$1,000,000 Car

Sirs: Your statement that a private train costing $375,000 has just been purchased for the President of Mexico (TIME, May 9) is robbed of all significance by your failure to allude to the practice of sleeping in an ordinary "lower" which is observed by the President of the United States.* Let me tell you that our President gains nothing by this practice, and certainly our country gains nothing. Is there a man or woman in the U. S. who would have less respect for our President if he traveled in the world's finest private train, costing perhaps $1,000,000? Let me answer my own question by saying that the peoples of the earth would all have more respect for our President if he lived and traveled in a style worthy of the U. S. I have traveled in almost every Latin-American country, and I know that $10 worth of increased prestige for our country can be reaped for every dollar sown in providing better living and traveling quarters for our President and for his Ambassadors in foreign lands. As matters stand, foreigners visit Washington and then go home to tell their countrymen that our President lives like what Sinclair Lewis calls a "babbitt." I have heard "babbitt" picked up and used in this connection by foreigners several times. Do we want that to continue? HERBERT MILTON MAXWELL

Philadelphia, Pa.

History, Politics

Sirs:

. . . On the walls of Johns Hopkins Economic Seminary, when my classmate Woodrow Wilson taught there about 1886-1887 were the words of the Swiss Economist Bluntschli: "History is past politics. Politics is present history." TIME fills both orders.

B. H. HARTOGENSIS

Baltimore, Md.

Stool

Sirs:

... I do not care to renew for the same reason that I do not care to eat, perched on a stool. You have succeeded admirably in dishing up a mental fare that is devoid of all the things or elements except the chemical ingredients of information.

When I take bodily nourishment, I prefer to do so with a certain amount of leisure, spicing the rite with conversation with a kindred spirit. Even a few relevant words from the waiter are not unwelcome. Feeding and dining are both operations that have to do with food. But feeding is just high pressure stoking of the alimentary tract with fuel. "Feeders" resent the time required to do the job, and are hoping that some bright chap will soon boil all food down to a capsule that can be taken on the run, with no time out.

You are apparently trying to foster a habit of "newsing," which is to reading as feeding is to dining. Your ideal subscriber is the snappy chap who rushes into a feeding place, glares because no stool is vacant, spots the man who is up to pie, takes his stance behind him, elbows rivals for the vacancy out of the road, barks his order at the waitress, pulls TIME out of his pocket, and then for 15 minutes glues his eyes to the page while his right hand automatically pokes grub into his mouth to be gulped down in hunks.

The Literary Digest is as much predigestion of the affairs of the world as I care for, and what they miss I shall try to grub out of the daily papers.

LUTHER McG. MOVER

Montclair, N. J.

Negro Subscribers

Sirs:

Unless TIME is in a distinctive category with regard to the subject dilated upon in the below-attached clipping from the leading Negro newspaper of the world [the Pittsburgh Courier], TIME will be interested to read about itself in the following:

"It is nothing new to state that people are more interested in themselves than they are in anything else in the world. Tell a man that you saw his name in a newspaper or in a magazine, or that you heard his name mentioned by some public speaker, and his interest mounts instantly. Races, no less than individuals, are interested in themselves. . . .

"A few years ago it was thought

a sign of intelligence to have the -- --

resting nearby on the table. . . . But what a change today. The Negro found that

the -- -- almost studiously avoided

digesting Negro opinion.

"It required another magazine, TIME, to show the Negro the difference between editorial attitudes. TIME digests Negro opinion, and today TIME is found on the table of the waiting room of almost every Negro professional, as well as in the reading-rooms of the Negro homes. And why? TIME talks about Negroes and their activities. TIME digests the opinions of Negro journalists, editors and authors. The Negro is interested in himself, and he buys TIME. Whether the policy of TIME is due to its more democratic attitude toward life, or the desire for a rational circulation, we leave to the judgment of the directing editors ; but we are gratified to note that TIME lends itself to a digest of the opinions of all races, groups and classes, and the Negro, like all other people, is interested in reading about himself."

