TOMORROW #6
(Vol 2. No.2 - Summer 1938)

ADVERTISEMENTS

ARE you a society secretary? Have you something to sell? Is there something you want? Then advertise in TOMORROW, which has the largest circulation of any "fan-mag." - 20 Hollin Park Road, Roundhay, Leeds 8.

BACK NUMBERS of Scientifiction obtainable price 7d. each from W. H. Gillings, 15 Shere Road, Ilford, Essex. Back Numbers of TOMORROW (excluding first two issues) obtainable, price 6d. each, from 20 Hollin Park Road, Leeds, 8.

IN good condition, one copy each Astounding Stories, April 1932, and Amazing Stories Quarterly, Winter 1932. What offers? - Taylor, 4 Bridge Road, Litherland, Liverpool 21.

UNDAMAGED early Amazing, Wonder, Astoundings wanted. - T. Moulton, 11 Aylesbury Avenue, South Shore, Blackpool.

WANTED: copy of "20th Century Inventions - a Forecast," by Geo. Sutherland; published by LOngmans in March, 1901 at 4/6. Also illustrated edition of "Etidorpha; or The End of Earth," by John Uri Lloyd, published in 1901 by Dodd; Dodd, Mead and Co., at $2.50. - D. W. F. Mayer, 20 Hollin Park Road; Leeds 8.

WANTED Amazing, Astounding, Wonder Stories. Also Weird and Strange Tales. 5/- for certain numbers. Also good science-fiction books. Highest prices. All wanted for science-fiction library. - Evans, 101 Church Street, London N.W.8.

A NEW definition of progress might be "the replacement of one of a kind with many." Whilst this is scarcely up to the standard of a Shavian epigram, we consider it rather good - since we thought of it ourselves.

For centuries, remember, the earth and sun were thought to be the only bodies of their respective types. Anyone who had dared to flout public opinion (in those days controlled, not by the press, but by the priests) by declaring otherwise would quickly have ended up in the medieval forerunner of a modern concentration camp. However, as dictators have sometimes found to their sorrow, truth will out, and the discovery of planets like our earth, and of millions of other suns scattered throughout space, showed the error. That was astronomical progress.

RIEMANN AND RELATIVITY

Similarly with geometry. For nearly two thousand years, Euclid's geometry, based on the axiom that through a point, only one straight line could be drawn parallel to another, was accepted and hammered into defenceless infants, along with Latin, Greek and other abracadabra, as being the only possible geometry. Then came the middle of last century, when the Russian mathematician, Lobatchewsky, realised that other geometries, for which this axiom did not hold, could be constructed. The one geometry had given way to many this was mathematical progress. What was more wonderful was that a new type of geometry, developed from Lobatchewsky's ideas by Riemann, was found by physicists to be more applicable to the working of the universe than the simple geometry of Euclid, and was developed by Einstein in his theory of Relativity.

In algebra, too, a similar thing happened. For hundreds of years (these things always go on for centuries, hundreds or thousands of years) mathematicians had done whatever mathematicians do with implicit faith in the idea that one number multiplied by a second was equal to the second multiplied by the first, and it remained for the Irish mathematician, Hamilton to point out the error. He did this in a typically Irish manner, by constructing an algebra which assumed that one number multiplied by a second was equal to minus the second multiplied by the first. This was the first of a whole new series of algebras, and just as a new geometry was used by Einstein to explain some of the secrets of the universe, so was a new algebra, known as tensor analysis, used by Heisinger to explain some of the mysteries of the atom.

Turning to matters science-fictional, we have the example stressed in a recent Astounding Science-Fiction editorial. Jack Williamson's "Legion of Time" introduced the idea of several futures, whereas most previous science-fiction authors had been content with one. This, according to editor John W. Campbell, was progress.

CLICHES AND COOKS

We must point out now that all these examples have been instances where "the replacement of one of a kind with many" has resulted in the increasing of knowledge, and since a little knowledge is supposed to be a dangerous thing, we presume that any increase in knowledge is quite desirable, and is progress in the right direction. But the calling to mind of such cliches as "Too many Cooks spoil the Broth" and "Enough's as good as a Feast," makes us feel that all duplication is not necessarily for the good.

We conjure up an uneasy picture of a tropical forest, where after a rainstorm vegetation grows so fast that plants of the same species choke one another: we remember that the slump in the cinema trade is supposedly due to a "redundancy" of cinemas: we recall Midas's consternation when he got more than he wanted: the word "overpopulation" buzzes through our head like Eddington's bee in the dome of St. Paul's, and then, strangely enough, our thoughts turn to the science-fiction magazines.

We recall how Amazing Stories was inaugurated in 1926, how Wonder Stories joined it in 1929, how Astounding Stories appeared in 1930, how the first British science-fiction magazine, Tales of Wonder, saw the light in 1937, how Marvel Science Stories startled fans three months ago, how Newnes are preparing their Fantasy, and how Thrilling Wander Novels has been announced to appear. The one has been replaced by seven. Progress indisputable!

IMPORTANT INTERROGATION

Then we call to mind Hugo Gernsback's letter on page 14; Editor Gillings' fears of "over-commercialisation" on page 7; our previous misgivings return with full force, and we ask ourselves the question we want all our readers to ask themselves when they write to the editors of the new magazines, or when they dip into their pockets to pay for them: a question which must be answered before we know where we stand: a question on which hangs the whole future of magazine science-fiction - Is it Progress?

D.W.F.M.

BALLYHOOING it as "the serial of the year" and describing it in an enthusiastic introductory editorial as "a thriller with an idea behind it. The work of a poet and a genius," the leftist newspaper, Daily Herald, proudly launched its readers, on March 29th, on a six weeks' science-fiction serial by Andrew Marvel, entitled "Minimum Man."

The story, which was published in book form in April by Gollancz, priced 8/6, was Welsh-born author Andrew Marvel's first novel, though he had previously edited annuals, and had written a play, based on the three men who burnt the aerodrome in North Wales. Producers, however, still fight shy of his epilogue layed in Heaven, which suffers a gas attack. The action of "Minimum Man," a fast-moving satire on human hypocrisy, takes place in 1950, with Britain under the rule of a Fascist dictatorship. The unexpected arrival of a diminutive species of super-men, next step in the chain of ultra-human evolution, produced parthenogenetically, complicates matters, especially as these "minimum men" think differently, act differently and have a different system of beliefs and behaviour to the "necessary" beliefs of normal man.

As News Review expressed it, "murders, jewel thefts, and democratic counter- revolution provide the action, with barbed shafts against contempory human lunacies adding to the spice." The serial was illustrated by Ronald Lampitt.

PROLIFIC PASSINGHAM

Like the Daily Herald, the juvenile popular science-cum-science-fiction magazine Modern Wonder is published by Odhams Press, as is the 2d. weekly magazine Passing Show, the magazine which, in the past, has published as science-fiction serials Balmer and Wylie's "When Worlds Collide" and "After Worlds Collide," and John Beynon's (John B. Harris) "Secret People" and "Stowaway to Mars."

On June 25th, with the accompaniment of illustrations by T. Grainger Jeffrey, a new science-fiction serial was launched, entitled "World Without Time" by William John Passingham. No newcomer to science-fiction is this 41 year-old London author who, in addition to stories and articles on London, in which he specialises, has contributed to Passing Show several articles and serials of a scientific or science-fictional nature. These include an illustrated, fact-crammed article on rocketry in the January 18, 1936 issue, and science-fiction serials "The Broadcast Murders" (a secret-service, foreign power, super-weapon thriller) and "When London Sank" (relating the sinking of London into caverns inhabited by prehistoric monsters) which respectively appeared in June and November 1937.

His new serial is described as "an unusual story of romance and high adventure; the story of a strange world and still stranger peoples."

SCIENCE AND SEX

"WANTED-science-fiction shorts from 4,000 to 6,000 words. The stories must occur in the far future, and if possible lean toward the horror type of yarn; plenty of sex, and the machines of the future furnishing the horror."

Such was the message sent to American science-fiction authors at the beginning of April, heralding the new science-fiction magazine Marvel Science Stories, the first issue of which, dated August, appeared toward the middle of May.

Described as "the magazine of super science stories," and published bi-monthly by Postal Publications in the Red Circle Magazine group, which includes eighteen Western, Sports and Detective magazines, the magazine has a cover illustrated by Norman Saunders, illustrator of many covers for the American science magazine Modern Mechanix, and of science articles in the erstwhile British magazine, Chums, whilst interior illustrators included reputed "Prince of Science-Fiction Artists" Frank R. Paul.

The leading story in the issue - "Survival," by Arthur J. Burks - was a thrilling 50,000 word account of a nation's devastation and rebirth, reminiscent of McClary's "Rebirth," Coblentz's "In Caverns Below" and Wells' "Country of the Blind." Later reports revealed that a sequel would appear in the October issue. Stanton A. Coblentz himself was represented by a modest short entitled "Through the Time Radio," whilst an additional short was "Monsters of the Mountain" by Leon Byrne. The remaining three -stories in the issue were all written by Henry Kuttner, who wrote the cover story "Avengers of Space" under his own name, a novelette "The Dark Heritage" as "Robert O. Kenyon," and a short, "Dictator of the Americas" as "James Hall."

Shocked out of their blissful calm by the "plenty of sex" nature of "Avengers of Space," fans soon made this perhaps the most discussed story of the year. Quoth Novae Terrae reviewer Ted Carnell: "A `sizzling' story .... the heroine gets stripped in the first chapter, on Earth, ever afterwards ditto, on each planet visited, by various loathsome critters."

Welcoming the return of artist Paul, he continued: "If you are a mouse and not a man you'll buy the mag for that alone - if the reverse, place mag in an ice-box ... and get in with it. Maybe you'll keep your blood below boiling point for more reasons than one."

Rounding off the issue was an offer of several prizes for letters giving readers' opinions of the magazine, causing shocked fans to eagerly await the next issues, in the hope of learning the general response to the new, sexy nature of the publication.

TWICE THIRTEEN

WITH superstition appropriately defied by having thirteen persons present, the fifth branch of the Science-Fiction Association (the fourth in England) was suitably inaugurated in Manchester as the climax of an enthusiastic meeting on May 22nd. With new Tales of Wonder artist and Manchester Interplanetary Society secretary Harry E. Turner in the chair, and with delegates from Leeds, Liverpool and London, the meeting commenced at 3.30 p.m. with the reading of a congratulatory message from S.F.A. General Execuive Secretary Kenneth G. Chapman, then Leeds Branch Chairman Douglas W. F. Mayer gave an account of the development of the Leeds Group since its formation In April 1935, stressing in particular the best lines to be followed and the pitfalls to be avoided in the organising of a branch.

