President & Cat

Sirs:

In your paper of late date you mention an alley cat being fed with milk by President Hoover from the White House (TIME, May 12). Is this at the expense of the American people or does the President furnish his own milk?

W. W. J. JONES

Batesville, Ark.

The U. S. people furnish their President with $25,000 per annum for "official entertainment."--ED.

Fantasticalities

Sirs:

It is really hard to understand why your publication, whenever it happens to publish news regarding Italy, these are not only presented in an untrue version, but they are deliberately and wickedly interpreted. It is true that no other publication in the United States parallels yours TIME; but honestly, none ventures so impudently to misrepresent the events and try to alter and mystify the American public opinion about Italy. I chiefly refer to three of your late issues, which I have present, those of Nov. 25, 1929, April 28 and May 5, 1930, filled with fantasticalities, all tried later by facts. For instance, you say (April 28, p. 22) that King Victor Emmanuel was not wedded in Church. I can assure you that he was: the wedding took place in the Church of S. Maria degli Angeli, Oct. 24, 1896. Any common almanac would comply with this truth. Only when one is obsessed by impetuosity to forge malicious informations, he is liable to incur blindly in mistakes such as the one you have rushed into by reproducing at p. 23, May 5, a picture of former Governor of Rome, Senator Cremonesi, given as Count Costanzo Ciano, father of the young bridegroom of Premier Mussolini's daughter. TIME would make itself a treat in leaving the Italian affairs in more skilful hands, if events marking the life of Italy--that great country that much taught to humanity in the past and a lot can teach today--should continue to be published so stubbornly and so misleading, against the sovereignty of truth and outraging any editorial's dignity.

AGOSTINO DE BIASI

Editor

Il Carrocclo

(The Italian Review) New York, N. Y.

Let Editor Biasi reread the April 28 issue. The word "sire" is used clearly to refer to Benito Mussolini's father, not his sovereign. Nothing is said about the marriage of Italy's King.

TIME regrets that it was led by International News Photos Inc. into confusing bearded Count Costanzo Ciano with mustachioed Senator Cremonesi.

Rumo(u)r

Sirs:

During these first few weeks of the Oxford ''Summer Term," there has been more than the usual comment among Oxford Americans on your unique publication. That scholars should turn aside from research and the other aspects of that "Good Life" which Oxford offers may be of some interest, especially to the editors of the one publication in the world which combines efficient condensation and catchword colloquialisms.

Rumo(u)r has it that comment of a similar nature has been prevalent in the sister institution, Alma Mater of Sir Isaac Newton, Pitt and Paul Melon. The latter was reported in your good columns as having stroked the crew of Emmanuel College to victory in the annual winter regatta. Can you tell us what was meant by "the annual winter regatta" and how long this institution has existed at Cambridge--so that we may have the pleasure of witnessing it on the occasion of its recurrence? Can you also tell us when Mr. Paul Melon took up residence in Emmanuel College? You see, we wish to make use of the good offices of TIME to combat prevailing opinions on these matters. Until reading your good magazine, we had never heard of a "regatta" at either Oxford or Cambridge and the general view held was that Mr. Paul Melon was at Clare College. Do come to our aid in clearing up these vulgar sins respectively of omission and commission.

Your article on our esteemed Mr. Brewster Morgan was above reproach and only its form has been the object of banter and thrust in repartee and more ordinary discussion. . . .

Unfortunately the climax of our congratulations involves "Pink and White" whose family tree was so meticulously portrayed to the great melting pot. Only when a new-world brew settles into layers does it become interested in those of Ale and Stout. It then seems to limit its interest to the foam on the top. TIME therefore felt justified, or at least prudent, in devoting so much space to the Ancestry of "Pink and White."

Quite seriously, TIME should, in our humble opinion, take the Old World more seriously. After all, the only place where weighty subjects have been treated with a flippant tongue and at the same time skillfully and fairly accurately is the Oxford Union itself. But in "the Union," the language used is the King's English. . . .

THOMAS MAGEE III

T. J. HAMILTON

G. C. MERRILL

Oxford, England

For the benefit of such U. S. subscribers as have not only enjoyed the rhythm of, but also apprehended the substance of the above example of King's English, TIME appends factual comment as follows:

1) No such person as Paul Melon is known to exist. Paul Mellon, mentally active son of the U. S. Secretary of the Treasury, stroked the Clare College second boat in successful competition with other Cambridge College boats in an annual event which may properly be described as a regatta but which Cantabs delight to call The Lents.

