Out of the Mud

Sirs:

In the educational section [June 25] under the heading "Kudos" in which were listed the names of important persons who had during this year's commencement period received honorary degrees from the various colleges and universities, and under the University of Missouri there was omitted the name of Theodore Gary of Kansas City, Mo.

Mr. Gary is an important figure in international business and in Missouri was formerly chairman of Missouri's first Road Commission and is the man principally responsible for the beginning of Missouri's present system of good roads which was carried through under the slogan "Get Missouri Out of the Mud."

I am a subscriber, constant reader and a great admirer of TIME.

H. L. HARRIS Automatic Electric Inc. Chicago, Ill.

U. of V.

Sirs:

The juxtaposition of your very interesting article on President E. A. Alderman of the University of Virginia and the list of "famed" personages given honorary degrees by other institutions of learning (TIME, June 18) is a striking coincidence. In an article in The American Mercury last winter, the statement was made that the Secretary of Commerce had received an LL. D. from the University of Virginia. In response to a request for verification of this statement, I received the following letter from President Alderman:

"The University of Virginia has never conferred an honorary degree upon anyone in its entire history. The statement, therefore, that a degree of LL. D. from the University of Virginia has been conferred upon the Hon. Herbert Hoover, is an error."

I believe that the University of Virginia is unique in this particular among American colleges and universities.

It is worthy of note, also, that President Alderman is the only president that the University has had in its 109 years of existence. Previous to his selection, the University was administered by a member of the faculty with the title, I believe, of "Chairman of the Faculty."

RICHARD D. Micou The Racquet Club Washington, D. C.

Cornell University has given only two honorary degrees in its entire history--to Andrew Dickson White, co-founder and first president of Cornell, and to David Starr Jordan, now president emeritus of Stanford University. State universities, as a rule, are chary of granting honorary degrees. For example, the University of Minnesota has honored only its president emeritus, William Watts Folwell, 95.--ED.

Acumen, Luck

Sirs:

Was it political acumen, prescience or coincidence that caused TIME to print on its. cover the pictures of the vice-presidential nominees of the two major parties just before they were nominated? It was easy enough, of course, to predict who the presidential nominees would be, but to pick the right men from the great numbers of vice-presidential aspirants was quite another matter. Congratulations, TIME!

R. W. EGGLESTON Chicago, Ill.

Answer: half acumen, half luck.

Acute, TIME picked Senators Curtis & Robinson for cover positions because they were the most "logical" candidates for the tickets' second places. Lucky, TIME was vindicated by the extraordinary coincidence that both political conventions acted "logically."--ED.

Taste of Beaver Sirs:

I object to your statement that "beavers . . . unlike Beavermen . . . taste like pork" (TIME, July 2). Incidentally your incessant repetition of "Beaverman" as a synonym for Herbert Hoover is a symptom of klangpsychosis.*

I have before me Junghuhn's authoritative Die Battalander auf Sumatra, wherein he explicitly states that the Sumatran cannibals consider human flesh "better than pork," and indeed refer to white men as "long pigs."

Thus the absurdity of your distinction between the taste of beavers and Beavermen is evident. If a beaver tastes like pork--and I will not accept your unsupported statement that such is the case--then your Beaverman would taste not "unlike" but like and "better than" a beaver.

Let TIME, the busy beaver among weeklies, take time to check its beaver facts.

OTTO SUBARSCH His, M. D. New York, N. Y.

In Case of Death

Sirs:

I sometime think "you know all, see all and do all," so I want to ask a question that you probably can answer through your columns. . . . Suppose Al Smith was to die before election. How would the vacancy on the ticket be filled? Would there be another Convention or would the Presidential Nominee be named by the National Democratic Executive Committee? Does the same ruling that exists, whatever it may be, apply to both the Democratic and Republican parties? . . .

