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CORRESPONDENCE
The S&L Debacle
The cover story on the history of the U.S. banking industry in the February/March issue was thorough and informative. It should be must reading for everyone in Washington, as Congress begins debating how to reform the antiquated regulation of our financial-services industry.
William A. Schreyer
Chairman of the Board and
Chief Executive Officer
Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.
New York, N.Y.
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The S&L Debacle
John Steele Gordon states that Elizabethan goldsmiths became the first to issue paper money. I understand that the Chinese invented paper money centuries before. According to The Horizon History of China, bankers and money shops issued drafts payable at the capital during the Tang period. During the Sung dynasty in 1024, paper money was issued with government approval and backing.
Jeffrey Brown
Blacksburg, Va.
Mr. Gordon replies: I’m afraid that Mr. Brown has caught me with my Eurocentrism showing. The Chinese did indeed first invent paper money, several hundred years before it appeared in Europe. Alas, it also disappeared from China several hundred years before it appeared in Europe.
The Chinese invented any number of things first, coke-fired blast furnaces and oceangoing cargo ships, for instance. But many of them later vanished because of opposition from the government establishment or in some subsequent era of political chaos. They had no long-term consequences for China or the world, unlike the European reinvention of these same things.
So crediting the goldsmiths rather than the Chinese with inventing paper money is rather like crediting Columbus with the European discovery of America. Sure, Leif Ericson got here first, but so what?
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Silent Eagle?
In “The Time Machine” in your April issue, you state that Col. Charles Lindbergh “grew silent and faded from public notice” during World War II.
I feel, however, that he should be recognized for his devotion to his country and his accomplishments in working with pilots to improve their performance and their planes’ performance while he was a consultant for Chance Vought and Pratt & Whitney.
I was a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps, squadron VMF 313, flying an F4U (Corsair) fighter and stationed on Midway Island in the Pacific. In 1944, from April 29 to May 2, Lindbergh was with us and took part in a tactical navigation flight and a gunnery practice run.
He was instrumental in showing us ways to improve our engine performance and use less fuel during operations. On May 1, during our gunnery runs, Colonel Lindbergh flew wing on me. When he flew the Atlantic I was eight years old and on this date I was flying with him, a boyhood dream come true.
Brace D. Clausonthue
Naples, Fla.
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Residents
It is often said that we ignore history at our own peril. Richard F. Snow’s enlightening essay “Hometown” ("Letter from the Editor") in the May/June issue, and its eloquent discussion of how good “the good ol’ days” in New York really were, offers yet further proof of this point.
My wife and I also appreciated the article “Williamsburg on the Subway.” We are privileged to be the occupants of one of the landmarks it features—Gracie Mansion. Its beautiful grounds and historic furnishings, I can assure you, are sufficient cause for a first-term mayor of this great city to consider seriously seeking a second one.
David N. Dinkins
Mayor, The City of New York
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New Math
Your article “What Ever Happened to New Math” (December 1990) brought back memories, pleasant and otherwise, of my days as a “new-math kid” while growing up in Fresno, California. Because I was not introduced to new math until I began algebra in the eighth grade, my adjustment was not as traumatic as that of my classmates struggling with the new-math approach to seventh- and eighth-grade arithmetic, learning such useful concepts as counting in the base-twelve number system. Mr. Miller made one error in his article, however. He stated that SMSG referred to something he characterized as the School Mathematics Study Group. This is utter nonsense. As any student attending Alexander Hamilton Junior High School in Fresno during the early sixties could tell you, SMSG stood for only one thing: “Some Math, Some Garbage.”
Alan M. Streit
Albany, Calif.
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New Math
I enjoyed reading your article on the new math, but I believe that it neglected the positive side of the whole episode. I am apparently a contemporary of the author, having graduated from high school in 1969.1 attended a suburban Indianapolis school system that participated in the early new-math projects. At first we even used SMSG workbooks. I do not know how our teachers were prepared, but they clearly comprehended the concepts in the new math.
I received average math grades throughout secondary school, and my college experience with mathematics confirmed that I had no interest in or aptitude for the subject. I did, however, start taking computer programming courses. There I found myself working in base two, eight, and sixteen. Using these alternative numbering systems was easy and natural. My fellow students who had no effective new-math experience were at sea, and many who were far brighter than I didn’t perform as well as I did.
Computer design and programming is one area where the United States is still dominant. Most of the best people in this field are of the new-math generation. 1 wonder how many of them benefited from this curriculum experiment. I wonder how many more would have excelled if all the teachers had been as well prepared as mine were. Perhaps American Heritage would have run an article entitled “New Math, the Experiment That Succeeded.”
