When a fellow gets beaten in a race, he is a mighty poor loser if he attempts in any way to explain his defeat. When a fellow has not been in a race, however, it seems legitimate to call that fact to the attention of those who seem to believe that someone else beat him.
Leo Kieran [TIME, Oct. 26] set out to circumnavigate the globe for The New York Times and the North American Newspaper Alliance, using only those means of transportation available to ordinary tourists. He timed his start so as to reach Manila to catch the first West to East passenger flight of the Pan-American Clipper service. Mr. Kieran did not fly the South China Sea in a special plane as did Mr. Ekins, nor did he fly the Pacific as a member of the crew before the line was opened for passenger service.
He left as an ordinary passenger and he returned as one. He has no desire to detract in any way from whatever Mr. Ekins did; he merely was not interested in it, any more than a man entered in a walking race would feel himself in competition with a runner who passed him on his course. Mr. Ekins is to be congratulated that he circled the globe in 18 days, 14 hr. and 56 min. Mr. Kieran holds the distinction, for whatever it may be worth, of having circled the globe in the shortest time using only the facilities of established passenger service.
EDWIN L. JAMES
Managing Editor The New York Times New York City
TIME credited the World-Telegram's world-girdling Reporter Ekins with no victory, no record. Third contestant in the race-that-was-not-a-race, New York Journal's Dorothy Kilgallen, took a special plane on the home stretch from Alameda to Newark, completed her circumnavigation in 24 days 12 hr. 51 min. Sticking strictly to commercial schedules, except for one taxi ride from Bologna to Brindisi, Timesman Kieran made the trip in 24 days 14 hr. 20 min.--ED.
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