Outstanding Precedent
Sirs: For your selection of Mrs. Simpson for Woman of the Year, congratulations; history furnishes an outstanding precedent.
A good friend of mine in Mussolini's town writes that for the past few days he has been inspecting musty back numbers of TEMPUS-newsmagazine, a smart publication in Roma of about 19 or 20 centuries ago, and he was interested to note that for their issue for the year 30 B.C. or thereabouts they had the picture of Cleopatra as Woman of the Year.
From some of the issues immediately before and after the first of the year he learned that there had been three prominent entries for place as man of the year with strong boosters for each of them. There was Cleopatra, who it would seem was a woman of unusual charm; there was her boy friend, Mark Antony, so fascinated by her that he was neglecting affairs of public business to woo her; and there was one Novresibus, an officeholder who had just been re-elected in a landslide in which he had received 99 & 44/100 percent of the votes in his district the preceding ides of November.
After due consideration of the claims of all three the editors of TEMPUS finally decided on Cleopatra and they placed her photograph on the title page with a bright red border around it.
The verdict of time ever since that day seems to justify their selection. The name of Cleopatra shines out today as brightly as it did right after the battle of Actium; Antony has his place in the sun as her good friend; and as for Novresibus, well the name of Novresibus is just one more name that during the succeeding 100 years the Roman youngsters--excuse me, moppets--were obliged to memorize in the list of officeholders, in their history class at school.
JAMES A. STORIE
New York City
Simpson on the Cover
Sirs:
Today I got from my local newsstand the Jan. 4 issue of TIME, on the front cover of which appears the picture of "Woman of the Year," Mrs. Wallis Simpson. I wish to be among the first to congratulate you on your selection of this picture, for the first issue of TIME for 1937.
I do this for the reason that over a year ago, probably longer, the front cover of one issue had a beautifully posed picture of Miss Jean Harlow [TIME, Aug. 19, 1935], and immediately afterwards appeared a number of letters to your magazine containing, to my mind, entirely unnecessary protests against your selection of this picture.
So I am expecting that the same thing will happen in regard to this picture of "Wally."
H. HALL
Merced, Calif.
Sirs:
I am of the opinion that when a person subscribes and reads a magazine for several years, he has confidence in that periodical.
But I am certainly disappointed and feel TIME is slipping when they choose from all the outstanding people for their cover the immoral, cheeky Wally Simpson who uses her husbands for stepping stones. With each one she steps a little higher until now she's about to go over "backwards."
You ask who is the writer of this letter? Simply an average American mother, who wishes we could give our daughters something to look at and read besides some bad-tasting scandal . . .
MRS. D. M. YOUNG
Rochester, N. Y.
Sirs:
Congratulations on your selection of material for Jan. 4 cover of TIME! It was the lesser of two evils--Simpson over F. D. R.
JOHN H. HARIG
St. Bernard, Ohio
Sirs:
All credit to the Editors of TIME as "the ablest historians of our day." Future history books will record 1936 as the year of the exploits of one Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson.
I have been a subscriber since 1926 and on many occasions felt tempted to add my "two cents worth" of support. This is the first opportunity which proved irresistible and I hope it arrives before the deluge of criticism, but doubt if it stands a chance.
May TIME continue its peerless reporting forever.
F. WILLIAM FREEZE
Denver, Colo.
Writing readers divided about 2-to-1 against TIME'S choice of its Woman-of-the-Year, discussion of which is now closed in these columns.--ED.
Elucidation Sirs:
Among Thirteen Roosevelts (p. 9, TIME, Jan. 4), appears according to your caption; the president's "widowed half-sister-in-law, Mrs. James R. Roosevelt."
Presumably, she must be the widow of a half-brother of either the President or Mrs. Roosevelt. I was under the impression that neither President Roosevelt nor his wife had a brother or sister, half or otherwise. I have noted frequent references to each being an only child.
Will you please elucidate?
J. E. HORTON
Swords Creek, Va.
The President had a halfbrother. James Roosevelt, his father, first married Rebecca Rowland. She bore him one child, a son who was named James Roosevelt Roosevelt. He had a minor diplomatic career, died in 1927. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was not an only child. One brother, Elliott, died in 1893, aged 4. Surviving brother, Gracie Hall Roosevelt, onetime (1930-32) Controller of Detroit, is currently promoting a combination bus and rail car.--ED.
Green Mountain State
Sirs:
"Three of the original 13 States--Pennsylvania, Vermont and Georgia" anticipated George Norris' unicameral Nebraska legislature (TIME, Jan. 11).
NOT one of the original 13 States, Vermont maintained herself as an independent Republic for 14 years against the British Empire, New York, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, each of which claimed her territory; did not join the United States as the 14th State until her terms and territorial claims were accepted in 1791.
