Sold Out
Sirs:
...I enjoy your magazine with its spicy, original, brief news items. You might make it more popular with the great mass of the people by being more fair to their interests. I have heard quite a few say that they wouldn't have your magazine for it has sold out to big business and its interests. I agree with them. . . .
Why don't you experiment with the idea of being absolutely fair for a month or so? Why do you always make the President's statements very wise and important when we realize that they are seldom his own and then throw ridicule at Mr. Borah, who is foolish enough to try and be a politician and a Christian too, and who, of course, is barred from the Presidency because he is too big to let any group control him. . . .
REV. C. E. BLUDWORTH
Weimar, Tex.
In NATIONAL AFFAIRS, no one except the President has been given the floor more often than Senator Borah.--ED.
Cookie-pusher
I article read under with a great deal of interest LYNCHING-- "In Toombs" on p. 11 of TIME, Jan. 10. ...
I have no doubt but that items of news in the article are substantially correct, but your reference to "Jellybeans" is all wrong, and especially your explanation in the note. You define a jellybean as a heap this "Southern small opprobrium town upon the loafer." Why heap this opprobrium upon the South? We are as loyal to your publication as any portion of the country. Then again, why refer to a jellybean as a loafer? A jellybean is not necessarily a loafer, although he may be one. A jellybean is just another name for a cookie-pusher. Members of this species may and very often do work, and could not be classed as loafers by any means. They have very exalted opinions of their ability to charm the female sex, and if you crowd them right close, they might reluctantly admit that they belong to the sheik class. As a rule they have more activity in their feet than in their heads. In fact, they are entirely too light at both ends. They exist in the South, North, East, and West, and not in the South alone.
ERLE B. ASKEW
St. Petersburg, Fla.
Outdoor Texans
Sirs: Of course, I thought that some subscriber would object to the statement made in TIME, Jan. 10, that San Augustine, Tex., is the second oldest city in the United States. That honor happily falls to San Antonio, Tex., where the sunshine spends the winter.
Had it not been for the fact that we have had such glorious weather, I'm sure that some of your other many subscribers in this city would have corrected this very big error, but all of us have been outdoors and have had no time for letter writing. . . . ALBERT STEVES JR.
Steves Sash & Door Co.
San Antonio, Tex.
Outrageous
Sirs :
I am or was a new subscriber and am so disgusted with my first copy that I am writing to cancel my subscription. I do not like the un-American spirit that calls that disgusting book by Rupert Hughes so good that it is being recommended and advertised "at the express invitation of TIME's Book Editor (TIME, Jan. 24, p. 81).
No one could object to your reviewing it in your columns, but to approve such outrageous trash and boost it as The Cream! No wonder bolshevism is popular! Please cross my name off your list.
A. R. ROBB
Brooklyn, N. Y.
J. B.'s
Sirs:
The list of Biggest Charlies published in TIME, Jan. 17, is no more imposing than the list of famous "J. B.'s":
John Brown John Bunyan Jerome Bonaparte John Burroughs John Barleycorn John Bull James Barrie John Brashares* John Barrymore John the Baptist James Buchanan/- James Blaine
ELIZABETH BRAND
Toledo, Ohio
Weak. Only two of the list are alive.--ED.
Little Marmon, Indianas
Sirs:
I am a consistent reader and subscriber of TIME and do not overlook an opportunity to boost your paper. . . . Once or twice in the past I have noticed certain facts about automobiles that you have stated, which are not exactly in accord with my own knowledge and information. . . . For instance, in a recent issue [TIME, Jan. 24] you had quite a story regarding the New York Show, and I was greatly disappointed not to see any mention of the new Little Marmon 8 which, without question, was one of the most striking exhibits at the Show, and is today one of the most talked about cars in America. . . . The Little Marmon is a most unusual car and is being manufactured and merchandised as "America's first truly fine small car." I really think that the Little Marmon should have had a paragraph in your Show write-up; not only because I handle Marmon cars do I think this, but also for the reason that this car is proclaimed by competitive manufacturers and dealers as being one of the most brilliant events in Marmon history. . . .
S. E. GEMMER
Gemmer-Fenton Motors, Inc.
Portland, Me.
Sirs:
Not that we feel at all slighted, but we do wish to call your attention to the fact that you entirely omitted two large truck builders, namely Indiana at Marion, Indiana and Brockway at Cortland, N. Y.
While neither Indiana nor Brockway has a production as large as White, Mack or International Harvester, yet we are in the same class as Pierce-Arrow, and Diamond T, and are far ahead of the "Less famed" trucks you mention. . . .
