Procedure

Sirs:

In connection with the recent attempt upon the President-elect's life, several of us who are subscribers to your magazine have been discussing this and wonder just what the constitutional procedure would be if by some tragedy both the President-elect and Vice President-elect were to be accidentally killed, between the meeting of the electoral college and the following March 4. As there would be no Secretary-of-State, would a new general election be necessary?

W. J. BAKER

Chicago, Ill.

Had Mr. Roosevelt been killed in Miami, would Mr. Garner have been inaugurated as President on the 4th day of March, 1933?

In that case, who would have been sworn in as Vice President?

In case both the President-elect and the Vice President-elect die between the date of their election and the date set for their inauguration, what change takes place on the latter date?

Is there any possibility of the country having a reelection?

Your replies to these questions will be greatly appreciated.

BETTY BLAKE

Pinehurst, N. C.

The terms of the President and Vice President expire by limitation. Should the President-elect die before taking office, the Vice President-elect would be sworn into the Presidency. The Senate would elect a President of the Senate pro tem, as it did when Calvin Coolidge succeeded to the Presidency of the U. S., leaving the Vice Presidency vacant. Should the President-elect and Vice President-elect both die before taking office, the outgoing Secretary of State would temporarily assume the Presidency until Congress, invested with such powers by the Twentieth Amendment, selected a President and Vice President either by a vote of both Houses or by recalling the electoral college to make another choice.--ED.

Unselfish Majesty

Relating to some points of the article published under the title The League, "Benes or Bagfuls?" in your issue of Feb. 13, I regret to notice that the writer does not seem to be well-informed in regard to Persia.

His Imperial Majesty Reza Shah was selected as Ruler and ascended the throne by the unanimous will of the nation.

All Persians are proud of their Leader and fervently hope to regain the ancient prosperity under the skilful guidance of their beloved King.

I am quite confident that if the writer of the said article would know the unselfish character of His Imperial Majesty and his devotion for the welfare and progress of Persia, which placed him as an idol before his countrymen, he certainly would not end his article using the very ambiguous term which will never find the approval of the Persian nation standing so closely in friendship with the U. S.

Y. AZODI

Charge d'Affaires Legation Imperiale de Perse Washington, D. C.

Because humbly-born Reza Shah did not inherit his Throne but wrested Persia's Government from weak, sensuous, do-nothing Ahmed Shah by a coup d'etat in 1921, TIME will continue to call His Imperial Majesty "dynamic, self-made."

To loyal Charge d'Affaires Azodi all praise for emphasizing that four years after the coup d'etat Persia's Majlis (Parliament) formally deposed Ahmed Shah, formally elevated Reza Shah to the Peacock Throne.--ED.

"Douks"

Sirs:

Your account of the attempted deportation of Peter Verigin II and general comments on Doukhobors interested me very much (TIME, Feb. 13). I knew the circumstances in a vague way, but thanks to you, they are concisely embedded in my mind now.

I do think, however that you misrepresented old Peter slightly. According to you he was somewhat of a ladies' man and a bit primitive, what's more. He was killed in an explosion on the Kettle Valley railway, as you mention. The employes who have been running that line for many years knew him well. When one mentions him to any of them a gleam of admiration will appear. "Ah, there was a gentleman and an aristocrat. . . ."

And "beauteous singing maidens" is misleading also. Unless one has an eye for Guernseys and Holsteins, the beauty is unperceived. They have an appearance which might be termed serene, but is more accurately called stupid. The lack of clothing is also exaggerated, and not surprisingly so when one considers that nights are frosty in these parts except for three months a year. The removal of clothing annoys the police, and the "Douks" are wise enough to know this. Many people in the vicinity think the best means of combating the tendency to disrobe would be to ignore it. This, as you may guess, takes nonchalance. . . .

NANCY PERLEY MILES

Vancouver, B. C.

Pickler, Assassin

Sirs:

May I take this occasion to come to TIME's defense and to differ with Janet Lindsay Pollock in her letter concerning Fredric (Bickel) March that is published in the Feb. 20 issue of TIME. TIME states in its Nov. 28 issue, "Fredric March would have been vastly surprised a dozen years ago had anyone predicted that he would ever receive ... the Academy's Approval."

I knew Fredric Bickel at the University of Wisconsin. I was in some of the same college shows with him. In particular do I recall his appearance with Charles Carpenter in a Union Vodvil sketch in 1920 called, "Carpenter & Bickel, the Gloom Picklers" and in 1919 in an act with "Chuck" Carpenter in which they termed themselves, "Assassins of Sorrow." From the titles you can guess that they were comedians. Through all of these performances the thing that I remember distinctly is the extreme nervousness and stage fright of Fredric Bickel. Back stage before, during, and after each performance Fredric drank copious draughts of ice water and during dress rehearsal required considerable prompting from his partner. Fredric Bickel was always a modest and sensible sort of person: hence, I am led to agree with TIME that twelve years ago he would have been vastly surprised. . . . HOWARD ("SPARKS") DODGE

Chicago, Ill.

