Again, "Ding"

"Am so tough I open sardine cans with my thumb nail."

Thus telegraphed Jay N. Darling (famed as "Ding," cartoonist for the Des Moines Register and other newspapers) to the firm which is again to syndicate his cartoons, indicating his recovery after a year's serious illness. Last March "Ding" so nearly died of peritonitis that many editors prepared his obituary on the strength of an announcement that he could live but an hour longer. Last week "Ding" cartoons began to appear again. The first was concerned exclusively with the artist himself, showed him racing to catch up to his former place in the world.

Scripps Provides

Not long ago the publishing world was surprised, and then not surprised, when the late Publisher Frank A. Munsey withdrew the bulk of his vast fortune from publishing and bestowed it upon the Metropolitan Art Museum, Manhattan (TIME, Jan. 11, ART). That gesture was perplexing until one recalled how Mr. Munsey had traded in newspapers as he had traded in groceries. Public prints were his means, not his end. He had created nothing in journalism to perpetuate after his death.

Something different was expected in the will of the late Publisher Edward Wyllis Scripps (TIME, March 22), founder and owner of 24 Scripps-Howard newspapers, a man whose policy in life was to keep and care for the things he built. This will was filed for probate last week and it differed from Mr. Munsey's as a running spring differs from a full jug. It referred to a larger instrument that Mr. Scripps had executed some years ago, resolving his estate into a trust controlled and administered by his son, Robert P. Scripps. After due care of his family, incomes were provided for Miami University (to study population problems) and for Science Service, Inc. (to popularize and disseminate scientific information), and 30% of the residuary estate's annual revenue was designated "for purchasing, starting or financing new newspapers and news enterprises," and for providing stock opportunities for persons in the Scripps-Howard concern. In fine, the Scripps-Howard papers are to go marching on as their founder had caused them to march during his lifetime.

The total value of Mr. Scripps' estate had not been estimated, but the world suspected it would run nearer eight figures than seven. An annual income of $100,000 a year would probably be a modest estimate of what will be netted by the Scripps-Howard concern for expansion. With that amount, and a continuation of the Scripps policy of raising great things from small beginnings, the second largest* newspaper concern in the U. S. seems destined to exert its influence over the life of the country with uninterrupted, increasing effect. This "influence" is indirect rather than forthright. Edward Wyllis Scripps was no demagog, no journalistic crusader. He put little faith in overt editorial persuasion. His editorial policy, like the Decalog, was a series of negatives with one/- simple positive: "No lies--for love, malice or money; no fights; no wrangles; the newspaper should simply present all the facts."

Fiskoscope

Life is short, but the newspapers that record one day are sometimes 60 pages** long. Knowledge is power, but the old-style encyclopedias that contain it are so heavy that only a powerful arm can lift them. Words burn like stars, great thoughts outlast granite mountains, but the books in which words and thoughts, are written will weary a man's hand and tear his pocket. "Condense what you write," this age has said; "compress it, synchronize it, cut it down." For borne time such reflections as these have animated the mind of Rear Admiral Bradley Allen Fiske, U. S. N., retired. Recently they have had fruit in an invention which Admiral Fiske last week revealed to an amazed public.

This astounding mechanism--the Fiske Reading Machine--consists of a small spring-tongs on which are mounted a lens for one eye, a shield for the other and a rack to hold reading matter--really a very simple contrivance, something like a, stereoscope, except that you use one eye instead of two, and the lens is a more powerful magnifier. But the important part of this invention is not the mechanism but the use. For it will, asserted the Admiral, "render printing presses and typesetting machinery obsolete," "revolutionize the publishing industry," "make glasses unnecessary." By its help books will be reduced to the size of a package of postage stamps.

Admiral Fiske experimented with Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad, a work of 93,000 words. He had it printed to be read in his reading machine. In its reduced shape, it was a 13-page pamphlet, 3 1/2 inches wide, 5 1/2 inches long. How big will an encyclopedia be when shrunk for the Fiskoscope? No bigger than an ordinary novel. The Oxford Dictionary? A trifling brochure. The works of Balzac, of James Fenimore Cooper, of Thackeray, Scott, James Joyce? Slender dockets. Dr. Eliot's five-foot shelf will melt to the thickness of a few packs of cards and those advertisement-readers who seek culture for ten minutes a day can carry whole libraries in their waistcoat pockets.

Flippant people, however, raised an objection to the reading machine. They referred to its inventor as "Old Admiral Dead-eye"; stated, "If a man does all his reading from one side of his head, he stands a good chance of being crossed in love by his own eyes."

To these objectors, Rear Admiral Fiske--who has also invented a torpedo-plane, a telescope, a rangefinder, an ammunition hoist, a range indicator, a gun director system, a system for detecting submarines and an electromagnetic system for exploding torpedoes under ships--made answer:

"In my early experiments with the principle, both eyes were used in reading. I found however, that only one was necessary and, indeed, that the use of but one had many advantages. Two eyes are needed to determine distances, but the finest work by the human eye in using astronomical telescopes, microscopes and range finders is done with one eye exclusively."

"The eyes rest in the head. . . in the normal positions in which nature placed them. . . . The readers maintain an upright and healthful position. . . . This system. . . offers an immediate solution of the serious problems. . . a contribution to progress. . . ."

Indiscreet

Unimaginative readers of the usually decorous New York Times felt the very marrow chill in their bones last week at a certain headline:

POPE TELLS PLANS FOR HIS ARCTIC TRIP

With hearts pounding, they read on. If the Beatissime Pater was actually about to set out for the North Pole, he must intend to break tradition that he remain "the prisoner of the Vatican." Should Pius XI take but a step across his threshold, the Catholic world would literally be rocked to its foundation. The next heavy type headline made it appear that not even the excuse of polar exploration was being offered by Pius XI. For it read:

WOULD DISREGARD POLE

Why then was the Dominus Apostolicus setting out for the Arctic? He was not, of course, setting out at all! The indiscreet headline writer had created a false impression with regard to the Summus Pontifex by neglecting to make clear that the story run beneath his headline was about R. A. Pope, a minor explorer.

Many lifelong readers of the Times wondered how much longer they would continue to support a paper which has not only misapplied the title of the Vicar of Christ but has even headlined (in Oct., 1924):

CHRIST WINS GOLF TITLE

*The largest is the Hearst group whose total circulation is 3,844,000, an average of about 147,800 for each of the 26 separate journals. The total circulation of the 24 Scripps-Howard papers is 1,406,000, averaging about 58,500 each.

/-The Decalog has two--Remember Sabbath, Honor Parents.

**The New York Times last week (exclusive of Sunday) averaged 40 2/3 pages a day.