Perpetual Subscriptions
Sirs:
" -- want Life Subscriptions?'' I do, one for me 49 years old, one for my sister Mrs. Ben R. Meyer who is 50 years old, and one for my son-in-law who is 26 years old, all subscribers. My son-in-law's name is Herman F. Hahn.
MRS. MILTON E. GETZ
Beverly Hills, Calif.
Sirs:
Will you furnish me with list of names of your Life or Perpetual Subscribers? They would make excellent prospects for insurance. JAMES JELKE Insurance-of-all-kinds Passaic, N. J.
Certainly not.--ED.
Sirs: For some months I have been working on a plan for the handling of Life Subscriptions to magazines. I have developed a plan that is absolutely scientific in its operation, that is equitable and salable to the individual and that is greatly beneficial to the magazine in regard to stabilizing its circulation.
I have been to New York and St. Louis and talked with the leaders of the largest financial institutions in the country and know this plan and the institution that will stand behind it, if you wish, will carry out your idea of Life Subscriptions in a way that is far superior to anything yet devised for that purpose.
E. GRANT WILLYOUNG
Springfield, Ohio.
May I make a suggestion as to a plan for life subscriptions? Why not sell your subscribers Subscription Bonds?" The amount of seventy dollars, named in the sample bond enclosed, is fixed on the supposition that the money invested with you can be made to pay 5% with safety, and that you can afford to make a subscription price of $3.50 to these subscribers. The rate of interest on the bonds, and the subscription price to them, would have to be determined and the amount of the bond fixed in accordance with the facts.
Not only would these Subscription Bonds be bought by individuals, but they would make appropriate birthday presents, graduation presents, and wedding presents. If TIME continues to improve, they will be handed down from father to son, their value to the possessor increasing with time. In 1979 I can imagine a man of 70 saying to his grandson, "Here is a Subscription Bond for your graduation present. My father gave it to me when I graduated in 1929. The only condition is that you let me read TIME as long as I live. I hope you will keep this to hand on to your grandson in 2029." ARTHUR G. SKEELES
Columbus, Ohio
Sirs: A Life Actuary could readily compute a fair price based on Mortality and Experience Tables, as the average life time -- expectancy -- should serve as a sound basis for a Life Subscription Rate. The Tables are averages which produce a reasonable margin of profit to a Life Insurance Company; used by TIME, they should result similarly. On the other hand, if one's age determines the rate, you would be at the mercy of the sub scriber, as his honesty might make you, his dishonesty break you. L. G. WELCHER
Aetna Life Insurance Co., Hartford, Conn.
Good Messrs. Willyoung, Skeeles & Welcher are too late. TIME'S plans are laid. See below.--ED.
Sirs: And make my subscription "perpetual" too. I visualize with great satisfaction my great-great-grandson 150 years from now reading TIME every week from cover to cover just as his great-great-grandfather does now. More power to you!
PHILIP ROMANS
Youngstown, Ohio
TIME offers (see coupon below) a Perpetual Subscription at $60 to allcomers, regardless of age, sex, health, honesty, nationality, creed, politics, color of hair. Perpetual Subscriptions start at the expiration of present subscriptions and upon receipt of $60.--ED.
South Carolina's Blease
Sirs:
We, the undersigned registered voters, are interested in knowing in detail about the legislative record of Coleman L. Blease, Senator from South Carolina. How he voted on various bills; how he is regarded by unbiased observers, so far as legislative ability goes; what, if any, constructive legislation he has proposed.
R. 0. WHITAKER T. P. YOUNG E. H. BLAKE A. H. WOODLE W. L. DANIEL
Greenwood, S. C.
The record of Coleman ("Cole" or "Colie") Livingston Blease, Senator from South Carolina, is as follows:
Born: On a farm near Newberry, S. C., Oct. 6, 1868.
Start, in life: A candidate for the State House of Representatives before he was 21.
Career: Graduated from Georgetown (D. C.) University Law School in 1889, he quickly became South Carolina's perennial political candidate. When out of office, he practiced law. Between 1888 and 1924 he ran for office 19 times, was defeated eleven times. He served six years in the State House of Representatives, four years in the State Senate, was mayor of Helena and of Newberry, twice Governor. Chief distinction as Governor: releasing 1,700 convicts. Chief personal pride: ". . . elected and served in more offices than any citizen of the State. ..." A prime joiner, he is an Odd Fellow, Red Man, Moose, Knight of Pythias, Woodman of the World.
In Congress: First elected to the U. S. Senate in 1924, he voted for Tax Reduction (1926, 1928), Flood Control (1928), the Jones (Five & Ten) Law (1929), the 15-cruiser-construction bill (1929).
He voted against Farm Relief (1927, 1929), Boulder Dam (1928), Radio Control (1928), Reapportionment (1929).
He votes Dry, drinks Wet, admits it ("Why be a hypocrite?"). His chief complaint against Prohibition is that the rich still get their liquor, the poor do not.
