Promise

Sirs:

Has TIME departed from its established and promised custom of limiting its size to 80 pages? This week's issue (Jan. 8) contains 68 numbered pages in addition to 20 pages of color advertising, mostly automotive. I have seen no announcement regarding a change in your policy of confining your publication to 80 pages.

HUBERT F. GROSECLOSE

Pulaski, Va.

In 1929 TIME, confronted with the problem of how much advertising it could handle, assured cover-to-cover readers: "Until the end of 1930 no issue of TIME will exceed 80 pages plus cover and color in serts." When the problem becomes acute again, TIME will attack it again, probably in the same way.--ED. Accused Sirs:

Let TIME in the arrogant tone of an innocent accused, explain to one who has faith the remarkable coincidence of the Chrysler pan on the cover of its current issue (Jan. 8) and the Chrysler blurb on the inside spread. Then let my not always omniscient brother-in-law mend his talk.

THEODORE MANDELSTAN

Baltimore, Md.

What would brother-in-law have? Would he have the managing editor (who makes front cover) and the advertising manager (who makes the ad-pages) confer with each other? Only by such untimely collaboration could such a coincidence be avoided.--ED. President's Voice Sirs:

Will it be possible for you to arrange a program including the President of the U. S. and his microphone double? Do not announce which is to speak. Leave that to your listeners and let us try and distinguish between these two wonderful voices. BEN R. LEIGH

Orlando, Fla.

Sirs:

. . . My wife and I join in a request that the gentleman known to us only as "The Voice of Roosevelt" be used only in that capacity. It is most incongruous, at least in our humble opinion, to hear the President in so lowly (though not mean) an occupation as sleigh driver to the late Ion Duca, martyred Premier of Rumania (Jan. 5). ...

HAROLD S. COOK

St. Louis, Mo.

TIME regrets that it can accommodate neither Reader Cook & wife nor Reader Leigh. On request of the White House (see p. 4) the "voice" of President Roosevelt will no longer be heard on "The March of TIME" or any other broadcast. The "voice," that of William Perry ("Bill") Adams will continue to speak for Senator Borah, President von Hindenburg, many another bigwig, many a lowly character in the news. "Bill" Adams, onetime professional baseballer, onetime stage actor and dramatic coach at Yale, turned to radio in 1925. For four years he was "Uncle Henry" on the old Collier's series.

By meticulous studies of Roosevelt newsreels and radio speeches he captured for "The March of TIME" such a faithful copy of the President's voice that many listeners believed that they were hearing either the President or a phonographic record of his works.

The following announcement was read in last week's "March of TIME" program: ': 'The Editors of TIME have been requested to omit from 'The March of TIME' any simulation of the voice of President Roosevelt. Consulted at the White House, Assistant Secretary Stephen Early said that there was no objection to 'The March of TIME'S' imitation but pointed out that since the White House felt unable to give general permission for the simulation of the President's voice, it was unfair to continue the exception in favor of 'The March of TIME.' "The Editors of TIME are sure that their radio audience will join with them in gladly accepting the White House suggestion. "There are, of course, no precedents for The March of TIME.' There was never anything of its kind before. Its technique was invented only after many experiments with the problem of presenting current events over the radio. The result is a new kind of historical drama--the drama not of ancient history but of current history. ''Both you and the Editors of TIME will miss the voice presence of the chief actor in our nation's current history. 'The March of TIME' has followed Franklin Delano Roosevelt through his great campaign of 1932 and through most of the stirring events of 1933. Let us hope we may pick him up again in happy days to come. Meanwhile, the Editors of TIME promise you their utmost efforts to make from all the other action on the world's stage, a thoroughly worth-while 'March of TIME.' TIME Marches On.'-ED. Christina & Voltaire Sirs: If M-G-M is actually to blame TIME, Jan. 8 is guilty of repeating without comment the anachronistical description of Queen Christina (died 1689) reading Voltaire (born 1694). L. SCHILDKRAUT LEE Cowansville, Que. Sirs: VOLTAIRE WAS CERTAINLY PRECOCIOUS BUT HIS PRENATAL WORK HAS HITHERTO REMAINED UNDISCLOSED STOP SUGGEST THEREFORE THAT DISCOVERY BY MGM ON TIME P. 24 ISSUED JAN 8 THAT CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN" WAS ONE OF HIS READERS DESERVES FURTHER AMPLIFICATION UNDER THE HEADING QUOTE NEWS UNQUOTE STOP J. A. M. DESANCHEZ

