Hex

Sirs: The fatality of TIME'S cover is not exclusively reserved for sports figures (Letters, Nov. 27). The following men have been jinxed immediately, or soon after, their appearance as Men of the Week (I include only those I remember offhand -- there are undoubtedly many more) : Ethiopia's Selassie [Jan. 6, 1936] -- his country accompanied him into oblivion.

Austria's last (and perhaps, late) chancelor [March 21, 1938] -- he was well down the kids when TIME brought him out.

Czechoslovakia's Benes [June 27, 1938] --Same as above.

Poland's Beck [March 6, 1939] -- Ditto.

Poland's Smigly-Rydz [Sept. 14, 1939--He ran true to form also.

Albania's Zog -- If he wasn't on TIME'S cover, he surely missed a good bet.

Sweden's Gustaf [Oct. 30, 1939]--His budget is out of balance for the first time in years.

Chrysler's Keller [Oct. 16, 1939]-- No sooner had he smiled for TIME'S cameraman than his company ran into a disastrous strike.

Michigan's Vandenberg [Oct. 2, 1939] --Routed decisively in the Great Neutrality issue.

Britain's Churchill; The Allies' Newall; Britain's Elizabeth; Rumania's Carol; and The Netherlands' Wilhelmina: I can but tremble for them, after their appearance on TIME'S front.

Germany's Hitler (last year's MAN) : Here is a boy who is long overdue. Cannot TIME bring him out again, and finish the job? It might atone for some of the innocents you have put the hex on. ...

FORREST LUCKENBILL Argenta, Ill.

70,000 Finest

Sirs:

With no apologia, alibi or alias, I hereby and now register vehement protest against the harsh treatment and slurring references which you made against the fair suburb of Cicero in the Nov. 20 issue of TIME (p. 16). I do this on behalf of 70,000 residents of the town, 70,000 of the finest people in the United States of America.

In paragraph 4 of the article headed "Hoodlum," you use the language "Cicero, the Chicago suburb whose name has been notorious ever since." . . .

Cicero has a greater percentage of really fine folks than any city of similar size in the country. I should like to have you personally spend an evening with any of our fine family, club or social groups, or spend a day talking and visiting with our business and professional men on Cermak Road, or the side business streets, and I'll wager that thereafter your opinion would not be so biased.

If you could have mingled with the 2,500 people who attended our annual Charity Ball, given under auspices of the Cicero Welfare Center, last Saturday night, if you would observe the work of our civic bodies and social groups, you would likewise alter your editorial opinion of Cicero. . . .

My only console is that the American public is fickle. It soon forgets bad news the same as it forgets good news. We know that a lot of things will happen throughout the world tonight that will cause us to forget the things that were reported yesterday. But, please TIME, pretty please, give Cicero its rightful break.

WILLIAM H. MAAS Editor

The Cicero Review Cicero, Ill.

> Reader Maas is editorializing; TIME did not. All praise to Cicero's 70,000. But it would be unique town indeed that could harbor the Capone mob through a decade and fail to gain notoriety.--ED.

Amazing

Sirs:

Have managed to pick up or read (at American clubs usually) all copies up to Oct. 4. Amazing where one finds TIME. . . . Up at the KMA Compound, at Chinwangtao for instance; only there, two of the Jap Conquerors were reading the only issues available. ... On the S.S. Kaiping for instance. She's a stinking little coal-tramp, plies between Chinwangtao and Shanghai, British boat, British and Chinese crew, and never leaves China's waters, but out of 27 old and lop-eared magazines in the dining-reading-card-smoking-lounging room, 13 were American of which six were TIMES. Think of it. I know, because we had 48 hours in a typhoon and we had to stay below, so I found and read all they had.

JEFF LAZARUS Hollywood, Calif.

Camondongo Mickey

Sirs:

Reference Carmen Miranda and El Raton Miguel in TIME of Nov. 20.

As one who has perspired in Brazil for the last 22 years, this exotic lady is well known to me, and there can be no doubt as to her Brazilian nationality and the fact that she speaks and sings in Portuguese (of the Brazilian variety).

But El Raton Miguel never was a Brazilian, either born or naturalized. I suspect that you have got hold of a Mexican or possibly Argentine specimen of Mickey Mouse, as the designation is Spanish.

