Perpetual Subscriptions

Sirs:

Reading LETTERS, issue of June 10, was pleasingly surprised and struck by the originality (or so it seemed to me) of Subscriber Anders regarding inheritable subscriptions. Thought it was meant as an expression of Subscriber Anders' extreme appreciation of TIME and not as something to be desired. Further surprised (also pleasantly) at TIME'S serious consideration of it. TIME is thus shown as ever open to new ideas.

The point to all this: to satisfy my curiosity. Is the idea of inheritable subscriptions new? Has any periodical to date adopted the idea? If not here's hoping TIME has the honor of being the first to offer such subscriptions.

To Subscriber Anders a worthy reward for his originality (if the idea is original) but far be it from my means to render such reward. A C. to C. Reader

FRED. W. KUNESH

2nd Lieut., S.C., U.S.A. Fort Monmouth, Oceanport, X. J.

To Subscribers Anders and Lindeman (TIME, Letters, June 10)--for their suggestions which resulted in the first perpetual, inheritable and transferable subscription in the history of publishing--free perpetual TIME subscriptions. Let others use coupon on p. 4.--ED.

Sirs: Congratulations on the happy thought, the speedy execution of the Perpetual subscription idea. Timeless and for all time it is entirely TIME-like. Enclosed is my order; it will undoubtedly be but one of many.

ALBERT McMASTERS

Washington, D. C.

As this issue went to press, Perpetual Subscription orders totalled 14. -- ED.

Mrs. Hoover's Speed

Sirs: Please note by the inclosed clipping [June1] that the wife of the President was riding in New England, in Rhode Island to be explicit, at the rate of from 55 to 65 miles an hour. According to the 1929 Automobile Green Book, Rhode Island speed law is as follows:

"Speed--reasonable and proper. An excess of 20 miles per hour in built-up districts and 35 elsewhere, presumptive evidence of a rate of speed unreasonable or improper." In fact should the wife of the passing motorist drive at this rate the State Police would more than likely require her presence before a judge.

Somewhere I have heard that the President has instituted a committee for the investigation of law enforcement. Also I have heard at some time that "people who live in glass houses . . . etc.," but, suppose "Charity begins at home."

FLORENCE B. ELDRIDGE

Newton Center, Mass.

State personages and their wives are commonly accorded Courtesy of the Road by local officials. Would Critic Eldridge have this U. S. custom abolished?--ED.

Elliott's Credit

Sirs:

My attention has just been called to a very elaborate article in your magazine (May 6) in regard to the magnificent plans for the construction of the new buildings in the city of Washington, and was somewhat surprised to note the fulsome praise you have bestowed on Senator Reed Smoot for putting his potent force back of this project and thus insuring its passage. I happen to be the author of the Elliott-Fernald act of May 25, 1926 which made this program possible, and I know that the potent force exerted by Senator Smoot in this behalf is all bunk. There has been a concerted movement here of late presumably started by Senator Smoot to grab the honor for this great work and you have unwittingly perhaps been lending the pages of your paper to assist in this little species of -- --*

I notice that you give the names of the speakers in the U. S. Chamber of Commerce building on the development of Washington but you ignore the fact that I addressed the meeting and substituted for me the name of Chief Justice Taft who was present but took no part in the ceremonies. I am taking the liberty of mailing you a copy of my speech made on that occasion, and also one that I expect to make at the laying of the Cornerstone of the Department of Commerce on next Monday. . . . I have not been asking any person to give me credit for anything but you can readily see that after having worked hard for four years to put over a proposition like this that I cannot stand idly by and see the fruits of my labors given to some other person. I also wish to remind you that I have gone out of my way in order to accommodate your representatives when they have come into my office looking for things. . . . RICHARD N. ELLIOTT

Congress of the United States Washington, D. C.

Rump

Sirs:

May I join for a moment the crowd which delights in taking TIME to task?

On page 50 of the issue of June 3 is a footnote evidently purporting to explain the term "rump" used by the Van Sweringens in referring to the Taplin meeting of the Wheeling and Lake Erie stockholders. It reads ". . . The portion of Parliament remaining [after Pride's Purge] was the original 'rump' meeting--i.e., a portion of the original whole." Fiddlesticks! Rump doesn't mean "a portion of the original whole," it means the sitting part, i.e., the portion of Parliament which continued to sit after December 6, 1648, when 47 members were arrested and 96 others turned back from the door. The former were lodged in a nearby inn called Hell, where, says C. E. Montagu, they spent the night "in some discomfort" (Montagu, Political History of England, 1603-1660), p. 345. But after some years of sitting even the rump wore thin. On April 20, 1653, Cromwell dissolved it putting in its place a select body of hand-picked "representatives" called, with due regard to the original metaphor, the "Barebones Parliament." And another thing. On page 64 of the same issue occurs this statement. "Constance Morrow, 15, is a sophomore at Milton Academy, Milton, Mass." Is she really? If so, she must be a-- what is it?--transvestite. HARRISON DALE Oxford, Ohio. Milton Academy Girls' School, one of three departments of Milton Academy, is for girls from 12 to 18; offers a college preparatory and elective course.--ED.

