Catholics v. Sun

Sirs:

In your story "Baltimore Peace," (TIME, July 30), anent the controversy between Archbishop Curley and the Baltimore Catholic Review and the Baltimore Sun, you have the Review accepting, as an apology from the Sun for its insult to St. Ignatius' Loyola a statement which was rejected by both Archbishop Curley and the Review. . . .

I quote from . . . TIME, two sentences from the Baltimore Sun's statement:

"It goes without saying that any wounds which have been given by Mr. Bouton's reference are a cause of real regret to the Sun, but it goes equally without saying that these wounds were not intentionally caused. . . . But the Sun does not grant the truth of the allegations made against it in the Catholic Review, nor can it accede to demands which violate its general policy."

. . . The first sentence . . . was part of a statement which was to have appeared in the Sun in the event of the acceptance of the statement by Archbishop Curley. . . . That statement was rejected by both Archbishop Curley and the Review as the Sun admits. . . .

The following apology, which TIME omitted, was published in the Sun after a delay of 31 days:

''Obviously there was unfortunate phrasing here. Mr. Bouton, writing hurriedly, used two words, 'ruthlessness' and 'brutality' in attempting to rehearse the strong virtues which historians attribute to Loyola. These words were badly chosen and are not in accord with the prevailing historical opinion. His error should have been deleted by the subeditor who prepared the article for publication, but again there was a lapse and the words got into the paper. The inadvertence was and is regretted by the Sun."

MONSIGNOR ALBERT E. SMITH

Editor in Chief

The Baltimore Catholic Review

Baltimore, Md.

Since the Sun did not specifically "apologize," TIME was obliged to judge what part of the Sun's statement sounded most like an overt expression of regret. TIME was tripped by the complications of an involved controversy, hopes it is ended.-- ED.

Farley's Faith

Sirs:

In your issue of July 30, p. n, in speaking of Postmaster General Farley you state: "And Mr. Farley is neither the worst of sinners nor is he without the right faith." It is certainly pleasant reading for the Catholics to know that you brand their faith as the "right" one; not quite so pleasing to the Protestants, perhaps, who are attempting to live clean lives in this vale of tears. It is certainly too bad that TIME has relegated them to a place other than Heaven by reason of their possessing, in all innocence, the "wrong" faith. Shades of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt the First, McKinley, Coolidge--all consigned to limbo by TIME for not being Catholics. We live in a strange era. And TIME is becoming a "strange" magazine--not to say "queer." C. M. JOXES

Phoenix, Ariz.

TIME does not presume to designate the "right" faith. Let careless Reader Jones reread what TIME said: "According to the tenets of his church, confessed sinners, even the worst of them, who have the right faith in their hearts, have a better chance of getting to Heaven than Pharisees. And Mr. Farley is neither the worst of sinners nor is he without the right faith."--ED.

Lilienthal's Race

Sirs:

Your article "Valley Campaign," on page 45, TIME, July 30, describes David Lilienthal as Jewish.

In "The New Dealers" by Unofficial Observer, on page 194, the description is, "Despite his name, Lilienthal is Gentile. . . ."

JACOB FOGELSON

New York City.

The New Dealers erred. TIME'S source: Mr. Lilienthal.--ED.

Imperial Dress

Sirs:

A staunch and true TIMESTER, I hate to you that TIME erred (issue of July 23) it said men shed their coats and women wore organdie in reached El Centro . . . . the day the temperature reached 122 1/2DEG F.

No male in Imperial Valley, except tourists who know no better, wears a coat or necktie after April 15 until about Oct. 1. . . .

As for the ladies donning organdie after May 30, such a conception of the apparel of our ladies is just plain preposterous. Seersucker and linen are the fabrics favored by the sex -- because they eliminate the necessity slips and unmentionables. In brief, here's typical Valley wardrobe for both sexes:

Males: Shirt (two pockets), Cotton wash trousers, Lower half of underwear, Socks without garters or no socks at all, Ventilated shoes, Pith helmet or light straw hat.

Females: Panties (perhaps, I wouldn't know although I've heard rumors...), Dress, Shoes.

ALBERT DE YORE

Imperial Valley Press El Centro, Calif.

San Francisco Strike

Sirs:

TIME of July 30, under the title "Not Viable," states that had Labor cut off utilities--light, heat, water, news, telephones--it would have had a "frantic San Francisco by the throat." TIME should study the history of San Francisco before making such a statement.

