Letters, Nov. 7, 1932

(3 of 4)

The architectural profession is striving to carry on, to believe in beauty, and to eat during a period of no building. The Architects of Chicago, having no outlet through steel and stone and brick, created with ideas and canvas and paint, a Latin Quarter Fête. We employed 75 draftsmen, many of whom had been out of work for months. Many of these men were Beaux Arts men—some of them Paris Prize men. They worked creatively and happily, for a small daily wage, in order that a greater number might be employed. These men created the loveliest scene ever given in Chicago, one, we are told (not to be comparative but to give a stamp of excellence) that equalled any Beaux Arts Ball ever given in New York in the heyday of lavish prosperity.

We paid our men $3,500 in wages. We are putting $4,500 in the bank to go toward other creative work in which these men will share. We made something out of nothing and gave pleasure and confidence during a time of fear and criticism. . . . A nude model in an atelier [was] only a small incident in creating the scene. . . .

GEO. L. DICKSON Chicago, Ill.

10,000 Post-Mortems

Sirs:

Anent the recent discussion in TIME as to who is the post-mortem champion of the U. S. (TIME, Oct. 17), I have been waiting for someone to nominate Dr. Adolphus Berger, post-mortem surgeon for the County of San Francisco.

Testifying here recently at a manslaughter trial, Dr. Berger declared he had, within the past five and one-half years, conducted "more than 10,000 post-mortems."

Astounded, the defense attorney asked Dr. Berger: "Do you know how many that means you have averaged for each day in that period?"

"Yes." replied Dr. Berger unabashed, "more than five."

CHARLES GLEESON

Willows, Calif.

Stamps Not Queer

Sirs:

In your issue of Oct. 17, you have a note "Swap" in the Miscellany column regarding the ad in Stamps of one Carl Percy wanting to swap a nine-room house for a stamp collection.

As a stamp collector, I wish to state that the note in itself is all right, but putting it in the "Miscellany" column is where I think you are wrong. For, as all good TIMERS know, that column is made up of what one might term queer happenings, and there is nothing "queer" about that. Many a collector would swap A1 (?) stocks and bonds or real estate for good stamps, knowing their investment would be safer.

GORDON J. CAMPBELL

Pasadena, Calif.

Milker May's Station

Sirs:

In your TIME Magazine, Oct. 17 issue, p. 26, there appeared a picture and accompanying article concerning Secretary of Agriculture Arthur M. Hyde and myself in a recent milking contest staged here at Shenandoah, Iowa.

We wish to correct a statement in this article which has caused considerable comment in this territory. This article made the following statement: "Secretary of Agriculture Arthur Mastick Hyde, who said he had not milked a cow for 20 years, lost a milking contest in Shenandoah, Iowa to Earl May, operator of radio station KFNF, owned by Henry ('Himself') Field, Republican nominee for Senator."