A. MYER Houston, Texas

Following custom, both the Democratic and Republican parties this year adopted resolutions empowering their national committees to fill any vacancy on the national ticket which might occur before election. The Republican resolution specified that the committeemen should cast for their states or territories the number of votes that their states or territories had at the convention. In 1912, when the Republican nominees were President William Howard Taft and Vice President James S. Sherman, the latter died on Oct. 30. Quickly, the Republican National Committee nominated Nicholas Murray Butler.--ED.

"Idiotic Position"

Sirs:

After reading the item in TIME for July 2 in which I am quoted as saying that "I could make a better Vice President than Senator Curtis," I am taking the liberty of sending you a copy of the letter which I recently wrote to the United Press in regard to the story. I feel sure that you will wish to correct the statement.

EMILY NEWELL BLAIR Joplin, Mo.

Mrs. Blair's United Press letter said:

". . . The enclosed clipping puts me before the country in such an idiotic position that I must object to the wide publicity given to a statement which I could never possibly have made. ...

"Some foolish editor in search of a feature suggested me as Vice President and sent a young woman to ask me about it. I scouted the whole idea as ridiculous and said I objected to belittling women in politics by such proposals. Asked if I did not think I was fitted to be Vice President, I said, 'No,' and that nothing is worse than for a person to be in a position for which he is not fit. Asked if I did not think I was as fit as Senator Curtis, I said I did not think he was of the calibre for the office and I hoped our party would have a candidate of higher qualifications. Out of this has gone forth this interview throughout the country under headlines to the effect that I think I would 'Make a Better Vice President. , , .' "

The interview referred to was accorded to Writer Lecta Rider of the Houston Press in Mrs. Blair's room at the Hotel Warwick, on the morning of June 18. Mrs. Blair was having her hair curled. Writer Rider vouches for the accuracy of her report, which was published that afternoon and to which Mrs. Blair took no exception at the time. The Houston Press vouches for Water Rider's journalistic integrity. TIME joins the United Press in deploring misquotations, in viewing with alarm Mrs. Blair': "idiotic position."--ED.

Preechers, Wimmin

Sirs:

. . . We cannot "keep house" without TIME and wish to compliment you on gathering together more real useful information and real NEWS than we have ever seen "gathered together under one roof" before.

Tell your readers that HOOVER hasn't a CHINAMAN'S chance of carrying anything south of the POTOMAC. You know it has "gotten out" that his campaign Manager is named "WORK" and if you tried to run a farm down here you would soon learn that work is anathema to almost the entire population. . . .

The "preechers and some of the old girls" are cutting up just like a sausage machine in some sections of the STATE--just because they haven't yet received word from LORD SIMMONS to commence eating the pie that he (SIMMONS) has been spitting tobacco juice in--for some considerable time past.

The Senator is said to be in a SANITARIUM up north--and Frank Hampton his secretary continues to wire him that AL SMITH CANNOT AND WILL NOT BE NOMINATED. I think as soon as he learns of what happened at HOUSTON (and it was a plenty) that he will wire the parsons and the wimmen that it would be much better to have SMITH in the WHITE HOUSE than to have NEGRO DEPUTIES IN NORTH CAROLINA PLACING HANDCUFFS ON WHITE MEN AND TAKING THEM OFF TO THE PENETENTIARY TO SERVE TIME FOR VIOLATIONS OF THE VOLSTEAD ACT AND OTHER CRIMES. (Of course the other crimes such as--burglary--arson--murder--THEFT--etc., etc. are nothing at all in the eyes of the ultras--as compared to the possession of a "pint tickler of yaller corn" "that would make a jack rabbit spit in a bulldog's face.")

It is a great life if you don't weaken--and Al Smith is getting stronger every day. That man WORK has finished HOOVER.

COL. WM. T. GREGORY "Sassafras Fork Farms" Stovall, N. C.

*Sufferers from true klangpsychosis not only repeat their favorite words incessantly but jingle them into idiotic rhymes.--ED.