Required Reading
Sirs:
YOUR REVIEW OF CARL SANDBURG'S NEW LINCOLN BIOGRAPHY IS GORGEOUS AND SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING IN EVERY SCHOOL IN THE LAND. SANDBURG RICHLY DESERVES THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE FROM THE SWEDISH ACADEMY.
HENRY S. HENSCHEN
Washington, D. C.
Sly Jest
Sirs:
Harvard Law School's Story Professor of Law, T. Reed Powell, doubtless feels honored by your attributing to Mr. Justice Holmes Mr. Powell's sly jest as to Mr. Justice Butler's feelings about the procreation of imbeciles in perpetuity [TIME, Nov. 27]. Romantic legends certainly have gathered round Holmes's name; but even a casual reading of his opinion in Buck v. Bell and of Mr. Powell's digest thereof in his Police Power essays, published--as I recall--in the Virginia Law Review, will uncover the source of this one.
As to Mr. Justice Butler's enjoying this jest, those of us who have been exposed to Mr. Powell's pungent blasphemy doubt whether the Justice ever could have read anything written by the Professor.
TIME'S law is accurate, but from TIME'S facts I dissent.
GERALD P. ROSEN
Los Angeles, Calif.
>To give devilish-witted Prof. Thomas Reed Powell his just due, the crack originated thus: Justice Holmes (reading decision): "Three generations of imbeciles are enough." Prof. Powell (adding thereto in the Virginia Law Review, June 1931): "Mr. Justice Butler dissents."--ED.
Once Was Enough
Sirs:
Long have I enjoyed Letters, but never have written.
Your quotation of Lippmann (TIME, Nov. 27, p. 13), ". . . there never was a President who did not want to be elected for a second term . . ." needs correction.
In the Allan Nevins edition of the diaries of James K. Polk, U. S. President, 1845-49 (up to then our youngest President; seven successive terms a Congressman; Speaker of the House; Governor of Tennessee; President at 49) are found the following entries:
Wednesday, 24th December, 1845--In re conference with Senator Turney of Tennessee:
"... I remark . . . that I have no doubt both Mr. Benton and Mr. Calhoun apprehend that I may be a candidate for reelection, for which there is not the slightest foundation My mind has been made up from the time I accepted the Baltimore nomination, and is still so, to serve but one term and not to be a candidate for reelection."
Tuesday, 2nd November, 1847--". . I have now passed through two-thirds of my Presidential term, and most heartily wish that the remaining third was over, for I am sincerely desirous to have the enjoyment of retirement in private life."
Saturday, 29th January, 1848--recording visits from two Senators:
"They said . . . that the condition of the country was such, and the divisions among the Democratic party, as between the present aspirants for the nomination, that it might become indispensable to renominate me as the only means of restoring harmony, and of preserving harmony in the next election, and that it might become my duty to yield.". . . They urged also the condition of the country being engaged in a foreign [Mexican] war, and their conviction that I would be the strongest man of the party. I still adhered to my often expressed determination to retire at the close of my present term. . . ."
Tuesday, 13th February, 1849--". . . I am heartily rejoiced that my term is so near its close. I will soon cease to be a servant and will again become a sovereign. . . ."
His looked-for rest in peaceful retirement was short-lived. Within four months, this relatively young man who had literally worked himself to death in four years of fruitful service for his country, was dead. CHESTER D. SEFTENBERG
Oak Park, Ill.
>Admits Pundit Lippmann: "I never knew a President or heard of one who didn't want to be re-elected until I heard of James K. Polk. I stand corrected."--ED.
In Justice
Sirs:
In your issue of Nov. 20, p. 15, under "Off-year election oddities" the first paragraph states:
"In Little Ferry, N. J., three men who were WPA workers on election day became Mayor and Councilmen next day."
In justice to my two associates and myself who were elected by a two to one vote, please be informed that none of the persons referred to were employed by the much maligned WPA. . . .
JOSEPH SRHOLEZ JR.
Present Councilman and Mayor-Elect of Little Ferry, N. J.
> In justice to Mayor-Elect Joseph Srholez Jr., he resigned from WPA before filing his petition. Councilmen Kabela and Kozich were never on WPA.--ED.
How About It?
Sirs:
How about a little cooperation between the Editor of TIME and the Editor of FORTUNE?
At p. 50 in your issue of Nov. 27, you aptly smear the atrocity "Reverend Jones" used in place of "the Reverend Mr. Jones" or "the Reverend Tom Jones."
But alas, FORTUNE for December at p. 69, trots out "Reverend Daniels." In the name of consistency, FORTUNE'S Editor might have given us "Honorable Hull" at p. 44 of the same issue, but he spared us that one.
CLARENCE L. SAGER
Riverside, Conn.
> The editors of FORTUNE are invited to cooperate.--ED.
Urbi et Orbi
Sirs:
We Latin Americans are so used to the misinformation regarding our problems, economic as well as political which seems to be a peculiar feature of many publications in this country (TIME included), that we cannot be unduly surprised at the odd and confused mixture of facts and misstatements with which TIME reports urbi et orbi (Dec. 4) the results of the general elections in Cuba for delegates to the Constituent Assembly which is to draft a new Cuban Constitution.
