Roosevelts
Sirs:
By what authority does TIME (Feb. 28) confer a Harvard diploma on James Roosevelt? According to the latest Alumni Directory he is recorded as passing five years in college (1926-31), but he is not credited with any degree.
E. W. WRIGHT
Cambridge, Mass.
Sirs:
. . . Isn't it a fact that Franklin D. Roosevelt did not graduate from Columbia University's Law School and was never granted a diploma from that school?
E. HOWARD BENNETT
Boston, Mass.
Sirs:
... I write as one of the "Forgotten Men" who feels that James is the recipient of sufficient special privilege from the hands of his presidential father, and that TIME need not award him a degree from Harvard.
FRANCIS C. CARLETON
Cambridge, Mass.
Sirs:
As an old subscriber I protest against placing on your cover the picture of young Roosevelt, the most obnoxious example of nepotism in my memory.
ROBERT McMURDY
Chicago, Ill.
Sirs:
Your issue of TIME, Feb. 28 puzzles me. You imply that Franklin D. Roosevelt did not win his Phi Beta Kappa key through scholarship. Can it be that nowadays Presidents are given this honor without earning it? My understanding is that Phi Beta Kappa is about the only organization that one cannot "crash in" without true scholarship. . . .
MAY M. ATWATER
Chicago, Ill.
TIME'S authorities for James Roosevelt's Harvard degree: James Roosevelt, U. S. Congressional Directory; for Franklin Roosevelt's Columbia law degree: N. Y. State Legislative Manual (1931). These authorities apparently erred. Harvard officials deny that James Roosevelt ever received a diploma from Harvard; Columbia gave Franklin Roosevelt no law degree.
Franklin Roosevelt did not "win his Phi Beta Kappa key through scholarship." Twice awarded him honoris causa, it was given by both Hobart College chapter and the Harvard College chapter in 1929. Other famed honorary Phi Beta Kappas: John Marshall. Washington Irving, John Greenleaf Whittier, Lorado Taft, Calvin Coolidge, Glenn Frank. In the past three years Phi Beta Kappa has awarded no honorary memberships.--ED.
Googol
Sirs:
TIME, Feb. 28, p. 28 ". . . The googolplex is so large a number that it could not be written on a piece of paper stretching across the visible universe. . . ."
(By definition, a googolplex is the number "1 followed by a googol of zeros," a googol being equal to 10^2.)
I write this number on approximately one square inch of paper as follows:
10
10
10
Why not?
M. H. SWEET
Orange, N. J.
Let Reader Sweet mend his mathematics: a googol is not equal to 10^2. Ten squared is simply 100. Reader Sweet's googolplex is not a googolplex but merely a googol squared. By using a series of ascending powers, a googolplex could be written in comparatively small space; written straight out, it would, as TIME said, stretch further than the visible universe.--ED.
Sirs:
Dr. Kasner's "googol" is affording much interest and entertainment. I hereby solicit more. . . .
My humble contribution is the "miragol": 1 followed by 999 zeros or 333 zero triplets, giving the "miragolplex"--a miragol of zeros on its way toward infinity.
JOHN MAYNARD KNIGHT
Los Angeles, Calif.
P.S. So sorry for Johannsen Steel when H. Ford requires measurements correct to 1 googolith of an inch.
Eliots
Sirs:
Your critical comment on T. S. Eliot and Murder in the Cathedral contains a number of absurdities, which I will point out seriatim. Imprimis, you call him dandiacal in appearance is so symbolically presented (in accordance with T. S. Eliot's own wishes) by the English players is to throw the emphasis on the spiritual struggle. You state that Becket is not inwardly lacerated, whereas the whole play is about his inward laceration; it is because the play is so introspective that it is hard to follow. As for your "Eliot gets in a brutal and final punch," I must say, that even if (as I presume) your dramatic editor is down with the flu, that is no excuse for your turning the job over to the sporting editor.
HENRY W. ELIOT JR.
Cambridge, Mass.
