Other Goods

Sir:

Your article on the International Trade Fair at Poznan painted the American participation as a great success. To an impartial observer, it seems that U.S. propaganda against Communism may be called "consumer-goods propaganda" because it is based on the endless repetition of the affirmation of high American living standards. This is like the rich man's bragging about his richness before poor people who can never become rich. What the people behind the Iron Curtain really need is for the U.S. to get rid of the Communist yoke--and not an exhibition of U.S. consumer goods.

BORYS WASTCHUK

Louvain, Belgium

Sir:

I saw the faces of the Polish women in your picture, and I want to try to tell them and others who consider the U.S. a rich country that the dollar sign is an inadequate picture of us and our country. It is in our being able to believe, think, write and speak as we choose, to dream of and work for a better and happier world for our children and for children everywhere.

RUTH KLINGNER

Belmont, Calif.

Drowned In Air

Sir:

With reference to your article on Paratrooper Flugum's death during training at Fort Bragg, N.C.: this incident has been the topic of discussion by many paratroopers who have constantly wondered why in Heaven's name somebody did not cut Flugum loose from the plane and let him pull his reserve. Most of us carry a knife with us for such a specific purpose.

(SP/2) HERBERT V. DODGE U.S.A.F. % Postmaster New York City

P:Paratrooper Flugum was so entangled in several static lines that even if they were cut he could not have opened a parachute.--ED.

For More Than Sleeping

Sir:

Hooray for Mr. John Maass and his kind words about the long-abused American Victorian house [July 1]. My husband and I live in one of them with our three small sons who fight over the privilege of sleeping in the "tower room." I wouldn't trade the house for any of the "thin, nakedly simple, conformist boxes" I've seen; but why would Mr. Maass strip them of their furniture? Doesn't he know the pleasures of the Victorian bed? The sturdy high back that holds you up for the leisurely joy of reading or eating breakfast in bed. And the high footboard that fences the covers in. As for the overstuffed chairs: I'll vote for them over the scratchy straw, sagging canvas and thin veneer of today's contour sitting devices. I'd like to know whose odd contours shaped them.

MRS. ROBERT L. SIMPSON Olympia, Wash.

P:I For a view of the pleasures Reader Simpson extols, see cut.--ED.

The Doctor's Bill

Sir:

I was extremely surprised and shocked to read in TIME, July 1 about the huge bill for professional services that Dr. Kris sent the Hoopers of Manorville, L.I. for helping pull little Benny out of a well [after public uproar, Dr. Kris cancelled his $1,500 bill]. Only socialized medicine can curb the heartless and uncontrolled mass exploitation on the part of physicians and dentists in the U.S. and Canada. Things are getting so bad that poor people cannot afford to seek medical help, have a tooth fixed, or even fall into a well by accident, without losing their shirts to those professional sharks.

VICENTE URIBE Dauphin, Man.

Sir:

I feel that Dr. Kris's charges in the Hooper case were not only consistent but considerate. Have you hired an electrician or plumber lately? Also, are all of those patients of Dr. Kris's who might have consulted him during this period of 100 hours going to send him a check for the services they didn't receive? As for Benny's parents, who started the whole fuss by making public Dr. Kris's statement, I would like to say that if more parents spent more time supervising their children, fewer people would have to "volunteer" less time getting them out of trouble.

IVAN G. SMITH, M.D. Pomona, Calif.

Sir:

As a mother of six children, whose combined doctor bills have been at times astronomical, I find the Hoopers' performance inexcusable. To me, a doctor's bill is a debt that is paid not only in money, but in gratitude that cannot be measured.

(MRS.) JANE C. CHRISTOPHER

Dallas

P:I Of the readers who wrote TIME, 90% (mostly laymen) were in favor of Dr. Kris's decision to bill the Hoopers.--ED.

