Letters

Herewith are excerpts from letters come 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.

Qua'-le

Sirs:

It has been my good fortune to read your valued magazine for some time. I find it eminently fair and reliable. It would be unreasonable to expect it to be perfect.

I could point to mistakes without insinuating that it is trying to mislead, but that it is subject to ordinary human limitations. Permit me to call attention to a rather peculiar pronunciation of the name of Congressman O. J. Kvale as given in TIME, March 29, p. 10. Unless some transformation has taken place since coming to Washington, I think the gentleman would quite readily and naturally answer to the name, if pronounced Qua'-le. I have known him for so many years, boy and man, that I think I can vouch for the accuracy of this. . . .

0. OTTERSEN

West Salem, Wis.

TIME, ill-advised by a supposed authority, gave the pronunciation as "Quail."--ED.

"Ignorant Husband"

Sirs:

On p. 7 of TIME, March 22, you quote W. W. Husband, Assistant Secretary of Labor, as saying:

"There are lots of people in the U. S. who were born here and are not citizens. Take the Indians for instance."

There is a good deal of ignorance, even on the part of officials who ought to know better, as to the legal status of Indians. All semi-Americanized, non-reservation Indians became citizens in 1891, under the Dawes Act (24 U. S. Stats, at L. 390); all tribal, reservation Indians, not theretofore citizens, became such in 1924 (43 U. S. Stats, at L. 253). The present discomfort of the Indian lies, not in his lack of citizenship, but in the fact that although a citizen he is not generally accorded the social services to which a citizen is entitled, and that he yet remains in spite of citizenship, a Federal ward without many of the advantages of tutelage.

CHAUNCEY S. GOODRICH

Chairman Executive Committee, Indian Defense Association of Northern and Central California

San Francisco, Calif.

Assistant Secretary Husband should not necessarily be flayed for ignorance by the subscriber. Possibly ignorant Washington correspondents misquoted him.--ED.

Father Grant

Sirs:

In TIME, March 29, pp. 5-6, you say: "It is averred that [since John Adams' day] like joy never entered a father's heart [over seeing his son become President of the U.S.] until March 4, 1921, when Dr. Harding of Marion, Ohio, saw his son Warren become President." Now, General Grant's father saw his son twice elected and inaugurated as President of the U. S., and is the only man of whom that can be said. Although he had earlier experienced disgust over the flat failure that Ulysses had made of his career, there is no reason to suppose that his paternal heart did not feel joy at such a turn of fortune. I would not be sure that there were not other fathers who have seen their sons reach Presidential honors. . . .

ROGER S. BOARDMAN

Bloomfield, N. J.

Sergeant

Sirs:

Like ordinary newpapers your magazine had to play up Mary E. Dillon (TIME, April 5, WOMEN). Just because she was made president of the Brooklyn Borough Gas Co. is no reason she should get especial credit. Other women control bigger propositions than that, and do so quietly. She isn't even a real boss. Richard Schadelee is President of the United Light & Power Co., which owns the Brooklyn Gas Co. You would not call an Army sergeant important, would you? Well, she takes orders from Mr. Schadelee, and you never mentioned his name!

Another thing. Why don't she use her husband's name like any respectable married woman ? Is she pretending to be single, as so many other women do, to hold her job and keep a family man from his?

MRS. HELEN HOFFMAN

Brooklyn, N. Y.

Mont. v. Mass.

Sirs:

As a native of western Montana, the writer takes exception to the statement credited to the Jones Brothers, of Middleboro, Mass. (TIME, March 8, p. 26), wherein it is said: "Elk do better in New England's even, sea-tempered climate than in the severe extremes of western weather." The records of the U. S. Weather Bureau will not sustain such an assertion. For over twelve months in 1925-26 the thermometer here did not register zero. I doubt if any of the New England states can show the average mild, even temperature of western Montana. The National Bison Range, where these elk were raised, is within 40 miles of Missoula.

LYNDE S. CATLIN

Missoula, Mont.

Critique

Sirs:

There is no greater need than a good newsmagazine. It is lamentable that TIME should approach the mark but fall woefully below it in its attempt to be smart. Huxley said: "Clever men are as thick as blackberries; the thing to do is to find a good one." Mere cleverness, amusing for the instant, will not insure substantial growth. I have read TIME for over a year. I find that it summarizes the ephemeral, popular items, leaving quite unnoticed the great things, save as these great things may be made popular. If by news gossip and old wives tales are meant, I agree that TIME publishes 95% more than the papers, which are bad enough. As to "narrative English," the movie scenario form of your writing in which you neglect practically every dictate of good form, I have nothing to say. You are offensive in your treatment of prominent men and women and no one is safe from your words. When I wish to epitomize this modern world of ours, with its forgetfulness of the past and its unconcern for the future; its superficialities and quasi learning; its eagerness at finding some new plaything, which is forgotten within the hour; its extravagance and profuse wastefulness; its irreverence and ruthless disregard for the more delicate sentiments, then I think of TIME. I cannot judge how well TIME is giving real news in many departments, but in science and medicine I can do so, and it is my unqualified impression that you are doing a great harm to let your readers believe that you are making them acquainted with the great developments in these fields. You are imparting simply idle gossip, and dragging these departments down to the level with the sensational events of the courts, society and ephemeral "news" of the movie world. There is a great world never touched by TIME.

WITHROW MORSE

Lansdowne, Pa.

Let Subscriber Morse be specific. What important or significant news items has TIME omitted --ED.