In turn, Novae Tarrae editor Maurice K, Hanson requested members to fill in forms expressing their views on the desirability of the launching of a companion magazine to Thrilling Wonder Stories, and thus started a fierce discussion as to whether yet another science-fiction magazine were required at all, and if so, what it should be called. The full powers of imagination of all fans present were brought to bear on this latter problem, producing a variety of results that defied classification - or utilisation.

The restoral of peace was followed by London Branch humorist Arthur C. Clarke outlining recent activities in the metropolis, then Liverpool author and Johnson Service agent Leslie J. Johnson, assisted by Birkenhead colleague Abraham Bloom, dwelt on the future of the rapidly developing Johnson Science-Fiction Service. Thereafter, to quote the official Branch Report in Novae Tarrae: "the meeting was more informal in nature, consisting amongst other things of a scientific argument between Messrs. Clarke, Mayer and Hetherington that lasted intermittently until the meeting broke up, refreshments, and a display of artist Turner's handiwork."

MERSEYSIDE "METROPOLIS"

Inspired by the example of their Manchester colleagues, Liverpool fans rapidly set to work to hold a science-fiction meeting in their city, with the result that at 7.30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 21st,. eleven Liverpool fans, together with Abraham Bloom from Birkenhead, and Harry E. Turner from Manchester, assembled in the Hamilton Cafe.

First item on the agenda was the showing, by means of a cine projector brought along by Liverpool author-printer H. O.Dickenson, of the veteran UFA science-fiction film "Metropolis," depicting the revolt of the workers in a super-city of the future, the revolt being led by the son of the city's master, who falls in love with one of the girl workers. The silent picture, packed with shots of super-power stations, a mad inventor creating a synthetic woman with the outward appearance of the heroine but

with the soul of a demon, the flooding of the underground city in which the workers lived, and some exciting scenes in the catacombs, ran for over an hour, being watched with keen interest by all present.

With a whetted appetite for further films, an attempt was made to show a rocket film brought along by Harry Turner, following its showing at the general meeting of the Manchester Interplanetary Society. This was rendered difficult by the fact that, as it was standard size film, it could not be run through the sub-standard projector, but stimulated by the inventions already witnessed on the screen, those present contrived an elaborate system of lens holders and bits of tin, arranged and supported by five people, which enabled the film to be shown - upsidedown and sideways.

Following an exhibition of Harry Turner's drawings, the main business of the meeting was commenced by the election of Leslie J. Johnson as chairman of the meeting, who elicited from the gathering a unanimous agreement that an S.F.A. Branch should be formed in Liverpool. He was accordingly elected branch chairman, with British Interplanetary Society ex-Librarian and Council member N. Weedall as vice-chairman, other officers being J. Free as secretary, H. O. Dickenson as treasurer, and F. D. Wilson, as librarian.

THE first number of Fantasy, the new science-fiction magazine published by George Newnes, Ltd., will be on sale on July 29th, price 1/-.

Attractively produced with a cover in full colour, and lavishly illustrated, Fantasy contains 128 pages of stories and articles of outstanding merit. Contributors to this first issue include some of the best- known and most popular British science- fiction authors, represented by stories which they have written specially for Fantasy.

The principal contents of the issue include:-

"Menace of The Metal Men": By A. Prestigiacomo. - A brilliant, long complete story of a world threatened with domination by Automata - a Vision of Mankind enslaved by Mechanical Science.

"Beyond The Screen": By John Beynon. - A remarkable Time-Travel story of a new type by the popular author of "Stowaway to Mars," "The Secret People," etc.

"Leashed Lightening": By J. E. Gurdon. - Ten miles above the Earth, three men face appalling disaster-or the most sensational discovery in the history of Electrical Science.

"The Red Magician": By John Russell Fearn. - The Mental Sciences of the Martians is the central theme of this long complete story by a master of thrilling science-fiction.

"By Rocket Ship to the Planets": By P. E. Cleator.- An up-to-the-minute survey of man's progress towards the achievement of interplanetary travel; by the vice- president of the British Interplanetary Society.

"Son of Space": By Francis H. Sibson. - A brilliant short story of one who dared the Last Domain that is left to man to conquer.

"Shadow Man": By Eric Frank Russell. - Science-fiction with the "Russell" touch - and a sting in the tail.

And other stories and features.

MUTANTS MISSING

In compiling the first number of Fantasy, the big aim has been to present a collection of well-written science-fiction stories whose themes are neither too "advanced" to be understood by the average magazine reader, nor too elementary to be appreciated by the science-fiction connoisseur. Steering such a middle course involves the risk of foundering in mid-channel, but it is believed that Fantasy, fortunate in the co-operation of its crew of gifted contributors and artists, has successfully achieved the navigational feat and emerged a genuine science-fiction magazine of merit and wide, yet specialised appeal.

Fantasy may, as yet, feature no avowed "mutants" - but it is equally free from precocious young assistants to comic of professors. A good story, well written, and an imaginative theme with a scientific interest that is something more than a peg upon which to hang an adventure, is the formula to which the contents of Fantasy, without exception, subscribe.

British publishers' lack of enterprise in the science-fiction field has often been deplored by members of the Science-Fiction Association in their demand for magazines comparable with those produced in the United States. In Fantasy, a leading British publishing house now seeks to supply that demand to the best of its ability. If the result seems deserving of encouragement it is for science-fiction enthusiasts in this country, by their criticisms and suggestions to the Editor, to ensure that this new enterprise is directed along the right lines to become a worthy representative of British science-fiction.

I cordially invite such comment and criticism from readers of TOMORROW, and assure them that brick-bats or bouquets will be equally welcome and useful. Letters should be addressed to the Editor, Fantasy, Geo. Newnes, Ltd., Tower House, Southampton Street, Strand, W.C.2.

BOOK REVIEW By BENSON HERBERT, M.Sc.

TO WALK THE NIGHT

by William Sloane (Arthur Barker 7/6)

THIS masterly novel gives a new and fascinating slant to the old tale of a visitor from another world -in this case the moon, judging by the name of the intruder 'Selena.' We are not told specifically the origin of the visitor, but there are plenty of hints, which are far more effective than any direct statement could have been. In fact the book thrills by what it hints at rather than by what it tells.

The evidence for Selena's other world origin is gradually built up throughout the story; this psychological and circumstantial evidence forms the basis of the plot, and mounts in a carefully graded sequence to the eerie climax in the last few pages - the departure of Selena from the earth.

The author makes use of J. W. Dunne's theory of Serial Time to explain how Selena - a non-human mind-entity - is able to take possession of the body of an idiot girl. The visitor from space then proceeds to find out by actual participation how earth-people conduct their lives. "She" marries a scientist, who unfortunately is on the verge of making a discovery which will reveal Selena's true nature. This does not suit Selena, and by means of her strange mental powers she tries to dissuade him from his research.

SPOILED BY SPECTATORS

Unluckily the concentrated thoughts of thousands of spectators at a nearby American football game upset her calculations, and her husband is killed in a mysterious fashion which puzzles the detectives. Selena then marries the friend of her late husband, also a scientist, who eventually solves the mystery of his predecessor's death. He is so horrified at the notion that his wife is a murderer, and an alien being into the bargain, that he shoots himself.

The result is certainly a queer mixture - a detective thriller combined with an advanced science-fictional plot, with the weird atmosphere of a Poe story. But it keeps you guessing from first to last.

by P.E. Cleator

The first of a regular series of news articles by the author of "Rockets Through Space"

SOME years ago, when I was more enterprising intellectually than now, I contrived to persuade a highly dubious Editor to serve his unsuspecting customers with a weekly news feature concerning matters interplanetary. My first move was to write to him, expounding the merits of the proposal. Then I assaulted his ear by long distance telephone. Thereafter, I wrote again. Then I telephoned once more. Another letter followed - and so it went on. Finally, I undertook a long trek to London, and boldly invaded the editorial sanctum sanctorum in person. After hastily glancing at a specimen of the proposed feature, he implored me for God's sake to get on with it ....

In those seemingly distant days, rocket research was still something of a novelty. Hence the trials and tribulations aforementioned. And hence at least one editorial headache. But today, with the possible exception of Mr. H. G. Wells, the vast potentialities of the rocket are seemingly appreciated by all. The possibility of effecting an extra-terrestrial journey with the aid of the device, indeed, almost rivals the weather as a topic of polite conversation. I listen to a monologue on how man will reach the moon every time I treat myself to the luxury of a haircut. Even the rev. clergy are beginning cautiously to dabble in the devilish business. Soon, I dare say, the Archbishop of Canterbury will be appealing for funds for the purpose of converting the godless creatures of Mars. And one of these days, perhaps, an enterprising company of Martian magi will set about the pleasurable task of converting the Archbishop of Canterbury. If I live to see the fun, I faithfully promise noisily to applaud their activities from the safety of the moon.

CEASE FIRE!

AT the time of this sacred writing, the world's dozen or more organisations devoted to rocket research appear to be devoted to nothing of the kind - at least actively. Even America, until recently the scene of unrivalled experimental effort, seems to have ceased fire. Nearer home, events in the U.S.S.R. are, as always, surrounded by uncertainty; I have heard nothing from Professor Rinin or Dr. Jakow Perlmann for months. And elsewhere, the story is the same. What are experimenters doing in Holland, Germany, Austria, France, and Czechoslovakia? Are they, by any chance, experimenting? If they are, news of it has escaped me completely.

There are several reasons which may account for the lull. For one thing, I suspect that experimentation has reached a stage where further progress is not only difficult, but enormously more expensive.

And for another, there are indications that the Authorities are viewing the work with increasing disfavour. In These isles of the supposedly free, as all the world knows, it is strictly "Verboten," albeit my spies report that the Government itself is busily experimenting with rocket-propelled stratosphere 'planes. But when, some little time ago, I ventured to publish an announcement to this effect, and the enterprising London Star sought confirmation of it, there was obtained only a series of official denials. And no wonder! For the Government's only outward expression of interest in rocket research has been virtually to ban it.

Elsewhere, there is no doubt about Governmental interest. A leading member of a European Rocket Society, with whom I recently conferred, informed me that his organisation had received an offer of unlimited Governmental support. But in return, it was demanded that complete secrecy should be observed - and all discoveries were to become the property of the State! Despite the tempting offer of unlimited financial aid, the Society decided to work under such conditions - and now finds itself forbidden to experiment at all!