TIME after TIME

Sir:

During the past ten months, while traveling through nearly every corner of non-Communist Asia and some parts of the Middle East, I was truly delighted to find TIME almost everywhere I went, even in such places as Surabaya or Djakarta, Indonesia, and Pnompenh, Cambodia. Not infrequently, TIME was the only link I felt with the world outside the village or area in which I found myself. In addition, I was happily surprised to note the number of nationals in every Asian country who speak English and read TIME. In South Korea, where I served with U.S. Army intelligence, our interpreters were constantly after us to give them your latest issue.

JOHN T. HOYT JR.

Darien, Conn.

On Retreat

Sir:

Your June 24 story on the growing number of retreats in the U.S. is most informative and timely. At the Center of Creative Living, 5,000 ft. high in the San Jacinto Mountains, a nonsectarian sanctuary is maintained all year round for men and women of any religious belief--Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Islamic, etc. We believe in the need for the self-disciplines of the spiritual life. Apparent miracles have happened in just a weekend, when some man or woman resolves a problem through "listening" to inner divine direction. Some arrive confused and often in real trouble--but leave in radiance and at peace.

(THE REV.) MURIEL HASKELL Center of Creative Living Idyllwild, Calif.

Sir:

Your article proves just one thing--that our Protestant brethren are rather too timid to enter the Roman Catholic Church through the front door, so they're slipping in quietly through the side door.

GENEVIEVE J. PROTOSIEWICZ

Hamtramck, Mich.

Sir:

Begun in June, 1954, the USAREUR (U.S. Army, Europe) Religious Retreat House, Alpine Inn, Berchtesgaden, Germany, has served the religious-retreat needs of all denominations since that time. As of this date, some 26,000 military and civilian personnel stationed in Europe with the Army and Air Force have participated in retreats at Berchtesgaden.

C. JOSEPHSON Heidelberg, Germany

Sir:

The Protestants (and I do not in this reference include the Episcopal Church) have been speaking of retreats for some time. But they are not retreats in the historic sense of Christian devotional life. The Episcopal Church, with its monks and sisters (as well as devout parish priests), conducts retreats in the only manner in which historic Christianity has known them--in silence.

(THE REV.) GERALD L. CLAUDIUS Trinity Episcopal Church Logansport, Ind.

Cheers & Jeers

Sir:

TIME seems unduly concerned over the renaissance of liberalism in the U.S. As a Canadian, I find myself in almost complete agreement with the Supreme Court decisions, in particular, the Watkins case. Americans need a new set of definitions on such matters as what is disloyalty and what is un-Americanism (the latter probably undefinable). I look for your Supreme Court to provide these badly needed definitions. The U.S. has little to fear from "creeping liberalism." Sit back, relax, enjoy it. A little freedom never hurt anyone. Perhaps, after all, agonizing reappraisals, like charity, should begin at home.

ARTHUR COLE

Toronto, Ont.

Sir:

Nine cheers for the Supreme Court.

GROVER SMITH JR.

Durham, N.C.

Sir:

Warren's appointment to the Supreme Court is Eisenhower's biggest blunder and the most inept since Caligula named his horse a consul.

ROBERT J. P. KIMBALL Oakland, Calif.

Sir:

Your July 8 Letters column reports Mrs. E. Torkilsen as asking: "Is there any ideal way we can legally get rid of Chief Justice Warren?" The answer is yes, elect him President.

RAYMOND H. SMITH Mount Vernon, N.Y.

Sir:

Warren should start a move to have the conviction of the Rosenbergs reversed and then have their bodies removed to Arlington National Cemetery.

EDWARD CLARKE The Bronx, N.Y.

Sir:

The July 1 spread on "The Nine Justices" lists Baptist Warren, Baptist Black, Presbyterian Douglas, Unitarian Burton, Presbyterian Clark, Presbyterian Harlan, Roman Catholic Brennan, Methodist Whittaker and Indefatigable Felix Frankfurter. Is Justice Frankfurter a Northern, Southern, Missouri or United Indefatigable?

T. HOFLER La Jolla, Calif.

P:I Justice Felix Frankfurter says only 'no comment" when asked about his religious practice.--Ep.

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