"Progress"

Sirs:

I read your new Fashion Department with, I will confess a critical but, I am sure, unmercenary eye. I wish now to express my approval qualified by one or two suggestions. In the first place, I am afraid that you do not always seize upon the most significant developments. But this defect will probably be corrected as you acquire familiarity with your subject. Then I have a more important suggestion: why do you not call your department PROGRESS, rather than FASHION? The latter is an unpleasant word carrying a hint of inconsequence, whim, frivolousness and lack of permanence. Should not the department confine itself to the valuable, enduring and practical? And if this is true, should it nor be called PROGRESS?

I may say that if you care to adopt this suggestion, I shall not (unlike greedy Julius Susskind) "want $10."

BENEDICT R. LEE

Chicago, Ill.

Subscriber Lee's suggestion is good, is worth well over $10. Henceforth the new department FASHIONS shall be known as PROGRESS.--ED.

Swinburne

Sirs:

To the author of your article "Irish Coast" in your issue of Nov. 14, a well-deserved word of praise.

It is most refreshing to find in an ordinary or should I say extraordinary, newsmagazine such evidence of literary talent.

". . .All night long the clouds, like vague white tigers, galloped across wild hills," is worthy of the descriptive powers of a Swinburne.

Ted Higgins

New Castle, Pa.

"Fair" von Prittwitz

Sirs:

I certainly got a laugh when you called the new German Ambassador to Washington a "fair" tennis player (TIME, Nov. 14). If you mean a fellow who does not say "OUT" every time a ball lands within five feet of the baseline, a fellow who remembers the score when he is losing, a fellow who, in other words is "on the level," that is O. K. But maybe you just meant to say " a pretty rotten tennis player." This is something different. I got a laugh because I don't think you knew which one you meant. Which is this boy, poor but honest, or just pretty poor. If so, how poor is he?

ED WANSER

Buffalo, N. Y.

TIME said that Baron von Prittwitz was a "fair" tennis player, taking his honesty for granted and meaning, obviously, to indicate that he played tennis "fairly well." A "fair" golfer is one who scores between 85 and 95 on an eighteen average holes. A "fair" tennis player is one who can play backhand or forehand with almost equal facility, and beat approximately half the able-bodied male playing members of his country club, in case he belongs to one.--ED.

Shot

Sirs:

Frank A. Rapp's letter rapping Rogers [TIME, Nov. 14] reminds me of a story. . . . .

A minister was coaching an amateur play to be given at one of the church functions. Upon being shot, the hero of the play, according to the written lines, was to say: "My God. I'm shot!"

The minister objected to this particular line and suggested that the words, "My goodness, I'm shot!" be substituted.

The first performance of the play ran very smoothly up to the part where the villain fired at the hero. This being the hero's cue he said as instructed. "My goodness. I'm shot!" But the feeling a warm trickle down his side, and mistaking it for a trickle of blood, cried, "----* ----,* I AM shot! ! ! !" When a man is in danger or facing terrible torture, e. g. reading a Fashion Sheet Page, it is natural that he call upon the Deity. If you publish this letter it would be natural for me to exclaim, "God save me from the Rapps!"

Arthur C. Christensen

Cleveland, Ohio

Puzzles

Sirs:

Your article on the "Puzzle Trust" in the issue of Oct. 31 was surely entertaining but one paragraph was so abridged as to be quite misleading. Since I was a participant in the Graphic's cinema title contest and was subpoenaed as a member of the so-called "Puzzle Trust" that was unearthed here in New York. I should be able to throw additional light on the matter.

If a "trust" can be composed of 1,000 people scattered all over these United States, most of whom have neither seen nor corresponded with one another, but all of whom delight in solving proverb, booklovers' and cinema picturegames, then this large group is a "trust."

Since puzzle solving is the hobby of many professional and business people they eventually become quite expert in this line and accordingly their names are usually among the winners in contests all over the country. When the Graphic announced a $50,000 picturegame these expers of the alleged "Puzzle Trust" joyfully entered the contest and won most all of the big awards.