The Governments of the world, in brief, are planning to use the rocket in the next war to end war. In this event, I predict, after due prayer, the end of our now perfected Christian civilisation within a month of the outbreak of hostilities.

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

Once moderately prosperous Austrian Jew, now destitute as a result of an overnight metamorphosis from respected citizen to Aryan Spittoon, seeks foreign publisher for his latest work.

The victim is my old friend, Josef Weisberger. In addition to being a Jew, he is the author of several works concerning a revolutionary theory of lunar phenomena. His latest manuscript is in my hands, and I am empowered to arrange for its publication. Non-Nazi publishers please note.

LUNAR LITANY

FROM conjectures regarding the red spot of Jupiter, and from theories about the canals of Mars; from correspondents who quote Sir James Jeans, and from admirers of H. G. Wells; from Press photographers and from autograph hunters; from suggestions that the moon consists of green cheese, and from proofs that the world is flat; from bishops and lesser necromancers who denounce the interplanetary idea as impious and against God, and from newspaper Editors who inform their customers that the Solar System is shortly to be annexed to the British Empire; from sweet young things who innocently inquire what a planet is, and from amiable aunts whose little nephews want rockets for their birthday presents; from the theory that the ancient Egyptians knew the secret of space travel, and from the adage that there is nothing new under the sun; from bearded strangers who learned from a dying astrologer the secret of perpetual motion, and from old ladies who receive messages in Morse from Mars-good Lord, deliver us!

ANALECTA

FOLLOWING the publication of "The Rocket Ban," which appeared in the February, 1938, issue of the Astronaut there have been many enquiries regarding the position. It remains unchanged. Which is to say, all who dwell in this land of liberty are born with an inalienable right to shoot, fire, or otherwise cause to ascend in the air a rocket vessel, providing permission has been obtained from the Authorities concerned, and which permission will in no conceivable circumstances be given.

Recently come to light is the fact that another German Rocket Society was formed in December last - at Breslau, birthplace of the old Verein fur Raumschiffahrt E.V. The name of the new Society is the Gessellschaft fur Weltraumforschung. A publication, entitled Astronomische Rundschau, is issued.

The May, 1938 issue of the Scientific American contains an article outlining the researches of Dr. Goddard, entitled "Number One Rocket Man." The author is G. Edward Pendray, editor of Astronautics.

Given that the Manchester Interplanetary Society has recently become affiliated with the British Interplanetary Society; that the Manchester Astronautical Association has also concluded an agreement with the British Interplanetary Society,

(Continued on Page 13, Col. 1)

"PSYCHOLOGY?" says the man-in-the-street a passing craze--not to be taken too seriously." A new science has always had this type of criticism levelled against it, and psychology, perhaps newest of all sciences, undoubtedly receives its share. And yet this same man-in-the- treet knows hardly the elements of applied psychology.

A general definition is: "The study of the effect of external factors on the human mind," and it seems that the importance of such study has been heretofore sadly neglected.

SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY

There is not one of us who can say: "The study of psychology would be of no value to me," since it finds application in our everyday lives. But, when we were at school, we were taught the elements of physics and chemistry, and perhaps biology and botany, yet heard no mention of psychology. Having taken an examination in those subjects, most of us went into business life and forgot about them, simply because they did not concern us further. A short school training in psychology and its applications would be of benefit to us all, as it is of practical use to use everyday of our lives. I suggest that in the schools of the future, psychology will be a subject studied by all, and that a result of this will be the advent of a better mentally balanced, a more tactful, and more optimistic race.

Have you noticed how most of our daily papers have started giving psychology tests? The paper gives a series of questions which we are to answer and allot ourselves marks for these answers. We then find that, according to the Daily Blank, we are, say, 40 per cent. self- centred, 60 per cent. good conversationlist, and so on. Even if these tests are taken only in a light hearted and semi- serious manner, their oft-recurrence is a pointer that psychology is tending to become one of the popular sciences. If it is served up in simple form and easy doses the public will absorb it-moreover, they will enjoy absorbing it, and this is an easy road to knowledge.

COMMERCIAL CONSIDERATIONS

Again, these tests arouse the competitive instinct. Suppose Mr. Smith tells you he finds by test that he is "70 per cent. considerate-to-others." Your interest rises, and you try this test on yourself, and you find you get 75 per cent. You at once hasten to let Mr. Smith know this, and a friendly argument about your respective merits is certain to follow. So it comes about that a delicate subject is being discussed in the most congenial of terms. discussion will lead eventually to truth, and so I am hound to commend the reading of "armchair psychology" magazines and books which now appear on the market.

Apart from its interest to the individual, applied psychology has great influence in the commercial world. I suppose all of us have, at some time or another, been annoyed at the way the boss asked us to do a job. Perhaps he only chose his words a little carelessly, but it was sufficient to put us in a bad humour, and consequently the job was done unconsciously less efficiently than it might otherwise have been done.

In most large firms occurrences of this kind are only too common, in fact the efficiency, of a whole factory may be considerably impaired by a manager who cares little about the way in which he approaches his subordinates. I foresee the day when all large firms will employ a psychology manager whose job will be to observe and advise. He will briefly analyse the character of each only-part-efficient employee, and arrive at the best method of rectifying any misunderstandings and maladjustments. Psycho-analysis of course, is practical nowadays, but is applied to comparatively few cases. Rapid strides are being made in this direction, and both psychological and physiological tests are being developed in order to ensure that a man may have, or at any rate know, the type of job to which he is best suited.

SCIENCE'S SAVIOUR

In the last issue of this magazine, Prof. Low asked: "Why not a Minister of the Future?" I follow this up by asking: "Why not a Minister for Psychology?" For both home and foreign affairs psychology is desperately needed today-and tomorrow more than ever. With either home or foreign affairs a Psychology Minister could be kept very busy. The psychology of war is a very controversial subject on which to touch, but I would say that the psychology of a vanquished nation is similar to that of a repressed child. If and when it regains sufficient strength to reassert itself, its mood is many times the worse for the years of repression. Thus it is that with the end of one war are sown the seeds of the next.

So it has always been, but now a new order is called for. Man is realising that another world war would rock the very foundations of his civilisation. He is realising too, that the sciences which he has developed and which he loves are being used for his own destruction, and he is searching for some avenue of escape from the crisis.

In the arbitary advance of science some branches have leapt ahead, while others have lain neglected through the centuries. Physics, chemistry and engineering have provided man with a means for the almost immediate destruction of a city, but no branch of science has yet provided sufficient deterrent from such things.

While this remains so, non-scientific persons have a very real grievance against the scientist. It is a matter for debate as to whether each and every scientist can be blamed for the misuse of the products of science; but if a new science could be sufficiently developed and applied to create harmonious relationships between the nations, all semblance of blame would be removed from the scientists. I suggest that in the applications of commonsense psychology may lie the basis of such a science.

TRANSPORT OF THE FUTURE

THE illustrations on the cover of this issue - reproduced from Armchair Science, the 6d. pocket-sized monthly, by kind permission of the publishers - are photographs of models of vehicles of the future which are to be exhibited in the Transportation Section of the 1939 New York World's Fair. They were designed by the French born, naturalised American, Raymond Loewy, one of the foremost industrial designers of today.

As a boy he dreamed of engines and machines in terms of beauty, and is now realising his ambition by designing all manner of things from lip-sticks, cigarette cases and typewriters to locomotives, liners and aeroplanes, producing products which combine both beauty and efficiency. He played a leading part in the stream- lining of one of the new Pacific type engines of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Observations on the running of locomotives lead to the design of a model in clay and to its testing in a wind-tunnel, in which the various effects of air resistance could be studied. The front of the boiler was rounded off with a bullet-like nose, and the "cow catcher," headlight, and projecting parts which create air resistance were skilfully blended into graceful contours sweeping back to the cab.

Loewy's studio walls are covered with fascinating drawings of vehicles yet to come. He has been described as "one of an inspired handful of men who are quietly changing the physical appearance of the world we live in. He shapes the future out of clay instead of a crystal ball, and his studio is a place of engineering magic filled with the wonders of things to come."

His model of an airliner of the future, whilst certainly creating an impression of beauty, power and speed, has, however, received criticism from aeronautical engineers. They believe that in the 'plane of the future the engines will disappear into the wing, thus eliminating the drag of the eight nacelles, and they do not think the fuselage should he allowed to project so high above the wing, nor to have so blunt a bow. On the other hand, they agree that Loewy is correct in making the fuselage very much shorter than that of the con- ventional aeroplane of to-day. We hope to include an article on the New York World's Fair in our next issue.

FEW British fans can claim a ten-years' acquaintance with magazine science-fiction, yet in 1927, the cover of an issue of Amazing Stories, illustrating a scene from T. S. Stribling's "Green Splotches," attracted the attention of a young student of Leyton Technical College. That young student was Walter Herbert Gillings, now the 26-year-old Editor of Britain's quarterly science-fiction magazine Tales of Wonder, Associate Editor of TOMORROW, and a member of the Council of the Science-Fiction Association.

Unlike most modern fans, the young student had never previously read the works of Wells or Verne, but quickly became attracted to them on seeing reprints of their stories in the American magazines. Again, unlike most modern fans, he had no liking for such things as chemistry, physics or mathematics, but leaned towards a journalistic career. Whilst at school, he ran several tyro magazines, in one of which his flair for fantasy showed itself in a serial entitled "2000 A.D." For, once having cultivated the taste for science-fiction, he devoured all that he could find, and has since read little else, so great is his passion for it.

INTERESTED ILFORDIANS

On leaving school he worked as a clerk in a city office (and wrote science-fiction when the boss wasn't around), until he managed to get into journalism and became a junior reporter on the Ilford Recorder, one - so he claims - of London's best suburban weeklies. It was soon after that - in 1930 - that he was inspired with the urge to see British publishers paying the same attention to science-fiction that it was receiving in America, and began to write to editors in an attempt to persuade them to encourage the writing of fantasy along similar lines. With the idea of banding together the increasing number of British readers who, in the correspondence columns of the American publications, were constantly bemoaning the lack of anything analogous to them in their native land, he started the Ilford Science Literary Circle and contrived to interest the uninitiated in science-fiction, while trying to induce other fans to form similar Circles throughout Britain.

