LETTERS
"70,000 Excellent Prospects"
Sirs:
Why waste eight and one-half square inches of space in your valuable magazine every week on a coupon which only your newsstand buyers can use ? I refer to the Circulation Manager's subscription order coupon.
Why not give your regular subscribers a chance to send you the names of their friends who should subscribe for TIME? If only 50% of your readers sent you one name each, you would have a list of over 70,000 excellent prospects. Surely half of them would subscribe if properly urged.
Enclosed is a list of five for a starter. If you want, you may mention my name in writing to them.
ROBERT Z. CHAUCER
New York. N. Y.
Let Original Subscriber Chaucer note well the coupon below.--ED. Checkers Praised
Sirs: Concerning the letter of Mr. Newell W. Banks (TIME, April 25) wherein Mr. Banks offers his services in conducting a checker column, let me say that I believe it would be a very fine thing for your readers--a far better thing for them than most of them realize. Several years ago Mr. Banks played against Robert Stewart (in Scotland) for the championship of the world: Mr. Stewart won by two wins to one--with 47 drawn games. . . . I realize . . . that your mail will not be likely to bring you a very favorable reaction to the proposition. The ability of Mr. Banks, as our foremost match player, as a player and analyst of international fame and as an editor has long been established. Chess is more widely played than checkers. I believe. It is more complex and outwardly spectacular, but is by no manner of means even approximately as scientific. Every position in checkers is a problem in pure mathematics. As one who has (in 1906) worked in the upper reaches of differential and integral calculus, and who has also spent many years (not recently) in the study of checkers and in original analysis of published match and tournament games, I may be privileged to speak on this phase. Curiously enough, chess has been almost wholly the choice of the intelligensia (real and fancied) and has been given, of course, widest publicity by the press. Again, the game of chess has enjoyed the favor, as a rule, of those who possessed rather more of this world's (material) goods. Perhaps Mr. Banks can approach an explanation of this: he is the best chess player in this country--and perhaps in the world--among the few real masters of checkers. Checkers has been given, by the vast army of the uninformed, en aura of most ordinary simplicity--something to be patronizingly smiled upon by those whose assumption of superiority varies directly as their utter ignorance of what the game really is. To most persons, not particularly those in custodial care, the game of checkers is a more or less dull affair, in which one should: 1) try to take two for one or three for two; 2) try to cement the opposing forces in such manner that one's opponent is physically unable to make a move (calomel and dynamite to the contrary, not withstanding), etc., etc. ad nauseam. Some of the innocents think that they should, regardless, set up a strong position in the centre, or that under no circumstances should they break their own king row. . . . DR. DONALD M. GILDERSLEEVE
New York, N. Y.
Beware
Sirs: Would reply to letter you printed (TIME, April 25) whereby Champion Checker-player Banks desires to write a column on his hobby for TIME. Is it feasible in such a publication as yours ? I think not, absolutely and positively do I answer in the negative. No! If you start one, there is apt to be a deluge of requests for further. What of philately--stamp collecting--of which King George V is one of the leading collectors ? . . . There are many and varied other columns that might be conducted, AND, I think, other columns which WOULD be more attractive to your subscribers than checkers. There are others of more universal interest. Beware, then, if you include a checker column. . . . No checker column! MONTGOMERY MULFORD
Buffalo, N. Y.
No Checkers
Sirs:
No Sirs! We don't want any checker column in TIME. We have enough of that stuff in the local dailies. Bridge, Mah Jong, and all that other junk is pestering people to death. TIME has boasted of being a "Newsmagazine" and it is. Therefore keep it so. That is what I keep TIME for: NEWS, REAL NEWS ! I for one value TIME for its terse, crisp news.
If you are to inject into your "Newsmagazine" all the stuff that some of these amusement maniacs crave for. then you may keep your magazine to yourself, as far as I and a large number of like-minded are concerned.
B. G. HOLMES
Grove City, Minn.
Was Jesting
Sirs:
Mr. Banks' offer to conduct a checker column in TIME is one which I wish you would accept. . . .