Tucson, Ariz.

Sirs:

O these French!

On p. 24 of your issue of Jan. 8 your cinema reviewer thinks that Queen Christina "reads Voltaire." . . . He of course means Descartes, who died in Sweden in February 1650.

H. BARNSTORFF

Madison, Wis.

The blame falls somewhere between the lips of Cinemactress Greta Garbo and the ears of TIME'S Cinema reporter, who thought he heard her say "Voltaire" when she said "Moliere" (born 1622, died 1673).--ED. Quiz Sirs:

As a school teacher with a school teacher's viewpoint toward reading and study, I should like to make a suggestion for TIME'S improvement which I think would benefit many readers.

I read TIME from cover to cover each week. I think I do a thorough job. However, I know that I cannot retain all the facts that I have perused. Therefore, I suggest that on the last page of your paper you run a column of questions relative to the content of the issue. . . .

G. EMLEN HALL

Middletown, Del. For a quiz on this week's TIME see p. 50.--ED. Coarse Liberal Sirs: I should like to know on what grounds you describe William Lyon Mackenzie King as "coarse" (p. 19. Jan. 8 issue)? Surely not any basis of culture, habits or refinement.

(PROFESSOR) DANIEL C. O'GRADY

University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Ind.

It is interesting to note that William Lynn Mackenzie King, whose vociferous opposition to the granting of Royal Honors was reported in your issue of Jan. 8, is not above accepting social distinctions. According to Who's Who for 1934, Mr. King has accepted the following Royal and Academic distinctions: 1) Membership in the Imperial Privy Council, entitling him to be styled Right Honorable, and to use the initials P.C. after his name. 2) Companionship in the Order of St. Michael and St. George, giving him the right to the initials C.M.G. after his name. 3) The honorary degree LL.D. from the following universities--Queen's, Toronto, Harvard, Edinburgh, Yale and Cambridge. 4) The honorary degree D.C.L. from Oxford. There are a number of Canadians, including the writer, who feel that Mr. King's stand on the granting of honors is insincere, inconsistent and in bad taste. STUART ARMOUR

Philadelphia, Pa.

TIME called large, leather-lunged, magnetic Mr. King coarse in the sense that Byron called Burns "often coarse but never vulgar."--ED. Brainy Crosby Sirs:

Your word picture of Actor-Singer Crosby is the best "actual publigraph" of the star this writer has had the pleasure of reading (TIME, Jan. 1). . . .

Good as was your critique on Crosby, it contained some holes. May I offer correction?

Crosby never attempted to "imitate Rudy Vallee's low register waves," was never hired by CBS or Cremo for that purpose. Paley did not discover Crosby for CBS. Talent-Scout, Hurt MacMurtrie, associated with Crosby and the writer on the old Old Gold-Paul Whiteman program, brought Crosby into the Columbia fold. MacMurtrie spent many months trying to sell CBS on Crosby! . . .

Prediction: Crosby's popularity will grow. He has brains, a growing wisdom, a recently acquired balance. He's good for America.

JACKSON M. LEICHTER

Los Angeles, Calif.

... It is true that Ring Crosby was born in Tacoma but even before his second birthday he exhibited his ''mental alertness" by moving his family to Spokane. . . .

J. A. FORD

Managing Secretary Chamber of Commerce Spokane, Wash.

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