Herewith are excerpts from letters come to the desks of the editors during the past week. They arc selected primarily for the information they contain cither supplementary to, or corrective of, news previously published in TIME.
"Too Priggish"
TIME Attleboro, Mass.
New York, N. Y. June 29, 1925
Sirs:
I am in receipt of a circular urging subscription to your publication and it has recalled for me memory of an incident which must preclude possibility of my subscribing to TIME.
Some time ago (TIME, June 1, Page 30), a Southern gentleman protested against the appearance in TIME of an advertisement relative to the sale of Cellini's Autobiography. His peculiar case against the book in question was, of course, based on the grounds that the book is immoral, indecent, etc., etc.
Shortly after the protest was made, TIME appended to an excerpt from the advertisement a notice to the effect that "this advertisement will positively not appear again."
I fear I cannot aid in the circulation of any periodical which bows to the demands of 100% "respectability" plus priggish intolerance in so supinely a manner. Our Gods are of different clays.
R. C. FISHER.
TIME at no time raised objection to Cellini's justly famed book. What TIME objected to was the blatancy of the advertisement which blared:
"SWORDSMAN--LOVER-DEBAUCHEE!
ARTIST SUPREME IN GOLD AND SILVER
HERE IS YOUR CHANCE TO OWN THE UNEXPURGATED
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENVENUTO CELLINI."
--ED.
The U. S.
TIME Madison, Conn.
New York, N. Y. June 25, 1925.
Sirs:
Why use "U. S." instead of United States? Is the time of the reader and editor too short to pronounce and write the proper name of his country? Why not Gt. B. and T'r. and It. and Ger. ? Surely it is not impossible to call your country by its correct name. Does it not merit as much respect as is given to foreign nations?
A CITIZEN.
No disrespect is intended. For brevity's sake, TIME will continue to refer to "the U. S." -- unless, of course, the majority of subscribers say No.-- ED.
Sells and Recommends
TIME Long Beach, Calif.
New York, N. Y. June 26, 1925
Sirs:
Your magazine is good. I like it, and not only read it myself every week, but also sell and recommend it on the newsstand in my drugstore.
V. E. STILGENBAUM.
Lesson in English
University of Michigan,
TIME Ann Arbor, Mich.
New York, N. Y. June 27, 1925
Sirs:
Being a professor of Zooelogy, I want to administer a lesson in English. In your discussion of the current business situation (issue of July 27, Page 24), you say there is "little sense in harping back to the great days of 1916 and 1919." I could easily believe the word harping to be a typographical error if I had not read the examination papers of scores of hundreds of students of heredity who, having heard a similar expression in a lecture on atavism, later gave their interpretation of it just as you have done. I suspect you were just such students; if not, you should have been, just to explain the slip. Presumably you meant harking back, in the sense of returning (to the consideration of). If you really meant harping, then back is out of place and you should have said "harping on the great days of 1916 and 1919."
A. FRANKLIN SHULL.
"Cosmos"
TIME Hartford, Conn.
New York, N. Y. June 29, 1925.
Sirs:
Just what word was it that downed Mary Coddens of South Bend in the national spelling match at Washington? TIME (issue of June 29, Page 24) says she mixed "cosmos," the universe, with "cosmas," a flower. Century dictionary gives no such word as "cosmas," but does spell the familiar flower of the genus Compositae "Cosmos."
I am inquiring merely in the interest of accuracy, and not in any sense as a criticism of TIME. That you occasionally make mistakes is a healthy reminder that you are human, needed in the face of the marvel of how much better, in my opinion, you have succeeded than mortals ever did before in producing an interpretative condensation of the world's news that has character and dependable value for the discriminating.
EVERETT G. HILL.
Investigation shows that Mary was asked to spell cosmos (universe) and she spelled it cosmas. TIME was misinformed when it stated that Mary confused the word with "cosmas" (flower) which, as everyone knows, is also spelled c-o-s-m-o-s.--ED.
Stacpoole Scored
TIME Columbus, Ohio
New York, N. Y. June 29, 1925
Sirs:
I wonder if you "view with alarm" and "point with pride" in a light or sarcastic vein ? For instance, I note that you "view with alarm" in the issue of June 15, Page 32, the enclosed article, "Ornithic Atrocities"; while in this same issue you state that Henry de Vere Stacpoole has given no estimate of the vast expanse of ocean which is as yet unpolluted by bilge oil. I am a naval officer and, during the past year, I have served as engineer officer of an oil-burning destroyer which has steamed a total of about 20,000 miles in that time. I have yet to see any bird "floating, flapping and crippled among the sliding sea hills, unable to rise for a cloying anointment that lays his feathers flat, seals his wings." During my six years of sea service, I have seen just three birds come to grief as a result of the "tyranny of man"-- once when two ducks flew through the cage masts of the U. S. S. New York, attracted by her searchlights at a night practice, and one albatross which flew aboard the army transport Thomas and broke its wings against a forward bulkhead.
Oil, whether used for fuel or as a lubricant, when spread upon the sea, quickly forms a very light layer on the surface, tends to increase surface tension of the. water and hence has a tendency to prevent the breaking of waves. I have often seen gulls alight in this thin layer of oil in harbors, but I have never seen one unable to take off as a result of the oil.
For Mr. Stacpoole's infrmation, the U. S. Government has taken steps to "end this terrible business," at least as far as the territorial waters are concerned. Congress has recently passed an act to prevent the pollution of inland and coastal waters. This act provides for a fine and imprisonment for any Government official or employe convicted of pumping overboard any oil or sludge in the harbors of coastal water of the U. S. However, Congress does not stipulate by what means these same officials or employes are to prevent their ships from sinking in case ot protracted stays in one port.
W. H. GALBRAITH.