Government
Sirs: Let Subscriber Strong* (TIME, Nov. 15) see her local radio service man, her set needs attention. Tonight's, Nov. 14, chat included several distinct "gover-n-ments." Or does Firesider Roosevelt read TIME?
JOSEPH F. DUNN
Champaign, Ill.
Franklin D. Roosevelt receives TIME each week. -- ED.
No Civil War
Sirs:
You'll pardon me, but I think I can make a point concerning your comments and your readers' comments on errors in pronunciation as perpetrated over the radio by certain prominent speakers. I doubt that there is any such thing as perfect speech. There are dialects, tones of voice, inflections and peculiarities characteristic of the inhabitants of various sections of the country. The so-called American language is a conglomeration of these various speeches and accepted usage is often a matter of locality. . . .
Besides, the slip of the tongue is to the radio broadcast as the typographical error is to the printed page. To paraphrase, it is hard to teach an old speechmaker new verbal tricks, or to accustom him to an accepted pronunciation when he has been in the habit of using another. And as the radio magnifies so many things, it magnifies these mistakes. Some peculiarities in the mouths of celebrated persons have become so famous that the speaker dare not change them without risking the charge of affectation. In this connection, a famous speaker whose "raddio" was a standing subject for witticism, forgot himself (unless my ears and memory have deceived me) and in the heat of a campaign address employed the correct pronunciation. But only momentarily. On the other hand, too close attention to details of pronunciation might have a tendency to detract from the speaker's effectiveness.
While a New Yorker's "thoity-thoid street" grates on certain sensitive ears, so does a Southerner's "Ah" for "I." So, let's call the whole thing off. . . . Let the New Englander retain his nasal twang; it adds flavor and color. Let us not have a Civil War about it.
R. C. O'BRIEN
New York City
Ernest
Sirs:
I have numerous dogs and one of them is called Ernest, for the Hemingway whom you so laud.
He is so called because, while he is surprisingly intelligent in all other ways, he is not completely housebroken.
L. H. FRENCH
Hidden Valley
Camarillo, Calif.
M-G-M Without Goldwyn
Sirs:
Did not TIME err in saying that Samuel Goldwyn was never associated with M-G-M (TIME, Nov. 15, p. 42) ? According to The Great Goldwyn by Alva Johnston, Goldwyn was once a part of MGM. Evidently this must be correct for rumor has it that Goldwyn bought 5,000 copies [of this book] for his own use.
If TIME is correct my sincere apologies for wrongly accusing, but will TIME explain the Goldwyn name appearing in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer?
JOHN J. BENCH
Denver, Colo.
Samuel Goldwyn according to his own office was never connected with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The "Goldwyn" in M-G-M is his original Goldwyn Pictures Corp. which merged with Metro and Mayer in 1924, two years after Sam Goldwyn himself had left it. Alva Johnston's account does not directly contradict this fact.--ED.
Bremen to England
Sirs:
... I was both surprised and interested to read that the North German Lloyd liner Bremen "does not call at ports in England" [TIME, Nov. 15] because in August 1936 I, not to mention hundreds of other persons, embarked upon said liner at the dock in Southampton, and earlier in the year had been deposited there by her sister ship the Europa. It is curiosity on my part that prompts me to write this, because I had hoped to go to England again someday by the German liners. . . .
MARGARET WHITTLESEY
New Haven, Conn.
TIME should have said what it meant. The Bremen does not call at ports in England after leaving France. She does indeed call at Southampton, both on west and east crossings.--ED.
Infallibility & Hats
Sirs:
In TIME, Nov. 8, reviewing the recent biography of Dr. Edward McGlynn (by Stephen Bell), appears this statement attributed to the Doctor:* "Religion will never be right until we see a democratic Pope walking down Broadway in a stovepipe hat. wearing a frock coat and trousers, and with an umbrella under his arm." Dr. McGlynn never uttered those words. How do I know? It so happens that I am a nephew of Dr. McGlynn. I was very close to him and enjoyed his confidence during the years from '96 until his death. The following is a record of an actual conversation--rather of the Doctor's story as related to me. . . . "During the time I was delivering speeches on one occasion I said 'I believe in the Holy Roman Catholic Church, I believe all she believes and teaches--I believe in the infallibility of the Pope--and I would believe in the infallibility of the Pope--in matters of faith and morals--whether he were in the Vatican Garden in Rome--wearing the red hat of a Spanish Cardinal or whether he were walking down Broadway wearing a stovepipe hat--and it might be a very old-fashioned stovepipe hat--but I still would believe in the infallibility of the Pope.' Imagine my surprise and chagrin on reading the headlines in the paper next day 'McGlynn says the Pope should walk down Broadway in a stovepipe hat,' giving the public to believe I meant we should have an American Pope." . . . You can see how in the course of time and reliance on an originally misquoted remark--injustice is done. . . .
