Herewith are excerpts from, letters come to the desks of the editors during the past week. They are selected primarily for the information they contain either supplementary to, or corrective of, news previously published in TIME.
"Asinine Letters"
Sirs:
I am thankful that I subscribed to TIME last year. ... I find that two hours a week devoted to TIME does me a lot more good than the famous "fifteen minutes a day." And, though TIME may have faults, I cannot see how people can write such asinine letters as you print. . . .
WM. J. TURNER
State College, Pa.
Fault Finder Flayed
Sirs:
In your issue of Oct. 19, under the heading LETTERS, there is a communication from a Mr. Edwards that is not very complimentary to TIME. I quote from his letter: "... why affront we Southerners. . ." The misusage of the pronoun "we" is painfully apparent to one who recalls his elementary grammar.
W. VINCENT
Chicago, Ill.
Thromboplastin
Sirs:
Under the section of MEDICINE, Oct. 19, Page 34, you list several mistakes made by the press. In the next column in discussing hemophilia, notice you have a mistake in spelling "thromboplastin.". .
Think you have a wonderful paper and enjoy it very much, even though you make a mistake once in a while similar to the ordinary press.
B. W. BAYLESS, M. D.
Louisville, Ky.
"Modest, Cheerful, Spunky"
Sirs:
I cannot refrain from saying something to those parties who seem to be so exercised over your reference to Negroes as "Mr." I think that 1 am well qualified to speak a word on this subject as my folks have lived in the South since the year one, and I consider myself just as "genuine'' a Southerner as any of the "professionals" that live in New York, Texas or elsewhere. My father fought the Yankees for four years and I was nearly grown before I knew that "Damyankee" was two words. Moreover, I am somewhat unreconstructed as yet; I don't believe that Abraham Lincoln was the greatest man in the world and I believe in state rights; in fact I have an idea that I feel about Lincoln and the things we went to war about, just what my father felt back in the sixties.
But honestly I can't see why anyone should begrudge Negroes the very small amount of honorable mention they receive. If a Negro is entitled to have his name appear in TIME, he is at the same time entitled to be referred to as "Mr.," and why any fair-minded man should object is beyond me.
Most of the Negroes I know are farm and saw mill hands; hence I don't call them "Mr."--neither would I were they white hands. But I know a good number of Negro doctors and all of us say "Good morning, Dr. Howard," and "Good evening, Prof. Battle."
Several years ago I attended an Episcopal Council in Vicksburg, Miss. Bishop Bratton presided and in presenting the Negro clergyman present said, "My dear friends, I have great pleasure in presenting the Rev. Mr. Middleton and the Rev. Mr. Booth." Later we went over to the Negro school, and the Bishop said, "I want you gentlemen to meet Mrs. Middleton, the wife of our Arch-deacon." All of us shook hands and had a word with these Negroes, and none of us dropped dead or felt disgraced in the least.
When I was a boy I played with Negroes, hunted and fished with them and have worked them all my life. I naturally know them and frankly admit that I am fond of them. In the main they are good-natured and ready and willing to respond to any generosity shown them. They will leave their own, day and night, to accomodate a white man, and seldom think of what they are to receive. All they ask is a little kindness and they don't even demand that.
Whenever I see one that has got up in the world, I glory in his spunk and wish him well. I am sure there is room for us all and I don't think your reference to any man as "Mr." is going to turn his head. R. F. DARRAH
Meridian, Miss.
Feels Guilty
Sirs:
I am located at a reservation some miles from a town, and there is no regularity about receiving mail or daily papers here. Since I became acquainted with TIME I no longer care whether I get the "dailies" at all. TIME is the greatest publication I have ever subscribed for. I feel a bit guilty, for I have been sharing my copies of TIME all along with my intimate associates and even guests. However, I am sure that many of them will eventually become subscribers.