Permit me for the sake of plain and sheer truth to inform you that the results of those elections--the most orderly, peaceful and fair ever held not only in Cuba but in the whole Western Hemisphere, barring no country--were immediately known and accepted by all and sundry, and that the majority of six seats won by the coalition which represents the so-called opposition parties, simply means that the Constitution to be drafted by the Assembly shall be, for the good of Cuba, the result of the sum of all political creeds, without there predominating in said Constitution any extremism whatsoever either of the left or of the right.
It is extraordinarily strange that the state of confidence, security and peace created in Cuba by the elections of November 15th (which a well informed newspaper, The Washington Post of November 21 has termed "Sign of Maturity"), be interpreted by TIME as a state of danger composed of "prime ingredients for revolution. . . ."
PEDRO MARTINEZ FRAGA
Ambassador of Cuba
Washington, D. C.
> TIME gladly accords to Cuban Ambassador Fraga the right to interpret Cuban affairs as he sees fit.--ED.
Man of the Year
Sirs:
. . . Herr Hitler, the "Him of Hate." Put his picture on your cover and maybe the same misfortunes will befall him as fell to those hapless sports figures you mention as marking their decline from the date of their appearance on TIME covers. I know Hitler's picture has appeared before but let us try it again and then all pray that the jinx will come to his door.
A. F. HERON
Zumbrota, Minn.
Sirs:
I nominate for Man of the Year Joe Stalin, who has outwitted all the living participants in the world crisis!
ERNEST DUDLEY CHASE
Boston, Mass.
Sirs:
As much as I hate to give him the exalted honor . . . chalk up another vote for Joseph Stalin.
SAMUEL HALPERN
Brooklyn, N. Y.
Sirs:
Remember the saying "You'll find the diamond in your own back yard?" Why look farther than our very own President, Franklin D. Roosevelt? . . .
MRS. A. W. BROWNE
Akron, Ohio
Sirs:
. . . Stefan ("The Terrible") Starzynski former mayor of Warsaw. There is (or was) a man!
ORA L. JONES
Pompano, Fla.
Sirs:
. . . Winston Churchill.
MARGARET JACKSON
Boston, Mass.
Sirs:
, . . the Premier of Finland (what's his name?), who had the grit to tell both Hitler and Stalin where to head in, and so turned the tide of their plundering onslaught on the "weak" nations of Europe.
STEPHEN M. WALFORD
Wallingford, Conn.
> His name was Aimo Cajander. He resigned.--ED.
Sirs:
. . . THE FELLOW WHO PLANTED THE BOMB IN THE BueRGERBRaeU KELLER IN MUNICH. HAD HE NOT MISCALCULATED BY 11 MINUTES HE WOULD HAVE BEEN, IN ALL PROBABILITY THE MAN OF THE CENTURY.
DR. N. N. FRANKEL
Freehold, N. J.
> Nominations are hereby closed.--ED.
Misery Harbor
Sirs:
My attention has been called to your ar tide "Misery Harbor" which appeared on pages 64-65 of your issue of Dec. 4, 1939.
I am surprised to learn that you have appointed me "A. M. A.'s education secretary.' I hold membership in the organization bu I am neither an officer nor an employe.
I happen to know the personnel of the group which you dub "An A. M. A.-inspired citizens' committee." This attempt to slur a group of distinguished, public-spirited Chicagoans reflects only discredit upon the source of your news. . . .
IRVING S. CUTTER, M.D.
Dean
Northwestern University Medical School
Chicago, Ill.
> TIME'S apologies to Dr. Irving Samuel Cutter for giving him the title of his relative Dr. William Dick Cutter. TIME had no notion that "A. M. A.-inspired" was a slur.--ED.
Sirs:
ITEM MISERY HARBOR TIME THIS WEEK IS AMAZING. . . . AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH APPOINTMENT CITIZENS' COMMITTEE, HAS NO REPRESENTATIVE
ON THAT COMMITTEE, HAS NEVER ASKED FOR NEW DIRECTOR, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION HAS NOT PROMISED REINSTATEMENT OR ANYTHING. ... IS THERE ANYTHING ACCURATE IN YOUR STORY?
MORRIS FISHBEIN
Chicago, Ill.
> Yes. Aside from the slip of giving one Dr. Cutter the other's title every thing in TIME'S story was substantially correct. Dr. Fishbein is denying in some cases things that TIME did not say; in others, quibbling on technicalities.
TIME said that a new medical director, satisfactory to A. M. A., had finally been appointed to Cook County Hos pital in order to obtain reinstatement of the hospital on A. M. A.'s approved list. Dr. William Dick Cutter (who is the secretary of the A. M. A. Council on Medical Education and Hospitals) said recently in a published interview: "The appointment of Dr. Davison is evidently an effort to fulfill the recommendation of the American Medical Association and the citizen's committee. No action [on the hospital's rein statement] can be taken by the council until its meeting Dec. 10."
A baldfaced editorial in the current issue of Editor Fishbein's A. M. A. Journal accuses TIME of eleven "misstatements" in the same story. To any physician interested, TIME will gladly send, on request, a copy of its letter to Dr. Fishbein, answering him point by point.
This week Cook County Hospital was restored to A. M. A.'s approved list.-- ED.
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