Letters: May 17, 1968

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.