Bridgebuilder Nixon
Sir:
Richard Nixon has been getting a pretty good press lately, topped off by TIME'S cover story [Jan. 18]. But now that he is the Vice President, is he any less the cheap political huckster who insulted the intelligence of his countrymen a year ago last fall? Some of us are not forgetting that this is the same "Trickie Dickie" of the fighting Irish wife, the cloth coat and Checkers. Remembering that irresponsible tearjerker he gave on television, could we ever have faith in anything he tells us? Long live Ike!
JAMES F. CONSIDINE Stamford, Conn.
Sir:
On the night of Sept. 23, 1952, I was one of the many Americans who listened to Richard Nixon's "Checkers" speech. I was so impressed by his sincere manner that I immediately wired the Republican National Committee to retain Mr. Nixon as vice-presidential candidate. I believe my faith in this young man has been fully justified. Your article has echoed my sentiments wholly.
MRS. GLORIA CHIARIELLO Vestal, N.Y.
Sir:
. . . TIME can quickly gloss over this little politician's drive for power and his incredibly dirty and ruthless campaigns in California, but those campaigns still remain a shameful memory in California . . .
RICHARD N. MASON Beaumont, Texas
Sir:
Your feature article on Vice President Nixon brings this reader to the point of uttering a little prayer: "We thank God for a President who is not afraid of talented and efficient underlings . . . who has a well-placed ego and does not, therefore, consider himself omnipotent or eternal. We thank God we are free of Presidents who reduced the vice presidency to the level of a national joke, for one of those jokes became President and look wha' hoppened. God, we are grateful !"
EMMETT SHIELDS Assistant Field Director American Red Cross U.S. Naval Station Long Beach, Calif.
Sir:
If Vice President Nixon is all you say that he is, he is ready for translation from this plane . . . No mere mortal is, could be, or could do everything that Mr. Nixon is reported to be and to have done . . .
JAMES H. MISHEFF Camden, Ohio
Sir: . . . Richard Nixon is our Man of the Year--being a good-will ambassador from America to the hearts of all people.
IRMA L. RAY Anaheim, Calif.
Sir:
... As one housewife to one editor, I am writing to tell you that it is utterly impossible and unbelievable for one woman to perform the exhausting schedule you have reported: Mrs. Nixon does most of the housework and laundry in her $41,000 home, she does half the cooking and all the marketing for a family of four, she plays handywoman, she answers on the average 200 letters a week, she attends luncheons and bazaars, and to top it all off, she goes to formal dinner parties most evenings ... Oh! She travels, too! . . .
RUTH C. PHILIPSON Utica, N.Y.
Sir: We bitterly resent your biased and misleading sketch of Vice President Aaron Burr ... A rehash of old calumnies, invented by his enemies ... It would have been more appropriate for you to have called attention to his many fine personal qualities and to his great services to our country.
SAMUEL ENGLE BURR JR.* Executive Director The Aaron Burr Association Washington, D.C.
Facts Forum Forum (Contd.)
Sir: The Jan. 11 issue refers to State of the Nation and Answers for Americans, network television and radio forums moderated and directed by me, as part of "one of the biggest private political-propaganda machines in the U.S." This must be interpreted ... as a smear-attack . . .
No person or organization has influenced or tried to influence my conduct of these programs. [They] will take second place to no other forum for impartiality, objectivity, nonpartisanship and fair play in the truly American sense.
State of the Nation has featured 22 governors--twelve Republicans and ten Democrats . . . [Guests on] Answers for Americans have been Senator Allen Ellender; W. Averell Harriman; William Caples, vice president, Inland Steel Co.; Dr. Walter B.
Martin, president-elect, American Medical Association; James Wechsler, editor, New York Post; Professor Louis Budenz, Fordham University; Michael Fry, Reuters correspondent to the U.N. for seven years; and George Hecht, president, Parents Institute. . .
HARDY BURT New York City
Sir:
. . . You, the Journal-Bulletin, Mr. Collins and Mr. Bagdikian deserve an accolade for giving wide publicity to this vicious organization. It is insidious because part of the programs are nonpartisan and lead one to believe that all its programs are such . . .
MARIAN B. DAVISON State College, Pa..
Four-Letter Words (Contd.)
