(3 of 5)
Cotton & Constitution Sirs: Your Sept. 14 issue notes the recent agitation for no-planting laws in the cotton States. As a lawyer who devotes most of his time to fianacial and economic matters. I have been disturbed by the apparent total absence of concern in the minds of the advocation Governors and the complete ignoring of what seems to my lawyer friends and myself as an insuperable constitutional inhibition involved in such legislation.
It seems to us that such a law is so far out side the police powers of a State, as delineated thus far by the decisions of the U. S. Supreme Court, as to make it clearly contrary to the prohibition of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the U. S. As we understand it, State restrictions on oil flow are expressions of an entirely different legal power, which is based on certain inherent rights of of the State in so-called "wild" products of nature which have not yet been captured or appropriated.
Where are the attorneys general who are supposed to keep the Governors of the respective States advised? Or is the proposal merely a political beau geste? In any event, if false impressions and hopes are being built up in cotton, perhaps to be followed in other commodities, isn't a clarification of the situation such news as the Press should give the public as well as to bewildered lawyers. DAVID STOCK New York City
Flying Squirrels Sirs: ''He [Earl Carroll] was the first man to land an airplane in Manhattan's Central Park" (TIME, Sept. 7). Early in the spring of 1914, I landed a Sloane-Deperdussin monoplane, 50 h.p. Gnome motor (some power fer them days, by gravy!) in the sheep meadow at 66th Street. Was arrested for something—possibly, publicity for the cop who arrested me— and discharged by Magistrate MacQuade next morning. The Aero Club of America suspended my license for six months. If I remember correctly, George Beatty landed a Model B Wright on this same field at least two years before I did, and the late Blair Thaw turned the trick along about 1915 with a private plane built for him by Harold Kantner. It would appear from TIME'S paragraph that the Bathtub Earl did not join the Central Park Flying Squirrels until 1917, which would put him a long way from charter membership. I suggest that the archives of the Carroll Press Department be altered accordingly. GUY GILPATRIC Cros de Cagnes, A.M., France
Mate Adams' Killing Sirs: In the Aug. 24 issue of your interesting magazine you published the news of arrest ef one L. C. Adams, mate of American ship Sundance, charged with the murder of one of his crew in a foreign seaport. As my occupation is similar to his I wish you would inform me of the outcome of his trial. . . . JOHN M. WHEATON Port Arthur, Tex. While the Sundance was discharging cargo at Ghent, Mate Adams dragged mutinous Seaman Myak Wooker, 6-ft.-6-in. Esthonian, from beneath a bunk. Seaman Wooker seized a fire axe. Mate Adams shot him dead. Belgian authorities cleared Mate Adams. Last month, charged. with murder on the high seas, Mate Adams was freed by a Manhattan grand jury. — ED.
Pittsburgh's Dodo