Myths and maths
Sir: Need The Spectator really devote itself to perpetuating the myth that the 1960 election was 'stolen from [Nixon] when the Democratic Party machine in Illinois stuffed the ballot boxes' CI stuffed Nixon's envelopes', 30 April)? If Charles Glass would brush up on his arithmetic, he would discover that, had Illinois gone for Nixon, Kennedy would still have won by a vote of 276 to 246 in the electoral college. And if he had done his research, he would have discovered that the state electoral board, which was 4-1 Republican, voted unanimously to certify the Kennedy electors.
While the Cook County machine was unquestionably skilled in producing Demo- cratic votes out of vacant lots and grave- yards, so were the Republicans downstate. One party probably stole as many votes in Illinois as the other, but no one stole the 1960 election.
Arthur Schlesinger
The City Universtiy of New York, Box 540 Graduate School and University Center, 33 West 42 Street, New York
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