The Candidates
Sir:
In your issue of July 25, it was said that Mr. Kennedy has decided to make frequent television appearances on the theory that he is better-looking than Vice President Nixon.
In this country we are not deciding on a candidate because he is tall or short or has blue or brown eyes. We are considering if he has the leadership qualities this country needs.
MARY M. O'NEILL
Holyoke, Mass.
Sir:
If the platform advocated by the Democratic Party were honestly followed (and it is apparent that this is impossible), we might as well turn our entire paychecks over to the Government and be issued trading stamps to obtain the essentials of life.
ROBERT H. ELLERHORST
Cincinnati
Sir:
In the coming campaign, we are going to hear a great deal about "growth," but I venture to say that neither party will dare to say a word about the greatest single obstacle to growth, namely the opposition of almost all labor unions to increasing production. Federal money for schools, housing, sewage disposal, etc. would be trivial compared with the growth that would be brought about if organized labor took its foot off the brake.
F. D. DYSINGER
Round Pond, Me.
Sir:
Why all this fuss about a Roman Catholic President ? We have had an acting Catholic President for some time--Hagerty.
RALPH P. SYMONS
Paris
P: But presidential Press Secretary James Hagerty is an Episcopalian.--ED.
Sir:
No matter what soothing talk Kennedy may put forth about religion's not being an issue, do not be fooled. Religion is the issue in this campaign. Instead of being garbed in a brown derby with a Bowery twang, it comes in a Brooks Brothers suit, clipped accents, and a Pepsodent smile that causes old women and bobby-soxers to swoon and mouth inanities.
SARA C. MORGAN
Cincinnati
Sir:
A remarkable marr, that Jack Kennedy. He has made age 43 synonymous with youth. 'S wonderful.
PAUL DEL NERO, 43
Newport, R.I.
Sir: To Mr. and Mrs. John F. Kennedy--Ceud mile f`ailte to the White House.
AGNES R. O'BRIEN
Meriden, Conn.
P: English rendering of the Gaelic: 100,000 welcomes.--ED.
Sir:
Of course everyone with any sense knows what a terribly pro-Republican rag you are, and so I shouldn't subscribe to you at all. I do, in fact, cancel my subscription regularly, but you have such good writers I can't resist you.
ELLEN BULL
Boulder, Colo.
Sir:
We realize TIME is Democrat and Catholic, but it would seem that TIME should also realize that many of its readers are Republicans, and many Protestants who do not favor Catholicism in the White House.
J. HELEN MORGAN
Portland, Ore.
Sir:
Pray tell, what is the weird-looking instrument being played by the member of Stu Symington's pep band [see cut]? Something new or just a trombone that barely survived a "demonstration"?
ROD RODRIGUEZ
Los Angeles
Sir:
I noticed that you have included a rather rare and unusual musical instrument. The valve trombone is not widely used, but a bent valve trombone is probably used only at conventions. This instrument has an interesting history inasmuch as no music has ever been written for it, per se, few people play it well, and practically nobody recognizes it. However, it looks glamorous, has a clear, stentorian tone, and, in this case, photographs well.
JASON H. TICKTON
Professor of Music
Wayne State University
Detroit P: Los Angeles Labor Relations Counsel Thomas Neblett, no musician, located one of the rare instruments three months ago, mastered it in three weeks, has performed for family, friends, and one political convention.--ED.
Sir:
There seems hardly a doubt that the next Congress, most certainly the Senate, will be Democratic. If the Kennedy-Johnson ticket is elected, Vice President Johnson will continue to lead the Senate as masterfully and as effectively as he has done heretofore. America can then look forward to amity and cooperation between the executive and legislative branches of the Government.
If, however, Mr. Nixon were elected President, he would have to deal not only with a "hostile" Senate but the leader of that body would be his just-defeated rival, Senator Johnson. Politics being what it is, the country would be in for a time of constant bickering and legislative inaction if the Republican ticket were elected in November.
