The Candidates

Sir:

Nixon and Lodge are experienced statesmen who are superbly equipped to uphold America's position in the world. All other issues are of secondary importance.

RICHARD S. CAWLEY Needham, Mass.

Sir:

When will Nixon the Noble, Defender of Innocent Ears and Indefensible Rocks, start discussing the issues during the debates and stop talking as though he is auditioning for "Just Plain Dick."

MARY ANN KAWCZYNSKI Chicago

Sir:

Nixon's election would be a triumph of sentimental mediocrity.

MARY JO HOLECEK Detroit

Sir:

I'm fixin' to vote for Nixon no matter how he photographs.

MRS. LEO J. GAFFREY Coronado, Calif.

Sir:

If Kennedy had Goldwater's ideas, I would vote for him even if he were the Pope's nephew and had a Hindu mother-in-law.

MRS. J. A. STORMER Florissant, Mo.

Sir:

Senator John F. Kennedy will suffer a defeat in the coming election because of his very close association with people like Eleanor Roosevelt, Adlai Stevenson, Walter Reuther, etc., and not because he is a Catholic or because of his past record in Congress.

ALEXANDER G. KAPOCIUS Chicago

Suh:

You shouldn't say we Republicans in Greenville, S.C. were openly hostile and impolite at a rally for Senator Johnson. Those were only Nixon placards, buttons and hats--not shootin' arns!

MRS. BAKER MORRISON Greenville, S.C.

Vivas

Your very fine cover story on my brother Bob may have given some readers a mistaken impression of the role in this campaign now being played by National Democratic Committee Chairman Henry ("Scoop") Jackson, my Senate colleague from Washington.

Senator Jackson was my personal choice for national chairman because he possessed those qualities of vigor, integrity, and a progressive outlook that I thought should characterize our party leadership.

He has since the convention applied those qualities with great skill and diligence in the national headquarters and across the country. Working closely with my brother and other campaign organizers, he has made an invaluable contribution as one of the key readers in my campaign.

JOHN F. KENNEDY U.S. Senator from Massachusetts New York City

Sir: Some you say, 140,000 "have been Spanish-speaking Democrats," you say, "have been registered in Cali-Demo-ornia through the Viva Kennedy Clubs." As the group that actually did the job which you so generously attribute to them, we feel forever justified in screaming like stuck pigs, squawking like young robbed eagles.

The group which set this alltime registration record is the Community Service Organization. CSO is neither a Viva Kennedy, a Viva Nixon, nor a Viva any other politician outfit. CSO is strictly nonpartisan, and it saves its vivas strictly for human dignity, for the rights of oppressed minorities, for their speedy incorporation into all phases of the lifestream of the overall community.

HERMAN GALLEGOS National President Community Service Organization, Inc. Los Angeles

Sir:

Your good story on our campaign, in the Oct. 10 issue, says: "some 140,000 new Spanish-speaking Democrats have been registered in California through the Viva Kennedy Clubs." The credit for this outstanding job of registration should go to the Community Service Organization, which for a number of years has been dedicated to this work among Spanish-speaking citizens of California.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY

Washington

The Press

Sir:

In your story on the press coverage of the Nixon campaign, you [report] Philip Potter of the Baltimore Sun as saying I called his publisher to complain about a press-conference question posed by him. This is one of the factual inaccuracies in the story. No such protest was made. To give another example, I noted the story depicts the traveling newsmen as paying little attention to the Vice President when he dropped in on a press reception at Billings. I believe the newsmen I know are more alert than this, and the fact is they crowded around him.

HERBERT G. KLEIN Press Secretary to the Vice President West Chester, Pa.

P: Press Secretary Klein wrote no complaint to the Baltimore Sun. TIME stands by the rest of its story.--ED.

The Issues: Foreign Policy

Sir:

Deliberately overlooked by Kennedy and by too large a segment of the voting public is the fact that despite control of both the House and Senate, the Democrats chose to ride the coattails of Eisenhower's immense international popularity by adopting a bipartisan policy on foreign affairs. If there is blame in the Cuban situation, the Democrats must share it. This includes Senator Kennedy.

FREDERICK M. CARLSON Dallas

Sir:

Richard Nixon blundered in announcing that he would defend Quemoy and Matsu. The American people are not willing to risk the start of World War III over these two piles of rocks on the doorstep of Communist China! Berlin and Formosa, yes; Quemoy and Matsu, no!

EDWARD M. BIANCHI Campbell, Calif.

Sir:

A word must be said in favor of international tensions and the armaments race I believe that these two conditions are good for the U.S. We are not now about to go to sleep while they exist, and as long as Communism knows we are ready, willing and able to spill blood, American and other, to defend that freedom, it will not be lost to us and our children.

G. PAVONE Stony Point, N.Y.

. . . Domestic Policy

Sir:

Mr. Nixon is attempting to convince the electorate that the solution of the nation's problems lies in a free economy, minimum government control, and reduction of taxes as a means of stimulating investment for expansion and growth; however, and this is as it should be, private capital is invested only in enterprises that have pecuniary profit-making expectations. Returns for investments in schools, housing, conquest of hunger and disease and exploration of the cosmos are not fast or attractive enough.

If, as he says, we are engaged in a struggle for survival, we cannot afford to depend on this investing minority, regardless of its good intentions.

CONSTANTINE PACHOS New Castle, Del.

Sir:

In a society whose general welfare depends primarily on the health of the nation's business and institutions from which has sprung all of our economic progress and upon which we all depend so vitally for our jobs, the most enlightened self-interest of all voters cannot but direct them to support Nixon [for his] stand on these main points: tax reform; sound dollar; retard the growth of Big Government.