Wrong Number

Sirs:

In your copy of TIME, June 3, under "Miscellany," I read about the man in Brooklyn who answered the telephone when it was the wrong number and in doing so saved himself and family from dying by poisonous gases.

This letter is to report an incident which happened in this town not long ago of a woman whose telephone rang at three o'clock in the morning. She fell down stairs and broke her leg. Another member of the family answered the telephone and was informed that the party had the wrong number. This woman did not thank the telephone operator.

DR. J. NORTH EVANS General Surgeon

Columbus, Neb.

Taggers Tagged? Sirs: For quite a while I have been watching the license tags on the automobiles that visit California, and I wish your advice on a very curious phenomenon. All the states of this country and the provinces of Canada require two tags, one in front and one in the rear, and both exactly alike.* However, three states, Arkansas, Texas and Tennessee, at various time, have seen fit to require the word "front" on the front license, and "rear" on the rear one./- It occurred to me in this connection that these States have passed laws banning the teaching of the theory of organic evolution in state-aided schools. Will you kindly get your staff of psychologists, anthropologists, etc., busy on this question, and inform me whether there is any connection between the danger of teaching evolution and the necessity of marking both ends of the car differently? Just last week I saw evidence that at least one person from the three above named States had a sense of humor. He had the "rear" license plate in front, and the "front" plate on the rear. More power to him! THOMAS T. GILL

Santa Fe Springs, Calif.

None the Worse

Sirs: Following my notification from Hon. Pasquale De Cioco, Royal Vice Consul of Italy, that H. M. Vittorio Emanuele had conferred upon the writer of this the Order of Knighthood in the Order of the Crown of Italy for his paintings of Rome, and being thereby (and not perhaps, unnaturally) somewhat overcome, I ventured to share the news with TIME. That you should ignore the matter "in toto" is perhaps not surprising, and it is, of course, quite within your rights, and your admirable magazine is, in the writer's estimation, none the worse for the omission. GEORGE WHARTON EDWARDS

Greenwich, Conn.

Early Did It

Sirs:

I respectfully refer you to your "Hatched, Matched, Dispatched" caption in Letters Department, TIME, May 27.

Twenty-five years or so ago, Editor Early of the Cannelton (Ind.) Telephone in that manner designated births, marriages, deaths respectively, in his up and doing little paper.

C. X. HENNING. San Mateo, Calif.

No Sooty Relic

Sirs:

As a reader of TIME, and a resident of Jersey City for 40 years, I resent your description of our city as set forth in your article on page 16, issue of May 27. Jersey City is not, as you say, ". . .a sooty relic teeming with foreign blood." Like any large city, it has some foreigners among its residents, but they are in the minority. And certainly they are not looked upon as a liability, which your reference to "foreign blood" would imply.

FRANK J. DAVIS

Jersey City, N. J.

Yellow Kids

Sirs:

"Because he used yellow paper for some of his editions of the New York World, and because his paper, avoiding contemporary stodginess, sought for 'human interest.'" (TIME, May 27.) I think you are mistaken in this! I have been a constant reader of the New York World for some 30 years and have no recollection of its editions ever having been printed on yellow paper. The origin of the opprobious "yellow journalism" came about through a "comic" drawn by R. F. Outcault, called "The Yellow Kid." This appeared first in the World; scored such a hit that Hearst bought Outcault away from Pulitzer. It depicted a street gamin who wore a yellow night shirt, on which was inscribed all the gutter chatter and slang of that day, and it was out of that incident that the term "yellow journalism" was coined.

Louis B. PARSONS New York City. Reader Parsons is correct. The Outcault strip was called "Hogan's Alley." It was continued in the World, after Outcault went to Hearst, by George B. Tuks. Then there were two "Yellow Kids." two yellow journals. -- ED. B rownsville-Mexico City

Sirs: Referring to out Brownsville-Mexico City line (TIME, Tampico, May 27) you state that there are two stops and that the price of the fare is $200 U. S. Cy. There is but one stop and the fare is $100 U. S. Cy., or an equivalent of $200 pesos Mex. Gold.

W.L. MORRISON Manager Traffic Department Cia. Mexicana de Aviacion, S.A. Tampico, Mexico.

Serologist Kahn Sirs: Your article about Architect Kahn should have everybody's approval: only a great and good man gives away $75,000 of earned income yearly. But in your parenthetical allusion to other note worthy bearers of that name you inadvertently missed an opportunity to do justice to a great scientist. Reuben L. Kahn of the faculty of the University of Michigan gave last year to charity about $75 but nevertheless also received an invitation from the Russian government to come to Moscow, which he accepted as he also accepted invitations from scientific societies of London, Paris, Berlin, Edinburgh and Copenhagen. Prof. Kahn is a serologist and in the scientific world the position that Serologist Kahn holds is quite as exalted as the place occupied by Architect Kahn in the industrial world. H. S. BARTHOLOMEW Lansing, Mich.

*Libelous phrase deleted.--ED. *Wrong. South Carolina, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Florida require but one tag. /-Another such State is Louisiana.