Hail Minnesota

Sir / Your rah-rah piece on the North Star State [Aug. 13] evokes memories and nostalgia--principally for those marvelous lakes. Surely you stirred a million of us expatriate Gophers to sing one chorus of Hail! Minnesota. But there was one grievous error about the Minnesota mosquitoes: it is the dive bombers that are half the size of the native anopheles, not vice versa!

HOWARD M. KAPLAN

Greenwood Village, Colo.

Sir / People think I am crazy when I refer to my home state as "God's country." Thanks for letting everyone know that Minnesota is truly all about the good life.

STEPHANIE PADGETT

Chicago

Sir / Camelots have fragile ecologies. I cherish the vision of my home state. Would you please rerun the part about the mosquitoes, and as an added favor throw in the January low-temperature figures and snowfall counts? Then maybe Minnesota will have the chance to remain the beautiful, tolerant, hearty state that I remain homesick for.

JOHN SHERMAN

Arlington, Va.

Sir / Except for New York City, for which I take no responsibility, New York is a pretty good state too!

DANIEL R. DWYER

Jamestown, N.Y.

Sir / I spent 21 years of my life waiting to get out of Minnesota. True, the lakes are blue, the sky is big, the air is fairly clear. But God, the place is unutterably dull.

It's a nice place to visit--in the summer --but I wouldn't want to live there.

M. THOMAS HINKEMEYER

Bayside, N.Y.

Sir / Maybe the reason Minnesota works is that the Governor goes fishing and lets private enterprise run things.

ART PHELPS

Davis, Calif.

Incisive Analysis

Sir / Stefan Kanfer's "Words from Watergate" [Aug. 13] is the most incisive analysis of the Watergate mess that I have yet read. How right he is in realizing that those tidy adjectives, nouns and verbs can soften the grossest indiscretions and crimes.

DENNIS M. DALMAN

St. Cloud, Minn.

Sir / Stefan Kanfer's Essay exposed another bit of hard truth concerning the Watergate mess. All the beating around the bush in the Watergate hearings so perfectly symbolizes the unfortunate breakdown in communication that has been paralyzing the real function of our Government--representing the people by means of a general understanding of truth. I, like other proud Americans, have been disillusioned by this large scandal, but hope that the outcome of the hearings will only mean a great improvement in our Government's involvement with the American people.

KENNETH VANDERBEEK

Williamsville, N.Y.

Sir / By setting the mighty linguistic engines of Shakespeare and the Bible against the bankrupt slang and pusillanimous euphemisms of the witnesses, Ervin is admittedly using cannons against sparrows. But he is also constantly reminding us that the gap between language and truth has not always existed--and need not continue to exist.

J.E. RIVERS JR.

Lausanne, Switzerland

Lessons of Watergate

Sir / If there is anything to be learned from Watergate, it is that election campaign reform is past due. The most tragic consequence of the recent disclosures of political corruption is the erosion of public confidence in our elected officials.

Nothing short of complete elimination of all political contributions, to be replaced by adequate public funding, will restore the public's lost confidence.

BERT F. EDWARDS

Denver

Sir / Those opposed to the impeachment of President Nixon invariably contend that impeachment proceedings would accentuate the existing chaos in Government and do irreparable harm to the U.S. But failure to invoke such proceedings for the above reason will create a climate in which the President is above the law and free from congressional restraint.

The U.S. Constitution provides for impeachment as part of its system of checks and balances. Reluctance to invoke impeachment serves to negate that system. The Executive Branch of Government has become much too powerful. Failure to keep it in check and imbued with a sense of morality will prove disastrous to the nation.

VINCENT FIORDALISI

Locust Valley, N.Y.

Sir / Last November several people told me that if I voted for McGovern the morale of the citizenry would suffer, the country would be in a big mess, and there would be corruption in Government.

They were right--I voted for McGovern and all those things have come true!

(THE REV.) DONALD C. BUSHFIELD Torrance, Calif.

Sir / Why is it that you Americans are bent on making Watergate Nixon's Waterloo? Are you sure this is what you want to do to the man who got you out of Viet Nam, made friends with the Chinese, lifted the Iron Curtain a bit--all within the past few years? Is this your way of saying thank you to a great leader who has done a lot for peace?

ALBERTO M. SORIANO

Davao City, Philippines

Prankster Tuck

Sir / Perhaps I have been oversensitized by Watergate, but I am not amused by Dick Tuck and his antics [Aug. 13].

Mr. Tuck's tricks are every bit as reprehensible as the Watergate breakin, albeit a great deal funnier on the surface. Politics ought not to be humorless, but it is serious business, and the manipulation of a candidate's campaign by outsiders is disgusting no matter who does the manipulating.

THOMAS A. PENN

Lansdale, Pa.

Nonsupport

Sir / Your reporters are more accurate than the White House staff, but not much more. I voted for Humphrey, not Nixon, in '68 [July 9]. My vote for Nixon was in '72 --along with a few other Democrats who just couldn't swallow George McGovern.

I never campaigned for nor contributed a nickel to Nixon in any campaign for any office. Neither do I consider myself "a presidential supporter."

SAM M. LAMBERT

Washington, D.C.

Urban Homesteading

Sir / The title of your article "Ghetto Homesteaders" [Aug. 13] implies that the properties to be restored by Philadelphia City Councilman Joseph E. Coleman's Urban-Homesteading bill are only ghetto properties. This is not true. These houses are found in neighborhoods throughout the entire city.

You also assert that the city is selling these houses "for $1 apiece to anyone of limited income." The city charter states that city-owned properties are to be sold by bid. The bill complies with the rules of the charter; the bidding price for the houses and properties begins at $1. Thanks to the sincere efforts of Coleman, a hard-working freshman councilman, the concept of urban homesteading may revolutionize the entire process of urban renewal throughout the nation.

KAREN E. RILE

Philadelphia

Emergency Care

Sir / The improvement of in-hospital medical care is most encouraging [Aug. 13]. However, you should also point out that before the patient arrives at the hospital, emergency medical services are usually abysmal. The ability of most communities to get to a patient quickly, to stabilize and properly treat him on the scene and to deliver him to the appropriate facility is, with a few exceptions, grossly inadequate.

In addition, the President's recent veto of the $ 185 million emergency-medical-services bill is a direct failure to meet previous statements and commitments to provide high-quality emergency services to all who need them.

MELVYN P. GALIN

Lexington, Mass.

Minor Writer?

Sir / Willa Gather a "minor writer" [Aug. 13]? Unequivocally this places the reviewer, Martha Duffy, in the category of "lost lady": she has befuddled her thinking with today's hollow tomes. Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop has been one of America's most enduring classics..

PAUL WILHELM

Thousand Palms, Calif.

Sir / Your review of the Knopf reissue of Miss Cather's A Lost Lady was fine, and I thought a shrewd appraisal of her, except that you took no note of the book's price, $7.95. It bears on a point of some interest to writers now, for the oblivion that swallowed her until now was of her own creation, due to the agreement she made with Alfred Knopf that she was never to be published in cheap editions. Tempus of course fugitted; my The Postman Always Rings Twice appeared in paperback for 250, and the floodgates were opened. But she was left high and dry: unwittingly, by her somewhat smug stipulation, she had committed literary suicide. Very soon, of course, she'll go into the domain, and then we'll see what we see. Personally, I would think your tag "minor" will preclude much of a revival, but it could happen.

JAMES M. CAIN

Hyattsville, Md.

Occupational Hazard

Sir / "Tennis toes" [Aug. 13] are in actuality nothing more than an extremely mild form of what those of us who are mountain hikers know as "downhill toe jam." It is a simple result of the laws of physics. Increasing your body weight by a heavy pack, then compounding the effect of your toes hammering into the front of the shoe by walking downhill, brings on a far more serious malady than mere tennis toes.

Basically, tennis-toe sufferers have little to be concerned about compared with the far more painful effect of the mountain hiker's occupational hazard.

ROLAND GIDUZ

Chapel Hill, N.C.

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