Grandfather

Sirs:

Irate members of my family in Albany have just drawn my attention to your review (TIME, Dec. 13) of Victoria Sackville-West's Pepita. . . . Your reviewer refers to my grandfather as the ''bachelor President Arthur." . . .

CHESTER A. ARTHUR III

New York City

Of the 31 U. S. Presidents, one was a bachelor. Chester Alan Arthur, TIME'S careless book reviewer to the contrary, was not the man.--ED.

Credit to Kritcher

Sirs:

When I picked up TIME [Jan. 10] this morning to read the Post story I was disturbed about one omission. There was no mention of Larry Kritcher, the assistant art editor. . . .

I feel pretty deeply about it since without his help the art department's efforts of the past year would have been seriously handicapped, and great credit is due him for any improvements which have been made in the physical appearance of the Post.

W. THORNTON MARTIN Art Director

Saturday Evening Post

Philadelphia, Pa.

Big Hearted Bryan

Sirs:

. . . What do you mean by calling the Post's Associate Editor Joseph Bryan "par-simonious?"

In Jenkintown, the Philadelphia suburb near which they live, the Bryans' gracious hospitality is a byword and to both gentry and tenantry alike Mr. Bryan is known as Big Hearted Joe. He hasn't got any St. George in the middle of his name, either. You people have a lot to learn about Joe Bryan.

LEE NORRIS

New York City

TIME, contrite, is always willing to learn.--ED.

Second Clarinetist

Sirs:

Concerning Charles Wakefield Cadman's Dark Dancers of the Mardi Gras, TIME, Dec. 13, I have a bit of additional information. . . .

The Portland Junior Symphony Orchestra, of which I was second clarinetist and bass clarinetist for several seasons, presented Dark Dancers in concert Feb. 5, 1935, Mr. Cadman at the piano. The music was of course played from manuscript. On each sheet, the title was written on a slip of paper pasted over some previous heading, which, after steaming off the paper slips, turned out to be Dance of Scarlet Sister Mary. Needless to say, those of us who were "in on the know" procured and devoured (somewhat secretively in a few cases I fear) copies of that book. Concert night, the program notes stated that Mr. Cadman's composition had been influenced by the writings of George W. Cable, at which statement several of us held our tongues in our cheeks. . . . A. F. MUENCHOW Omaha, Neb.

To inquisitive Second Clarinetist Muenchow, a mild rebuke for steaming off Composer Cadman's title. Julia Mood Peterkin's 1928 Pulitzer Prize Scarlet Sister Mary, a somewhat less scandalous book than the title led the Portland Junior Symphony Orchestra to believe, inspired Composer Cadman to write Dance of Scarlet Sister Mary. After he had watched a New Orleans Mardi Gras he rewrote it, keeping the theme but less than half of the actual music of the original.--ED.

How Come?

Sirs:

How come all the good priests happened to be listening to Mae West [TiME, Dec. 27]? ...

F. TACZ

Lorain, Ohio

Bum Information

Sirs:

... It is evident that as far as the writer of the article "Hoover Affair" (TIME, Dec. 27) is concerned, there is only one class of Americans that count--Americans who are financially better off than the seamen, and consequently more prominent in the eyes of the Dear Public--for instance Dr. Copeland and his type of publicity seekers. . . .

The article we refer to moans about "hooliganism" among U. S. seamen--but for your information we would inform you of the following fact: Every sailor aboard the S. S. President Hoover carried Government certificates: Abie-Bodied Seamen's certificate and Lifeboat certificate issued by the U. S. Government's Marine Inspection and Navigation Inspection Service, which bureau comes under the administration of the Department of Commerce. Surely you are not accusing Secretary Roper's Department of negligence ?

We understand that Dr. Copeland and Secretary Roper are the best of friends, and we hope that they don't get their publicity mixed. .

Your reference to ''West Coast hiring hall?" is in line with the rest of this biased article. For your information we would like to point out the difference in standards from the hiring halls as now operated under union control, as against what it was under the "open shop" days, which Dr. Copeland . . . would like to see returned. In the days before the unions signed agreements with the shipowners for union hiring halls, there were operated what are known as the "fink halls"--hiring halls operated by the shipowners. Hopheads. hayseeds, and all the trash in the country, everyone but seamen, had preference as long as they accepted coolie wages and conditions which then prevailed in American ships.

As for the rest of the ... statements in this article relative to drunkenness and bad behavior of the crew, it is evident that some guys have given you plenty of bum information. Any man familiar with the sea and conditions at sea would take this story, which sounds like it was written by a punch-drunk moving picture scenario writer, for so much drivel. . . .

HARRY LUNDEBERG

Secretary-Treasurer Sailors' Union of the Pacific San Francisco, Calif.

Last fortnight the President Hoover, a large hole in her forward end, was abandoned by the Dollar Line, turned over to her insurers. TIME'S information about hooliganism at the time of the wreck came from statements made public by passengers when landed at Manila. Later evidence seems to indicate that the roistering was confined to a small portion of the crew who had landed with passengers on Hoishoto Island.

