Roosevelt & Legs

Sirs:

TIME of Dec. 5 contains the following:

"President-elect Roosevelt hobbled out of the White House elevator from the basement. . . ."

"At Warm Springs, Ga. last week President elect Roosevelt: . . . Began daily two-hour swims in the Foundation's indoor pool, followed by a massage of his shriveled legs. . . ."

Although somewhat hardened to TIME'S well-known but inane penchant for stressing the physical peculiarities of personages named in its columns, I cannot possibly comprehend how you can justify the utter cruelty of the sentences above quoted. Perhaps you will enlighten me.

LEO M. BROWN

Mobile, Ala.

Sirs:

Allow me to call your attention to the enclosed clipping from TIME, Dec 5, in which President elect Roosevelt's entrance to conference with President Hoover is described as follows: "President-elect Roosevelt hobbled out of the White House elevator from the basement and turned to the left. . . .':

It seems incredible that Governor Roosevelt's physical handicap, above which he has risen with such courage, should be used by anyone as a basis for ridicule, and I believe TIME enjoys the distinction of being the only publication in the country to display such unspeakably bad taste.

While I realize no apology can wipe out this stigma I take the liberty of calling it to your attention, that we may be spared a repetition of it.

JONAS LIE

P.S. I have continued reading the article and find "followed by a massage of his shriveled legs" etc. Who is the man with soul so dead? Who is your editorial writer so completely lacking in a sense of common decency and good taste? We want to know--my friends and I. New York City

. . . Extremely interesting articles are punctuated with obnoxious and sarcastic references such as "Big-chinned Mr. Roosevelt," "Big-nosed Ogden L. Mills," "Long-eared Mr. Reed," "Owl-eyed Mr. This," "Widemouthed Mr. That," and so on. What do you find of value in such unwarranted and undignified commentary methods?

If there is a hidden (to me) value here, it occurs to me that you are overlooking many possibilities; that this custom of yours could be broadened and diversified. As you know, undoubtedly, the President-elect is afflicted with infantile paralysis. Why not refer to him as, for instance, "The paralytic Mr. Roosevelt." And look what an opportunity you overlooked before Mr. Edison passed on. He was almost totally deaf. And, still living, is the famous deaf, dumb, and blind woman. I imagine that thousands of people that are material for your literary efforts suffer from halitosis, constipation, athlete's foot and so on. . . .

R. D. BROWN

Atlanta, Ga.

Sirs: This letter is not for publication but I do want to take exception, as a reader and subscriber, to the following statement in TIME of Dec. 5, p. 19: "'The Governor of New York!' cried Chief Usher Irwin Hood Hoover, as President-elect Roosevelt hobbled out of the White House elevator. . . ."

All through the campaign there has seemed to be a controlling spirit of courtesy in all the newspapers of the country, insofar as I could see them, to refrain from any reference to Governor Roosevelt's lameness, and the word which you have used--"hobbled"--will give pain to Governor Roosevelt and all his friends. I cannot help feeling sorry to read a news statement in this form.

SAMUEL HARDEN CHURCH

President Carnegie Institute Pittsburgh, Pa.

Sirs:

. . . For any man, however humble, to have reflections cast upon his physical infirmities is inconsiderate and unkind; for one, chosen by an overwhelming majority to be the leader of our people for the next four years, to have insinuating aspersions cast upon his physical condition is not only inconsiderate and unkind, but, it seems to me, highly disrespectful.

It may be that I have completely misconceived the purport of your article and have thus, naturally it would seem, entirely misconstrued its meaning.

If so, I shall be happy to ascertain the fact. . . .

S. H. EDMUNDS

Sumter, S. C.

TIME'S prime function is to hold the mirror up to nature. TIME recognizes only one higher duty--to satisfy its subscribers.

It is not with any intention of paining or in any way discomfiting the President-elect that TIME occasionally refers explicitly to his crippled legs. On the contrary, by not ignoring his infirmity, by including it in objective word pictures of Mr. Roosevelt in action, TIME conveys the full significance of a man, paralyzed in the prime of life, rising above what to another man might have been an insuperable hindrance and going on to high national destiny. It was of historic interest that one of England's greatest Chancellors of the Exchequer, Viscount Snowden of Ickornshaw, is a cripple. TIME never unduly stressed that circumstance, but TIME never glossed it over. Nor did TIME ignore the interesting fact of Edison's extreme deafness. Of how much greater historic interest is the physical condition of a U. S. President. When he goes to Warm Springs for treatment, TIME, the historian, must say what for. Were Mr. Roosevelt sensitive on the subject, the case might be altered. But his whole attitude is one of gallant unconcern (see p. 8).

Without stressing the subject, and certainly never with malice or disrespect, TIME will continue to regard Mr. Roosevelt's legs as mentionable--unless a great majority of TIME readers commands otherwise.--ED.

