Campaign Funding Evaluated

The special section on campaign funding "The Money," March 5, was timely but disappointing in that it failed to address the single biggest cost of any campaign - TV advertising.

Cut TV-time costs and you will have gone a long way toward solving the problem. Since the airwaves are public property with license holders given a virtual moneymaking machine, why are all the commercial stations not required to air political messages on an equitable basis for all qualified candidates at no charge?

Surely fair formulas can be developed that would give all legitimate candidates equal access. And if equally fair and reasonable limits could be placed on all political spending we might get back to a level playing field.

In a democratic system of and by the people, the selling of a president (or any other office) shouldn't be determined by who can raise the most money. Requiring TV station owners to give free air time to candidates is not too big a price to pay. Bart Grabow, Indianapolis Security in the Mideast

The author is quite right in her Opinion page column "The Gulf War's Credits and Debits," Feb. 27. There will be no security in the Middle East without democracy - without economic development and reform. Moreover, there will be no security without balanced relations between the poor and rich. Some of the "have-nots" in the region don't even have a homeland. Mahmoud Ellaissi, Satesboro, Ga. Paying for nonprofit postage

The editorial "Kinder, Gentler Postal Rates," Feb. 25, paints the wrong picture of our postal system and its relationship to nonprofits.

The United States Postal Service is not chartered to subsidize nonprofit corporations or civic-minded groups. As you note, in the past the federal government "chipped in to help with the cost of second- and third-class nonprofit mail." I think more accurately you could say that Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public, along with the government, helped out the nonprofits. The rise in the cost of sending a first-class letter is directly related to the level of subsidized second- and third-class mail. Bertie Lee Murphy, Great Falls, Va.