A. S. MORE
Vice President & General Manager Indiana Truck Corp. Marion, Ind.
Worst Offender
Sirs:
I have before me a letter urging me to renew my subscription to TIME. If TIME were the magazine that this letter describes, I would cheerfully and hastily renew. Would that it were ! . . .
TIME claims to give the events of the day in thorough and concentrated fashion, and to omit surplus verbiage and news of no importance.
TIME actually does give the events of the day in thorough and concentrated fashion. It does omit surplus verbiage. But it also gives unnecessary and vulgar sensational stories--and it gives these stories in a manner more objectionable than that used by the gum-chewers' sheetlets so greatly decried by TIME. . . .
The MISCELLANY column is TIME'S worst offender, although the cruelties of the Ku Klux Klan have been pictured more vividly than was necessary, and one or two articles under MEDICINE also fall under this classification. The offenses are too frequent to mention--a few of them come to mind as I write. The woman who sliced off her finger in a sausage machine (I think) and the cat ran off with it. The children playing "funeral" who killed the youngest child with an ax so as to have a corpse. Civilized humans turned cannibal by starvation. One man biting into another's throat to remove a twig lodged therein.
TIME is unfair to its readers in giving this news for two reasons. The first applies particularly to women, who have a natural antipathy to horrors. What mother of a six-year-old boy can enjoy reading of another six-year-old boy who accidentally bumps into a carpenter while on his scooter, and receives therefore a cross cut into his palm? What expectant mother can enjoy reading of any physical horror, especially of misshapen children?
The second reason applies to the busy man who reads TIME to save time--who wants the essential news in a concentrated form. Does he care a hang whether Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Lewis were pleased when Bobbie was wished on them? Does it mean anything to him that Spitter Hightower was jailed? (Both from TIME, Jan. 17, p. 23.)
And here is the criticism against TIME more severe than against the tabloids. The tabloids headline "Millionaire Clubman Murdered by Showgirl." You can read it or not as you like. But you know from the headline what it is. TIME, however, prints its worthless and often disgusting drivel under the most interesting and inviting captions. An article entitled "Boy" may be (occasionally it does happen), an interesting and worthwhile bit. But usually you read through and in the last line find him dying in agony. ...
ARTHUR DETRICK
Philadelphia, Pa.
Mormon Stock
Sirs:
You are wrong. Dent Mowrey is not a native of Portland, Ore.* (TIME, Jan. 24).
He was born in Ogden, Utah, graduated public school and attended high school here. Played several kinds of musical instruments in different bands and was considered a good pianist. He married a girl from Kaysville, Utah. I believe her name was Myrtle Gibson. They lived in one of my father-in-law's houses. His musical education was received from that great Ogden musician, Squire Coop, now I believe at Los Angeles. Dent Mowrey's mother's name was Hall, who came of a pioneer Mormon family and was a devout Mormon herself.
J. KAPLAN
Ogden, Utah
Profitable Mistake
Sirs:
The writer sent you an order for a year's subscription to be delivered to J. C. Murchison Junior, Box 878, Orlando, Florida. By mistake this subscription has been going to J. C. Murchison, Box 878, Orlando, Florida. Please allow the mistake to stand and in addition send a subscription to J. C. Murchison Junior, at the same address. . . .
CHARLES H. MURCHISON
Jacksonville, Fla.
In San Juan, P. R.
Sirs:
I am a subscriber to TIME. In TIME, Jan. 24, I notice under MILESTONES : "Married, Constance Towner, daughter of Gov. Towner of Porto Rico; to one Lester B. Young; in San Juan, P. R. Hers was the first marriage in 400 years at the Executive Mansion, onetime Spanish." This statement is incorrect as I happen to have been present at the marriage of Miss Bertha Allen, daughter of the first Civic Governor of Porto Rico, to Captain George Logan, U. S. N. This marriage took place at the Executive Mansion in 1901 or 1902.
E. H. TAYLOE
Shadwell, Va.
The marriage at which Subscriber Tayloe was present took place in 1900.--ED.
Slanderesses
Sirs:
The destestable, foul-minded men and women whose letters about me you printed (TIME, Dec. 13) are slanderers and slanderesses.
The noun "virgin" is not one which gentlemen or ladies employ, in any other than a religious connection. I shall inquire from my attorneys whether its use in the letters to which I refer is or is not libelous. You may rest assured that my married or unmarried state, as the case may be, is not a subject upon which I shall stoop to satisfy curious vulgarians.
