To the Finish Line

Sir: This election is merely a choice between moral decay and radioactive decay.

JAMES POLLOCK Calumet, Mich.

Sir: There is an old saying among lawyers that if the facts favor your client, stress the facts in your argument; if the law favors your client, stress the law in your argument; if neither fact nor law supports your client's position, attack opposing counsel or even the judge himself. It is clear that Senator Goldwater's entourage has been unable to develop rational arguments to support his positions, and this accounts for his constant personal attacks on the President.

ARNOLD SCHLOSSBERG Roanoke, Va.

Sir: The Soviet launching of a three-person spaceship emphasizes our need to re-elect Johnson, who has already worked long and hard for a better U.S. space program as a Senator and later as Vice President and President. Senator Goldwater is a man who wants to enter the space age wearing a railroad man's hat.

KARL W. DEUTSCH Yale University New Haven, Conn.

Sir: It seems to me that instead of the continual stress on whether the American people want a "trigger-happy" President, it is high time that people start asking themselves whether they want a "wheeler-dealer" President, who wants to get his way by any nefarious or unscrupulous means and build up his personal fortune into the bargain. Other countries of the world would have far more respect for a President of high moral principles, firmness and unquestionable character.

D. WEST Alexandria, Va.

Sir: You stated that Johnson wants to feel himself beloved by everybody. I have written letters to his office twice and his staff did not even bother to answer. Apparently he does not care whether I love him or not.

JAMES GABBARD Round Hill, Ky.

Sir: Protestants, Jews, Catholics, rich, poor, old, young, businessmen, laborers. Northerners, Westerners, Southerners, Negroes, whites, Democrats, Republicans, minority groups and majority groups, allies, neutralists, Communists, and just about everyone else seem to be against Senator Barry Goldwater. If for nothing else, Senator Goldwater should be commended for his ability to firmly bring the world to an agreement on something.

BETTY HENDERSON Pittsburgh

The Jenkins Scandal

Sir: If, as Mr. Johnson says, he knew nothing of the activities of Bobby Baker. Billie Sol Estes or Mr. Jenkins, he must be extremely naive. If people whom he has known well over many years can hoodwink him this easily, think how our enemies may deceive him. If, on the other hand, he was aware of these things but did nothing about them, it can only be concluded that he condoned the actions of these men.

F. L. GOUDY Cleveland

Sir: If Dean Burch really had the interest of the country at heart, he could have informed the proper authorities to "phase out" Jenkins without publicity. By making it known, he has not only destroyed a life, but he has made Jenkins the possible prey of any plot to extort information.

ED HOEFFER

Washington

Sir: To use the Jenkins story as Dean Burch does is just a poor sample of charity and intelligence. Let us have peace on earth by wishing a happy Christmas to Mr. Goldwater in Arizona instead of in the White House.

N. J. A. SMITH San Rafael, Calif.

Sir: I have never quite learned to accept the American attitude that will condemn and publicly degrade a man who has devoted himself to years of conscientious public service, and then invoke the myth of guilt by association to question the private morality of an entire Administration.

BRENDA RICHARDSON Berkeley, Calif.

Sir: I was indeed pleased to learn that the streets of Washington are so safe that police can spend their time patrolling a Y.M.C.A. men's room.

DONALD F. DREISBACH Evanston, Ill.

Sir: I know it's probably irrelevant, but who watches the guys who watch the peepholes?

ROLAND MCCANDLISH Santa Barbara, Calif.

That Week

Sir: Judging from your cover, with pictures of Kosygin, Brezhnev, Wilson, Johnson, and the bomb in the background [Oct. 23], I would guess that you had a few problems in trying to decide which the most significant news story of the week was. At any rate, you have my sympathy for the long hours and white hairs this past frantic week must have caused you. Your reporting was fine.

MALCOLM BLACK JR. Stamford, Conn.

Chinese Firecracker

Sir: Neither of the presidential candidates has offered any solution to the increasing danger posed by Red China's belligerence. Now that Red China has exploded an atomic device and will soon be capable of delivering it, hadn't we better start a program of preventive medicine? Or do we just wait for the bomb to drop on us, smug in the knowledge that it will probably be smaller than ours?

RICHARD E. EDDY Atlanta

Sir: The timing of the Red Dragon's nuclear detonation seemed like a gruesome version of Chinese firecrackers to celebrate Khrushchev's removal from leadership of the Red Bear.

HAROLD ROLAND SHAPIRO New York City

Brezhnev & Kosygin

Sir: Khrushchev's resignation brought to my mind your April 24, 1964, cover on Lenin. The story, as you recall, said that the Order of Lenin was pinned on Khrushchev by President Leonid Brezhnev, and that Khrushchev's colleagues saluted him as a "militant leader, a fiery tribune, giving his burning energy in the service of the cause of Communism." Sic transit gloria!

GUSTAVE L. GOLDSTEIN Beverly Hills, Calif.

Sir: Is there any truth to the rumor that Khrushchev resigned so that he would be free to run for the U.S. Senate from New York?

GUY F. MILLER Charlottesville, Va.

Understanding the Court

Sir: I agree with your high estimate of Mr. Justice Black [Oct. 9]. When people understand the background and meaning of the Court's decisions, much of the broadside criticism of the ourt which is based on ignorance of these facts disappears. The decisions of the last decade will go down in history as among the greatest in the history of the Court.