FRANK MCGLYNN
Hollywood, Calif.
TIME showed Actor Frank ("Abraham Lincoln") McGlynn's letter to Author Bell whose reply follows:
Sirs : . . . The review quotation of the Doctor's speech, delivered early in 1887, was most incomplete. The Doctor was comparing the simplicity of religion in the early years of the Christian era with the pomp and splendor of the present, to the disadvantage of the latter. The Pope's infallibilty was not under discussion.
My quotation was taken from Henry George's Standard, which varied somewhat from the ordinary press versions. There was nothing derogatory to the dignity of any man, even the Pope of Rome, in appearing 50 years ago in a high silk hat, vulgarly called a "stovepipe" or a "plug." It was the universally accepted insignia of respectability and gentlemanliness. And as to his "walking down Broadway" in it, that had no more connotation of an American Pope than his walking down Piccadilly, the Rue de la Paix or Unter den Linden would have connoted an English, French or German Pope. In fact, I never heard of any one taking the Doctor's phrase for an intimation that he desired to see an American Pope until I read it in Frank McGlynn's letter.
There were several other phrases attributed to the Doctor which he never used, but I never heard before of his denying the "stovepipe hat" phrase.
STEPHEN BELL
Author of Rebel, Priest and Prophet
Clifton, N. J.
"Fall Guy"
Sirs:
TIME'S timely description of the Sky Tiger by Bell out of Buffalo goes haywire in its second paragraph (TiME, Nov. 15, Transport). The printer's the fall guy (we hope) when he says "two .50 calibre (1 1/2 in.) guns." Calibre is the diameter of the bore between the lands. A ".50 calibre gun" is a 1/2 in. gun. Incidentally the service says "calibre .50."
J. R. HOWARD
2nd Lieut., F. A., Res.
Birmingham, Mich.
To TIME'S printer, no fall guy, a mild rebuke for manhandling correct copy. --En.
TIME in California
Sirs:
Your magazine costs 15-c-. A 15-c- item, in this State, has a sales tax added to the price, so TIME costs Californians 16-c-. Now, I want you to change that price, within this State, to 14 1/2-c-. That would exempt it from this pernicious tax schedule, your dealers would still collect the 15-c-, or at least 29-c- for 2, and some of us conscientious objectors would be spared the necessity of buying a 10-c- (untaxed) substitute. If this august State protested, we might appeal, and get a Supreme Court ruling--maybe even an historic 5-to-4 one, on the taxability of that 1/2-c-. Hell's Bells! as long as you don't charge it they can't tax it. Now, I mean this in dead seriousness. . .
JOHN H. REEVE
Brawley, Calif.
If Californians who buy TIME at newsstands do not like their sales tax, let them repeal it, not evade it.--ED.
Condemned
Sirs:
I am writing as one of a thousand Catholic students representing 3,000 students to say that we have placed your magazine, TIME, on a condemned list of reading material. Our reasons are that your magazine is definitely Communistic in tone. Many of your pictures and articles are obscene; we feel that no student should use your magazine for any kind of reference. . . .
PATRICIA PHILLIPS
Alhambra, Calif.
Sirs:
I had the privilege of attending a meeting of a group of 1,000 students representing the 3,000 students in Catholic colleges and high schools. . . . Although your magazine is not openly against the Catholic religion, it is covertly averse to our religion which, alter all. embodies the whole moral law. From time to time there have been some articles lauding Catholicism but I feel that they are used for "bait" to gain Catholic readers to your list of subscribers. Why criticize the Church in such a cowardly way? Why not stand upon your own two feet and say: This magazine is definitely opposed to Catholicism? I am sure that you would earn more respect and esteem than that which you now hold. We, 1,000 strong, have formulated a plan of action in which, unless your policy is notably changed, we will persuade the other 2,000 and their families to discontinue reading your publication. This action, al though originating in Los Angeles, Calif., will undoubtedly spread throughout the U. S. The movies have felt the censorship of Catholics on insipid and obscene motion pictures and you also will feel this same strong censorship on the same type of magazines in a very short while. I close with this question to you, the editors of TIME: Are these few dollars you receive worth the damage you might have done or might do to many thousands of human beings? I pray to God to give you grace to see the light.
