Comptroller & Friend

Sirs:

Several people have written me about the comment on p. 44 of your issue of Jan. 22, which is as follows:

"Rumor had it that he [Walter Joseph Cummings, onetime president of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.] and his 'personal friend,' the Comptroller of the Currency, did not get along together. Rather than have him resign, his other personal friends, William Woodin and Franklin Roosevelt, preferred to provide him with another good job, and Mr. Cummings had his eye on Continental Illinois."

May I say I have no warmer friend than Mr. Cummings. The statement in your issue is absolutely incorrect. Mr. Cummings and I got along together without the slightest misunderstanding in the handling of very difficult problems. In fact, I protested against his leaving the chairmanship of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. It will interest you to know that when I first suggested to Mr. Cummings that he accept the chairmanship, he declined and said that he was anxious to get back to his business. . . .

J. F. T. O'CONNOR Comptroller of Currency

Washington, D. C.

Singers' Pay

Sirs:

John Charles Thomas has probably never realized that even singers should be ambassadors of good music. If publicity was what he desired, he could have donated the proceeds to a local institution, thus pleasing those who had spent time and money to come and hear him (TIME, Jan. 22).

When those in the profession so eager for money go into the banking business America will become more musical.

Teritza disappointed an audience in Chicago recently. These performances give the profession a black eye. Both singers should go on a long tour begging forgiveness of each and every person who was kind enough to buy a ticket.

EDWARD GOULD HILL

Chicago, Ill.

Maria Jeritza failed her audience not for lack of her fee. but because she suffered a severe cold.--ED.

Blank Check

Sirs:

TIME, Jan. 22, top of col. 1, p. 17, says "he [Jesse Jones] tendered the Democratic National Committee his certified check in blank. . . ."

A certifying bank guarantees that the depositor has funds on hand for the payment of the check, and the genuineness of the maker's signature. In the absence of a stated amount it seems impossible that a bank can make this guarantee.

An officer of a National Bank is criminally liable if he certifies a check for more than the depositor's balance. . . .

S. CHRISTENSEN

Assistant Cashier Ferndale Bank Ferndale, Calif.

TIME erred; Jesse Jones's check was blank but not certified. When he learned how much other cities could bid for the 1928 Democratic Convention, Mr. Jones filled in the check for $200,000, landed the convention for Houston.--ED.

Birdie

Sirs:

I write you in genuine distress to see what we can do to stem the tide of unfavorable publicity which is now flooding the country following your article about Chautauqua in the Jan. 1 issue. . . .

The Arkansas Gazelle says "And Shall Chautauqua Die?" and picks up the essence of your article. The Newburgh News headlines it "Chautauqua Busted." The Times-Picayune "Chautauqua To Be Abandoned" and today the Kansas City Star devotes a page to our demise.

At the time your article appeared we were launching a campaign to get Chautauqua triumphantly out of its difficulties--and we had a long row to hoe, but are certain of its success. But your article--and there's no denying it was a birdie I--is multiplying our task by six--not to say seven! Somebody here must have muffed it beautifully when asked about Chautauqua's condition. ... If I prepare a truthful statement of the situation, would you wish to see it? ...

JULIUS KING

Director of Publicity and Promotion

Chautauqua Institution

Chautauqua, N. Y.

After reiterating what TIME reported, i. e. that Chautauqua had been placed (but not "laid to rest") in friendly receivership, Press Agent King adds the following points: Chautauqua's religious department, interdenominational, is headed by Chicago University's Dean Shailer Matthews. The Chautauqua Woman's Club "presents a program of noted character. Its outstanding event for 1933 was its reception to Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, when 6,000 persons were present." Chautauqua Literary & Scientific Circle is the "oldest book club in America today." Chautauqua music lovers hear their own symphony conducted by Albert Stoessel. a Little Symphony conducted by Georges Barrere, solos and lectures by Ernest Hutcheson, John Erskine, many another. Plays presented by the Cleveland Playhouse included last year Hay Fever, Twelfth Night, There's Always Juliet. Walter Hagen described Chautauqua's 18-hole golf course as "one of the best in western New York." Outdoor sports are permitted on Sunday as on all other days. "An administrative committee ... is laying the foundation for a distinguished program, surpassing in many ways anything Chautauqua has done in recent years. . . . Chautauqua is climbing back to preeminence in American life."--ED.

