To an Ivory Tower

Sirs:

Please note that I have canceled my subscription to TIME. Reason is not because of the news it prints or its point of view, for it prints what news there is, but because of the news it has to print. . . . Where is the civilization of which we boast? If a man who is tired of hearing of death and planned murder is stupid, Lord! let me be d--d stupid. If a man who feels that he does not know how to help mankind out of the cesspool it is now in, and admits it, is a moron, I admit of no defense. Once I deplored the stupidity of the ivory-tower artists; there I made a mistake. Ivory towers may fall and the occupants may be crushed, but who would not choose to be crushed rather than to swelter in a stinking cesspool.

ARTHUR FREAS NICHOLSON

Hanover, Pa.

P.S. Please understand that I do not wish to imply that TIME is responsible for the stinking cesspool, but it does help pass the odor.

P.P.S. For the next few years I shall confine my reading to The Earthly Paradise, Maud and The Princess. They stink too but the odor is so, so pretty.

> TIME wishes ex-Reader Nicholson well during his intellectual hibernation. It recommends that he also read Black Beauty, The Swiss Family Robinson, The Winning of Barbara Worth.--Ed.

Minus Fours

Sirs:

To one who depended upon TIME for accurate world news during the 15 years he was in Thailand, it was very shocking to see it describe (Dec. 30) the keen young son of the Thai Minister in Washington as being an "elegant figure in silken plus fours."

First, how could any one be elegant in a pair of those inelegant, nondescript, outmoded golf trousers? I ask you.

Second, Master Usni was wearing the national lower garment of the Thai people, a panung. It is worn by both men and women and is a piece of silk or other material about one by three yards. It is put on in such a manner that it does somewhat resemble trousers. But plus fours! No, TIME, no.

A. G. ELLIS, M.D.

Colorado Springs, Colo.

Mild Males

Sirs:

In TIME, Dec. 30 ... Dr. Adolf Schultz is quoted as saying that if two male gorillas were placed together there would be "one hell of a fight."

For the information of the good doctor let me say that two male gorillas have lived together as pals for nearly ten years in the Zoological Gardens ... of San Diego, Calif. Last May the larger of them weighed 602 lb. and the smaller 539 lb. Upon their arrival at the "Zoo" one weighed 122 lb. and the other 147 lb. . . .

These huge creatures are mild of manner and affectionate of disposition. They were brought to America by the famous African explorers Martin and Osa Johnson, and have been kept in San Diego because they can lead a healthful outdoor life the year round. . . .

R. C. ROSE

San Diego, Calif.

> Saluting San Diego's male gorillas for their sunny dispositions, TIME nevertheless suspects that if they had been first introduced when full-grown, there would have been one hell of a fight.--ED.

People Fooled?

Sirs:

This country is preparing not for the possibility of war, but for war itself within a very short time. Every statement out of Washington from official sources has two purposes: 1) to create in the minds of Americans the belief that war is inevitable, and 2) to offend a German Government which, compared to ours, has been neutral in its attitude towards the U. S.

Further, such proposals as lending Great Britain arms and half our navy, making it legal for American ships to convoy British merchantmen, and the declaration of an unlimited national emergency are timeworn steps to war.

This I cannot help but believe the Administration and "all-possible-aid-to-Britain" advocates know. But I submit that the people of the United States are being fooled into thinking these are precautions to keep us out of war. . . .

DAVID P. FERRISS

Clayton, Mo.

Gardens Messed Up?

Sirs:

. . . Let me state that I favor helping Britain--all the way--not selling--not loaning --not just giving but if necessary by going all the way to war if Britain's winning means saving our way of life.

I have always believed that it is better to fight our battles off our shores or on foreign soil rather than to fight in our front yard and have our own flower gardens messed up. . . .

If we are willing to help with money, supplies and ships it must be because we think it is necessary to our security to do so. If this help does not do the trick, then what? No men? Plenty ships and guns but no men? Why? . . .

JACK L. FLETCHER

U. S. N. R. F. MM2 (World War I)

Port Lavaca, Tex.

Batch of Lies

Sirs:

. . . Hitler, in his fondest dreams, could not hope to reach TIME'S audience with his batch of lies that his own people must swallow.

I call the translation of his speech in TIME [Dec. 23] the height of foolish liberality.

BETTY SAWYER

Boston, Mass.

> When Baron Munchausen lies, it is literature; when Chancellor Hitler lies, it is news.--ED.

Linguistic Coincidence

Sirs:

. . . For my own curiosity ... I am venturing ... to ask the meaning and history of the word "prattfalling" as used in article on music, in reference to the Metropolitan Opera "prattfalling between two stools" (TIME, Dec. 30).

SARAH A. PRATT

Bath, N. Y.

> Lexicographers say that the word pratt (or prat) has been, since the mid-16th Century, a slang or underworld cant word which refers to the fundament or backside. Let not Reader Pratt and other worthy Pratts (there are 16 eminent Pratts, from Bela to Zadok, in the Dictionary of American Biography] be disturbed by a pure linguistic coincidence.--ED.

