1910

Secretary, 501 Cannon PL, Troy, N.Y.

Class Agent, 8 N. Balch St., Hanover, N.H.

Ted Smith is safely out of Cuba. In a letter written from Florida, Ted tells us that he is living with his son Edmond at 650 N. Mashta Drive, Key Biscayne. Ted has lost all his property but his son, fortunately, has his shipping business to fall back on. We are relieved to have this news that Ted is out from under that daily threat of uncertainty.

Another letter brought news about two other Tenners who have been temporarily in foreign land - but just vacationing. Herb and Daisy Wolff, letter relates, were just about to have dinner at their hotel in Nassau, when Herb spotted a familiar face in the doorway. So in a shorter time than it takes to tell it, a dinner party of four was in progress - Inky and Miriam Taylor and Herb and Daisy. Before they separated, Herb and Inky collaborated on a letter to your Sec. explaining it all and sending their best: "If we had a post card picture of this spot, we'd make an 'X' and say, 'Wish you were here.' We still say that even without the post card."

About the same time, a post card arrived from a Tenner gathering in Clearwater - one of that "wish you were here" kind. It was signed by Larry Bankart, Ed and Lila Keith, George and May Allen, Mac and Florence Kendall, Art and Bertha Lord, Gladys Wilson, Ruth Copp, Margaret Winchester and Sarah and Jim English '12. I sure would have liked to be there taking up some of that Florida sunshine.

Herb Woods, it appears, has been "telling "em" down there in Deep River, Conn. The local paper, in an editorial one day this past winter, heartily approved Herb's warnings to the town's budget-makers. To quote a bit:

About a year ago, when lower valley school and town budgets were being prepared, Herb Woods, a member of the Deep River Board of Finance, and one of the area's "elder statesmen" in the field of economics, offered some pertinent observations.

He pointed out that, in the case of Deep River, for instance, the proposed budget was up by some ten percent over the preceding year, while the town's grand list had increased only one and a half percent.

"This sort of thing has been happening every year, and these differences are accumulating," he warned. "In that direction lies economic disaster. Our industries are under constant pressure to move South, where costs are lower. For the most part, industries are not wedded to our communities through heritage or long existence here. And they are under no moral responsibility to remain here."

But the warning went for naught; the budget was adopted pretty much as proposed. The tax rate was raised. The same thing will happen again this year and next. But can we afford to 'ignore Herb Woods' warning again and again and again ? Can we afford to run the risk of forcing our industry to move elsewhere, and pushing taxes so high that no new industry will consider moving in?

So we learn that Connecticut has an economy-minded Tenner in its service, just as California has its Congressman, Eck Hiestand, who blasts at the spenders down in Washington. How we need that kind of activity which spurns the old game of legislating always with only the vote-getting probabilities in mind. Incidentally, we have learned that Eck had a bout with hospital surroundings a few months ago. The last we heard, he was doing all right. A newspaper column clipping that came in quotes Eck: "Ulcers often are the result of mountain-climbing over molehills."

Last fall when the Sentate Anti-Trust andMonopoly subcommittee was featuring theinvestigation of the drug industry, FrankMeleney had the opportunity to draw national attention to his famous discovery,"bacitracin." To quote the New York Times:

Senator Estes Kefauver charged today that the drug industry was not giving a "fair shake" to an effective antibiotic, apparently because it wanted to profit on its own patented products.

The Tennessee Democrat, chairman of the Senate Antitrust and Monopoly subcommittee, said the drug industry was virtually ignoring "bacitracin," first discovered almost seventeen years ago at Columbia University.

Dr. Frank Lamont Meleney, former head of Columbia's bacteriological research laboratory, testified yesterday that bacitracin was "almost always" effective against germs that were resistant to other antibiotics, such as penicillin.

Senator Kefauver said Dr. Meleney's testimony had showed the drug was better and less dangerous in many cases than the heavily promoted types sold under trade names.

He indicated he felt that there might be a deliberate effort to price the drug out of the market. He said its approximate cost per gram was listed at $6, while similar trade name antibiotics were sold for $2 by Charles Pfizer & Co. and the Upjohn Company.

When this issue of the MAGAZINE reaches you, it will be close to the time of our '61 informal reunion. I am reminded that a number of those attending last June's big event stated on departing from Hanover, and since then in letters, that they definitely would plan on getting back again in '6l. So go ahead with your plans. Be in Hanover June 12-14 and we'll have another happy family gathering.

Troy Parker '11 and his wife Janet with a1911 classmate, Dutch Irwin, in Asheville.