A Little Spice
Sirs:
I first want to express my appreciation of the article in TIME of Feb. 28 dealing with my Super Highway Program. . . .
Your article referred to my highways passing through large cities in order to get votes. I am a good sport; I don't object to that reference at all--as I know an article must have a little spice in it--but the fact of the matter is, as you will see on page 4 of my Highway Bill attached, that it specifically states in my bill, "and shall not pass through any cities or towns unless there is no other place for the road."
I think that that is one of the strong features of my bill because it would be impossible to have the highways I visioned pass through cities. . . .
J. BUELL SNYDER
House of Representatives
Washington, D. C.
TIME is glad to know that Representative Snyder is a good sport but does not regard errors as spice. The Congressman's bill does indeed specify that the highways shall not pass through cities. TIME erred in following the description of it which he himself gave in the House year ago. Typical excerpt: "The second [route] starts at Buffalo and runs through Pittsburgh, Charleston, W. Va., Atlanta, Ga., to Pensacola, Fla."--ED.
No Belittler
Sirs:
The time has come to put an end to your editorial policy of be-"little"-ing Tsar Boris of the Bulgarians (TIME, Feb. 7). His country may be "little" in comparison to yours, but he rules six times as many subjects as you have subscribers. . . . He himself may be "little" compared with the giant of Sweden, or the barrel-like Goering, but so is the average man, on or off the throne. He has been called "fairly tall" by those who know him. . . .
JAMES F. CLARKE
Cambridge, Mass.
TIME agrees that it has underestimated Tsar Boris, but Reader Clarke, who is thinking of Christian of Denmark (6 ft. 6 in.) has overestimated Gustav of Sweden. A good guess at Tsar Boris' height: 5 ft. 10 in.--ED.
Half-witted
Sirs:
In your Feb. 21 issue you refer to Georgi Dimitroff's methods in his Reichstag-fire trial as "indomitable, singlehanded, fighting methods" which caused the German Supreme Court to acquit "the famed Bulgarian Communist." In fact-gathering FORTUNE'S article on British Foreign Policy last March he was "a half-witted Communist stooge." Maybe I am quibbling . . . but would TIME Inc. mind settling its family difference on this point and reveal his status? . . .
ROBERT C. MOORE
Pittsfield, Mass.
Reader Moore should pay attention. The "half-witted stooge" of the Reichstag trial was Marinus van der Lubbe, who shortly after the trial ended was beheaded.--ED.
Unique
Sirs:
If you will stop using unique with a modifier [TIME, Feb. 14], you will add years to my life. . . .
JOHN S. BURT
Fellows, Calif.
TIME hopes its copy readers will keep Reader Burt alive as long as possible.--ED.
Not Jumpy
Sirs:
TIME for Feb. 14, says ". . . last week when shots cracked out from sun-caked Matamoros, just across the broad Rio Grande from Brownsville, jumpy small-town Texas editors scareheadlined it as the expected Fascist revolt. . . ."
"Jumpy small-town editors," indeed! Just what do you mean by small-town editors, anyhow? . . .
If you mean the border-town editors, don't make me laugh. They know Mexican revolutions--some of them as far back as nearly half a century. And they don't get excited, especially over a purely local affair as was the case in the Matamoros incident referred to. And that wasn't a Gold Shirt movement.
The fellows who got excited over this incident were the radio commentators, who broadcast from Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and a few other points; also the rewrite men and telegraph editors of the big-town papers (your kind of "big town"). The further away the more excited they got. . . .
J. M. STEIN Editor
The Brownsville Herald
Brownsville, Texas
For Cruelty
Sirs:
An article appeared in TIME, Sept. 14, 1936, entitled "Staushov to State Street" in reference to Goldblatt Brothers. You stated that Maurice Goldblatt divorced his first wife for infidelity.
Had you taken the time to investigate the true facts of his divorce before the statement was published, you would have found that Mrs. Maurice Goldblatt, who is my daughter, was divorced for cruelty. . . .
LEWIS GOTTSTEIN
Chicago, Ill.
True. Following press reports of the period, TIME erred, apologizes.--ED.
School Children
Sirs:
Why do you always call the Court of St. James's the Court of St. James? It happens so often that it cannot be a typographical error. . . . Is it a symbol of contempt for accuracy in general or of the British for being conservative? Do you hope to change the established usage by misleading a generation of school children?
RALPH T. CATTERALL
Richmond, Va.
TIME would never mislead a generation of school children. The Court of St. James's officially changed its name to the Court of St. James in December, 1913.--ED.
Ellsberg on Ice
Sirs:
About 50 polar expeditions ago, Lieut. De Long and the Jeannette Expedition sailed from San Francisco to seek the North Pole. This was in 1879. In 1938--after three years of research--I wrote a book about it called Hell on Ice.
The Book of the Month Club Editors liked it. The Herald Tribune's Lewis Gannett, the Post's Herschel Brickell, the Sun's Randolph Bartlett. They all liked it.
But then along comes TIME'S reviewer-- and after using up most of one of your valuable pages printing a synopsis, he says I tried to "make these terrors more oppressive by putting hackneyed remarks in the mouths of the characters that robbed the book of authority. . . ." He also said something about stale jokes. . . .
