Woman Skipper
Sirs:
Gotcha!
Apparently somebody's regional patriotism and/or laziness took charge of your article about Captain Mary Greene (TIME, Jan. 27).
"She's the only woman licensed as a navigator on U. S. inland waterways," or words to that erroneous effect. Tsk!
Mrs. Minnie Hill of Portland, Ore., was the first woman west of the Mississippi to be licensed by the U. S. Bureau of Marine Inspection & Navigation. She obtained her ticket in 1886, and for many years thereafter was master of the steamer Governor Newell on the Columbia River. . . .
Mrs. Lee R. Jensen, also of Portland, holds a limited ticket for the Willamette and Columbia Rivers.
Mrs. Lewis of Everett, Wash., Mrs. Wyman of Tacoma, and Mrs. Grimson of Seattle are all engaged hereabouts as masters of inland vessels. Mrs. Grimson is particularly noteworthy for her managership of freighting sternwheel steamers--the last of the once great Puget Sound fleet--after many years as skipper of same.
CASEY DAVISON
Marine Editor
The Tacoma Times
Tacoma, Wash.
> To Mrs. Minnie Hill, TIME'S apologies. Now 78, dignified, charming Mrs. Hill modestly deprecates her pilot past, turns down all radio offers, gets roiled when she is compared with Tugboat Annie. (Beams her proud husband, however: "Minnie, if you had a little more gall, you'd be in the movies.") Says Mrs. Hill of her "ancient history": "I never wore overalls, I wore skirts."
Increasing Interest
Sirs:
Since last fall I have been reading TIME'S Religion department with increasing interest and respect. For those of us who are confused and deeply concerned for the welfare of Christianity in a Dictator-threatened world, it is a great help to discover a magazine which reports the truly significant happenings in religion and the heroic fight of the Church in countries which are far worse off than we are. Certainly the articles in TIME over the last few months have given me--a layman--a far better idea of what the Church is doing in this troubled world than I ever had before.
JAMES MCDERMOTT
New York City
> Churchmen in recent months have asked for an unprecedented number of reprints of TIME'S Religion stories. To meet this demand TIME has reprinted eight leading recent Religion stories in a separate booklet. Laymen as well as churchmen are welcome to this booklet.--ED.
Vociferous
Sirs:
It is a disheartening fact in our country's political life that a minority of objectors to a popularly approved measure or policy can make its opposition so vociferous as almost to persuade the majority that it is not in the majority. . . .
A case in point is the present "debate" on the President's Lend-Lease Bill. Here, in Chapel Hill, a small group of pseudo-pacifists have obtained strategic positions on the editorial staff of the official university paper, the Daily Tar Heel, and in the discredited and split but still Communist-dominated local branch of the American Student Union, and, by their editorials and handbills vociferously campaign against effective action in aid of the Allies while the rest of the university community sits by and does nothing.
A recent poll of campus opinion by the Tar Heel itself showed an overwhelming majority of students and faculty in favor of all defense preparations and aid to Britain short of nothing. . . .
HARVEY LEBRUN
Chapel Hill, N. C.
Sirs:
Former Rhodes Scholars in the U. S., as well as in the British Dominions, will question the good taste and propriety of President Alan Valentine's (Rochester University) testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in opposition to the Lend-Lease Bill.
President Valentine, of course, is entitled to his opinion as to whether or not the passage of this legislation will lead the U. S. into war, but as a recipient of the generosity of Cecil Rhodes and the hospitality of the British people for a period of three years it ill becomes him to publicly oppose aid to Great Britain. Furthermore, most of us will agree with Senator Barkley when he told Valentine, "Your testimony has been of no value." . . .
HERBERT G. FORD
(Florida and [Rhodes Scholar at] Christ Church, '21)
Atlanta, Ga.
Cruel Fate
Sirs:
The letter quoted below deserves, in my opinion, to rank with that written by Lincoln to Mrs. Bixby. Because of its historical value and as a simple act of justice to a brave and maligned people, I ask you to give it to the world.
"I can do nothing about your troble [sic] with Angelo but I can enlighten you about the Battle of Caporetto. True, the story of that tragic episode is in our Italian schoolbooks, but are they read in America?
