to let the public see what is being painted in the United States today. A newspaper doesn't endorse murder when it prints the news of a murder." May I complete his statement by adding that neither do newspapers pay prize money to the murderers? . . . GEORGIA S. RAPER Columbus, Ohio

Man of the Year (Cont'd)

Sirs: Although the year 1935 will leave a more unified impression on the historian than any of its immediate predecessors, this definiteness is the result of the commencement rather than the completion of several chapters in man's story. It was the first full year of Recovery in the U. S., and the beginning of a coincidental --and possibly related--decline in Franklin Roosevelt's popularity; the first year in which the League of Nations aggressively sought to end a war by punishing its perpetrator; and the year which gave evidence that the age-old machinery of diplomacy may lose none of its effectiveness when concealed beneath semi-modern League streamlining. The U. S. was certainly on its way back, despite the Government (Republican version), or ahead, because of the Government (Democratic version). In other words, times were better and a third-year tempest was seething in the national teapot, Recovery or no, Reform or no: and for the first time since 1931 the rumblings at home were more political than economic. [Franklin Roosevelt] in common with all his predecessors was coming down with third-year trouble. . . . Until the courts and the people might decide to accept his reforms Franklin Roosevelt, two-time Man of the Year, could not justly hope to repeat. In the Old World in 1935, for the first time since Versailles, a group of potent statesmen exercised concerted influence over other nations than their own. . . . . . . Prime undisputed rankings were those of Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie as Underdog of the Year, and of Italy's Dictator Benito ("Just-A-Man") Mussolini as Aggressor of the Year. The other leading characters in the puzzling exhibition included the youthful Front for Idealism, Great Britain's Captain Anthony Eden; his more practical Elder Uncle, Sir Samuel Hoare, who can use the word "we" with more force than most; their boss, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, who makes the "we" significant; and France's Premier and magnificent fence-straddler, swarthy Pierre Laval. Laval as Foreign Minister reached an agreement with Just-A-Man in January which Laval as Premier is having a Frenchman's own time in trying to keep. Since coming into office in June he has been sufficiently perplexed by France's economic and political crisis, a situation trying enough to sink many a lesser head of state as it had already sunk Doumergue and Flandin; but from this sizzling frying-pan he has been compelled to leap into a devil's fire oi a new kind of League politics. Attempting tc give Italy her promised free hand in Ethiopia, he has also acted as an Honest Broker in attempting to manacle that hand and giving the League its first taste of real power by applying sanctions. Regaining his Senate seat twice over, securing a comforting douceur from Great Britain in the shape of a promise of aid in the event of a Nazi invasion, maintaining the League's face above rumors of gentlemen's agreements, Italian reprisals and serious armed Fascist threats at home, 1931's Man of the Year stood almost an even chance of repeating in 1935. . . . If in 1932 the Republicans and Democrats of the U. S., faced with an A. F. of L. uprising, hid combined to re-elect Herbert Hoover to pull them out of the Depression, and if then some member of his cabinet such as a Secretary of the Navy Franklin Delano Roosevelt had rapidly risen to power overshadowing that of his slipping chief, the political face of the U. S. today might well bear a strong resemblance to Great Britain's. As Lord of the Admiralty (not sure of this)* in Ramsay MacDonald's cabinet Stanley Baldwin rose above his job only long enough to advance his country's frontier to the Rhine: since assuming his post on the bridge of H.M.S. Britannia in June his job has imposed almost as much taciturnity upon him. Yet it is at least probable that the most portentous single act of 1935, the appearance in Caesar's Marc Internum of Britain's mightiest men-of-war, was the inspiration of ex-Navyman Stanley Baldwin; and certain it is that the year's most timely election belonged from start to finish to that comforting apotheosis of John Hull. France still toils in a welter of internal difficulties, and Albion still exhibits plenty of perfidy at home and abroad; but the two most likely candidates for 1935s's Man of the Year appear to be Pierre Laval and Stanley Baldwin. CHARLES CASSIL REYNARD Girard, Ohio

Sirs, On the choice positions of U. S. newsstands, on the chests of insomniacs pillowed beside bed lamps, flaring red-bordered on kiosks in foreign thoroughfares, let the Jan. 6, 1936 Man-of-the-Year cover of TIME clarion the tortured-genius pan of SINCLAIR LEWIS as a resolutely and truly American affirmation that, by God, it can't happen here. NORMAN KLEIN New York City

Sirs:

Sinclair Lewis will be remembered when most everyone now living is forgotten. He is one of the important men of our time. He has written the most important book of our time. I nominate him for at least TIME'S Man of the Year. GEORGE SELDES New York City

Sirs:

May I be the first to nominate Benito Mussolini, target of world-wide economic sanctions, for TIME'S 1935 Man -of the Year? PHILIP ENGELDER Wellsville, N. Y.

Sirs:

Haile Selassie because he has shown the world with dignity how a nation that many regard as grotesque can face trials and tribulations. ROBERT H. ALLEN Cincinnati, Ohio

Man of the Year nominations are still open.--ED.

Prompt Action

Sirs:

Your prompt action in reducing the subscription price of TIME to Canadians is appreciated. ... It cost Canadians a good deal to be loyal to TIME. . . .

I doubt that the best American publications lost circulation, or that the Canadian periodicals gained very much. At least I notice just as many Sateveposts, Good Housekeepings, etc., in the hands of tramriders. . . . H. R. BALE Gardner-Denver Co. (Canada) Ltd. Montreal, Canada To TIME'S 2,026 subscribers, 3,642 newsstand buyers in Canada, appreciation of loyalty.--ED.

More Power Sirs:

Thanks for excellent story of the new transpacific air line in this week's TIME [Dec. 2]. More power to you.

C. KOUPER University of Rochester Rochester, N. Y.

*Not First Lord of the Admiralty, but Lord President of the Council (1931-35), was Stanley Baldwin. And onetime (1913-20) Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt was never in the Hoover Cabinet.--ED.

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