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. )
Quote
Sirs:
You had better send a copy of TIME to H. G. Wells. I quote from page 604, of The World of William Clissold.
"I do not know enough of the American press to say whether there is any periodical at all over there, daily or weekly, which gives as competent a digest of the general news as Nature does of scientific happenings."
WM. LYON PHELPS Yale University New Haven, Conn.
Ultra-Violet
Sirs:
I was very much interested in your article [TIME, Oct. 18] concerning the experiments using ultraviolet transmitting glass conducted in English public schools. The laboratories of Corning Glass Works have recently announced the development of a glass of this type possessing qualities of ultraviolet transmission comparing favorably with fused quartz. . . .
R. F. MERRICK Manager Advertising Department Corning Glass Works Corning, N. Y.
Sirs:
Cleveland schools experimented with quartz windows (TIME, Oct. 18) with good effect upon the health of favored pupils as compared to those of schools where windows were of glass.
Will your editors, well informed, infallible, please provide your subscriber with any available data on quartz, its sources, its preparation for window use, where it may be obtained, how ? . . .
GODFREY WILLOUGHBY The Milwaukee Sentinel Milwaukee, Wis.
Other subscribers interested in ultraviolet glass may consult SCIENCE, this number.--ED.
Sirs:
Lately I have noticed your latest "smart" innovation, "The Cream." I have only admired your publication spasmodically in the past and now I think even less of it. What's the idea? Do you suppose anybody cares a "Whoop" what books your smart aleck book editor considers "the cream of the season's books"? There never has been a magazine that could get away with that sort of stuff.
Do you think any decent person will applaud your recommending such an utterly baseless book as "Jesus: A Myth"? I should turn that title into an exclamation about the book itself! I've read "Her Son's Wife" and "A Manifest Destiny" too, and honest, I simply can't see how your minds work to think these are "good books." Just out of curiosity I think I'll try a couple of others, shutting my eyes to choose. I predict not one in three is any good, but it so happens I now have time to waste in foolish experiments like this. . . . NATHAN PEEBLES Chicago, Ill.
Booster-Readers
Sirs:
I note in TIME, October 11, p. 35, under SPORT, "Eleven maroon-sweatered rakehells" referring to the University of Chicago football team. I presume your sport writer thought he was being clever, but it is just such blotches as this on the face of your otherwise fair paper that make booster-readers writhe. . . .
LEROY W. MARTIN
Inglewood, Calif.
Just Deserts Sirs:
I am glad to see our own South so well represented in your Sport section, TIME, Oct. 18, and will be your hearty supporter, until we fail to get our just deserts.
CHAS. M. WOOD Executive Committee Washington and Lee University Lexington, Va.
Strange Pass
Sirs:
Kindly forbear to forward me another copy of your unspeakably illiterate and muckraking sheet, which to my mind even "out-Klans" the Klan and similar sheets.
We certainly have come to a strange pass in history when the wonderful possibilities for uplift of the human race can legally be so prostituted.
No more--please--
I hope you will not fail in this.
MARGARET PRIOR Los Angeles, Calif.
Bulk Flayed
Sirs:
I agree with Subscriber Cain, TIME, Oct. 4, p. 6, that 85 is an outrageous price for TIME, but please let us pay that price if the alternative is a bigger, fatter magazine, padded out with advertisements. I'd like to pay $2, but not if we would then have a paper a la Satevepost.
Far better keep it as it is, thin and full of the choicest meat. We can get all the bulk we want elsewhere. While I can't say that TIME is perfect, why should I expect it to be made to suit my personal tastes? You strike a good average.
E. L. SECHRIST United States Department of Agriculture Bureau of Entomology Washington, D. C.
Soak! Poke!
Sirs:
. . . Soak the mossbacks, poke the thinskins, ridicule the stuck-ups but don't let my subscription lapse. I'm seriously considering dispensing with the daily papers.
L. A. FLICKINGER Hartford Fire Insurance Co. Detroit, Mich.
Sometimes Annoyed
Sirs:
. . . Although I am sometimes annoyed at your cocksure superciliousness, don't change it, please. . . .
E. J. M. BERG
San Antonio, Tex.
Comedie Humaine
Sirs:
I wish here to express my admiration for this weekly news periodical. The LETTERS section is a veritable "Comedie humaine." I disagree thoroughly with all of your critics; 1 enjoy your language and the manner of most all your "write-ups." The report of the Florida disaster was tremendously effective: "midnight rain came softly pattering like children's footsteps" is fine; "People drowned like trapped puppies to the frivolous dirge of tinkling glass" ; "creatures crept--pawed dazedly--sought kin-bodies"--what a picture! Desolation ; and then "ghouls peered about, tampered with corpses." And so on. I do not mind "famed" or "as everyone knows"; the footnotes are all right; I get a kick out of POINT WITH PRIDE and VIEW WITH ALARM also Quiz. Why are people so solemn ! Can't they get the whimsical bantering between the lines ?
FRANK L. REED University Conservatory of Music Austin, Tex.
Correction
Sirs:
May I make a little correction? Under heading "Tuberculosis," TIME, Oct. 18, p. 17, I saw this:
"They (Bacillus tuberculosis) take rides on the invisible droplets that each human exhales as he breathes."
Unless it has been proven to the contrary in the last few months (and I would like to know your authority if it has) no bacillus tuberculosis is ever exhaled in normal breathing. I would suggest the following as being more accurate:
"They take rides in the millions of tiny droplets that are sprayed from the mouth or nose when people cough, sneeze, laugh, sing or talk in a forcible manner. Scientific experiment has proven that droplets may be carried by air currents from a room downstairs to a room upstairs. Thus 'droplet infection.' "
Also, droplets are not invisible. I have seen, them often. Watch any person sneeze. . . you will see droplets. Perhaps the smaller ones can't be seen but enough can be seen to make the statement "invisible droplets" somewhat inaccurate. . . .
F. T. MUDD
Falls City, Neb.
"Roman Catholic"
Sirs:
... I appreciate TIME very much and chiefly on account of its precision. It endeavors to be very accurate in giving things their right names. To live up to this policy, would it not be advisable to call from now on the former "Roman Catholic Church" just the "Catholic Church," which, after all, is its right name. I beg to refer you to the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XIII, Roman Catholic.
If you should confer, on this question, with catholic Clergy or Laity, you will discover that my attitude is correct.
J. P. T. HOLSMER Pastor St. Francis De Sales Church Beckley, W. Va.
After the Reformation the Church of Rome or Roman Catholic Church asserted its exclusive right to the title "Catholic Church," but this right has not been recognized by the reformed churches, especially those of the Anglican Communion.--ED.
Locatelli First
Sirs:
May I make a correction ?
In TIME, October 11, under AERONAUTICS it is stated that Lieutenant Castro of Chile was the first of all flyers to cross the Andes.--In reality the first man to do this feat was Lieutenant Antonio Locatelli-- Aug. 1919, of the Italian Aviation Corps.
This correction is made with all due honor to those who attempted, failed and perished, as well as to those who succeeded, Antonio Locatelli, Lieutenant Castro and our own Lieutenant James H. Doolittle respectively.
J. F. BOTTOFF
Fort Wayne, Ind,