Defaulting States

Sirs:

In your issue of April 14 (at p. 16) you report that the [British] Council of the Corporation of Foreign Bondholders has asked the [U. S.] National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement to see to the payment of (Confederate bonds issued by Mississippi and other southern States, and held in large part by British subjects. You do the Council a grave injustice. They have too much good sense to ask for the payment of Confederate bonds. Hopes on that score died when General Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House in 1865; at best, they could not have survived the ratification of the 14th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution in 1868. . . .

The Mississippi bonds referred to were issued long before the Civil War. in the decade from 1830 to 1840. Their purpose was to furnish funds for the establishment of two state banks. In 1841, alter the banks had failed, Mississippi defaulted on her payments, and has been in default ever since. The Supreme Court of Mississippi in 1842 declared the bonds to be binding obligations ol the State, but still the default continued. Indeed, in 1875 the Slate incorporated in its constitution a provision forbidding the payment of any ot the defaulted bonds.

The other repudiated southern State bonds include issues of the State of Alabama both before and since the Civil War. Arkansas issues running back as early as 1838, Florida issues of 1834 and 1839. bonds issued by Georgia during the reconstruction period, Louisiana bonds repudiated in 1872, post-war issues in North Carolina and both pre-war and post-war issues in South Carolina. The validity of some of the issues is contested, but the Supreme Court of the U S held the North Carolina bonds to be valid as long ago as 1904. (South Dakota v. North Carolina, 192 U. S. 286.) The U. S. held some of the defaulted bonds in the Indian Trust Fund, but was able to secure payment by virtue of an act of Congress authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to withhold from moneys which the U. S. might owe any defaulting State sufficient amounts to pay the principal and interest of the bonds (U. S. Code Title 31, Sec. 207.)

Individuals who hold the repudiated bonds however, are without redress, for the 11th Amendment prevents them from bringing suit against the debtor State. An ingenious writer in Foreign Affairs for April. 1928, suggested that the British Government acquire the bonds held by British subjects, and that the U. S. permit them to be applied toward the payment of the British debt to the U. S. . . .

ORRIN G. JUDD Harvard Law Review, Cambridge, Mass.

TIME was mistaken, but not intentionally or to conciliate subscribers in States which have repudiated their obligations, as able Case Editor Orrin G. Judd of the Harvard Law Review ingeniously suggests.--ED.

Pennsylvania's Kiess

Sirs:

As interested voters in the 16th Pennsylvania Congressional District, we ask you to publish the record of Edgar R. Kiess. representing the 16th Pennsylvania District in Congress since 1913.

WILLIAM W. SCOTT HENRY LANE ASH A. W. GILLESPIE MRS. LOUISE CLARK J. A. MOSTELLER South Williamsport, Pa.

The record of Representative Edgar Raymond Kiess of the 16th Pennsylvania District is as follows:

Born: In Warrensville, Lycoming Co., Pa., Aug. 26, 1875.

Start in life: A wagonmaker's helper.

Career: Born of stolid German stock ("Pennsylvania Dutch"), he helped his father about the wagon shop, received a brief formal education spent his summers as a $2-per-week country store clerk. Aged 14, he was graduated from Lycoming Normal School. Aged 16, he taught public school for two terms. Aged 19, still a clerk, he moved to Hughesville, where he later developed a real estate business that developed into a thriving summer resort known as Eagles Mere. He is now president of: Eagles Mere Land Co., Eagles Mere Hotel Co., Raymond Hotel Co., Edgar R. Kiess Co., Eagles Mere Co. Instinctively a politician, he attended his first Republican county convention at 21, was elected to the State Assembly nine years later. After his service at Harrisburg (1904-10), he moved to Williamsport, his present home, where in 1912 he defeated Democratic Representative William Bauchop Wilson (later U. S. Secretary of Labor) for Congress. Since 1913 his service in the House has been continuous.

In Congress: A strict G. 0. P. regular who follows his party, right or wrong, he has risen by seniority of service to No. 2 position in the Pennsylvania House delegation. He is Chairman of the House Insular Affairs Committee, which would deal with Philippine independence and Porto Rican statehood if the Republican party ever decided to change the status quo of these possessions. The Kiess committee is inactive because it is the party's will.

He voted for: The Soldier Bonus (1924), Farm Relief (1927, 1928, 1929), The Volstead Act (1919), The Jones ("Five & Ten") Law (1929). Tax Reduction (1926, 1928, 1930), the Federal Reserve Board Law (1914), Flood Control (1928), Boulder Dam (1928), the Navy's 15-Cruiser Bill (1929), Immigration Restriction (1923), Reapportionment (1929), the tariff (1922, 1929). He voted against the tariff (1913).

He votes Dry, does not fanatically agitate the issue, drinks mostly Dry.

In foreign affairs he opposes the World Court, the League of Nations, strongly advocates a ten-year restriction on all immigration.

Legislative hobby: Insular affairs. He spends much of his time on inspection junkets to outlying U. S. possessions.

One fairly important piece of legislation bears his name: an act regulating the wages of Government printers, the only law ever passed incorporating the principle of collective bargaining.

In appearance he is tall, Teutonic, big-boned, slightly stooped. He dresses in modest blues or greys, wears horn-rimmed spectacles, sombre neckties, spats. He does not smoke or chew. He drives a Ford to the Capitol to work, a Packard when he goes back to his district. A trustee of the Bethany Presbyterian Church at Williamsport, he attends service regularly when Congress is not in session. His fraternal connections: Masons, The Grange, Odd Fellows, Patriotic Order of Sons of America.

Outside Congress: A bachelor when he came to Congress in 1913, he married Miss Roemer Clarke of Washington in 1919. They have two daughters, 10 and 3, live in a fashionable Washington hotel, are not socially ambitious. For recreation he attends the theatre, the cinema (his favorite cinemactress: Gloria Swanson), popular concerts. He long ago abandoned golf because he was a dub.

Impartial House observers rate him thus: A steady-going unimaginative legislator, he possesses qualities which regular Republicans consider sterling. No House leader, he gives reliable support to the House leadership. He is a good specialist on insular affairs, deprived by G. O. Policy of an opportunity to display his legislative ability and special knowledge along that line. Politically practical, above the average in parliamentary intelligence, he lends substance if not color to the Republican House majority.--ED.

Butler Defended

Sirs:

With reference to the letter captioned "Butler flayed" (TIME, April 14, p. 8), and your comment "Do all Marines agree?". No, in capital letters, NO.

. . . I could fall back on some good old Marine Corps unprintable phrases, but I will just say that I HEAR lusty-lunged Marines singing the strains of "Sweet Adeline" in Quantico, Va., Baltimore, Washington, D. C., San Diego, California, Tientsin, China, and many other places, and down in front of the stands, wearing a pleased smile, is the one and only Smedley Darlington Butler, Major General, U. S. Marine Corps. You will find that the General has many more friends than enemies.

Now to paraphrase the "Marine's" closing line: "Would to God that General Butler could go on in the Marine Corps forever."

JOHN W. KNOX Quartermaster Sergeant, U. S. M. C. Denver, Colorado

Sirs:

In reply to your inquiry ("Do all Marines agree?"), I have the distinction of being not only an original TIME subscriber but also of having served in Co. I, 13th Reg. U. S. M. C.--buck private rear rank, 1st platoon--I believe a man that low in the ranks should have received some of the knocks, if any, during World War '18-'19.

The boys always had a good word to say for Butler but not so for the regular company commanders--and 2nd Lieuts.

It is my opinion that your objecting marine is either a "top kick" or a second Looey whose "dog-robber" is not giving good service. . . .

WILLIAM N. BOSWELL Barnesville, Ohio

Taste Test

Sirs:

Your "taste test" suggested by Subscriber Lyman Richards of Boston reminds me of a sworn-to-be-true story heard recently at dinner. It does not concern Fiddler Kreisler, nor a Blind sign and cup hung on any famed musician. But it is a thrust, I think, against Mr. Richards' complaint of a widespread musical hypocrisy and his statement that people "impressed by the eminence of artists claim to appreciate what they neither enjoy nor understand."

The story was told me by a friend of Jascha Heifetz. Not long ago it seems Heifetz was dining in a little restaurant near Paris in which there played a small, very ordinary orchestra. Halfway through the evening Heifetz got up and offered to take the violinist's place. So enthusiastically was he, and unknown, receive that the manager immediately offered him a job at something like $2 an evening.

What says Subscriber Richards to this? But perhaps the "musical hypocrisy" he means is limited to Boston.

HERBERT M. FRANKLIN New York City

Sirs:

. . . I am forwarding under separate cover a sales booklet which came into my hands recently. I cannot vouch that this test actually took place, but should it only be an impressive piece of high pressure sales talk, I believe it smacks of the truth so far as it concerns monetary returns.

BUT, should Artist Kreisler stand on the corner of 42nd Street and Broadway in the guise of a beggar and play the "Caprice Viennois" I predict that he would assemble one of the biggest listening audiences ever to crowd this corner, until he was chased by Whalencops.

E. S. CANDIDUS Brooklyn, N. Y.

The booklet (an advertisement of Winchester Repeating Arms Co.) told of a "noted opera singer" who wagered he could earn $10 per hour by street singing. Disguised as a humble Italian, he began in the courtyard of a luxurious Manhattan apartment house. In one half-hour he got 27-c-.--ED

Wisconsin's Experiment

Sirs:

Your Madison correspondent knows more things about the existence and the extermination of the Experimental college at the University of Wisconsin that we do (TIME, April 21).

To the best of our knowledge, the newspaper stories which have appeared from time to time telling of the end of the experiment are unfounded. Their only claim to fact is that, obviously, an experiment cannot continue forever as such.

Students for the college next year are being regularly enrolled, and there have been no university bulletins announcing the death of the college.

President Glenn Frank issued a definite denial of the rumor as it was printed in The Wisconsin State Journal of April 13. . . .

WILLIAM P. STEVEN Executive Editor, The Daily Cardinal Madison, Wis.

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