Letters: Sep. 8, 1930

• Share

Mrs. Hoover & Bottle

Sirs: You stooped pretty low in your picturing of Mrs. Hoover on the title page of TIME for Aug. 18. Your accompanying letter press expressly quotes her as saying she got a thrill when her hand touched the prow of the mighty vessel which she used the bottle of water in christening. Yet you quote her words "a real thrill" under a picture which shows her holding the basketed bottle in a setting which offers the observer no suggestion of a ship or any connection with the object for which the bottle was used. Basketing is commonly used on liquor bottles. The picture and especially your caption are manifesty intended to convey the impression that Mrs. Hoover is getting a thrill out of holding a bottle of liquor in her hand. Which puts her in a doubly embarrassing light, being the woman she is and occupying, as your own caption indicates, the position of -'first lady" in a land where prohibition is the law and constitution, and her husband is the President. This is a piece of petty trickery, which is quite unworthy of you. The petty soul who inspired the trick should receive one of your public reprimands and perhaps some further treatment designed to purge. JOSEPH ERNEST MCAFEE

New York City

Mr. McAfee is entitled to his own suspicions and interpretations, but such ideas never entered TIME'S head.—ED. University of Whales