Build-Up
Sirs:
Through the murk of screaming headlines last week TIME readers thought they could see the facts of the German crisis a little more clearly than could most of their bewildered neighbors. Well known to the first group were the depravity of Roehm, the jittery excitableness of Little Man Hitler and Dope Addict Goring, the iconoclastic records of Conservative von Papen and Reactionary von Schleicher, the anomalous position perforce occupied by Grand Old Man Oom Paul von Hindenburg. Many thanks for the two-year build-up which made last week's "purging'' seem logical, the action of its protagonists entirely in character.
CHARLES CASSIL REYNARD
Columbus, Ohio
... I would be the last person to uphold the majority of the activities of Adolf Hitler. But I do not feel that TIME'S unwavering and at times monotonous criticism of his policies and person enables me to understand his present position, power and popularity in Germany. I presume terrorism will now be the explanation. . . .
WALTER R. VOLCKHAUSEN
New York City
. . . Your obituary on Ernst Roehm exhibits the sophisticated intelligence of a Sunday-school teacher addressing a Revival meeting.
AMOS McCoy
New York Citv
Arizona's Ashurst
Sirs:
We, the undersigned residents of Arizona . . . respectfully request that you . . . publish the political record of Henry F. Ashurst, senior Senator from Arizona, giving your estimate of his legislative accomplishments and present worth as a Senator of the United States of America.
ARTHUR T. LAPRADE, CHAS. A. CARSON JR., LIN H. ORME, F. K. MCBRIDE
Phoenix, Ariz.
Sirs:
We, the undersigned readers of TIME, would appreciate a report on the life and activities of our Senator Ashurst of Arizona.
JACK BRADLEY, ALEXANDER A. RAISIN, L. D. ROGERS, J. W. EDGAR, FRED D. STUTT
Phoenix, Ariz.
The record of Senator Henry Fountain Ashurst of Arizona is as follows:
Born: at Winnemucca, Humboldt County, Nev., Sept. 13. 1874. Start in life: cowboy. Career: in 1875 his parents settled near Flagstaff. Ariz. When he was 12. his father's cattle business ceased to prosper. Henry helped out at home, hired out as a range rider, attending the Flagstaff schools in the winter. At 18 he got the job of turnkey at the Flagstaff County Jail, subsequently becoming a deputy sheriff. A spell at the Stockton (Calif.) Business College fitted him for the law. Aged 21, he was elected to the Arizona Territorial Legislature. Two years later he became Speaker, and in the same year was admitted to the bar and hung out his shingle at Williams. In 1902 he went to the Territorial Senate. After a year at the University of Michigan (1903—04) studying law and political economy, he returned to Williams where he married Elizabeth McEvoy Renoe and was made district attorney of Coconino County in 1904. Five years later he moved to Prescott to pursue private practice. In 1912, when Arizona was admitted to the Union, the Legislature picked him as the State's first U. S. Senator. A thoroughgoing Democrat, he has served in the Senate ever since.