Mr. Banks, as you know, edits a checker magazine himself. I rather think he was jesting with you. He is the ace of checker players--in the U. S. A. at least. C. B. BENNETT
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Will Deviate
Sirs:
... If TIME adopts a checker column I will have to deviate from the practice of reading your newsmagazine from cover to cover as I did when you printed the game of questions.
JOHN H. HAMILTON
Chicago, Ill.
Anti-Checker
Sirs: Let us have no checker column.
HAMILTON VOSE JR.
Chicago, Ill.
Total letters received in favor of a checker column: 21. Total letters received opposed to checker column: 102. There will be no checker column.--ED.
Robinn's Egg
Sirs: Hooray! Hooroo! I see that elderly biped, Mary Elizabeth Robinn, has presented you [TIME, May 2] with another ROBINN'S EGG--that's what our family call her letters knocking the Prince of Wales. . . . I guess all she wants is to get her letters printed in TIME. . . . CUTLER Fox
Hoboken, N. J.
Fully 50% of the letters received by TIME from Subscriber Mary Elizabeth Robinn are marked: "Confidential. NOT for publication."--ED.
Not Only By Lipton
Sirs:
A friend of mine sent me a copy of TIME, April 18, and I found it very interesting. Going through it, I noticed some amusing references about myself, which, by the way, I appreciate--candor has always been a characteristic of mind, as it is of your admirable little journal. But unfortunately, you made one mistake. (You probably will say, that is not many.) The mistake is, that my chief employed is Sir Thomas Lipton. I have a great admiration for Sir Thomas Lipton, He is a very good friend of mine, but he is not my employer and I have nothing to do with him. The client for whom I visit the United States every year is the Indian Tea Association of London which represents all the growers of Indian Tea. I am sure you will not mind making this correction in your paper because the tea which I try to encourage the people of this country to drink is packed not only by Lipton, but by Tetley, Salada, McCormick, Atlantic & Pacific, American Stores, Tao and every leading packer of tea. If you will be so kind as to ask your business office to start sending me your paper to Sir Charles Higham, Imperial House, Kingsway, London, England A check for six guineas will be sent by post to this country. Kindly address me personally. C. F. HIGHAM
Ritz-Carlton Hotel, New York, N. Y.
Theft
Sirs:
My copy had just arrived. I entered my office and observed that the gentleman (from Detroit) was perusing your worthy and famed newsmagazine. He placed it in his pocket and left, as I thought, to read further in another part of the building. To date my copy of TIME, April 18, is still missing. . . .
FISHER H. PEARSON JR.
Boston, Mass.
No Dung Flung
Sirs:
As an enthusiastic reader of your magazine I wish to take this opportunity of correcting an error in TIME, Feb. 7. On p. 10 of that issue there appears an item, concerning "one Butterick, at Hankow. Chinese flung at him pots of dung."
This lurid statement has caused great mortification to the many readers of your magazine in Hankow, as well as to the said Butterick, who is made the subject of such unfortunate publicity. It cannot be denied that there exists an ample supply of this form of ammunition in this turbulent metropolis but it is not a fact that dung was flung at the gentleman in question. I was present in Hankow during the hectic days of early January and therefore am able to testify that I personally was not aware that dung was flung, and can also aver that Butterick was not the object of such an hostile manifestation of the disfavor of the multitude.
It is true that one American in Hankow was spat upon during the troublous times in January, and it is possible that your reporter has erred in confusing this incident with the one recorded in your journal. But, although there is no doubt an implied insult in the act of expectoration upon one's person, yet surely this is a matter less grave than the flinging of dung, at least so far as the recipient is concerned.
It would, therefore, be greatly appreciated if, in the general interest of truth, you would publish a retractment of your statement and would admonish the writer thereof, who I must conclude, was led by his flair for the humorous to bring up thusly the ancient oriental question of "Hu flung dung."
JOSEPH BUSH
Hankow, China.