JERRY G. BECHHOFER
New York City
Sir:
Can't you just see Senator Jack Kennedy sitting down at the conference table with Messrs. Charles de Gaulle, Harold Macmillan and Konrad Adenauer? Why not send "Kookie"? He combs his hair, too.
ELIZABETH D. MCCARTER
Anaheim, Calif.
Sponsor
Sir:
Delighted to read your coverage of the first International Conference on Congenital Malformations in London. I can't understand how you omitted the fact that the conference was launched and supported by the American people through the National Foundation March of Dimes. As a geneticist, I was greatly impressed with the effort on behalf of medical scientific research for the benefit of all mankind.
EDWARD TATUM
Copenhagen
Slings & Arrows
Sir:
To the school board of Manchester, Conn., which kept Charlene Southergill off the honor roll because she got a C in archery, congratulations! Keep up the good work, men, and take heart! Our country has thousands and thousands of engineers, scientists and scholars, but how many skilled archers?
J. A. SCHMIDT
York, Pa.
Sir:
Shame on TIME for apparently siding with this impudent young lady and the misguided youth she represents! Had she displayed her, boredom, her apathy, and her apparent lack of the mental ability to comprehend archery instruction in one of my classes, she certainly would have rated a mark different from her C--she would have received an F !
MRS. CHARLES A. HURLEY
Director of Physical Education Mount St. Agnes College
Baltimore
Sir: Since its conception, public education in the U.S. has been criticized, analyzed and enriched. This process is a cherished characteristic of an open society. Throughout the years, value has been placed upon "giving one's best" and "doing a good job." The Communists will not be suppressed with bows and arrows, but whether it be at Cape Canaveral in a laboratory or at home before the kitchen sink, giving one's best will help.
R. B. WESTKAEMPER
La Crosse, Wis.
Shrinking Lead
Sir:
TIME, Aug. 1 reports the Honolulu Star-Bulletin has a "growing circulation lead over the morning Advertiser."
George Chaplin took over as Advertiser editor in December 1958. At that time Advertiser circulation was 46,500 v. the Star-Bulletin's 100,000.
In the 19 months since, the Advertiser's circulation has reached 66,126, an increase of 41%. The Star-Bulletin's circulation was 103,000, a 3% gain. How you figguh?
BUCK BUCHWACH
Managing Editor
Advertiser
Honolulu
P: TIME figguhed wrong.--ED.
God & Yoga
Sir:
In your ill-mannered article on yoga [July 11], you have made no bones about the fact that you consider, along with Benedictine Dechanet, the Hindu conception of God as the Supreme Self as absurd.
You leave me no choice but to point out that Hindus find the Biblical concept of God as a vengeful, peeking, bumbling fellow who botched his job so badly that he created man imperfect, then cursed the whole race of man for the same imperfection, and could find no better way out of the dilemma than to allow his "son" to die a tortured death even more absurd.
Such a picture of God is suitable only for the grimmer kind of fairy tales and not for adults with freedom to think and read. Anyway, even without the proofs of science, one has to reject the idea of a God who looks like man and acts like a poor specimen of the race out of hand.
Dechanet should realize that the practice of yoga is Hindu through and through, and that a true yogi cannot be a Christian just as a true Benedictine cannot be a Hindu.
A. L. AMBIKA BAI
Kuala Lampur, Malaya
Sir:
As a teacher of yoga for the past 21 years, I was greatly pleased to learn that a Benedictine monk has written a book on the merits of yoga, which has so often been mistaken for a religion, especially by Catholics and hence rejected by them.
Yoga originated in India thousands of years ago, and it clearly states that its practice can be successfully taken up by a Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Hebrew, et al., as well as by an atheist.
INDRA DEVI
Hollywood
Hands Across the Seas
Sir:
May we tell you how much we appreciate the articles and comments published in your newsmagazine on world affairs. Confined as we are to a small island in a forgotten sea, we can only rely on the radio to be kept aware of what is going on in the outside world. Taking this into consideration, you will easily realize the interest we take in the reading of TIME.
ANDRE MASSON
Port-Louis, Mauritius
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