(2 of 4)
... As interesting as the article might be to many of us native St. Louisans as well as to millions of others who are deeply grateful to the Busch family for what they have done for America, St. Louis and the beer industry, I am not so sure that you are entirely correct in saying "When Prohibition was finally repealed . . . Gussie, his father and his older brother picked one of the first cases off the bottling-plant line and sent it air express to President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a heartfelt token of thanks ..."... As I recall it, the first case of beer went to Al Smith when it came off the line, and I am wondering if you do not feel that this would have been a good spot in the article to have mentioned the "Happy Warrior" in this connection . . . Franklin D. Roosevelt, while he signed the bill doing away with Prohibition, was a cagey individual. He certainly never fought Prohibition in the open like Al Smith.
ROY J. McDERMOTT
St. Louis
¶Al Smith, as well as F.D.R., received one of the first legal cases from the Busch family. It was delivered by wagon drawn by four span of Clydesdales to the Empire State Building.—ED.
Sir:
TIME again has uncovered heretofore unrecognized evidence on a vital issue: in the biographical sketch of Gussie Busch of our beer nobility, noting decreased sales of beer; attention was called to diversions, including the do-it-yourself movement, made possible by unprecedented income and leisure of the common run of Americans. Such diversions, it was suggested, could account for less dependence on alcoholic drinks for relief from boredom. This is evidence that Americans are not being led into debauchery by prosperity and the five-day week . . .
OTTO MCFEELY
Oak Park, Ill.
The Commuter
Sir:
Twice recently TIME has described me as an "expatriate." The word suggests, according to Webster's, exile, a withdrawal from one's native country, or a renunciation of natural citizenship in favor of another. That such an impression might apply to me is very upsetting . . . Despite frequent and largely unnoticed "commuting," I have, admittedly, been obliged by recent circumstances to spend more time abroad than at home. This, however, has not precluded me from completing more than 15 years in the U.S.N.R. (in which I was promoted less than a year ago), or from representing both private and public American interests . . .
DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS JR.
London
¶TIME congratulates Captain Fairbanks on his latest promotion.—ED.
Two Collaborators
Sir:
In the July 11 issue we read of an uneducated waif, Harold M. Dunn, who in 33 months under duress collaborated with Communism, later confessed and received a sentence of eight years at hard labor. In the same section a highly educated college graduate, Winston Burdett, who without duress—seemingly for the whim of it—collaborated with Communism, later confessed and received praise from his boss and the Senate committee. I wonder if it was with premeditation or happenstance that TIME placed these sad tales side by side to illustrate this inequality of our scales of justice.
B. K. STEVENS Centreville, Mo.