TIME'S story also contained a reference to similar charges made by one Daniel B. Irwin against the crew of the Black Diamond freighter Black Falcon, en route from Hoboken to Rotterdam. Daniel Irwin said the cook got the crew drunk whereupon the crew began throwing freight into the sea and snarling at the passengers, chiefly Daniel Irwin. When the Black Falcon docked last week in Hoboken, Chief Officer Russell Goodman explained:

"The vessel was headed into a heavy norther which was tossing us around and filling the forward deck with four feet of water. We were carrying a shipment of 477 empty barrels on that deck, and they started to break loose and smash door knobs. . . . To save the ship from damage, we brought her around out of the wind so the crew could clear the deck and throw some of the barrels overboard. Irwin went on the forcastle head and watched the crew at work. But when the third officer headed the ship in the wind again, Irwin kept standing there, although it was the most exposed part of the ship. So we had to order him down to save his own life."--ED.

Spotless Panay

Sirs:

In the issue of TIME, Dec. 27, you refer to the U. S. S. Panay as a grimy little gunboat. Certainly she was a small vessel, but never grimy.

Some three years I served in China, most of that time spent in duty with the Yangtze patrol, aboard the coal-burner Monocacy. Several times I have been aboard the Panay. There was not a cleaner ship in the U. S. Navy. . . .

As are all ships of the Yangtze Patrol, the hull and superstructure of the Panay was white, the stacks orange. The ships are kept immaculately clean at all times. The paintwork is scrubbed so often the paint never becomes thick enough to require chipping. . . .

So in the future please refrain from calling any of our ships grimy, especially the little white fleet that patrols the Yangtze River. . . L. R. EARL

U. S. S. Chicago

San Pedro, Calif.

Helpful Footnote

Sirs:

On p. 28, TIME, Dec. 27, I miss your usual helpful footnote with pronunciation of Hrdlicka. Is it pronounced "Hard-liquor"? HY. W. SANDERS

Morris, Man., Canada

Smithsonian Institution's able Anthropologist Ales Hrdlicka pronounces himself Ah-leesh Hurd-leech-ka.--ED.

Sound Wine Critic

Sirs:

Is TIME afraid of saying things straight out? I am one of the people who drink per-haps more than their statistical share of the 63,000,000 gallons of California wine TIME mentions in the Jan. 3 issue. So I was delighted to see that you condescend far enough to admit that the wine I have been drinking since Prohibition ended--even, if you must know, before prohibition ended--is remotely fit to drink, despite the fact that it is not poured by a reverent waiter from a bottle covered with cobwebs. I have seen that admitted before, but only in trade papers. . . .

But you wriggle awfully self-consciously. You say: "... Many sound wine critics con-cede . . . that in its class . . ." etc., etc. What is a sound wine critic? I am a sound wine critic. It is confounded snobbery to think that the only people who can tell good wine from bad are experts who spend their short lives sipping and spewing out, sipping and spewing out. never swallowing a mouthful for fear of perverting their taste. I myself have no fear of perverting my taste. And I am just about the only wine critic in the world who is not in the pay of somebody or other. . . . ARTHUR R. SMITH New York

Morehead v. Sonnenberg

Sirs:

I was happy to give TIME some information for an account of The Culbertsons, Inc., which appeared in your issue dated Dec. 13. I was amazed when that issue appeared, to see in it statements purporting to be facts, which are untrue tc an absurd and damaging extent. I assume, of course, that any unqualified statement in TIME is represented as a fact.

TIME, Dec. 13, said: "In 1930 the Culbertsons were taken in hand by Manhattan Press-agent Benjamin Sonnenberg, and before long they had their pictures in the papers. . . . The next year, in a blaze of newspaper publicity instigated by hard-working Mr. Sonnenberg, the Culbertsons challenged Sidney S. Lenz. . . ."

The Culbertson-Lenz match was entirely conceived and executed by Ely Culbertson. Mr. Sonnenberg worked for Mr. Culbertson for one month in 1931 and had nothing to do with the Culbertson-Lenz match. In 1930 the Culbertsons were already, except for Milton C. Work, the best-known bridge players in the country.

ALBERT H. MOREHEAD New York City

After hearing Mr. Morehead, managing editor of Bridge World, and Mr. Sonnenberg, and seeing such evidence of their connection with Mr. Culbertson as they were able to produce, TIME reported the facts as it saw them. The differences between the gentlemen are not TIME'S concern.--ED.

Index

Sirs:

TIME'S news is so far-reaching that I have been rather astonished to find you have omitted to state the sad fact that our benighted, bigoted--and therefore backward-- province of Quebec has banned the picture Zola.

B. TAYLOR

Quebec, Canada

Warner Brothers' The Life of Emile Zola, which was voted best film of the year by U. S. critics, is forbidden in Catholic Quebec because all of Emile Zola's works are on the famed Catholic Index of Banned Books.--ED.

Recognition

Sirs:

Apropos Ireland's recognition of Italy's conquest of Ethiopia [TIME, Dec. 27], I have before me a globe map by C. S. Hammond & Co., New York City, on which Ethiopia is marked "Italian Empire of East Africa." ARTHUR H. MORSE

Monroe, N. Y.

Rand McNally globes also label Ethiopia as 'Italian East Africa." The score so far for de jure recognition of the Ethiopian conquest: Germany, Austria, Hungary, Albania, Japan, Switzerland, Jugoslavia, Insurgent Spain, Manchukuo, Yemen, C. S. Hammond & Co., Rand McNally & Co.--ED.

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