Perkins vs. Jenkins

Herewith are excerpts from letters conic to the desks of the editors during the past week. They are selected primarily for the information they contain, either supplementary to, or corrective of, news previously published in TIME.

TIME Pittsfield, Mass. New York, N. Y. Feb. 24, 1925 Gentlemen:

Your letter page is a very, very human document. The authors of these letters form a sort of zoo of every kind of crank. I, too, am one of the cranks, my mania being your magazine. There is nothing so well worth reading as TIME except, of course, the Bible. You will, no doubt, receive some irate letters about the Hobby Horse Article in your Feb. 23 issue. Some will denounce you for over praising-President Coolidge, some for ridiculing him. My private opinion is that the writer of the article has shown unusual insight and justice in his sketch of the President.

At least, that was the thought uppermost in my mind last Saturday while sitting in my club, reading TIME. Seeing the magazine and knowing it to be a particular pet of mine, a friend (let us call him Peter Perkins, for short) came over to me and expostulated. He accused you gentlemen, the editors, of "throwing mud at our President." He admitted that it was subtle stuff--mud that did not stain your hands, but which made the President to look foolish.

We were in hot dispute when our friend (James Jenkins for short) came into the fray. I bade him read carefully the whole article and then tell us whether or not he thought it unbiased. All three of us voted for Calvin Coolidge last November. We awaited Jenkins' opinion somewhat avidly. PERKINS: "Well, do you call that unbiased?" JENKINS: "I do not." 1 : "Then I lose. You both agree that it is undignified." JENKINS: "Not undignified, but not unbiased, either. A blarney article. I'm after thinking it a lot of soft soap in eulogy of Coolidge." I let Perkins and Jenkins go for one another. So, gentlemen, some call it mud slinging, and some call it soft soaping and I continue to congratulate you that it is neither.

MARTIN T. McCREA.

"Courteous"

TIME Calgary, Alberta, Canada New York, N. Y. Feb. 20, 1925 Gentlemen:

We Canadian subscribers appreciate the courtesy of your front page of the issue of Feb. 9 bearing such an excellent sketch of our Canadian Premier, not to mention the splendid summary of matters political here under COMMONWEALTH heading; and while I am personally a supporter and admirer of the leader of the other great political party, the Rt Hon. Arthur Meighen, I would be glad to receive a press proof of the cut of MacKenzie King-- following the example of the Fritz Kreisler "fan" from East Pittsburgh, Pa.

CHAS. F. ADAMS. ; A press proof of Premier MacKenzie --King was promptly mailed to Subscriber Adams.--ED.

Miss Janis

TIME New York, N. Y. . New York, N. Y. Feb. 14, 1925 Gentlemen:

I have just read the Feb. 13 issue of TIME and note what you have to say about Elsie Janis' Puzzles of 1925. It is quite obvious that performance did not appeal to you in the slightest.

Whether or not the show is a success means little or nothing to me; but, having been one of the people at the first night attendance, it occurs to me that you must have been asleep, for you said in your criticism that Miss Janis omitted imitations. It seems hardly possible to me that anyone who attended the opening night could have missed her delectable imitation of Beatrice Lillie, Fannie Brice and Lenore Ulric.

My God, men! what do you want for one evening's entertainment?

L. P. HUSZAGH.

On the opening night of Puzzles of -- 1925, Miss Janis' imitations were scheduled (on the printed program) for early in the performance. TIME'S critic walked out of the theatre ten minutes before the final curtain. Because the imitations had not been given at their scheduled time and because they had not been given up to the time of his exit. TIME'S critic ignorantly supposed that they were not given at all.--ED.

Surprised

TIME Washington, D. C. New York, N. Y. Feb. 16, 1925 Gentlemen:

I am surprised that your paper deems it necessary to mention the engagement and marriage of Fatty Arbuckle. You should leave that for your Gum Chewers' Sheets that you refer to so often.

OLIVER KECTHTSON.

Credit to Cram

TIME Auburn, N. Y. New York, Gentlemen: N. Y. Feb. 21, 1925

I was interested in the advertisement in your paper of Feb. 23, an advertisement of The Forum magazine, displaying an article, Civilization, by Ralph Adams Cram, and a , picture of the New York Cathedral, St. John "--the Divine"-- with the statement that the Cathedral was designed by Cram. If my memory is not at fault, the original architect was John La Farge, a considerable part of whose plan was embodied in stone. One regrets that a page of TIME should carry what is at least unfair, even if not inaccurate. Doubtless you understand that I do not wish to detract from the fame of Mr. Cram. I know you wish to present the truth and the whole truth. --

H. M. ALLEN.

Representatives of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine were questioned by TIME. Said they : "The firm of Heins '--& La Farge were the original architects. Mr. Heins died in 1907 and the contract Vith that firm expired about that time. Under their regime, the Cathedral was to be French Romanesque outside and Byzantine inside. "Ralph Adams Cram took over the work in June, 1911. The trustees ordered him not to go on with the old plan. He is the architect of the present model which is pure Gothic."--ED.

"Broadcasted"

TIME Portsmouth, Va.

New York, N. Y. Feb. 25, 1925

Gentlemen:

In the second column, page 17, of the Feb. 23 issue, you state that Dr. Mott's opening address was "broadcasted."

The past tense of the word "broadcast is exactly the same as the present tense; this grammatical error is quite likely to strike the eye of the educated, to which element it is presumed TIME caters.

A. H. MILES.

Philocopperist

TIME Salem, West Va. New York, N. Y. Feb. 26, 1925 Gentlemen:

Please note the attached clipping from the Jan. 12 number. Your report of the exhibition of single crystals of copper was way below your summing up of other scientific discoveries. To the uninitiated but careful reader, 11 would appear a contradiction that copper so soft that it can be bent double like molasses candy could then (and you only imply that the second process is subsequent to the first) be so rigid (not strong) that it can hardly be straightened again in the hands. A few words would have explained the fact that the first bending caused the copper to lose it crystalline structure and gave it the rigidity of ordinary copper. And you omit any mention of the most important property of single-crystal copper, that its electrical conductivity is greater than that of any known substance, being higher than that of silver while the conductivity of ordinary copper is not. WINSLOW A. DUERR.

Poem?

TIME, Dallas, Tex.

New York, N. Y. Feb. 25, 1925

Gentlemen:

Criticizing a movie structure, The Man Without a Country, in your Feb. 23 issue, you say: "For the picture, based upon the poem, etc." (the italics are mine). Was there a poem also written with that title? I have read Dr. Kale's story of that name and think that it is prose. C. C. WEBB.

The lines that TIME'S cinema critic had in mind were : Breathes there the man with soul so dead Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native kind! Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd As home his footsteps he hath turn'd From wandering on a foreign strand?* There is no known poem (certainly no famed poem) entitled The Man Without a Country. Dr. Kale's story is, as everyone knows, prose.--ED.

*From Lay of the Last Minstrel, by Sir Walter Scott.