But despite the support of English author J. M. Walsh, whose "Vandals of the Void" appeared about that time, and who confessed to the Ilford enthusiasts that he preferred writing science-fiction to the mystery stories for which he is famed, Gillings' project of a national organisation for the promotion of this literature did not mature. An article in The Writer, in which he urged other British authors to turn their pens to it, and all his appeals to the fans to give their backing to the movement, failed to produce any response, and with the breaking up of the Circle, he lost active interest in the subject under pressure of his journalistic duties. However, he still found time to read science-fiction and give an occasional reminder to editors that there was a promising field waiting to be exploited, though their usual reply was to remind him that Wells and Verne had done it all long before.

FUTURE FICTION

Then at length, in 1934, the appearance of the juvenile fantasy weekly, Scoops, revived his ardour. The fact that it failed to stay the course, through its limited appeal, with the publishers' own admission that a large number of men were actually buying the paper, only served to convince him the more that there was a future for British science-fiction, if only it were presented so as to attract a larger and more mature public. Soon after that he turned to the publishers of Passing Show, in which American science-fiction was being serialised, as the most likely firm to develop it on spectacular, but intelligent lines.

He managed to interest Odhams in his proposals for a magazine to publish popular science articles and stories reflecting the spirit of the future, and to be called Tomorrow, but after a year they decided that the idea could not be entertained until another year had passed, and Gillings suffered another set-back. By a strange coincidence, the idea of a similar magazine with an identical title had occurred to Douglas W. F. Mayer, of Leeds, who launched such a magazine (recently combined with Scientifiction to produce this present magazine) in April, 1937, under the auspices of the Science-Fiction Association.

Meanwhile, with the support of a small but willing band of British authors, Gillings was trying to interest Geo. Newnes, Ltd., in the idea of a science-fiction magazine, and was also developing plans for the production of a "British Fantasy Review" which appeared in February, 1937, under the title, Scientifiction, and which was published bi-monthly until March,. 1938.

SUDDEN SUCCESS

The history of Scientifiction, and of the downfall of his negotiations with Newnes, is too well-known to most science-fiction enthusiasts to need repetition here, as is the story of how, undaunted by his previous disappointments, he approached the firm of World's Work, publishers of specialised magazines, and once more argued the merits of science-fiction as an untried field, awaiting proper development. This time, the opportunity to test his theory ame so swiftly that it took him completely by surprise, so used had he become to its eluding his grasp. For World's Work's Texas-born Managing Editor, Chalmers Roberts, instantly agreed to make the experiment providing Gillings could supply the material for a single issue.

"You" know the rest," he added, glancing at the original cover painting of the first Tales of Wonder which hung on the wall. over his desk, in the little office at Ilford where he spends most of his spare time. On a table in the corner lay a pile of manuscripts, and in another corner were a dozen bulky files filled with letters to and from authors and publishers. Against one wall stood a massive bookcase crammed to capacity with a complete collection of the American magazines, while nearby was a smaller bookcase containing a miniature: library of science-fiction volumes.

AMPLE IMAGINATION

He went on to describe how he produced the first three issues of Tales of Wonder, how he had to choose the stories to suit both new readers and experienced fans, and how the magazine was at last meeting with success.

"The fact that Tales of Wonder has proved successful enough to warrant quarterly publication," he added, "seems to indicate that there are some thousands of eople with sufficient imagination to appreciate science-fiction, so long as it is presented fairly intelligently."

The most gratifying part of the response he has received, Gillings told me, was the fact that he is attracting back to science-fiction many former fans who gave up reading the American magazines some years ago, because of the fantastic lengths to which they were going. This, he thought, seemed to indicate that British science-fiction will never become anything like so complex and all-embracing as it has in America, even if it beoomes irmly established over here. "As I believe it will in time; but, for the moment, it is sufficient to have made a start after all these years. I shall be surprised if we don't see some further developments in the field of publishing very shortly, now that a start has been made. Though I

(Continued on Page 13, Col. 1)

ALTHOUGH I have been a reader of 'fantasy' periodicals for many years, it only occurred to me the other day that I did not know exactly what the word 'fantasy' meant. I referred to a dictionary, and found that the word was described as originating from the Greek "phantazein," to make visible, and from "phainein," to show. A fantasy is described as "an extravagant or whimsical fancy, image or idea; the faculty of inventing or forming fanciful images; a fanciful invention or design."

Now, I am what is known as a psychical researcher; and believe me, that is almost synonymous in the minds of most people with much that is fanciful and fantastic. Let me mention just a few words: 'Ghosts,' 'Mediums,' `Clairvoyance,' 'Prophecy,' 'Table-tilting,' 'Hypnotism'; and I will wager that they cause the reader to mutter, almost automatically - 'Rubbish,' 'Fraud,' 'Bunkum,' 'Bilge' and other complimentary epithets. If he does not - well, I have hopes for the intelligence and ultimate salvation of that reader.

POWERS OF PROPHECY

Nevertheless, I believe that the genuine scientifiction fan will not rush foolhardily into condemnation of subjects of study which are apparent fantasies; bemuse he, will realise that by the voicing of such condemnation he is at the same time disparaging his beloved science-fiction, which admittedly is concerned with the fantastic.

Why do you read these tales of wonder, these scienti-fairy stories? Why do I read them?

Years ago I read "The War in the Air" (H. G. Wells), "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea" (Jules Verne), and other similar tales. Then they were the forerunners of modern seientifiction. But, hang it all, they did not remain science- fiction! When, during the Great War, I was bombed from the air, and torpedoed from the depths of the ocean, I had good cause to curse these science-fiction writers and their "powers of prophecy." Do you see what I mean?

It is my opinion that all true scientifiction writers those who base their stories on known facts of science-are nothing more or less than prophets. That is to say, they take a given set of present day facts or conditions, and, using their natural powers of imagination and deduction give us word pictures of how those facts or conditions will affect the future. Sometimes those pictures are wrong; sometimes they are very near the truth as it eventually turns out to be. But I would suggest that those authors whose stories approximate most closely to that truth are persons whose powers of observation, deduction and imagination are more highly developed.

Imagination! Fantasy! Ideas! Where would any of your modern inventions - the telephone, aeroplane, talkies, wireless sets - be without the operation and use of these three? Ideas for instance are always the progenitors of any material utensil. Your house existed first as an idea in the mind of the architect. Your safety razor was originally an idea suggested to the inventor as a result of cuts sustained by the use of an ordinary razor. Your steam engine might never have been invented if Jas. Watt had not conceived an idea from watching the action of steam on a kettle-lid. His imagination leapt forward and showed him what might happen if the same force which moved the lid were utilised to move wheels.

What has all this to do with the study of the supernormal? Simply this, that people are inclined to dismiss stories of psychic origin as products of imagination, figments of fantasy; whereas by the exercise of observation and deduction and imagination, supernormal phenomena may be brought into the realm of understandable fact. Make no mistake about it, these phenomena do occur. Not all stories of the sunernormal are the result of mal- observation or delusion. The fact that they do not fall within the scope of orthodox science and cannot be explained by present-day knowledge proves nothing; except perhaps that science is not so far advanced as we sometimes like to think it is.

It is clear, however, that all these super-normalities occur in Nature. They are not super natural, therefore, and should be diligently studied by Science. For this reason the Group to which I belong makes a practice of collecting and collating data of unusual happenings throughout the world - much in the manner of the late Charles Fort - and where possible investigations are carried out on the spot where they occur. It believes that there is no hard and fast demarcation between the normal and supernormal, and that close study of apparent irregularities in Nature will eventually show that they fall into line with generally accepted knowledge. Here scienhifiction can play its part, by dwelling upon the data laboriously acquired by the methods of psychic research, and allowing the flame and colour of its imagination to suggest through the media of stories the interpretation and meaning of existence.

"TALES OF WONDER'S" TREAT FOR FANS

INCREASING demands for reprints of stories which most British science-fiction fans have heard of, but never had the opportunity of reading, will be satisfied by Tales of Wonder in the next and subsequent issues. Believing that such stories will be both acceptable to fans and appropriate to the tastes of less experienced readers, Editor Walter A. Gillings has secured many of the earlier tales of Edmond Hamilton, Dr. David H. Keller. Lloyd Arthur Eshbach, and all the well-known British writers, which will appear simultaneously with new material by these and other authors.

In the fourth issue, out in September, English author John Edwards, who has appeared on three occasions in America, will make his debut in Tales of Wonder with a novelette, "The Menace from Space," dealing with a poison-gas cloud which engulfs the Earth. Lloyd Arthur Eshbach will make his first English apearance with "Out of the Past," a new story of time-travel, while yet another new British author will also be introduced.

Edmond Hamilton will be represented with one of his early stories which appeared in Weird Tales many years ago, and will later be followed by several others which have never been seen in this country. Festus Pragnell's first story, "The Essence of Life," and Dr. Keller's "The Eternal Professors," will also be reprinted.

The issue was not complete when TOMORROW went to Dress, but it is expected that a new story by William F. Temple will be included, the subject of which will prove so unusual that it may cause a heated controversy between readers, who are showing great difference of opinion in their reactions to stories in the last issue.

JUDGING from the number of letters received by the editorial department of Amazing Stories, which I have the honour of editing in a managerial capacity, British science-fiction seems headed for an even more enthusiastic reception by its own readers than was accorded to the old and original Amazing. Almost daily, some member of the Isles writes to comment in a characteristically constructive English manner. There is a basic quality to British criticism that appeals to me. It has as much enthusiasm as the American brand, but tempered with a bit more tolerance. It seems to be generally accepted over here as due to the fact that science-fiction in Britain is far behind the American brand in scope, that British fans have not advanced to the point attained by American magazines. And yet, it seems peculiar that some of the best science-fiction is written by Englishmen.

STORY STIMULATION

I do not propose, in this article, to flatter British fans, or cast any aspersions on the American fan. Naturally I think there's nothing like the science-fiction of America, and I hope we can continue to hold that position. But it is my contention that a story is a story, and there is no reason why any science-fiction magazine whatsoever, should not govern itself by that fact. Thus, I personally believe American science-fiction is in for a drastic change in the next few years, which will finally develop it as a full-fledged member of the fiction world. More and more is the story value of science-fiction improving, as the advance in scientific features slows down. We can't allow science-fiction to advance to silly incredibleness. And the authors are realising it too. They are turning out more "story" lately.

So it seems to me that eventually a balance must be struck, in which the so- called superiority of American science-fiction over British will be equalised. For it is a significant fact that both British and American readers are unanimous in their opinion as to what constitutes a good story. And inevitably, it is the story with the greatest human interest, the most emotional human problem, that gains the unstinted praise of all readers.