When it was discovered that their regular readers had captured so little of their huge fund, the Graphic was surprised and provoked. Therefore, since the rules of the contest had bot been so framed as to keep out the experts, the Graphic proceeded two months after the game was over to disqualify them by embodying a number of additional ex post facto rules in an affidavit which they said winners must sign in order to get their awards. Probably not one winner in ten could truthfully sign the affidavit.

Accordingly early in October the Graphic asked the U. S. District Attorney in New York to investigate its winners int his section who had signed its affidavit, and the paper now reports that its sleuths, accompanied by post office inspectors and the District Attorney's men, are on the trail of its winners in the Buckeye State.

The Graphic made its contest so difficult that none but experienced puzzlers had a ghost of a chance, and so expensive (an entry cost from $9 to $12) that comparatively few of their regular readers tried the game. Those of them who did participate endeavored to find the best answers in a catalog of over 6,000 titles in small print, whereas the so-called experts purchased for $1 each lists of answers compiled by other experts, which contained about 40 titles per picture, and from these short lists they made their selections that won the big money.

The Graphic's contest was too difficult for their average reader, and the harder they make them the better for the experts. A simple contest for simple people would have been much more successful.

CARLTON H. TYNDALL

New York City

Seattle's Symphony

Sirs:

A recent article in your esteemed journal has aroused considerable surprise in Seattle by its conspicuous omission of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. The people of Seattle find it difficult to understand how the writer could have possible overlooked Seattle's Orchestra. It appears to us to be evidence of striking inefficiency on the part of your music editor. For more reasons than one the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, as now reorganized, has had unusually fine publicity throughout the United States, and I might add that this interest has been chronicled not only in the music papers, but also in the general newspapers. . . .

W. J. DOUGLAS

General Manager Seattle Symphony Orchestra

Seattle, Washington

TIME was well aware of the Seattle Symphony's existence and, had space permitted, would gladly have pointed to the excellent reconstruction work being done there under Conductor Krueger. Not yet, however, has the Seattle Symphony reached a stage in its development to rival the orchestras mentioned--the New York Philharmonic, the New York Symphony, the Beethoven Symphony (New York), the New York Society of Friends of Music, and the symphonies of Boston, Philadelphia, Rochester, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, Minneapolis, Portland (Oregon), Los Angeles and San Francisco. TIME regretted, too, having to omit reference to such orchestras as the Boston Philharmonic (Ethel Leginska, conductor), the Omaha Symphony (Sandar Harmati), the Syracuse Symphony (Vladimir Shavitch), the Baltimore Symphony (Gustav Strube), the Denver Civic Symphony (Horace E. Tureman) , the Atlanta Symphony.--ED.

Rash Silverman

Sirs:

In your issue of Nov. 14, you publish a letter signed "Jack B. Silverman," the item headed "Red Hot Poker," in which he criticizes the statement as to the destruction of the American Girl because of the fact that you could put a red hot poker in an open can of gasoline without causing the gasoline to explode. . . . If you have his address we would appreciate very much your giving same to us so that we cart set him right on the question of gasoline and its hazards.

ALBERT W. SHELL & Co.

Insurance Cincinnati, Ohio

He might try that red hot poker once too often & hurt somebody besides himself.

Potential Congressman

Sirs:

The young university student tourist* who learned all about the Filipinos in three days (TIME, Nov. 7), is wasting his talents--he should be a congressman!

J. C. MATHER

Boston, Mass.

"Duke's Magazine?"

Sirs:

In your newsmagazine of Oct. 24, I note the statement "Duke University (tobacco-stained Trinity)." I've been wondering if, had Mr. Duke offered you 48 million dollars for the development of higher literature, you would have named your magazine "DUKE's MAGAZINE, tobacco-stained TIME."

E. THROWER JR.

Birmingham, Ala.

