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SEARCH 75 YEARS OF ESSAYS!
January 2011
In recent months, photo id cards have acquired new importance as part of our nation’s fight against terrorism. Digital imaging and magnetic strips are modern developments, but the basic technology behind photo IDs can be traced to the French photographer Adolphe Disdéri, who in 1854 found an efficient process for making miniature portraits. Three years later, the Duke of Parma began attaching photographs of himself to his calling cards. The fad soon spread to England and, in late 1859, to the United States.
25 YEARS AGO
March 1, 1977 To protect its fisheries, the United States declares that its territory extends 200 miles offshore, a limit that still holds today.
March 9-11, 1977 Gunmen from a Muslim sect occupy three government buildings in Washington, D.C., demanding, among other things, that seven prisoners convicted of killing the ringleader’s family be turned over to them. After 39 hours, the gunmen surrender.
50 YEARS AGO
March 3, 1952 The U.S. Supreme Court upholds a 1939 law that prohibits any member of an organization advocating the illegal overthrow of the government from teaching in public schools.
75 YEARS AGO
February 18, 1927 For the first time, the United States and Canada establish direct diplomatic relations independent of Great Britain.
On March 9, 1977, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced its intention to ban saccharin, an artificial sweetener in use since the turn of the century, because of studies that showed it caused bladder cancer in rats. Dieters, diabetics, and producers of low-calorie foods and beverages reacted with outrage, and understandably so. Ever since 1969, when cyclamates were banned, also for causing cancer, saccharin had been the only artificial sweetener on the market.
Opponents of the ban pointed out that the rats that had developed cancer had been fed a diet of 5 percent saccharin, or the equivalent of 800 cans of diet soda per day, a level at which many common substances would no doubt cause problems. Canada, where the incriminating studies were performed, announced its intention to ban saccharin the same day. But cyclamates were still legal in that country, combining with Cuban cigars and over-the-counter codeine to make Canada a sybarite’s paradise.
I was moved to write to you for two reasons after reading your November/December 2001 issue. The first was Nathan Ward’s statement (in “The Fire Last Time”) that the Wall Street bombing of 1920 was, “until the Oklahoma City devastation, the most deadly terrorist attack in American history.” The second was Kevin Baker’s statement (“In the News”) that “one standing rule at American Heritage is to be sure not to focus too much on New York City.” On the morning of May 18, 1927, in the small town of Bath, Michigan, 43 people were killed, 44 including the killer. Thirty-nine of these were victims of the single bombing at the Bath school. The bomber, like Timothy McVeigh, was lashing out against the government. Perhaps I do not fully understand the term terrorist , or we are splitting hairs about the number of victims. Either way, mentioning this incident or qualifying some statements would have helped all of us out here in the sticks to really believe you truly do not focus too much on New York City.
Frederick E. Allen’s review of my book IBM and the Holocaust (“Behind the Cutting Edge,” July/August 2001) is presented with a great authoritative tone, as though Allen is an expert in this area. Unfortunately, virtually everything he knows about IBM’s involvement with Hitler’s Reich is second- or thirdhand. His review is filled with exaggeration and completely invented Holocaust-era history. Two examples are representative. Alien writes that IBM’s machines “were employed in many of the concentration camps, and they helped automate the mass production of death (though they were in such short supply that the Race and Settlement Office of the SS didn’t have one until 1943).” What does the Race and Settlement Office have to do with concentration camps? It was a screening service for adoptions and marriages by SS officers, which is why it didn’t receive a machine until so late, and is so marginal it is unmentioned in virtually every standard Holocaust reference.
Early in the second month of 1953, I was summoned from study hall at White Plains High School. A college football coach wanted to see me.
Such recruiting visits were common-place because the school’s football team had not lost a game during my three years there. Our quarterback, the high school coach’s son, was chosen as a high school All-American in his senior year. I played center and received my share of recruiting attention as a result of that reflected glory. One head coach, whose undefeated 1952 team was ranked number one, had offered to put me through a Baltimore law school if I would play for him. (I didn’t accept the offer and learned only years later that the law school was not accredited.)
However, the coach I was summoned from study hail to meet that day in 1953 was different. He was not a head coach, and his team was a long way from a number-one ranking. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point (Army), where he was an assistant, had Columbia and Penn on its football schedule, and its team was not the powerhouse it had been in the 40s.