Dresel's Cross

Sirs:

In the issue of TIME dated March 20, it was stated that I had commanded nine cruisers. I wish to correct this: my commands have been-- five destroyers, one Yangtze River gunboat, and three airships.

Furthermore, my Navy Cross was not awarded for engaging a submarine in the vicinity of the Azores. The citation read: --Distinguished service in line of profession as Aide to Commander Azores Detachment, also as commanding officer of a destroyer engaged on patrol in the War Zone."

ALGER M. DRESEL Commander U. S. Navy U. S. S. Macon Detail Akron, Ohio

Fatal Crash

Sirs:

ARTICLE ON BLIND LANDING IN ISSUE MARCH 13 DOES INJUSTICE TO MEMORY OF MY BROTHER MARSHALL S BOGGS IN MISSTATING MANNER OF HIS DEATH STOP THE FATAL CRASH OCCURRED LONG AFTER DARK NOT IN BROAD DAYLIGHT STOP HE WAS ENGAGED IN LINE OF DUTY AND NOT ON A JOY HOP . . .

EDWARD K. BOGGS Oakland, Calif.

Pilot Boggs did not die, as TIME reported, on a "daylight joyhop." With two women guests with whom he was to have dinner, he crashed on an unlit field near Lake Norconian Club Airport. Norco, Calif. That he was testing radio beacons for the Department of Commerce up to the moment of death was testified by the fact that when he was pulled from the wreckage his earphones were still around his neck.--ED.

Pomphalugopaphlasma

Sirs:

Your quotation of Ezra Pound's asthmatic attempt to reproduce on paper the sound of a waterfall (TIME, March 20) recalls to my mind a told-as-true account, which appeared in the Boys' Own Paper during, I think, 1920. of a scientist who spent some weeks, or months, chucking big stones into a deep pool, then listening carefully. At length he gave the world the following plausible and quite delightful word, as representing accurately the complete sound caused by the sudden entry from above of a large stone into a deep pool:

Pomphalugopaphlasma.

PAUL A. GARDNER Pickering College Newmarket, Ontario

No Surplus Chicks

Sirs:

My attention has just been called to an article in your last week's issue (TIME, March 13) in which you state that owing to cancellation of orders "caused by the bank moratorium, the hatcheries of the Zeeland-Holland district find themselves swamped with chicks. . . .

The truth of the matter is there have been remarkably few cancellations and that there has been no surplus of baby chicks in this territory during the banking holiday. . . . I know of n > industry which has experienced such a steady flow of incoming orders through the present difficulties, as our hatcheries. Although the moratorium has struck during the height of the baby chick season, I can introduce you to numer>inn hatcherymen in this district who have more orders on their books (accompanied by a substantial deposit) than they had booked at the same date last year.

I am sure you will regret that your article is causing considerable embarrassment and doubtless some damage. Numerous publications have taken occasion to quote from or comment on your article . . . and the hatcherymen are receiving communications from many customers who see a possibility of a rebate in price . . . or hope to obtain chicks at a ridiculously low cost.

JAY P. GARLOUGH Campbell-Sanford Advertising Co. Cleveland, Ohio

Norwich Slaves

Sirs:

The other day in reading Miss Perkins' history of Norwich, Conn., I noticed with some amusement that in 1777 Samuel Gager granted freedom to two Negro slaves, Fortune and his wife Time.

GERTRUDE PALMER MATTHEWS Milwaukee, Wis.

Cornerstoned

Sirs:

Last Sunday Modesto, Calif, placed the cornerstone of its new postoffice building with appropriate ceremony.

It was our desire to place in the cornerstone some documents and publications that would paint an accurate picture of conditions today. . . . The committee deliberated and finally selected TIME as the one publication that would cover the entire field of human endeavor for the current week. So the cornerstone contains TIME, copies of the local newspapers, the Bible, the Constitution of the United States and a business directory of Modesto.

When the building is razed perhaps 100 year, from now our descendants will read in TIME of the inauguration of President Roosevelt, of the banking moratorium . . . and a score of other happenings that will make history for generations to come.

R. L. KIMMEL Secretary Modesto Chamber of Commerce Modesto, Calif.

Another TiME-bearing cornerstone is that of Newark's Second Presbyterian Church, containing the issue of Nov. 7, 1932 (cover picture: Common Citizens).--ED.

Attractive Document

Sirs:

In the Feb. 13 issue of your magazine I noticed the following article:

"Died. Marie Adrienne Anne Victurnienne Clementine de Rochechouart de Crussol, Dowager Duchess d'Uzes, 85, for 60 years France's foremost socialite, able huntswoman, sculptress, novelist, playwright; of pneumonia, at the home of her daughter Duchess de Luynes. . . ."

During the World War I was a warrant officer with the 32nd Division, U. S. A. and on the drive through Chateau Thierry . . . I was billeted in a shell-torn building. During the night I slept on a pile of strewn papers in the middle of the floor of a room in this building and in the morning picked up an attractive document written on parchment and in old French script, merely as a souvenir of the War.

