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You seem to be having your troubles with a dictating machine trademarked Dictaphone. Because your editorial treatment involves an evident misconception of a fundamental point of law concerning the use of trademarks, I'd like to set the matter straight for the benefit of all concerned. On p.18 of the March 19 issue you use the word to denote a phonographic apparatus to take dictation — but with a small "d" as a common noun instead of a capital "D" as a proper noun, denoting a trademark which it is. (It's like saying joe doakes, smoking a camel, drove off in his ford to buy some listerine.) On p.92, in an item about a spy movie, you refer to "hidden dictaphones" when you mean a secret listening device. Well, Dictaphone just isn't that kind of machine and Dictograph, a trademarked voice-transmitting device, isn't really used by criminal investigators, local or federal, to overhear remote conversations. (They usually have their own small delicate apparatus privately built for them.)
After all, these manufacturers have property rights in the names of their products just as you have in the name of your magazine.
PAUL B. WEST
President
Association of National Advertisers New York City
¶ Hereafter TIME will mind its Dictaphones & Dictographs.—ED.
Gum-Chewing Newspaper
Sirs:
Just what in hell, we ask in all sincerity, is a "gum-chewing newspaper?" (TIME, March 5).
(M/SGT.) EUGENE J. POTTER
(S/SGT.) ROBERT W. DIETSCH
Tampa
¶ Ever hear the New York Daily News (for one) crack its gum?—ED.
Unusual?
Sirs:
I had been warned not to go to Washington without train accommodations, appointment made, and counting on three or four days before seeing my man.
I arrived on the morning of Feb. 28, got a taxi with ease, acquired hotel accommodations, saw the gentleman in WPB without waiting, settled all business, ate all my meals without standing in line, and was able to visit friends before taking a train back to Jackson, with sleeping accommodations acquired without reservation. Is this unusual?
JAMES T. CANIZARO
Jackson, Miss.
¶ Is a jackpot unusual?—ED.
Why?
Sirs:
I am 29 years of age . . . blind in one eye, weigh 124 pounds, as compared with my normal 160, and I know what it is like to be under Jap bombings, strafings and groundfire.
The above is written only to prove my right to ask the following questions:
1) Why are there so many healthy 4-Fs left in America when they are able to serve?
2) Why does Congress hesitate to pass a National Service Act? If a man can be forced to die for his country, why should he not be forced to work for it?
(CPL.) W. ESKELUND
c/o Postmaster
San Francisco