Shock, Thanks, Cancer

Sirs:

After the initial shock of looking at my own tace on the cover of TIME, I appreciated and wish to thank you for your account of the situation here. It was, as I expected it would be, fearless, honest, and to the point. I am look-ing forward to the possibility of a period of quiet and research on cancer, but you may be sure that wherever I go TIME will go along with me.

C. C. LITTLE

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Oil & Water

Sirs:

Concerning your article, "Jobless Little,", Feb. 4, 1929. This article states-

"To Michigan, President Little took several ideas. Michigan had a football team that was making money. President Little insisted that the surplus be turned over to building more athletic fields so that all men and women in the University could exercise etc., etc."

President Little can lay no claim of merit in anything connected with Michigan's Athletic Plant. One man at Michigan has eaten, breathed, lived and slept Michigan's Athletic Plant for more than a quarter of a century--Fielding H. Yost. To Yost is all credit due. Michigan's Athletic Plant is a living memorial to the athletic and business genius of Fielding H. Yost--long before Little graduated from Harvard College Fielding H. Yost was dreaming, planning and working out Michigan University's present Athletic Plant. It is not finished yet, but every bit of it has been copyrighted in the brain and heart of Yost. President Little, doubtless, "took several ideas to Michigan," but the only idea concerning athletics at Michigan which can rightfully be claimed by Little is the woefully impractical and weak idea of the University having two football teams. Some real enthusiasm might have been engendered had the Big Ten Universities all put Freshmen football teams into contest with each other (since Freshmen cannot play upon the regular teams), but to expect a Michigan "B" team to create much interest when playing some other university's "B" team is, as was proven last Fall, impossible.

President Little, when he entered Harvard College, was thereby doomed to failure as a President of the University of Michigan. One can indeed mix oil and water, the saying to the contrary notwithstanding, but one cannot mix a real university with a "Collection of Colleges." An endowed college or collection of colleges, is a far different thing than a State University which is part of a State System of Public Instruction.

SHELBY B. SCHURTZ Michigan '08, '10L.

Grand Rapids, Mich.

To Michigan's Yost, all credit, but let Dr. Little not be belittled.

Michigan's Yost, in Manhattan last week, was dined by the Sportsmanship Brotherhood, also by the New York Stock Exchange (whose members and employes have teams in nine sports).--ED.

Michigan's Regents

Sirs:

In your lucid narrative report [TIME, Feb. 4] of the events leading up to the resignation of Dr. Clarence Cook Little you appear to make one statement that can hardly be justified, in view of your accustomed nose for facts.

The inference is drawn that Governor Green night have members of the Board of Regents of the University replaced to bring about a condition more favorable to his ideas. So far as is the prerogative of the Governor of Michigan concerned, his power lies in the veto of appropriation bills or in limitations by the Administrative Board, which allocates funds in accordance with the condition of the State Treasury. . . .

Hoping that this may help clear up a wrong inference, it is submitted for what it is worth. It is not believed that TIME desires to draw inexact parallels with the conditions of other States where the governing bodies are politically controlled by the State executive department.

PAUL N. YOUNG

Pittsburgh, Pa.

The Regents of Michigan's university are elected by the people, not appointed by the Governor.--ED.

Horne Flayed

Sirs:

I must write and comment on the communication by Vivian Home in the Jan. 21 issue of TIME.

Vivian is a girl that everyone should adore. I can just see Vivian going barefoot, because the darling bossy cows, with the tender eyes, should not be sacrificed for human comforts. I am sure that she does not enjoy the comforts of this Modern Age of Steel (think of all the poor mules that have been sacrificed in the mines). I know that Vivian does not wear silk because men rob the poor defenseless silkworms to secure this silk. I honestly believe that Vivian lives in a tent. The trees should be left for the birds to rest and nest in. I know she is a vegetarian. Oh! to think that people will eat animals.

I have thought of all kinds of useful things that Vivian could do. She could organize a Missionary Expedition into the interior of Africa to teach the Monkeys sanitation and hygiene. She might help her father publish a paper on the cure of infantile paralysis. (Just buy a monkey and never handle him with gloves or "fub" him and you will know how to take care of that dread disease). . . .

EARL M. BARTSCH

Great Falls, Mont.