I am not a Negro professional but many of mr friends are and what the Pittsburgh Courier has said is positively true.

CLINTON W. BURKE

Chicago, Ill.

TIME'S "attitude toward life" is neither democratic nor aristocratic, but impersonal, factual. To significant news and facts about all races, groups, classes, TIME gives appropriate space.--ED. Skin Deep

Sirs:

. . . May I accordingly tell you something of the woman whose picture you published on p. 17 of TIME, May 2, under the caption of "Uglies" ?

This unfortunate woman who sits in the sideshow of Ringling Brothers "between Fat Lady and Armless Wonder" and "affects white lace hats, woolen mittens and high laced shoes" has a story which is far from mirth-provoking. Could it have been written up for you by O. Henry, it would have provoked tears rather than laughter. The facts are as follows:

She is, as you say, a peasant of Kent and four times a mother. The father of these four children, a truck gardener, died some years ago and left her their sole support. She, previously a vigorous and goodlooking young woman, has become the victim of a disease known as acromegaly. This cruel and deforming malady not only completely transforms the outward appearance of those whom it afflicts but is attended with great suffering and often with loss of vision.

One of Mr. Ringling's agents prevailed upon her to travel with the circus and to pose as "the ugliest woman in the world" as a means of livelihood. Mr. Ringling is kind to his people and she is well cared for. But she suffers from intolerable headaches, has become nearly blind, and permits herself to be laughed at and heckled by an unfeeling people in order to provide the wherewithal to educate her four children. Beauty is but skin deep. Being a physician, I do not like to feel that TIME can be frivolous over the tragedies of disease.

HARVEY CUSHING

Peter Bent Brigham Hospital Boston, Mass.

Woman Preacher

Sirs:

"Sixty plump matrons of Pastor M. B. Lord's Kensington Methodist Church at Berlin, Conn., measured out the substantial token of their esteem for him." (TIME, May 9, p. 21).

You will doubtless be interested to know that the pastor's name is May B. Lord, that she is not a "him," but is one of Connecticut's two famed Methodist women preachers. The other is Miss Elsie F. Stowe, pastor of the church at North Wilton.

PAUL W. STODDARD

New Haven, Conn.

Condensation

Sirs:

. . . As you have shown your interest in me as a subscriber, I will reciprocate by offering a criticism.

I find your reporting of events often exasperating as well as surprising in a paper which professes to aim at brevity. You reach the meat of an item by the most circuitous route. The reporter seems to have taken a course in the Circumlocution Office.

For example, if you wish to report that Bill Jones has painted his barn, you write:

"A lank, sunburned individual walked down the street. He stooped and had a two-days' growth of beard. He was encased in blue overalls, stitched with white. In one hand he carried a pail half filled with a dark brown paint; in the other a heavy brush. It was Bill Jones going to paint his barn."

Do you call this "condensation" ?

E. T. MERRELL

Framingham, Mass.

Paternoster

Sirs:

TIME, Feb. 21, printed an account of the Ceremonies incident to the proposal of the revised Prayer Book in England, and stated that the Archbishop of Canterbury repeated the Paternoster in Latin. . . .

I am not an Episcopalian but I have always understood that one important point in the Reformation of the Anglican Church was the elimination of Latin from Public Services.

. . . I have consulted a priest of the Protestant Episcopal Church and he advises me that Latin is not used in public services of the Anglican Church although the Prayer Book gives the Latin heading for the Psalms and certain hymns.

I was interested in the question as my father, Edward Everett Hale, who was an Unitarian minister, once told me that the only Churches which could use Latin in public were the Roman and the Unitarian. The question came up when my father's organist asked if he had any objection to the singing of "Integer vitae" in Church. ARTHUR HALE

Washington, D. C.

Despatches had the Archbishop of Canterbury saying a paternoster. In London one High Church congregation holds services entirely in Latin; in Chicago one holds them partly in Greek.--ED.

"Babbitt Weekly"

Sirs:

We can't find out anything through reading TIME. The Babbitt Weekly, too trashy and superficial.

