Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR PRESIDENTS William E. Bohn's concern ("The Home Front," January 11) for the generally mediocre quality of our Presidents since John Quincy Adams comes oddly from a champion of the...
...The answer to this current "most unsatisfactory feature of American political life" seems to be an awareness test for the potential voter, rather than the means criterion that prevailed in the old days...
...The President has not dared to propose to Congress that it leave farmers to their tractors and plows...
...Gaitskell might then be confronted with the opportunity of strengthening his hold on the party apparatus and of boldly moving to meet the electorate in order to win the next election...
...The Eisenhower Administration's attitude toward this issue is referred to as "one side of an economic debate...
...Can intelligent judgment be aided by a presentation which indicates that one side is concerned only with high social aims, whereas the other is hidebound by blind negativism...
...What did Franklin Roosevelt or Harry Truman do...
...And some presidents might learn a lesson...
...Does the attitude of Duscha, speaking the present-day liberal viewpoint with obvious restraint, help the purposes of this aforementioned debate...
...Columbia, S.C...
...What have Humphrey, Kennedy, Johnson or Symington as Senators, or Stevenson as titular party leader, done in this respect...
...Can the liberal deny the profound effect "budget balancing" has on the way national resources are utilized...
...If this should happen, the last bonds holding the Left and Right in harness may be severed...
...They are Nye Bevan's physical health and the Liberals' political health...
...Where is there even an inkling of understanding of the conservative position on this issue...
...NL, February 1) refers to the "need for expanded public spending" for schools, highways, slum clearance, etc., as being obvious...
...Yet Duscha apparently blames Eisenhower...
...How is it Eisenhower's fault that this "setback for the proper study of the budget" has occurred...
...DAVID C. WILLIAMS...
...Does Duscha think any of those Democrats, if elected president, would include in his budget message any such proposal...
...Is it not an abdication of their responsibility to choose the easy, self-flattering and soul-satisfying attitude of posing as the champions of the weak and helpless courageously battling the senile maunderings of a budget-balancing father image...
...DEAR EDITOR PRESIDENTS William E. Bohn's concern ("The Home Front," January 11) for the generally mediocre quality of our Presidents since John Quincy Adams comes oddly from a champion of the political rights of everyone...
...Congress should not hurry to relieve them of their self-inflicted deprivation...
...Castro Valley, Calif...
...If the Liberals should contest and win or decide a few by-elections, the case for Labor's modernization might well become so strong that even the militants would split on the issue...
...Does Duscha honestly think any of those Democrats, if elected President, would include such proposal in his budget message...
...It has been pointed out that the Administration proposal will result in a $4-billion addition to the available supply of capital...
...Those who are interested may obtain further information by writing the undersigned at 1341 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Washington 6, D.C...
...If Bevan, the politician who won't compromise to win, should depart, and Gaitskell, the intellectual who would win with compromise, should be driven by the Liberals to undercut their appeal, the Labor party may yet escape digging its own grave...
...The Congress has been controlled by the Democrats for a great majority of the past 28 years...
...Los Angeles STANLEY M. ARNDT Julius Duscha, in "Washington-U.S.A...
...New York City ERNEST VAN DEN HAAG ADA TOUR Some of your readers may be interested in the annual study trips to Europe sponsored by Americans for Democratic Action for thoughtful liberals...
...Washington, D.C...
...Bevan's intense interest in his farm and his recent (after Goodman's article) operation may presage his virtual retirement from the lists...
...Now, however, I think that Congress, by not repealing the oath, can teach a salutary lesson to the 19 college administrations which have refused to allow their students to borrow as long as the oath is required...
...Unless the silly and arrogant urge of administrators to prevent students from swearing loyalty to their government remains permanently stronger than their interest in the welfare of their students, the colleges which have withdrawn surely will rejoin...
...FRED E. PERRY BRITISH LABOR Geoffrey Goodman's "British Labor's Gravest Crisis" (NL, January 11) omits two factors which need consideration in analyzing the immediate future of the Labor party...
...RAYMOND A. MOORE, JR...
...report (NL, January 25), criticizes the President on several grounds: He says that veteran benefits other than for service-connected disabilities should be discontinued: "The truth is that they can be controlled if someone will only try...
...Avoca, N.Y...
...Since at present there is an acute world-wide shortage of capital, and in the eyes of the uncommitted nations we are I compering with the forced labor Communist method of capital formation, it should be obvious that increased capital is a powerful weapon in our hands...
...They can relieve themselves...
...Where and when have Senators Humphrey, Kennedy, Johnson, Symington, Adlai Stevenson or the Democratic platform advocated such discontinuance or control...
...How prejudiced can a Washington observer be...
...If a President is to be blamed, why did not Duscha blame Roosevelt, who had three full terms and part of a fourth and a Congress of his own party, while Eisenhower had less than two terms and for the most part, a Democratic Congress...
...HAROLD KORETZ STUDENT LOYALTY I never thought the student oath useful...
...IKE'S BUDGET Julius Duscha, in his "Washington-U.S.A...
...The Left may then fly off into orbit or even, conceivably, simply fly apart...
...Our fine early Presidents were chosen by educated voters...
...Where and when have Humphrey, Kennedy, Johnson, Symington, Stevenson or the Democratic platform ever "dared" to make any such proposal...
...An example is the mythical $4-billion budget surplus Duscha discussed January 25...
...Since practically all qualified, yet detached, observers agreed that the election showed the electorate to be to the right of the party, the Liberals may further force the party to make the choice of moving to meet the voters or seeing more voters move to meet the Liberals...
...Says Duscha: "The Administration has not dared to try to reduce farm expenditures substantially...
...Duscha speaks of the "setback" which he says was caused by "the failure of Congress to equip itself for the proper study of the budget...
...If liberals wish to be accepted as representing a force that includes social conscience in its attitude, do they not have a duty to adhere to simple rules of intellectual integrity...
...Programs for higher minimum wages, attacking poverty, help for lower and middle income groups "can be carried out only by the government...
...These trips, in addition to the usual sightseeing, emphasize interviews with liberal and trade union leaders and a close look at the problems and prospects of tomorrow's Europe...
...Not all of them are necessarily unteachable...
Vol. 43 • February 1960 • No. 8
