The President's Real Estate

Sir / The number of White Houses ought to be reduced, not because they are so expensive and elaborate, but because they give us a nomadic President who migrates like a gypsy from Washington to Camp David to Key Biscayne to San Clemente and back again, absent too long and too often from the center of action in the nation's capital [Sept. 10]. Even if President Nixon had only wigwams at Key Biscayne and San Clemente, he would still be open to criticism on this score.

But as for how Mr. Nixon financed his purchases--TIME to the contrary notwithstanding--as long as nothing illegal was done, that is no more my business than it is Mr. Nixon's business how I finance my home.

I only wish that I had a few of the friends he has.

HUGO W. SCHROEDER SR.

Randallstown, Md.

Sir / It seems very odd that while the President is running around seeking some magical vista, we have to stay home and face our problems.

Yet by his actions or inactions, he is compounding our problems by not facing his.

DEWITT L. BROWN

Reno

Sir / When Bess Truman was living in the White House, she said, "It is an awful way to live." Most of us "humans" can understand why a President and his family need to get away from the Executive Mansion, but it seems Hugh Sidey is so conceited he thinks he could spend four years there, under stress and strain, without ever having to get away.

(MRS.) FLORENCE FOSHE

Des Moines

Sir / In the world of real estate lending and borrowing, he who borrows money is the mortgagor and he who lends money is the mortgagee. Therefore, the title of your article should have read "Richard Nixon, Mortgagor."

SUSAN C. WHITE

San Francisco

Sir / The "divine right" attitude of politicians at all levels has forced me to regard the form of government being practiced as a con game designed to dupe the American people. Yet your publication, along with others, is certainly not providing us with a credible source of objectivity.

In your cover story on Henry Kissinger [Sept. 3], your use of the adjective "expensive" in describing the bulletproof windscreen at San Clemente is nothing more than a cheap shot at Mr. Nixon.

I did not know they made "cheap" bulletproof windscreens.

THOMAS M. POLEN

University Heights, Ohio

The Unsurprising Poll

Sir / I am astonished that TIME is astonished by the fact that 45% of the people polled by Yankelovich thought President Nixon had prior knowledge of the Watergate break-in despite total lack of evidence of such prior knowledge [Sept. 10]. The overwhelming preponderance of news-media treatment of the Watergate situation has been based on the assumption of wholesale guilt and massive cover-up by everyone involved. The press has performed nobly in its obligation to expose; it has performed badly in its obligation to inform.

JAMES G. EKSTRAND

Columbus, Neb.

The Acceptability of Grass

Sir / I dearly adore logic such as that expressed in "Grass Grows More Acceptable" by Florida Circuit Court Judge Edward Cowart: "Authorities say they have yet to find someone on the hard stuff who didn't start with marijuana" [Sept. 10]

Personally, I've never come across an alcoholic--or a drug addict or a car thief --who didn't start by drinking milk in his childhood.

Perhaps the real sources of evil in our society are dairy farmers and the La Leche League.

JUDITH MURPHY

Norman, Okla.

Sir / I would like to add my endorsement to the legalization of marijuana in this country.

While many drug addicts may have started with pot, my personal acquaintance with marijuana users suggests that they stand in roughly the same relation to hardcore addicts as beer drinkers do to acute alcoholics.

If anything, crackdowns on pot lead to a shift toward greater usage of less bulky and more potent, dangerous and easily concealed drugs.

ALBERT T. LUNDE

Chicago

Sir / Drug pushers, like all profiteers, zealously promote their more expensive lines of merchandise. If marijuana were sold on the open market, a large percentage of users would no longer have to come into contact with these not-so-hidden persuaders.

(MRS.) SANDRA P. KROEGER

Birmingham

Sir / The Rockefeller law on drugs in New York has been criticized as unworkable.

Nevertheless, it is an attempt to prevent the destruction of a portion of American youth by hard drugs.

A nation of people--rich or poor, black or white--who refuse to protect their young must be labeled cowards, not civilized human beings.

