Canadian on Ducks

Sirs:

Having read your article in the Aug. 10 issue of TIME entitled "Duck .Moratorium?" I consider your magazine the proper medium for a further discussion of this subject if you will so permit.

Canadian sportsmen do not agree with your contributor, Dr. Thomas Gilbert Pearson,* that the principal reason for the shortage of ducks is the continued drought in the southern part of the three prairie Provinces, as there are large bodies of water in the northern portion of these provinces that annually contribute to the duck supply, sufficient grounds for all the ducks in the world to breed in. Visitors to the northern lakes report more ducks than ever before due to the migration to those parts.

It is not a lack of breeding places that is responsible for the duck shortage but nonenforcement of the law governing shooting on both sides of the boundary. As Canadian shooters only get from one month and a half to two months against from three and one-half to five in the States it is evident more ducks are shot to the south of the line. Also that 6,500,000 licenses are annually issued in the U. S. and that in some States there is open season the year around leads us to question the right of Americans who are clamoring at Ottawa for an embargo on duck and geese shooting in Canada this year.

It is our contention that the various States should restrict their shooting seasons, forbid the use of automatic shotguns, live decoys and baiting in fields. As Dr. Pearson might like some proof of what happens to ducks in Arkansas let him read the September issue of Field & Stream. Nash Buckingham writing about what he has actually seen states that 40,000 crippled and rotten ducks were found in a 450-acre field. These are the places where a little law enforcement would be useful. Can't blame the drought for such slaughter, only inhuman beings could do it ...

D. R. BALL

Yorkton, Saskatchewan.

The U. S. duck season has been limited this year to one month; the hag limit (per day l remains 15 (see p. 51).--ED.

Judges Cardozo

Sirs:

TIME for Aug. 17 carries a picture of Judge Cardozo of N. Y. Court of Appeals with reference to his decision concerning testimony of Horse Doctor Doyle before legislative investigating committee. But TIME does not mention-- and I wonder if it is aware that another Judge Cardozo figured conspicuously if ingloriously in the history of Boss Tweed's infamous career and downfall? I have often wondered if the present Judge Cardozo is a descendant of the Tweed judge of super-"fine distinctions"? Being a casual student of history such questions interest me and any enlightenment TIME can give me on this point will be interesting to me and perhaps other TIME readers.

J. THOMAS

Montauk, N. Y.

Chief Judge Benjamin Nathan Cardozo of the Court of Appeals is the son of Albert Cardozo who was made a judge of the New York Supreme Court after William M. ("Boss") Tweed gained control of Tammany Hall in 1863. With Judges George C. Barnard and Abijah Ingraham. Judge Albert Cardozo formed the judicial triumvirate behind the Tweed throne. Unlike his father, Judge Benjamin Cardozo has kept his office aloof from politics, earned this tribute from President Henry U. Sims of the American Bar Association on the occasion last year of his 60th birthday: "Probably no one has contributed so much as Chief Judge Cardozo, unless it be Dean Roscoe Pound, toward clarifying for the legal world the function of the judge in shaping and developing the Law.'' Said Nicholas Murray Butler: "Judge Cardozo is one of the chief ornaments of present day American life and thought. The elevation of his mind and spirit . . . makes a character which stands out each year with increasing brilliance against the background of contemporary life and thought."--ED. Cotton Crop Figures Sirs:

In reading your article entitled "Husbandry" on p. 11 of your issue of the 17th instant, I find that you give the estimate by the Department of Agriculture of the 1931 cotton crop as 15,685,000 bales and the average yield per acre as 85 pounds.

May I point out to you that these figures are incorrect inasmuch as the Department, in their estimate of August 8, placed the crop at 15,584,000 bales and the yield per acre, 185.8 pounds.

Knowing the great popularity of your magazine and the large number of readers who obtain their information from it, I thought you would be interested in having your attention called to the error.

GEORGE R. SIEDENBURG

Chairman

Committee on Information & Statistics New York Cotton Exchange New York City

Inverness Open Sirs:

YOUR ISSUE AUGUST TWENTY FOURTH PAGE THIRTY NINE STATING INVERNESS CLUB CLOSED INACCURATE CLUB IS OPEN ENTIRE GREENS FORCE WORKING CLUBS FINANCIAL POSITION GOOD PLEASE CORRECT . . .

H. W. FRASER

President Inverness Toledo, Ohio

Akron Pigeons

Sirs:

It was with considerable interest and amusement that I read in a recent issue of TIME that Mrs. Hoover was to release 48 half-starved pigeons that had been denied shore-leave for 30 days at the christening of the Akron. (TIME, Aug. 10.)

However, to date I have not been able to determine from the various accounts of this event that I have read just what the conduct of these pigeons was. Did they fly merrily on their way or did they pick the first convenient perch to spend the balance of the day? Also, how many of them found their ways home? . . .

C. B. GRESHAM Huntsville, Texas

Of the 48 hungry pigeons, 46 flew merrily, reached their home (four miles away) within ten minutes after Mrs. Hoover released them. The other two. apparently confused in the cavernous dirigible dock, got home next morning.-- ED.

