Barracuda

Sirs:

Come now! Not even TIME is qualified to report accurately the feelings of an obscure barracuda confronted by the beaming face of Franklin Delano Roosevelt [TIME, May 16].

JULES Z. WILLING

Saranac Lake, N. Y.

District of Columbia

Sirs:

You have published an article in which you prominently described our steamer District of Columbia as an "ancient sidewheeler."

The District of Columbia is a modern, steam, screw propelled vessel, length overall 305 ft. 6 in., completed in 1925, and one of the newest and most up-to-date passenger vessels plying inland waters of the U. S. and enjoying an enviable reputation for safe, comfortable transportation and excellent service daily between the Nation's Capital and Norfolk, Va.; hence your reference thereto is 100% incorrect.

You mentioned also that this steamer of ours "chuffed down the quiet Potomac." Inasmuch as our dictionaries fail to supply any meaning for the word "chuffed," we suggest that the word "glide" would be more appropriate because the District of Columbia moves quietly like its native haunt, the "quiet Potomac." CLARENCE F. NORMENT JR.

President Norfolk & Washington, D. C.

Steamboat Co. Washington. D. C.

Having erred, TIME apologizes to the up-to-date S. S. District of Columbia, which serenely glides on the blue waters of the quiet Potomac. --ED.

Radio

Sirs:

TIME has done an excellent job on its first Radio section [TIME, May 16]. You gave us just exactly the news subjects that we wanted. . . .

L. M. JENSEN

Listening Post Observer for Wyoming Cowley, Wyo.

Sirs:

With Radio, TIME again demonstrates its leadership. . . .

A. S. HEDIGER

San Anselmo, Calif.

Sirs:

Now that you've departmentized Radio, according it the proper importance in the trend of current news, why not do the same for Sex? . . . MAXWELL FOX Boston, Mass.

Digest to TIME

Sirs:

The magazine TIME came today to fill out my subscription on the Literary Digest. . . . I had feared I would be without a news magazine the rest of the year.

This is such a fine show of "fair play" that I have taken this opportunity to write and thank you. I am familiar with TIME and have always enjoyed it and wish now for it every success.

BESSIE L. SHEAFF

Kansas City, Kans.

Sirs:

I am glad to know that The Literary Digest has united with TIME, for I have sorely missed a weekly news magazine since the Digest suspended publication last February. I assume you will honor my unexpired subscription to the Digest, which runs through December 1938. . . . F. T. LAWTON

Jamaica, N. Y.

TIME will honor all Literary Digest subscriptions just as if they had been entered for TIME itself.--ED.

Sirs:

We should like to know what compensation will be given subscribers to the Literary Digest for the period during which the Digest suspended publication.

H. R. WOLCOTT

New York City

Their subscriptions will be extended three months--ED.

Pressurized Cabin

Sirs:

In its otherwise admirable description of the newly-completed DC-4 transport plane [TIME, May 23], TIME misleads with this statement: "With Boeing's 307, DC-4 is the first commercial transport plane with a pressurized cabin."

Cabin supercharging, unquestionably one of the greatest advances in store for air transportation, requires special design and construction. It is now under development, and will be first introduced by the Boeing 307 stratoliners that are currently in production for airline service. No other supercharged, sealed cabin commercial transport has been built in America.

HAROLD MANSFIELD

Publicity Director Boeing Aircraft Co. Seattle, Wash.

Boeing and Douglas have both been working independently on commercial transport planes with pressurized cabins. As TIME said, "the Boeings will be ready for airline service before the Douglas plane."--ED. Liberals (Cont'd)

Sirs:

You ask: Is President Roosevelt a liberal? [TIME, May 9]. The obvious answer is certainly not. The essence of true Liberalism is not to expand, but to contract the powers of Government. That is fundamental. . . .

CLARENCE E. EDSON Lakewood. Ohio

Sirs:

May I suggest that a "liberal" is one who desires and works for greater freedom of thought and action for others. Examples: the barons at Runnymede, Martin Luther, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Herbert Hoover. . . .

JOHN COLLINS

New York City

Sirs:

. . . Any man who is hated by Herbert Hoover, Mencken, Hitler and Mussolini is good enough liberal for most of us.

CHARLES N. HUSTON Williamsport, Pa.

Sirs:

. . . [Roosevelt] is probably the greatest living liberal. ... If people would put humanity regardless of race or religion above dollars and try some true Christianity this world would be a better place to live in and on.

A. LITMAN Pittsburgh, Pa.

Sirs:

In Mr. McArdle's letter (TIME, May 9) he defines a liberal, a conservative, and a reactionary, omits to define a Radical. . . .

W. F. BARBER

Lawton, Okla.

TIME forwarded Mr. Barber's letter and some others to Mr. McArdle, herewith prints his reply: Sirs:

For saying that TIME was confused about liberals, my apologies. TIME. I see by your letters, was only mirroring truthfully the appalling confusion that exists in the minds of the U. S. public. Twenty-eight correspondents say that Roosevelt is not a liberal; I am astonished to learn that 28 people intelligent enough to be able to write should hold to such an error. What do they think he is? A conservative? A radical? A revolutionist? A fascist? What nonsense! A radical, as everybody but your correspondents knows, is a man who proposes drastic changes in the status quo, and the establishment of new institutions, new measures, to correct existing evils. ... A revolutionist differs from a radical in believing that the change will be convulsive and violent, and also in believing that a dictatorship will be necessary. . . . When a reactionary advocates drastic changes in the status quo, and proposes to set up a dictatorship to protect these changes (from revolutionaries!) then the reactionary becomes a fascist. You cannot fit Roosevelt into any of these categories. He is, by elimination, if in no other way, a liberal.

EDWARD MCARDLE

Toronto, Ont.

Of 89 letters to date, 29 agree that President Roosevelt is a liberal, 39 deny it.--Eo.

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