Upon examination of this document I find that it is an old marriage contract which reads on the fly leaf as follows:

Contrat de Mariage de M. Bonabe Jean Catherine Alexis Marquis de Rouge avec Demoiselle Victurnienne Delphine Nathal de Rochechouart de Mortemart. Passe devant Me. Boulard et son collegue notarie `a Paris Ies 27 et 29 decembre, 1776.

I have just written to Duchess de Luynes, Dampierre, France, asking if this document is of particular interest to her or anyone else. I believe it has some connection with La Duchesse, just deceased. . . .

R. L. JACOBSON Janesville. Wis.

Barbiturate Credit

Sirs:

. Could not TIME . . . afford the two or three lines necessary to state that the use of barbiturates as antidotes for strychnine poisoning (TIME. March 13) was established by my associates Dr. Howard Wilcox Haggard and Mr. Leon Arnold Greenberg? . . .

YANDELL HENDERSON Laboratory of Applied Physiology Yale University New Haven, Conn.

"Handsome" Adolf

Sirs:

I must protest!

Why in Heaven's name do you always affix the descriptive adjective ''handsome" when writing about Hitler? "Handsome Adolf" indeed! That blank face with its silly little mustache gives me the "jitters" every time I see it. And as I read TIME every week I get the "jitters" every time you call Adolf "handsome."

TESSA H. FLUHR Brooklyn, N. Y.

Sirs:

It may interest you to know that even in this distant, palmy island your magazine is read with avidity. A news circulation agency in the States keeps us supplied with different magazines, and we can assure you it is a rush to see who picks TIME first from the number.

We are very curious, however, to know why TIME always ascribes the nattering epithet "handsome" when referring to Germany's Adolf Hitler? Neither of us thinks so. Is it because of some hidden beauty?

LILLIAN MENDES WALTER A. MENDES Trinidad, B. W. I.

One of the curiosities of the Nazi movement is that, ceaselessly preaching the subservience of women, it has always gained much of its strength from women voters. Not TIME but the ladies of Bavaria, in 1923, coined the phrase Der Schone Adolf.--ED.

Address

Sirs:

I would rather do without my meal than miss my copy of TIME and I am positive that you have readers all over the world who consider it one of the few magazines they would not wish to do without.

I should like to offer the suggestion that you publish your cable address on the masthead of your magazine. I feel that very often readers may wish to cable you either something of news interest or for other reasons which may make this information invaluable to readers all over the world. . . .

DAVID BADER Universal Pictures Ltd. London

TIME'S cable address is"Timeinc."--ED.

Mr. Jesse & Employes

Sirs:

Yes, Mr. Jesse Isidor Straus did summon his employes to a mass meeting, and ask them to rite their legislators protesting a general retail sales tax.

He did not, however, say or imply, as you reported in your March 20 issue, that if they neglected to do so, some of them would lose their jobs. You have put a careless, if not false, interpretation upon his statements. I was at the mass meeting and heard exactly what was said, and in the interest of accuracy I am about to ask our General Manager to send your staff a season ticket for private Macy meetings so that in the future you won't have to rely on gossip.

There was nothing sinister in Mr. Jesse's request: on the contrary it was simply a sincere attempt to inform Macy employes of a situation extremely pertinent to the welfare of all retail employes. (Incidentally it was the first time the Strauses had ever sought to convey to Macy employes their own views on matters of public policy.) . . .

No attempt was made to find out which employes followed his suggestion to write their legislators; in fact, there is no record of those who did, or of those who did not.

I am sending you this information in order that you may disabuse the minds of your readers of any thought that in what Mr. Jesse said, there was the slightest suggestion of intimidation, or a statement that could be considered as applying exclusively to Macy's.

MARGARET FISHBACK New York City

Rather Fast Thinking

Sirs:

I was surprised to read your article in the Feb. 27 issue which relates to the broadcast of the attempted assassination of President-elect Roosevelt and infers that Mr. Mizer was at fault in handling this broadcast.

In order to set the record straight I would like to give you an outline of just exactly what happened:

When Station WQAM set up to make the broadcast immediately preceding President-elect Roosevelt's arrival at the park the crew that was handling the public address for the city decided that instead of trying to use their own microphone for the public address system that they would pick up Station WQAM broadcast on a receiver and put it out over the public address system in the park. At the time no objections were seen to this arrangement.

The broadcast proceeded satisfactorily until the shots were fired and this was picked up by the Station, reproduced on the public address, as well as shouts "Get that man" etc. Inasmuch as there were some 25,000 people in the crowd, including the usual percentage of women and children, it required some rather fast thinking to decide whether or not to proceed with the broadcast and create a panic, which no doubt would have resulted in accidents and deaths as the result of a stampede, or whether to take some steps to quiet the crowd, as there was no way to cut the public address system off from the point where our broadcaster was picking it up; he tried to quiet the crowd by stating that what sounded like shots was the camera man's flashlight bombs and he was successful in quieting the crowd to the extent that the threatencvl stampede was prevented. . . .

F. W. BORTOX President Miami Broadcasting Co. WQAM Miami, Fla.

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