Letters: Dec. 21, 1925

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.

100,000

Sirs:

Your publicity men have spread abroad the knowledge that TIME is “the fastest growing non-fiction magazine in the U.S.” What is the present circulation of TIME? In a friendly argument I wagered $10 that it was over 100,000. Kindly advise me whether I win or lose.

GEORGE GOULD Pittsburgh, Pa.

Original Subscriber Gould wins $10. The circulation of TIME crossed the 100,000 mark three weeks ago. The Circulation Manager states that the circulation of TIME has increased nearly 50% during 1925, thus retaining the titles of “fastest growing non-fiction magazine” and “the fastest growing $5 magazine of any sort in the U.S.”—ED.

In Persia

Sirs:

Your correspondent in Persia I believe is not very much interested to let your people and the whole world to hear about situations in Persia and the great progress which our nation is making under the leadership of Reza Khan Pahlavi. I have made up my mind to write a few strokes about affairs in Persia and beg you, meanwhile not to refuse to have the gist of my statements printed in your paper.

Our king, Sultan Ahmad Shah, who left Persia for a joy trip to France two years ago, sent a telegram some days ago to the Persian Minister informing him the date of his departure for Persia. This wire, being printed in local papers, roused the anger of all Persians, especially inhabitants of Azerbaijan. Consequently from all parts of Persia telegrams were sent to Majlis (parliament) asking that our delegates to gather and take a final decision whether the Shah should return or not. Delegates paid no attention to their demands and eventually the situation began to grow worse and worse every day. In Teheran people took refuge in the telegraph office and some in the Military School. Parliament who paid no attention at the beginning was obliged to take an immediate and a very effective measure about the people’s demand. Therefore at the session of 9th Aban, Oct. 31, it was proposed and sanctioned by 80 votes against 5 to depose Sultan Ahmad Shah from the throne of Persia and cancel forever the dynasty of Kajars. Meanwhile Reza Khan Pahlavi, the Prime Minister and Commander in Chief of all Persia’s force, will act as a regent till a senate be formed and decide the form of government, i. e., whether a Republic or as before. I shall let you hear more details of affairs in future.

AMEER-SHAH Teheran, Persia

“Flagrant”

Sirs:

TIME’S inaccuracies are chronic, flagrant and even self evident! On p. 34 of your issue of Dec. 14, you say that a rat, with a “pointed grey face” fell into a Miss Rachael Galpern’s “hot soap-bath”; yet a moment later you speak of the animal as “an enormous black rat!” Squirm out of that, if you can! I suppose you will say that a “black rat” can have a “grey face.”

Also, on p. 16 of the same issue you head an article about Henri de Jouvenel, Henry est Arrive. Could any mixture of French and English schoolboy jargon be more ridiculous?

I will wait until I receive a courteous reply to this letter….

HENRY R. TRAVERS Patchogue, L.I.

A wet grey rat is black. Henry de Jouvenel was not christened Henri. See p.408, French Qui Etes-Vous?—ED.

“Be Fair”

Sirs:

In your issue of Nov. 23, p. 28, you refer to the Daily News (the first of two publications that have substituted the picture of the body for “X marks the spot” as merely the Daily News. But later in your reference to the Evening Journal you are careful to say the Hearst Evening Journal. Surely every one knows that the Evening Journal belongs to Hearst, but anyway, if you must tack the Hearst onto it, why not also mention the names of the gentlemen who own the Daily News? The latter would be news to more of your readers than the information that the Evening Journal belongs to Hearst. I like TIME and I work for Mr. Hearst and I want you to be fair to yourselves and to him.

KENNETH C. BEATON* San Francisco, Calif.

The owners of the Daily News (and of the Chicago Tribune), Captain Joseph Medill Patterson and Colonel Robert R. McCormick (brother of the late U. S. Senator Medill McCormick), were not mentioned because—great though they are in their profession—they are comparatively unknown to the public (outside of Chicago). “The McCormick & Patterson Daily News” as a phrase is no stronger, no more colorful than “The Daily News”; the words Patterson & McCormick add nothing to the reader’s information. On the other hand, the words “Hearst Evening Journal” tell a story; the very mention of the word “Hearst” is more potent than several paragraphs of well written description.—ED.

