Plunderbund
Sirs:
COME ! COME ! TIME is FREQUENTLY ENTITLED TO HIGH PRAISE . . . BUT NOT FOR
PLUNDERBUND (VIDE LETTER OF OCT. 16). THAT'S NOT YOURS.
HERBERT BAYARD SWOPE Old Subscriber New York City
TIME would as soon seek the credit for inventing the steamboat as for inventing plunderbund--a word which is in the dictionary and which existed long before TIME did.--ED.
Senator Chandler
Sirs:
"He [Senator Chandler] knows the first name of nearly every person in Kentucky of voting age. . . ." (TIME, Oct. 16.)
There are nearly one million persons in Kentucky of voting age.
SIDNEY LIGHT, M.D. New York City
-- Reader Licht underestimates Senator Chandler's ability. There are nearly one and a half million persons in Kentucky of voting age.--ED.
Rewrite Man
Sirs:
... In view of what President Roosevelt has done with Thanksgiving ... I think the following is fairly appropriate:
Thirty days has September
April, June and November
All the rest have thirty-one
'Til further notice from Washington. . . . The last line was my own idea.
F. T. BRITTON Cranford, N. J.
Loyalists in France
Sirs:
One feature of this war that evidently has been overlooked by all news agencies, and one which I have often wondered about is this: What has happened to the thousands of Spanish Loyalists interned in France at the end of the Spanish War? Have they been absorbed into the French Army? Or have they been forced into civilian activity behind the front?
These thousands of proven fighters would make a worthy windfall for the French Army, and these men, driven from their homes by totalitarian aggression, should be anxious for a crack at Hitler, without whose help Franco could have never won. . . .
CLAUD CURLIN
Pine Bluff Daily Graphic Pine Bluff, Ark.
> Of 182,500 Spanish refugees in France (82,500 militiamen, 100,000 old men, women & children) 40,500 have been absorbed by industry, agriculture and public works projects, the remaining 142,000 are in concentration camps. Almost certainly no refugees have been accepted in the French fighting forces.--ED.
Soviet Illiteracy
Sirs:
Please give present percentage of illiteracy in Soviet Russia as compared with United States.
H. HARRISON Los Angeles, Calif.
> Illiteracy in Soviet Union (according to American Russian Institute): about 20%; in U. S. (1930 census): 4.3%.--ED.
Sitting Submarine
Sirs:
In TIME for Oct. 9, your interesting account of submarine warfare leaves me a bit puzzled. As a civilian ... I have held for some time the belief that submarines are able to stay submerged only so long as they maintain active forward motion with motors running. And yet . . . you state that the "usual maneuver is to sit on bottom, motors off." By this do you mean that such submarines are stuck fast in the mud of the bottom or that submersion with motors off is possible regardless of the circumstances?
ROBERT R. NIXON Durham, N. C.
> A submarine can sit on the bottom, motors off, provided the depth is no greater than its usual cruising depth. In really deep water, the submarine's hull could not stand the pressure.--ED.
Youth
Sirs:
Dean M. Kerl, in his letter to the Oct. 2 issue of TIME, makes a good point but overlooks, I think, the latent power to be represented that is actually in the hands of voters between the ages of 21 and 30. Unless I am greatly mistaken voters between the ages of 21 and 30 outnumber the older voters. If this is so youth, in the interests of youth, and old people like me, should forget party affiliations and force an amendment to the Constitution. As the law stands, Representatives must be at least 25, Senators at least 30, and Presidents 35 years of age. Only Presidents have to be American born. All should have to be American born and anyone who has reached the age of 21 should be eligible to any office in the gift of the voters.
Napoleon, Alexander the Great, Pitt--innumerable others--touched the high places when they were much too young, according to our Constitution (which is soft in spots) to have been Presidents of the United States. At 32 Alexander Hamilton became the first and greatest of all Secretaries of the Treasury but was, of course, much too young and inexperienced to have been President. In this country men from 40 to 50, having failed at every venture, worm, shout and lie their way into Congress. Once there they will stop at no lie, slander, or debt wished upon posterity, if they think it will keep them there. Members of the Congress, of course, should not be allowed to serve successive terms. Neither should Presidents. To date the cost of reelections in this country is most of the National Debt. Youth should not ask for representation. Youth should take it, and plenty of it. A young fool is a better bet than an old fool.
GOUVERNEUR MORRIS Coolidge, New Mex.
Sirs:
Reader Dean M. Kerl is damn right. I am 19.
TOM ELLIOT Davidson, N. C.
Sirs:
Since you want to know how youth feel about who should decide our entry into war, let me qualify myself. I have no objection to letting Congress retain its age-old power in this matter, providing
1) They first passed a law making it mandatory that once fighting began there could be no attack unless led by a Congressman, no engagement unless a Congressman was present to take charge; or 2) A law was passed making everyone a Congressman, and so not subject to conscription. . .
CLAUDE MOORE Wichita, Kans.
Sirs:
As one the same age as Dean M. Kerl of Lincoln, Neb., my opinion is:
Let those who declare war fight it.
BRIAN COYNE
Austin, Tex.