VIRGINIA HAMPTON
San Marino, Calif.
TIME has quite as strict a conscience as Readers Phillips and Hampton. TIME differs from them on the intellectual questions of what constitute 1) obscenity or prudery, 2) bias on Catholicism and Communism. TIME'S own intelligence, like its own conscience, will remain its guide. -- ED.
Salesmen's Weekends
Sirs :
I'll bet 7-c- to a big red apple that TWA will do a swell job with the new "excursions by air" at lower rates [TIME, Nov. 15]. However, maybe TWA and the other big shot airlines don't appreciate that there are many many thousands of us traveling men, oldtime "Knights of the Grip." or "Angels of Commerce" "Commercial Tourists" (or what you will), who would jump at the opportunity to go home over weekends from where we might be by air, but the outward trip should be Friday, not Saturday, or even Thursday (for the long week-enders). To compensate for moving it back from Satur day (whatever may be TWA's reason for Saturday), the return-trip time limit could be cut to ten days. . . .
MILTON H. SIEGEL
Baltimore, Md.
Smart, business-getting TWA looks coldly on the suggestion that its excursions be extended to cover Friday, the airline's busiest day. -- ED.
Curtailed, Not Closed
Sirs:
In the Nov. 29 issue of TIME appears a statement that our company announced plans to close down four of its plants, turning 900 workers into 900 unemployed. . . .
No glassmaking furnaces were closed down in any of our plants. No curtailment in operations was made in our window-glass plants at Shreveport, La. and Charleston, W. Va.
We are completing a two-week shut down of a portion of the operating facilities at our Ottawa, Ill. factory involving approximately 900 out of a total of 8,000 employes of the company. This operation is resuming on Monday, Nov. 29.
A similar curtailment in one department of the company's plate-glass plant at East Toledo has been in effect since Nov. 22, but will be resumed on Dec. 13.
Necessity for mechanical repairs after prolonged steady operation of our facilities as well as temporary accumulation of certain types of finished glass, made curtailments necessary in such portions of some of our factories as were required.
By Nov. 29 all our operations will be fully resumed, with the exception of one portion of one plate glass plant. This operation will be resumed on Dec. 13.
D. H. GOODWILLIE
Executive Vice President
Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Co.
Toledo, Ohio
Figure of Speech
Sirs:
I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed your "involved witticism," TIME, Nov. 22, p. 17. "The way of a man with a maid, and the way of an eagle on a rock." Especially the explanation "(which way it will fly)."
Why not rewrite the whole business thusly: "The way of a ship upon a rock, the way of a serpent with a maid, the way of an eagle in the midst of the sea, and the way of TIME'S editors up in the air."
Would it put too much of a strain on your imagination to picture me rubbing my hands with glee? In fact "I'm quite happy about the whole thing."
Please don't cancel my subscription.
W. E. DUPUIS
Detroit, Mich.
Proverbs 30:19 speaks of the way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent upon a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man with a maid. TIME quoted not the Bible, but Senator Henry Fountain Ashurst whose eloquence is not to be tampered with.--ED.
Springfield's Putnam
Sirs:
When commenting on the numerous city elections in TIME, Nov. 15, you overlooked that which next to New York City was the most newsworthy.
In Springfield, Mass., the voters chose as their chief executive for two years, Roger Lowell Putnam, president of Package Machinery Co., a blueblood, wealthy industrialist and scion of two of Massachusetts' oldest and most distinguished families.
Obtaining more votes in the Democratic primary than any previous nominee of either party, he was endorsed in the election by the A. F. of L., C. I. O. and Labor, notwithstanding that manufacturers and bankers generally looked with favor upon his candidacy. His only promise was to bring new industries to the city and all indications are that with such an optimistic labor set-up obtaining, he will be able to keep it....
JOHN B. HOURIHAN
Attorney & Counsellor at Law
Springfield, Mass.
Sanity
Sirs:
The guards at the chauvinistic Armistice Day ceremony at Whitehall's Cenotaph [TIME, Nov. 22], would be expected to call the man who cried: "Stop all this hypocrisy !" a "madman"--but why should TIME'S editors ape them? What if he did appear "wild-eyed?" The inanities in the world taking place in the name of "patriotism" are enough to make any sane, intelligent person "wild-eyed. . . ." "Hypocrisy!"
Perhaps he was the only rational person there! . . .
MILDRED M. BAKER
Cottage Grove, Ore.
Possibly but not probably.--ED.
* Who complained that in his broadcasts, the President fails to pronounce the first "n" in "government." -- ED.
* Quoted by TIME from the biography.
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