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. . . Having emerged from the modern pedagogical grist mill (a well-meaning teachers' college), I find myself equipped with every advanced teaching technique inspired by Dewey & Co.'s pragmatism, only to realize I have all the answers to my students' queries save one: "Why we exist" . . . Civilization has been plagued too often by egocentric materialism, superman demagoguery, and every inspirational effort such as Adler's is urgently needed to buttress the bastions of Western civilization in its inevitable collision with the Russian menace . . .
PATRICK M. O'BRIEN
Eau Claire, Wis.
Sir:
... We can thank Adler, Hutchins and their associates for highlighting for the American people what should have been obvious: viz., that the pragmatic-relativism of the Deweys, the Hooks, the Holmeses, the Vinsons, the Frankfurters et al., with its necessary consequent of moral individualism and moral anarchism, must logically develop into the amoral dialectical-materialism of the Soviet State, the apotheosis of positivism . . .
THOMAS PADRAIC BURNS Somerville, Mass.
Sir:
... I have spent 13 years in China as a Catholic priest ... I was director of education in my diocese with Chiang Kai-shek's board of education. I found that Deweyites and positivists were in control of China's former educators. University students were filled with pragmatism, yet seeking truth without finding anyone who could give it to them. The teachers and others with influence were American-educated . . .
I spent a year with the Communists when they took over, and from their intellectuals I learned that their leaders consider that the philosophical school of the English-speaking world is their greatest ally. They are quite frank about this. They told me that in their schools they are taught that there are only two things existing in the world today to prevent Communist domination—American atomic power (they expect to get control of this when a depression hits America), and the Catholic Church . . .
(REV.) HAROLD J. MURPHY Vice-Rector
St. Francis Xavier Seminary Scarboro Bluffs, Ont., Canada
Sir:
. . . May I ask one simple question? Just what is Mr. Adler's I.Q. ?
LUISA KREIS Portland, Me.
¶I Dr. Adler modestly admits to "around 185."—ED.
Why Mothers Get Grey
Sir:
Congratulations to Dr. Norman F. Miller for finally bringing to the forefront the brash treatment new mothers receive at the hands of our modern hospitals [TIME, March 17]. After the birth of my children, I couldn't wait to get back home for an honest-to-good-ness rest, and escape from the clutches of hospital personnel who told me when I could and could not have the use of a bedpan . . .
VIRGINIA A. NOCETI Pittsburgh
Sir:
. . . For 21 nights I had a sedative, not to put me to sleep but to keep me asleep while the two-legged ice horse clopped through her rounds at 4 a.m. If her method of awakening one was unsuccessful, the 5 a.m. turning on of lights was successful . . .
BETTE BARTELT New Albany, Ind.
Sir: