Lifer's TIME

No, I am not a lifer in Sing Sing. But, I am a ''Lifer" in San Quentin, which, to all intents and purposes, is the same thing. But when you state that ''time" is unimportant to a "lifer," you merely admit an unconsidered contemplation of a "lifer's" outlook.* As a matter of fact, time is of more importance to a "lifer" who is alive than it is to the ordinary termer. The termer has a more or less definite time of freedom to look forward to. But the lifer has constantly before him the vision of a possible parole or commutation. His conduct is constantly under more careful scrutiny than the termer because it has so much more bearing upon his eventual release than is true to the termer. The termer can lose "copper" (prison cant for earnable credits in the form of reduced actual time spent in prison). The lifer, by the very nature of his sentence, cannot lose anything of that kind because he is already doing "life." Misconduct can extend a lifer's prison stay by years, while it seldom costs a termer more than 30 or 60 days as punishment for rule infractions. Furthermore, because of the very indefiniteness of his imprisonment, he realizes, if he has a modicum of intelligence, that he is the fellow most likely to become "stir-simple," a malignant disease of the mind brought by resignation to the monotony of institutionalization. Now, time, considered abstractly, is nothing. Man is the only animal who seems to be cognizant of it, and even then only finds it a means of measuring the lapse between the incidents which occur to his ego, and thus give him an identity in life. It is the lack of individuality of the ingredients which go to form institutional life which foster and aggravate "stir-simple"-ness. It is by keeping abreast of the times and keeping alive my interest in my country and the world that I counteract the appalling efforts of institutionalization which I see constantly around me. I have a job assignment and duties to perform. They largely usurp my time, but their very uniformity and conformity stifle interest. Hence it takes all the time which I can rightfully call "my own" to keep alive real interest. And since that time is limited, TIME steps in and serves its well-ordered purpose of giving me the potent results of 462 research hours within the always pertinent covers of TIME. Hence the no-pay restriction of my job-assignment is the only thing which keeps me from your subscription list. Now, I am well aware that the publishing of TIME is no eleemosynary activity. Yet it is possible I may have given you some thought that may be turned to account in your sales effort. If there might be construed to it a value approaching TIME subscription price--well--how about it? ... No. 48692--AUGUSTUS GINGELL San Quentin, Calif.

To Lifer Gingell for value received, one year's subscription to TIME.--ED. Voice Raised, Temper Lost Sirs:

"His voice is seldom raised, his temper never lost." Thus TIME word-pictured Packard's Macauley (TIME, Nov. 4). During the summer of 1917 I bell-boyed on the S.S. Noronic which the Packard Motor Co. chartered for a three-day convention cruise. At the end of the cruise and just before unloading passengers at Detroit I stalked Mr. Macauley's Parlor A for his luggage--allowing many "sure things" to pass by in order to capture the big game. I got my man and many cumbersome pieces of luggage which I maneuvered to his waiting Twin-Six. Then I carelessly marred the finish with a small scratch from his golf bag. Said Packard's Macauley, "Boy put those bags down and get out of here!"--voice slightly raised, temper definitely lost. JOHN A. WOOD

Altadena, Calif. Tears for Ducks?

Sirs:

Possibly I don't possess the true "sportsman's" sense of consistency, but I find it a bit difficult to follow your article under Conservation (TIME, Nov. 25):

"Cartoonist Darling . . . had done the job of saving the nation's wild life fully as well as any other one man could have done it. ... He has actually turned some 900,000 acres of submarginal land over to his beloved ducks and other animals. . . . Tears welled in Chief Darling's eyes when his Bureau employes stepped up to hand him a shotgun as a parting gift. . . ."

But then perhaps the tears, too, were for his "beloved ducks."

JEFFREY SHEDD

McKinney, Lynde & Grear Chicago, Ill.

Non-Socialist Spargo

Sirs:

. . . John Spargo, famous Socialist ... in Vermont is not John A. Spargo, superintendent of schools in Nutley, N. J. (TIME, Nov. 18). In fact I doubt if my old school master is related to his better known namesake. . . .

