S. T. M.
Sirs:
Ministers always hope that in time they will receive another degree. In the issue of Jan. 23 I did. Thanks.
When the privilege was given me in 1916 of attaching the letters S. T. M. to my name, there was some discussion at the Newton Theological Institution as to whether they meant Master of Sacred Theology or Master of Systematic Theology. I just looked up the diploma and find that it says Sacrae Theologiae Magister, but I wonder why the "sacrae." Isn't all theology sacred, or supposed to be? I vastly prefer your interpretation of the mystic initials as Master of Scientific Theology. Now if you will only change my useless B. D. (Bachelor of Divinity) to mean Darwin Booster, in recognition of my pro-evolution activities, my debt will be double.
CHARLES FRANCIS POTTER
The Church of the Divine Paternity,
New York, N. Y.
Midnight, Feb. 19
Sirs:
Your astrology a la Zodiac (p. 22, Jan. 30 issue) interests me. I note:
"Taurus. Unimaginative, conservative creatures of habit. Under this sign were born . . . Sir James M. Barrie, W. G. Marconi, . . . William Shakespeare."
"Gemini. Try to walk in two directions at once . . . Douglas Fairbanks." Yes, quite; but "the late Queen Victoria''?
"Leo. The spirit of Kiwanis and early baldness . . . Percy Bysshe Shelley." What causes that?
Please let Will Rogers comment on Scorpio's fate. Anyway, I note that by being born at 12 p. m. Feb. 19 I just made Charles Darwin's star and missed W. J. Bryan's by a comet's hair. Whew.
Yours for the Hall of Fame.
AQUERIUS SIDNEY JONES Cambridge, Mass.
"Chinaman"
Sirs:
The word Chinaman is not only quite incorrect but very offensive to the Chinese. One does not refer to an Englandman, and Americaman. So why a Chinaman?
I have had considerable dealings with Chinese of all classes and I know whereof I speak.
PATRICK HENRY Chicago, Ill.
Webster's New International disparages the "obsolete, rare or English" sense in which "Chinaman" means "a dealer in porcelain," but fully authorizes the meaning "a Chinese," in which sense alone "Chinaman" is occasionally used by TIME.
--ED.
About Mayors
Sirs: As to Daniel Webster Hoan to whom you refer as Milwaukee's "three term mayor" (TIME, Jan. 13) -- Mr. Hoan was elected City Attorney in 1910, re-elected City Attorney in 1914, elected Mayor in 1916, in 1918, in 1920, in 1924. Thus he is a four term mayor and a candidate for a fifth term. (The term was lengthened from two to four years in 1919.) This is exceptional. Congressmen, United States Senators, may be re-elected many, many times -- but they are far removed from streets, alleys, ashes, garbage, sewage; all of which may be intimately irritating to voters. Mayors, consequently, are usually short-lived--politically at least. This is particularly true in large cities where even King George can be restored to life so that a fairly efficient administration may be terminated. THOMAS M. DUNCAN
Wisconsin Legislature,
Assembly Chamber,
Madison, Wis.
Colored Stones
Sirs: That writeup about Senator ("Tom Tom") Heflin was a gem--one of the best things you have ever done.
There was one fact about Heflin you forgot to mention, however, namely his ability to tell colored stories. As Will Rogers says: If the Senator, instead of spouting about Al Smith and the Catholics, would confine himself to telling colored stories, he would then be really doing something worthwhile.
ROBERT F. MILLER
Philadelphia, Pa.
Like Carlyle, Not Gibbon
Sirs:
The February 6 issue of TIME contains a letter from a student at Tufts College stating that a professor in a literature class had compared the style of certain articles in TIME to that of Gibbon.
As a matter of fact, the professor compared the style of the articles in question not to that of Gibbon, but to that of Carlyle in parts of his "French Revolution."
The inaccuracy, which appeared on the day after the reporting of the midyear grades, would seem to justify one grade lacking in distinction.
CHARLES GOTT
Professor of English Tufts College, Mass.
Distant Cousin
Sirs:
You state that Mr. Robert E. Wood, recently elected President of Sears, Roebuck & Co. is a brother-in-law of Senator Thomas Hardwick of Georgia (TIME, Jan. 23). This is not correct for Senator Hardwick is a very distant cousin of Mr. Wood's wife.
SCOTT NIXON
Augusta, Ga.
Again Regular
Sirs: In renewing my subscription for TIME, after an interval of six months during which I was not a subscriber, I am accepting the result of a deliberate experiment. At the time I allowed my former subscription to lapse I had become a commuter with the inevitable necessity of spending forty-five minutes in the morning and evening reading the newspaper. I thought, and not unreasonably, that by this constant pursuit of the daily news, incident by incident, I would be able to dispense with the summary of news which TIME so capably provides.
This, however, did not prove to be the case; and I consequently found myself continually running into things which had happened in various parts of the world of which I was not cognizant. This lack of knowledge was the more noticeable because of my former experience with TIME, during which I was not very often caught unawares in any discussion of a public topic.
So I return to the ranks of regular subscribers --this time to stay. Because of my temporary lapse I will appreciate your magazine the more keenly.
REED VAIL BOUTECOU
Otis & Co., New York, N. Y.
"Press Agent"
Sirs:
The press agent for Miss Adams did his work well in TIME, Jan. 30, but he should have mentioned the fact that she predicted the Fall of Babylon, and the Wreck of the Hesperus. But seriously speaking, don't you think TIME is cheapening itself by advertising Fortune Tellers? I am one of your original subscribers and have never missed a copy of TIME, which I read from first to last with much interest, but I did balk on your Fortune Telling advertising and was greatly surprised to see that you would throw away a whole page of your valuable paper in this manner. I am in no wise narrow in my views, but while serving in the General Council of this city I had the occasion to investigate this class of our citizens with the result that I passed an ordinance prohibiting them operating in Atlanta. C. L. ASHLEY
Atlanta, Ga.
TIME, no man's press agent, printed the story believing that many a TIME-reader was ignorant of the theories and practices of Astrologist Adams.--ED.
Conservative
Sirs:
The picture of the person most prominent in the week's news belongs to the front cover. TIME has it there. The most important news item of the week belongs to the first page. TIME does not have it there. Conservative, TIME recounts, on the first page each week, the comparatively insignificant pastimes and droolings of Calvin Coolidge.
Let TIME'S symmetrical order of departments be continued, but to the most important news item let the first page prominence be given. A. R. GlLRUTH
Leavenworth, Wash.
Since TIME-readers read TIME from cover to cover, all TIME-pages have equal attention-value.--ED.
Canossa and After
Sirs:
I note the vituperative attacks upon Senator Heflin in recent periodicals for his somewhat radical stand. "Bigot," "narrow-minded," "intolerance" are being bandied back and forth with no reflection whatever upon his statements, that there might be some basis for truth behind them after all.
Would it be out of order to suggest a cursory glance at past history, sacred and secular, before completely anathematizing Heflin's stand?
"History repeats itself" has proved accurate in many instances. Have thinking, intelligent people forgotten entirely the fiasco at Canossa in 1076 where the greatest monarch of all Europe grovelled in abject humility for three days in midwinter at the feet of Gregory VII or Hildebrand, son of an obscure goatherd? Or its replica a century later (1176) with Frederick Barbarossa cowering before the dictates of the papal church?
Would Protestantism forget the authorization of the Inquisition in 1215 by Rome? Or the world-wide tyrannical domination she wielded under Innocent III? What can happen once, can happen again.
D. OTIS FULLER
Princeton Theological Seminary,
Princeton, N. J.
P. S. I have become quite an ardent TIME-ite.