Antioch & "Trades"
Sirs:
May I express my appreciation of the article on Antioch in May 18 TIME? It will help.
May I suggest one misconception in the article that is very common. You say: "Antioch finds its alumni on the whole sticking to the trades they have chosen." People very commonly assume that because Antioch students work, they learn trades. However, not two percent of Antioch students learn trades. They prepare for business, engineering, education, journalism, scientific research and other such callings.
Inclosed is a statement concerning the scholastic standing of Antioch students as compared with those of Pennsylvania liberal colleges. The Antioch liberal college status is striking, especially as it is ranked in relation to other colleges in which liberal courses constitute the entire curriculum.
Again let me thank you for the article. Your friendship is appreciated.
ARTHUR E. MORGAN
President Antioch College Yellow Springs, Ohio
Case of Porter Smith
Sirs:
Permit me to bring to your attention an editorial entitled "In a Pullman," in your magazine issue of May 11 in which you say, after referring to the Pullman porter as the factotum of the car and his trustworthiness: "The necessity for this trustworthiness was evident last week when a Pullman porter went berserk on a Montreal-bound New York Central train."
This is rather one-sided and hardly fair to Porter Smith. If it may be said that he went berserk, it must, in justification, be added that a mob of six or eight white men went berserk fighting him, first.
The editorial continues: "Armed with a ventilator stick and an emergency axe, the Negro felled five passengers and three of the train crew."
This is not quite a half-truth. According to the story of Porter Smith whose testimony seems quite regular and reasonable, he did not strike a single passenger, but defended himself against passengers who sought to strike him. It is also important to note that, according to Smith, the emergency axe was only secured by him after the emergency box was broken open by some one of the passengers or the train crew, who took out the emergency sledge hammer, the same having been seen in the possession of one of the passengers.
"At Thendara 50 miles north of Utica. N. Y., State troopers had to board the train, quell Porter Smith by threatening to use tear gas bombs," the editorial adds.
Porter Smith says no threat of the use of tear gas bombs was made at all to quell him by the State troopers, but that he volunteered to go with the troopers when they boarded the train. . . .
Moreover, it is most significant that the woman Porter Smith was alleged to have been annoying has made no charge against him.
It seems obvious, after a disinterested examination of the facts involved that if Pullman Conductor Edward English had used a little tact and common sense and dealt with the porter as though he was a human being and not struck him in the face with his fist after questioning him which provoked the fight, the whole unhappy affair could have been avoided. A. PHILIP RANDOLPH
President & General Organizer Brotherhood Sleeping Car Porters New York City