First Edition
Sirs: Re splendid article about Robert Williams Wood, issue June 20:
You slipped a mere ten years (wish I could do the same) in publication date of How To Tell The Birds From The Flowers. My dog-eared and beloved copy bears imprint of Paul Elder Co., San Francisco and New York, 1907, which year Santa Claus brought it to me.
Favorite verse--"The Auk and The Orchid." It has a sort of Walter Winchellish flavor.
HELEN H. SCOTT
Burlingame, Calif.
Subscriber Scott is right. Although the present publishers Dodd, Mead were not aware of it, the first edition was not published by Duffield & Co. in 1917, but by Elder in 1907. However, Walter Winchell (see p. 33), who frequently meets orchids on Broadway, would hardly have written:
We seldom meet, when out to walk, Either the Orchid or the Auk. The awkward Auk is only known To dwellers in the Auk-tic zone, While Orchids can be found in legions, Within the equatorial regions. So if by chance you travel on The Lena or the Amazon, Be certain of the temperature Or you will make mistakes I'm sure
-ED.
Amazement to Visitors
Sirs:
In a recent issue [TIME, May 30], under the caption "Castle Collector''. . . you referred to "smoky Cardiff."
. . . I have taken the time and trouble in the midst of the busy life of a medical practitioner to obtain some official figures which I hope will give the time-worn libel its quietus.
The year is 1935-36, and the figures refer to atmospheric impurities in English tons per square mile.
Cardiff. Total Solids 177 (177) Compare this with -- London Total Solids 357 (274) (Central) Glasgow Total Solids 308 (277) (Alexandra Park) Liverpool Total Solids 683 (560) (Netherfield Rd.) Bourneville Total Solids 159 (110) (A showplace garden city)
The figures in parentheses are five years' averages. . . .
Actually the nearest colliery is nine miles away [from Cardiff], and the great docks and ironworks are concentrated on the seaboard, whilst the purity and clarity of the air of the city itself and its hinterland are invariably a source of amazement to visitors. . . .
HARRIS COHEN
Cardiff, Wales
Deeper Oil
Sirs:
We all . . . were somewhat amazed that you were able to pack so much scientific material in such a little space [account of Continental Oil Co.'s world's deepest well, TIME, July 4].
We regret to advise, however, that although we still hold the deep well record, they found oil the other day in one of the Texas fields some 90 feet deeper than our producing horizon in K.C.L. A2, which is, as you will recall, between 13,085 and 13,170 feet.
However, K.C.L. A-2 at 15,004 feet is still the deepest hole in the ground.
PENDLETON DUDLEY
Continental Oil Co.
New York City
New Deal Defined (Cont'd)
Sirs:
It's the mess of pottage for which Esau-in-the-Mass would exchange his birthright; it's the sheep's clothing enabling the wolf to slit the throats of the flock; it's a Nefarious Device to Destroy a Nation; it's the Nutty Dream of the alchemist, the Nebulous Desire of the marijuana victim; it's a pain in the neck and a sword in the heart.
MARY E. HALL
San Bernardino, Calif.
Sirs:
. . . Socially, it aims to give us more leisure by adjusting supposedly uncontrollable economic factors so we might enjoy more goods by producing less.
Economically it is a plan avowed to provide relief; implicitly it intends to regiment industry.
Politically the New Deal represents an attempt to place 51% of the nation's voters on the Government payroll, and thus to perpetuate the Roosevelt dynasty.
JEROME P. LEDVINA
Manitowoc, Wis.
Sirs:
New Deal definitions:
1) A Roosevelt is a Roosevelt is a Roosevelt is a Roosevelt.
2) A large body of fodder surrounded entirely by politicians.
3) The left wing which is now the whole bird.
4) The thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.
5) The shortest distance between two pay checks.
6) An intellectual game of chase invariably ending at the treasury.
7) The regurgitated hunch judgment of 120,000,000 people.
8) It's an honorable kind of thievery.
9) Something of which a little more than a little is by much too much.
10) Beggars mounted in the act of running their horse to death. . . .
All of which leaves the New Deal well-undefined, but I feel lots better.
KINGSLEY R. SMITH
Attorney-at-Law
Weston, W. Va.
Now that readers have blown off steam, let them put on their thinking caps and try to define clearly and concisely what men mean, if anything, in speaking of the "New Deal." Of those above only Reader Ledvina appears even to have tried. Is "New Deal" merely an emotional term of praise or distaste, or does it refer to a philosophy of government (whether good or bad)?--ED
Report Card
Sirs:
My score (you see, I keep up with the Current Events Test) on the June 20 test was 102 correct. One miss was in National Affairs, two in Foreign News. This compares with my former scores:
March 11, 1935. . . .97
July 8, 1935. . . .99
Feb. 24, 1936. . . .95
June 29, 1936. . . .102
Feb. 22, 1937. . . .101
June 21, 1937. . . .105
Feb. 21, 1938. . . .100
(June 20, 1938). . . .(102)
average . . . . 100 1/8
My success formula is: one large dose of TIME, once a week.
T. L. AGNEW JR.
Ogden, Ill.
Reader Agnew is good but TIME will not be good enough until it makes the correct answers to all 105 questions stick in his head.--ED.
Bloom
Sirs:
You have evidently been sincerely misinformed and mistaken in your issue of June 20, when you wrote:
"Five months ago, after it had been revealed that Howard Chandler Christy's official Sesquicentennial poster, We, the People had been sold to a Tammany leader of Representative Bloom's district, Congressmen demanded an investigation of the commission, eliminated a $50,000 appropriation for it. Last week, although Representative Bloom protested that $35,000 for the new picture would include the frame and cost of hanging, Congressmen, a bit fed up, rejected the resolution."
In the interest of truth, I feel sure you will be willing to let your readers know the facts of the case, which are . . . that as Director General of the United States Constitution Sesquicentennial Commission, I asked the Congress to appropriate $200,000 to carry on the work of the Commission, and the Congress actually voted $205,000. . . . Which, you will surely agree, completely refutes the "rumor" that my administration of the Commission was not upheld and approved. . . .
SOL BLOOM
Director General
United States Constitution
Sesquicentennial Commission
Washington, D. C.
Congressman Bloom is correct. Although Congress refused him $50,000 five months ago, three months later it changed its mind, voted his commission not only $50,000 but an additional $155,000 out of any moneys received from the sale of the commission's publications, etc.--ED.
Service
Sirs:
TIME used to publish the Congressional records of Senators and Representatives, up for election, upon the request of five constituents, but I have not seen such biographies for a number of years. Since all of our Representatives and one-third of our Senators are to be elected this coming fall, can the undersigned persuade you to reinstate this feature of the Letters section? . . .
ALBERT G. PETTINGILL
San Francisco, Calif.
Yes. So far as practical, TIME will be glad to help voters who want to know more about Congressional candidates, provided five constituents sign a request for such biographies.--ED.
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