Bull's Bathtubs

Sirs:

I strongly suspect Secretary Stimson of borrowing his "bathtub" analogy-- from Secretary Mellon's experience with the bathtubs of the old Bull Hotel in Cambridge, England. I recently stayed there and largely failed to solve the intricacies of the 18-inch brass and rubber stoppers with the thumb screw attachment in the same three tubs which Mr. Mellon used, and of which the Dull Hotel is justly proud (TIME, Aug. 3). There seems to be no way to manipulate to prevent a slow but steady drain. But the Hull Hotel is one of the best and most comfortable hotels in Cambridge and close to the Senate House where Mellon & Son took degrees together (Benjamin Franklin and his son had degrees conferred upon them together there).

When bathing facilities were first suggested for one of the colleges of Cambridge University the Head Master demurred on the grounds that the students were there only 34 weeks of the year.

The expression, "Hobson's Choice" originated in the stables back of the Bull Hotel (now the hotel garage). Hostler Hobson insisted upon exact rotation of his horses and always told students to "take your choice, as long as you take the one nearest the door."

CLARENCE P. OAKES

New College Oxford, England

Culver to Staunton

Sirs:

We have been very much interested in the editorial, "Staunton versus Culver" (TIME, Aug. 10).

The statement of the comparison of numbers to which you refer will be found in the Historical Section in the catalog, copy of which 1 am forwarding, on p. 18. This statement reads as follows: "Colonel Fleet continued as Superintendent of the institution for fourteen years, the school under his direction growing steadily in size, and perfecting its methods and equipment. In the course oj twelve years, from a corps of thirty cadets, quartered in a frame building, and scarcely known within its own State, the Academy grew to an enrollment, including its winter and summer sessions, of 677 cadets, over double the number receiving military instruction in any other private school in the United States."

This statement, as you will readily see, referred to the comparative enrollments of Culver and other military schools in 1909 and not to the present time.

We deeply regret that a misunderstanding should have arisen in the matter, especially on the part of any of our Staunton friends as wo have only the highest regard for this excellent institution. F. L. BROOKE

Registrar

Culver Military Academy Culver, Ind.

Barbaric Yawper

Sirs:

Mannerisms can be annoying even in a goml book-reviewer--and I sincerely put yours in that category. Often I have been delighted with his banter which rings so cheerily upon the sober shield of criticism, but certain phrases can be annoying. Mr. George Santayana has the right to term Browning and Vhitinan barbarians. Many pages of excellent writing bear witness In his sincerity, and though I do not have congruent tastes, I find his opinions both welcome and agreeable. I am no maundering votary at the shrines of accepted giants, but I do think il is over-smart--in fact exceedingly fresh--to term Whitman a "barbaric yawper" in so summary a fashion (see Books in TIME. Aug 10). Your reviewer's strictly personal reactions and snap-judgments are a bit more yawpish than ''Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking." Except for this disagreeable habit I find him most sound and entertaining. Why must we be made aware of his literary stomachaches?

CONSTANCE MERCER KLUGH

Chicago, Ill.

In Song of Myself Walt Whitman wrote: "I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.''--ED.

Slightly Pop-Eyed

Sirs:

I am a subscriber to TIME and a careful reader. In most respects I like your magazine very much and I certainly wish you continued success. However, I do feel moved to say that much of your English is curious and unjustifiable --inverted sentences, omissions of the article abound. "Ginning the North Carolina crop started, etc." "The dirty night the fleet anchored. Seaman Francis Barnes fell overboard, etc.'' "First step was to listen, etc." "Next suggestion was a program, etc." "Morning after the baton charge, the General, etc." "First floral offering to be delivered, etc." This is really atrocious and even newspaper English is better. Then you must describe the personal appearance of everybody: "Bulky Governor Ross Shaw" "Slightly pop-eyed Mr. Wiggin'' "Francis Curry, foxy little boss," and so on indefinitely. This is a little too too in my humble judgment. And why should we be told that Mrs Coolidge. or was it Mrs. Hoover, got her hair bobbed? Please tell us in your next who is her, or their, chiropodist. And once in a while you can afford to overlook the Presidency, since it isn't very important and the President either--that is, not every week, especially when the poor man isn't doing anything worth recording except passing out sandwiches & drinks under big Virginia oaks.

Well, you see that I think that TIME is slightly popeyed. Otherwise you are OK and I am for you.

W. L. RICHARDSON

Chicago, 111.

*Dr. Pearson contributed nothing to TIME. His remarks as President of the National Association of Audubon Societies were simply reported as news. *Last month in London, discussing Germany's credit crisis, Secretary Stimson said: "The situation we are faced with is something like a bathtub. The stopper has been out and the water has been running out rapidly. It is necessary first to put the plug back in the hole. Then it is necessary to examine what water is left and to see if it is sufficient for the purposes at may be hand. If it necessary is, to well put and more good; water if in it is it. . . not it ." (TIME, Aug. 3). -- ED.

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