Letters, Feb. 26, 1934

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Men Against Reviewer

Sirs:

My friend, Charles Nordhoff, and I, while appreciating the friendly notice of our book, Men Against the Sea, which appeared in the Jan. 15 issue of TIME, rather resent some of the distinctions wished upon us by your reviewer. After giving various intimate details with respect to our private lives (which would appear to have little to do with the merits or demerits of our book), the reviewer proceeds: "Both rebuffed globe-girdling Cinemactor Douglas Fairbanks when he tried to hire them for small parts in his Mr. Robinson Crusoe. Both have been made (by decree of Governor Léonce Jore of French Oceania) chieftains in the Kilyan tribe."

This is news to us, and I am sure that the first of the statements would be news to Mr. Fairbanks as well; and the second to ex-Governor Jore. You should sit on the head of your office-boy reviewer when he makes such gratuitous assertions, for some of your readers may believe them.

But I am principally concerned because of the surprise and indignation the second fiction must occasion among the warriors of the Kilyan tribe, all of whom are, of course, faithful subscribers to TIME. If these savages come down from whatever wilds they may inhabit for the purpose of denying, with spears and war-clubs, that Nordhoff and myself are in any way affiliated with their tribe, our blood will be upon the heads of the united staff of TIME. And may you never be able to wash it off!

JAMES NORMAN HALL Tahiti, French Oceania

$250,000 Refused

Sirs: Referring to your article entitled "Birth Controllers on Parade" in TIME for Jan. 29, I wish to take exception to an insinuation wholly unjustifiable. You state that Mrs. Hepburn "started the show" (a good description of the hearing before the Judiciary Committee) by insisting "We are not connected with any commercial interest*." That asterisk calls attention to your footnote which states that contraceptives were on exhibit in a room at the Mayflower Hotel during the Birth Control Conference in Washington held at the Mayflower. The inference is unmistakable. Was it intended? Perhaps you do not know that admission to the exhibit was by card only; that the distribution of those cards was carefully supervised; that with the exception of a few, the cards were given only to physicians. . . . Not one member of the Federal Committee on Legislation for Birth Control has any commercial interest in any contraceptives, nor have we any association with any company that manufactures or sells a contraceptive. . . . Furthermore, Mrs. Sanger refused an offer of $250,000 for five minute radio talks on any subject she chose from a company manufacturing an antiseptic. Why didn't you report a fact like that? It came out at the hearing. DOROTHY H. DICK Secretary Federal Committee on Legislation for Birth Control New York City