HELLISH NEED

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

James Lardner's hard-nosed man-of-the-world reproach to the Kearns-Levinson article in the New Republic ("Brass Tacks" -- no less!) exhibits the kind of sophomoric bunk that I do not usually associate with the CRIMSON. The rhetoric is fair but he didn't read the article. And if he did, then he's guilty of the gar greater sin of twisting the gist thereof to best fit his private beat. Shortly stated, Lardner's paraphrase of what Kearns and Levinson wrote is that the best way to dump the chief is to a) start a third party, and b) get Percy or Hatfield nominated. That really would be pretty stupid.

If, however, the point of the article was that since the inanition of the current political scene makes participation therein unseemly and vulgar, there is a hellish need for something new -- before we all cop out. That LBJ might be displaced in the process -- or that the war might come to an end -- well, so much the better. But there are things even more important than that, one of which is the salvation of a political system which may no longer be worth fighting for. Lardner just can't see beyond LBJ or Vietnam. John Garson   Research Associate in Law