Letters, Jun. 18, 1956

New Signs in the South

Sir:

The cool beauty and grandeur of your June 4 Southern scenes and the captions describing what happened there should help outsiders see why we Southerners so easily let sentiment cloud our wrongheaded race thinking. The rightheaded thinking of my alma mater (Spring Hill College—noted in your Education section) is a source of deep pride—and a tangible sign that sentiment can be overcome. This issue of your magazine is symbolic: men from the Hill, which graduated Mrs. Motley, a Negro, fought in the pictured Civil War battles. There is a new South!

WM. JUNKIN, SJ. Saint Mary's College Saint Marys, Kansas

Report on Puerto Rico

Sir:

It would be hard to measure the extent to which TIME'S recognition of our struggle here spurs the people of Puerto Rico in their efforts to improve their economic position. It would also be hard to measure our appreciation of the outstanding job done by your correspondent and the editors of TIME for their May 14 article. My sincerest thanks.

LUIS MUÑOZ MARÍN

Governor San Juan, P.R.

S. for Something

Sir:

TIME, May 28, says "Harry S. (for Swinomish) Truman." Is that a bit of humor lost on me? My biographical material says that "S" alone is used because the Truman family was unable to agree upon whether it really stood for Shippe or Solomon.

MRS. L. A. STODDART Logan, Utah

The Truman middle initial originally stood for nothing. Recently an honorary one was provided by Washington State's Swinomish Indian tribe and formally accepted by the former President (TIME, Dec. 19).—ED.

Cheating Made Easy

Sir:

I enjoyed your May 28 story on exam cheating in Spain. However, I do wonder if your Education editor ever attended an American university. I have attended four universities, and in two of them cheating was the accepted way of passing exams. Wherever a school retains the fraternity system, you are likely to have cheating; American fraternities keep the tradition alive as a means of protecting the academic records of their membership and a powerful means of attracting pledges. Their exhibits of chuletas [literally, cutlet] are just as good as José Suárez'—though not as public.

MAUS V. DARLING

Tappan, N.Y.

Sir:

When I was a student I had two dreads: math and science. For science I wrote the formulae on my fingernails; for mathematics I wrote them on a circular piece of paper, slipped under the crystal of my wristwatch. Result: I never flunked. Note to students: I have not patented these cutlets.

WILLIAM HARVEY West Hartford, Conn.

Sir:

Chuletas were in use at Cambridge in Bret Harte's time. Witness the unknown parodist on a student caught in the ancient history examination:

In the crown of his cap Were the Furies and Fates And an excellent map Of the Dorian States; And in both of his palms They discovered What is common in palms—That is, dates.

KENT CURTIS

Grand Rapids, Minn.

Sir: