"I admire the hospitable atmosphere you have here," he says, "especially the encouragement given to students with real intellectual curiosity. I note this particularly, because, in my day, Yale did not seem to be chiefly an institution of learning.

Social Activities

"Social activities, athletics, and drinking in the wildest prohibition fashion far overshadowed any pursuit of knowledge. Most of the professors put on a good show, but were not very stimulating. I found that very few Yale men read the newspapers; here there appears to be a healthy interest in world affairs."

Svirsky majored in English and took a smattering of History and Psychology during his stay in Elitown. "But," he says, "I think I'm learning more in one year her than I did in tow years at Yale." He takes advantage of the free run of the University offered to Nieman Fellows, auditing, among others, a course at the Medical School.

After graduating from Yale in 1927, Svirsky worked for several Trade Union publications, and got a job with the New York World in 1929. When that paper was bought out by the Telegram in 1931, he became School Editor for the new owners and in 19374 went to Time to head their Education department.

Czar Nabs Wrong Man

Svirsky was born in Russia in 1904; seen after his birth his meek, shopkeeper father was accused by Czarist police of revolutionary activity.

Without his knowledge, radicals had used the elder Svirsky's store for a meeting place. The family fied to America, settled in Brooklyn, and moved to Hartford, Connecticut when Svirsky was 13. There he busied himself unlearning a William Bendix accent and editing the high school literary review.

His sturdy educational convictions were not born in those high school days when he cluded chemistry and physics as nearly as anyone in the history of the Hartford school system.