Wagner v. Meyerbeer

Sirs:

In a recent issue of TIME you made a libelous statement about the "ingratitude" of one Richard Wagner.

If I recall correctly the situation, Wagner may have had no grievance against Jewish people in general, but he had a fair grudge against Meyerbeer in particular. While no specific date was given for the newly published Wagner letter, it probably dates from Wagner's Parisian period--or shortly thereafter, a period when Wagner was under the illusion that Meyerbeer was trying to be of great help. Newman, in his great biography of the master, states that Wagner later discovered that all during this period, when he was reduced to complete poverty and was trying desperately to secure a performance of Rienzi, his first stageworthy opera, Meyerbeer and his circle had done nothing but disparage Wagner, Rienzi, Wagner's ability, his morals. If this is true, whether Wagner or Meyerbeer was the "heel," is not open to much question. . . .

CHARLES BOLD

Philadelphia, Pa.

> Musical Courier's newly published letters (TIME, Nov. 3) had less to do with Meyerbeer's heelish behavior than with Wagner's hypocrisy--or worse. Let Reader Bold recall Biographer Newman's summing up of the Meyerbeer case: "There can be no doubt that he [Meyerbeer] exerted himself for Wagner both in Paris and in Berlin. . . It becomes more and more difficult to put up any defense against the oft-repeated charge against Wagner of ingratitude to his benefactors."--ED.

Men of the Year

Sirs:

Nomination for Man of the Year: unquestionably Franklin D. Roosevelt. He has put Great Britain and Russia on the WPA and has nearly completed a change in the form of the American Government.

JOHN R. PERKIN

Wayne, Me.

Sirs:

I nominate as Man of the Year Charles A. Lindbergh, who has had the courage to stand for what he knows is best for his country. . . .

LAMONT L. STEPHENS

Loup City, Neb.

Sirs:

I nominate Wendell Willkie, the man who took the "ticks" out of politics and interprets G.O.P. to mean "Gird Our President."

HAROLD BAXTER

Los Angeles, Calif.

No Vs

Sirs:

I am in receipt of a letter from a friend of mine in Tucson, Ariz., which says:

"I saw in TIME of last week that in your room they posted Vs, and also put them on your luggage."

I do not know who your informant was, but there just was not a word of truth in it. It did not happen to me at any time, or at any place. . .

This is only one misrepresentation which you have made. You printed a poll of a newspaper, an extremely small weekly, which is circulated in Great Falls, Mont. I have been told it does not issue more than 125 copies, probably not more than 250 at the very most. You can check this up with the printer.

Another poll was carried on by the Montana Hi-way News, published in Butte, another weekly paper. They gave county by county, showing as a matter of fact that I would receive a greater vote, if I was running today, than I received the last time, and I carried the State then by 114,000 while Mr. Roosevelt carried it by 46,000, and I never made a speech either in the primaries, or in the election in my own behalf, or in anybody else's behalf. . . .

BURTON K. WHEELER

United States Senate

Washington, D.C.

> TIME obtained its account of the V incident from a reliable correspondent and later received confirmation from two other sources. Senator Wheeler must know, but TIME cannot account for the flat contradiction.

The Hi-Way News poll to which he refers shows 34,000 votes for him to 12,000 against. It is apparently about as reliable as the earlier poll which TIME once mentioned, but neither seems to be taken very seriously in Montana.

In the 1940 campaign Senator Wheeler was elected by an unparalleled majority over a weak Republican candidate, E. K. Cheadle Jr., who was away serving in the Army at Camp Murray, Wash., and whose campaign, such as it was, was made by his wife. Most informed opinion in Montana seems to be that the Senator has lost strength in the past year but that if he had to stand for election today against any other candidate now in sight he would almost certainly win: the State is not too fond of his isolationism but he has a proved capacity for getting votes on other issues (farm aid, silver, labor legislation, etc.) and a strong political organization.--ED.

Gas at Changsha

Sirs:

Re your footnote in the Nov. 10 issue on last confirmed use of gas, by Italians in Ethiopia, following the story of Jack Belden, a fellow correspondent in the Far East who encountered Japanese use of gas in the battle of Ichang:

One of the six points on which I was jailed by the Japanese police last year was a story on the use of gas by their troops at the first battle of Changsha . The Japanese were trapped and, in their haste to retreat, used some gas, but buried most of the cylinders, which the Chinese captured.

The Japanese militarists thought, perhaps, they were far away from foreign eyes, but a number of foreign military attaches and correspondents went to Changsha. There they were shown the captured materials. . . .

JAMES R. YOUNG

Pittsburgh, Pa.

No Seizure

Sirs:

May I call gravely to your attention the astounding wording on the first page of your news section in your Dec. 1 issue?

You state, following a description of the well-being of President Roosevelt and as though it were a concomitant thereof, the following: ". . . He had seized a country--Dutch Guiana (Surinam)."

My knowledge of English may be limited, but the dictionaries do not deny my assumption that to "seize" is to take by force.

May I respectfully call to your attention that the sending of American troops to Surinam came about as the result of friendly negotiations between The Netherlands Government and the United States; that the sovereignty of the Kingdom of The Netherlands over Surinam never was and is not now questioned; that the agreement . . . is merely for the period of the emergency; that the American troops are to be withdrawn the moment hostilities are ended, etc., etc. . . .

