Welcome Hubert

Sir: Risking the wrath of campus McCarthyites and Bobby worshipers, I would like to be the first among the student populace of the United States to extend my support to Hubert Humphrey [May 3] in his candidacy for the presidency.

JAMES J. CLARKE, '68 La Salle College Philadelphia

Sir: Riots, wars, inflation, campus radicals--the average American voter clutches his checkbook and longs for the quiet, ho-hum days of pre-Viet Nam. And lo and behold! Who should appear but handy, wholesome, ho-hum Hubert?

GEORGE L. KOVAC Lincolnwood, Ill.

Sir: What an abysmally dirty trick you played on Hubert Humphrey by putting that ugly and utterly nontypical picture of him on your cover! The text portrays his real, essential characteristics of buoyancy, optimism, kindness, idealism, sunny nature; while in the cover picture he appears cynical, suspicious, pessimistic, ill-natured, hard-bitten--the very opposite of his actual character.

JEANETTE CHENEY San Francisco

Sir: I noted the series of photos showing Humphrey with assorted personages from 1960 to 1967. The 1960 picture caught my eye: Humphrey was very noticeably white-haired; now his hair is virtually black. Is this a New Dawn for the Vice President? Only his hairdresser knows for sure. Come to think of it, there may be a Lady Clairol lurking behind the scenes even for non-greying, 58-year-old Ronald Reagan.

NICK NICHOLL Claremont, Calif.

Stating It Like It Is

Sir: "Nixon on Racial Accommodation" [May 3] states the crisis as it is. I might add that one of the regrettable aspects of our society is the middle-class white, who feels there is a job to be done for the Negro--by someone else, of course. If we could only find a way to trade our apathy for involvement, we would come a little closer to solving this crisis.

JOAN M. ESCHENBRENNER Houston

> For more on this subject, see this week's Essay: What Can I Do?

Sir: Nixon has finally said something that demands our respect and our thought. His declaration that "we have to get private enterprise into the ghetto" is a concrete suggestion. For too long the average American has seen the ghetto as an abstract horror of human existence. For too long, the average American has bought off "his own sense of guilt" by trying to alleviate poverty through his tax money. It is time to eliminate government as a cure all for the problems of the Negro. Government has tried, and failed. It is time to reassert our humanity and take private, individual action in the race crisis. Let one human being help another, and let one government help another. We, as people, have shirked our duty long enough.

C. MICHAEL MAGRUDER, '71 College of the Holy Cross Worcester, Mass.

Sir: I find it difficult to understand your enthusiasm for Nixon's proposals, because it is clear to me from his remarks that he accepts the ghetto as a permanent feature of American cities.

If a real and lasting racial accommodation is to be reached, the ghetto as an emotional and geographic entity will have to be abolished altogether. As long as we speak in terms of any ghetto--however clean, safe and hopeful it may be--we are accepting a racially segregated society that will continue to breed the hate, intolerance, fear, and violence that today is near to creating a fatal polarization of American society.

ERIC A. ARNOLD JR. Instructor Ohio State University Lima

Those Young Lions

Sir: May I commend you on your fine Essay on student protest [May 3]. In an age of uncertainty and doubt it is all too easy for students to latch on to a certain philosophy and use it as their panacea. Too often this philosophy becomes dogma, blinds its proponents to other viewpoints, and leads them to the all or nothing stage. It is then that the intellectual process breaks down, and a meaningful and productive interplay of ideas, which is so desperately needed now, ceases. I can only hope that both students and administrators will never be afraid to open themselves continually to self-doubt and self-questioning--to break the gel that means stagnation and, ultimately, failure.

G. WILLIAM TURNER, '70 Williams College Williamstown, Mass.

Sir: The rights and requests of students should be respected. But when the methods employed by students to achieve their ends interfere with the rights of others, the question is no longer one of student power but of student tyranny. And tyranny cannot be tolerated in universities if these institutions are going to be allowed to function.

DOMINICK A. LABIANCA, Grad Student University of Michigan Ann Arbor

Sir: The recent conduct of the students at Columbia University [May 3] was superfluous, atrocious and inane. As soon as the students "captured" the various buildings Mr. Kirk should have given the order for the police to remove the students in any manner they deemed necessary. The method that the police exercised was excellent, but, I'm afraid, not quite as forceful as I, and many others, would like to have seen. When a minority of shaggyhaired rebels can seize college buildings and take human beings captive, our society is definitely lacking in some standard of subordination.

RICHARD J. HARPER, '70 St. Joseph's College Collegeville, Ind.

Sir: Oh, how I envy those lucky U.S. student activists! While they were meditating on Mailer and Goodman. I was wading through Macaulay's History of England and the Weber thesis. While they were getting the vote out in New Hampshire and Wisconsin, I was dragging 75% of a frequently apathetic student body to the polls in Choice '68. While they were having their theses postponed, I was up all night typing an overdue anthropology paper. While they were getting money from Daddy, I was hurrying to my Saturday job. While they were uncommitted to a future career, I was unsuccessfully seeking a full-time job. Isn't all this responsibility dull?

