Royal Visit (cont'd)

Sirs:

I disagree with the gentlemen in Montreal [TIME, June 5] regarding your reporting of the Royal tour. I think you are doing a fine job, in fact an excellent job all round. . . . WM. R. HADDOCK Toronto, Ont.

Sirs:

Lest your spirit be bruised by articulate flat-footed imperialists, let me say that TIME'S objective coverage of the Royal Visit was TIMEly. The Canadian press, usually independent, fell flat on its face in the wave of hysteria which trailed the visit from coast to coast. "She smiled" and the press took over the role of angels. . . .

As district correspondent for seven years from Toronto to Vancouver, I sent off an account of their stop at Field near the crest of the Rockies. They had motored from Banff to Lake Louise, to Field, where their train awaited them, over one of the most spectacular drives in the world.

My account of it commented on what a rest it must have been to them to stare at this magnificent, regal mountain splendor, unwatched, after consistently playing the other role. It concluded with the remark that Mount Donald which towers over Field was cloud-capped during the visit and did not uncover for "God Save the King."

My story was ignored, even by the local weekly for which I work, and which is distinctly "folksy."

Maybe it's just sour grapes, but go ahead, I like it.

NANCY PERLEY MILES Cranbrook, B. C.

Sirs:

TIME, June 5, publishes -two letters from Montreal criticizing your reporting, in the issues of May 15 and 29, of the Royal Visit to Canada.

Mr. W. B. Harper evidently does not like having his Sovereigns "de-bunked." Had he read TIME as long as the writer, he would have known, 1) that TIME does not always go abroad to be "raw," "fresh" and "Smart Aleck," 2) that TIME, in its wisdom, has never hesitated to get under people's skins.

The article seems to the writer well calculated to inform your readers as to the present status of the British Crown, particularly as a constitutional device to unify the Empire.

I wish distinctly to take issue with Mr. Harper on the value of TIME to a Canadian reader: while its cover of Canadian news is grossly inadequate, and often trivial, TIME does beat the newspapers; examples: 1) the rise of Anthony Eden in British politics, (TIME was at least six months ahead of the newspapers), 2) I'Affaire Simpson. . . .

You should know that Mayor Houde, who seems in the past year to have become TIME-worthy, "wowed" Their Majesties. Antic: opening conversation at the banquet here by studying, as he sat between them, a list of conventions prepared for him which included the one that he must not open the conversation. . . .

GORDON D. McKAY

Montreal, Canada

Cope v. Franco

Sirs:

The recent struggle in Spain has harrowed us enough with Franco's cynical cruelties, aided by the Berlin-Rome Axis, against helpless noncombatants. But what could be more depraved than that now charged by Mr. Alfred Cope [TIME, June 19], administrator of the American Friends Service Committee, against General Franco? Mr. Cope says that six or seven shiploads of food intended for the starving children who are victims of the Totalitarian blockade of Loyalist Spain, were deliberately diverted by Franco to feed his army. . . .

. . . "Under the circumstances," says Mr. Cope, "it would simply be dishonest . . . money being collected abroad for this children's relief." ...

This is the climax to one of the greatest blots on our Christian civilization. The infidel Moors were never guilty of these degenerate excesses when they ruled Spain, and it was ironic that their descendants were hired to besmirch their fine record. . . . This crime of Franco's against the children of his own race reminds us that the spirit of the Inquisition is still alive in Spain.

W. G. T. FERNANDEZ New York City

Feelthy Enkles

Sirs:

"Nylon is not yet on the market, but Du Pont has given three girls at the New York World's Fair a pair of Nylon stockings apiece which they have been wearing steadily for the past three weeks. . . ." TIME, June 5 (p. 6). Hmm! Sotch feelthy enkles already.

TIP BLISS Coral Gables, Fla.

>Let Reader Bliss curb his gross humming ; the Nylon girls each night wash out their stockings.--ED.

TIME Marches On

Sirs:

Being a very ardent reader of TIME for some years, I thought it only my duty to write and let you know just how it helped me out recently. While hitchhiking from Toronto to a small town near Callandar, the home of the Quints, I was having very good success, but TIME magazine was my saviour. 1 seems this man driving a new car passed me near a town and when I walked through it I noticed him starting up again, this time he didn't pass me by, but stopped himself without me raising my hand. You see I was carrying a small bundle and on the outside I lad the latest issue (at the time) of your magazine. He told me after we were travel-ng along that anyone who read TIME was friend of his, he was also one of your many admirers. . . R. S. ROBERTSON Toronto, Can. Wily Bonefish Sirs:

"To get one [a bonefish] is a recondite art" (TIME, May 29) would make one think the taking of the world's greatest gamefish was a privilege reserved for only a few expert anglers. Does TIME know neither how to catch the wily bonefish nor the names of aonefish authorities? Name any given six past masters, one of whom might be willing to tell us how and with what to catch this most elusive speedster. Maybe this is asking too much since TIME did say where and when.