Embarrassed at having horrified an Eliot, TIME gladly prints Brother T. S. Eliot's "much more characteristic" portrait (see cute, p. 4). --ED.
Climate
Sirs:
RE. MATT MANN'S MICHIGAN SWIMMERS' DEFEAT OF KIPHUTH'S YALE NATATORS FEB. 28 TIME. RESULT NO SURPRISE LOCALLY AS MICHIGAN TRAINED IN HEALTH-GIVING CLIMATE OF SOUTHEAST FLORIDA DURING CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS.
AUGUST BURGHARD
Secretary
Chamber of Commerce Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Sirs:
PLEASE DON'T GIVE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BLACK EYE BECAUSE REPORTS OF OUR HEAVY DEW SOUNDED BAD. YOU DID THIS ABOUT OUR EARTHQUAKE YEARS AGO. AS THIS IS BEING WRITTEN NOT A CLOUD IN THE SKY, THE SUN IS SHINING AND STREET IN FRONT OF PLOMB TOOL CO. IS PERFECTLY DRY.
MORRIS B. PENDLETON
President
Plomb Tool Co.
Los Angeles, Calif.
Dr. Drury
Sirs:
I am, as everyone should be, most appreciative of the true representation of facts--I believe that such is your intention. It was, therefore, very unfortunate indeed in referring to the death of Rev. Dr. Samuel Smith Drury, headmaster of St. Paul's School that you said he was "passionately loved, feared, hated by his pupils" [TIME, Feb. 28]. Yes, loved and feared as only boys can help but regard their teachers--but hated, never !
It seems wholly unfitting in presenting so curt and terse a description of a man whose whole life was devoted and sacrificed to the happiness and welfare of young boys, that TIME should attempt to destroy with one malicious and ill-chosen word the work and efforts of a lifetime of such an outstanding public servant, both as friend and clergyman. . . .
JOHN MIDDLETON
New York City
Sirs:
Referring to your brief note on our headmaster's death in ... TIME, we feel that you misunderstand the sentiments of the boys in St. Paul's School towards Dr. Drury.
Everyone here admired and respected him far too much to hate him. His esteemed leadership and friendly advice touched, indeed, everyone in the school, but especially the members of the sixth form, who in many different ways came into a closer contact with this true Christian gentleman.
DONALD J. WARNER
PRENTICE K. SMITH
St. Paul's School
Concord, N. H.
A Christian gentleman was Dr. Drury but not popular with many St. Paul boys.--ED.
Loan
Sirs:
TIME Feb. 28: "Passed a bill writing off as unrecoverable $2,500,000,000 (loans to railroads, banks, insurance companies and special State funds) from the books of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation."
TIME March 7: "Between 1932 and 1937 Congress directed Reconstruction Finance Corp. to make 'loans' totaling $2,500,000,000 to other Government agencies for relief and similar purposes. Unlike most of RFC's loans, made on a business basis to private industry, everyone knew these would never be paid back. Last week, the President signed a bill whereby, to simplify its bookkeeping, RFC was directed to write them off as 'unrecoverable.' "
Which is correct ? If the latter, you owe an apology to the RFC, which seems to be the only Government agency that has not played fast and loose with the taxpayers' money.
WILLIAM A. SCHROEDER
Lyndhurst, N. J.
The latter was correct. Shrewd Subscriber Schroeder caught TIME correcting a slip.--ED.
Bid
Sirs:
If Richard Whitney's bid of $2.05 per share for U. S. Steel on a dark day in 1929 was spectacular and hero making [TIME, March 14], how would facile TIME describe someone (the writer for instance) who, even today, would gladly, and with less substantial sponsorship, match Whitney's bid?
ROBERT G. KERLER
New York City
To a nodding proofreader, a thoroughgoing reprimand for reducing Broker Whitney's historic bid by $202.95.--ED.
Pectin
Sirs:
THE ARTICLE CAPTIONED "AN APPLE A DAY" WHICH APPEARED IN TIME, FEB. 28 REPORTING RESEARCH ON THE BACTERICIDAL ACTION OF PECTIN GAVE THE FALSE IMPRESSION THAT THE CREDIT FOR THIS WORK SHOULD BE GIVEN TO ME ALONE.
