Hamilton and Jefferson

Sir / Re Stanley Cloud's Essay "A Ghostly Conversation on the Meaning of Watergate" [Aug. 6]: I must say that Mr. Cloud's insight into the philosophies of our two most influential founding fathers was truly enlightening, as was his obvious understanding of the contemporary attitudes of the American people. It is too bad that most citizens fail to realize that they are not "children to be instructed and led," but mature, sovereign individuals upon whose trusted and respected responsibility this country was built and stands.

BILL MILLER

Atlanta

Sir / The reasons Jefferson gave for the paucity of spirit in this country sound superficial, but then a single night's resurrection could hardly acquaint him with the way in which industrialism and more recently technology have altered the American personality. Fragmented into numerical units by an insensitive bureaucracy, separated from much that is natural, fixed into a lock-step system, and forever cajoled to pursue materialistic affluence, no wonder so many Americans have lost spirit.

When society uses technology in such a way that the individual's personality is not numbed, then he will feel responsibility for something beyond his own selfish interests. Mr. Jefferson's vantage point should allow him to see that Nixon is not to blame.

DWIGHT O. TUINSTRA

Montgomery, Minn.

Sir / Back in the age of reason, Thomas Jefferson wrote this clear and direct sentence: "The whole of government consists in the art of being honest." With all its simplicity, that statement expressed a profound conviction that truth could be a powerful tool of statesmanship. But in the world of today this seems to be a minority view.

The age of reason appears to have been replaced by the age of rationalization.

PHILIP SCHACCA

WestHempstead, N.Y.

Sir / Mr. Cloud's dialectic misses an essential irony. It wasn't so much that Hamilton wanted to cut off Jefferson's "people" from participation as that Hamilton had a pessimistic estimate of the people's ability to distinguish between good and evil within the context of a rapidly developing industrial society. Hamilton's disciplined aristocracy should at least have ruled with a sense of tradition, proportion and decorum.

Ehrlichman & Co., largely the products of the rapid, rootless commercial expansion occurring in the "sunbelt" states, are the quintessential expression of the technical mentality, divorced from hard-won tradition, humbled before nothing--precisely the people from whom Hamilton was intent on protecting the Republic.

LUKE BAILEY

Los Angeles

Watergate Personalities

Sir / Regarding John Wilson's referring to Senator Inouye as "that little Jap": as a lifelong Republican I have lived through and survived the Watergate scandal, the Cambodian lies, the soaring cost of living, and the paying of improvements for the Western White House through my taxes. But if Mr. Wilson and his racist attitude are typical of the kind of men and thinking surrounding Mr. Nixon and his aides, then I here and now repudiate the Republican Par ty and encourage other Asian Americans to do the same.

BILL LEONG

Los Angeles Sir / John Wilson says he doesn't care if someone calls him a "little American."

I will call him a little American--a very little American.

GELLERT A. SEEL

Detroit

Sir / My opinion of Haldeman and Ehrlichman as crooks was built up over many months. Imagine my surprise, then, to see them firsthand before the Senate committee. They came across as honest, sincere, kind, pleasant and very gifted gentlemen.

How lucky for Mr. Nixon to have had such men for at least part of his tenure!

MRS. HERMAN DAL

San Francisco

Sir / I find the image of an intoxicated member of Congress experiencing difficulty navigating the halls of Congress not nearly so frightening as the specter of a John Ehrlichman, intoxicated with power, supervising the domestic policy of our Government.

MORGAN J. SINCOCK

Richmond

Sir / Senator Ervin comes across as a pompous old man who cannot quite decide whether he is Caesar or the court jester. His conduct supports the thinking that there should be an age at which Senators and Congressmen should be forced to retire.

GRACE K. HENNINGTON

Seaside, Calif.

Sir / I think John Dean should get the Academy Award for Best Actor of 1973.

EVELYN M. RICE

Peoria, Ill.

Watergate Reflections

Sir / The testimony of Haldeman and Ehrlichman has revealed, I believe, the core of Mr. Nixon's thinking, an insight that was not apparent from the earlier witnesses.