LAWRENCE GRISWOLD

American Geographic Society New York City > Three recognized methods of bonefishing: 1) from a shallow-draught skiff, 2) wading, 3) from sandy beaches (most difficult). Bait: (in the Florida Keys) finny and hermit crabs, or live shrimp; (in the Bahamas) conch. Bait is cast 50 to 75 feet. Rod: one-piece with tip not less than 5 feet 4 inches, not more than 4 oz. Reel: free spool without star drag, with a capacity of 600 feet of No. 9 thread line. Hook:

special short-shank bonefish hook on No. 4 airplane wire; streamlined casting lead.

Top four U. S. bonefishermen :

Henry Jarvis Howell, George M. L.

La Branche, Van Campen Heilner, Mortimer H. Cobb. -- ED.

Taft's Pair Sirs:

In TIME of May 22, in an article entitled "Economy's End," you say "even . . . such Republican economizers as Taft and McNary had not the political heart to say nay."

The facts are that I went on record against the bill [appropriating $1,218,000,000 to run the Department of Agriculture in fiscal 1940] in the Appropriations Committee, and I was paired against the passage of the bill in the Senate.

The article contains an implication of political cowardice, which is certainly answered by the fact that I was entirely willing to make a public record of my opposition to the bill.

ROBERT A. TAFT United States Senate Washington, D. C.

Given Name Sirs:

Referring to your notice of the death of Dr. Gatewood* in Chicago (June 5), do you happen to know whether the age of 51 is correct? I exchanged letters with him several years ago, and his gave me the impression that he was a much older man, but it may have been merely his handwriting that so indicated. I am a bit curious to know because I, too, am without a given name.

TlFFT Tifft-Top Tifft Road Dover, N. H.

> Dr. Gatewood was 51, as TIME reported. -- ED.

Sirs:

Your reference to First-nameless Dr. Gatewood (TIME, June 5, p. 54) reminds me of a familiar Negro true story of my ancestral plantation, Magnolia, near Ridgeway, S. C.

"Aunt Bino," who died 20 years ago at the age of about 90 years, bore a dozen sons, each dying in infancy. Negroes told her that their names killed them, so she didn't name her 1 3th son. He grew up to be known as "Nuttin" (Gullah for "Nothing"). When "Nuttin" reached 16, he disliked not having a name, so took one, and forthwith died.

CHARLES EDWARD THOMAS Sigma Nu Fraternity Indianapolis, Ind.

Michigeese Sirs:

I note your reference on p. 20 of TIME, June 12 to "Michiganders," as Michigan State residents.

I suppose, and hope, you mean male residents are Michiganders and females are Michigeese. I should hate to feel TIME slipped up.

TIME onks on ! !

A Son of a Mich.

EDMUND B. FRIEND Forest Hills, N. Y.

Pegler's Pa Sirs:

This is to thank you for the generous use of your invaluable space in outlining the career of a distinguished columnist's "Old Man" [TIME, June 5]. Your writer erred, however, in assuming that I regard a drink as a "libation" or ever did. To me, as to most of my friends, a drink is a jolt.

... As for my associations with Lowell Thomas and Ben Hecht in their formative years, Lowell has told his version by radio with characteristic generosity. Hecht was already a capable newspaper man when I first met him on the Chicago Journal. He resigned, I believe, when John Eastman knocked two shirts off his expense account when he returned from an emergency assignment.

Finally ... let me deny most emphatically that Westbrook's salary is any sort of joke to me. Quite the contrary I do assure you.

ARTHUR JAMES PEGLER Madison, Conn.

Monday Holidays Sirs:

The inconvenience and disruption to business and industry occasioned by Memorial Day falling on a Tuesday recalls the suggestion advanced by the writer in a letter to the President of the U. S. a year ago, which proposed the observance of holidays on Monday.

This measure would demonstrably add the equivalent of a billion dollars to national income. . . .

Briefly, it is proposed that all National holidays -- with the possible exceptions of Christmas and New Year's Day -- be observed on the Monday nearest the anniversary. . . .

The following preliminary figures . . . show the benefits in a few of the business classifications so affected: . . .

Railroads -- added passenger traffic plus savings resulting from freight traffic operations would represent the equivalent of a total increased revenue of at least $100,000,000 per year.

Industry -- elimination of midweek shut downs would effect savings representing the equivalent of increased gross sales of more than $750,000,000 per year.

Hotels -- the increased revenue would be, conservatively, $12,000,000 per year.

Oil Industry -- the increased revenue from gasoline sales alone would amount to more than $100,000,000 per year.

... It is the writer's conviction that if this proposal were adopted a great social and economic benefit would ensue.

NORMAN W. GEARE Philadelphia, Paf "Springtime in Europe" Sirs:

TIME'S piece [June 5] "Springtime in Europe" under Foreign News demonstrates in unique fashion the truth in the old adage that good work -- within even such exacting limits as are set by its almost incommensur able weekly journalistic aim -- brings out the master. . .

FRITZ E. OSTERKAMP New York City Royal Welch Sirs:

Shame on TIME for saying (May 15, p. 87) that Poet Robert Graves served as an officer with the "Royal Welch Fusiliers" !

The British are known as "Lime-Juicers" not "Grape-Juicers!"

LLOYD FANGEL Key West, Fla.

-- The Royal Welch Fusiliers have so spelled their name since the 17th Century. The spelling was officially confirmed by a British Army order in 1920, in recognition of the regiment's services during the World War. -- ED.

* Who had no first name. -- ED.

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