Letters, Oct. 30, 1939

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