Dear Leader

Those great American institutions, the mailing list and the form letter, are usually employed to sell goods, advocate causes and solicit funds. Now they are being used to help populate high echelons of the Nixon Administration.

As one means of obtaining nominations for approximately 2,000 jobs—posts above the civil service ranks but below the Cabinet and White House staff —Nixon talent scouts have sent out 81,000 requests for suggestions. The recipients are the 66,000 people listed in Who's Who in America and 15,000 others whose names appear on rosters of trade and professional associations and the like.

"You, as a leader, are in a position to know and recommend exceptional individuals," says the letter signed "Sincerely, Richard M. Nixon." The assumption that anyone listed in Who's Who is necessarily a leader is of course fallacious; the reference work contains thousands of followers. But the letter added to the flattery by requesting that the recipient take "time from your busy schedule to participate in this all-important program." All that has to be done is to pass an application form along to the nominee for bureaucrat and then return it to Washington with the sponsor's comments.

Nearly 2,000 recommendations had been received by last week, although many of the requests for nominations were still in the mails.

Baltimore City Comptroller Hyman A. Pressman was one of those who did receive his letter, and is giving "serious thought" to individuals he might suggest. But Pressman announced he was "flabbergasted" at being asked. He need not have been so surprised. A loyal Democrat, he worked for Hubert Humphrey's election. Recently, he received another form letter from Nixon—a thank-you note for service to this year's Republican campaign.