Letters: May 3, 1926

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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.

Sirs:

I found with interest, in TIME, April 19, a review of William C. Bullitt's novel It's Not Done. Upon reading it, I discovered to my great surprise that whoever had written your review had entirely missed the very important point that this novel was laid in Philadelphia and not "in old New England." It is extremely odd that your book reviewer should have overlooked this, as the young whippersnapper of an author took no pains to conceal it, in what I consider a very impertinent, if not indecent, book! Perhaps your reviewer is among those who do not take the trouble to read the books that they review.

MARIE C. PAINTER Philadelphia, Pa.

TIME'S reviewer vows that he read It's Not Done from cover to cover at one uninterrupted sitting. Subscriber Painter's contention that "Chesterbridge" means Philadelphia is sound. Who can the hoary poet "Walt" be, across the river from Chesterbridge, but Walt Whitman, who lived in Camden, across the Delaware from Philadelphia, during his last years?

In 1744

Sirs:

Speaking of the coming International Congress of Philosophy (TIME, April 5, p. 22) you say, "The formal host of the Congress is the American Philosophical Society." You have made a pardonable confusion between the American Philosophical Society and the American Philosophical Association. The former was founded by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia in 1744. In that age, a "philosophical" society was one devoted to all the special sciences, including the mathematical, the physical and the biological. The Society founded by Franklin still covers this wide field, and still meets in Philadelphia. The American Philosophical Association, on the other hand, is our national organization of philosophers in the sense in which that term is used today. It meets in various cities throughout the United States, and restricts its discussions to philosophy proper. It will act as host to the International Congress of Philosophy, the scope of which is indicated by its four Divisions, devoted respectively to metaphysics, logic, theory of values (ethics, social philosophy, esthetics) and history of philosophy.

WALLACE CRAIG Boston, Mass.

Wood

Sirs:

I wonder whether you intended to color your reference this week to "snubs" of General Wood by President Wilson with bias? Wilson had pretty good reasons for most of his appointments, and generally speaking he was intent on doing good. His prosecution of the War was hampered, as was Lincoln's, by smaller persons who wished to get the job under the control of the right political party. Although many Republicans worked hard and earnestly for victory under Wilson's leadership, some proposed a War Board, made up of Republicans, to take over the duties of the President and thus get the job done right, and chief among these was Roosevelt, and close to Roosevelt was General Wood.