Still as independent as George Norris himself, Republican Vermont went Republican Maine one better in 1936 by refusing a $10,000,000 National Parkway gift while Maine accepted Passamaquoddy. Yet to make doubly sure, the Green Mountain State still rears Vermonters as independent of her Republican traditions as Stephen A. Douglas, the Little Giant whom she bore and nursed at her Abolitionist breast to lead the last Democratic stand against Abraham Lincoln.
Vermont's legislature is now bicameral chiefly out of respect for the independence of her little towns. In the lower house each city and town, from Glastenbury with seven inhabitants, to Burlington with 25,000 has one representative.
WILDER FOOTE
Editor The Middlebury Register Middlebury, Vt.
TIME'S National Affairs department is shocked at its carelessness in listing Vermont among the 13 original States.--ED.
How Now?
Sirs:
In reviewing Katharine Cornell's performance of The Wingless Victory (TIME, Jan. 4) you summarize thus: ". . . she was perfectly at home in another of her bravura roles . . . which have led her privately to observe that an actress of her stature cannot afford to appear in a good play."
No foundation in fact has this remarkable statement. As anyone can tell you, Miss Cornell has appeared only recently in such plays as Candida, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Romeo and Juliet, St. Joan, & others--all of them, to say the least, of it, "good" plays, wherein she has come off by no means second best. Both artistically & monetarily, as witness her production of St. Joan, she can well afford the risk(?).
How now, TIME; a "good" drama rendering ineffectual an actress of Miss Cornell's calibre?
M. ADAIR POWELL
New York City
A good play is rarely so constructed that one character monopolizes audience attention. When an actress reaches Miss Cornell's stature, however, her public demands that she appear in starring vehicles. Among the best known of Miss Cornell's earlier plays are such bravura works as The Green Hat (1925), The Letter (1927), Dishonored Lady (1930). Few critics considered these or The Barretts of Wimpoh Street (1931) or Lucrece (1932) mon than a theatrical frame for Miss Cornell's great acting ability. Candida, St. Joan Romeo and Juliet, regardless of their merits, are not strictly Miss Cornell's plays, being revivals.--ED.
Plugs v. Noise
Sirs:
In TIME'S Jan. 4 issue you tell of the late great Arthur Brisbane sleeping outdoors anc covering his eyes with a black silk mask.
For nightworkers that is old stuff. But ir New York City it is noise, more than light which kills sleep. So some of us have learned tc sleep with rubber swimming plugs in our ears They are highly effective, cheap and not uncomfortable at all. Try them.
GILBERT CHAMBERS
New York City
Other noise-bothered New Yorkers use Flents, wax-impregnated cotton plugs.-- ED.
Mme Chiang's College
Sirs:
Several times you have mentioned Wellesley College as the educational institution attended by Mme Chiang Kaishek. Two of the Misses Soong attended Wesleyan College, in Macon, Ga. Is it possible these two colleges have been confused? The latter is a Methodist institution and the oldest chartered women's college in the world. What do you say?
JANET S. DAVISON
Baldwin, Ga.
Mme Chiang Kai-shek graduated from Wellesley in the class of 1917.--ED.
For Bonasa umbellus
Sirs:
Reminiscent of the recent koala incident, I wonder if the American public is aware of the plight of our native ruffed grouse?
The response was so immediate in the case of Mrs. Schroeder's contribution or offer to contribute to Noel Burnet's koala farm that it is possible your Letters column might awaken a similar response on behalf of America's greatest and, at one time, most beloved upland game bird. In fact, Rex. king of grouse, truly depicts what would be so lacking in our woodlands, if allowed to go the way of the passenger pigeon and heath hen. . . .
Think of the pleasures we have had trying to steal up on Mr. Grouse while exercising his mysterious drumming caprices! Remember how Mrs. Grouse sent her brood into hiding right before our eyes and our further searches for the little ones! What a shame it would be to deprive future generations of this bird and its remarkable characteristics. Grouse can be made pets too. They become strikingly tame and docile when reared in captivity. Then, too, rearing them in this way would help build up a backlog of supply against the day when it will be of vital need. And there is decided evidence of it right now. All New England and the eastern States are up in arms about it.
Like Noel Burnet, I too have a penchant for grouse and am planning a farm to prevent possible extinction of our grouse. It is not a one-man job either. I need the help of a great many others. . . . There cannot be any shame whatever in showing real feeling at this time for Bonasa umbellus.
WILLIAM R. PIERCE
Detroit, Mich.
The National Association of Audubon Societies does not believe that the native ruffed grouse is in danger of extinction. Grouse thrive and diminish in nine-year cycles. Currently New York, Michigan and some other States are in the lean phase of their grouse cycles. Many conservationists urge that grouse shooting should conform with the birds' local periodicity.--ED.
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