Civil Rights Bill
Sir: The only unhappy part about the civil rights bill [June 19] is that there ever existed the need for it.
PATRICIA CHERONE Glendale, Calif.
Sir: With God's help, I hope Americans will accept their moral responsibility by doing what they can to make life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness a reality for Negro people as well as white.
DAVID W. MANDYCK Afton, N.Y.
Sir: The civil rights bill is not "the product of national demand." You should have said "the product of noisy minorities who terrify politicians."
DARRELL C. STEERS Chevy Chase, Md.
Sir: What a thrill to see the cover picture of a Senator who is too much of a coward to permit Americans a referendum on the civil rights question. He seems to think he was elected to cram legislation down the throats of people he thinks are too dumb to know what they want.
W. C. CARGILE El Paso, Texas
Sir: I was about to bid a reluctant farewell to the G.O.P. until I read your article on Senator Dirksen. While it is true that we cannot legislate morality, we can legislate conditions that are more conducive to morality. Senator Goldwater's vote against the civil rights bill is another indication of his remarkable shortsightedness.
LYNN HARLAN Fremont, Calif.
Sir: Let us not forget that Goldwater has now voted "no" on three recent major bills to reach the Senate: the civil rights bill, the trade expansion act, the test ban agreement. These bills could not have passed without staunch Republican backing. Mr. Goldwater is merely doing some wishful thinking when he claims to be in the mainstream of Republican thought.
A. DAVID DEGANN Brooklyn
Sir: You assume that a majority of the electorate favors all provisions of this bill. I disagree. And only a national referendum could prove one of us wrong. If the American Mainstream has truly become a polluted effluent bound for the Gulf of Socialism, I will swim upstream with Barry —where the water is clean, the air pure, and the trees tall. This is where the American Dream was spawned.
KENNETH H. LOBITZ Cincinnati
Sir: Can't you salute Goldwater's courage—whatever you think of his wisdom? Who was the last candidate you can recall with such guts? Here is a man who would rather be right (in a double sense) than President—if the choice must be made. A. CULVER GORDON Hawthorne, N.J.
Sir: Republicans of America have, every right in the world to be disgusted with their gutless, confused and wayward party. Let them nominate a man with foresight, leadership, presidential principles and wisdom—Everett McKinley Dirksen.
PETER R. ANDERSON San Rafael, Calif.
Sir: It's a perversion of history to take the famous words, "All men are created equal," in the Declaration of Independence and misinterpret them as a constitutional basis for declaring that all races are equal. All this phrase meant was that the colonial English gentleman was the equal of the English gentleman in the home country.