One of "The great unwashed,"

J. M. REED

Oil City, Pa.

Both

Sirs:

. . . "They were both married to the same man, one Peter Trapani, bigamist" (TIME, April 11). Why both?

Other examples (in illustration) :

Senator John Sherman and Gen. W. T. Sherman were both brothers.

We both got home the same day.

Both birds were hit by the same stone.

M. L. PHARES

Phoenix, Ariz.

Dr. Angell's Statement

Sirs: TIME, May 9 gives, doubtless unintentionally, quite a wrong impression of a recent statement of mine before the American Philosophical Society. Perhaps you would wish to correct it. What I really said was this: "In the face of great apparent prosperity, higher education in this country ... is gravely menaced by the difficulty--approaching impossibility--of recruiting an adequate amount of first rate intellectual ability to carry forward this great enterprise." I am sure you will agree that you attribute a very different statement to me. JAMES R. ANGELL

Yale University New Haven, Conn.

TIME quoted Dr. Angell indirectly as follows: Menace, Higher education is now gravely menaced because it is almost impossible to recruit men of first-rate intellectual ability for college faculties.--Dr. James Rowland Angell, President of Yale University.--ED. Dr. Gehring's Sanitorium

Sirs:

About a week or two ago, under the heading of MEDICINE an article appeared in your magazine about Dr. J. G. Gehring and his Sanitorium at Bethel, Me.

The story particularly attracted me as I had been looking for just the sort of place that Dr. Gehring had. I have checked into the matter and find now that Dr. Gehring had retired from active practice about five years ago and I am wondering if the place he started is continued on the same plan by someone else or if it has been discontinued. Would it be possible for you to secure this information and pass it on to me?

M. L. VlSGER

Detroit, Mich.

The sanitorium still exists at Bethel, Me. Dr. Gehring has for some years been retired from practice.--ED.

Thompson's Spa

Sirs: Referring to TIME, April 25, p. 9, to the article about the Governor, Alvan T. Fuller: My goodness! You don't know what you're talking about. When you come to Boston, be sure to visit Thompson's Spa. Then you will learn just where you erred in your account of it. Instead of "humble office workers snatching a hasty lunch," you would be more nearly correct in saying, "lawyers, stockbrokers, prosperous businessmen meet to lunch and talk." The average office worker cannot afford to eat there. "Food balanced on the broad-arm of a one-armed chair." Aren't you funny--there are no chairs in the Spa--one sits upon a high stool at a counter! "Fifty cents buys abundant calories to sustain life." Just try and get a square meal there for 50-c-! Coffee 10-c-, bread 5-c-, ice cream 20-c-, a small piece of pie 15-c-! Of course Mr. Fuller prefers to eat at Thompson's rather than at the various hotels you mention. The food he gets there is as good, and in some instances better, than can be purchased at the finest hotel. Come to Boston and I'll prove it. Order a piece of strawberry shortcake at 50-c-! Please correct this statement regarding the Spa. It is a reflection upon the Spa, and not true. DOROTHY D. KENDALL

Allston, Mass.

Twoddle

Sirs:

I did not spell "twaddle" with an' "o," nor did I write "Sirs" in place of "Gentlemen."

WEST HUGHES

Los Angeles, Calif.

To Mr. Hughes TIME'S apology for misreading his handwriting of "twaddle" and printing it "twoddle" on the Letters Page in TIME, April 25. As to "Sirs," all letters printed by TIME are edited to begin thus, for brevity and uniformity.--ED.

* An error. President Coolidge travels in a private car. It is not always the same car; it is owned by the Pullman Co. and not the U. S. Government, but nevertheless it is hired exclusively for the President and his party. Only once, in 1924, when he went to the International Livestock Exposition in Chicago, did President Coolidge travel in an ordinary Pullman drawing-room. As Vice President, he was known to have occupied the upper berth of a compartment and given his good friend, Frank W. Stearns, the lower.--ED.