What Mrs. Jensen Said

Sirs:

. . . Two months ago I came from Honolulu; lost track of news for a month; got back numbers of TIME; found out all I wanted to know. Especially interesting to me was your write-up of the Dole Flight, but you made two mistakes: that Mrs. Jensen was a small woman, and you misquoted her--as did all other papers--upon the arrival of her second-prize-winning husband. Everyone, especially Mrs. Jensen, was expecting Martin Jensen in first, as last reports had indicated that he was leading. Even after Art Goebel's plane had been sighted in the distance, the eager crowd thought it was Jensen's machine. Mrs. Jensen collapsed when she saw that the leader wasn't her "Marty." About two hours later Jensen's Aloha landed. Happy though she was that Martin was safely on the ground again, Mrs. Jensen's first words showed her disappointment over his not being the winer. She said: "Marty, wher'n 'ell have you been?"

R.LESLIE LONG

Berkeley, Calif.

Thompson v. Epstein?

Sirs:

Last week I was all set to scold you for omitting some very good news from your last edition. In the first place you made no reference to "Guts" Thompson, Chicago's bookish mayor. I was even going to suggest that you run his picture on the front cover, but I was too late. The second piece of news omit ted was about Ruth Elder and her escapades.

I say I WAS going to scold, but I changed my mind when I received this week's issue. In today's issue of The Boston Traveler I read what is almost a duplicate of your story about Sen. Curtis of Kansas and decided that TIME isn't killing so much of it after all. I'll say TIME is "going some" when it prints its stories ahead of the newspapers.

Please give us plenty of news about this fellow Thompson. He's a WOW! Can't you somehow get him and Epstein together in a grammar writing contest ?

R. M. BLISS

Belmont, Mass.

Black Heart

Sirs:

I read about Janitor Bonney and I read what he said about drinking in colleges [TIME, Nov. 14, LETTERS] and it made me think. I too went to college (what college I had better not say), I too knew a janitor who "waddled" through the dormitories. But he could not have been much like Janitor Bonney. Michael Bonney must be the best college janitor in the United States!

When I went to college I had few friends, but I was straightforward and I had never tasted alcoholic drink. My janitor was nice to was me for a while; I remember his name. It was ---- ----.* Then one night he came into my room laughing and shouting. "Here, sport!" he cried, "Drink this! It'll make a man of you!" I drank it. It was whiskey and I rather imagine he had stolen it from some other student. It was the first time I the had ever tasted an strong evening liquor but it was not my last. Many an evening ------ and myself caroused, either in my little room or in the Dean's office (to which he had the keys) on the drinking ground floor.

Had drinking been his only vice, ---- ----* might not have been the most disastrous influence on my life. But he did other things as well. He was a nice jovial fellow on the outside but he had a black heart and I imagine I was not the only young boy he I am corrupted in that college. I imagine also, I am sorry to say, that ---- ----* is a more typical college janitor than Michael Bonney. But I hope not.

VICTOR PHELAN

Hackensack, N. J.

Now He Can Write

Sirs: Thank goodness--and you, TIME--that you are now printing your various addresses under the table of contents each week, where they can be found easily. Many times I have been on the point of writing you, but by the time I had finished searching through the issue to find where to send the letter, my enthusiasm had waned, and my letter remained unwritten. Now I can write whenever I feel the urge.

E. E. HATHAWAY

Chicago Ill.

Next week TIME will print addresses on the front cover, as well.--ED.

Beyond Belief

Sirs:

I was opposed to a "Fashion" section--mildly so, therefore passed it over when reading my last copy (Nov. 14). Curiosity however brought me back to it and I was rewarded--you have made it interesting beyond belief. This section will make new friends for you and few enemies, if any.

F. S. TOWER

W. Newton, Mass.

* Blasphemous words omitted.--ED.

* John E. Underwood, of Dubois, Wyo.--ED.

* Name omitted to avoid libel.