Personally, I am very much interested in making Amazing Stories the leading magazine of the science-fiction world, over here. But I do not consider that I want only to please a certain type of reader. I feel sure that no matter what part of the world the magazine reaches, it will be read and enjoyed by every type of person. Human nature is much the same the world over, and every man enjoys a good story. And that's what I intend to give to the reader in Amazing Stories.

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM

And to British science-fiction, I wish all of the best, and I feel certain that it cannot fail to attain the same goal toward which I am shooting. Certainly it is of prime significance that there does not exist a science-fiction magazine, which is not now in the hands of a full-fledged science-fiction fan.

Concerning my own work, both as a writer, and as an editor, I am especially indebted to the British fans for much of the constructive criticism which has enabled me to apply better quality to my creation.

In closing, I wish to express my admiration for the work of the English writers who are doing a great job of science-fiotiun writing, a brand that is not surpassed even by the alert and advanced American writer. Which seems to prove once more: A story is a story, whether it is science-fiction or the veriest of detective thrillers.

Science-Fiction's Story - Continued

IT was over three years before the first science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, with its Quarterly edition, had to contend with competition in the form of a rival publication in the same field. Throughout this period it reigned supreme, the only magazine of its kind: today, five publications vie with each other for popularity on both sides of the Atlantic.

During the last twelve months of its period of monopoly, it was, nevertheless, presenting its readers with many fine stories, growing more and more ambitious in scope; stories, too, that so captured the imagination that they live in the memory to this day, long after some of those of later years have been forgotten. Looking back on it now, one can see that this period - the end of 1928 and the first half of 1929 - was of great importance in the evolution of science fiction.

Take, for instance, "The Skylark of Space," Dr. Edward E. Smith's interplanetary story, then being serialised in the monthly magazine. An editorial note described it as "one of the outstanding scientifiction stories of the decade ... that will not be eclipsed soon," prophesying - and correctly - that "it will be referred to by all scientiflction fans for years to come." Two more memorable part-stories that followed this were "The World at Bay," by B. and Geo. C. Wallis, and "The "Sixth Glacier", by an author who styled himself "Marius", and who had already appeared with "Vandals from the Moon."

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Other unforgettable tales published about this time included Harl Vincent's "War of the Planets" and "Ambassador from Mars"; "The Moon Men," by Frank Brueckel, Junr.; "The Menace of Mars," by Clare Winger Harris; "Cauphul, the City Under the Sea," by George Cookman Watson; and "The Death of the Moon," by Alexander Phillips. Then there were "The Roger Bacon Formula." by Irvin Lester and Fletcher Pratt, who were then writing regularly in collaboration; the Fourth Dimensional stories of Dr. Miles J. Breuer, and an occasional short "Keller- yarn."

Many other writers figured whose names appeared only once, though it was not because their first stories were not appreciated. Joe Kleier, Kirk Meadowcroft, E. M. Scott, Alfred Fritchey, Edward L. Rementer, Wallace G. West: how many younger converts to science-fiction have heard of these?

But it was in the Quarterly that some of the most vivid stories appeared. I, for one, shall never forget A. Hyatt Verrill's "World of the Giant Ants," Capt. S. P. Meek's "MUrgatroyd Experiment," L. Taylor Hansen's "What the Sodium Lines Revealed," and that wonderful giantism tale of Walter Kateley's, "The Hollister Experiment" Nor that immensely thorough story of the future, "Ralph 124C41+," by the great Gernsback himself, which had been serialised in his Modern Electrics magazine in 1911.

Later came the more ambitious satire in which Stanton A. Coblentz pictured the world "After 12,000 Years," along with Edmond Hamilton's second contribution to Amazing, "Locked Worlds." Other authors who helped to make the Quarterly a veritable feast of science-fiction every three months were Aladra Septama, Harl Vincent, and Dr. Keller, with his recently reprinted "Stenographer's Hands."

Towards the end of this vital period in Amazing's development, Hyatt Verrill gave us, in the monthly, what was probably the most tremendous and memorable story of all - "Into the Green Prism," which later led to an equally enjoyable sequel, "Beyond the Green Prism." Before that, however, there was a reversion to Jules Verne with the commencement of "The English at the North Pole," coincident with Gernsback giving up the magazine to launch Science Wonder Stories, and other allied publications. With the advent of these rivals, and their effect on Amazing, I shall deal in my next article.

(To be continued)

DURING the past year there has been quite a large amount of controversy over the relation of the science-fiction enthusiast to the world at large. The camp of intense readers, generally referred to as fans, has become divided over the issue.

In the past the relation of the science- fiction fan to the real world was but vaguely outlined. It was generally supposed that the fan was more or less aloof from the world about him, that he was as a rule more or less a genius, and hence somehow not subject to the laws of human society. If the topic were brought up, it would be answered that the fan after several years tended to become a scientist. In short, science-fiction led to a science career. In recognition of that Gernsbackian notion, fans usually make a pretence of engaging in science work. Their clubs pretended to have science laboratories, they would hold long debates on pseudo- scientific topics almost any of which would frighten a real scientist out of his wits, and they would form all sorts of "science clubs."

In the autumn of the past year there appeared some very serious questioning of that view. Earlier that year one of the biggest of the fan "science" clubs had broken up after four years of activity. In the summarisation of its record it became clear that it had achieved no science work at all save for some vague and unsatisfactory rocket-mail experiments three years previous. Those among its ex-members who were most deeply concerned over the club's failure were set to thinking about the internal reasons for the lack of real science in science-fiction work.

REALISATION RAPTURE

The presentation of their conclusions set up the wave of thought which is apparently leading science-fiction into two camps. They decided that science-fiction did not lead to science itself. They came to the belief that the science-fiction fan tended towards a non-technical outlook - if he drifted into any career at all, it was a literary one. Further the effect of science-fiction was to give him certain ideals and conceptions far in advance of the average man. He tended to look towards the future with eagerness and understanding. He envisioned certain things such as the desirability of the world-state, of a universal language, of the application of science towards making this world a more ideal place. His attitude towards science was not primarily one of working in it, but rather of working for it. The science- fiction fan was the champion of science not the maker of it. And as champion of science his role could only be a sociological one. One might almost say a political one, for it called for him to take an interest in what the general ideals and aims were that were swaying mankind, so that he might find those trends which he as an individual should support to realise his dreams.

The realisation of science-fiction is the sole cause for the activity of the science fiction fan, The inward subconscious desire of each reader and enthusiast to make his dreams come true, to realise them, is the driving power that makes fans come together, write letters, publish magazines, go about their many activities often with the intensity of a fanatic. In the past, due to the origin of pulp science-fiction from the pages of popular science periodicals, it was mistakenly thought that the way to realisation was through study of science. That this is wrong has been proved by the ten years of fan science-clubs and the failure of any of them to do anything. The road to realisation must lie elsewhere. The only remaining road is that towards the sociological solution.

DOGMATIC DECLARATION

The first proponents of that solution found a formula to state just what the only course for a fan should be. They stated dogmatically that "science-fiction followers should actively work for the realisation of the scientific socialist world- state as the only genuine justification for their activities and existence" They were quite grim about it.

As months passed and they got deeper into their studies, they let down their iron outlook, realising that theirs was the most advanced and extreme view and that most of the fans could hardly be expected to have gone to such a stage. They undertood that fans who were trying to realise science-fiction through many channels and dverse methods in the general sociological field were on the correct road and should be aided and encouraged. Those who were socialists and those who were only mild Esperantists were both on the right track.

In the clash with the old standards of thought, an opponent of the new ideas brought up what seemed a vital argument. be stated that science-fiction fans were escapists, that they fled the bitter and individual unpleasantries of their own lives by seeking solace in a dream-world of science-fiction. As such they were not battlers for a new order but refugees from an old. And, he went on, if now they were to "politically advance" themselves they would have to re-enter this bitter present and thus destroy their escape mechanisms. In short if the new ideas prevailed, it would mean the end of science-fiction.

IMAGINATIVE INFLUENCE

The answer to that was that their very activities in science proved they were already seeking a method of removing their personal conflicts with the present. That those very few who actually became scienists ceased to read science-fiction. That genuine application to cold science and mathematical exactitudes definitely would destroy their fantasies and dream-worlds. On the other hand, some of the greatest writers of speculative fiction have been those who were deeply interested in world affairs. H. G. Wells was the outstanding proof of that. Again, many world leaders have occasionally turned their hands to imaginative fiction, whereas few if any real scientists have ever touched it. Such men as Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Tweedsmuir (John Buchan), Salvador de Madariaga, and others prove this point.

The application of the social approach to science-fiction would not mean the death of science-fiction itself. Rather it would tend to create a new and greater literature. Instead of the hackneyed and rather juvenile "interplanetary wild-west" stuff such as the magazines purvey today, there would be created a demand for a more vivid and awake fiction, for literary creations of the calibre of "Last and First Men" and "Brave New World." The complete understanding of the nature of science-fiction's hold over its readers will alone lay the foundations for any truly great advance in this form of writing. Such a New Science-fiction would reach and influence far greater masses than ever before and would indeed by its mere existence do much towards the creation of a better world.

FUNNY FANTASY

THE Paramount musical "Big Broadcast of 1938" contains intriguing glimpses of some ultra-futuristic scientific mechanisms which are supposedly capable of making a super-liner travel at 65 knots. In the same picture W. C. Fields makes an amusing journey on a hybrid of a scooter and an aeroplane.

It would seem as if the recent glut of horror-science films is giving way to glut of comedy-science films. We recall seeing the Ritz Brothers recently in an astronomical burlesque, whilst the new British picture, "Oh Boy," featuring Albert Burdon and Mary Lawson, depicts the amusing effects which result when the hero takes an "energising" drug which has the unexpected property of causing him to revert gradually to babyhood. In addition, the role of a superman created by scientific formulae, in the Columbia film version of science-fiction author Phillip Wylie's "The Gladiator," will be played by none other than Joe E. Brown. Perhaps someone will now commence to film the Penton and Blake series of interplanetary stories with the title roles played by Laurel and Hardy.

WANTED in good condition: Astounding, Wondor and Amazings prior to 1934. Also Clayton Astoundings. Send lists to L. Turner, 45 Maltravers Terrace, Sheffield.