THE FIRST REPORT OF THIS RESEARCH, PUBLISHED IN THE JUNE 1937 ISSUE OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE NAMED FOUR AUTHORS: DR. CHARLES A. TOMPKINS, MISS GRACE WASHBURN, DR. MATHEW WINTERS AND MYSELF. THE CONTRIBUTION OF EACH WAS INVALUABLE AND VITAL TO THE WHOLE UNDERTAKING; SINCE SCIENCE IS ADVANCED ONLY BY THE SEEKING OF THE TRUTH THIS ERROR SEEMS GRIEVOUS TO ME. IT IS UNFAIR TO THE CO-AUTHORS IN THAT IT DOES NOT GIVE THEM DUE CREDIT AND PLACES ME IN A POSITION WHERE I MAY BE MISJUDGED. AS A TEN-YEAR TIME READER I FEEL CERTAIN THAT YOU WILL BE GLAD TO CORRECT THIS FALSE IMPRESSION.
EDITH HAYNES, Ph.D.
Indianapolis, Ind.
Five-Spot
Sirs:
. . . One letter in "Letters" of Feb. 28 issue makes my blood boil. It is the one from Howard D. Clark saying he would "continue to subscribe [to TIME] until the present administration has me to the point where I cannot raise a five-spot." If the present administration had never been, he would not have had the 15-c- for the first 1932 issue. If he will write to me I will send him the issues for 1941 when he is broke from the next administration and I have money saved from this last one.
MRS. DONALD HAYES
Fallbrook, Calif.
Aunty Jane
Sirs:
In TIME, Feb. 28, under the title "Mexico," you have subtitle "Death at Aunty Jane" and five lines down "Town of Tijuana (literally 'Aunty Jane')."
This is incorrect. The name is not Spanish which would be "Tia Juana," but Indian "Tiwana" was the pronunciation given by the Diegueno Indians. It was spelled according to Spanish spelling. It is thought to mean "By-the-Sea" and not "Aunt Jane" as commonly supposed.
DONNA PREBLE
Berkeley, Calif.
Sirs:
. . . The first paragraph contains a description of Tijuana that is untrue and offensive. Far from being a "bedraggled ghost city of boarded-up saloons and flapping signs" it is a very active city of 8,000 people. Laugh, if you will, but most of the saloons are open as I personally can testify. Incidentally the place is most interesting, attractive and well ordered, though very few Americans ever go anywhere except along the street leading to Agua Caliente.
SIBLEY S. MORRILL
Editor Border Press
San Ysidro, Calif.
No ghost town is busy Tijuana, a free port.
Its own citizens are not sure what its name means. Says Robert Limon, publisher of its leading newspaper, Artes Graficas, it was named either for 1) Tijuan, a pre-Spanish chief, 2) an early Spanish settler, Tia Juana (Aunt Jane).--ED.
Obnoxious Nudeness
Sirs:
... I have no objection to nudeness, when it is beautiful and decent, but such a photograph as that of Dr. Kellogg [TIME, March 7] is obnoxious, obscene, disgusting to my taste. . . .
You might just as well have taken Mrs. Dionne before the quintuplets were born and it would have been at least interesting.
AUGUSTA Z. BENTLEY
Youngstown, Ohio
Deadline
Sirs:
Your graphic report in your Feb. 28 issue explaining how hectic is the life of your editors as the week's deadline approaches, recalls to an old newsman one of his first nights in the city room of the Kansas City Star. The night editor then was Henry Schott. The night city editor was--and still is--Charley Blood. Eleven o'clock, deadline for first edition, approached. Over the telephone we heard this:
"Composing room? Find Blood up there? . . . Yes, Schott. . . . What's the trouble? . . . All right, cut the head off. ... If you need to, chop into the body. . . . Sure--get enough out so it will go into a box. ... If you can't do that, kill it!"
E. B. GARNETT
Sunday Editor
Kansas City Star
Kansas City, Mo.
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