The Vice President

Sir:

What an inspiring message your Oct. 10 issue held for the independent voter--so it's Dicky Nixon! . . . May we all rejoice over this shining symbol of banality--let Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn sing hallelujah . . .

ANTHONY S. FELSOVANYI Los Altos, Calif.

Sir:

. . . My thanks for the cover story on Vice President Nixon. So many distorted and possibly libelous reports have been released by big labor about him that it is hard for the small man to discern fact from fiction. In one paragraph you refute all of the distorted reports re Nixon's ambitions and intentions . . .

J. M. RAYMOND Jacksonville, Fla.

Sir:

Congratulations for your clarifying article on Vice President Nixon and his responsibilities in the present Administration. As a close personal friend of Whittaker Chambers, whom I got to know after he became a fellow Quaker, I have had a front seat from which to view the amazing and irresponsible campaign of vilification against this dedicated patriot. Many Quakers, I am ashamed to say, were taken in by it and became a part of it.

And now this same group has turned upon Nixon as the man who stopped Hiss's triumphal march and helped to vindicate Chambers. If ever there was a flagrant case of the truth's being twisted by knaves (the real Communists and their conscious sympathizers) to set a trap for the thoughtless and the unwary, this is it. You deserve great credit for beginning to clear the air.

HENRY C. PATTERSON Philadelphia

Sir:

One of the most thought-provoking things I read was Vice President Nixon's name at the head of the list of possible presidential candidates. Let us face the facts. Mr. Nixon, for all his "intelligence, youth and vigor," is hardly a presidential candidate . . . He couldn't have acquired the wisdom and knowledge needed for the job in the few short years he has been in Washington. I think the nation's welfare is more important than that of the party. There is too much partisanship in the Republican Party now, put there by people who think only of feathering their own nests by riding the popularity of others. Let's elect someone who is clear of trouble with the "party" . . .

NORMAN Q. WILSON Wichita Falls, Texas

Voltaire's Half-Acre

Sir:

The Oct. 3 review of The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus states: "The garden which Voltaire advised the French to cultivate (instead of listening to crazy Germanic philosophers) has turned out to be a stony little half-acre. Furthermore, the horticulture is hampered all the time by the heavy tread of Germanic philosophers among the petits pois." . . . The philosophic garden of Voltaire sprouted such "petits pois" as the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the U.S. Constitution. These intellectual crops still come in handy . . .

CONSTANCE ROWE New York City

Sir:

. . . It seems that Camus rejects the possibility of God, and the ultimate significance of life, on the ground that man's reason can discover no valid proof of either. What does he expect, an angel with a flaming sword? . . . Camus, and the coterie of which he is a dominant figure, are guilty of childishness. To assume that life has no meaning because it is not immediately and inescapably apparent is ridiculous. To erect a concept of life on a basis of futility is hopeless; man cannot predicate purposive action and deny the existence of purpose . . . Camus is caught in a monstrous contradiction. Ultimate concepts are contingent on faith. This is true not only of religion and philosophy but of science.

V. A. HOLCOMBE Corona, Calif.

Turk v. Greek

Sir:

The outbreak of fanatical hatred against the Greek citizens of Turkey [NEWS IN PICTURES, Oct. 10] shocks me. What has shocked me even more is the way that both London and Washington have tried officially to overlook the gruesome episode for the sake of preserving unity in NATO.

J. S. JANOS Cleveland

Sir:

I am proud of being a Turk and I approved of the Turkish mob's demonstration against the Greek Orthodox Church. That so-called religion has been misusing its privileges . . . It is not really a church of God; it is simply a political party belonging to the Greek government . . .

SUAT ECER Detroit

Sir:

Congratulations to TIME for exposing the atrocities of the Turkish mob against the minorities of Istanbul . . . Maybe your pictures will make a few Turks feel ashamed .. .

D. J. KOSTAS Corona, N.Y.

Other Times, Other Mannerists

Sir:

You labeled the Mannerist-style painting of Gabrielle d'Estrees [Oct. 3] "Lady After Her Bath." Surely a more appropriate title would have been: "I dreamed I was in a jewelry store without my Maidenform bra."

JOHN S. BROOKES Chicago

P:For a comparison of Painter Brunel's beauty and the Madison Avenue manner, see cuts.--ED.