2) Brewster Morgan, of Kansas City, Kans., acquired great kudos for his Oxford production of Macbeth, and for other brainy feats (TIME, Feb. 24).

3) "Pink and White" was an Homeric epithet attached to Randolph Church, 18, son of Winston Churchill, on the occasion of a slashing philippic which he delivered in the Oxford Union on the Labor Party's "weak" policy in Egypt (TIME, Mar. 3). --ED.

Private Amusement

Sirs:

Kindly add my signature to the respectful reproach devised by my Oxford friends, Thomas Magee, T. J. Hamilton and G. C. Merrill, with the following further comments:

The few Americans at Cambridge have of course also noted your rather surprising carelessness with regard to easily verified facts. We have not commented with much heat on the discovery, however, as we supposed that possibly such oversights had become your usual habit. We felt that protests could hardly be expected to change the policy of your publication. In short, we were merely amused.

The discovery that your publication is not particularly interested in getting the facts correct, has in no way lessened the enjoyment which we take in reading TIME. We do not, however, leave your publication lying about our rooms for the inspection of our English friends as their criticisms would force us to the admission either that American magazines are not so good as the English, or that TIME is not a good magazine as American magazines go. Both alternatives would be equally distasteful, and we therefore amuse ourselves with your magazine in private. . . .

BRECK MORAN

Clare College, Cambridge, England

To Subscriber Moran, a thoroughgoing rebuke for his lack of fire. In future let him specify TIME'S errors and, for Truth's sake, protest.--ED.

Latinist

Sirs:

Referring to your report about the Eucharistic Congress recently held at Carthage and the very interesting resume of the history of that ancient city (TIME, p. 26, May 19), permit me to correct the quotation ascribed to the Roman senator Marcus Porcius Cato. The phrase as given "Delenda est Carthago" might have been used by Scipio Africanus when reporting the destruction of Carthage (however, he would not have used the "th" in the Latin name of that city.)

Inasmuch as Carthage was not yet destroyed when Cato thundered against it in the senate, he would not have said, "est" which means "it is."

Some sixty years have passed since I studied Latin in school, but I think I am not far wrong when I quote the phrase which Cato used as follows:

Caeterum Censeo Cartaginem esse delendam. (Therefore, it is my opinion, that Carthage must be destroyed.)

If I am incorrect in this, I would like to hear from a scholar of Latin.

GEORGE ANDRAE

St. Louis, Mo.

Correct Latin though scholarly Subscriber Andrae's version is, the version actually used by Cato, and accurately quoted by TIME, is also correct Latin. Let Subscriber Andrae consult his Allen & Greenough's, or any other standard Latin grammar, anent the gerundive construction.--ED.

Machine Guns Sirs:

TIME, May 5, p. 16 under the caption Labor you imply that West Virginia State troops guarded the roads with "machine guns." This was 40 years ago.

No doubt this State, so far in advance of the times can now deal out death rays.

A. WlGHAM

Piedmont, Calif.

R. J. Gatling of Chicago perfected his machine gun in 1861, Sir Hiram Maxim his in 1889--both more than 40 years ago. --ED.

Nanette & Rintintin

Sirs:

Re: Correction anent "Nanette et Rintintin" (TIME, May 12).

Two little children, parentless, dirty, tear-begrimed and hungry were picked up by a warm-hearted gendarme during the earliest bombardment in Paris. The little boy said he was called "Rintintin" and his sister who was afraid of the big noise was "Nanette."

Pictures and comment in the Parisian journals made the homeless waifs the idols of the warm-hearted French. Some enterprising merchant fashioned a Siamese-twin-like yarn doll representing a boy and a girl which was immediately seized upon by the Poilu as a good luck fetish to be worn around the neck. Soon everyone wore them in every Allied army.

The expression "Nanette et Rintintin" became so popular as to become part of the Armies' argot. . . .

MAURICE H. AUERBACH

A. P. O. 714

San Francisco, Calif.

Prize Withheld

Sirs:

TIME says anent non-award of Pulitzer newspaper Public Service prize: ". . . the prize committee (names withheld) were either unimpressed or unable to agree." (TIME, May 19). The prize committee, of which I was a member, was impressed, agreed unanimously. But, for some reason, Columbia University trustees withheld award.

M. V. ATWOOD

Associate Editor

Gannett Newspapers

Rochester, N. Y.