Even the most primitive animal protects his young.

E.L. COLE JR.. M.D.

St. Petersburg, Fla.

Misunderstood Sentence

Sir / I am writing to correct a significant error concerning the President in your article "Confused Alarms of Struggle" [Sept. 17].

The error was particularly important because it was repeated widely over the weekend by the national news services and the broadcast media.

The TIME article stated that the President "said that he had listened to only two of the controversial tapes," whereas information given to the Senate committee by Presidential Assistant Steve Bull indicated that he had listened to at least eight or ten tapes. There was a picture of Bull captioned "Contradicting the Boss."

What the President actually said was:

"The only time I listened to the tapes, to certain tapes--and I didn't listen to all of them, of course--was on June 4." (Presidential press conference, Sept. 5.) TIME's confusion of the words "to" and "two" is perhaps understandable, but since this was the key element for the story involving the President, shouldn't TIME have taken the simple step of checking the press conference transcript?

RONALD L. ZIEGLER

Press Secretary to the President The White House Washington. D.C.

Useless Knowledge

Sir / Re "Topical Diagnoses" [Sept. 3]: asking a person questions about current events to determine brain damage is about as useful as diagnosing the damage by following the advice of a fortune cookie.

My husband was injured in a fall on May 19. The neurologist asked him the names of the mayor of Los Angeles and the Vice President of the U.S. He answered correctly. On June 1 he was rushed to a second hospital where a craniotomy was performed. He had a blood clot on the brain.

He is well now, but with no thanks to the hospital and the doctor who asked him topical questions. I have seen the agony resulting from knowing who Spiro Agnew is.

GWEN DAVIS

Los Angeles

Bravo, Walter Cronkite!

Sir / Your article on Cronkite [Sept. 10] pleased me very much. I've grown up watching "Walter." Any news commentator who is able to hold a young child's interest deserves to be on TV as long as he damned well pleases. Bravo, Walter!

(MRS.) HELENE BERGER

Wilmington. Del.

Sir / We thoroughly enjoyed your Cronkite feature.

Americans are unique in that they rely on a Cronkite to learn the truth rather than on Government officials. And while Cronkite has never violated our trust, the same cannot be said of the politicians who run this country.

ROBERT FEDER

National President

The Walter Cronkite Fan Club

Skokie, Ill.

Sir / Walter Cronkite is my father figure. I think he is terrific!

MARY J. WHITMIRi:

Atlanta

The Untrimmable Bureaucrats

Sir / "The Prospering Bureaucrats" [Aug. 27] is an ill-advised choice of phrase unless you are prepared to defend its authenticity. As a matter of fact, no career civil service employee in America is suffering from a surfeit of "prosperity" in these or any other times. On the contrary, authoritative wage surveys have repeatedly shown that when viewed alongside his counterparts in private industry, he is on the wrong side of the stick at every turn.

And what is a bureaucrat? A Customs Service border guard risking his life daily in the war against drugs and contraband? A Veterans Administration nurse laboring to restore the nation's Viet Nam wounded to health? The Forest Service fire fighter breathing smoke in Oregon and California at this very hour? A cancer researcher? The FDA technician whose revelations on thalidomide saved untold numbers of unborn babies from hideous disfigurement? The clerk who dispatches a Social Security payment to a senior citizen in your own family? Which of these bureaucrats would you trim from the federal payroll?

NATHAN T. WOLKOMIR

President

National Federation of Federal Employees Washington, D.C.

Freedom to Work

Sir / It was fitting that your Labor Day issue highlighted the current struggle between the United Farm Workers (AFL-CIO) and the corporate growers and Teamsters in California [Sept. 3]. The deplorable working conditions prevalent among the migrant farm workers call for a united stand for what is right and just, so that men are free to work without being exploited.

The farm workers' boycott of lettuce and grapes is an effective way for Americans to be with the poor people in their struggle for economic justice and dignity.

SISTER MARY L. KELLY

Newton, Mass.

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