LORRAINE LEES, '68 Holy Family College Philadelphia

Sir: Meanwhile, living up to and dying for their elders' convictions, young Americans go about the business of making the world safe for adults.

EDWARD S. BABCOX JR Shaker Heights, Ohio

The March

Sir: One more symptom of this nation's rapidly spreading cancer is the addition of some 30,000 more troops to the riot-control brigades in Washington, D.C., in preparation for the Poor People's March [May 3]. It is very sad that this country's attitude, and especially the attitude of Congress, has been completely negative toward this demonstration, even before the Rev. Abernathy presents his requests. An avalanche of legislation is needed and it will only begin to right the wrongs to the poor people of this country. But my fellow Americans, following in the footsteps of an unsympathetic and misguided Congress, are trying to erase the problems of our nation with thousands of riot-control troops.

LINDA EICHENGREEN Philadelphia

Sir: The sight of grinding poverty stalking the land in slum areas and on tenant farms is saddening enough, but it is difficult to find a name to fit the man who would exploit the misery and suffering of those less fortunate than himself by threatening to use them in massive marches, sit-ins and camp-outs, demanding speedups on his own terms to tremendous social and economic changes already afoot in the land.

Washington is presently faced with the potential for more disorder, more violence, more bloodshed, and a general breakdown of law and order, in the Rev. Abernathy's intended collision course with the law. A confrontation can be avoided if the politicians in power allow this dema-gogue-in-the-making to carry out his massive march and then see to it that his masses are promptly marched out of the city.

OWEN BALDWIN Kingston, Mass.

Sir: I see that the organizers of the Poor People's March on Washington have set up "an agency to process marchers' welfare checks" as they "prod Congress into granting greater aid to the 29,900,000 American poor." At least they will have something to live on while they protest against the Government's lack of concern for them.

JEFFREY K. MEYER Minneapolis

Easy There, Dad

Sir: Dr. Linus Pauling's newest speculation [May 3], "orthomolecular psychiatry," brings forth all kinds of new hope for humanity. When one begins to feel schizophrenic, a simple shot in the brain might replace hours of psychotherapy and shock treatment. In fact, his theory is so good that the only disadvantage I can see is that he might be putting his son, Dr. Linus Pauling Jr., a prominent Honolulu psychiatrist, out of business.

BEATRICE A. CHIGOS San Bruno, Calif.

The Whole Case

Sir: The one factor that President Morse does not point out is that the making of Case Western Reserve [May 3] into a Midwestern rival of Caltech and M.I.T. is being done at the expense of the liberal arts. That he plans to upgrade the university by "building from strengths we now have" only emphasizes the fact that the humanities play a secondary role at this university. We believe that the situation at C.W.R.U. exemplifies the general trend in this country to train rather than educate students.

DAVID KESSLER, '69 LISA MEISEL, '71 Case Western Reserve University Cleveland

Sir: We at Case Western Reserve University are flattered by your reference to our institution as a "big-leaguer" and to the facts regarding the federation of Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University.

However, the last sentence of the article left the impression that my hopes for the future of the institution lie solely in developing its strengths in engineering and the sciences.

The purpose of federation was to create a new and distinctive university, not a carbon copy of any existing institution regardless of its reputation. We are seeking to improve the entire university qualitatively, using our present strengths as a foundation.

We are seeking a fresh approach with a strong commitment to an undergraduate education in which the needs of the individual student are recognized as a primary value. To that end, we hope by next fall to have started the process of involving the faculties of our graduate and professional schools in undergraduate education at C.W.R.U.

ROBERT W. MORSE President

Case Western Reserve University Cleveland

Sir: The comment of Western Reserve University students that Case Institute of Technology engineers were "plumbers" was noted here by management and journeymen with less than enthusiasm. The local union scale is $5 hourly. The take-home of the plumber isn't something to be ridiculed, being $10,400 annually, less fringes. It is doubtful if the junior engineer's salary is that formidable. I guess that the mentioning of this segment of the construction industry in a dubious manner is something with which we'll have to live.

RONALD G. HARRISON President Associated Mechanical Contractors of Fort Worth, Inc. Fort Worth

Enough of a Knock from Enoch

Sir: Enoch Powell is entitled to his bigot views [May 3]. What infuriates me is the 79% of Britons who support these views. Along with their austerity program to strengthen the country's gross national product, Britons ought to participate in the weakening of another G.N.P., that of gross national prejudice.

TANYA SIMON Rochester, Mich.

Really Old Oldtime Fiddlin'

Sir: Re your story on oldtime fiddlin' [April 26], I heartily agree with the judge that bluegrass and rock 'n' roll is ruining the oldtime music. My father being an old-time fiddle champion, I was raised up on that kind of music, but the hokum that's allowed at some of these contests is far from the original music. I have been a qualified national judge in some nine states west of the Mississippi River and have judged some of the best fiddlers out this way. It's my belief unless this bluegrass and rock 'n' roll is cut out, we will lose the real oldtime music I am dedicated to preserving.

SOUTH EAST NEFF President

Kansas National Old Time Fiddlers, Pickers and Singers Association Wilsey, Kans.

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