"Qul Vivra Verra"

(Ed. Note--The Crimson does not necessarily endorse opinions expressed in printed communications. No attention will be paid to anonymous letters and only under special conditions, at the request of the writer, will names be with held.)

To The Editor of the CRIMSON:

Herr Hitler's very intimate "friend," Ernst Hanfstaengl, must have aroused the admiration of the whole conservative world when he so graciously offered his "scholarship" to that college which has given him his "incalculable advantages," as he so charmingly puts it. Incalculable advantages indeed! One cannot measure these by the sufferings of a persecuted race and an exploited class; nor can one see them in the destruction of culture and civilization which is ensuing from a militaristic, war-provoking nationalism in which Hanfstaengl takes such carnal pleasure.

But this might seem trivial! Conservatives might wink a wise eye at that "spirit of discipline and fair play inculcated on the sporting fields of Harvard" which has so delightfully been carried overseas to grace the hitherto depraved Fatherland. The average Harvard man might feel fairly titillated by Hanfstaengl's glowing tribute to "American energy, character, and idealism." Indeed, conservative professors, if not profiteering patriots, might revel in the lovable Ernst's bid for "intellectual, scientific, and human interchange between the U.S. and Germany, without which there can be no true insight, no true understanding, no true progress."

But alas, the estimable gentleman has made one glaring error! He has lost his understanding of the American mind! The latter being a very curious, not to say unfathomable phenomenon, Herr Hanfstaengl might be excused. However, since he is quick to catch "the spirit of discipline" in America, let him learn the following: America, Mr. Hanfstaengl, can be both highly flattered and highly insulted without showing her teeth. She loves to be called "energetic" and "idealistic," even though she has twelve million unemployed, and her leaders are caught in all sorts of selfish, materialistic ventures. She has what you call a "spirit of fair play" to an extent which ordinarily, despite certain of your glaring defects that are superficially repugnant to her, would induce her to welcome you at Harvard with the same hall-fellow-well-met lavishness that the officers of the "Karisruhe" received. But, Herr Hanfstaengl, America also likes to fool herself, to play at being fair and liberal while pretending rather successfully that no material gains are responsible for her attitude. Briefly, she would be "fair" to you while disclaiming that she has a share in your basic ideas, and that she, as well as you, favors a nationalistic, profiteering system.

You should not have tried to bribe her as you did, Master Fascist. You should not have professed a belief in America's ideals, in American etiquette, and then so grossly broken them by making your bribe public, by giving your letter to the press before it reached President Conant. Was this consistent with sincere, alumna generosity? Isn't it just a bit too obvious? Certainly, Herr Hanfstaengl, for one who represents the wiles of European diplomacy, your methods are remarkably crude. Can Harvard accept your offer under all these conditions? If it does, it will be an eye-opener to more than one trusting American. Charles L. Whipple,   Allen K. Philbrick.