Monday, Mar. 27, 1950

Exciting Event

Sir:

The March 6 issue of TIME, with its T. S. Eliot cover story, is the most exciting event in my life in many months . . .

The reviews of The Cocktail Party have amused me a little, as it seems that many New York intellectuals are still languishing in the negativism of the '20s and lagging well behind the simpler but wiser ordinary folk who crowd the theater to see and understand it ...

The leaven of Mr. Eliot ... is having a decidedly lightening effect on the sometimes doughy respectability of the Church of England, and I am convinced that this stimulus will have a great part to play in the coming struggle between religion and materialism in its many forms and the ultimate triumph of the Church . . .

EDWARD V. LOFSTROM Willmar, Minn.

Sir:

As one who enjoyed the friendship of T. S. Eliot in London during the years 1917-1932, and who contributed to the Criterion, permit me to say that I think you deserve the thanks of all readers for the fairness and the sharpness of your presentation . . .

However, I must take exception to your remark: "If it ever was, civilization is nothing now to write poems about." If this is the case, then there is no reason why you should bring out four pages on one who . . . has helped to "make us from time to time a little more aware" of the present-day dilemmas of our so-called "Christian" society. If good poetry is not necessary and useful to our present-day setup, then it would be better for you not to waste so much space on it.

JOHN GOULD FLETCHER Little Rock, Ark.

P: TIME agrees with Poet Fletcher that good poetry is sometimes socially useful, hopes he will agree that poetry's properest study is not society's ant-hill but man's heart and mind.--ED.

Sir:

. . . What on earth has ex-American Eliot ever done to warrant all this space? . . .

NEWMAN TUCKER Hollywood, Calif.

Sir:

Thank you for this absorbingly interesting piece, including the thought-provoking cover design . . .

Eliot is at once "clever and clear," but not more so than TIME'S story of Eliot and his ideas. I have never seen a more difficult subject nor a better presentation of abstruse ideas . . .

JAMES ROBERTSON Sault Sainte Marie, Mich.

Sir:

A quotation from Santayana mentions President Eliot of Harvard. For some reason you dropped a footnote in your mouth at that point: "No kin to Poet T. S. Eliot."

T.S.E. is related to C.W.E. The relationship is third cousin twice removed:

Andrew Eliot

T. E. GREENLEAF Madison, Wis.

Sir:

As an instructor in a survey course in modern American and English literature . . . I commend you for having done an immense service to literary pedagogy. Emphasizing instead of his eccentricities the many ways in which the foremost poet of our day is an ordinary, enterprising citizen may spare us some of the looks of derision which we sometimes get when we insist, often too stridently, that poetry . . . can tell us something about the world in which we live that is not inimical to gaining success in business.

WILLIAM F. MARQUARDT Madison, Wis.

Sir:

. . . Thank you for placing the article in the International section. Perhaps there, amidst the political news, rather than under Theater, Books or Religion, it will be more thoughtfully read by those decent godless people whose vision of world salvation is limited to the United Nations . . .

MARJORIE ANNE RILEY Dunsmuir, Calif.

Sir:

Perhaps the unique . . . gesture of congratulation to T. S. Eliot on his receipt of the Nobel Prize came from four State University of Iowa students. They sent him a jazz record then popular--Ray McKinley's You've Come a Long Way from St. Louis. A prompt acknowledgment came from Eliot:

"I wish to express my thanks ... for your kindness in sending me a record of You've Come a Long Way. I had been previously unaware of the existence of this remarkable composition. I am very happy to possess the record and I hope that because of its musical and verbal distinction it is having a wide success. And I am particularly cheered by the chorus statement: But Baby, you've still got a long way to go."

DEAN CADLE Iowa City, Iowa

Test Run

Sir:

In your Feb. 27 issue, under "Test Run," you quote the contest's sponsor: "These mileages give the general public something to shoot at. They prove what a properly driven and properly maintained car will do."

How about giving us the results in average miles per gallon for each car? . . .

R. P. WALBRIDGE Boothbay Harbor, Me.

Willys Jeepster 26.10; Chevrolet Fleetline 21.07, Plymouth P18 21.25, Ford DeLuxe "6" 23.33; Studebaker Champion 26.55, Nash Statesman

25.52, Dodge Coronet 21.39, Kaiser Special 23.95; Studebaker Commander 23.79, Mercury 26.52, Hudson Pacemaker 22.60, Nash Ambassador 26.42, De Soto Custom 18.78, Oldsmobile "88" 20.19; Packard "8" 18.92, Chrysler Windsor 19.85, Oldsmobile "98" 19.45, Studebaker Land Cruiser 24.89; Lincoln 18.15, Frazer Manhattan 23.91, Chrysler New Yorker 17.11, Packard Super 16.00, Hudson Commodore 21.39; Kaiser Virginian 23.97, Cadillac "61" 22.97; Cadillac "62" 22.53, Lincoln Cosmopolitan 17.56; Cadillac "60" Special 22.08; Cadillac "75" 17.24.--ED.

Sir:

... I decided to make a test with my Ford V8, which is a 1947 model with over 45,000 miles on it ... During recent months my mileage was from 14.3 to 14.8 . . .

I coasted into a gas station with an empty tank and purchased ten gallons of regular gasoline. One hundred and ninety-one miles later I was still on that same ten gallons . . . The motor had been turned off and started again 42 times, most of the driving had been city driving . . .

The way I did it was to drop my maximum speed from 55 m.p.h. to 48 and then follow the recipe given in TIME, "a gentle, steady accelerator pressure" . . .

My savings during the next six months will pay for my subscriptions to TIME, LIFE and FORTUNE . . .

SIDNEY R. OTTMAN San Rafael, Calif.

Sir: ... On Feb. 11 two of us left Orono, Me., in my 1949 Studebaker Champion, loaded to the roof with luggage, and wearing no special footgear for a light touch on the accelerator.

We . . . drove as most people do, navigat -ing traffic in Boston, New York, Washington, Baltimore, Chattanooga, Birmingham, New Orleans, Houston . . .

We kept a very careful check of mileage and gasoline consumption and found that over the entire trip from Orono, Me. to Los Angeles -- a distance of approximately 4,300 miles -- we averaged 26.52 miles per gallon.

We used regular gas -- no high octane . . .

WALTER R. WHITNEY Ventura, Calif.

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