C. C. N. Y. Personality

Sirs:

... Your article (TIME, Jan. 22--Education), is friendly and I appreciate it, but the newspaper accounts from which you undoubtedly got your quote were all wrong and traceable to one inaccurate report. I did not say that either our College or its students were not fortunate in personality and social prestige. ... I merely said that they had no advantage in personality over the students of other colleges as they had in scholastic discipline. Reports range all the way from mild modifications of what I did say to an out-and-out declaration on my part that they were inferior and unfit to study medicine. However, things like this will happen. . . .

FREDERICK B. ROBINSON

President

The College of the City of New York New York City

Ciphers, Appendixes & Purges Sirs:

In your issue of Jan. 22, regarding the manner in which to deal various bridge hands as worked out by Professor Louis Frank Woodruff, M. I. T., I feel that it is up to you to tell us how you would refer verbally to the figure 80,660,63 ciphers. You printed it, so it is up to you to tell us what mathematical figure this is.

The mathematical expression is "factorial 52," which can also be written "52 !"

--ED.

The article is extremely interesting as also the article under the medical department on "Senile Appendicitis."

Along this line I think it would be wise in the article labeled "New Deal Cold Cure" regarding Federal Cold Treatment No. I, to warn people who have not had their appendix removed to be very cautious about taking the castor oil or citrate of magnesia purge. I presume that you are assuming that this would be under the direction of a doctor or nurse, but by far the greater percentage of people who have colds do not take medicine under the direction of a doctor or nurse, but rather on their own initiative. . . . The coincident attack of appendicitis with a cold is not as infrequent as one may suppose--therefore the danger. . . .

WILLIAM A. HYLAND, M. D.

Grand Rapids, Mich.

Soda for Colds

Sirs:

In your article "New Deal Cold Cure," Jan. 22 issue, p. 23, you say under Federal Cold Treatment No. 1, item e1 "saturated solution of baking powder;" you mean baking soda, don't you?

Picture people all over the world trying to cure their colds with baking powder.

DAVID W. RIDGWAY

Los Angeles, Calif.

"Baking powder" was, of course, a slip. The formula should have specified baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) which, many physicians believe, helps to cure a cold by "alkalizing" the system.--ED.

Butler's Teeth

Sirs:

In the Jan. 22 article re butlers published in connection with the Household Staffs Ball for the benefit of Bellevue Hospital, you refer to my personal appearance in such an insulting manner that unless it is retracted I shall for all time cancel my subscription to your magazine.

The ball exceeded all expectations as a success both financially and socially, and in what way my personal appearance could enhance your article about the dance, I cannot understand.

However, I feel that such reference to me calls for your apology. . . .

ROBERT C. HIDER

New York City

In describing Mrs. Marshall Field's able Butler Hider as "buck-toothed," TIME meant no offense.

Peak

Sirs:

Including a favorite parlor game with your magazine reaches an all-time peak of Perfection. May the Quiz column (TIME, Jan. 22) prosper.

ISABELLA C. GAYLORD

Albany, N. Y.

Sirs:

As a cover-to-cover reader of TIME for five years or more I wish to congratulate you on the contents Quiz published in the issue of Jan. 22. I hope you will make this a regular feature.

W. D. CARMICHAEL

East Point, Ga.

Sirs:

Once again TIME breaks forth with an innovation that improves an already superb newsmagazine. I refer to the 20 questions published for us in the current issue, Jan. 22. Not comparable to ''lecture notes," they nevertheless provide a fine minute test of one's ability to digest the concise news of the week. . . .

C. T. HORTON JR.

Princeton, N. J.

Sirs:

Encomia of praise to G. Emlen Hall and to Editor of TIME, the former for the idea and the latter for its execution. The Quiz was too marvelous and made this week's reading of TIME (Jan. 22) much more enjoyable (except it was a bit difficult remembering the exact number of Professor Woodruff's zeros.). . . .

MARY RANTON WITHAM

Winchester, Mass.

Sirs:

Re: Quiz, p. 50, TIME, Jan. 22.

Comment: A step nearer perfection by a magazine which was already practically adjacent.

Prediction: That it will survive and become increasingly popular with readers.