We are not in the habit of becoming "frantic."

In 1851 the city was all but dominated by terrorists. During the next five years, a body of responsible citizens, calling themselves "Vigilantes," quelled these terrorists and established peace. In 1906 the calamities of earthquake and fire threatened a reign of lawlessness. Again the responsible citizens, hurriedly sworn in as deputy marshals, restored and maintained peace. In neither of these emergencies did the people of San Francisco show the slightest sign of becoming "frantic."

The sons and grandsons of the men of the 1850's and of 1906 are today prepared to continue the traditions of their forefathers. By conservative estimate, 100,000 citizens of San Francisco will answer a call to repress subversive and rebellious action of any group whatsoever. . . . No one can get San Francisco "by the throat!"

LORNA WILLIAMSON TALBOT

San Francisco, Calif.

Sirs:

Fair, clear and accurate, for the most part, was TIME'S account of the Pacific Coast longshoremen's strike (TIME, July 16, p. 12). But it was not "Norton, Lilly's Pier 38" on San Francisco's Embarcadero where the first attempt to open the port was made by the Industrial Association, but rather McCormick Steamship Co.'s Pier 38. . . .

McCormick Steamship Co. has been located at Piers 38 and 40 for years and such credit or blame as may be attached to steamship participation in the opening of Pier 38 therefore should rest on our shoulders.

May we also add that no San Franciscan ever called the Ferry Building the Ferry "House."

FOLGER ATHEARN

General Passenger Agent

McCormick Steamship Co. San Francisco, Calif.

Mollycoddle Westerner

Sirs:

May I call attention to a couple of your statements in the July 16 issue relative to the labor situation on the Pacific Coast, which might be a bit misleading to some of your readers?

You remark that "The Pacific Coast is still generations closer to frontier days than any other part of the country," and "Labor, too, has still something of the devil-may-care spirit of the dance halls and the lumber camps."

Of course we Westerners have become more or less tamed with the advance of civilization, and we all check our six-guns at the door with the hat girl when we go into a public place, and we have the Indians pretty well in hand now-- but we do not like this condition to be generally known back there because it might spoil our tourist trade. However I will have to apologize for the crude tactics of our lumbermen. They have not even advanced to the Stone Age in their methods of warfare. For instance, one rarely sees anything but fists used in a lumber camp brawl out here. And it begins to look as if it would be a long time indeed before they will have become civilized enough to use the more refined methods of your Al Capones in settling arguments.

So, you see, the picture as you paint it gives us credit for being real hemen, when as a matter of fact we have degenerated into a bunch of mollycoddles.

Seriously, though, how do you folks conduct your strikes back there so that no blood is shed and both sides get what they want? The problem is most vexing to us, and we need a lot of good advice--or, should I say examples?

DON PRAIRIE

Portland, Ore.

Apostle of the Obvious

Sirs:

What is this calumny I find in the usually accurate TIME [July 23] about Albert Payson Terhune? Mild-mannered, is he? Let me be the first to rush to this anything but phlegmatic gentleman's defense.

In the matter of temper, not temperament, among writers, possibly only Theodore Dreiser betters him. That prognathous jaw is forever setting itself in grim determination that someone "shall be cut from ear to ear." He gets actively annoyed on the slightest provocation and his huge fists contract in his more or less consistent effort to control himself. He trembles on the brink of explosion most of the time. His indignation is righteous and his anger is of the inspiring kind that would end in a knockdown drag-out fight--if he hadn't spent 62 years learning to keep in leash. He collects, as a matter of fact, all manner of weapons and murderous devices. His manners are anything but mild. Only dogs, old ladies and children escape his tongue lashings.

You say that he has been so successful that he has never had much chance to write anything but dog stories. The fact is that he has found his metier and doesn't choose to turn again to aesthetic writing. Only last week he refused Burton Rascoe's suggestion that he reprint in book form his famous Raegan Stories that appeared in 1913 or thereabouts in the Mencken-Nathan Smart Set. He doesn't want those sophisticated tales cropping up now. If they were reprinted, his name would carry them into thousands of American homes, where it is a parental maxim that a Terhune book is fit for the children to read. Then the Smart Set vein would crop out--and that would be the last of the Terhune books in that household. He prefers to remain an Apostle of the Obvious and to know the joy of a wide and appreciative audience. And then too, Mr. Terhune enjoys his great prosperity.