TIME, meticulous, chronicled exactly the discomfiture of Mr. Butterick, as cabled in despatches, suppressing, however, certain additional and revolting details. To the correspondent responsible for this despatch a thoroughgoing rebuke. -- ED. Pox
Sirs:
A pox on TIME for omitting [TIME, April 25] to mention Baltimore among the cities being visited by the Metropolitan Opera.
Washington, Atlanta and Cleveland aren't likely to show as much appreciation of grand opera as Baltimore has just shown. The audiences went wild. I hear that in Cleveland only the foreign born and the nouveau riche go to the opera.
J. J. PARKER
Baltimore, Md.
Cleveland has 69.2% foreign born or with foreign born parents. -- ED. Actual Sirs:
The picture Forbes published of Henry Ford which you described [TIME, April 18] as "a caricature" and commented on, was an actual photograph of Mr. Ford.
I know TIME desires to be strictly accurate.
B. C. FORBES
New York, N. Y.
Said TIME of this photograph: "And he [B. C. Forbes] illustrated the article with a caricature of Mr. Ford 'shown dressed as a gentleman of 1860 driving a typical vehicle of that period.' The 'Henry Ford' of the picture has a big ear, sidewhiskers, mustache, horseteeth, a head far too large for his high hat, and braided pants." To Mr. Forbes, an apology. -- ED. Too Fine Sirs:
I have just received my first copy of TIME and am sorry to say I am much disappointed because it is chiefly advertisement. The information is given in such fine type that I cannot read it.
Please do not send it any more. ...
R. J. CRAWFORD
Mount Clemens, Mich.
Too Terse
Sirs:
. . . Please discontinue my subscription.
Too terse.
Too jazzy.
Too much advertisement.
G. P. NETHERLY
Secretary, Little Fork Valley Agricultural Ass'n. Cook, Minn.
Too Bulky
Sirs:
. . . TIME is becoming too bulky. Too much space is given to advertising -- and some of this is or should be below your standard. If you must so garble what we choose to read, why not -- at least in part _ compensate by reducing the subscription price ? D. JEROME FISHER
Chicago, Ill.
No Pleasure
Sirs:
I have just received the second copy of your magazine TIME. I find no pleasure in it. I also resent your spirit of the "wide-mouthed Southern Negro," since you do not know them as I do. Please find enclosed $.30, the price of the two copies and take my name from your mailing list and oblige. J. W. FAUT
Council Bluffs, Iowa
Hoof
Sirs, Your attitude on the Ford-Sapiro trial shows biased opinions and for this reason cancel my subscription. I perceive the cloven hoof of the Ford-Lincoln Motor Co.
FRANKFORD DRUG STORE
Philadelphia, Pa.
Good News
Sirs:
Thanks for reminding me that my subscription is about to expire. Inasmuch as I have lost track of this situation, here's a piece of good news. Kindly discontinue the magazine as I have no children young enough to appreciate it.
ROSS WILLIAMS
Cincinnati, Ohio
Anti-Red
Sirs:
As a charter subscriber to TIME, may I suggest, as others have done, that you eliminate the RED from its covers? Plain black and white with a little etching on borders would give the magazine a better and a more dignified appearance.
REV. W. FRANK GRYCE
Brooklyn, N. Y.
Readers
Sirs:
Newsstand-buyers are standbys, not stand by'ers.
The reader who, like myself, asks for TIME at many a newsstand is a walking delegate for your magazine, one of its best advertisements.
Therefore, please refrain from the slightly tainted title "Newsstand-buyer" ; eschew it; it irks. Let TIME call subscribers Subscribers ; others, Readers.
My vote is No on the suggested Checker column.
JOHN O'HARA
Pottsville, Pa.
Sharp Steel
Sirs:
I gather from the report of the Hockey games between the Boston Bruins and the Ottawa Senators, in your SPORTS column, TIME, April 25, that sharp steel cut deep in glaring ice as agile sinews swung hooked stick at elusive puck and that the games were marked with aggressiveness, roughness on both sides. If I have misread your article, please inform me.
W. C. WARREN
Boston, Mass.