Teddy Roosevelt as Model for Clinton

* Re “President Clinton, You’re No Teddy Roosevelt,” by Kathleen M. Dalton, Opinion, Jan. 26:

While it is admirable that President Teddy Roosevelt softened the edges of capitalism in the 19th century, it should be remembered that capitalism was entering its first new phase: capital-intensive industrialism. It had been born in small-scale craft shops that were family-owned and maintained. And it was very responsive at that level. Industrialism exerted quick and impersonal changes on all that. But to make capitalism a bogyman is shortsighted. All complex economic and societal interactions take time to adjust. I’m not making a case for no government overview, but that Dalton meliorate the savior-quality in her assessment.

The parallels between TR’s time and William Jefferson Clinton’s are not obvious. Americans are losing faith in the American Dream, Ms. Dalton, because the government confiscates too much of it. To compare the size of TR’s government and its influence on society with Clinton’s is to compare an ant with an elephant. The elephant is in the room with us now and some historians don’t seem to see it.

L.L. GINTER

Marina del Rey

* What is wrong, now that Republicans and Democrats are coming together to bring our nation into the 21st century, to use some of the good points in “the GOP mantra”? Additionally, Clinton just won a decisive election victory over a strong adversary. The plurality given Clinton by voters would suggest that Dalton’s grade of D- in anything is totally incorrect.

I would be fearful of my son attending Harvard and being exposed to Dalton’s lack of reality and political awareness.

MARSHALL KLINE

Los Angeles