Monday, Feb. 11, 1946

Art and the Commissioner

Sirs:

You recently published in TIME [Jan. 14] a squib indicating that I had been "righteously rude" and had thundered at "a small-statured victim."

The facts, which are not even dimly reflected in your characteristically snappy piece, are these:

A radio show (national hookup) gave a veteran soldier and amateur sculptor some clay, told him to make a statue of his wife, and notified all and sundry listeners that this work, encased in sort of permanent coating, would be shipped to New York to be conspicuously placed in its park system.

I received a telegram and shipping bill saying that the statue was about to arrive. My letter, not given to the press, said that the statue was unacceptable, and if dumped on the City would be used as fill in a reclamation project. The whole thing was a cheap advertising stunt on the part of the radio program, and a feeble but expensive practical joke by this station on the veteran. Incidentally, as we expected, the statue was mutilated when it arrived, the head having been broken off the body. No doubt we might have said nothing and have embarrassed the express company by refusing to accept the statue when it arrived, thus creating just the kind of argument the stunt program wanted.

What would the editors of TIME have done about it, had they been public officials?

ROBERT MOSES Commissioner Department of Parks New York City

P: Just what Commissioner Moses did.

Tinker's Dam(n)

Sirs:

Why do you . . . misuse the expression "tinker's dam" by spelling it "tinker's damn" [TIME, Jan. 7]? ... The latter expression means nothing. A tinker's dam was really a dam made of clay, which the traveling tinkers used to surround a spot on a pan or kettle to keep the solder from spreading or running until it cooled, while [the utensil was] being repaired. As soon as the solder cooled, the dam was thrown away as useless and worthless. Hence . . . "tinker's dam" to denote something having no value. . .

H. E. HARLEY Oskaloosa, Iowa

P: Dam interesting, but a "baseless conjecture," according to the Oxford English Dictionary.--ED.

Talking Back to "Captain Mac"

Sirs:

Apropos the idea of [WAVE Director] Mildred Helen ("Captain Mac") McAfee Horton, regarding liberal education and the Navy [TIME, Jan. 14], I take exception.

It was my experience, as a pharmacist's mate and ex-instructor of college history, to find that those people who were best able to adjust themselves to the difficulties of life in the service were not those who had a broad educational background, but rather, those who didn't know any better. . . .

The only advantages of regimentation . . . are in the offices of the gold braid. . . . Ask an enlisted WAVE who has a college degree from Wellesley what she thinks!

WILLIAM E. SAWYER Clarkson College of Technology Potsdam, N.Y.

Sirs:

"Captain Mac" . . . contradicts herself.

. . People do not develop individuality by having . . . the unimportant things decided for them--and who is "Captain Mac" or anyone else to determine what is important and what is not?

As for her keep-off-the-grass variety of regimentation, she states her views from the top of the ladder and not the bottom. It is one thing to give orders and another to carry them out. . . .

(PVT.) H. M. PENNINGTON (SGT.) A. E. COOK Keesler Field, Miss.

That's a Joke, Son!

Sirs:

I admit your People Editor had me fooled [TIME, Jan. 21]. Upon reading his reference to "Willa Stockton Gather's famed short story, The Lost Lady or the Tiger," I vigorously rubbed my hands together in glee. . . . Then the truth struck me. ... How many others bit, not seeing the subtle humor . . . in that footnote, and sent letters of correction loaded with self-satisfaction? . . .

DONALD C. WILMOT Cleveland

P:I Fifteen so far.--ED.

Vanishing Druggists?

Sirs:

This letter refers to a brief article captioned "The Vanishing Druggist" [TIME, Jan. 14]. It is alleged to be a summing up of evidence presented in the January issue of the publication, American Druggist. . . . I referred at once to the source of the alleged "totting up" of evidence and found in the January issue no basis for the statements made in TIME. . . .

Frankly, in the light of evidence and bypassing the fact that there are elements in the industry showing a temporary uneasiness, largely a by-product of the war situation, the facts are as follows:

Colleges of pharmacy all over the country are overwhelmed because of the tremendous influx of students seeking entrance into the freshman class.

Secondly, the last few years, again perhaps a wartime development, have increased the countrywide prescription practice nearly 50%. . . .

IVOR GRIFFITH President Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science Philadelphia

P:To TIME'S Medicine Editor, who misinterpreted American Druggist's editorial, a monstrous dose of ipecac. Pharmacy has probably been no more worried than other professions whose practitioners and students went off to war when practice was expanding. --ED .

"We Ain't . . . Pushed Down"

Sirs:

. . . Bank of America was by no means pushed down to third place by Manhattan's National City [TIME, Jan. 14]. ...

On Dec. 31, 1945, Bank of America had $5,626,063,927 resources and $5,339,307,098 deposits, while National City Bank claimed only $5,434,372,600 resources and $5,143,422,244 deposits. ... In short, we ain't being Dushed down by anybody.

CHALLISS GORE Orinda, Calif.

P: Right is Reader Gore. Only Manhattan's whopping Chase National is Digger than Bank of America.--ED.