Beautiful San Diego

Sirs:

What a nasty and disagreeable article your correspondent wrote about the fair in San Diego [TIME, June 10). Well aware are we all that every exposition must contend with midways and sideshows. But that your representative should overlook the glorious beauty of the fairgrounds, which alone would warrant a visit from millions of visitors, is hard to forgive. Many subscriptions will you lose on the West Coast from this article, but not mine. . . .

ORREL P. REED

San Diego, Calif.

Sirs: Important people from the world over have seen San Diego's Exposition and have said it is the most lovely, most beautiful one that has ever been.

SHAME ON TIME!

. . . My feelings are very much hurt. From now on until our subscription runs out, I shall put TIME in the wastebasket as soon as it comes, and I will tear it, too, so the janitor won't get any pleasure from it. ...

(MRS.) GRACE TREVEY

San Diego, Calif.

Sirs:

. . . You fail to report the buildings are beautiful, the architecture authentic, the setting unique and exotic. The trees, flowers and the climate are perfect. It may not be the largest exposition, but what there is of it is all there and with no false fronts. . . .

FRANK A. GAZLAY

Attorney at Law San Diego, Calif.

Kudos "Mess"

Sirs:

Three cheers for the chairman of the committee on Honorary Degrees for publicity condemning the ''mess" regard ''kudos" (TIME, June 10).

As one college man who "battled four years for a degree," I would like to congratulate Comedian Will Rogers, who recently refused a "kudo." More action like his on the part of other notables would stop this foolishness.

Some honorary degrees are justly deserved but the bestowal of the vast majority of them is obviously nothing but a different way for U. S. colleges and universities to gain additional publicity. . . .

OLIVER WILEY Troy, Ala.

Sirs:

. . . About this time of the year there appear, in various newspapers and magazines all over the U. S., criticisms ... of the conferring of honorary degrees. Some of these criticisms are quite evidently made by people who are sincere and honest in their judgment. Upon others there may easily be seen the stain of sour grapes. Others indicate a rather pathetic misunderstanding of the situation. It is to these last, some of whom may be among your readers, that I write. Of all the degrees given at Oglethorpe University, or by any other high-class college or university, the ones which require the hardest toil, the most strenuous application and the highest attainment, are the honorary degrees. . . . The conception underlying the conferring of honorary degrees is that the greatest university on earth is not Oxford nor Harvard nor Oglethorpe but the University of Life itself, sometimes called the University of Hard Knocks, sometimes the University of Experience. In this university there are many students but few honor graduates. Those upon whom degrees are conferred in this school are chosen with the greatest care by colleges and universities who, after long observation and meticulous investigation, are convinced that certain pupils have made so fine a contribution to the progress of humanity that their efforts and their success should be called to the attention of the world. The mistakes made in conferring honorary degrees are fewer and less regrettable than those made in conferring the ordinary bachelor's degree of which, most unhappily, thousands are annually bestowed upon expert cheats and educated crooks. . . . THORNWELL JACOBS

President

Oglethorpe University Oglethorpe University, Ga. For more kudos see p. 40.--ED.

Like Lincoln

Sirs:

The first paragraph of your article on the A. A. U. P. and the University of Oregon (TIME, June 10, p. 46) gives a wholly unjust impression of a very able administrator when it says that Dr. W. J. Kerr was found "totally incapable of educational leadership." The Committee on Academic Freedom makes no such charge in its report in the Bulletin, and publishes no specific instance of unfairness or incapacity. On the contrary its report credits Dr. Kerr with substantial results as the educational leader for over 25 years of Oregon State College--bitter rival of the U. of O.

As the Committee so sensibly recognized, it is useless to argue which side is most at fault. Legislators, initiative petitions, green paint, dynamite, burglars, proselyted athletes, and a hundred other things have been used in the fight between the two schools ever since the oldest professor can remember. Presumably it is easier for one man to resign than to fight the firm beliefs and emotions of an entire opposing faculty. But under all the circumstances the failure to bring harmony as Chancellor is no more a complete indictment of Dr. Kerr's ability than the failure of the peace overtures after his election was a discredit to Lincoln.

I am willing to agree that Dr. Kerr should not have been appointed Chancellor, but it is quite another thing for your writer to twist the Committee report into a finding of total incapacity. . . .

GORDON W. WINKS O. S. C. '31

Northwestern University Evanston, Ill.

Reader Winks quibbles. Exact words of the Committee: ". . . The University needed educational leadership, such as under the circumstances could not have been expected from a man of Dr. Kerr's antecedents and former associations."--ED. Owens' Heel

Sirs:

Most disgusting is to find a fairly accurate fact-reporting periodical loosely quote just to mitigate smarting Nordic pride. Blatantly ignorant, TIME has gobbled up Yale's McGall's simple reasoning that Negro supremacy in certain track events is due to the os calcis, larger in Negroes than in whites (TIME, June 3).