The "letters from subscribers" which you publish always interest me. I wonder if those who are affronted by your policy of using "Mr." without regard for color, would not do well to study our President's Omaha address? I am greatly pleased at your policy of "the open mind" ; your readiness to take suggestions when they are of value; your willingness to apologize when an apology is due; your acknowledgment of error whenever error has been made. Yours is a policy of tolerance and, as President Coolidge says it should be, "with respect for different kinds of good.'
G. H. KNOWLES
North Woodstock, N. H,
"Gough Square"
Sirs:
I've read, with a great deal of interest, your book review on The Greatest Book in the World in TIME for Oct. 5, Page 17.
While I cannot be classed as a Johnsonian or even a Boswellian, I do know that "the Ghost of Gough Street" should read "the Ghost of Gough Square."
C. W. DREPPERD
Lancaster, Pa.
A careless error by a drowsy reviewer. Gough "Square" it is. Moreover, "Ghost" should have been plural. Besides the Great Lexicographer's, the essay conjures shades of Robert Levett, "humble practitioner of physic," who lived with Johnson, blind Mrs. Williams, courtly Sir Joshua Reynolds, David Garrick and " a curious-looking man . . . can that be Oliver Goldsmith?"--ED. Credit to Jason Lee
Sirs:
In your issue of Sept. 21, Page 9, Column 1, under the title WOMEN you state that the Rev. Orcenith Fisher founded the Methodist Church in Oregon, and by implication you fix the date of his achievement between the years of 1857 and 1872. This is wholly erroneous. . .
It will be a great intellectual shock to thousands of Oregonians to have Jason Lee. that early Methodist Missionary who took such a leading part in saving the Oregon Country to the U. S. by his famous ride across the Continent, so lightly brushed aside. It was Jason Lee and his associates who founded the Methodist Church in Oregon, and they did it almost 30 years earlier than the date you fix--while Mrs. Fisher and her illustrious husband were "hardly out of swaddling clothes". . . .
With this heroic achievement the Rev. Mr. Fisher had nothing to do, whatever laurels he may have won in Texas. Because of the prominent part played by Jason Lee in the early history of the Oregon Country, I believe you will feel that this error deserves correction.
[MRS.] HARRY G. MCCAIN
Cordova, Alaska.
Lideen of Iowa
Sirs:
"Last spring one Clifford Liddeen, in absentia in Texas, received his degree." I quote from the paragraph (Radio Colleges) on Page 27 of the Oct. 12 issue of TIME.
For the sake of countless epigrams on accuracy, veracity, constancy, . . . permit me to report that his name is spelled Lideen and that he has spent the greater part of the last three years in a wheel chair in Burlington, Iowa--not Texas.
P. B. HAYZLETT
Burlington, Iowa.
Reos
Sirs:
We were quite interested in looking over a recent issue of your excellent publication, and we noted with particular interest and considerable regret that in your article on the subject of Motor Busses and Commercial Vehicles you failed to mention Reo any place, although you listed "The First Four of Importance in Bus Manufacture."
You may be interested to know that this article, which appeared in the Sept. 14 issue on Page 28, was entirely inaccurate, because if you presume to list the four leading Bus Companies, Reo should be one of them, and you have mentioned the names of International, Mack, White and Pierce Arrow.
According to the official N. A. C. C, figures, in 1924 the Reo Motor Car Co. sold more chassis equipped with bus bodies than any other manufacturer and also sold more truck chassis than any of the companies referred to. Reo was the first company to develop speed on commercial transportation and the Reo Speed Wagon is the pioneer of fast freight delivery.
In our Bus factory here in Lansing, Reo is building a strictly bus chassis designed and built particularly for passenger-carrying work, and surely we are entitled to be in the role of leading bus manu- facturers.
Please don't think that we are fussy or overexacting, but we want to assure you that we hold your publication in the highest esteem and in the interest of truthfulness and accuracy. . . .
H. J. DE HART Advertising Manager
Lansing, Mich.