Sir:
I KALL to your attention that your issue of the WEEK of Jan. 4 made me KROS. I
WISH YOU WOOD WAKE Up to see WHAT you are missing. The KRUX of the matter involved WORD radio station call-letters. I got KIND Of a KICK OUt of WICH Calls WERE included. I'd like to KNOW the KOSY KOVE or KASM your KREW uses to WORK in. They're missing plenty. KAST a KWIK look at the KEEN KROP I KROW about. I had to WRAK my WIRY KOKO until it was a WERI WREC and hard to KEEP KOOL . . .
CLIFFORD H. BROWN Marblehead, Mass.
P: WOW! A WARM WELL-KOME to Reader Brown (a WHIZ), WHOS entry has KLAS and WINS in a WALK.--ED.
The Senator's Program
Sir:
My thanks to whoever was responsible for the article about my New England program [TIME, Jan. 11] ... My appreciation for the very kind way they treated the matter.
JOHN F. KENNEDY U.S. Senator Washington, D.C.
Ike in Motion
Sir:
Your feature "Eisenhower: Man in Motion" [TIME, Jan. 18] is an outstanding presentation of one of our greatest living Americans . . .
C. F. SCHIER JR. Baltimore
Dum-Dum
Sir:
A flunking grade for your writer who characterized the musical theme of Dragnet as "DUM-da-da-DUM" [TIME, Jan. 25] ... I'm certain all my music students would have passed with honors by providing the correct solution, "DUM-da-DUM-DUM . . ." CALDWELL TITCOMB Brandeis University Waltham, Mass.
Friendly Service
Sir:
The National Funeral Directors Association must respectfully voice its objections to the unwarranted aspersions cast on our group and the unsound conclusions voiced by the
Rev. Mr. Kershaw and his commission [TIME, Jan. 18] . . .
If the Rev. Mr. Kershaw will turn again to the Scriptures, he will find that in the life of his Divine Master there were not only the Apostles . . . but also a friend and follower who offered a service that no one else could provide and one that was gratefully accepted --one Joseph of Arimathea.
FRED W. JOHNSTON President National Funeral Directors Association St. Paul, Minn.
Sir: Congratulations to the Rev. Mr. Alvin L.
Kershaw and your fine article on his church's encouraging stand in regard to the growing "cult of the dead" . . . Kershaw's concern is shared by Christian leaders across our nation.
RICHARD D. MILLER Chaplain, U.S.A.F.
Alexandria Air Force Base Alexandria, La.
Sir: . . . It's high time the funeral is exposed for what it is: a mercenary means to defraud the duped survivor and invade the sanctity of sorrow.
EVELYN J. BOETTCHER Rockford, ILL.
SIR:
LAMENTABLE THAT ALVIN L. KERSHAW DID NOT PROJECT HIS FUNERAL REVISIONS TO ELIMINATE EVEN DEATH ITSELF.
WALLY LAMB
LAMB FUNERAL HOME GIBSON CITY, ILL.
Cremonini's Woman
Sir:
I showed the picture titled A Woman [TIME, Jan. 18] to my six-year-old daughter. She said, "Criminy!" I said, "No, Cremonini." But I think she was nearer right.
MRS. PAUL BARTON
Durand, Mich.
Schumpeter's Explanation Sir: Congratulations on picking up in your issue of Jan. 11 the economists' reference to Schumpeter's Capitalism, Socialism & Democracy, a very important book that for some reason hasn't been given serious public attention. The economists missed the most important things that Schumpeter said.
Schumpeter's Capitalism has a very important story in it--the best explanation yet given of the failure of the intellectual during World War II to see that Communism was just as untrustworthy as Naziism.
WILLIAM T. COUCH New York City
Cameras' Conquest
Sir: We were especially proud of the splendid review given The Conquest of Everest [TIME, Dec. 21] because of the little known fact that the entire film was taken with standard Bell & Howell 16-mm. amateur movie cameras. The footage was later blown up to 35-mm. for theatrical release, a feat rarely attempted because of the loss of film quality that normally ensues. The cameras had to be specially lubricated to operate from --30DEG F.
to +150DEG F. under the most adverse and hazardous conditions imaginable. Thus, TIME'S statement that "the film is one of the most fascinating even made" is a real tribute to both photographers Stobart and Lowe, and the craftsmen who built these cameras.
C. H. PERCY President Bell & Howell Co.
Chicago
* No kin.
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