The Campaign
Sir:
For the next four years I would like for our country a President who is not a playboy, majoring in the game of golf and minoring in the affairs of state.
SOL ROSOF New York City
Sir:
Hurrah for Dick Nixon! I have wondered low long this Democrat hogwash about the 'little man" would go unchallenged. There is no such thing as a little American. Most of us are small businessmen or wage earners. We may not have as much money as Stevenson or Harriman, but we can bet our bottom dollar that they are not planning on dividing affairs with us.
DONALD W. PRAIRIE Portland, Ore.
We have had the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, the Great Commoner, Henry Clay, and currently we have the Great Promiser, Adlai Stevenson.
EDGAR RAY PRICKETT Birmingham, Ala.
For a man who "had no intention of lending the presidency to campaign potshotting" [Sept. 24], President Eisenhower appears to be making a hell of a lot of noise from a hell of a lot of places.
A. KOBER New York City
Sir:
At the end of Truman's term, Adlai had an old pair of shoes with a hole through the half-sole; now, at the end of three years of Ike's term, Adlai has a new pair of shoes with a whole half-sole.
JOHN YANCEY Los Angeles
Sir:
Stevenson is a roorback specialist. The roorback hibernates during political off-years and roars back to life during national presidential campaigns. Ex-President Truman is a well-known breeder of roorbacks; occasionally they turn on him. His latest encounter with a roorback was well nigh fatal.
FRANK E. O'NEIL
Raleigh, N.C.
P:Roorback: A defamatory falsehood published for political effect-Webster's. The word comes from a report published in Whig papers on the eve of the 1844 election, attributed to a fictitious Baron Roorback. The report, an unsuccessful attempt to defeat Democratic Candidate (and slaveholder) James K. Polk, charged that a gang of slaves branded with the initials J.K.P. had been seen on their way to Southern markets.-ED.
Family Talk (Contd.)
Sir:
Monica Thomas (Oct. 1) has certainly seen through the camouflage issues of the cost of living, farmer subsidies and world peace to the real question: "Can a man with toothy sons find happiness as the President of a wealthy and titled nation?"
JIM & JAN LEIKER San Gabriel, Calif.
Sir:
Are there actually "millions" of women voters who will base their affiliations on photographs of the "family group" that may inhabit the White House next year? If there are, I suggest that we elect Pappy Yokum, and install Mammy Yokum, Li'l Abner, Daisy Mae and Honest Abe in the White House. They meet every requirement: typically American, non-Ivy League and quite "natural."
SHERWIN L. SAMUELS ABE SALKIN
Berkeley, Calif.
Sir:
Someone ought to inform dear Monica that we are electing a President and not a reigning family come November. She sounds like a strong argument for the repeal of woman suffrage.
JOHN F. RISDELL
Brooklyn
Father & Son
Sir:
Bouquets to you for your article on Gene and Herman Talmadge. It not only showed an insight into the politically adolescent mind of the Southern voter, but gave a taste of what can come about under a Democratic administration, whether it be state or federal.
A. TREMBLAY Salem, Mass.
Sir:
Hearty thanks for that lifelike Herman Talmadge on your cover. This boy's going places-and he should. He's probably the most versatile politician in the country as well as the most fascinating personality in the South.
MARILYN D. MAJOR Binghamton, N.Y.
Sir:
Never have I seen such a blatant disregard for intellectual honesty as was displayed in the story on Herman Talmadge. How you must fear this capable man ! The darkness of your minds is pitiful.
WILLIAM E. BAILEY Decatur, Ga.
Duffy's Boys
Sir:
Congratulations on your fine cover article on Duffy Daugherty [Oct. 8]. As an ardent alumnus and former letter winner, I feel proud to have had two of our group make your cover recently-Robin Roberts [May 28], and now the coach [see cuts].
BONN JOYCE Vineland,NJ.
Sir:
A truly wonderful article. A technical correction, however: ". . . leaving the quarterback free to block ahead of runner or tear downfield for a pass . . ." The official N.C.A.A. football rules, Rule 7, Sec. 3, Article 3b, on Eligibility to Catch a Pass, says: "Each player [is eligible] who is in an end position on the line of scrimmage and each player who is legally in his backfield and who is not in a position to receive a hand-to-hand snap from the center."
In other words, a T-quarterback is not eligible to receive a forward pass.
NATE BEARDSLEY Princeton, Mass.
Sir:
Thought you might be interested in the following "Duffyism." The day your Duffy Daugherty issue hit the stands, he said that when he was asked if he wasn't afraid his picture on TIME would bring him bad luck, he replied: "It didn't seem to hurt Nasser much."
LOWELL R. EKLUND Pontiac, Mich.
The New Justice
Sir:
While I was delighted to read your article about my brother, Justice William J. Brennan Jr., on the occasion of his appointment to the United States Supreme Court, it contains one particular misstatement which I feel should be corrected. It is not true that after his Army service "he returned to his law firm only upon his insistence that he be made a partner . . ." Rather, he became a partner in the firm in 1938 and terminated his connection with it in 1942, shortly after he entered the Army. He was readmitted to the partnership in 1945 after his discharge from the Army.