MARY ELIZABETH ROBINN
Monte Carlo, Monaco
"Prudent Dynamiter"
Sirs:
Enclosed is a composition written on one of the items in TIME, Nov. 1, 1926. It is written by one Heywood Kwan, a Chinese student of about 17 years. . . .
Before the article on "Prudent Dynamiters" appeared, the students asserted that same belligerence toward your magazine that they do toward any other foreign meddling with their national affairs; but this seems to have pacified them considerably. The truth so often hurts that I am not sure whether I shall be able to use TIME in my classes next year or not. No one knows anything about China save the Chinese, you know, regardless of whether or not you were born here and lived half your life here, and know the language better than the average Chinese into the bargain. I should like very much to continue; but the tides of prejudice are hard to stem, and I may be forced to give up the experiment at the close of the present school year in order to preserve peace in the classroom. My own interest in your excellent work continues with my subscription. . . .
KENNETH F. HILL
Soochow University Second Middle School Shanghai, China
Herewith excerpts from the composition: CHINA (Prudent Dynamiters)
The prudent dynamiter in question is the Cantonese War Lord Chang Kai-Shek. The fact is stated briefly as follow:--
Mr. Carmi Thompson, known as the "Big white friend of the big white president traveled from U. S. to China, because he was the personal investigator for president Coolidge in the Philippines. . . .
After his train had passed the bridge near Nanking, where soldiers of the War Lord were resting, the railway was dynamited.
In TIME, Nov. 1th, it says that the Cantonese War Lord is a prudent dynamiter, because if he dynamited the railroad, before Mr. Thompson's passed, then he will by this, mean break the friendship between The United States and China. By this means U. S. will not recognizes the Cantonese Government. This is, indeed, a very strong reason for calling him a prudent dynamiter.
Months ago, there appeared in the newspapers of the United States some headlined words "Thompson Near Death." This, as I think, was sent by some enemies of China, because, they want to break the friendship of U. S. and China.
I thank "Time" very much, for it had made or preserved the friendship between these two countries, by publishing this valuable news on "time," and correcting the mistakes had made in the U. S. newspapers. For this reason, not only me but many Chinese also will give thanks to "Time." . . .
HEYWOOD KWAN
Never Misseder
Sirs:
It seems to be quite a popular amusement among your subscribers to cuss the editor and stop the paper.
I want to say in passing--I get my TIME from the newsstand. I can stoper when I don't liker. I have stopter six times in six weeks and have never missed a copy. . . .
Of course a little high class prevaricating don't really hurt an editor very much, if at all. . . .
I remember when I was a small boy I had an idiosyncrasy that kept me from doing the chores. My daddy had one that sometimes prevented him from telling the truth. Mother was Irish. It was a combination of various possibilities.
It happened that one Sunday, the presiding elder and some of the brethren were visiting at our house. Now dad liked to be considered very generous and a good fellow. I was lying on the floor out of the way listening to the elder as he related his hoss-swapping experiences. Dad saw, or thought he saw, a chance to make a hit. So he said, as he took a new quarter out of his pocket, "Here son, you can have this quarter." To which I replied, "bring it here. What's the matter with it?" Right there Dad and I cinched our reputations--as the laziest boy and the damdest liar in the Country.
J. C. SCHMERKIN
Winslow, Ariz.
Fault
Sirs:
It seems inevitable that those addressing TIME should have fault to find about something. Accordingly, let me express surprise that MILESTONES did not mention the death of John Skelton Williams, Comptroller of the Treasury under Woodrow Wilson, which occurred in this city, his home, several months ago. I should think he was a citizen of sufficient distinction to have merited space in the column mentioned.
CHAS. C. FLEMING
Life Insurance Co. of Virginia Richmond, Va.
Let other subscribers emulate Subscriber Fleming's able, specific faultfinding. TIME was negligent in not recording John S. Williams' death.--ED.
Resolve
Sirs:
I beg that you do not discontinue LETTERS, as E. Kreutzweiser demands in TIME, Jan. 17. ...
At the conclusion of LETTERS I mentally resolve to be more reasonable; to be more polite and courteous, and at all costs keep a sense of humor. . . .
G. C. HALL
Newtonville, Mass.
*Unknown to TIME. --ED.
/-President of the U. S. (1857-61).--ED.
*In Portland, the symphony orchestra played Composer Mowrey's " The Gargoyles of Notre Dame."--ED.