DR. A. LOUDON

Netherlands Minister Royal Netherlands Legation Washington,. D.C.

> "Seize" was an unfortunate word, but TIME'S story went on to explain clearly and at some length that the occupation was made with full Netherlands consent--not as an invasion.--ED.

Origin of Ogontz

Sirs:

TIME'S mention in Letters of Ogontz, from which the well-known girls' school receives its name, does not reveal the origin of the name. Ogontz was an old Indian who served as a houseman in the home of my grandfather Erasmus Cooke at Sandusky, Ohio. My father often related to me how Ogontz used to carry him and also his cousin, the first Jay Cooke, piggie-back through the woods. When Jay Cooke and my father came to Philadelphia to enter the banking business, memories of Ogontz were so vivid that when Jay Cooke built his handsome home in the suburbs of Philadelphia, he called it Ogontz. The district then came to be known as Ogontz.

Later this property was purchased by the Ogontz School which now has moved to Rydal, Pa.

JAMES FRANCIS COOKE

President

Presser Foundation Philadelphia, Pa.

Strikes & Strong Bodies

Sirs:

I heartily agree with Sailor Hampton [who in TIME, Letters, Nov. 24, pointed out how much money was lost by workers striking for higher wages] who has a lot of Horse sense with a capital H. Having belonged to the union of my particular trade over a long period I was out during three major strikes, and the things my family and self had to do without can never be made up.

Look into the history of the rejected recruit, who has bad teeth, poor eyesight and enlarged joints.

As long as the laborer builds the nation, [he] should be able to buy for his family that which builds strong bodies, and the unending strikes certainly are not the answer.

E. ATCHISON

New York City

Sirs:

By the frequency of comments in your column from members of the armed forces of the U.S., it would appear that the majority are opposed to free American labor asking wage increases. It is not difficult to see that a group prevented by law from making demands are unwittingly opposed to anyone else's obtaining relief. It is like a small boy saying to his twin brother: "If I can't have a penny's worth of candy, neither shall you." There is a connection between labor and members of the armed force. . . . If one is raised, eventually so will the other's. . . .

I ask you boys who would you have on your football team, your police force, or in your army: a man who, seeing the light, has ambition, the willingness, yea the guts, to fight for what he considers just, whether it be on a firing line or walking in front of a factory with his banner held aloft?

ROY J. ARNTSON

Minneapolis, Minn.

Not Congenial

Sirs:

As a long-time reader of TIME and admirer of its accuracy, I was amazed to read (Nov. 17) that isolationist propagandists Eggleston, Feagin and Stewart "found . . . congenial company in . . . the $1,000,000 Indian temple transported by the Maytags from the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 to Lake Geneva." This statement is completely false. . . .

It is not pleasant to have one's name associated, even by implication, with isolationists and Nazi propagandists. It is most unjust in the present case in view of the superhuman efforts of the organization which I head to perform its share of the defense job. In tne December issue of The American Magazine, Donald M. Nelson lists The Maytag Company's defense program among his case histories of "magnificently inspiring voluntary cooperation."

FEED MAYTAG II

President

The Maytag Co. 9

Newton, Iowa

> TIME regrets having associated the Maytags (washing machines) with isolationists by implication. TIME drew a wrong inference from the fact that Isolationists Eggleston, Feagin and Stewart (of Scribner's Commentator and The Herald] were entertained at a, big picnic on the Maytag estate. But no Maytag was present, the Maytag house was closed, and no Maytag was aware of the political views of the guests. Hostess was a Mrs. Vickers, widow of a Lake Geneva dentist.--ED.

Judge Up

Sirs:

It was with somewhat of a shock that T read in the Nov. 3 issue of TIME that my pet baby was dead, as TIME referred to the "defunct Judge." . .

"America's oldest humorous magazine" has, had a somewhat checkered career, but I believe is in a healthier condition now than for several decades, with newsstand sales up,, subscriptions increasing each month, and the magazine actually in the black. I, therefore,, feel as Mark Twain said about the report of his death. . . .

W. NEWBOLD ELY

Editor

Judge

Ambler, Pa.

> Judge had a definitely skipping pulse for a while, but did not expire. In its revived form it is a monthly (15-c-).

--ED.

"Saroyantics"

Sirs:

Please hand one large and beautiful bouquet to the guy responsible for the piece on Saroyan's Fables in the Books section of the Nov. 17 issue. It's a honey, a wow and the perfect commentary on the Saroyantics.

PAUL CHILD

Avon, Conn.

Pinko, Stinko

Sirs:

In the Nov. 10 issue of TIME under National Affairs you referred to the New Republic magazine as the pinko New Republic. That seems to come under the heading of smart remarks, the kind that causes teachers to send highschool freshmen to the principal's office. . . .

I subscribe to and read both the pinko New Republic and the stinko TIME.

E. A. COURNYER

Principal

Owosso High School

Owosso, Mich.

> The difference in adjectives is that pinko is descriptive of political coloration and stinko is just a term of reproach. -- ED.

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