Devil's Helper (Cont'd)

Sirs:

I note two letters in this week's [July 15] issue of TIME from tender-skinned clerical brothers, chiding you for the very thing which makes TIME so good--its fine, fearless frankness. A fortnight ago the magazine was overdue and I had to buy a copy from the newsstand, in order to maintain my Friday equilibrium. Of course I often take issue with what you print, and sometimes you make me mad. I am glad you do upset me: such agitation is necessary for a sane, decanal existence. So keep on being natural and racey--and even spicey. The country needs you, and most of all do I. I hope to read you, no matter what you print, "from now on!" HIRAM R. BENNETT DEAN

The Cathedral Church of St. John Wilmington, Del.

Sirs:

All in all, the sex-knowledge controversy all over the world, and especially in the U. S., shows the Pharisees, as of old, still straining at gnats and swallowing camels. Re: ministerial protests of TIMEly frankness anest onetime unmentionable humanities (TIME, July 15).

Maybe St. Paul could help them with his Romans 14:14 & 22, or his Titus 1:15. Of course I would not refer our Puritanical brethren to I Corinthians 7:36 lest they die of shock. This old world must retain a few things to laugh at.

Just in case someone wants to hear the most ancient TIMEly exposes of human nature "in the raw," I would like to have our good brethren preach from a text in the cave-lady episode of Genesis 19, concerning the love-feasts of the two daughters of Lot. No condemnation offered there either, in the Book.

Nor was Judah's daughter-in-law condemned by the Book, when she tricked Judah into a public expose of his fun-loving nature, in Genesis 38. Not being allowed to send obscene matters through the mails in this empire of holy brethren, I can only cite you the passages involved in Holy Writ, trusting that you have a Bible at hand which has not been censored by any members of the cloth. . . .

R. J. CALLMAN Savannah, Ga. Sirs:

The Rev. Earle V. Pierce preaches just around the corner from me. He's the sensitive spirit who in your July 15 issue deplores your "stench of debasing animalism" and wistfully looks forward to the day when the postman will no longer force him to accept TIME. Seeing his letter today (Sunday), and remembering his pretty gift for snappy sermon titles, I was moved to note tonight's offering on his billboard. Well, he will particularize "A Kiss That Didn't Count." That should catch many a hesitant eye tempted to rove among the bathing beauties of nearby Lake Harriet. It's hot here in July, too, so every automobile is a competitor. True, he gives fair warning that the kiss didn't count. Perhaps that's what makes everything all right. DONALD HARRIS

Minneapolis, Minn.

SIRS. We'd like to know from the Rev. Robert M. Hardee: What would Jesus read? LESLEY ALDERMAN Lake Kushaqua, N. Y.

Sirs: ... I am sure that were Jesus among us HE would read TIME. . . . JOHN WALLACE Albany, Ore.

Sze for Ho

Sirs:

TIME in its issue of June 17, p. 22, contains a statement reflecting upon the private character of General Ho Ying-chin. It says: "Most Chinese were convinced that War Minister Ho had himself been rewarded with Japanese cash last week.'' There is no truth whatever in this innuendo thus given out by TIME. In justice to General Ho TIME should make honorable amende. Will you please see that immediate correction be made so as to remove the undesirable impression which that statement in TIME has given to the public?

SAO-KE ALFRED SZE

Chinese Minister Chinese Legation Washington, D. C.

Robinson's Arkansas

Sirs:

Where did you get your political information that Senator Robinson would have to doff his cutaway and hump himself to be re-elected in Arkansas in 1936 [TIME, July 15]?

The citizens of Arkansas appreciate his great leadership and his value to our State as our U. S. Senator and will return him to the Senate with the majority vote of 75 counties as we did in 1930.

HARRY B. SOLMSON Little Rock, Ark.

SIRS. With full appreciation of your many complimentary references to Senator Robinson's distinguished public service and with forgiveness for your uncontrollable penchant for shooting pins at every balloon of appreciation even including those blown up by you, I venture to challenge the accuracy of your statement "Even his friends admit that he ... is slipping politically at home." As former State Commander of the American Legion, as State Finance Chairman of the Smith-Robinson Campaign in 1928 and as present State Director of the National Emergency Council I have had many opportunities to become acquainted with the public estimate of Senator Robinson's service to Arkansas and the nation. Therefore more in defense of the good sense of Arkansas citizens than in an extravagant and unnecessary tribute to our senior Senator's unfailing popularity at home, I am pleased to advise you that scores of sensible unemotional men and women have agreed with me that Senator Robinson can be overwhelmingly re-elected next year without making a speech or writing a letter. As a matter of fact if pressing public business demands Senator Robinson's attention next summer, his friends know that he will attend to it while we with similar loyalty to the highest public interest look after the business of returning him to the Senate.

JAMES J. HARRISON Little Rock, Ark. Third Testament

Sirs: In TIME, July 1, under the heading of Religion, p. 21, appeared a more accurate account of Swedenborg and the New Church than usually appears in the public press. . . . I must call your attention, in the interest of accurate reporting, to one essential error. You stated that in 1890 "some members, deciding that Emanuel Swedenborg's revelations of the Scriptures' hidden meanings had hidden meanings all their own, began to incorporate his writings in their services. Result: a schism, creating the General Church of the New Jerusalem which now has 2,500 members and the No. 1 Swedenborgian academy at Bryn Athyn, Pa." The real basis for the schism lay, not in any hidden meanings within hidden meanings, but rather in the belief that the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg were Divinely inspired and are, in fact, the Word of God, constituting the Third Testament. The schism was in reality an adherence to the views held by the founders of the church, and from which the General Convention had departed. . . . One other item I cannot pass without comment, namely the claiming of Goethe, Wagner, Berlioz, Balzac, Coleridge, Tennyson, Browning, Carlyle, Emerson, Thoreau, Victor Hugo, Helen, Henry James, Keller, Elbert Andrew Carnegie, Hubbard, Maeterlinck, Amelita Galli, Yeats, Curci and Eddie Guest as being "in formal or spiritual fellowship" with the New Church. All of the above and many more modern writers and philosophers have had some contact with Swendenborg's writings but, with the exception of Galli-Curci and Helen Keller, none of the others ever professed anything more than casual interest, although Edgar Guest attended a New Church Sunday School.

More to the point, Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, had considerable contact in her childhood with the teachings of Swedenborg, while attending a New Church Sunday School. Her Science and Health is obviously the garbled result of her acquaintance with Swedenborg, and her utter lack of understanding of his theology.

DONALD MERRELL Cincinnati, Ohio

Fused Soup Sirs: When you make the distinction French between English and French soups in your "Soupstakes'' article in TIME, July 15, you err in that while your English way of making soup is the autochthonous English soup, in your French method you give an intellectualized, wholly professional basic recipe. If that be the French method, how do you explain the national soup of all France, the pot-au-feu which like the English and all European national and regional soups starts with water into which things are put, not "thrown," methodically and with an uncanny sense of measure; brought to completion diversely to be sure according to national characteristics, climate and tradition?

These soups are a synopsis of the National Hearth and I know of no better synthesis wherein all the integrated ingredients acquire a more intimate fusion lor the benefit of the whole. PETER BORRAS

Restaurant Madrillon Washington, D. C.

NC4 & 299

Sirs: Please refer to p. 52 of your July 15 issue under Transport--299. We quote: The ''first Army or Navy craft to have more than three motors." Your memory apparently does not extend back to 1919 when the NC4 crossed the Atlantic. This Navy plane and its sister ships had four motors. M. O. ADAMS, JR.

San Francisco, Calif.

Barling Bomber Sirs:

Your article about the new Boeing 299 is quite interesting, but is not correct on two points. The new Boeing bomber is not a low-wing but a mid-wing, that is the wings are set in the middle of the fuselage, similar to the Martin bomber.

Also your aviation editor must have forgotten the famous Barling bomber of a few years ago when he states that the 299 is the first Army or Navy craft to have more than three motors.

R. J. MCLEAN

Burbank, Calif.

Gaelic Sirs:

TIME, July 8 marred its account of the reception of U. S. Minister Owsley in Dublin by its invidious reference to de Valera's Gaelic speech as, "the strange, rhythmic gurgling and throat-clearing." Upon what basis, other than its inveterate love of playing the Smart Aleck, does TIME thus describe the speaking of Gaelic?

I think TIME'S actual knowledge of Gaelic is probably represented by its inability to spell correctly the best known of all Irish phrases, the salutation "Cead mile failte!"

MARY A. O'GALLAGHER

Chicago, Ill.

TIME erred in spelling mile with two l's. The expression, which means "a hundred thousand welcomes," is pronounced kade meelya foltyah.--ED. Wolfe's Butler

Sirs:

May I please congratulate the English butler who refused to visit with our noted citizen Mr. Thomas Clayton Wolfe (TIME, July 15). There are self respecting citizens of America who also would dislike to associate with slime and filth such as oozes from Mr. Wolfe. We refer to his two books Look Homeward Angel and Of Time and the River. Mr. Wolfe is a forceful writer of English but it is not likely he will ever find a worthy subject for expression as it is evident he has never looked for one.

Congratulations again to the English butler.

LAURA M. EVANS

Wichita, Kans. Sirs: . . . Why didn't [Mr. Wolfe] leave the good London butler alone to attend to his own business? The butler had no desire to be made a fool of. Mr. Wolfe has his authoring, the butler his butlering. A good butler is a jewel --kind, faithful, and well-mannered. O, we Americans who get so very noisy after we have set foot over the threshold of Bacchus' domicile! J. RANDOLPH JONES

New York City

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