Extraction

Sirs:

I honestly feel that news of the Duchess is getting to the point where it is a little boresome to some of her ex-countrymen . . . but . . . TIME errs in saying the tooth was "pulled." A tooth is never "pulled"; it is always extracted. Pulling any object, especially a tooth, means exerting a force in any one given direction. Try it on a tooth some time. Extraction of teeth involves traction, rotation, leverage or pressure all in a series of movements with one or two hands, both feet, and sometimes even a knee or two.

HAZEN P. STREIT, DD.S.

Detroit, Mich.

Christmas in Greece

Sirs:

Your statement in the Dec. 16 issue that the Greeks, following their Church's calendar will celebrate Christmas on January 6, is based on misinformation.

Some years back, I do not know the exact date, the Greek Church adopted the Gregorian calendar and Greek people now celebrate all their holidays in accordance with that calendar. The only exception is Easter. . . .

PENELOPE PAVLATOS

Chicago, Ill.

> Right is Reader Pavlatos. In 1932 the Greek Government, after meeting recalcitrance, forced its Church to change Christmas from Jan. 6 to Dec. 25. The Greek Orthodox Church in the U. S. clings to Jan. 6.--ED.

Impractical Politics

Sirs:

Would you please enlighten me on the following point: Under the Constitution, can the President and the Vice President both be from the same State?

All I can discover in [the Constitutional provisions] is that electors shall vote for both President and Vice President, not more than one of whom shall be from the same State in which they reside. So it appears to me that the matter is open for argument, unless some interpretation has previously been made. . . .

F. P. DOERFLER

Superintendent

Cascade Public Schools

Cascade, Idaho

> The Constitution means that the electors of any State cannot vote for a President and Vice President both of whom live in the same State as the electors. Thus, in the last election, the New York electors could not have voted for a Willkie-Dewey ticket, or for a Roosevelt-Bob Jackson ticket.

But the electors of all other States could have voted for such tickets. So, technically, the Constitution does not prevent the election of a President and Vice President from the same State.

Practical politics does. The major political parties always spread their appeal by naming candidates from different parts of the nation.--ED.

Defense Stamps

Sirs:

I would like to suggest . . . ways and means of enabling the common people of this country to contribute to the national defense. Out in this country everybody seems willing to do his share but all we hear from Washington is how to raise money by taxation.

In face of this, the newspapers convey word that the 20,000 employes of Lockheed Aircraft Corp. in California, from their own pockets, raised the money to build a bomber for the British Government. Why can not the common people of this country be ... given a chance in their own way and with their own means and savings to contribute their share to the defense of this country?

Why . . . not ... a National Defense Fund, selling Government stamps in different denominations from 10-c- up? When a stamp sheet is turned in filled out, have the Government give a certificate of merit for the sheet, one form for $10, one form for $50 and one form for $100, no Government obligation to be given for the stamps but simply the certificate of good service or citizenship. . . .

S. G. MCMULLIN

Grand Junction, Colo.

Old Spanish Custom

Sirs:

Proving there's nothing new under the sun is TIME'S reference (Dec. 30) to experiments of Dr. Robert Marshall Stephan with urea to combat tooth decay. Gaius Valerius Catullus, about 2,000 years ago, wrote: (Ad Egnatius, Canto XXXIX) ". . .We know the Spanish custom, how Spaniards clean their teeth and scour their gums with the same water that issues from their bladders. ... If your teeth are clean, we know how you have used your urine."

LESLIE LLEWELLYN LEWIS

Chicago, Ill.

> Fortunately for moderns, Dr. Stephan's urea crystals--not yet exhaustively tested--are made synthetically, have no unpleasant taste.--ED.

"Tsk, Tsk--"

Sirs:

Not "late" (TIME, Dec. 30) but better than ever is 21-year-young College Humor Magazine, on sale at newsstands everywhere, at new reduced price of 10-c-, in new, enlarged picture-magazine-size format. . . .

Tsk, tsk!

ROBERT A. PINES,

Editor

College Humor

New York City

> Circulation of live & kicking College Humor: 90,111.--ED.

Best Diplomat

Sirs: The American sailor is without a doubt the best diplomat the United States could dispatch to a foreign land. With his knack for mixing with people, the gob has numerous advantages over the silk-hat representative of the State Department.

Although a commonwealth under American protection, the Philippines afford an example. The remotest grass shack districts in the islands are often frequented by sailors. These men in blue and white are helping to win the confidence and mutual respect of the natives. They are up to par with the best of the Ambassadors when it comes to spreading American good will abroad.

It is our sincere wish that you help smash the illusion that the sailor's sphere of action embraces only swabbing of decks and hoisting mugs ol beer. . . .

EMORY E. MURPHY,

Radioman, Third Class

United States Asiatic Fleet

U.S.S. J. D. Edwards (DD216)

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.