Letters, Dec. 11, 1933

(4 of 5)

I will lay you a wager of one year's subscription for TIME for each member of this year's undefeated, untied Princeton freshman team that you are wrong. We will limit the number of subscriptions to 22 and one for Johnny Gorman, their coach.

In the game of football there is a penalty for crawling. . . .

DEAN HILL

Bronxville, N. Y.

TIME erred in calling Stanford's dark-haired Corbus "blond," but let Reader Hill mend his talk. Stanford's Corbus was named right guard on Grantland Rice's 1932 All-American team, as Grantland Rice's Manhattan office (telephone: Mohawk 4-7500) will confirm. To the Princeton freshman team and its small, twinkling Coach Johnny Gorman (the quarterback who, in the 1922 Princeton-Chicago game, called for and caught a historic forward pass in the shadow of his own goal) 23 subscriptions to TIME. To Reader Hill, the bill.—ED.

Morris Plan Interest

Sirs:

In your publication dated Nov. 13 you state that the interest rate for Morris Plan loans is approximately 17%. Will you kindly advise me as to how that percentage is computed?

W. A. JOHNSON

Indianapolis, Tnd.

There are many mathematical formulas for figuring interest rates on co-maker loans such as Morris Plan loans. One formula widely used is:

i=2md

—

x(n+1)(—)2md

i —Interest rate

x —Face value of note

n —Number of period installment payments (usually 50)

m —Ratio between one year and length of uniform intervals between installment payments

d —Amount of discount charged

For example: if loan is $100, discount will be $8; over a year; 50 separate payments.

i=2 (52 x 8)

—

100 (50+1)—2 (52x 8)

i= 832

—

4268

i= 19%

However, the rate of interest varies with the mathematical formula used. The elementary arithmetical way used by the Russell Sage Foundation is:

i= d m

— X —

amount received (n+1) — 2

For example: if loan is $100 as above, etc.

i= 8 X 52

— —

92 (50 + 1) — 2

Interest=17%— ED.

Man of the Year

Sirs:

The Forgotten Man might well be the man of the year. But the odds — if you want odds — are 1,000 to 1 that he remains forgotten.

TOM LENNON

Hollywood, Calif.

Sirs:

... I am not fearful of betting on the Man of the Year, according to TIME.

The Dope has it 2-to-1 on John D. Rockefeller Jr. for his financial unsuccessful Radio City, and his contribution for the indispensable Liquor Report.