Suggestions: 1) That you restrict the questions to 20; that the spacing be shrunk to permit an adequate box at the end of the column; that you therein insert something similar to the following: "Do you also carefully read TIME'S advertising? For instance, where did 104,000 buyers spend $137,000,000 in 1933? (pp. 8-9)." 2) That you charge advertisers for the additional squib, allowing it to one or rotating it among all. Or, if used without charge, it will substantiate your claims of "TIME--the different magazine" in dealing with prospective advertisers. 3) That you reward the writer for his alertness in perceiving a potential TIME asset with a life subscription to TIME which he now receives. Or to FORTUNE which he also receives. Or both. Or what would you?

RAYMOND M. WALL

West Haven, Conn.

Thanks, but no further reward to Subscriber Wall for his well-meaning but unworkable suggestion that TIME dull the sharp line between editorial and advertising matter.--ED.

Sirs:

Your idea of having a questionnaire (TIME, Jan. 22) is commendable on the whole, but after spending days cramming for impending Midyears, looking forward to the weekly relaxation of TIME-reading, it is most distressing to find one's-self confronted with one more brain-twister; voluntary, hence the more binding. TIME-reading becomes a response to a challenge. ... I am not in the best of humors, thanks to you.

ARTHUR NEWBOLD

Harvard '36 Cambridge, Mass.

Sirs:

Let TIME mark Jan. 22 on its calendar for commemorative issues. That day, A. D. 1934 marks the first real sign of fatty degeneration. (See crutch for mental insecure, p. 50). . . . You will be trying to sell us an encyclopedia next!

ROBERT N. DONLEY

Nathrop, Col.

Sirs:

If you feel you must please teachers and prod pupils with a weekly quiz on the news, why not send a one-page quiz supplement to your school subscribers rather than annoy other subscribers with a column of silly questions such as you inserted on p. 50 (TIME, Jan. 22) at the suggestion of Teacher Hall?

MRS. GEORGE F. BOOKER

Washington, D. C.

Sirs:

Let the "pedoggies" form a club and quiz each other all about the news or anything else that occurs to them, but don't let them influence TIME to assume the role of schoolmaster to its reading public. . . .

TRUEMAN E. O'QuiNN

Austin, Tex.

A preponderance of opinion thus far expressed is in favor of the Quiz. Do more readers oppose? More favor?--ED.

Baptist's Death

Sirs:

In your magazine, under date of Dec. 18,

on p. 20 under general topic Religion sub-topic

Drowned Baptist" you made statements so

highly colored that the article fails to bear any

semblance of the truth, aside from the fact that

Rev. Brookshire died. . . .

We, the undersigned, deacons and trustees of the First Baptist Church at Easton, Md. enclose a true statement of the tragedy using your own form and phrasing, as far as it adheres to the truth, and urging that it be given exactly the same prominence in your magazine as the one referred to and which we consider irreverent to the sacred rite of baptism.

WM. E. BARTLETT E. S. MARTIN L. P. MARVEL Deacons RALPH F. Trustees LR. H. MARVEL LIKIN ROLAND MULLIKIN LEVI E. REEVER JOHN E. SATCHELL C. ARTHUR PERRY M. EARLE STAFFORD A. G. SMITH JOHN F. CHAPLAIN FRANK E. COLLINS T. J. SLAUGHTER

Easton, Md.

The Deacons' & Trustees' statement:

BAPTIST MINISTER DIES OF HEART TROUBLE AND FALLS INTO BAPTISMAL POOL.

Into the First Baptist Church at Easton, Maryland, on December 3rd, 1933 crowded 306 people or more for the final service of Rev. Ray Lakin's two week evangelistic campaign.

After Rev. Lakin's message of the evening, C. Thomas Brookshire, D. D. pastor of the Church, retired to make ready for the baptismal service which he was to conduct. When he stepped into the pool he offered a most impressive dedicatory prayer and one at a time baptised two young ladies, the first retiring before the second came. The third candidate was James E. Dean, an electrical contractor of Easton, and just as Pastor Brookshire reached up his right hand to assist Dean into the pool, he fell back into the water, dead. Dean reached into the water for him, got him up on the pulpit where every effort was made to revive him, the Rescue Crew of the Fire Department and Dr. P. E. Cox having been summoned immediately.

C. Thomas Brookshire, D. D. was pronounced dead of a heart attack and no indications of drowning. The Rev. Brookshire is survived by his widow Catherine Main Brookshire and one son John Decker Brookshire.

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