70, 71, 72

In the colonnade of New York University's Hall of Fame there are niches for 150 busts. Sixty-nine of the niches are filled. Last week the 101 bigwigs who serve as Electors filled niches Nos. 70, 71 and 72 as follows: William Penn, Simon Newcomb, Grover Cleveland.

Any U. S. citizen may submit a nomination for the Hall of Fame. Any U. S. hero dead 25 years may be nominated. When the Hall of Fame was originated in 1900 by N. Y. U.'s late Chancellor Henry Mitchell MacCracken, it was expected to be filled by the year 2000. But The Electors whom the University appoints for each quinquennial election have grown fussier & fussier. In the election of 1900 it was easy to fill 29 niches with superheroes. In 1905 eight lesser heroes were elected, in 1910 ten, and since then the number has steadily dwindled until last week there were but three.

William Penn, runner-up in the 1930 election and nominee of the Pennsylvania Legislature, finally sailed through with 83 votes. Grover Cleveland got in with 77 votes, a comfortable margin over the necessary three-fifths but not enough to take second place from a dark horse, Simon Newcomb who polled 78. That distinguished U. S. mathematical astronomer was born in Nova Scotia in 1835, ran away to the U. S. when he was 18. A pushing lad, he forced himself on the attention of Harvard scientists, soon overshadowed them. The last 30 years of his life were spent building up anew the theory and tables of the planetary system as well as writing such popular works as Astronomy for Everybody, The A B C of Finance, and a romance called His Wisdom the Defender.

Runner-up last week was Dr. Walter Reed, conqueror of yellow fever, with 57 votes. Economist Henry George scored 56, Suffragist Susan B. Anthony 55, Author Henry David Thoreau 54. Louisa May Alcott with 28 showed her heels to Herman Melville with 24. Far down the list were William Holmes McGuffey (McGuffey's Readers), 17, and Jefferson Davis, 8.

The Hall of Fame is heavily weighted in favor of men of letters. Of the 13 statesmen already installed, eight are U. S. Presidents : Washington, the two Adamses, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Lincoln. The other five are equally familiar: Franklin, Hamilton, Henry, Webster, Clay. It was not until 1930, after running five times, that James Monroe slipped in. But there are 16 authors, five preachers and theologians, five educators. There are seven women, of whom Harriet Beecher Stowe is the only household name. Only businessman is George Peabody, who entered under the colors of a philanthropist. The Electors include few businessmen.

Next spring, busts of Winners Penn, Newcomb & Cleveland will be placed in the care of the Hall of Fame's 82-year-old director, Robert Underwood Johnson, poet and onetime (1920-21) Ambassador to Italy, whose white whiskers compare in bushiness with those of such inmates as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Samuel F. B. Morse and new Simon Newcomb.

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