Yes-Papers

Sirs:

I am no sympathizer with Soviet Russia and yet, in fairness to it, I wish to inquire whether you have any source of proof or good authority for the following statement (TIME, Dec. 19, p. 13, col. 1), ''The official Soviet reply was . . . flatly to deny that Izvestia speaks for the Government (which all Soviet newsorgans do)."

Does it not seem slightly overweening and impudent of you to so easily and readily and flatly contradict an official Government statement?

JOSEPH S. HOROWITZ

New York City

TIME'S statement is amply proved by the nonexistence in Russia of a single newsorgan hostile or even neutral to the Government. All without exception are State yes-papers and Izvestia (according to the 1932 Political Handbook of the U. S. Council on Foreign Relations, p. 167) is the "official organ" of the Soviet Government.

For diplomatic reasons the State always denies responsibility for statements in the Soviet Press, but in the case of an anti-British article in Izvestia cited by Subscriber Horowitz, the State instructed the Soviet Ambassador in London to present to His Majesty's Government apologies from Izvestia's Editor Comrade Gronsky. --ED.

Will & Girl

Sirs:

In your story of the Homewood seduction case in your issue of Dec. 19, you say "Will Shakespeare married the girl," intimating that a shotgun wedding took place.

While details are lacking in the historical evidence of the case, I should like to inform you of an opposing but nevertheless logical interpretation of the matter as given here regularly by Professor J. Tucker Murray of the Harvard English Department.

The shotgun wedding theory is based on the fact that Will and Anne's appearance before the clergyman was after intimate relations had taken place. But in Shakespeare's time, legal marriage consisted only in declaration of enamoured couple's intentions of living as man and wife. It was common for the couple not to appear before a minister until, as the papers say, "the stork loomed," which they did mainly to insure the offspring's inheritance. As the clergyman who married Will and Anne was known to be one of the strictest in England, it is possible that he would have balked at performing a marriage for convenience.

G. A. HILL

Harvard University

Cambridge, Mass.

Clock Hands

Sirs:

Will TIME please answer the following question regarding time?

Why are the hands of clocks and watches in advertisements and jewelers' signs always pointing to 8:18 o'clock?

I have been told that that was the hour of Lincoln's assassination but if that is true what connection had Lincoln with watch manufacturers?

I will thank you very much for a prompt reply to these questions.

Miss FRAXKIE McKiNNEY

Cooper, Tex.

Clock hands in signs and such are set at from 8:15 to 8:25 so that jewelers may inscribe their names and advertisements above & below.--ED.

Road to Hell

Sirs:

You were speaking (Religion, Dec. 5) of the Virginian, Ashby W. Hardy, the poster of religious signs.

I drove some time ago from Hopewell into Petersburg and noticed this sign:

WHERE ARE YOU GOING? Then, a little further: YOU ARE ON THE STRAIGHT ROAD TO HELL And then:

THE PETERSBURG CHAMBER OF COMMERCE WELCOMES YOU

W. M. SHALLCROSS

Milwaukee, Wis. Mr. McCrossin's Accident

Sirs:

A long-TiME reader, the writer has never previously written you a correction.

Your comment in the Dec. 12 issue regarding my fellow townsman, Edward McCrossin, contained five counts: name, age, place of accident, nature of accident and quotation. Correct were name and place of accident. Wrong was the quoted age. The accident produced a jagged 36-stitch end-of-a-pipe wound in the right hand, not a broken collar bone. He did not say, when offered a drink, "Sir, I am a Prohibitionist, dead or alive" but, thinking clearly under stress as consulting engineers must, and considering that his heart had just been through a terrific strain he replied: "Thanks, but I'd rather have some water." A nondrinker, yet without scruples on the point aside from the question of health, and open-minded to the point of anti-Prohibition contributions, he was incorrectly quoted throughout the New England press.

W. H. LAUGHLIN

I.eonia, N. J.

Note to U. S.

Sirs:

May I refer to that paragraph in your issue of Dec. 12, under the sub-caption "Debts, Disarmament and Davis," of National Affairs, wherein you state:

"He [Sir Ronald Lindsay] handed Statesman Stimson a heavy brown envelope tied with blue cord. Inside, the brawny Briton explained, was another note from His Majesty's Government on War Debts."

Recently, that self-styled authority, Neal O'Hara, who imparts bits of unusual information with varying degrees of success through the columns of the Boston Traveler, says:

"When foreign nations exchange long notes with this country as England and France have recently been doing, they do not cable the notes at their expense, but give them to our ambassadors in England or Paris, who in turn transmit them to Washington at our own expense."

In view of the contradictory statements, someone is wrong. To whom shall this error be charged--usually reliable TIME, or occasionally erratic O'Hara?

A. STEINBERG

Winthrop, Mass.

The usual procedure: the nation starting a note exchange pays the tolls. In the recent instance: wrong, O'Hara; right, TIME. Britain and France paid.--ED.

Permission to print obtained. -- ED.

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