HIKING, travelling about this planet on foot, and camping, dwelling in improvised or transportable shelters had, of course, been human activities since the dawn of history. Curtailed during the Age of Cultivation, because most people had to stay tied to their own patch of soil, they developed during the later Industrial Revolution, and especially after the Great War. They were largely suppressed, as many other fine things were suppressed, during the confusion of the later Wars and the Plague, and were not encouraged by the austere fanatics of the Second World Council. Only with the coming of the Modern State did they reappear, as they still remain, as the chief recreational activity of the greater part of humankind.

But the hiking of the Modern State differs as much from that of the post-war period as it does from that of the paleolithic sub-man. The clumsy equipment of the old-time "rambler"- for some of these early road-farers were insulted if they were spoken of as "hikers" - the heavy "pack," the so-called lightweight tent, the thick "flea-bag," would seem as out of place on our modern footpaths as a steam engine or a petrol motor-car. No sooner was hiking accepted as the normal routine of life than the technicians set to work on its development, and now we have a host of inventions at which our 20th century forerunners would have stared in wonder.

FUELS, FOODS AND FERMENTS

The greatest difficulty of the hiker had hitherto been to obtain regular supplies of water. So he had to arrange his route to meet the chance convenience of streams and wells, and many of the finest regions of desert and mountain seemed closed to him for ever. Now, by the use of the "Hopkins Compressed Low-Temperature Hydrogen Fuel," he can obtain water whenever he wishes. One small quarter- ounce tablet of this useful substance, placed in a billycan and ignited, will yield two pints of water, pure except for a small residue of inoffensive ash. Or he may carry cubes of the "Lee-Epworth Deliquescent Foods." Stripped of their cellophane covering, these will absorb moisture from the air and dissolve themselves to produce a nourishing gruel or soup, attractively flavoured and needing nothing further to form a substantial meal.

Productive research has also been carried out on the preparation of compressed portable foods, which on the addition of water expand from the dimensions of a small tablet to those of a loaf of bread or a joint of meat, and which contain all the food-factors necessary to preserve health. On the whole these seem more to the taste of our young hikers than the "cellulose-destroying ferments" which enable a digestible food (somewhat tasteless, it is true, but none the less nourishing) to be obtained from such substances as grass or wood. We must not forget, moreover, the excellent work of re-afforestation and biological invention that has covered large regions of countryside with synthetic fruits, berries and fungi extremely attractive to the young.

TOUGHENED TRAVELLERS

The early hikers showed the same dislike of clothing that distinguishes the Modern Age. In spite of the protests of their elders, they abjured stockings, head- gear, and the curious linen fetters, called "collars" sacred to the Era of Industrial Slavery, they reduced the horrible leg-pipes known as "trousers" to the more workmanlike "shorts," worn by men and girls alike. Making a virtue of necessity they rejoiced in the strength and clumsiness of their "boots," contraptions of leather and iron worn on the feet. Now by Hawksley's Skin-toughening Process, we can make the soles of our feet so firm and resistant that we can walk without discomfort even over nettles, thistles or shingle-beach. As life in the open-air has long made us impervious to climatic changes, we are thus enabled to dispense with clothing altogether.

Thanks to our greater bodily health and to the elimination of a large number of the diseases which once inflicted humanity, we are in the ordinary way independent of shelter for sleeping. Except for journeys into regions of extreme cold or heat, our young hikers would regard the woven cane-supported tents of the twentieth century with almost the same disdain as they would feel for the stuffy insanitary brick "bedrooms" of the period.

DEPILATORIES AND DRUGS

With the need for garments has gone much of the heavy "pack" by which the old-time hiker was once distinguished. So, too, the perfection of depilatories has destroyed the need for "shaving gear"; and our soaps, like all our other equipment, are very compact indeed. First-aid equipment we still carry, but this is only needed in case of a serious accident. The "crustacean gland extracts," Which enable a mutilated body to re-grow a lost limb or organ, are, perhaps, the most useful of modern first-aid appliances, if we exclude the various drugs, to be used in cases of emergency, which fortify the body against fatigue.

Thus lightly equipped, for food, water- generators, maps and Other gear may all be packed into one billycan, wrapped in soft blanket-substitute and carried on a strap, the hiker may turn his back on civilisation for weeks at a time. It is a sign of the culture of our twentieth century ancestors that many of their fairest regions were closed to the common man, closed because they "belonged" to some unsociable person or were "preserved" for the idiotic massacres of defenceless birds. Others were regarded as too dangerous for general use, as, indeed, they were for the appliances of those times, or were covered with a sporadic growth of hideous dwellings. Or else they were so remote that the common man could not afford to reach. them.

CORNWALL TO COLORADO

Today the fairest parts of our land are set apart for human enjoyment. Who in these islands does not know of the Nature Reservations of North Wales and Scotland, newly-grown forests that clothe the Pennines, the wild coastlands, redeemed from bungalow and ramshackle village, of Cornwall and South Wales? Who has not been to such remoter fastnesses as the Himalayas, the Canyon of Colorado, the Sahara, the Antarctic wilds? No longer forsaken to wild beast or savage tribe, no longer reserved for the monied few, no longer "exploited" or defaced or spoiled, the wild places of the earth have been opened not merely to the enjoyment of man but to the strengthening of his spirit.

(Reprinted from "The Hiker and Camper," by kind permission of the Editor)

STUDENTS of the future usually adopt one of two attitudes. If they are optimistic, they predict a "super-scientific" world-state, with towering skyscrapers, improved communications, and all the benefits that science has to offer available to every member of the population. If, on the other hand, they are pessimistic, they gloomily point out that our present economic chaos, and the unpromising political situation throughout the world, are likely to lead to nothing less than a horrible world-wide war that will decimate humanity.

But whichever attitude is adopted, there is always the realisation that at present our civilisation is "sick," and that some important social, political and economic changes would have to be effected before a "Things to Come-ish" civilisation were practical. Few would deny that such a civilisation is possible. The applications of science today are able to offer untold advantages and comforts, but somehow, our civilisation has not kept pace with the rapid scientific progress of the past hun- dred years, and today we have the curious coincidences of coffee being burned in Brazil whilst millions starve in Europe, or of inventors of worthwhile machines dying in poverty whilst producers of poison-gas make their fortune.

CALDER'S CLARION CALL

Few people, after reading a book of the nature of "Sugar in the Air," by E. C. Large, which depicts the impact of science and industry, will deny that something is radically wrong with our present day civilisation. In many science-fiction stories, it has been suggested that, sooner or later, scientists, disgusted by the commercial and political prostitution of the discoveries and inventions they have to offer, will stage a "revolt," and will try to organise our terrestial life on sane and rational lines.

At last there are signs that such a movement - though scarcely on such militant lines as those depicted in the stories "Revolt of the Scientists," "Wings over Europe," etc. - is to be launched.

A few years ago, it was decided that the British Association for the Advancement of Science should be made a kind of platform for the discussion of social problems which science had helped to create and which it might help to solve. At the British Association meeting at Blackpool in 1936, Ritchie Calder, the British scientific writer, and Waldemar Kaempffert, proposed a "Magna Charta of Science" - a "declaration of independence, declaring the free, democratic, altruistic principles of science," and also "the formation of an Anglo-American concord, as the nucleus of a world organisation for all who would subscribe to, and advance, these principles." At the same time, the French professor, Etienne Gilson, was proposing the setting up of a "Supreme Court of Science" for the world.

REVOLUTIONARY RESOLUTIONS

These proposals were revived, last October in an open letter which Ritchie Calder addressed, in the Daily Herald, to Lord Rayleigh, and which was used as the basis of a leading article in the New York Times.

Sufficient interest was aroused for the proposals to be raised at the Indianapolis meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, where they received so strong a support that in December, 1937, the Council of the Association passed a series of startling resolutions which proposed, in effect, the setting up of a scientific "brains trust" for the world, and proclaimed the democratic principles of science, and the intellectual freedom of scientific workers, whilst denouncing totalitarian suppression as a major crime against civilisation.

On practical lines, it was decided "that the American Association makes as one of its objectives an examination of the pro- found effects of science upon society; and that the Association extends to its prototype, the British Association, and to all other scientific organisations with similar aims throughout the world, an invitation to co-operate not only in advancing the interests of science, but also in promoting peace among nations and intellectual freedom in order that science may continue to advance and spread more abundantly its benefits to all mankind."

PROGRESS AND PROHIBITION

It is significant, perhaps, to note that in the same issue of Nature in which these resolutions were reported, there is an excerpt from a speech by Prof. Jean Perrin, Under-Secretary of State for Scientific Research to the French Government. He said:-

"We scientists, who because of our profession, can see a little further, are defending the future of mankind. We are defending the city of the future, the city the form of which is as yet uncertain, where progress will be indefinitely maintained, where justice and fraternity will rule without conscious effort, where illness will have disappeared and death have receded, until it becomes a freely accepted rest, and where each human life will unfold in harmony and beauty."

On the same page was an announcement that Nature had been banned in Germany.

INTERNATIONAL INTERCOURSE

In commenting on the proposals of the American Association, in a later issue of Nature, F. R. Moulton, the Permanent Secretary to the Association, stated: "This sadly disordered world needs some new objective upon which it can focus its attention, some new course of proceedure which it will ardently follow. It is possible that men of science can set up such an objective and gradually work out practicable methods for attaining it." He concluded by tentatively suggesting three things that might be considered and at- tempted.

1.The formulation of a set of fundamental scientific principles of an ethical nature on which unanimous agreement of delegates could be reached.

2.The formulation of the maximum number of inviolable methods of international intercourse, and cooperation among scientists, an which the delegates could unanimously agree.

3.The planning of the necessary machinery for making effective and enlarging the agreements reached in (1) and (2).

The British Association was quick to take notice of Dr. Moulton's proposals, and invited him and his colleagues to visit the 1938 meeting of the British Association this summer, when it is hoped that the new schemes will be considered.

BACKED BY BRAGG

Nature, also, welcomed the idea of the proposed "World Association" of scientists, and suggested that in Great Britain (and in other countries) there should be a Society for the Study of the Social Relations of Science (S.R.S), with a membership not strictly confined to scientists. The society would, it was suggested, be a kind of Royal Society, which would consider social and political problems from a scientific and objective standpoint, and frame resolutions accordingly. Enthusiastic support for this proposed organisation has been forthcoming from such well-known persons as Sir William Bragg, H. G. Wells, J. B. S. Haldane, J. S. Huxley, etc.