A close and intimate acquaintance of Jesse Owens as well as of many white athletes, I am positive no such differences prevail in heel bone sizes. Rather than quoting publicity-seeking nobodys, I suggest TIME be scientific for once. . . .

LOUIS H. SCHUSTER

Department of Economics Livingstone College Salisbury, N. C.

Coach McGall's theory of the Negro's protruding heel is disputed by such an eminent anthropologist as Johns Hopkins' Dr. Adolph Hans Schultz. Reason: The protrusion consists of fat and connective tissue, does not affect leverage.--ED.

Sirs:

I read with great interest your good account of the sparkling performance of Ohio State University's Negro track and field star, Jesse Owens, at Ann Arbor [TIME, June 3].

In the last paragraph of your story, "onetime Yale field coach," Albert McGall, says the superiority of colored boys over white in track is likely due to a difference in physical makeup. Though I'm not an anatomical expert I concur with McGall's theory, but believe that there is still another reason which has never been mentioned. This is a psychological one.

... I [formerly] was a member of the Ohio State athletic publicity staff. Naturally, in this office I came in daily contact with the genial Jesse, and his capable coach, Larry Snyder. We freely and frequently chatted about this subject. Here is what Jesse thought about it.

Unlike many other sports, there is no bodily contact in track. As a result Jesse--being a conscious boy--feels that he can extend himself to the utmost in his respective events without causing any friction between his white brethren. Perhaps Tolan, Metcalfe, Hubbard and others also had this mental slant.

MORRIS SHAWKEY

Business Manager Huntington Red Birds Huntington, W. Va.

Fever Fright

Sirs:

Under Medicine in your June 3 issue you report . . . the statement of Dr. Alfred E. Cohn of the Rockefeller Institute on the subject of heart condition due to rheumatic fever. Apparently a member of your staff, in his desire to be sensational, is guilty of a piece of sloppy, shoddy work. . . .

Anyone reading the report . . . can but gather that those children who are unfortunate enough to contract heart weakness in consequence of a bout with rheumatic fever have only a slight possibility of living more than approximately 15 years longer. No other interpretation is possible. If literally true its import would be indeed calamitous.

My wife, who has had a heart condition for twelve years as the result of rheumatic fever contracted at the age of 12, was thrown into acute agitation on reading the article. ... To read a quotation, heavily emphasized, from the lips of a leading authority on the subject that one has about three years to live would seriously frighten anyone.

An appointment was made with our physician. He was shown the article and declared it to be a monstrous exaggeration holding true not even in a small percentage of rheumatic fever cases. It was his opinion that the reporter should be severely censured. . . . ALEXANDER C. HARRIS

New York City

Not slipshod, not shoddy, but strictly accurate was TIME'S report of Dr. Cohn's statement concerning the average age at which sufferers contract rheumatic fever, and the average age at which Death comes. Sources for all Dr. Cohn's statements may be found in a paper by DeGraff & Lingg in the April issue of American Heart Journal. In Dr. Cohn's opinion, "the trouble with the U. S. public is that they cannot understand the meaning of adjectives, and particularly the word 'average.' "--ED.

Whiteman Defended

Sirs:

Your account of Ray Noble, TIME, June 10, is a brief but meaty supplement to the Duke Ellington article which appeared in FORTUNE in August 1933. However, I regret your continued criticism of Paul Whiteman.

You say that his band "has the richest tradition but his performances now seem sterile." There is no doubt as to the tradition, for Whiteman has led the pack for nearly 20 years and nearly every white jazzist of any consequence has at one time or another been a member of his orchestra. As to his present organization it is true that his weekly radio program is very poor but that is due to the fact that the sponsors insist on a lot of so-called comedy, windy advertising and entirely too much vocalizing. When the orchestra is allowed its all too few numbers on the program I insist that the so-called ''King of Jazz" is still living up to his rich tradition. Of course, Whiteman cannot be called the "King'' of hot jazz but there is no successful dance band in America, except for the "swing" types, which is not patterned on the Whiteman model and when Paul "gets hot" it cannot be denied that men like Jack Teagarden and Frank Trumbauer are peers on their respective instruments. Before you wrote the article in question you should have listened to Whiteman's recordings of the four hits from Anything Goes and his recent Itchola.

There is no dispute about your appraisal ol Reisman, Goodman, Vallee and Casa Lomas. However, although it is true that the Dorsey Brothers have gone somewhat commercial, I still think they are on a par with Goodman. There is no use arguing about the eminent Duke Ellington. I do not agree with you about his greatness, but that's that. . . .

CHARLES R. POSEY JR. Associate Cook & Markell Baltimore, Md.

Belcher Sirs: TIME publishes the most trustworthy of movie guides, but why don't you do about Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's belching lion? W. D. HUMPHREY Sherbrooke, Quebec

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