Every week the mail brings scores of letters to the editors of TIME. Their postmarks constitute a veritable gazetteer of the world. The letters them selves ask questions, make suggestions, correct errors, argue judgments, give added facts about the news that the readers see in TIME.

The other day, going through some old copies of TIME, I noticed the Letters column in the Dec. 22, 1924 issue. In that copy of the magazine, we printed the following letter from a reader in Chicago with a brief, pertinent editor's comment.

Gentlemen: As one who has found your publication both useful and entertaining, I have more than once admired the ability of your writers and their unusually high average of intelligence. However, your writers don't deserve all the credit. Judging by the sentiments of myself and friends, your readers are quite as high an average. Their letters are some of the best things you publish.

Joseph Stolpe

TIME could not be published were it not for the existence of intelligent readers.--ED.

Of the thousands of letters we receive, we have room to publish only about 21 in the Letters column each week. Many of our readers have asked how these published letters are selected and on what basis. The answer, as we explained in our first Letters column 30 years ago, is this:

". . . They are selected primarily for the information they contain either supplementary to, or corrective of, news previously published in TIME."

As in the selection of news, the selection of Letters is the result of a group effort. It begins when our Letters column staff reads through the mail and ends when the editors have approved the final choices and added editorial comment where appropriate.

The purpose of the Letters column is the same today as when we began it in 1924: to bring you extra items of interest about the news you read in TIME. For example, in the cover story on Kentucky's Senator John Sherman Cooper (TIME, July 5), we used the term "whittledycut" and defined it as meaning a real fine horse race. This created a lively ruckus in Kentucky and elsewhere, with readers writing in to challenge the definition (it was correct); others commented on folk slang in general and enclosed clippings from newspapers about TIME'S mention of the word. Every week readers have their say on subjects ranging from National Affairs all through the sections of the magazine. Currently we are welcoming readers' nominations in our annual project of selecting the Man of the Year.

Most of our readers are critically helpful in their writing. In effect, each and every one is either a potential or active outside editor, and TIME is grateful for their counsel. It is welcomed, read and studied. And you may be sure that every letter sent to TIME gets an answer.

Cordially yours,

James A. Linen

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