Improving Westport
Sirs:
Not long ago Westport, Conn., was considerably stirred, as no doubt you know, by William McFee's comments (TIME, Sept. 22). The enclosed was written by my mother-in-law, Mary P. C. Staples, and I have her permission to send it to you to be published if you care to use it. Mrs. Staples is an elderly woman, to whom Westport and everything connected with it is very dear. Her family and her husband's have been identified with the town since it was settled. They now belong to the older and conservative element in the town, but are just as quick to resent any reflection on the community as the new residents could be.
Mrs. Staples ... is widely known in Westport. She was the first president of the Town Improvement Association. . . .
C. D. RAREY Comptroller The Travelers Insurance Co. Hartford, Conn.
Mrs. Staples' poem:
TO WILLIAM MC FEE
AN OLD WESTPORTER
I would not belittle England My forebears came from there And remembered with the kindest thoughts Their native country fair. ButI thank God for the U. S. A. The country of the free Where I may play at Polo Or own my autos three. Or even wear my jodpurs, If I do not act the clown, When I am buying groceries In the centre of the town. When the only place we need to know Is just as near the Sun As we can climb, in the short time Before our day is done. And you, too, Mr. William, May hold your sides with glee Neglect your work, and laugh and laugh In this country of the free. MARY P. C. STAPLES Deep Gratitude
Sirs:
Our deepest gratitude for the scathing denunciation by O. D. Hill (TIME, Oct. 27) of the loathsome slaughter of 17 whales by Warwick M. Tompkins and his cohorts.
Completely do we coincide with these views, also your [his] forceful footnote. Such publicity will bring home to these, and other so called "Sportsmen," the utter contempt such butchers are held in by a vast majority, thus arousing the present apathy to our fast disappearing wild life.
HERBERT H. HALLETT Secretary
State Commission for Protection of Children and Animals. Los Angeles, Calif. Denouncer Hill was aroused by Explorer Tompkins' solemn statement that he & friends had slain 17 whales with 17 shots from .22 calibre rifles.-ED.
Streator Grandaddy
Sirs:
No world's word record is Erasto Garcia's; see TIME'S Miscellany, Nov. 3 wherein is stated: "At Bilbao, Spain, Erasto Garcia wrote 5,725 words (three chapters) from Don Quixote on a post card, claimed a world's record." Dr. John J. Taylor, Streator, 111. (this cover- to-cover reader's Grandaddy) in 1893, before 30 prominent Streatorites, wrote on a postcard 14,564 words. The subject: i Kings, 13th Chapter containing 1,142 words. This written twelve times with 860 additional words on one side of a regulation U. S. postcard with the naked eye. With either Dr. John J. or Senor Erasto to pen it-what big-shooting, Hoovering, tycooning, picturing and miscellany could TIME do under a postage stamp! J. THEO TAYLOR Chicago, III.
Aluminum Cables
Sirs:
My attention has just been called to an article at the bottom of p. 58 in the Nov. 3 issue of TIME in which the statement is made that, "coppermen noted with fear that last fortnight International Paper & Power Co. completed a 126-mile 220,000-volt transmission line made of aluminum wire, first important one of its kind in the U. S." I do not know your source of information for this statement but the statement as it stands is incorrect. Our records show that during the last ten years-the period of time in which 220,000-volt lines have been erected in this country-there have been 19 sales made for such lines. Sixteen of these have been sales of aluminum cable and three have been sales of copper cable. It would seem to me that a copper installation would under those circumstances be of greater news interest than an aluminum installation. The electrical industry as a whole is quite familiar with aluminum cable and seldom surprised at its erection on any type of line. During the last 18 years over 360,000 miles of aluminum cable steel reinforced have been put up in this country. These lines are, of course, of varying voltage as well as varying uses. While the majority of them belong to the central stations quite a number are owned by industrialists. WILLIAM C. WHITE Advertising Manager Aluminum Co. of America Pittsburgh, Pa.
Chicago's Crime Fame
Sirs:
Several times I have seen newspaper accounts giving statistics indicating that the murders in Chicago are less per capita than in several other large cities. In fact, it seems that Chicago was sixth or seventh below the leader of the list.
If this is so, to what do you attribute the (Continued on p. 8) nation- or world-wide publicity given to Chicago, classing it as murderers' playground and one of the greatest seats of crime? A. R. BALDWIN JR. St. Louis, Mo.
The Chicago Tribune's answer to A. R. Baldwin Jr.'s question has been: "Because it is the centre of the telegraph and the telephone lines, news goes to more places from Chicago than from any other city." It is also true that: Chicago newspapers have played-up Chicago's underworld most persistently and sensationally; Chicago's murders have been most sensational intrinsically (viz. the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, 1929); Chicago has had fewer policemen and more nationally-known criminals per square mile than any U. S. city; crime in Chicago is more highly organized than anywhere else in the world. -ED.
Water-Bucket Thief
Sirs: A University of California alumnus finds it difficult to hold his peace, upon reading, in column entitled "Football," TIME of Nov. 3, the remark that in being defeated by Southern California 41-12 last week, Stanford University suffered "the worst beating any college has ever given Stanford." For your information: on Nov. 19, 1921, at Palo Alto, our Golden Bears-which the Press of that time had dubbed the "Wonder Team"-helped Stanford dedicate its brand-new stadium, barely completed on time for the game, to the tune of a 42-7 victory for University of California. Some 60,000 persons witnessed the affair. That was only nine years ago! The lineups:
California Pos. Stanford Berkey LER Campbell Barnes LTR. Ludke Clark LGR Douglas Latham (C) C De Groot Cranmer RGL Faville McMillan RTL Carter Muller REL Mertz Erb Q Schlaudeman Toomey LHR Doughty Nichols RHL Wilcox Nisbet F Patrick
Being highly elated over the victory, and, being but a mere spectator, I could think of nothing better to do than to steal the Stanford waterbucket-which I did. SIEGFRIED F. LINDSTROM
New York City
To the Wonder Team of 1921, apologies and plaudits.-ED. Inulin, Not Insulin
Sirs:
No one who was unaware of the difference between insulin and inulin could have prepared the story of burdock cookies, TIME, Nov. 3. You give your proofreaders too free a rein.
IRVING T. THORNTON
Buffalo, N.Y.
To a proofreader who disregarded a specific warning about the similarity of these two words, a thoroughgoing reprimand. Insulin is a hormone which helps the body consume sugar. Inulin is a carbohydrate similar to starch.--ED. Nina Rosa Sirs:
As an enthusiastic reader of your magazine of long standing, I would like to call your attention to a gross mistake in the issue of Nov. 3, on p. 51, under the heading of "Mortality," where you state: "The following presentations have opened and closed since October i: Luana, Symphony in Two Flats, Nina Rosa," etc.
As the composer of Nina Rosa, I would like to tell you that Nina Rosa is in its 58th performance in New York and selling seats for many weeks in advance, after having played last year in Chicago for a whole season. The show has no intention of closing its New York run, now, or in the near future. . . .
SlGMUND ROMBERG
New York City
To Nina Rosa, its author, company, producers and composer, apology and congratulations that TIME was misinformed. -ED. Plutarch & Time Sirs:
When reading Plutarch's Morals recently I came across these further proofs that TIME is aptly named:
1) See Volume 11, Plutarch's Morals, edited by Goodwin, "The Banquet of the Seven Wise Men."
Thales answers to the question What is most wise? TIME; FOR IT HAS FOUND OUT SOUK
THINGS ALREADY, IT WILL FIND OUT THE REST IN DUE TIME.
2) Same volume. "The Roman Questions." Question 12: Why do they esteem Saturn the
father of truth? Solution: Is it not the reason that, some philosophers believe that Saturn is the same with time and TIME FINDS OUT TRUTH?
SLATER M. MILLER
Manila, P. I.
Jamesjoystew
Sirs:
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T. H. GlOGNILLIAT
356 Lindbergh Drive
Prescott, Ariz.
Macy's Mobbed
Sirs:
You tell us this week how it happened that Macy's advertised $58.75 coats at $8.94, and 813.74 dresses at $48.75 (TIME, Nov. 17), but I can tell you what happened.
I happened to go to Macy's quite early that Tuesday morning ... I found myself fairly shoved into the coat department by the determination of a large group of women. Their entry was so forcible that I saw several racks of coats knocked over and one of the smaller clerks was also knocked down. They immediately began to ask for the $58.75 coats at $8.94. Clerks pointed to signs explaining the mistake, but the women, particularly the group which had shoved me in, refused to accept any explanation. Their leader even went so far as to mount a chair and begin a speech using such expressions as "Don't let them get away with it," and "I never got such treatment in Gimbels." Of course this didn't last long because Macy employes soon outnumbered the rioters. For my part I couldn't help feeling that there was something just a little staged about the whole affair. . . .
CAROLINE CARTER JONES (MRS. T. FENWAY JONES)
Montclair, X. J.
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