Legislative hobbles: A "Jim-Crow" law for the District of Columbia; U. S. Prohibition for foreign embassies in Washington. He lives at the Washington Hotel, keeps no motor, rides the street cars. He takes no physical exercise, does not "give a damn" for society, dancing, cards. Chief conversational topics: the glories of the Old South, keeping down the "nigger." He calls spades spades and has referred, on the Senate floor, to water closets, the smell of Negroes, giving Negroes hot baths, etc., etc. He has called President Hoover a "Mussolini" and the Civil Service "the most damnable, iniquitous system ever perpetrated." Last fortnight he plumped out brazenly for the "spoils system" of party patronage (TIME, June His votes are highly independent; he never attends a Democratic caucus. Impartial observers rate him thus: No constructive legislator, in a large sense, he nevertheless gets things for South Carolina (jobs, public buildings, waterway developments, a new judicial district). He frequently says what many another Senator thinks but dares not utter. He is more of a Senate character than a Senate statesman. His term expires March 4, 1931.--ED.
Houghton's Bulbs
Sirs: In your edition of May 27, p. 44, under the caption of Golden Jubilee, you omitted to mention the most important glass bulb without which the incandescent lamp would be impossible. The credit for the development of producing these bulbs on the scale required today belongs to the Corning Glass Works, and no small share of it to Ambassador Houghton* and his associates, who had the foresight and imagination to spend a fortune on the development of machines that would blow these bulbs, and on glass research, so that these machines could be worked. The earliest lamp bulbs were blown from glass tubing, which resulted in varying sizes. As soon as the demand increased, it was quite natural that some were blown into moulds from the hot glass as taken from the melting pots. But when incandescent lamps became a necessity, the blowing of these bulbs by individual glass blowers created a labor problem, hence the thought of blowing these bulbs by machines -- but how? While the mechanical part of a machine that would do the work was by no means an easy task, the greater problem was to have the molten glass of the right consistency (viscosity), ready to feed the machine continuously. The individual glass blower could use his eyes and judgment regarding the quality of the glass, but a machine requires its material automatically, of proper condition and quantity, otherwise the product will be defective. At that time, glass was more or less an empirical product, evolved from tried formulae, but subject to any number of variations in its physical properties, of which we had but little conception. To produce a glass which in its molten condition would feed a bulb-blowing machine with unfailing speed was a problem in the solution of which the Corning Glass Works have not only led the way, but also pointed it out to others, in creating machines for making bottles, sheet glass, etc.
Realizing the magnitude of this problem, the Messrs. Houghton invited such men as Dr. E. C. Sullivan and Dr. Arthur L. Day to join them. However, space is too limited to describe how their task was accomplished, but if it had not been for their persistent efforts in improving the production of lamp bulbs in quantity as well as in quality, the incandescent lamp of today would not be such a cheap and perfect article, nor would it be used in such tremendous quantities. F. KRAISSL Corning, N. Y.
Unsung Hooverizers
Sirs: Cols, I and 2, p. 9, TIME, May 29, you print an item from the Punjab, extolling Herbert Hoover as the "giant who feeds all people." Since Mr. Hoover's entire public performance rests in the fact that he was Food Distributor during the latter part of the war, this seems an appropriate place to interpolate a few words of comparison between Hoover and other unknown, but highly efficient Food Distributors.
I know a couple of old Salvation Army Captains, Englishmen, who, during the Indian famine of twenty-five years ago, fed three times the number of starving human beings that Hoover fed during the World War. And these unknown famine relief agents did not have the richest nation on earth sending food to them by the shipload and shoveling out money by the barrel to maintain an enormous organization.
They had to collect the money, assemble the food supplies and distribute the food to inaccessible regions where camels, buffalo and coolieback were the only possible means of transportation. Beside their gigantic task, Hoover's Food Distributing job was simply a well-paid outing. And they did their work without any front page headlines or political ballyhoo. 'l think Herbert Hoover and Sinclair Lewis the two most overrated, overadvertised and disappointing men in American public life today.
Your American-born-Britisher, friend, regular reader and wellwisher.
BERT HUFFMAN
Glen Doris Ranch, Langdon, Alberta, Canada
Packard's Patents
Sirs: In a recent issue of TIME you have stated that no patents are obtainable on the new Packard Diesel type airplane motor. We do not know the source of your information but the fact is that while the Diesel engine principle is very old, many problems had to be solved before a suitably light Diesel type motor could be built for aircraft use. These problems were solved by us and in many instances real inventions resulted. Therefore, instead of no patents being obtain able, this Packard engine will be very well protected by patents and there is every reason to believe that we will have real patent control of its many novel and striking features. . . . ALVAN MACAULEY
President and General Manager Packard Motor Car Company, Detroit, Mich.
Spokane--Portland
Sirs:
I have just read with a great deal of interest your article in TIME for May 27 under the heading "Aeronautics."
I wish to call your attention to one omission in your air time table, namely, the Spokane to Portland air passenger service which is being operated by the Mamer Air Transport Company of Spokane . . . inaugurated on April 15. . . .
D. M. MERRIX Spokane, Wash.
* Alanson Bigelow Houghton, onetime (1925-1929) U. S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's.