W. NICHOLAS KRUSE Wellesley, Mass.

. . . Conservatism

Sir:

Mr. Goldwater's speech at the Republican convention caused this relatively new (age 23) voter to change his mind about casting a protest ballot against the insipid me-tooism of the current Republican Party. But because of a certain notation in your article, I've changed my mind again. Mr. Goldwater says that he would be available in 1964 if Nixon should happen to be defeated; therefore, all true Conservatives must join in voting for Kennedy.

R. F. DUNHAM Los Angeles

Sir:

So-Barry Goldwater's stand on medical care for the aged is, "Let the kids take care of the oldsters." As a 29-year-old youngster, let me urge all elder citizens to take cognizance of the Republican's statement.

Does it not remind you who can remember of the strong opposition by the Republican Party to social security in 1935 ?

RICHARD J. DOYLE Milwaukee, Wis.

. . . Religion

Sir:

Bigotry says: "Kennedy is a Roman Catholic and therefore you must vote against him."

Inverted idealism, just as speciously, says the opposite: "You must attack bigotry by voting for Kennedy and showing that you are fair-minded."

ROBERT O. REDDISH JR. Medina, Ohio

Sir:

I am one Roman Catholic who is getting a little tired of paying taxes to help support a group of bigoted farmers who step out of Republican bread lines to cast the vote of prejudice.

LENORE KRAUSE Old Forge, Pa.

Sir:

As for Father Weigel's remarks, I do not share his optimism in the political maturity of American Catholics. Whenever I confront Catholic college students with the problems of the Catholic politician in a pluralist society, I find them speaking in the archaic voice of 13th century Europe. I hope that more Catholics are as Father Weigel describes them than as I describe them. As time runs out for American Catholics (TIME, of course, would never run out on them), they must more and more assume a civic and social responsibility commensurate with their increasing numbers. Yet my experience leads me to conclude that too many of today's Catholics tend to view political opportunities as opportunities for the advancement of their church. Oftentimes, the more pious the Catholic, the less capable he is of seeing the civil rights of other Americans.

Fortunately, I think, we are not voting in this kind of Catholic majority if Senator Kennedy is voted in as President. Senator Kennedy's secular (not secularist) attitude is one of his greatest political assets. Today's Catholic minority, on the other hand, in its excessively dogmatic attitude toward social and political questions seems to me a major obstacle to the achievement of political wisdom by American Catholics.

PROFESSOR FRANK L. KEEGAN University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Ind.

Sir:

What kind of intellects have Americans developed? Are they so afraid of the private religious or nonreligious convictions of political candidates that they are blinded to the fact that certain rights and controls are still guaranteed? Do they really think that if a Jew became President all American males would have to be circumcised? Or that if a Hindu became President all American cows would be declared sacred?

Have they forgotten that there is a Constitution? Have they forgotten that there is a Congress? And, if an executive decision does go beyond all bounds, have they forgotten that there is impeachment?

I. W. SURRATT Fairborn, Ohio

State by State

Sir:

You do a gross injustice to the Great State of Oregon in your summation: "In a state that has never elected a Catholic to state wide office . . ." Hall S. Lusk was elected to the State Supreme Court, and reelected. He is a member of the Catholic Church.

You are accurate in your prediction that Oregon will go for Dick Nixon, but your reason is not found in history.

MARK O. HATFIELD Governor Salem, Ore.

Sir:

TIME'S unabashed "puff piece" for Bagwell contains many errors of commission and omission.

Example: TIME refers to "Williams' high-taxing administration." Fact: Republican-controlled legislatures have written all tax laws in Michigan for the past 24 years. TIME bemoans the "influence of labor on the tax structure and welfare laws." Fact: G.O.P.-run legislatures have written all tax and welfare laws for more than 20 years. Does TIME imply that labor runs the reactionary Republican state senate ?

Example: TIME criticizes Michigan's business-activities tax, under which "the manufacturer is taxed on his rate of sales whether he makes a profit or not." Fact: this tax was written by lobbyists for Ford and General Motors and passed over the violent objections of the Democrats. G.O.P. legislators were forced to call the lobbyists onto the floor of the house--in public session--to explain to Republicans the bill they passed a few moments later.

Example: TIME gleefully repeats the stale Bagwell smear against Michigan's business climate, cites the loss of 40 plants. TIME chose to ignore the fact that Michigan gained 264 new plants and plant additions in the Eisenhower-Nixon recession year of 1958 for a net gain of more than 200 plants.

NEIL STAEBLER

Chairman

Democratic State Central Committee Detroit

-I It is true that the Republican-controlled legislature has written the Michigan tax and welfare laws. It is also true that a labor-dominated statehouse administration has created a cli mate for business in Michigan that can at best be described as cloudy. The "net gain of more than 200 plants" in 1958 meant 10,000 jobs; the plants that moved out of the state took 50,000 jobs with them.--ED.

Sir:

Your review of significant U.S. Senate races omits perhaps the nation's most interesting encounter, between Texas Republican John Tower, who led the Southern platform-committee group at the national convention in Chicago, and incumbent Senator Lyndon Johnson, who seeks re-election to the Senate as a possible consolation prize if he should lose the vice-presidency. Tower has strong backing from Texans disillusioned with Johnson's decisions at Los Angeles, and is waging a major campaign throughout Texas.

ALBERT B. FAY Texas Republican National Committeeman

THAD HUTCHESON Texas Republican State Chairman Houston

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