But don't pin on me putting hackneyed remarks in anybody's mouth. Your reviewer is finding fault with sworn testimony from a naval court of inquiry and Congressional committee of investigation. The conversation in Hell on Ice is directly, word for word, out of the record. . . .
In case you don't believe me, here's an instance . . . for you:
Seeing only Newcomb fumbling over the enormous pile of articles, [he] inquired casually, "Mr. Newcomb, is this all your stuff?" Pert as ever in spite of his illness, Newcomb replied with the only statement from him that ever made me grin, "No; sir, it's only part of it!" (Hell on Ice, p. 266).
Captain De Long came in and addressed himself to Mr. Newcomb and said, "Mr. Newcomb is this all your stuff?" and he said, "No, sir, it is only part of it." Captain De Long was joking with him at the amount of stuff that was carried up there. (Cong. Inves. p. 508). . . .
The jokes came from the same record. Since they were made in 1879 I wouldn't exactly call them fresh myself. . . .
My bet is that the reviewer liked my book or he wouldn't have given it that much space. If he had read the preface he would have seen that I took my words from the records themselves--then I wouldn't have felt called on to write this letter.
COMMANDER EDWARD ELLSBERG
Westfield, N. J.
1) Commander Ellsberg misquotes TIME'S review. TIME said, "Commander Ellsberg has tried to make [the story of the Jeannette] more oppressive by the device of having it told by Chief Engineer Melville as a first-hand observer. Not altogether successful, the device enables Commander Ellsberg to put hackneyed remarks in the mouths of the characters that rob the book of authority without making its people seem any more real." This was in no sense a criticism of the quality of the remarks actually made by members of the Jeannette's crew. It was an evaluation of Commander Ellsberg's success in telling the story in a fictional form. If Commander Ellsberg wants to write his books in the form of novels, he should be willing to have them reviewed according to the standards of fiction.
2) Commander Ellsberg does not say in his preface that the conversations in Hell on Ice are taken from the record.
3) Commander Ellsberg misquotes his sources. At the end of a magnificent passage in In the Lena Delta, published in 1885, Melville thus describes the "frozen wave" that threatened to destroy the Jeannette: " 'The ice is approaching at the rate of one yard per minute. It is three hundred paces distant; so in three hundred minutes we shall pass over to the Great Beyond.' "
Commander Ellsberg's version: "Dunbar was by my side. With a seagoing eye he scanned the little plain of unbroken pack still surrounding us, then muttered, 'That ice is approaching us at the rate of a fathom a minute. It's still sixty fathoms off. In sixty minutes, chief, we'll all pass over to the Great Beyond!' '
4) TIME'S reviewer liked the story of the Jeannette, but not Commander Ellsberg's attempts to improve it.--ED.
Great W.M.M.
Sirs:
Congratulations on your interesting article concerning the famous William Montgomery McGovern [TIME, Feb. 28].
In the summer of 1927, in company with five other college girls I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. McGovern. We were returning from an European trip on a small Cunard boat, the Tuscania, I believe. . . .
We played considerable bridge, deck tennis and shuffleboard. And he in turn entertained us with his exploits in Tibet--some of which you mention in your article. But the best one was about eating some sort of bird--to this day it is one of my favorite stories--so you can see how much impression the great W.M.M made on an 18-year-old schoolgirl.
RUTH W. PARSHALL
P.S. We never believed half the things he told us.
Pontiac, Mich.
TIME'S Birthday
Sirs:
On Feb. 28 you certainly performed an A-1 job in patting yourself on the back through the Letters and Press departments. May I have those stretched hats which you must have discarded by now?
LATON SMITH
Rochester, Minn.
Sirs:
It gives me great pleasure to tell you that out of 29 magazines and periodicals which I subscribe to, TIME magazine is the first one I pick up, and my favorite.
I read it from cover to cover and enjoy every article in it.
ARTHUR CLARENDON SMITH
Washington, D. C.
Space Rates
Sirs:
Little did Central Union Trust Co. of New York realize in 1923 what value would be received from the first page advertisement in Vol. 1, No. 1.
Did TIME charge for the reprint? What is the rate for the first page space now as compared with 1923?
FRANK ROBBINS JR.
Chattanooga, Tenn.
Rate for TIME'S inside cover (black-&-white) in 1923 was $75; in 1937 (colored), $3,700. TIME did not charge Central Union Trust Co. (now Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co.) for the reprint of their Vol. 1, No. 1 ad.--ED.
Braying Bagpipes
Sirs:
Belatedly, I observe in your magazine of Nov. 1, 1937 . . . "[the valuables] to be seized by the skirt-wearing Black Watch and carried off to the braying of bagpipes." Sir, bagpipes don't bray, they skirl. . . .
Or is it that you want to give offense to a gallant, intelligent, industrious, honest, peace loving, generous though thrifty race of men, women and children?
D. P. MACGREGOR
Dacca District
East Bengal, India
To TIME'S ears, bagpipes not only skirl but bray and drone.--ED.
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