FRANCIS W. BRENNAN Newark
Death of Tacho
Sir:
"Tommy, they got me this time," President Somoza said to U.S. Ambassador Thomas Whelan the night he was shot down. That remark recalls the one the President made when I told him I was retiring [in January 1945] as U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua. It was early morning, and he was in his hammock being shaved. He turned his head and said: "Jeemmy, do you realize that in the two and one half years you have been in Managua I have not once said 'no' to you?" It was true. During those war years, I had made many requests of him at the instance of the Secretary of State. I would hand my friend Tacho a memorandum. He would read it, initial it and, smiling, hand it back, saying, "O.K., Jeemmy, send a copy to the Foreign Office." And so, by means of this short cut, Washington would often receive a reply to its telegraphic request the same day it was dispatched.
JAMES B. STEWART
Denver
Sir:
Dictators, whether they operate in Poland or in Argentina, Hungary or Nicaragua, are neither to be coddled nor mourned.
RICHARD M. KOSTER Brooklyn
Sir:
Now that Somoza is gone, will our State Department try to cram his heirs down the throats of the Nicaraguan people by labeling any opposition to them as "Communist-inspired"? I know that U.S. policy has long been to support any dictator who is willing to play ball with our State Department. Is this the way we are going to lead the enslaved peoples of the world to freedom?
EDWARD M. BIANCHI
Campbell, Calif.
Sir:
You mention that Anastasio Somoza Jr. ("Tachito") of Nicaragua was educated at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. It would make interesting reading if you could unearth the bug-brained bureaucrat who awarded a West Point appointment to the son of a foreign dictator.
F. G. HAZELTINE,
M.D. Seattle
P: Under federal law, all admissions of citizens of South American republics to West Point are by permission of the President of the U.S., in Tachito's case F.D.R.-ED.
Privileged Beverage
Sir:
Relative to your article on Pabst and the parson [Oct. 17]: beer is not the drink of moderation but the drink of special privilege. The whisky drunk goes to jail; the beer drunk goes free. The whisky drinker pays excessive taxes; the beer drinker pays almost none. Beer is respectable, and can be advertised on television; whiskey is too evil to be mentioned on this medium. Why not face it? If whisky is bad, beer is bad; if beer is good, then whisky is good.
ARTHUR R. HARMON
Port Republic, N.J.
Historic Pub
Sir:
After reading your explanation [Sept. 24] of the name of London's Elephant & Castle, may a Londoner give you the name origin of another famous London pub, The Goat & Compasses? During the Great Fire of
London, one entire section of the city was burned down except for a local tavern, which stood intact, surrounded by gutted buildings. So the grateful innkeeper renamed his pub The God Encompasses Us.
WILLIAM HARVEY
West Hartford, Conn.
The Kissing Question
Sir:
I am a Roman Catholic, educated in Catholic schools and a Catholic college, and at no time have I ever been advised that kissing is either a venial or mortal sin. I think your article, "The Venial Kiss" [Oct. 8], is utterly ridiculous.
LORETTA CONNOLLY
Washington, D.C.
Sir:
When the mighty Church of Rome has nothing better to do with its time and energy than legislate concerning the relation of kissing to fornication, its affairs must be in a pretty pickle indeed.
G. F. LEWIS
Toronto, Ont.
Sir:
In our marriage courses at the University of Buffalo, students are encouraged to kiss on dates. Are we encouraging sin?
ROBERT M. FRUMKIN
Buffalo
The Questioning Child
Sir:
Edith Hunter, in "The Questioning Child and Religion" [Oct. 8], speaks of the child who wants to go to the movies on Sundays so that Jesus won't come again and snatch her away. Wouldn't the child be safer in Miss Hunter's Unitarian Sunday school, for Jesus would never think of looking there! (THE REV.) GEORGE E. CONDIT
Central Falls, R.I.
Sir:
You report that Mrs. Hunter said, "Children should be exposed to Scripture with extreme caution." The Apostle Paul, an inspired writer of Scripture, didn't agree with such advice. In his letter to Timothy he said: "From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."
GEORGE M. BOWMAN
Toronto
Sir:
The confusion of Unitarians, Universalists and "liberal" thinkers as to what to tell a questioning child is understandable. Having robbed Christ of His deity, ridiculed His miracles, denied His bodily resurrection, they have left only a deluded man of history who erroneously believed himself to be God, and about whom we have no accurate record.
MARGARET MCLEAN
Canton, Ohio
Pilot's Picnic
Sir:
I am afraid that the world's diplomats and TIME are completely misled as to the importance of Suez pilots and the difficulty of their task. I dare say that Suez pilotage is one of the easiest in the world. Any master mariner worthy of his salt, if properly briefed by a simple memorandum on the procedure and signaling, should be able to take his ship through. I have steered ships through Suez, and compared to, say, Hell Gate, Suez is a picnic.
G. DAVID GITKOV
Auke Bay, Alaska
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