AMY VANDERBILT

Business Manager The American Spectator

New York City

Dillinger's Place

Sirs:

Immediately upon receiving the July 30 copy of TIME I looked for the article concerning the capture and death of Dillinger. I wish to offer my little praise to TIME for placing the subject in its proper place in comparison to the other news of the week. . . .

R. E. CAMPBELL Chicago, Ill.

Sirs:

. . . My sincere respects are paid to you for the cultured manner in which TIME covered the death of John Dillinger. . . .

R. J. BLAKELY

Onawa, Iowa

Portuguese & Whites

Sirs:

". . . 22,000 Polynesians, 29,000 Portuguese, 7,000 Puerto Ricans, 45,000 whites. . . ." (TIME, July 23, p. 13).

I don't know what the Portuguese will have to say about this, but I don't suppose they'll take it as a compliment. I do know you're treading on the toes of lots of people in this locality who have resented slips of this sort in the past.

The ethnological history of Puerto Rico is identical with that of any of our Southern States, including my own State of Texas: invasion and settlement by Europeans--and Spain sent her best blood to the New World; practical extermination of the aboriginal inhabitants; importation of African slaves for agricultural labor; subsequent liberation of these slaves and the gradual appearance of more or less mixed blood. The only difference I see in Puerto Rico is that, since the process has on the whole been going on for a couple of hundred years more than in the continental U. S., the proportion of those having mixed blood is higher than in any of the States. But the pure black and the pure white still exist, just as they do in Texas or Mississippi.

It is doubtless true that the Puerto Ricans who were imported into Hawaii were drawn largely from the Negro and mixed-blood elements. But if some of the surplus Negro population of Mississippi had been taken out there, not even a Northern novelist would speak of "7,000 Puerto Ricans, 10,000 Mississippians, 45,000 whites"!

WOODFIN L. BUTTE

San Juan, P. R.

Reader Robinson Flayed

Sirs:

In TIME of July 23 Lloyd Robinson of South Orange, N. J., unburdens himself of the following tirade:

"TIME will win the undying gratitude of a vast number of frightfully bored U. S. citizens if it can effectively convey that undisputed fact to Mrs. Roosevelt"--[the charge that the American people did not elect Roosevelt's family to the Presidency]. To my mind this is the most ungracious and outrageous statement that I have ever seen in print relating, as it does, to the First Lady of the land, and can only be excused by a medical examination showing that its author is a New Jersey clay-eating moron.

. . . The country, as a matter of fact, elected the two Roosevelt families to the Presidency, and they have so consolidated and taken over the best principles in both parties that the opposition has not a leg to stand upon.

LEROY STAFFORD BOYD

Arlington, Va.

Winner

Sirs:

In an examination given recently to all members of the sophomore class of Allegheny College at Meadville, Pa. testing knowledge in Contemporary Affairs, the student who ranked first was Beyer Africa of Warren, Pa. TIME is the only periodical dealing with contemporary affairs which Mr. Africa reads regularly.

G. E. BUCKINGHAM

Division of Education Allegheny College

Meadville, Pa.

To Reader Africa, congratulations.--ED.

Bottom of the Deck

Sirs:

I am writing to express my surprise at your magazine apologizing for anything it could say concerning Mr. Lilienthal of the TV A after their action in Knoxville. Al Capone's highjacking bandits never did a more outrageous piece of robbery than the Tennessee Valley Authorities did in the case of the Tennessee Electric Power and Light Co. The idea of forcing a transaction such as they did and allowing not one cent for the stockholders is one of the greatest pieces of economic injustice that even the New Deal, whose new dealers are very apt to deal from the bottom of the deck, has done. It only goes to show the great self-satisfaction and self-esteem of Mr. Lilienthal to send you the telegram which he did as though the mere fact that the details of robbery were made public justified the robbery.

H. MAXWELL LANGDON

Philadelphia, Pa.

TIME'S apology concerned only the treatment of Tennessee Power & Light bondholders--a tricky scheme erroneously attributed to Mr. Lilienthal. TVA's Lilienthal did not deny that the stockholders (preferred and common) got nothing except some money-losing streetcars. But in fairness to Mr. Lilienthal, let Subscriber Langdon reflect that he is engaged in carrying out the will of the President and the Congress of the U. S.--ED.

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