"In the beginning of November 1917, I was with the 19th Division of Capello's army in the Udine. We were at the headwaters of the Isonzo in the southeastern Alps. General Cadorna had two other divisions near ours. We faced the enemy. Both armies in battle formation. On the fourth day of the month my Major Cascara, temporary brigade commander, chanced to look below and behind us and saw a small group of soldiers in Austrian uniform. They were Tyroleans who had deserted to join us. Naturally, Cascara thought the enemy had circled us to attack our rear. He pointed and cried 'The enemy ! Charge them!' The Italian response to Cascara was lightning-like. In a moment our division, a few minutes later to be joined by two others--all totaling 54,000 men--were charging madly down the mountainside to grapple with their foes. I was at the head of my company. The three or four deserters were trampled down and, as we saw no sign of the enemy, we concluded that they were fleeing from us. We continued our mad pursuit and, not to be handicapped, threw down our weapons. What cared we for the enemy's guns? Our naked hands would suffice to destroy the invaders of our land.
"When I and my company reached the Adriatic after a sustained pursuit of 20 hours we realized that we had been tricked. Not by Cascara but by a cruel fate. The pressing crowd behind us drove the vanguard into the sea. I was there for two hours. It was an unparalleled affair. A battle in which none were wounded and none were killed. Not a prisoner was taken by the victors! For my part in the ineffectual but meritorious attack, I was given the coveted Winged Sandal of Gold.
"Now in the stories of alleged British victories in Africa appear distorted accounts of Caporetto, often accompanied by coarse, stupid jokes about the name of the unfortunate but gallant brigade commander who gave the order to charge. Well, to them I will say that I have with me now five veterans of Caporetto awaiting passage to join Graziani in Libya. When we arrive there those who now jeer will laugh on the other side of the nose.
RAFAELLO DI MARIA
Late Captain,
Royal Tyrolean Italian Inf."
I submit to you, Mr. Editor, that the above are words of a gallant and simple gentleman. Please do him justice.
HOWARD PITCHER OKIE
Washington, D. C.
> Reader Okie's remarkable version of Caporetto is a skillfully concocted hoax. TIME publishes it for the sake of narrative color.--ED.
Relatively Safe
Sirs:
In TIME, Feb. 3 . . . I noticed where Winthrop Rockefeller drew a draft order number in the "safe 6,000s." What did the writer mean by "safe"? . . .
J. A. WYLIE
Lewiston, Me.
TIME might better have said, "safe for the time being." Men now being recruited by Rockefeller's draft board have order numbers in the 500-600 range.--ED.
Black Chamber
Sirs:
In TIME [Feb. 10] you refer to the hardworking Code Department of the State Department.
I believe it would be very timely if you would inform us who is in charge of the Code Department and particularly whether Herbert O. Yardley is doing his magic.
I have just had the opportunity of rereading Mr. Yardley's The American Black Chamber and it is evident that his abilities could be put to excellent use at the present time.
SPENCER BURNS
Chicago, Ill.
> Present head of the Code Department is astute, dapper, pipe-loving David A. Salmon. Last year Cipherman Yardley was reported living in Chungking under an alias, breaking Russian and Japanese codes for the Chinese Government.--ED.
Amazement
Sirs:
Usually I am slow to enter the ranks of the fan, but I feel that I should like to have you know that TIME is surely one of the indispensables for an American who lives abroad. Further than that, it is one of the most inspiring pieces of reading matter I see, not lacking in spiritual tone and sense of mission, it seems to me.
Your special election section is illustration enough of that. I am amazed, however, by your ability to gather and analyze news on situations in the corners of the world, which, added to your service on affairs domestic, makes each copy of TIME something to be kept. . . .
