Letters, Jul. 29, 1957

(2 of 3)

It is deplorable that TIME should print Professor Slichter's prediction that "creeping inflation is the least of three evils." Why should families living on fixed incomes be pauperized in order to sustain full employment and enrich organized labor? Surely it is more equitable to endeavor to stabilize prices even at the risk of some unemployment.

E. M. SPINGARN Washington, D.C.

Sir:

Today we have the creeping inflation of steadily increasing government borrowing, currency printing together with the inflation of individual credits urged upon the purchasers of automobiles, TV sets, washing machines, etc., all the way down to travel by banks, manufacturers, merchants and trans portation agencies. When the bubble bursts, 1857, 1873, J893, 1907 and 1929 will look like halcyon days of peace and prosperity.

L. FAIRCHILD New York City

Birdie Watchers

Sir:

Now that you have devoted three pages to Birdie .Tebbetts and his Redlegs, how about doing the same for the best team in the league—the Milwaukee Braves.

ANN JOBE

Coleman, Texas

Sir:

Baseball managers like Paul Richards of Baltimore, Casey Stengel of the Yanks and Bob Bragan of Pittsburgh could forget more about baseball than "Bird-lips" Tebbetts will ever know.

M. D. BALL

Springfield, Mass.

Where There's Smolce . . .

Sir:

Your July 8 Letters correspondent, Mr. Eugene B. Vest, asks to what extent non-smokers like himself have their lives shortened by sitting in smoke-filled rooms. Let me reassure him—not two-fifths of a second. My 79th year sustains this viewpoint. Down the years I have never lessened my smoking, my average being half a pound of pipe tobacco a week and a packet of cigarettes a day. This would work out roughly in 64 years to better than three-quarters of a ton of pipe tobacco—disregarding some hundreds of cigars and thousands of cigarettes.

FRANK C. WHITEHOUSE Vancouver, B.C.

Sir:

Whether or not cigarette smoking is detrimental to health, the very fact that there" is a doubt about it should be convincing enough that the habit does no one any good —except the manufacturer and seller of cigarettes. I dare say that every cigarette smoker would gladly give up the habit if he thought that he would not miss smoking and be unhappy about it. The fact is. as in my own case, a sense of pride comes with the fact that I possessed guts and gumption enough to give up the habit.

BERT MINAR Great Neck, N.Y.

Church v. Scholarship

Sir:

Jesuit Weigel's objective statements concerning the Roman Catholics' small contribution to U.S. scholarship [July 8] are to be highly commended. Could the reason for this be that the totalitarian nature of Roman Catholicism, with its thought-control mechanisms of censorship, blacklisting, "excommunication" threats, etc., creates an atmosphere in which the necessary spirit of truly free inquiry cannot exist?

R. L. BALTZ

Lexington, Mass.

Sir: