GOOD INTENTIONS Sirs:

It is said that you can talk a man into a hospital and out of it again.

It may also be said that you can talk business into a blue funk. And that is what many newspapers seem to be trying to do.

I have before me a recent issue of a New-York newspaper. Its first three pages are largely devoted to signals of distress. More than a dozen headlines call attention to "business depression." "jobless," "the homeless," etc.

I am all for helping those who need help during these trying times, but I can conceive of no worse way of doing so than by creating the fear psychology most newspapers are doing so much to engender.

Why can't the newspapers see through the fog and glimpse the lighthouse beyond? This great country of ours has gone through dozens of depressions and emerged from every one of them richer and stronger than ever before. According to all reports, we are far richer today, even during this low-tide of business, than at any high-tide previous to the War.

B. H. NAMM

The Namm Store Office of the President Brooklyn, N. Y.

Many an expert sociologist agrees with President Namm that the vast publicity given to employment-and-charity drives has done more harm than good. Intentions, of course, were to do good.--ED. Payment to Soldiers Sirs:

I have never before felt impelled to write a letter to TIME on any subject during the six years I have been a regular subscriber and an avid reader of your magazine. I would, however, like to see more letters and articles on the subject of paying the Adjusted Service Certificates to veterans in the near future (TIME, Nov. 10, Dec. 8).

I saw 21 months overseas service. While not in want, the payment of the "Bonus" at this time would assure the realization of a modest financial program which was interrupted by my wife's death a year ago. I still have two young daughters to provide for. World War veterans in Detroit and Michigan believe that the immediate payment of the Adjusted Service Certificates is warranted. Many veterans and their families are in dire need and the cash they would receive from the government would certainly go into immediate circulation. This should help considerably in alleviating distress during this period of depression and, in the opinion of many, hasten the return of prosperity.

The payment of the Adjusted Service Certificates is a "TIMEly" subject.

GILBERT A. BROOKS Detroit, Mich. TIME will print no more letters on this subject unless it is taken up by Congress Best financial opinion is unanimous that to raise and pay to veterans $2,775,000,000 would retard, not hasten prosperity. Rather, let the people who now have the $2,775,000,000 spend it instead of hoarding.--ED. Byrd Brother 1. Lindbergh In-Law Sirs: "Ohio's Bulkley" does appear a strong prospect for the next Democratic Presidential nomination (TIME, Nov. 24), but even stronger looms Virginia's famed ex-Governor Harry Flood Byrd. No cigar chewer, no derby hat donner, nor "thumbs-in-the-vest politician," he is known everywhere for his progressive administration of the "Old Dominion," his loyalty t3 party, his cleanliness in politics, his farsightedness and greatly for his LEADERSHIP in bringing Virginia to the front. Throughout the South Harry Flood Byrd is considered No. 1 prospective nominee -- his excellent record commands attention. Recent group meetings in Virginia, Carolinas, and ' other nearby states have ofttimes heard his name mentioned again and again. Last century -- 1832 -- Southerner Andrew Jackson, Tennessee-DEMOCRAT, began his second presidential term. History repeats, they say, and the South ? strongly coming forward. Who knows? Suggestion has been made that Republican Morrow oppose Democrat Byrd. Able campaigners would be son-in-law Colonel Lindbergh and Admiral (brother) "Dick" Byrd. The heavens would rain showers of political circulars. Certainly this would be a great elevation from the present "scandalous" politics. FRANK C. LARRABEE. JR.

Martinsville, Va.

Ugh, Ohio

Sirs: TIME'S selection of "Ohio's Bulkley" for special advertising (TIME, Nov. 24) makes some people think TIME has not heard of the "Ohio Gang," who were to Ohio as a mother of presidents, what the Civil War was to that other mother of presidents -- Virginia. . . . There are other potent likely dark horses for TIME to put forward. But not from oily, slimy, Ohio, ugh! JAMES W. FARMER

Washington, D. C.

Virginia 8, Ohio 7

Sirs:

In your article on Robert Johns Bulkley, TIME, Nov. 24, p. 15, end of second paragraph, you have the sentence: "And is not Ohio the Mother of Presidents?"

The writer (a subscriber to TIME) has been unable to decide whether this statement is the result of unfortunate ignorance, carelessness, or whether it is merely bait. Be the answer what it may, TIME might have been magnanimous enough to word the sentence: "And is not Ohio a Mother of Presidents?"

Basis for this tirade: Virginia has given 8 presidents, Ohio 7: the former Washington. Jefferson, Madison, Monroe. Wm. Henry Harrison, Tyler, Taylor, and Wilson: the latter Grant. Hayes, Garfield, Ben. Harrison, McKiniey, Taft and Harding.

JAMES R. V. DANIEL

Richmond, Va.

A Racket4?

Sirs:

Under head of "Doak opposed for Cabinet," I find the following: The American Federation of Labor will oppose the appointment as Secretary of Labor of W. N. Doak of the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen or any man not a member of its organization. No regard for the qualifications of Mr. Doak, no consideration of the interests of Labor in general, no regard for the opinion of the President, who must have given these points considerable thought. Now this quotation seems to me in favor of racketeering, if racketeering describes the use of any power you may be able to command (whether the power of an organization or of a sawed-off gun) to control an individual, without regard to his rights, or the rights of the community. It may be Al Capone, or it may be the American Federation of Labor--the principle involved seems the same. MARY ANDERSON

Grosse lie, Mich.

The A. F. of L. may be guilty of abuse of power. Nevertheless TIME would not call it racketeering. Racket, racketeer, racketeering, are, in TIME'S estimation, serious words the meaning of which ought not to be emasculated by indiscriminate use. Racketeering is a form of organized crime against which U. S. society is temporarily helpless. It differs from non-violent abuse of power at least as much as a lie differs from a "weasel" or as much as embezzlement differs from an over-shrewd trick of finance. Therefore TIME restricts the use of the word racket to mean an operation in the Capone manner. Between Alphonse ("Scarface Al") Capone and the A. F. of L. there is a difference.--ED. Mosquitoes on Skates

Sirs:

TIME, Nov. 24, under heading GERMANY, "Black Tom," p. 24, col. 2, says:

"With thunderous roar . . . blasts rocked lower New York City . . . killed four men, destroyed $45,000,000 worth of property on Jan. 30, 1916. . . .

"This was the famed 'Black Tom Disaster.' . . .

"In Manhattan, private Detective Ervin J. Smith . . . recalled he was hired to investigate. . . . Said he . . .: 'The watchmen were bothered by New Jersey mosquitoes that infested the swamp land about Black Tom. They had built ... a smudge fire to drive them off.' "

Query: Did the mosquitoes wear ice skates? History or natural history wrong?

J. L. W. HENNEY

Bexlcy, Ohio.

Sirs:

Although I consider myself one of the elder subscribers of TIME this is my initial effort at criticism or commendation. There have been man)' temptations toward self expression, all of which have been stifled by silent chuckling appreciation of TIME'S peerless worth. . . .

I am a native of much-maligned Jersey and have had broad and sometimes top painfully intimate acquaintance with its mosquitoes. With such a background of experience it is straining credulity too far for me to believe that it was necessary to use smudge fires in January. In defense of my native state, may I not hope that this erroneous libel can be corrected.

C. H. SHARPE

Asst. Works Manager American Welding Co. Carbondale, Pa.

TIME erred in date-history: the explosion occurred on July 30, 1916.--ED. St. Joseph '04, '11

Sirs:

To TIME'S usually accurate, always alert staff two gentle digs for recent errors. The Press section (TIME, Dec. i) mentions Commonwealth and America as leading Catholic journals. Quite so, but unless one lisps Editor Michael Williams' magazine is Commonweal.

Both precedent and alphabetical arrangement would seem to dictate mentioning America first since this Jesuit-edited review was a widely read expression of Catholic opinion years before Commonweal (directed by Catholic laymen) became its respected associate.

Like many an able priest and layman, the Rev. Wilfred Parsons, S.J., present editor of America, is a proud boast of small but culturally potent St. Joseph's College, Philadelphia, where Editor Parsons, '06, had a brother, Rev. Robert A. Parsons, S.J., who is the pitiless but popular dean.

For your future reference, a correction on another St. Joseph's man, the Rev. Dean Parsons' classmate, the Rev. Aloysius Hogan, S.J., (also 'n) newly appointed president of Fordham University, who studied abroad later at Cambridge and not at Oxford as TIME'S otherwise excellent and well informed announcement of his appointment states (TIME, Sept. 22). LEO RIORDAX

P.S. Although numbering nearly 500 priests among her alumni, including three bishops, two college presidents. St. Joseph's, like other Jesuit colleges (Fordham, Holy Cross, Georgetown, the four Loyolas, etc.) is no seminary.

Philadelphia, Pa.

Appendicectomy

Sirs:

In your search for the correct & ideal word, why print appendectomy (as in your issue of Nov. 24) when appendicectomy avails?

With no apologies.

JOE STICKLER

Boston, Mass.

| Elizabeth The Queen

Sirs:

Regarding TIME'S review of Elizabeth The Queen your reviewer found a "sabre-rattling pageant, long-winded dialog, and Lynn Fontanne speaking her lines so loudly and deeply that the effect was not unlike a small child trying to imitate her grandfather." (TIME, Nov. 17.)

J. Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times thought the same production to be ''a magnificent drama, the dialog of notable beauty with a stimulating quality, and Lynn Fontanne acting with a sterling grandeur."

Some readers were probably dissuaded from seeing the play as the result of TIME'S evaluation. Had they been aware of Mr. Atkinson's appraisal they might have attended.

M. Loux

Philadelphia, Pa.

Had the reviews of other Manhattan newspaper critics been consulted, it would have been found that John Mason Brown of the New York Evening Post said of i Elizabeth The Queen: ". . . The Lunts ] outdistanced not only the material with which they were working but also all those who stood near them on the stage. . . . Even so ... Elizabeth The Queen remains on the whole a somewhat negative and negligible play, or at least an incomplete one." Nevertheless, the play is a huge success and much admired by intelligences great and small.--ED.

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