3 Report on sexual Cornell harassment 3 CHRONICLE Curran comments on papal visit 7 Salt crystal Volume 19 Number 6 October 1, 1987 lasers Frank Gannett Revolution papers added seen in data to CU archives transmission Frank E. Gannett, founder of the media Using a new Cornell process that offers conglomerate that now publishes 90 news- the promise of economical production of papers, including USA Today, was also new high-temperature superconducting active in politics: He sought the Republican material, University of Rochester scientists nomination for vice president in 1936 and have discovered that the superconductors for president in 1940. Gannett's personal can conduct electrical pulses as short as 10 papers were donated to Cornell and have to 15 trillionths of a second without now been catalogued. absorption or distortion and at very high To mark the availability of this fascina- levels of electrical current. The shorter the ting archive which also includes photo- pulse over a digital data line, the greater the graphs of Gannett's political campaigns information that can be transmitted. against the New Deal, as well as the per- Thus, say the scientists, superconducting sonal papers of his late wife, the Gannett digital data transmission lines could be built Foundation and Cornell Libraries will pres- with far greater capacity than even optical ent a lecture, "Frank E. Gannett: A Pub- fibers for transmitting computer data, lisher in Politics," by Richard Polenberg, television pictures and telephone the Cioldwin Smith Professor of American conversations. Also, future computers could History, on Oct. 8 at 4 p.m. in the Hans use superconducting transmission lines to Bethe Auditorium on the seventh floor of move massive amounts of data rapidly Clark Hall. among components on computer chips. The Gannett Foundation, sponsor of the event, is among the nation's 20 largest pri- First application of its kind vate foundations, with assets of more than "These results represent the first $570 million. It has contributed more than application of this newly discovered high- $2 million to Cornell in the last 20 years, temperature superconductor to high-speed including support for the Gannett Health electronics and communications systems and Center and the Performing Arts Center. could trigger a revolution in these areas," The foundation also supports journalism said Gerard Mourou, who directs the education, adult literacy, and community Ultrafast Science Center at the Univrsity of programs in areas where Gannett Co. Inc. Rochester's Laboratory for Laser has subsidiaries. Energetics, and who is one of the team In addition to its newspapers and USA members. Weekend magazine, Gannett operates eight "For instance, we can predict that, over television stations, 16 radio stations and the distances of miles, lossless superconducting largest outdoor advertising company in the transmission lines with 100 times the country. It all began with the Elmira I capacity of optical fiber systems could be Gazette, in which Gannett bought a half developed," he added. Department of Manuscripts and University Archives interest in 1906. He was 29 years old; the A photograph from the Republican National Convention, Philadelphia, Pa., June 1940, Mourou explained that a single such investment was $20,000. one of many photographs in the archives of Frank Gannett, recently made available by superconducting data transmission line The son of a hotelier, Gannett began his the Cornell Libraries. could have information-carrying capacities association with newspapers by delivering of a terabit, or a trillion bits, of information the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, a State as a journalist, becoming the city edi- to Uphold Constitutional Government to per second. newspaper his company has owned since tor of the Ithaca Daily News. His later role oppose Roosevelt's plan to add justices to Such a line could transmit the text 1928. He won a scholarship to attend Cor- as a chain newspaper owner gave him a pol- the Supreme Court. In 1940, after the court equivalent of one thousand Encyclopedia nell, where he covered the university presi- itical platform. Early opposition to Presi- plan failed, Gannett ran for the presidential Britannica's per second, more than 15 dent's office for the Cornell Daily Sun. dent Roosevelt's agriculture policies led to nomination as "the man who stopped million two-way voice conversations or When the president, Jacob Gould Schur- an invitation from Senator William Borah Roosevelt," but Wendell Willkie was named more than 10,000 full-color television rnan, was appointed by William McKinley to run with him for the vice presidency, but by the Republican Convention. He channels. Such a transmission line could as head of the First Philippine Commission, Alfred M. Landon beat Borah for the remained an active Republican, a philan- transmit the entire 25 million books of the he asked Gannett to serve