EUGENE A. TURNER
Secretary for Shantung Region T
he National Committee
Young Men's Christian Associations of China
Tsingtao, China
> Thank you, Reader Turner.--ED.
diesel
Sirs:
"The fire-fated German dirigible Hindenburg was Diesel-powered. . . . But in the U. S. few know about the man whose name goes on the engines. Indeed, the word is often written lowercase" (TIME, Dec. 9). Watt are you talking about? Ampere would feel complimented. Is it not well-established English orthography to lower-case such pioneers? Rudolf Diesel devised, in fact, such a unique power plant that it seems almost redundant nowadays to append to diesel, fully self-explanatory, the generic term engine. . . .
WALTER ROBB
Editor
The American Chamber of Commerce Journal
Manila, P. I.
> TIME'S intention was not to criticize the frequent lower-case spelling of Diesel but to spotlight the fact that the name of the engine had eclipsed the name of the man. Some other scientific words (besides watt and ampere) from the names of great pioneers: ohm, coulomb, gauss, henry, maxwell, gilbert, volt (from Volta), galvanize (from Galvani).--ED.
Norwegian Ships
Sirs:
In TIME, Jan. 20, you state: "Britain began the war with 21,215,621 tons. She took over from nations defeated by Germany (Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, France), chartered and bought from neutrals, and herself completed new ships for a total gain of 9,158,000 tons."
Please be advised that Britain has not taken over a single Norwegian ship. While fighting was still going on in Norway, the Norwegian Government requisitioned all Norwegian ships in Allied and neutral waters totaling about 1,000 ships of 4,000,000 tons. The Norwegian Shipping & Trade Mission, under a shipping director, was established, and this mission later moved to London. Branch offices have been established in New York, San Francisco, Montreal and Halifax. All Norwegian ships are operated by the Mission, they are manned with Norwegian sailors, and they are all proudly flying their Norwegian flag. It is true that most Norwegian ships are chartered by the British Government, and the income enables the Norwegian Government to meet its debts, to train an army of Norwegian soldiers in Scotland, to train several hundred Norwegian air pilots in Canada, and to purchase bombing and fighting planes in the U. S., and motor torpedo boats for the small Norwegian navy operating effectively from England. . . .
THO. K. WEIBELL
Master
S.S. Gansfjord
Cristobal, C. Z.
Regret
Sirs:
A crime was committed and there was an arrest, and a young man was thrown into a cell. The crime was great, and the young man was just a boy, and the cell was dark. Life seemed at an end and hell became a living thing. Regret tore at every breath--but regret unlocks no doors, as the young man soon found.
He had always cherished his freedom and liberty--all his life up until this crime was committed he had been a good boy, honest and patriotic. Wanting always to do the right thing--yet he made one slip--so easy, without half trying to do wrong. Today, branded for life as a criminal--wanting more than anything to serve in the armed forces of his country; to prove his worth as a citizen and his loyalty to his country. Yet, just because of only this one error of his 24 years, will never be given that chance he so desires.
I am an inmate of one of the largest penitentiaries in the world, San Quentin. A horrible prison, through which one sees a stream of faces; solemn, accusing faces, and vacuous, prying faces that twitch and slobber in thrill-sated ecstasy at sight of one who still professes his patriotism.
Why does Mr. Cole (TIME, Jan. 27) think criminals do not cherish their liberty? . . . If I were allowed to enlist in the U. S. Navy, I'm sure the lesson I have learned would greatly benefit those whom Professor John B. Waite [who deplored the exclusion of criminals from Selective Service training--TIME, Dec. 30] speaks of. Yes, I know CRIME DOES NOT PAY. . . .
J. WALLACE NORMAN JR.
San Quentin, Calif.
The Playing Fields of Eton
Sirs:
TIME, Jan. 20 quotes the Duke of Wellington as having said that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. . . . According to Lyte's History of Eton College, the only record of any remark of this kind is contained in a contemporary account . . . : "He looked into the garden and asked what had become of the broad ditch over which he used often to leap. He said: 'I really believe I owe my spirit of enterprise to the tricks I used to play in the garden.' . . ."
LEWIS ROBERTS
Organist
St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church
New Westminster, B. C.
> Like most famed sayings, Wellington's gives a slight toehold to apocryphists. But TIME will continue to credit Wellington with the saying unless 1) somebody can prove that he did not say it, or 2) that the saying is false to the spirit it symbolized. --ED.
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