One gets the impression from Mr. Haldeman that he and the President did not think of themselves as evil men. Rather, what guided them in their rise to power seems to have been two basic rules--expediency and packaging. The first meant employing whatever means would get the job done. The second meant presenting an action in the best possible public light, including, if necessary, keeping it secret.

Not a conscious pursuit of evil seems to have been governing our country at its highest level, but an amorality--a failure to apply ethical standards to decisions because that ability had atrophied.

PAUL BERNSTEIN

Professor of Political and Social Science University of California Irvine, Calif.

Sir / Watergate--from boredom to nausea to outrage! If the President himself had tapped every phone in Washington, he could not have done one-tenth the injury to the country that the Ervin committee, aided by the anti-Nixon news media, has done, in self-serving political maneuvers. While they conduct their kangaroo court, ignoring the real problems that face the nation, what kind of image of the U.S. are they transmitting to the world by their condemnation of political enemies without a fair trial? And has anyone stopped to wonder why the Democrats were so upset by the tapping of a few phones if they had nothing to hide?

INEZ H CORVEl L

Bella Vista, Ark.

Sir / Richard Nixon may not have been participating in the cover up of the Watergate break in before this time, but now he most certainly is through his failure to release tapes pertaining to these matters.

DAVID WERTH

Corvallis, Ore.

Sir / Isn't it interesting that the same liberals who were screaming that the press be given immunity from disclosing news sources are now professing shock and outrage when Nixon refuses to turn his tapes over for examination. This double standard is not new, but it still is sick.

ED PATRICK

Framingham, Mass. Sir / Phase V: impeachment!

ROGER M. HARRIS

Forest City, N.C.

Sir / As a Briton unsympathetic to our monarchic system, I find a certain negative comfort in Watergate.

In gathering round him Crown Princes Ehrlichman and Haldeman, Court Jester Dean, and the flotilla of courtly retainers (unelected, of course), King Richard has established a monarchy more aloof than the English Queen could dare to contemplate.

DAVID C. SPEEDIE

Philadelphia

Child Labor

Sir / We were pleased that TIME [July 30] again brought to public attention the scandalous problem of child labor in agriculture. You failed to mention, however, that the title of your article came from a Beacon Press book. Sweatshops in the Sun by Ronald Taylor, published in April of this year.

GOBIN STAIR

Director Beacon Press Boston

Recruiting Businessmen

Sir / Your article titled "Bull Market for M.B.A.s" [Aug. 6] is misleading. Harvard, Stanford, Wharton and the University of Chicago are not a representative group of business schools.

A more thorough survey of the 300 schools in the U.S. offering graduate business curriculums would show that starting salaries of $17,000-plus and all-expense-paid trips are rare. Perhaps the companies that devote so much time, effort and money to attempting to recruit graduates of the elite schools should be informed that there is a plethora of well-qualified M.B.A.s from other schools who are available for employment, and who would be receptive to less costly recruiting efforts.

SID JACOBSEN

South Bend, Ind.

Porno Press

Sir / I strongly object to a newsmagazine like TIME sinking to the level of pornography by featuring the likes of Hugh Hefner and Bob Guccione [July 30]. If I wanted pictures of nudes on my coffee table, I would buy Playboy or Penthouse.

FERN BOOMER

Poolesville, Md.

Sir / For you to compare Penthouse, Gallery, Genesis, etc., with Playboy leads this writer to believe that your reporter opened to the gatefolds and never got past them.

It might come as a shock, but there are millions of readers of Playboy, both men and women, who find it in terms of content (articles, fiction, humor, interviews, art direction) the most entertaining magazine published in America today.

DON SILVERSTEIN

New York City

Sir / I wonder if there is any significance in the fact that neither Mr. Hefner nor Mr. Guccione ever smiles. Could it be that the gentlemen really do not enjoy what they are doing?

DORIS H. BROWN

Ambler, Pa.

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