Sirs:
Barred from taking part in Mr. Kerl's referendum (over age) thought I would reassure him through editors of TIME that if, when and as, I am elected Senator of the U. S. from the State of N. Y., his life would be much safer in my deliberations than those of my two sons; one of age and the other longing for and about to be.
MILTON H. DAXE
The Bronx, N. Y.
> In all, 76 readers agreed with Dean M. Kerl in his request that "Youth" (maximum age limit of 30) be represented in Congress, twelve disagreed.--ED.
Wrong-Way Ticket
Sirs:
In Oct. 9 TIME, Mr. McReynolds plugs for Charles A. Lindbergh as a presidential candidate. In behalf of a few million Americans please allow me to express a preference for Douglas (Wrong-Way) Corrigan.
HOWARD B. POTTS
Byesville, Ohio
Senator Barbour
Sirs:
Having read the letter "Vandenberg & Morgan," illustrated (TIME, Oct.), I hasten to be among the first of New Jerseyans to criticize the editor's note. Senator W. Warren Barbour, Republican, New Jersey, handshaker and friend of both J. P. Morgan and Senator Vandenberg, and of many other persons wealthy or otherwise, was elected not defeated in 1938. . . .
EARLE S. SNYDER
Atlantic Highlands, N. J.
>Excuse it please. Senator Barbour was elected in 1938, defeated in 1936. --ED.
Vigorous Protest
Sirs:
In its issue of May 8, TIME published an article concerning the decree taken by the French Government for the repression of foreign propaganda by means of the press. This article, which contains terms gravely injurious to French journalists, has given rise to great indignation, and obliges me, in the name of the Association of which I am President, to address you a most vigorous protest.
There is no country in the world where the press is more careful to preserve its liberty than in France. Over a period of more than 150 years, the history of its struggles to obtain and maintain its independence is closely allied with that of the French nation itself, and governments have fallen because they sought to attack its rights. You must realize how much, under these circumstances, an accusation of servility or of corruption is of a nature to disturb those journalists who have the privilege of being the custodians and beneficiaries of such an honorable tradition.
I hope to be able to believe that the article in question is only the work of an ill-intentioned or badly informed member of your editorial staff, that it must certainly have escaped your personal attention and that it does not reflect your own thoughts. But whatever the circumstances, I cannot let pass without protest imputations which are so extremely damaging to the French press both collectively and, as in the case of certain papers named, individually. You no doubt realize that the wide circulation of TIME, together with its reputation for accuracy, make the accusations contained in the article very serious and likely to cause incalculable harm if they are not rectified.
COUNT ETIENNE DE NALECHE President of the Paris Press Association Director of Le Journal des Debats Member of the Institut de France Commander of the Legion of Honor Paris, France
> TIME applauds the vigorous protest made by Count Etienne de Naleche, President of the Paris Press Association, against the imputations contained in an article published in its issue of May 8, 1939. If injustice has been done TIME is sorry. -- ED.
Story of the Emden
Sirs:
The editor who wrote your story of Emden (TIME, Oct. 16) drew freely on his imagination, particularly in respect to the escape of the crew on board the Ayesha. Lieut. Capt. Helmuth von Mikke's account in his book Ayesha relates that the landing force of approximately 56 men, sent ashore by Capt. Miller to destroy the wireless station on Keeling Island (English), did just that and was caught ashore when the cruiser Sidney engaged and sank the Emden. Contrary to your romantic "jungle hiding," the landing party which was, of course, now in command of the island, outfitted the schooner Ayesha (97 tons) and, in spite of warnings by the Englishmen on the island about her unseaworthiness, set sail in her shortly after the battle. The boat had accommodations for a crew of five men and the captain. They were 56. They sailed her, rotten as she was, I believe about 2,000 miles, across the Indian Ocean. They transferred (near Padang) to a North German Lloyd steamer Choising and reached Hodeida on the Red Sea.
There Capt. von Miicke landed with his men and after hair-raising encounters with the Arabs managed to reach the Turkish frontier and safety. . . .
There is a personal postscript to this. Christmas Eve 1922 my father was called to the telephone. A friend asked whether he might bring along for dinner a German here on a lecture tour and stranded on Christmas Eve with no place to go. ...
Sometime later we welcomed to our very "Christmas Evey" party a tall man in his thirties, with a weather-beaten face and intense blue eyes surrounded by the tiny wrinkles which come from long years at sea. It was Lieut. Capt. Helmuth von Muecke. We sat down to Christmas Eve dinner about 8 o'clock. At midnight coffee was served (also Christmas cookies), but not until 3 o'clock in the morning did anyone think of the time or of moving from their places. We heard at first hand the story of those now world-famous exploits of the Emden and the unbelievable heroism of the trip from Keeling Island to Turkey. . . . The thing that struck us all and made the deepest impression was the almost complete lack of appearance of the pronoun "I" in any of the narrative.
I wonder where von Muecke is now ? Mueller I believe is dead.
LENORE RASTER AAGAARD
Chicago, Ill.
> Believed still alive, von Muecke -- last accounted for in Nazi Germany -- may be on the threshold of new war adventures. -- ED.
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