The unfortunate and long-suffering Mickey in Brazil is known (believe it or not) by the polysyllabic and extraordinarily clumsy name of Camondongo Mickey. Try it on Carmen, and see if she does not react!

H. S. OWEN San Diego, Calif.

>Cannot Reader Owen think of anything better to talk to Carmen Miranda about?--ED.

No Weakling

Sirs:

I am hopeful that you will allow me to correct an impression which you unwittingly left by the reference in your issue of Nov. 13 to King Ferdinand of Rumania as a "weakling." During the time I was American Minister in Bucharest (1925-28) I came to know the King personally and I had many opportunities to see the nature of his work.

I would not detract from the deserving credit which is due Queen Marie and John and Vintila Bratianu but King Ferdinand was in fact King. He ruled as well as reigned. He was less dramatic than the Queen. He was less in the public eye than the Bratianus. But he was by accepted tests a farseeing and enlightened monarch.

His subjects called him "Ferdinand the Loyal." He was a Hohenzollern from Germany. But he made the decision (it was not forced upon him) to enter the first World War against his own kinsmen in defense of his adopted country. This was not weakness. His statesmanship gave to Rumania universal suffrage and agrarian reform. As a result of the latter measure the peasants--85 per cent of Rumania's population--today own the greater part of the arable land which formerly belonged to the privileged few. These reforms were not weakness.

The economic development that resulted from the foundations laid under King Ferdinand's reign have received further impetus under the energetic guidance of King Carol II. In spite of political and economic unsettlement in Europe, for many years past Rumania has enjoyed a balanced budget and a favorable trade balance. Industrial unrest has been reduced to a minimum. Indeed, the working people have little cause for complaint. Under the social legislation enacted more than 15 years ago, collective bargaining and paid vacations are guaranteed to industrial workers. Moreover, the remarkable industrial development of the country has practically eliminated unemployment.

The agrarian reform enacted under the reign of King Ferdinand was supplemented under King Carol II by another measure calculated to consolidate the economic independence of the new landowners. Through the conversion of agricultural debts, the peasants' indebtedness was reduced by more than half, which saved thousands of small holdings from foreclosure and many rural families from ruin. . . .

WILLIAM S. CULBERTSON

Formerly American Minister to Rumania and formerly American Ambassador to Chile. Charmian, Pa.

Shouting Sex

Sirs:

After all--dear sophisticated TIME--Mr. Errol Flynn is one of those rare souls, who does not have to act, to have the feminine population positively swooning at his feet! All he has to do is--be Errol Flynn--he simply shouts masculine appeal so shame on your severe criticism of The Private Lives of Elizabeth & Essex [TIME, Nov. 13]. Accent on sex--Errol Flynn.

OLIVIA HATHAWAY Dayton, Ohio

-- TIME'S Cinema Editor is in some ways hard of hearing.--ED.

Relief Ship Relief

Sirs:

In TIME [Nov. 20] you carried an item concerning the voyage of my schooner Liberty to Pitcairn Island and Tahiti.

As stated, we had arranged to deliver to the Pitcairn Islanders the radio transmitter they sent to Panama for repairs and which, due to the present international situation, is still in Panama. Without it and with the present lack of shipping these people are cut off from the outside world and their lives are in jeopardy.

We had hoped at the outset to have been of service to these people stranded in mid-Pacific but due to lack of financial backing it has been necessary to abandon the voyage despite the fact that the vessel is ready for sea.

Should you print this letter, it may be that someone interested in the fate of these people will see it and help in meeting the expenses involved.

KENNETH M. SIMPSON South Portland, Me.

Not Meticulous

Sirs:

I don't want to be picayunishly meticulous, although I am a college professor in civil engineering and a highways man (not to be confused with highwayman), but shouldn't your TIME, Nov. 13 description of the farm life of Artist Dahlov ZorachIpcar that she "does not milk or drive a car," have a comma after "milk," or read "does not drive a car, or milk" ? Or has Ford done something bovine to his autos?

J. E. KAULFUSS State College, Pa.

> Automobile owners are sometimes milked; automobiles never.--ED.

It Makes a Difference

Sirs:

President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his occupation as "Farmer" when he voted at Hyde Park last month. I am wondering if the president is a "farmer" or an "agriculturist"? The difference is this as we define it in the deep South:

"A farmer is one who makes his money in the country and spends it in town, and an agriculturist makes his money in town and spends it in the country." . . .