Westward the Course

SIR:

CONGRATULATIONS ON THE SPLENDID LEWIS & CLARK COLOR FEATURE [OCT. 10] BY PHOTOGRAPHER BRADLEY SMITH. IMPOSSIBLE TO OVEREMPHASIZE THE EXPEDITION'S IMPORTANCE. ITS SUCCESS CHANGED THE COURSE OF NATIONAL AND WORLD HISTORY.

CHAPIN D. FOSTER DIRECTOR WASHINGTON STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY TACOMA

Sir:

. . . I was so thrilled by the beauty of the scenes of Montana that I almost took the first train back to that best-of-all states--we're railroad people, and have tried quite a few . . . When my husband saw the picture of the Bitterroots, he spoke with such feeling and nostalgia: "That's just the way it looks--I've gazed on that scene a thousand times," etc. . . . Thank you, and our sincere congratulations to Mr. Smith on his excellent photography.

HELEN E. HAYES Savanna, Ill.

Sir:

As a native Montanan . . . I was thrilled to see your recent pictures and article. Regardless of the cost, the Lewis & Clark expedition was a huge success. Recent discovery of records of the expedition . . . reveals the cost of the enterprise to be considerably higher than the oft-quoted "$2,500," an amount that actually represents only the initial appropriation by Congress . . .

The actual total expenditure was $38,722.25, still a bargain, even in the early 1800s. An itemized account of the expenditures may be found in an article by Grace Lewis* in the Bulletin of the Missouri Historical Society (July 1954).

GERALD A. DIETTERT St. Ann, Md.

Lines for Two Players

Sir:

. . . You have devoted 92 lines of the Oct. 10 Cinema section to a busty English vaudeville actress called Diana Dors, explaining in unnecessary detail the color of her lawnmower and second-hand Rolls-Royce, yet in your Milestones column you give only a scant nine lines to the memory of America's greatest young actor, James Dean, who was killed in an untimely accident . . .

J. BOLAND Alton, Ill.

Big Hand

SIR:

THANK YOU FOR WONDERFUL OCT. 17 REVIEW, "DEALER'S CHOICE: THE WORLD'S GREATEST POKER STORIES." SURPRISED, THOUGH, AT NO MENTION OF WONDERFUL STORY, "LET'S GET RID OF THE RIBBON CLERKS," BY ROBERT MCLAUGHLIN, TIME'S RADIO-TV EDITOR . . . TIME HAS ALWAYS BEEN, AND WILL REMAIN, THIS DEALER'S CHOICE.

JERRY D. LEWIS PACIFIC PALISADES, CALIF.

Ford's Gold Elizabeth

Sir:

It was with considerable disgust that I read of the Ford Motor Co. permitting its pressagents to promulgate the concept of limiting the sale of the new Continental car to humans with pedigrees [Oct. 10]. The whole thing is un-American--for shame!

CELIA MICHAEL SUMMER Brooklyn, N.Y.

Sir:

Please pass this on to Billy Ford: I was born in The Bronx. My father came to this country third-class steerage; although my mother was born in Philadelphia, her parents came over to this country third-class steerage too. Unfortunately I cannot trace my family tree too far . . . However, we do refer to our six-month-old daughter as "Her Royal Highness . . ." If this does not meet his specifications, he needn't feel badly because we can't afford a silly little thing like a $10,000 car anyway. And if we could, I wouldn't want to be high-pressured into buying the thing simply because the Ford Motor Co. is willing to throw in power steering, power brakes and power windows.

MRS. SIDNEY ISAACS Freehold, NJ.

On With the Goffes

Sir:

I was somewhat surprised to read in your Oct. 3 review of John Goffe's Legacy by George Woodbury that "Uncle Ody" was the last to bear the name of Goffe. "Uncle Ody" had a son, John Goffe, a grandson, George Washington Goffe, and a great-grandson, George Crosby Goffe. The latter was my father. I have been bearing the name Goffe for some years now, as has my brother Frederick . . . I must protest the implication made in a magazine with your circulation that my brother and I are figments of our own imaginations.

LEWIS CENTER GOFFE Litchfield, N.H.

P:TIME'S apologies for its gaffe on the Goffes.--ED.

*No kin to Explorer Lewis.

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