Russell Charges Simpson of Trading on Fact He Was Harvard Grad to Secure Election of Luce

A charge that James Simpson, Jr. '29, Congressman from the 10th District, Illinois, and son of the President of Marshall Field and Co., was trading on the fact that he was a Harvard Graduate in an attempt to influence votes for Robert Luce '82, candidate for Congress from Cambridge, has been made by Richard M. Russell '14, a candidate for the same position from the same district.

On October 25, Simpson sent letters to 4000 voters in the 9th Massachusetts district, addressing them as "Harvard Men," and asking that they support "my colleague, Robert Luce." The letter, written from Chicago on United States Congressional notepaper, goes on to stress Luce's "sterling work" in the past and tell of the "huge sums of money" which have been expended by the President's son (Jimmy Roosevelt) to defeat Mr. Luce.

In a letter dated November 2, and addressed to the same 4000 graduates, Mayor Russell charged that Simpson's letter is "conspicuously unfair because it violates the main rule of decent campaigning, whereby Congressmen in one district refrain from interfering in any other district." He continues, saying, "I am not asking help from anybody in Chicago, nor do I ask your support because I happen to be a Harvard man."

This second letter, written on notepaper headed "Office of the Mayor, Cambridge, Massachusetts" has a postscript at the bottom saying "This stationery privately paid for," which is another way of remarking that Simpson's was furnished at the expense of the Federal Government (which it probably wasn't due to the fact that it contains the name of Simpson on it.)

Neither letter mentions the name of the opponent in question, the whole controversy, in typical Harvard fashion, being put on a high moral level, but the feline bitterness involved is very biting.