CHARLES S. RHYNE Washington, D.C.

Arkansans for Integration

Sir: You quoted Governor Faubus' cruel and ill-advised statement: "The first time Negro demonstrators lie down in the street ... if no one else would do it, I would be willing to run over them." As a lifetime Arkansan I resent your comment that "such talk still goes over well in Arkansas." The many educated people of Arkansas accept and believe in the Tightness of integration. The majority of us are willing to help it along, lawfully if slowly. Not only the class who listens to the music of Darius Milhaud and reads the stories of John Cheever is working to elect Win Rockefeller. Plain, everyday Arkansans are working to destroy the stigma that Faubus has given our state.

MARGARET VAN DYKE Newport, Ark.

Forewarned

Sir: I must disagree with your statement, "chances are, no one will hear much about Jack Crichton after the election" [Oct. 23]. As long as Connally is fronting for L.B.J., you will hear from Jack Crichton.

JACK CRICHTON Dallas

A Profession at Home Sir: Letter Writers Wenkert and Bikle [Oct. 23] err in their concept of my book. Its preface gives this specific warning: "When I speak of housekeeping I do not refer to housework. This is no manual on how to polish brass or clean ovens or have the whitest wash on the block." I merely champion the multitude of women who may prefer home to the marketplace but who have been brainwashed into feeling guilty about it. Women are so talented they ought to have their choice of professions-housewifery among them.

PHYLLIS McGiNLEY Weston, Conn.

Sex & Marriage

Sir: Dean Fitch's "five arguments" re sex [Oct. 16] certainly stand on the side of good mental health. However, his conclusion that "sexual compatibility is not essential in a happy marriage" could be misleading. Sexual incompatibility is a symptom not to be taken lightly, but rather deserving of intense scrutiny both as an individual and a cultural problem.

JOHN J. GORDON Family Service Society Marion, Ohio

Sir: Dean Fitch's reference to idyllic South Sea islanders is inappropriate. Sex to Fijians is not the be-all or end-all of life, let alone of the complex code of their social behavior.

NOA NAWALOWALO Suva, Fiji Islands

Op Portuniste

SIR: VOTRE ARTICLE, "OP ART" [Oct. 23], N'EST PAS SEULEMENT OPPORTUNISTS, MAIS DECEVANT.

JESUS RAPHAEL SOTO PARIS

SIR: REMPLACER LE MOT DECEVANT PAR MALHONNETE.*

JESUS RAPHAEL SOTO PARIS

Sir: After reading your treatment of op art, I decided that your magazine is the only one that reports the graphic arts according to at least one of their merits: that of being truly newsworthy, a vital area of activity where weekly developments are indeed the spirit and reality. This is a distinct service and one that pays art more than a mite of its due.

ARTHUR VERGARA Great Harrington, Mass.

The Cardinals

Sir: Sports Editor? Say something, Sports Editor! Or maybe, as you have so often done when an overpublicized, overrated New York team takes a beautiful beating[Oct. 23], you will say nothing, nothing at all. On your next vacation, you should have your Manhattan myopia mended. We Western bush people do not really "hate" the New York Yankees but we do resent unsportsmanlike distortion by New York-oriented national news media. RICHARD STEELE Cleveland

Editing Adams

Sir: Needless to say, I was greatly pleased by the review devoted to The Diary of Charles Francis Adams [Oct. 9]. Your reviewer did a beautiful job in pointing out how this Adams differed from the two Adams Presidents. Much of the value the reader will find in the Diary is due to the extraordinarily fine work of the two editors. Professor David Donald and Mrs. Aida DiPace Donald.

THOMAS J. WILSON Harvard University Press Cambridge, Mass.

Slogans That Hurt

Sir: Even S. I. Hayakawa would agree that slogans [Oct. 16] best fulfill their functions when accurately stated. "Every litter bit hurts," not "helps." Thank heaven you didn't misquote Goldwater's slogan! S. LEIGH RAYMOND New York City

If It's a Speckled Molly It Isn't Esther Williams

Sir: You refer to "a tank filled with swimming goldfish [Oct. 16]." Any ichthyologist will immediately notice that very few are goldfish. Your tank consists of: Pterophyllum scalare (angelfish), genus tetra (black tetra), Corydoras (Amazon catfish), speckled Mollies, and what seem to be Australian rainbow fish. Please note that merely because it swims, something need not necessarily be a goldfish (e.g., Esther Williams).

KARL DAVIS New York City

Nobel Winner

Sir: You failed to complete the list of Americans who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Linus Pauling was awarded the 1962 prize.

MAY B. SHOCKLEY Menlo Park, Calif.

De Sigh fur Dis, If Fee Sybil Sir: I enjoined your puny commend about 90 Bristol Court (Awk. 16). Your write that "it fuzz not fairy hill airy us." Limitation is the highest form of implement-even in re-Jovce-ing. As the "dead king" once sad: "Nobirday aviar soar anywing to eagle it."

WILLIAM J. WISEMAN JR. Davidson, N.C.

*Your article on op art is not only oppurtunistic but misleading. For misleading read "dishonorable."

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