John Armstrong Chaloner

Sirs:

My news bureau has sent me a clipping from your paper of April 21 containing a libellous statement about me; saying, "He (I) attracted no little attention by running amuck and shooting his butler." That is an unqualified lie. The man was an English mechanic who I discovered, was a most brutal wife beater. A friend told me of it and I told the friend to have his wife tell Gillard that the next time he beat her, to come over here ["The Merry Mills," Cobham Va.] with her flock of children and I'd put her and them up at two farm houses on this place with my farmer and wife. He beat her shortly after. She and children fled here, while Gillard was out walking. He came home and followed her here. I always carry a 32 Smith and Wesson revolver indoors, not out, because I live entirely alone. I came down stairs with the gun on and found Gillard beating his wife to death with a pair of heavy tongs, hitting her over the head. I attacked him empty handed. He knocked me down and I got up and went at him again. This time he knocked me senseless. My secretary at the time, a powerful Englishman, heard me call, during the fight, and rushed to my aid. He grabbed Gillard and I came to. I then drew my gun and held it hanging down in my hand, because Gillard was even more powerful than my secretary, and was gradually getting the better of him. I came too near the scuffle and Gillard grabbed the gun. He couldn't pull it out of my hand, but swung it towards his wife and children at the end of the room and tried to get at the trigger to shoot his wife. He grabbed my hand and in the struggle the gun, for a cause unknown to me, went off and shot Gillard. Another lie of yours is that I have a brass plate on the dining room floor with "To The Memory of a Faithful Servitor". . .

JOHN ARMSTRONG CHALONER

"The Merry Mills,"

Cobham, Va.

TIME, misinformed, regrets misreporting the doings of John Armstrong Chaloner, whom a coroner's jury exculpated and commended.--ED.

Stanford & Cornell (Cont.)

Sirs:

Your issue of May 12 contains a letter from a Lester Mayo concerning Cornell and its shortcomings. His address is given as Elmira but he seems to know little of the nearby city of Ithaca.

Generously he grants "life" to the School of Agriculture, the Medical School, and the Engineering School. But what of his other statements?

Anyone who has ever come in contact with President Farrand could not term him "slightly dull." As a speaker he is unexcelled, and his words, both in private discourse and in public oration, are based on a keenly inquiring and thoroughly wise mind, that scorns hypocrisy, narrow mindedness, and complacency.

No "new ideas" emanating from Cornell. I need name only a few of the faculty members of one college, to discover men of national prominence in their respective lines. What of Professor Mason, an authority in the study of Romance Literature? What of Professor Prescott, author of recent critical books of considerable value, including Poetry and Myth? What of Professor Broughton, a most eminent scholar of Wordsworthiana? What of Professor J. Q. Adams, author of numerous studies of Shakespeare and his times? What of Professor Ries, whom all geologists know and admire?

"Students from Europe, the Orient, the 48 States, no longer seek Cornell." One look at the register shows that to be a misstatement. Notably the Orient is strongly represented in Cornell, and some of the best Asiatic minds have developed and are developing in the beneficent atmosphere of The Hill.

"Its teachers are at best average." On whose authority do they receive that rating?

As for the gymnasium, the swimming pool and the library--there is some truth in what Mr. Mayo says. But there is this to be said for Cornell, It has always maintained as one of its axiomatic policies that no honorary degrees are given to wealthy men merely because they are wealthy. Yet, in spite of this policy, funds have been obtained in the past ten years for the construction of an exceptionally well-equipped chemistry laboratory, of a new women's dormitory, of several units of the ambitiously conceived Baker Dormitories for men, and of Willard Straight Hall, with its banquet rooms, its cafeterias, its lounging rooms, and one of the best equipped theatres of any university in the country. Also excavation for the foundations of a new building for the Law School has recently been started.

Athletics? Another policy at Cornell is to permit, not only no athletic scholarships, but no favoritism of any sort toward their athletes. Yet in spite of that they have a respectable football team, an average baseball team, a fine track team. . . .

Cornell considers that it has reached a point where a greater number of registrations would not be advisable for the good of the students. It has little need of a press agent. It stands alone without artificial support, and grows, not physically, but mentally and spiritually.

A letter such as Mr. Mayo writes shows nothing more than abysmal ignorance--or, I wonder, has he perhaps been at some time flunked out? That would explain a lot.

JOHN E. UNDERWOOD

Caspar, Wyo.

To Subscriber Underwood, all thanks for a letter which exhaustively refutes the charge that Cornell compares unfavorably with Stanford, in whose founding Cornell played so large a part.--ED.

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