Likes Style

Sirs:

Please regard me as one of your subscribers who prefers the style in which your issue of Dec. 7 is written.

MAX FARRAND New York, N.Y.

Dislikes Style

Sirs:

Your issue of Dec. 7 savors of an ordinary newspaper and not of my pet periodical. Why serve us original readers with bilge water when we like the Vichy. I generally read TIME word by word including ads from cover to cover. This one didn’t read nearly so well and I skipped.

I am writing this note in the hope that it will swell the number who will write to you protesting this last issue.

If you get enough protests you may stick to TIME as it was.

JOHN B. GAGER Columbus, O.

Mexican Debt

Sirs:

Referring to the paragraph “LATIN AMERICA—Mexico’s Debt” on p. 19 of your issue of Nov. 23, 1925, Mr. [Thomas W.] Lament has requested me to give you the following information :

Mr. Pani, Mexican Minister of Finance, came to New York in the early part of October last to discuss with this Committee the resumption of service on the Mexican Debt, as covered by the terms of the Agreement of June 16, 1922. As a result of these discussions an agreement was signed on Oct. 23, 1925, by the Minister of Finance and Mr. Lamont, as Chairman of this Committee, modifying the terms of the 1922 Agreement. The pertinent provisions of the Modified Agreement are set forth in the enclosed statement to the press.

This Modified Agreement has been ratified by President Calles, as stated in your article, and is now awaiting ratification by the Mexican Congress. When this has been obtained, the Modified Agreement will be submitted to depositing bondholders, and any bondholder who prefers not to accept the modifications will have the opportunity of withdrawing his bonds. Under the 1922 Agreement, bonds to the amount of approximately $491,000,000 were deposited with the Committee. This represents somewhat over 95% of all the Mexican Bonds included within the terms of the 1922 Agreement. A copy of this Agreement is enclosed for your convenience.

Your statement that “a group of international bankers agree to aid Mexico to resume payments on her $500,000,000 foreign debt” is not strictly correct, except to the appreciable extent by which the bankers, in urging the bondholders to make concessions to the Mexican Government, thereby aid Mexico materially in the payment of her debts.

IRA H. PATCHIN, Secretary, International Committee of Bankers on Mexico. New York, N.Y.

Suggestion

Sirs:

In a recent class in history, which has been following with great interest current affairs in TIME, we came upon a request that some “good-looking women” be placed on the cover of TIME. The answer made to this request was to the effect that TIME would print the faces of “good-looking women” as soon as they became of some significance in world affairs. May I suggest that Queen Alexandra, Mrs. Calvin Coolidge and “Ma” Ferguson would qualify as “good-looking women” and of importance in world affairs of the past, present or future.

LORRAINE JACKSON East Orange, N.J.

Again, Westman

Sirs:

I wish it were in my power to keep TIME from being made ridiculous by the misuse of ecclesiastical terms and news perhaps of others. I only venture to mention such as I am certain of. So I call your attention to the following misuses: TIME, Dec. 7, p. 20, col. 2, “addressing” should be “consecrating,” as “address” is never so used. Col. 3, “stalls” should be “pews;” “ordained” had better be “clergy” as more definite; “reredos” should be “altar,” because it is the chief symbol of the Church, and a “reredos” there has no significance. In “old Limestone Lane,” the word “old” is erroneous because St. Thomas’ Church, Manhattan, was rebuilt and greatly enlarged within a few years. So it is new. “Primus” is never used officially in the Episcopal Church of America. It should be Presiding Bishop.

CHAS. F. WESTMAN Franklin, Mass.

“It”

Sirs:

In the Dec. 7 issue of TIME, on p. 27, you tell about a sick child in Montevideo and say “It died.” Now a child is either a “he” or a “she” and any parent will agree with me that nothing raises said parent’s ire like having his child called an “it.” If you do not know the sex of a child when relating an incident, it would be perfectly permissible to repeat the words “the child” or else say “he,” for that pronoun is often used to coverboth sexes. I am a constant reader of TIME and like it very much. However, I must agree with one of your correspondents that there is nothing very restful about the curt, jerky way you have of telling things. But you do tell the latest news, and one simply must keep up. Some of the letters you receive are terrible and you are good sports to print them so that all may see. As a rule, I find very little fault with you, but please don’t call a child “it.” I am a motherand know that that hurts.