Finally, whilst the momentus meeting of the British Association, to be held at Cambridge from August 17th to August 24th drew nearer, a response to Dr. Moulton's first suggestion came from a rather unanticipated quarter - the Society for Intellectual Liberty, of Haymarket, London. Just as the Hippocratic Oath was used two thousand years ago to promote amongst practioneers of medicine certain standards appropriate to their task, so did the Society for Intellectual Liberty propose a new Ethical Declaration - a statement of opinion which could be used as a common basis of policy and behaviour by all cultural, educational and technical institutions throughout the world - a, recognition, which ran as follows, of the individual's duty to the human race.

I DECLARE my loyalty to this tradition, my belief in the freedom of the individual to develop his talents for the enrichment of the community, end my conviction that man's community is now the whole human race, within which each nation must play its characteristic part.

The natural balance between personal freedom and the proper demands of society, which is the life and death of civilisation, is today doubly threatened: in certain societies by the denial of freedom and in the democratic countries by the irresponsibility of individuals. In the face of this threat:

I PLEDGE myself to use every opportunity for action to uphold the great tradition of civilisation, to protect all those who may suffer for its sake, and to pass it on to the coming generations. I recognise no loyalty greater than that to the task of preserving truth, toleration, and justice in the coming world order.

HIS TALE OF WONDER

-Continued from Page Seven

hope science-fiction will never become such a commonplace thing in this country as it has in America, where it has lately been so commercialised as to completely destroy the distinctive qualities it had."

MURDERS AND MANUSCRIPTS

So occupied has Gillings been in trying to create a British market for science-fiction that he has had little chance to write stories himself, although he has had a good deal to do with the re-writing of some of the stories appearing in Tales of Wonder. He has, too, written several stories in the past which have never been finished, and which he hopes to complete one day - "but I shall never be satisfied with them; nor, I expect, will their readers . . ."

Although he has made science-fiction his spare-time job, he declares he spends as much time on it (often his typewriter is clicking well into the small hours) as he does reporting meetings, police courts and, occasionally, murders and other tasty items of news. He would like to spend all his time on it if he could, only he has to keep a charming wife who "puts up with a lot more than most wives," and their sunny-faced four-year old, Ronnie, whose vocabulary includes the words "scientifiction," "rocket-ship," "B.I.S." and "S.F.A." and who claims as uncles many well-known people in the science-fiction world.

INTERPLANETARY PARADE

-Continued from Page Five

and now aims to associate itself with the Leeds Rocket Society and the Paisley Rocketeers Society; and that the Paisley Rocketeers Society aspires to come to an arrangement with the British Interplanetary Society, what will be the relationship between the latter and the Leeds Rocket Society, assuming that (a) the aforemen- tioned Inter-Society agreements remain in force; and (b) the proposed agreements are duly ratified?

Professor Lancelot Hogben, not content with expounding "Mathematics for the Million,' has now unleashed "Science for the Citizen." Those interested will find the word "Rockets" in the index ... Publishers? Allen and Unwin. And the price? 12/6 net.

A firm belief in Dunne's theory is the cause of this attempt to explain why I think a "time machine," popular appliance of science-fiction authors, is impossible. This familiar machine may be cubical or spherical, of metal or glass, and contains numerous levers, dials and other appurtenances. Into it steps the hero (probably the heroine also), pulls a lever and, disappearing with the machine from the present, arrives in the past, or in the future; so that he can kill his ancestor as in Schachner's amusing "Ancestral Voices," or die among his descendants of the Nth generation.

These paradoxes, if they are such, don't bother me: I'm concerned with the effect the idea of a "Four Dimensional Continuum" has on this bodily transport out of the present.

I think that past, present and future exist together and that the "passage of time" is an impression produced by the movement of consciousness along a fourth- dimension of space. Everything in the universe is extended in this space, including a man's life: mind, moving along this "life-line," observes events in order. Our future is there, but we can't see it until we reach it, unless in sleep the mind, set free of the stimulus of its waking impressions, travels ahead and can thus observe events before they happen. (This, very roughly, is Dunne's explanation of Prophetic Dreams).

Now, this four-dimensional body must be embedded, so to speak, in its space, along with everything else, living or dead, and remembering also the complicated interchange of matter between living things and their surroundings, surely to travel bodily into the future would mean the disruption of an incalculable amount of four-dimensional space.

H. G. Wells, in the original of all time travel stories, explained with great clearness that everything that exists in time must also extend in time. For convenience, in the fascinating story that followed, the Time Traveller used a machine to take him into the future. I can enjoy the story - I don't think it has ever been equalled - but I can't accept the method.

MENTAL MOTION

With these impractical machines disposed of, I hope, there remains apparently two possible ways of travelling in time; one of them "one-way traffic only," the second working either way. Both have been used in fiction.

The first one may be called, broadly, Hibernation or Suspended Animation. Either the life processes of the traveller are slowed, so that he lives seconds while the remaining population live years, or more feasibly perhaps, life is suspended, but preserved, and the sleeper lies dormant till aroused in the future. (By this method there is no return to the present, and thus, strictly speaking, Hibernation is not time travelling).

The second, and by far the most hopeful way, it seems to me, is by "Mental Time Travel." If the dream state, in which the mind sees the future, could be controlled, the problem would be solved.

I think that perhaps the graphic descriptions of a past life, such as given by believers in Reincarnation, are the results of such seeing into the past. If we agree on an already existing future, a similar journey forward is surely possible, and the important point is that a beginning, however limited, has already been made. Perhaps with the greater development of man's mind, exploration of time will parallel today's exploration of space.

INSECT COMMUNICATION

THE fascinating thought that man may one day be able to communicate with the bees is contained in Professor J. B. S. Haldane's book, "Possible Worlds."

"Wheeler of Harvard has made it very probable," he says, "that the behaviour of social insects such as ants, instead of being based on a complicated series of special instincts, rests largely on an economic foundation not so very unlike our own. The ant that brings back a seed to the next gets paid for it by a sweet juice secreted by those who stayed at home. Others, again, have been tackling the problem of how much one bee can tell another, and how it does it. Tomorrow it looks as if we should be overhearing the conversation of bees, and the day after tomorrow joining in it. We may be able to tell our bees that there is a tin of treacle for them if they will fertilise those apple trees five minutes; fly to the south-east; Mr. Johnson's tree over the wall can wait! To do this we should presumably need a model bee to make the right movements and perhaps the right noise and smell.

"It would probably not be a paying proosition, but there is no reason to regard it as an impossible one. Even now, if we take a piece of wasps' comb and hum the right note, the grubs put out their heads; if we then stroke them with a very fine brush they will give us a drop of sweet liquid just as they do to their nurses. Why should we wait to see if there are 'men' on Mars when we have on our own planet highly social and perhaps fairly intelligent beings with a means of communication? Talking with bees will be a tough job, but easier than a voyage to another planet."

TOMORROW'S TWIN

I WAS very pleased to receive your magazine entitled TOMORROW and noted with interest the comments you have made about myself.

I was considerably surprised when I noticed the title of your magazine because for the past eight months I have had an application pending for the same name in the United States patent office. This is rather an interesting coincidence, although I might state that the magazine which I have in mind has nothing to do with scientifiction but will he an altogether different publication.

As the originator of scientifiction might I state that for a number of reasons scientifiction has been on the decline in the United States for a number of years? The reason for this. I believe, is mainly because young people have become saturated with two much scientifiction of not the right type. When I originally started my scientifiction magazines I had in mind only purely scientific yarns, simple enough to be read by a twelve year old mind. In other words I always instructed my edi- tors never to accept a story that did not have plausible science as the basis for the yarn.

Unfortunately other magazines took to printing not only pseudo-science yarns but also fairy-type stuff which had no basis whatsoever as far as science was concerned. On the other hand, many authors, if they knew science, could not forget they knew too much and they then wrote way over the heads of the twelve year old mentalities. Such yarns, therefore, became unpalatable and difficult to digest by the average reader, and the American public, which had avidly taken to scientifiction, soon began to turn away from this conglomeration of "scientifiction which no longer was scientifiction," and the sales of scientifiction magazines dropped so badly that it was impossible to make any profit at all on such magazines on a monthly basis. That is the reason why, since my time, two of the monthly magazines have gone on a bi-monthly basis and the quarterlies have disappeared entirely.

The trouble with scientiflction, it seems to me, is that there are not enough really good writers who can write really interesting scientifiction stories; but it is possible that in the future there will come a reversal in the trend, and when that time comes perhaps it would be possible to put scientifiction on a paying basis again, which it clearly is not on today, much to my regret.

HUGO GERNSBACK

New York,
U.S.A.

THE Editorial of the last issue was remarkably well witten - much better than any other fan editorial I can recall. Though a familiar sermon is preached it is done in a pleasant manner that I greatly enjoy. Prof. Low, too, harps on a familiar theme, but as in his speeches, he does it interestingly.

Les Johnson gets off the mark well and embroiders nicely the Capra-esque theme.

Benson Herbert does indeed strike new ground in an interesting manner. Is it significant that Charlotte Bronte's science- fiction writings were a pastime of her childhood? ...

Can no one dam the flood of Fantasia's eloquence? At a moderate estimate it seems that the series will last well into 1940 at the present rate of progress.

Quarterly Cavalcade seemed to start off oddly in 1926 and took an unwarrantable time to get up-to-date. The semi-William Hickey style did not improve things either.

Science-Fiction was, I think, quite sound, though it ended up with rather a burst of blah . . .

The Crypt of Civilisation was, in many ways, the most interesting thing in the issue.

Candid Comments was much better than most similar institutions. As usual much of what Russell says is sound sense, though I grin at the way he slips Fort in with Stapledon. Jack Speer, one of the more thoughtful fans, starts an interesting train of thought. I think you rather mis-understood him. What he meant was that at every moment an individual does the thing that makes him happier within his circumstances. He may be prevented by sickness and poverty from doing what would make him happier, but within the limitations of his circumstances he normally does that which makes him happy.

MAURICE K. HANSON

25 Bernard Street,
Russell Square,
London, W.C.2.

MAY I, as one who has read with interest quite a deal of science-fiction, beginning with books and stories which were written some while before many of you ardent rocketeers were admitted to this battered caravanserai of Earth, venture to make one or two criticisms and to offer a suggestion or so? It will be done in "affection" and not in anger or condemnation, I assure you! As a large body, you are rather a new phenomenon, but as individuals you have many predecessors. Still, you are so much alive and so ready to receive new ideas that a comparatively elderly "uncle" may be excused the feeling that just a modicum of guidance should be useful! Agreed? Then here goes.