Stephen E. Jacobs, M. D.
Modesto, Calif.
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A Word in Light-Horse Harry’s Favor...
The generally balanced report on Robert E. Lee in the May/June issue is not very complimentary toward his Revolutionary hero father, Henry (Light-Horse Harry) Lee, saying he deserted his family. After financial and physical afflictions, he did spend the last few years of his life in the West Indies. Previous to that he served under Washington in the Revolution and was governor of Virginia. As a member of Congress he wrote the resolution on Washington’s death: “First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen.”
As did the financier of the Revolution, Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, Henry Lee expected that the new nation would develop faster than it did. Like Morris, Lee invested heavily in land and went to debtors’ prison when he could not pay what he owed. In part due to mistreatment of such patriots, the people of the United States abolished debtors’ prisons—those sad remnants of old England—and put in place the bankruptcy provisions of the new Constitution.
Light-Horse Harry Lee was seriously injured by a mob in Baltimore during the War of 1812 when he went to the defense of a newspaper editor of that city who had taken an antiwar editorial stand. He never fully recovered.
Marshall E. Surratt
Midland, Tex.
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… and One Against His Son
Another story about Gen. R. E. Lee—how disgusting! R. E. Lee was a slave owner who fought against the Union, and by his actions many young men died, yet he survived unhurt. In other parts of the world, he and Jefferson Davis would have been executed for treason. I do not think of him as a great warrior but as a traitor.
Frances O. Bohman
Chicago, III.
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Nicknames on the Land
I’m sure Gerald Carson’s article on city nicknames in the April American Heritage will generate a lot of comment. My own favorite is the rural community of Tillamook on the northern coast of Oregon. Located on a large bay with a backdrop of dairy farms and the finest timber-growing land in the Coast Range, it is widely known as the “City of Cheese, Trees, and the Ocean Breeze.”
Warren A. Post
Portland, Ore.
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Nicknames on the Land
The two nicknames that you listed for Rochester, New York ("City Built by Hands” and “Snapshot City"), never really caught on. But the town does have an official nickname with an interesting history. After the Erie Canal was completed in 1825, Rochester, with water power from the falls of the Genesee River, became one of the largest grainmilling centers in the world and called itself “Flour City.” After that industry declined, Rochester became better known for its parks and horticulture businesses. Not wanting to throw away a perfectly good nickname, city fathers simply changed the spelling to the current “Flower City.”
Gary Welch
St. Joseph, Mich.
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Noble Automobile
What a delight to see the Cadillac V-16 on your April cover! I once owned two of these noble automobiles, and to this day I regret having parted with them! From this perspective I trust you’ll indulge my picking a couple of nits.
First, there were no 1929 V-IGs, contrary to your caption. The ’29s were all 341 (denoting cubic inches of engine displacement) Series V-Ss. The V-16 452 Series was introduced in January 1930.
Second, your index page describes the car as a “roadster.” Tsk, tsk! Roadsters were open models—sans roll-up windows or landau irons, which this car obviously has—and their folddown tops were of completely different shape and construction from that in your photo. Your cover car is a “convertible coupe.”
These lapses notwithstanding, it’s a very attractive cover for which your art director should be complimented. Perhaps in a future issue he’ll show us the entire car.
Now that would be a treat, indeed!
G. Thatcher Darwin
Laguna Hills, Calif.
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Noble Automobile
I was present at the auction of the Gifford Oborne estate in Morristown, New Jersey, on June 10, 1989, when the Cadillac was sold. Even a Packard man such as myself would testify to the fact that as good as it looks on your magazine cover, it looks even better when viewed in person. I’d like to see more articles in your magazine relating to the automotive industry in American history. In particular, the decade of the 1930s is of interest, since we were building the best cars we would ever make at a time when people were least able to afford them.
Jonathan Levine
New Vernon, N.J.
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Golf
The article in your April issue by Peter Andrews entitled “Links With History” was read with much pleasure, I’m sure, by thousands of golf fans. It particularly emphasized the fascinating facts and traditions that surround our game, and the colorful photographs depicting several of our greatest courses underscored golf’s intricate relationship with its surrounding environment.
The USGA invites all members of the public to visit our library and museum, Golf House, in Far Hills, New Jersey. Like Mr. Andrews, I feel our collection is “extensive and well ordered, tracing the evolution of the game from the earliest days to the present.”
David B. Fay
Executive Director
United States Golf Association
Far Hills, N.J.
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