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J. B. MESSICK Grand Canyon, Ariz.
Sirs:
As you sometimes print two on your cover I nominate as Man of the Year Edward VIII and Mrs. Simpson. We all love President Roosevelt but what other news story held, not only a nation, but the whole world, tense for a week? For five days the needle on the dial of our radio flickered frantically from station to station, all other programs and news items forgotten, searching for news from London.
To many to whom he was an impersonal monarch of a distant country he is now enshrined in our hearts with a respect that is akin to worship. No doubt the redoubtable Stanley Baldwin could have condoned a few "backdoor indiscretions." Hail noble Prince, for being true to your principles, the greatest gentleman of them all. The world salutes you!
JUANITA DA LOMBA JONES Ringgold, Va.
Sirs:
Paradoxically, the Man of the Year should be a woman. She outdid President Roosevelt by not only taking one country by storm, but all of them—
She made II Duce's conquest of Ethiopia look like the proverbial theft of confections from an infant.
She ran rings around Edward VIII (smoke rings, no doubt—or is that a fog he is in?)
She could give Mr. Farley lessons in the fundamentals of promotion.
It looks like she has made a bigger catch than Lou Gehrig ever will.
Now you figure out the answer—the initials are W. S.
WILLIAM W. PAUL San Francisco, Calif.
Sirs:
. . . I am anxious to know of your choice, for some reason or other, I always agree with you.
LILLIAN EPLEY Spokane, Wash.
Of the 59 candidates proposed by readers for TIME'S Man of the Year, the three who easily outstripped all the rest were the Duke of Windsor (172), President Roosevelt (113), Mrs. Simpson (86). Considered as two characters in the same news story, the Simpson-Windsor poll of 258 was greater than all other votes combined. To the 505 readers who voted, TIME'S thanks for their enthusiasm. As stated Nov. 30, final decision on who will occupy TIME'S first 1937 cover must rest with the Editors.—ED.
Briggs & Labor
Sirs:
TIME, Dec. 21, says Briggs and Motor Products "have one thing in common: labor trouble."
Briggs has had no labor trouble since the strike of February 1933. For four years, it has been outstanding among large Detroit industrial corporations for lack of labor trouble. No production has been lost in that period on account of any labor trouble in Briggs plants.'
TIME says: "Detroit newspapers no longer consider a Briggs strike news until it approaches in violence the 1933 walkout which forced Henry Ford to shut down."
The fact is that there has been no cause for strike news or other "labor trouble" news about Briggs to get into the newspapers in four years. The fact is that the strike of 1933 was peaceful as compared with what has been happening in strikes since then.
The strike was settled after several weeks by Mr. W. O. Briggs himself, who met the strike committee. Meanwhile, some of the strikers' demands had already been met, such as pay for a minimum number of hours to a man asked to report for work, for whom there was no work available.