LEON SCHWARZ

Mobile, Ala.

Common Frontier

Sirs:

What is a liberal? TIME, Nov. 13, p. 22.

Perhaps no modern writer has approximated the simplicity of Lord Macaulay, the Whig historian of England, in his famous analysis of those two contending forces which have governed and disputed alternately since the beginning of democratic processes!

"The recess of the English Parliament lasted six weeks. The day on which the houses met again is one of the most remarkable epochs in our history (October, 1641). From that day dates the corporate existence of the two great parties which have ever since alternately governed the country. In one sense, indeed, the distinction which then became obvious had always existed, and always must exist. For it has its origin in diversities of temper, of understanding, and of interest, which are found in all societies, and which will be found till the human mind ceases to be drawn in opposite directions by the charm of habit, and by the charm of novelty. Not only in politics, but in literature, in art, in science, in surgery and mechanics, in navigation and agriculture, nay, even in mathematics, we find this distinction. Every where there is a class of men who cling with fondness to whatever is ancient, and who, even when convinced by overpowering reasons that innovation would be beneficial, consent to it with many misgivings and forebodings. We find also every where another class of men, sanguine in hope, bold in speculation, always pressing forward, quick to discern the imperfections of whatever exists, disposed to think lightly of the risks and inconveniences which attend improvements, and disposed to give every change credit for being an improvement. In the sentiments of both classes there is something to approve. But of both the best specimens will be found not far from the common frontier. The extreme section of one class consists of bigoted dotards: the extreme section of the other consists of shallow and reckless empirics."

DUDLEY MITCHELL Grand Junction, Colo.

Metaphor Mixer

Sirs:

The reporters who cover San Francisco's City Hall consider Philadelphia's Councilman Charles Pommer a piker [TIME, Nov. 20].

So they must consider any metaphor-mixer after direct contact for many years with Supervisor James B. McSheehy, quadrennially unsuccessful candidate for mayor:

So expert is this Mr. Malaprop that for years the press room has designated one man to keep up-to-date a compendium of McSheehyisms. Culled at random, we offer (all of these delivered from the floor in public meetings of the Board of Supervisors):

"This has all the earmarks of an eyesore!"

"Down the echoing corridors of time I see the footprints of a hidden hand!"

"We must all put our shoulders to the wheel and drive the ship of state down the middle of the road!"

"Before the chickens come home to roost, it will be a horse of another color."

"Don't burn your bridges until you come to them."

And as the topper thus far, thus spake McSheehy in debate against the removal of bodies from a potter's field:

"This is a crime against the indignant dead!"

THE CITY HALL PRESS ROOM San Francisco, Calif.

Man of the Year

Sirs:

. . . Franklin D. Roosevelt.

HARRY C. POWELL Ephrata, Wash.

Sirs:

. . . J. Stalin of Moscow.

FLORENCE DAVIS Dayton, Ohio

Sirs:

. . . Can't you use ditto marks and a footnote "see 1939."

EDITH WYATT Decatur, Ga.

Sirs:

Because ... he has risen out of a moldy graveyard of the past to a new destiny in one of England's most important posts . . . the Honorable Winston Churchill of England.

ROBERT W. HANLON Rockville Centre, N. Y.

Sirs:

. . . Kermit Roosevelt.

T. W. K. HUME, M.D.

Auburn Heights, Mich.

Sirs:

. . . Clarence K. Streit [author of Union Now] with the first constructive plan to turn back the totalitarian tide.

RICHARD C. SCOTT Pasadena, Calif.

Sirs:

. . . Cordell Hull.

H. K. LIVINGSTON

Chicago, Ill.

Sirs:

. . . Archduke Otto von Habsburg-Lothringen, throne pretender and Crown Prince of Austria whose incipient coronation will mean a new era of peace to Europe.

OTTO F. REESE

New York City

Sirs:

. . . Congressman Martin Dies of Texas.

ELIZABETH M. THWEATT Austin, Texas

Sirs:

. . . Thomas E. Dewey, the "Nemesis of Racketeers."

M. THRANE Chicago, Ill.

Sirs:

. . . Henry L. Stimson.

CHARLES C. McAFEE Denver, Colo.

Sirs:

. . . Commander-in-Chief Maurice Gustave Gamelin.

V. J. VAN LINT

Cimarron, N. Mex.

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