Pensions Flayed

Sirs:

First, a bit of criticism: it is contended by a recent statement printed in the Dallas Morning News that the United States Senate, four years or so ago, appropriated from public funds, $7,500, to be paid to Senator Green of Vermont. It is contended that this amount was voted to the Senator that he might pay his surgeon and doctor bills incident to treatment of a serious disability received when hit by a stray bullet fired by warring bootleggers on historic Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. I am satisfied that this is a correct statement of fact!

I see from the current Jan. 21 issue of TIME that the Senate has again dished into the public treasure chest, this time in favor of Mrs. Thomas R. Marshall a charming wife of a former President of the Senate.

It would be interesting to know just .how many similar awards have been made, and in whose favor. I cannot but wonder just what qualifications one must have in order to share in this Senatorial graft. Can TIME enlighten me--and some intimate friends with whom I have discussed this matter?

THOMAS HUDSON McKEE

Vernon, Tex.

Vermont's Green, shot Feb. 15, 1924, as a bystander in a Pennsylvania Avenue rum-gun fracas, was voted $7,500 by the Senate. He spent the money to pay immediate medical bills, later repaying the full amount to the Senate Contingent Fund. A permanent pension for him was discussed but never voted.

Pensions are customarily granted widows of U. S. Presidents and Vice Presidents by special act of Congress. Mrs. Roosevelt receives a $5,000 pension. The $5,000 pension bill for Mrs. Marshall, passed by the Senate, is now pending in the louse. No pension has been voted Mrs. Wilson, who, wealthy, has asked that none )e given her.

The long lists of pension bills which daily fatten the Congressional Record are largely for military veterans, their relicts and heirs, or for retired Federal employes, in cases technically irregular under the tension laws.--ED.

Chinook Praised

Sirs:

Have been reading about the Byrd Expedition and the naming of different mountain peaks after great men; why not name a mountain, a bay or an inlet after the great dog Chinook. He did a great thing in a dog's way. Chinook was brave until the last, in soul and action, even to die alone.

MRS. E. L. COMPTON

Camden, N. J.

Dog Chinook was named for a wind-the dry warm northwesterly wind that is said to moderate the climate and "lick up" the snow from cold mountain slopes. --ED.

Wine to Water?

Sirs:

"But he never flinched. . . ." We are wondering if James Cannon Jr. of the M. E. Church south shall blink when he sees the Holy Places in Palestine--all of them, if we remember rightly, in charge of Roman Catholic Franciscan monks. (And you know that rascal Al Smith believes the same as they do.) If Cannon Jr. would have a competent guide then must he seek a son of Francesco Bernardone.

And when he reaches Cana of Galilee, this prophet of the Republican party, perhaps we shall hear of a miracle--the changing of wine back into water--diametrically opposed to the one requested by the Mother of the Master.

LIAM F. MALON

Delaware, Ohio

Bankrupt?

Sirs:

Anent Editor High's "tour de force in hailing Bishop Cannon as "the most significant U. S. contributor to religious progress for 1928,"I would appreciate more light on the worthy editor's conception of religion, his definition of progress, and finally on how he can see "religious progress" in Bishop Cannon's conduct in the last campaign. To my mind the bishop's conduct was a sign of the "bankruptcy of protestantism" rather than one of "religious prog-ress."

JOHN K. LEWIS

Gratid Rapids, Mich.

New Hymn

Sirs:

As the clamor for a new national hymn has broken out again, I have been prompted to write the following:

THE NEW HYMN By John C. Wright

The Star Spangled Banner was never too hard For the heroes of Freedom to sing,

And the story it told

Will never be old Where the tocsins of Liberty ring. A national hymn isn't easy to write. For the hymns of a nation are made

In the blood of its sons

And the roar of its guns, As its armies march forth unafraid. Ye never may write a new anthem As stirring, as touching, as fair

As the one that was born

That memorable morn When Key saw our flag was still there! The song of his vision was never too hard For our fathers to sing in the past--

And I think that the story,

In fame and in glory, Will live as our hymn to the last!

JOHN C. WRIGHT* Author of "The Long Night Ride of William Dawes." San Diego, Calif.

*Manufacturer of "Wright's Pure Soft Drink Powders"--("one pound will make a whole barrel--60 gallons--1,200 glasses!").