LEWIS GROSENBAUGH

New Haven, Conn.

Sirs:

... I wish to say that I am not the John Spargo, the Socialist, as reported in your magazine. ... I shall appreciate it if you will be kind enough to correct the error in a subsequent issue.

JOHN A. SPARGO

Superintendent Public Schools Nutley, N. J.

Sirs:

. . . CALL MYSELF INDEPENDENT REPUBLICAN. SUPPORTED HOOVER. JERSEY EDUCATOR COUSIN OF MINE.

JOHN SPARGO

Bennington, Vt.

The record: Vermont's John Spargo, onetime Socialist, resigned from the party in 1917, now busies himself with writing on ceramics and the history of Vermont. His New Jersey cousin is accustomed to being confused with him.--ED. Arizona Anglophile Sirs:

In TIME'S Letters (Oct. 28, Nov. 18) A. H. McFarlan has apparently been crabbing about your interesting and newsworthy remarks about the eminently respectable and respected British Royal family.

Did the gentleman also crab when TIME printed, routinely and honestly, regrettable occurrences (divorces) in the eminently respectable and respected family of the President of the U. S.?

Does this Anglophile in Phoenix, Ariz., actually believe Britain to be "facing the music" when the action of Neville Chamberlain in completely ignoring the debt of billions of dollars to the U. S. is apparently not only condoned by the British people but praised? . . .

GEORGE D. RANDALL

Sarasota, Florida

Sirs:

The damning A. H. McFarlan gives one a severe pain in the neck. If Great Britain has pulled up its socks it is not evident that it has attached them to garters. If Britain is the only nation which has "faced the music" it is big and good news for the U. S. Treasury, which still remains under the impression that London balanced its budget by defaulting in its war debt to the U. S. . . .

A. M. WERNER

Los Angeles, Calif.

Sirs:

... A Mr. McFarlan objects to TIME'S treatment of the British Royal Family. They are such nice people and he is right about the Poor Sportmanship. . . .

MRS. ANNA Bow

County Hospital Hollister, California

Sirs:

I was certain you were aware that your constant reporting of items regarding some famous Englishman referred to Admiral Backhouse. It appears someone else was equally certain this individual was The Prince of Wales. . . .

F. J. HELGREN

Waukegan, 111.

Sirs:

All credit to irritated Subscriber Mant for guessing Reader McFarlan's riddle. Personally, I must confess I was deeper in the dark than you claimed to be.

After acquiring an accumulated distaste for all royalty, built up by subjection to the Americanism of our schools and politicians, I have, during the past year, revised my ideas regarding George V and his household to the point of admitting that it would not be an unbearable fate to have been born a subject of H.M. This transformation is a direct result of reading TIME. Your picture--composed of just those intimate glimpses of no consequence which Mr. McFarlan decries--has enabled me to see in Edward of Wales a character for which neither Reader McFarlan nor TIME need apologize. J. EDWIN HANSON

Independence, Mo.

TIME, denying that the intimate glimpses are "of no consequence." is glad that Reader Hanson sees Edward of Wales as TIME sees him.--ED. Drugs & Confessions

Sirs: On Monday evening I listened to the "March of Time" and heard the dramatization on the effects of Scopolamine on a "criminal" with the result of a confession. On Friday when I received TIME [Nov. 18] I read the chapter which was quite in detail on "Scopolamine Confession." I fully agree with Dean Paul G. Toohey that "the procedure is unjust ... an arrogant, unethical, immoral defiance of human rights." One of the most important things to learn in the studies of pharmacology and therapeutics is the untoward effects of drugs particularly hypotics. . . . Since Scopolamine even in small doses will cause delirium which means a condition of mental excitement and confusion and since it will also produce hallucinations which means that the mind wanders and the individual is in a false frame of mind--false sense of perception--I feel that it is unsafe, inhuman and should not be employed for that purpose. S. A. SAVITZ, M. D.

Philadelphia, Pa.

Sirs:

Down with Dean Paul G. Toohey of Kansas City!

