Professor on Cunningham

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

On the morning of April 3, the Boston Herald gave its usual space to its most distinguished calumnist Mr. Bill Cunningham. The energy of that sporting publicist was devoted to the task of besmirching the memory of a distinguished scholar, inspiring teacher, and man of unflinching honor, Professor Matthiessen. Mr. Cunningham with his customary delicacy of style and feeling saw fit to convert personal tragedy into political comedy. It was one of those days on which his brutality got the better of his sentimentality. Perhaps he set out deliberately to violate every standard of human decency. More probably he seized instinctively upon a tragic occasion to establish the fact that he does not know what decency means.

Protest against the qualities of Mr. Cunningham is obviously fruitless. Yet expression of indignation that a paper which purports to be troubled by the prevalent crime of character assassination sees fit to publish such obscenities as Mr. Cunningham's may not be entirely futile. A community's standard of decency may have appreciable effect on editorial policy of that indignation is expressed in the firm resolution to let the Herald be read only by those who find amusement in a bad boy's blasphemy and sportsmanship in Mr. Cunningham's temperament. Mark DeW. Howe '28   Professor of Law