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The fact that I frequently addressed our Catholic and Christian citizens in my broadcast of July 27 was due not to any desire on my part to exclude the Jewish people from my remarks; it was the threatened division of the Catholics and Christians on this vital national issue of war or peace which I was striving to forestall.
Let it be known now that I am not and never have been an anti-Semite; and that Christ's words: "Love thy neighbor as thyself" have a thoroughly cosmopolitan meaning for me. Catholic, Christian, and Jew can and ought to cooperate in preserving this nation at peace. It is regrettable that thus far such cooperation has not been achieved by those of us who are striving mightily for it. Certainly, in injecting this anti-Semitic note TIME magazine has contributed nothing to our efforts. . . .
FRANCIS J. L. BECKMAN
Archbishop of Dubuque
Dubuque, Iowa
>TIME is glad to know that Archbishop Beckman is no anti-Semite. TIME'S misapprehension (like that of many a Roman Catholic) arose from: 1) Archbishop Beckman's close association with his longtime good friend, Father Coughlin; 2) his use of the term "Christian-Americans," an anti-Semite favorite; 3) omission of Jews in his plea "to unite in the common cause of Americanism.—ED .
Legend Modified
Sirs:
The Professor Kittredge legends recounted in your Aug. 4 issue are orthodox and generally credited. But I am sure that the great teacher would resent having some of them stand without modification in your widely read columns. ... I once heard him deny publicly at Dartmouth the retort, "Who would examine me?" when asked why he had not taken the Ph.D. degree. "That would have been nonsense!" he exclaimed, and added humorously, "I don't think I could have passed an examination for that degree." About the Oxfordian who told him that the only man who could answer an obscure question about Shakespeare was the American scholar Kittredge, he was still more emphatic. "That story," he said, "had no connection with me whatever. Something like it was true of my teacher, Professor Child, who was solemnly referred to one of his own works by a foreign scholar. How the story was exaggerated and transferred to me, I do not know." . . . What you say of his class behavior is wholly true. He once remarked: "The teacher's profession is like the actor's, but without the usual perils."
E. BRADLEE WATSON Department of English Dartmouth College Hanover, N.H.
V
Sirs:
Several times in reference to the V-Campaign TIME has asserted, or implied, that the word "victory" or "viktoria" is unfamiliar to Germans.
Truth is that every little school boy in Germany knows by heart at least one poem which either begins or ends with "Viktoria!" or which employs the word in conjunction with similar exultations like "hurra" and "gloria."
Best example, perhaps, is Julius Mosen's poem of The Trumpeter of the Katzbach, from which I quote these lines:
"Viktoria"—so klang es
"Viktoria"—überall
"Viktoria"—so drang es Hervor mit Dormerschall!