What can be immoral or unethical in determining a suspect's guilt or innocence? Many men would be glad of a chance to prove their innocence against a chain of circumstantial evidence.

Two to one Hauptmann would jump at an opportunity to prove his innocence under the influence of Scopolamine. Ten to one the U. S. public as a whole would sigh with relief at knowing that justice was being done in this and many another famous murder case. . . .

A great saving of time and money would result in criminal trials. Clever, unscrupulous lawyers would find it hard to build up a case when the suspect himself pointed out all details of the crime. . . .

WALTER B. GRIMES U. S. Engineer Office Rio Vista, Calif.

Filipino's Friendship

Sirs:

We, Filipinos of Chicago, applaud your gesture in placing our president's picture on the cover of your magazine (TIME, Nov. 25).

Though your writeup about Quezon's political career is tinged with prejudice, we heartily concur with you that Quezon has that political "it." Time will surely come (and judged by Japan's attitude, that will be soon enough) when the friendship of the Filipinos to the American people will be brought to a test, as, if, and when Japanese "jingoists" shall have succeeded in bringing a quarrel between two Pacific powers.

ERNESTO D. ILUSTRE ANTONIO A. GONZALEZ JOSE ALBERTSON JUAN UDAN

Chicago, Ill.

Quezon's Church

Sirs:

. . . Among Manuel Luis Quezon's other achievements, you make mention of the fact that he had at one time been Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the Islands. It seems unfortunate that you left out this fact: last year President Quezon became a convert to the Roman Catholic Church. DON SUTHERLAND

Fayetteville, N. C.

Right is Reader Sutherland. Catholic-born Manuel Quezon retracted Masonry on his 52nd birthday, 1930, aboard the S. S. Empress of Japan, in the presence of Most Rev. Michael J. O'Doherty, Archbishop of Manila. Two years later he demitted (i.e. resigned) from his lodge. --Ed. Man of the Year

Sirs:

I beg to register a pre-season nomination for TIME'S next Man of the Year. Let your list of candidates for this distinction begin with . . . the one man whose vision and devotion to the public good are even now changing the entire course of social evolution: DR. FRANCIS EVERETT TOWNSEND. . . .

GERTRUDE McMurtry

New York City

Sirs:

For Man of the Year I nominate Stanley Baldwin.

C. H. COLLIER

Berkeley, Calif.

Nominations are open for Man of the Year, whose picture will appear on the cover of TIME, Jan. 6, 1936. Let readers state their choices, give clear, curt, concise reasons.--ED. Razor Research

Sirs: In the Nov. 4 issue of TIME, in which you have described some of the industrial research at Mellon Institute, you have given credit to the wrong company for the support of the Fellowship on Shaving. This broad basic scientific investigation is sustained by Magazine Repeating Razor Co., 230 Park Avenue, New York, N. Y., maker of the Schick Magazine razor and the Schick Injector razor. This Fellowship donor has no connection whatsoever with the concern mentioned in your article.* The aim of this Fellowship of Magazine Repeating Razor Co. is to learn how to make shaving always a satisfactory operation. The research has been in progress for nearly four years. . . . The work has covered all phases from the manufacture of blades from special alloys to the study of actual shaving conditions by means of a shaving "clinic," organized among the Fellows of Mellon Institute. The findings are soon to be published in full. . . . According to these results the shaving problems of different individuals vary in character, but correct technics benefit all shavers. These include the taking of sufficient time for facial preparation before shaving (two minutes is the minimum time . . . ); shaving with a slanting stroke as far as possible; mixing of a little soap with latherless cream if the latter is the medium preferred by the shaver; shaving with the blade tilted toward the face when the blade is new and/or sharp to make a smaller angle with the skin and thus to minimize skin irritation. This technic is admittedly difficult to combine with a slanting stroke. Two safety razors now on the market are found to overcome automatically this last mentioned difficulty. E. R. WEIDLEIN

Director

Mellon Institute of Industrial Research Pittsburgh, Pa.

*Schick Dry Shaver. Inc.--ED.

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