DEAR SIR: A SELECTION 'OF LETTERS TO, THE EDITOR OF
" THE TIMES "
Edited by Douglas Woodruff
TIM fame of The Times correspondence columns being what it is, there was much to be said for the idea of this yoking: (Methuen, 8s. 6d.). Mr. Woodruff has restricted himself almost wholly to the lighter interests and the minor moralities with a good sprinkling of English oddities. The manners 'of the young, as we should expect, make a provocative theme we, have the ways of animals, the tyranny of fashion and of local authorities, hats and trousers, the absurdities of linguistic usage, and so forth. No more than fifteen letters are taken from the early period, and only one of these—a descriptiOn of child labour in the New Lanark mills owned by Dale, the father-in-law of Robert Owen—is signed with the writer's name. This is the only grave utterance admitted, although, the excellent specimens of Mr. A. P. Herbert's fighting manner are serious enough in purpose. A better balance would have been attained if one section had been devoted to the brief letters which from time to time have come through the great journal with the force of deeds—e.g., Carlyle's; fine:protest against the opening of Mazzini's private correspondence; Dickens on public executions, Bonar Law's decisive stroke (1922) against the Churchill-Lloyd George bid for renewed war on Turkey. Mr. Woodruff is himself a member of The TiMes staff. All the more curious, therefore, is his neglect of the simple duties of editing. He has not checked the work of his copyist, so that mistakes in familiar names and addresses are frequent (the mis-spelling of Hawarth and Branwell Bronte is hardly excusable), while the grouping-is-eleihentary. There are nine letters on "The Manly Chest" and nine on another topic. The one headline here and in many other instances is repeated everytime.
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