After a perusal of many science-fiction magazines, "fan mags," and the like, and after discussion with some of the most enthusiastic of you, one is inclined to perceive with regret two or three characteristic failings. They are, a tendency toward ultimate pessimism; an undue emphasis on a merely mechanistic progress; and an apparently complete ignoring of whole worlds, nay universes, of life. Each of the three helps to produce the others. Now let me try to illustrate each by reference to stories in your magazines.

Pessimism. Take the story in Tales of Wonder, Beynon's "Sleepers. of Mars." (Friend Beynon will take it as kindly meant, I hope). The idea that the men of Mars were facing nothing but ultimate extinction, that earth-men had no better hope, is the conclusion of the writer. Les Johnson in his talk on the Search for Tomorrow conveys the same idea, and it is, in fact, the theme of very many of the science-fiction stories. It is true that the insanity of modern statesmanship tends to produce and to underline such pessimism in young men, also that a good deal of modern "science" would seem to support this conclusion. Nevertheless, it is a bad fault because it is not based on truth. In fact the writer of science-fiction is the best proof of the falsity of such pessimism. Beynon himself, in his own story, demonstrates this, but does not seem to notice the fact! We shall see why, a little later.

Mechanistic materialism. Give an intelligent stranger to your movement a good batch of science-fiction magazines to read, and then ask what will be the main impression resulting. You will agree that it will be a conception of a world of new, extraordinary machines. Radios and rockets, globes and wires will fill the horizon! Practically every step in progress is apparently to be made by designing and building a machine of some kind! And - the writers are usually agreed on this - Man himself remains pretty much the same! Now there Is something rather juvenile, yet with the child's direct perception of truth, in all this. At seven, Willie uses a scooter, at fourteen a bicycle, then a motor-bike, a sports car, an aeroplane, but the more he changes, the more our Willie remains the same! He moves faster and covers more ground, but is not a whit better nor happier. His science does things, but its greatest marvels seem to be in the direction of manslaughter.

This also leads to the third major error, the ignoring of the finer and more real things. Yet the greatest importance, the very heart of the science-fiction movement lies in that forgotten factor. Beynon's master of Mars tells his earth friends that his machines will last longer than himself - and longer than the "intelligent thought" which brought them into being. This is the scientist forgetting his science and himself. The mineral exists. The plant lives. The single plant dies; whole species come and go, but they have come into a plane above the mineral, and that does not die with them. It goes on.

The animal comes into an extra world, that of sentience. When the animals die, sentience lives on. Man adds another factor, "self-conscious intelligence." That, too, will survive the instrument by which it is manifested. You are not afraid to imagine new things. Then try to envisage this. When you think, you are functioning in another world, a real world,. much more real than the world of metal machines. It is a comparatively new world to man, and we are learning to move about in it somewhat in the way of a baby learning to walk in space. When we grow up in this world, we shall live and move therein

with freedom in Time. We shall be independent of space and of material things too.

Did you read "Forgetfulness" by Don A. Stuart in Astounding Stories? He describes a man who had succeeded in this manner, a man who crossed Space and Time without a rocket who needed no such counterpart of Willie's scooter! That was excellent, and his earth was a green and peaceful one, because the man himself had grown better and wiser instead of inventing more machines. That story touched the fringe of a universe of infinite possibilities for science-fiction writers. Moreover, it opens the real door to the improvement of life in all its mundane and material aspects. There will be no pessimism, present or future here. I could go on and on. This is but the first of the Forgotten Worlds, and there are others more far- reaching.

Your mechanistic science-fiction is a line. But when you take the step into the real world of Thought you add a dimension. Three inches becomes not six but nine square inches. You can go or into the Cube, and farther. Best of all, you will need no Rocket or Space-ship blasting chemicals into the atmosphere. Yet you will reach Saturn, and the more distant stars.

Now I will give the rest of the quotation from which I took the title of this letter. It is from an ancient poem, the "Bhaga- vad Ghita":-

"Without moving, oh Holder of the Bow, is the travelling in this Road." What about it, gentlemen?

JOHN GABRIEL

Liverpool.

[For a consideration of the mechanisation of the future, see "World of Tomorrow," last issue: for a consideration of the pessimism of prophets, see "Revolt of the Scientists;" this issue, and for a consideration of the relation of fans to "finer and more noble things." see "Towards a New Science-Fiction," also in this issue.

Whilst thanking poet John Gabriel for his elaboration of Dome's theory of Time and Thought, we would point out that the theme has been by no means neglected by science-fiction authors. For instance, see such books as Stapledon's "Star Maker" and Buchan's "Behind the Curtain," in addition to the initial chapters of Wells' "Shape of Things to Come" and Stapledon's "Last Men in London." No doubt thought-travel is a definite possibility for the future, but at present we feel that interplanetary societies are showing practical sense in developing rocket technique.-Ed.]

I GREET U from th yr 1987 - or, as we rekn it now, 100 Esperanto Era.

Alow me to introduse myself: My numerikognomen is 4SJ Akrmn, brainchild of th sientifikshn fan Forrest J. Ackerman of 236} N. New Hampshire, Hollywood, California, U.S.A.

As I diktyp this (our speling today is of korse fonetik, & konsidrbly kondenst - "streamlined" was one the xpreshns of Ur time, I bliev) I hav here bfor me my fathr's file of fanmags up to mid-yr '38. By th "olde phashioned" method of xamining by hand (praps I shoud xplain that th partisipl "ing" is rim, in modern long- hand, as one karaktr - an "n" with a loop below th line; "ded," as in "astounded"- nearst 1938 rendis'hn; astoundd - is xprest by a "d" krost like a "t") . . . as I was saying, I found by kounting that FJA had athatime 259 difrnt numbrs of 88 titles in fantasiense fanmags & tho it'd be only natural he woud regard with hi pride th 48 ishues of The Time Traveller, Science Fiction Digest, & flnaly th fameus Fantasy Magazine - alltime Top in Amerikn ayjay (amateur jurnallsm) ntrprises, of wich publikayshns he was part publishr & asoshiat editr; & wile he'd, humanly, b partikularly parshl to "Madge," as he afekshnatly referd to Imagination! th organ of th Los Angeles Chapter of th Science-Fictn Assn wich he nurst to an nvyabl niche in th Fantascience Field; he unhesitntly aklaimd TOMORO (as it is now noen) th foremost famnagazet up to its time. Akordng to statements, made to membrs of fh imagi-nayshn athatime, th Spring 1938 metamorfosist edishn was in his opinion as a konisur dcidedly a steal at 6d.! Editorial xselnt bravo! Prof. Low; pat on th bak for Pragnell; good! Griffiths; "Crypt of Civilisation" quite OK; in fakt, evry- thing "all x!" He espeshly aplaudd th progresiveer, th trend tord th soshalogikl or teknokratikonsept. Ur publikayshn may Justly b proud of th part it playd in th achievmnt of the Michel Metropolis in th Wollheim World State from wich I now (lunchtime here at my satis-faktory) dispatch this via temponautik transportayshn. "Ja, Morgau estas mirinda" - as we'd say in th Universalanguage . . . or, as my pop mite'v put it, aftr a popular tune of th time: "Bei Mir Bist Du Super-Schon"!

4SJ AKRMN.

Tower of Tomoro,
Electri-city,
State of Utopia.

[This letter should be of interest to our advertisers, who will note that not only is our circulation world-wide, but also time-wide. We wonder if future reader Akrmn has by him any copies of TOMORROW of the 1939 period that he could loan us. They would certainly save us a lot of trouble in editing.-Ed.]

I GENUINELY want to compliment you on what is unquestionably the best- printed, biggest, best-worked-out science- fiction fan magazine I have yet seen. It's in every way an excellent effort toward the sort of thing I believe a fan magazine should be, and I only regret that it has not originated in the United States where I might have more intimate contact with it.

... The September and October editorials in Astounding Science-Fiction will be occupied with the celebration of Astounding's sixth birthday - or, rather, the completion of five full years of Street and Smith management. In September, I intend to review the past, and indicate the changes that have come. In October, I'll try that dangerous business of forecasting the future.

Naturally, in those issue, I've tried to line up the best collection of material I could gather. And, I think, I really have some excellent material on the way.

JOHN W. CAMPBELL, JR.

Astounding Science-Fiction.
79-89 Seventh Avenue,
New York. N.Y. U.S.A.

LATE NEWS

ON going to press, we learn from Robert O. Erisman, editor of the science- fiction magazine Marvel Science Stories, that the sequel to "Survival" by Arthur J. Burks (see page three) will be entitled "Exodus," and will be of book length.

The cover of the second issue will be illustrated by Paul, whilst interior artists will include Paul, Wesso and Binder.

Another novel-length story by Henry Kuttner, entitled "The Time Trap," will appear, in addition to contributions from Jack Williamson, David H. Keller, and Stanton A. Coblentz.

We were also informed by Leo Margulies, editorial director of Thrilling Wonder Stories, that although a companion magazine to that magazine will definitely appear, its title and policy have not yet been settled.

TURNING to the realm of books, readers will no doubt be interested in the following:-

"Where do we go from Here?" edited 6y Joseph Mayers and Bernard Spiers (Frederick Muller, 8/6). Fourteen experts, including Prof. A. M. Low (President. The Science-Fiction Association), T. Korda (editor, Armchair Science, and John Logie Baird (television pioneer), contribute various glimpses of the future.

A new science-fiction novel by Andre Maurois ("Private Universe, "War against the Moon;" etc.) entitled "The Thought Reading Machine" and described as "a gay and witty satire," will be published shortly by Jonathan Cope, price 5/-. Another forthcormng book, of interest to Burroughs fans, is "Tarzan at the Earth's Core" by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Methuen, 7/6).

WOULD like to correspond with English science-fiction collectors. Would also like to buy or trade science-fiction. What have you? - E. E. Weinmann, 571 Lyndhurst Street, Rochester, N.Y., U.S.A.

THE SCIENCE-FICTION FAN was the only American "fan-mag" to receive specific praise at the recent British Convention. It is a regular monthly hectographed publication containing full science-fiction news and numerous interesting articles. Subscription $1, per year,- Olon F. Wiggins, 512-29th Street, Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.

READ science-fiction's only weekly publication - The Science-Fiction News -Letter - for the 'latest up-to,date news on all aspects of science-fiction. Five cents a copy, six for 25 cents.- R. Wilson, JUnr., 86-10, 117 Street, Richmond Hill, N.Y., U.S.A.