as his secretary. nomination. thropist and a supporter of Cornell until his Library of Congress, the world's largest In 1899, Gannett was back in New York Gannett founded the National Committee death in 1957. — Irv Chapman Continued on page 3 Fact-finders fear Haiti Writer of ILR book to describe may cancel election A fact-finding mission of Caribbean womens' lives, jobs in cotton mills nationals visited Haiti in late August and found political and economic conditions Two women born into poverty in the Andrea Fleck Clardy, an editor in the deteriorating so rapidly that elections for South will visit the university this week to ILR Press, said, "The lives and subculture president and the House of Assembly sche- describe the plight of women in the South- of Southern mill workers are almost com- duled for November may be cancelled. ern textile industry. pletely undocumented. Virtually nothing "There is a serious question as to whether They are Victoria Byerly, author of the that explores workers in the Southern mills the electoral machinery can be gotten into book "Hard Times Cotton Mill Girls: Per- has been written although a great deal has shape in time for elections in November," sonal Histories of Womanhood and Poverty been written on Northern textile workers. said Locksley Edmondson, a member of the in the South," and the Rev. Katie Cannon, "This book deals with life in the company mission. the first black woman to receive a doctorate town where the mill is the only game in "In August, the group which was inde- from Union Theological Seminary and the town. These workers were exploited by low pendently set up by the constitution to ^ first black woman to be ordained in the wages and poor working conditions, but organize the elections had no money nor Presbyterian clergy. there was another side: Working in the mill building in which to carry on their work," Byerly's book is an oral history based on was a way of achieving some security and he said, adding that holding the election interviews with 20 women who lived and comfort." "seems almost impossible at this time." worked in North Carolina mill towns. Can- After graduating from high school — she In February 1986, President-for-Life non is one of the women interviewed. The was the first member of her family to do so Jean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed "Baby book was published by ILR Press at the — Byerly followed her mother, grand- Continued on page 8 Locksley Edmondson School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Continued on page 7 2 October 1, 1987 Notable Briefs H. Thomas Hickerson, chairman of the • Nominations sought for a spring 1988 i Cornell Libraries' Department of Manu- Messenger Lecturer: Due to a change in the scripts and Archives, has been named a fel- plans of the scheduled lecturer for the 1988 low of the Society of American Archivists Spring Messenger Lecture Series, the Uni- in recognition of "distinguished service to versity Lectures Committee is seeking nom- the profession and to the society." inations by Oct. 23 for another speaker for A computer specialist, he has been the 1988 spring series. instrumental in the creation of a standard Established in 1924, the series is consi- format for the exchange of machine- dered one of the university's most important readable information on archival holdings intellectual events and has annually brought through the Research Libraries Group, a some of the world's foremost scholars and computerized network of some 50 of the public figures to campus. The coming nation's largest research libraries. Hickerson, spring's lecturer was to have been British 42, came to Cornell in 1974 and has held soil scientist Peter Nye of Oxford Univer- his current post since 1979. sity, but he has rescheduled his talks for the spring of 1989. Nominations and inquiries about the Messenger Lectures should be John J. Clark Jr., dean of the School of addressed to Judy Bower, coordinator for Hotel Administration, has been elected to the University Lectures Committee, 315 the Board of Trustees of the Educational Day Hall, telephone 255 4843. Institute of the American Hotel & Motel Association. • Seminar Oct. 13 on locating government A nonprofit educational foundation, the publications: A two-hour seminar on the institute, which is centered at Michigan organization, use and location of U.S. State University, develops educational and Government Publications is scheduled for 7 training materials for lodging and food ser- p.m. on Oct. 13 in Olin Library. For regis- vice employees the world over. Correspon- tration and other details, stop by or call the dence courses, videotapes, computer Olin Reference Desk at 255 4144. The ses- software and a wide variety of how-to pub- sion will be repeated at 10 a.m. on Oct. 30. lications are available through the institute, the world's largest resource center for the • Graduate school information sessions set hospitality industry.