Animals Called Horses irs:

Your gasoline alcohol correspondents, Ralph Lovelady of Iowa and Tribuno of New York, have touched on a potent subject in your Feb. 20 issue. They, however, neglected to mention that 20 years ago much of the power of the country was furnished by animals called horses: that agriculture furnished the fuel called corn, oats and hay to run these horses: that man invented automobiles, trucks and tractors. Exit horses and exit also an important part of agriculture's market.

[Homer William] Hall of Illinois (paternal ancestor) has introduced a bill in this session. now in the Ways & Means Committee of the House, which if passed will make it compulsory that all gasoline used in the U. S. for fuel purposes be blended with grain alcohol made from agricultural products grown in the U. S. This would return a part of the lost market mentioned above, would solve the irritating surplus problems of the fruit growers of Florida and California, the cotton and rice growers of the South the wheat growers of the Northwest and the corn growers of the Central States. . . .

HARRY H. HALL

Hall Farms

Bloomington, Ill.

Iowa State College estimates that by tincturing the nation's gasoline with 10% of alcohol made from surplus crops, an annual outlet would be provided for 600,000,000 bu. of corn. Henry Agard Wallace of Iowa, next Secretary of Agriculture (see p. 12) is credited with having first commended to President-elect Roosevelt legislation requiring a gasoline-alcohol mixture. James Maurice Doran, Commissioner of Industrial Alcohol, has prepared a report on the project for Mr. Roosevelt.--ED.

Pomorze

Sirs:

Your use of "Polish Corridor ' to designate-- that portion of Poland which the Polish people know as Pomorze is both unTIMEly and unfair.

Polish people resent such terminology for that section of Poland. Only German propagandists relish the use of the sarcastic term, "Polish Corridor." It is a disrespectful term, and in observance of the status quo of Pomorze, and for the sake of brevity, Pomorze for all TIME, please.

STEPHEN BIELICKI

Camden, N. J.

Since officials of the Polish Government, when conversing with non-Poles, usually speak of Pomorze as the "Corridor," TIME will continue to employ, with no disrespect to Poland, this terse, descriptive TIME-worthy term.--ED.

B. O M.

Sirs:

As it must to all subscribers, TIME arrives punctually at the Hacienda Rio Negro, is never jungle-bound. Accordingly, it is no fault of TIME if I miss an occasional issue when I, jungle-bound, am away on an "inside" trip. Old TIMES are always new down here; all are read eventually. So it was that I came only recently upon the Aug. 15 copy and saw that Mr. Julian Duguid's Green Hell was quoted under the heading "Paraguay-Bolivia."

As one of South America's few professional B. O. M.'s (Big Outdoor Men) and dude-wranglers, my job is to make the jungle travel-easy for travel-bored, publicized, paying guests. And it is true, as several well known, faithfully-recording explorers have recently written, that the primitive jungle is as safe as modern Fifth Avenue, safer, possibly, than Broadway. In common with several of my colleagues, I think that Mr. Duguid overwrites his minor incidents for purposes of lay-appeal.

Typical Green Hellishness:

1) Aside from the fact that a newly shot alligator rarely floats, super-human strength and an extraordinary machete would be required to sever a large alligator's tail with a single blow.

2) South American B. O. M.'s marvel that Mr. Duguid could have held, successfully, a 15-ft., struggling anaconda while his companion, wearing heavy boots and carrying a motion picture camera, comes to him through a half-mile of deep marsh. Indeed, it was something of a feat for Duguid to have seen his companion wading through the marsh a half-mile away, if the brush was at all normal. We all wonder how Duguid kept the great snake within handy grappling distance from the time it was first seen until he grasped it upon sighting his companion returning.

3) The expedition, mounted on horseback, is cutting its way through the thick jungle with machetes. In itself, that smacks of the extremely difficult. But the members, as their arms wearied, changed their machetes from hand to hand. Again the local fraternity gasps at the legerdemain involved in wielding a machete in the left hand without casualties resulting, especially when mounted. . . .

RICHARD C. GILL

Hacienda Rio Negro

Banos, Ecuador

Dentist Sirs:

In TIME, Feb. 13, under Foreign News you refer to "dentist-like King Alexander.''

I don't get the meaning of the description--"dentist-like.''

Kindly explain.

MAX WINSLOW, D.D.S.

Detroit, Mich.

King Alexander of Jugoslavia has about him an air, not quite clinical, of cleanly meticulousness commonly found in dentists. He also, on occasion, wears a white coat.--ED.

Mandatory

Sirs:

Latin scholars may be satisfied with your interpretations of the meaning of the words "habeas corpus," TIME, Feb. 20, "Law Thaw," but lawyers are not. You apparently suggest that this ancient writ is addressed to the imprisoned man's friend or counsel, when you translate the words "You may have the body," but the words are to be treated as a command, "You shall have the body," and are addressed to the sheriff or such other person as may be holding the "body" in custody. The writ reads something like this. "We command that you shall have the body before us'' (i. e. the court). The subjunctive is mandatory and not permissive.

STANLEY EDWARD BEATTIE

Detroit, Mich.

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