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BER 22, 1938                  Readers Forum 
< Left side of article>

iddle-aged or very young. They were 
arched to the front  under guard!
ese, three hundred were midgets, which
to my mind how England formed a
regiment during the latter part of the
War.  One midget gave us the clenched
es Franco need Mussolini's troops?
as difficult to say goodby to those 
ns and others with whom we had
many hardships; to promise we would
n out before winter, realizing that if
n't  the cold, together with their
vitt and the touch of scurvy then
bodies, would put many of them in
w grave by spring.  They seemed to
t too as we left.  What handshakes
ere: we leaving for America, they
there is the concentration camp with
apo agents all about.
eft feeling that we could never rest
 brought them back to us.
eel that way now.

Pellagra Cure
 first wide-scale use of the nicotinic
d cure for pellagra which was an-
 recently at the autumn meeting of
ional Academy of Sciences, will be
n Madrid where, after twenty-four
 of siege, the dread disease is rampant.
board the S S. Erica Reed, now at
h food and relief supplies for repub-
oain, there is a compact little package
ucid, twenty-six pounds in all, sent as
from thirty-nine of America's leading
s, including Dr. Albert Einstein, Dr.
n Parry Murphy, and Dr. Harold C.
Drs. David T. Smith and Susan Gower
of Duke University, whose discovery
cure was so widely hailed last week
g its announcement as the National
y sessions, and Drs. R.R. Williams
A. Elvehjem, who had done notable
 it before.  Accompanying the gift is a 
 to Dr. Juan Negrin, Spanish prime
 who is also professor of physiology
 niversity of Madrid and a world au-

pped that this small shipment of nicotinic
 aid in curing the thousands of cases of
 in your country.  Only very minute
of this chemical are required for the relief
ge-old disease.  In fact, the 270,000 doses
wenty-six pound shipment are worth only
ndred dollars-less than the cost of a sin-
 that falls on Madrid.
erwhelming majority of scientific workers
 improve the lot of man.  They are keenly
ted when their work is used for destruc-
poses.  Therefore, it gives scientific men
asure to be able to present this new and
 discovery to the harassed people of Spain.

message closed on a high note:

ces of science can bring the greatest health
lth to man, but only where there is free-
search and action.  Scientific men will be
ceful to the Spanish people for their heroic
gainst the invaders of their country and
he enemies of a free democracy.



More on the Railroads
To New Masses: It is unfortunate that Ernest Dore's article on railroads in your issue of
October 25, which is the main clear-cut, be-
comes cloudy in its description of the bonded in-
debtedness of railroads.
  For the general public, the situation is much
more disgraceful than that stated by Mr. Dore.
In describing the staggering debt built up by the
New Haven R.R., he states that "In this deal,
the stockholders have lost railway labor has lost, and only the financial houses and the insurance companies who hold these bonds have gained"; but these bonds held by insurance companies and banks represent the invested deposits of people with insurance and savings accounts.  Insurance companies have invested over three billion dollars of their policyholders' funds in railroad securities, and savings bank depositors may account for perhaps another half-billion.  When the value of these securities is impaired, it is the equality of the millions of people whose money has been invested in these securities that is being destroyed.  Buying rights of way, terminals, and other lines at swollen prices with the money of policyholders and bank depositors did not bring gain to the insurance companies, but to those from whom the property was bought.  Incidentally, Mr. Dore might well look into the question of whether the sellers of these properties were not often on the board of directors of the railroad.  Even if the bonds paid a higher rate of interest than they earned, the rate was generally between 4 and 5 percent and in recent years below 4 percent.
 "The stockholders lost," says Mr. Dore, but even if they did not lose on interest yield, it was the small stockholders with nothing to say in the management of the railroad who lost. The majority stockholders "owned" the railroad, had the high-salaried executive jobs, and borrowed the savings funds of the general public (by selling bonds to them directly and through their life insurance and savings institutions) to buy property for, in most cases, many times its value.
  It is another gigantic instance of the methods of our capital structure.  The owners of a small amount of capital (voting stock) can manipulate an amount many times its size (bonds) borrowed to a very large extent from the lower-income classes.
  An equitable method for nationalization of railroads would follow the lines of making the members of the owner-directorship of a railroad responsible for its failure and assessing them to reimburse the bondholders, but such a thing is unfortunately impossible, and any practical formula the government will work out for nationalization such as that mentioned briefly by Mr. Dore at the conclusion of the article, will throw the burden of loss on the shoulders of the smallest investors.  However, it is the best we can do at the present and, in any case, provides the best chance to prevent future depredations and further confiscation of equity by private ownership.
Bronx, N.Y.                  MICHAEL ADAMS.

World's-Fair Art Award
To NEW MASSES:  A national competition, open to all American artists, for mural paintings for the United States Government Building at the New York World's Fair, was announced in June 1938 in a special bulletin issued by the Section of Painting and Sculpture of the Procurement Division of the Treasury Department.  


  The announcement included the names of the members of the jury of award as follows: Edward J. Flynn, United States commissioner general, United States New York World's Fair Commission; Theodore T. Hayes, executive assistant United States commissioner, United States New York World's Fair Commission; Eugene Savage, mural painter and art consultant to United States New York World's Fair Commission; Reginald Marsh, mural painter of New York City; Ernest Peixotto, consultant for mural painting, Board of Design, New York World's Fair 1939; Leon Kroll, mural painter of New York City and ex-officio; M. Max Dunning, special assistant to the assistant director, Procurement Division , Treasury Department; Howard L. Cheney, architect of the building; Edward Bruce, chief of the Section of Painting and Sculpture.
  About five hundred artists participated in this competition, making sketches for two great murals:  one for the Hall of Legislation, the other for the Hall of Judiciary.  Many artists spent a whole month or longer making designs.  J.O. Mahoney received one of the mural awards, causing widespread dissatisfaction among the competing artists.  
  The Mural Artists Guild of the United Scenic Artists, Local 829, exchanged correspondence with the Section of Painting and Sculpture regarding this award.  We believe these letters would interest your readers.
  For The Mural Artists Guild Of The United Scenic Artists:
   George Biddle, chairman
   Monty Lewis, first vice-chairman
   Maxwell Starr, second vice-chairman
   Louis Ross, recording secretary
   Stuyvesant Van Veen, corresponding secretary
   Hugo Gellert, trustee

     (Enclosure)
Mr. Edward Bruce, Chief
Section of Painting and Sculpture
Procurement Division, Treasury Dept.
Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. Brice:
  It has been brought to our attention that James Owen Mahoney, who was voted one of the mural awards for the United States Government Building at the New York World's Fair, is at present the co-signee or holder of the contract (for World's Fair murals on the Communications Building) with Eugene Savage, who was a member of the jury making the award.
  The undersigned artists, members of the Murakl Artists Guild 829, take the position that it is unethical for a juryman or his close associate, or an immediate member of his family, to receive an award.
  We bring this fact to the attention of the Section of Painting and Sculpture and ask that, due to this unethical condition of the competition, this award be declared void.
          Yours very truly,
  George Riddle, James Brooks, Letterio Calapai, Raphael Doktor, Loius Ferstadt, Hugo Gellert, William Gropper, Michael Lenson, Monty Lewis, Michael Loew, Ryah Ludins, Kyra Markham, Anton Refregier, E. Romano, Louis Ross, A. Shampaier, Maxwell Starr, Harry Sternberg, Stuyvesant Van Veen, Joseph Vogel, Eugene Zaikine,  Members of the Mural Artists Guild 829 of the United Scenic Artists.         (Turn to page 20)