HILDA YOUNT ERTEL Williamsport, Pa. TIME regrets that the use of “it” should injure the feelings of a parent. Webster’s International Dictionary seems to furnish plenty of authority when it says: “It is now used only of an inanimate object or of an animate one in which sex is disregarded…”—Ed.

Artist-Realtor

Sirs:

In the religious section of your issue of Dec. 7, p. 20, announcement is made of the sale of the Temple Emanu-El, famous synagog of New York, for $7,500,000 to a “Polish Jew named Benjamin Winter, who came to the U. S. in 1905 to paint tenements.”

…Mr. Winter did not come to this country to paint tenements. He studied art in Poland and manifested an interesting talent for painting. He left Poland because of poverty and religious oppression. When he arrived in this country he wanted to be a painter. He expressed the idea to some immigrant friends on the East Side, who thought he meant that he wanted to be a house painter. He was referred to a job and when he got there he discovered that it was a job painting a tenement house. Handicapped by lack of funds and little knowledge of English, he was compelled to do this sort of work until he saved money enough to go into business for himself. This eventually led him into the real estate business. This “Polish Jew” is now, at the age of 44, the most romantic and one of the biggest real estate operators in New York, having handled deals during the past ten years which aggregate almost $400,000,000.

For your further information, the new site for the Temple Emanu-El at the northeast corner of Fifth Ave. and 65th St. was sold, not by Vincent Astor as you reported, but by Benjamin Winter, who bought the famous Astor residence last spring. He also is the present owner of the historic W. K. Vanderbilt mansion at 52nd St. and Fifth Ave., described in your same issue of Dec. 7.

BERNARD A. BERGMAN New York, N.Y.

Johnson v. Cohen

Sirs:

The first item in your magazine this week (Dec. 7 issue) consists of a short paragraph stating that Coolidge received a letter from John L. Lewis stating that the bituminous operators had broken their contract. In your zeal to keep up your reputation for giving information in short paragraphs, you failed to mention that this is the same Coolidge who on July 19 assured the newspapers at Swampscott that he “has determined to prevent a coal strike.” The strike came, as we all know, and “the little calm, cool man” had the same remedy as usual to suggest, “nothing.” And you failed to mention that.

On p. 31 of the same issue you took the space, though, to portray and illustrate with a photograph closely resembling the missing link, the prowess of one John LesterJohnson—as if that were of prime importance. Instead of giving all of the worthwhile news of the world, you seem to gloat over the fact that the said Johnsonknocked out the teeth of a taxicab operator who happened to incur his displeasure—thereby showing your true colors—catering to the lowestanimal instinct—brute force.

A friend of mine by the name of Cohen, but no relation to the taxicab operator. . . pointed this out to me. I was about to send in my renewal of my subscription, but in view of what I can see your paper is coming to I must decline the honor of being one of your regular subscribers.

NATHAN B. PERRY Charlotte, N.C.

Sirs:

On looking through your issue of Dec. 7, I found two very interesting things: one, a subscription order blank for TIME; the other, anarticle on p. 30 entitled “Doorman.” The order blank was printed in green and red, colors obviously intended to remind one of Christmas, the birthday of Him who preached “peace on earth, good will toward men.” The article on p. 30 dealt with a black man who knocked down a white man. . . .

What a brilliant piece of journalism! What a lofty idealism it conveyed! What a great service it rendered to the cause of the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man! How absolutely essential it was for you to devote a valuable column of your limited space to an incident that cannot but enhance racial animosity! Not only that—you had to print a photograph of the individual who distinguished himself by violence and vituperation!

I assure you that, although I gave you $55 in subscriptions this year, I had no desire to fill out that Christmas order blank.

ALBERT M. MALLIN Brooklyn. N. Y.

Surplus

Sirs:

In your issue of Dec. 7, p. 13, you mention “famed poet William Shakespeare.” The first three words are certainly superfluous and a reflection upon the intelligence of your readers. I suppose we must not be astonished if we read in an early issue of “onetime evangelist Jesus Christ.”

F.R. OHL Hinsdale, Ill.

* Kenneth C. Beaton is one of the few men whose initials are better known than his full name. He is famed K. C. B. and his cheerful but inoffensive philosophy is published daily in Hearst papers throughout the U.S.—ED.