Letters: Aug. 10, 1962

(2 of 3)

Re the article on the East German children's game [TIME, July 27] it was obviously copied from a game played by Washington adults called "New Frontier." The idea is the same−to roll the dice and, if possible, go forward:

1. White House redecorated; advance one space.

2. Stock market drop; retreat one space.

3. Peace Corps formed; advance three spaces.

4. Nuclear testing resumed; advance five spaces.

5. Urban renewal defeated; retreat one space.

6. Fell in pool; lose a turn.

7. Steel owners told off; retreat to nearest Junior Chamber of Commerce office.

8. Medicare bill defeated; retreat seven spaces.

This puts the player back where he started, but it's not as bad as it seems. Every game includes a cutout cardboard model of Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

(MRS.) BETTYTISKA Williston Park, N.Y.

Sam's Song

Sir:

Bravo on the most complete coverage yet on the Samuel Newhouse dynasty [TIME, July 27]. Having lived on Staten Island for many, many years, we knew the Newhouses and were proud that they were part of the community.

SHEPARD W. DAVIS Coral Gables, Fla.

Sir:

Must we be finally rid of the dictatorial newspaper tycoon only to replace him with a weak, voiceless puppet? Can there be no happy medium?

RITA PETRETTI Kenosha, Wis.

Sir:

In the article on Samuel Newhouse, you state: "Last week, inspired in part by Newhouse's acquisition of New Orleans and in part by an ambition to make headlines, Democratic U.S. Representative Emanuel Celler of Brooklyn announced that the House Judiciary Committee would investigate newspaper monopolies−among them Sam New-house'−as soon as Congress adjourns." In point of fact, the pending study of the concentration of ownership of news media by the Antitrust Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary was not inspired either by Mr. Newhouse's purchase of an existing newspaper monopoly in New Orleans or by an "ambition to make headlines" on my part, as your article erroneously states.

On the contrary, the Antitrust Subcommittee's inquiry was inspired by a longstanding concern over this problem, and in part by the simultaneous closings of the Los Angeles (morning) Examiner by the Hearst Corp. and the Los Angeles (evening) Mirror by the Chandler interests in January 1962, with a consequent division of the newspaper market in our third largest and fastest-growing city into morning and evening newspaper monopolies.

EMANUEL CELLER House of Representatives Washington, B.C.

≫ When the House Judiciary Committee announced the beginning of its news media inquiry to reporters last month, the purchase of the New Orleans Times-Picayune and States-Item by Newhouse was specifically listed as a merger to be studied.−ED.

Sir:

Samuel I. Newhouse seems to be above the petty vanity that has typified other press lords. Not only does he allow his many newspapers to be editorially independent of him, he encourages it! This, in my opinion, is the highest order of freedom of the press.

ESTHER BRADFORD ARESTY Gstaad, Switzerland

Churchill Quibbles

SIR: