Letters, Sep. 27, 1954

The Christian Hope

Sir:

Thank you for the superb report [Sept. 6] on Evanston . . . Your summary highlights much of that digestible bread of life which can nourish us all and strengthen hope in very practical respects. Thank God for the outcome and promise of the second World Assembly.

(THE REV.) PHILIP WALBORN The Presbytery of Spokane Reardan, Wash.

Sir:

Congratulations on your excellent cover story on the Evanston World Council Assembly and the Archbishop of Canterbury . . . Few men so well epitomize in their own persons the ideals and spirit of ecumenical Christianity, and none moved more helpfully through the Evanston Assembly. But TIME’S stated reason for its choice—that “the worldwide Anglican Communion [is] the exemplary ecumenical church”—is not wholly convincing. If what TIME means is that the Anglican Communion embraces extremes in doctrine, polity and politics, that is a fact . . . On the other hand, if TIME is echoing the claim, so dear to many Anglicans, that the Anglican Communion has a providentially destined role as the focal point of Christian Unity—a “bridge-church” which shall ultimately unite traditional Catholicism, whether Roman or Eastern, and the varieties of Protestantism—this whole contention requires “existential” scrutiny . . .

If we think of the major Christian Communions as arranged along a line, somewhat like parties in a legislature, from right to left according to their proximity to, or distance from, traditional Catholicism, the “right” embraces in turn the orthodox churches: Anglicanism, Lutheranism and Presbyterianism. Proceeding from the opposite end of the line at the extreme “left,” we find the Friends, the Baptists, the Disciples of Christ, the Congregationalists, other smaller bodies sprung from the “radical Reformation,” and the Methodists ; these account for well over 40% of the World Council’s membership. In the center, uniting within their membership churches of both “right” and “left,” stand a whole group of “united” churches—the United Church of Canada, the Church of Christ in Japan, the Evangelical Church of the Philippines, the United Church of North India, the Church of South India, and others. They are at the center of gravity, the fulcrum, of ecumenical Christianity . . .

HENRY P. VAN DUSEN Sorrento, Me.

Sir:

. . . The ecumenical movement is an unscriptural dream of a papal protestantism and regimented Christianity. It strives for union at the cost of unity . . .

MEROLD E. WESTPHAL Pastor

Independent Presbyterian Church Greensboro, N. C.

Sir:

… In one of the university dining halls at Evanston, the dignified Archbishop of Canterbury, in his handsome purple cassock, followed by his wife, moved slowly in line, carrying trays cafeteria-style . . . Both exhibited . . . superb good humor in adjusting themselves to this American style of dining. Refreshing was the Archbishop’s intimate fellowship with Presiding Bishop Sherrill of the American Protestant Episcopal Church. Affectionately he called him “Henry,” while he in turn called the Archbishop “Jeff.” I wonder how many Britishers would dare to say “Jeff” to the man who crowned Queen Elizabeth?

WILLIAM B. LIPPHARD New York City

Sir:

Archbishop Fisher’s “devastating dictum,” describing everybody who is not a Communist or a convinced Christian as an amiable nonentity, smacks of self-adulation and strikes me as “somewhat less than humility. I wonder what the gentle Christ would say to that on the occasion of His second coming.

JAN GOLDBERGER New York City

Down on the Farm

Sir:

Come now, it is all right to praise the University of Iowa (TIME, Sept. 6], but do you need to treat Iowa State College so cavalierly? By saying, “those of its citizens who want only a practical education are either drained off to Iowa State College in Ames or simply stay down on the farm,” you make Iowa State sound like a one-horse (or cow) institution. Actually, it is among the very finest in the country in engineering, home economics, chemistry and physics . . .

NANCY F. BULLOCK Pearl River, N. Y.

Sir:

. . . Would you please explain in what sense an S.U.I, hydraulic engineer is liberally educated? Maybe at the “Athens of the West” a hydraulic engineer is one who specializes in “draining off” practical persons and other incompetents to I.S.C.?

DALE SWARTZENDRUBER Ames, Iowa

Sir:

You really hit the jackpot with your wonderful coverage … It was no more than S.U.I, richly deserves, but it is nonetheless highly gratifying to see credit given where credit is due. The color pictures were beautiful . . .

ANN SHARP Tulsa

Sir:

The article is one of the best you have had, but . . . just when did the farmers of Iowa and the students and graduates of Iowa State College become eligible to be classified as illiterates ? . . . Ever since I can remember it has been said that anyone with money and a little pull could go to S.U.I, and get a degree, but you had to have brains to get one from Iowa State College. When I was attending I.S.C., the saying went: “Flunk out at Iowa State and be on the honor roll at Iowa U.” . . .

WILLIAM A. MINERT Jewell, Iowa

A Kidd at Heart

Sir:

One can cheer for the import of Scotch whisky, but perhaps there ought to be a stiffer tariff on Scotch whimsey. The latest cinematic highball, High and Dry [TIME, Sept. 13], is every bit as charming as your excellent movie reviewer says it is, in fact, so relentlessly charming that about halfway through one longs for a refreshing draft of Mickey Spillane. But underneath all the charm, the picture is a perfect allegory of America’s fate in Europe.

The American executive (Paul Douglas) is courteous, kind and angelically patient with his blundering British underling, who must be the sole support of an aging chorus girl; there is no other reason why the man shouldn’t be fired. Thanks to this bowler-hatted schlemiel, Douglas’ valuable cargo is taken over by the captain of a Godforsaken rustbucket, who is obviously just a Kidd at heart. All Douglas wants, in return for ample pay, is to get a job done quickly and honestly. Instead, he is robbed, cheated, tricked, lied to, made a fool of, disobeyed, ignored, kicked around, drenched, almost left to drown and hit over the head . . .

When the engine is about to explode and the panicky crew is ready to abandon ship, Douglas sweats and strains to fix it—only to have the captain run the ship on a reef. Still, the cargo could be saved, but Douglas—finally convinced himself that he is a money-mad villain, while the sentimental crooks are the salt of the earth—decides to throw his cargo overboard in order to save the old tub that is of little use to anyone. And so we come to the shot of the sinking crates containing (note symbolism) bathtubs and iceboxes.

That’s America in Europe: taken for our money, cheated, fooled, our advice ignored, our skills wasted, our intentions sneered at —and in the end we wind up believing that it’s all our fault and that there is something morally and esthetically fine about old rustbuckets . . .

FLETCHER GRIMM New York City

Open Wide

Sir:

Until I read the Sept. 6 Miscellany item [James V. Garvey of Portland, Ore. couldn’t get his. motorcycle through the saloon door because “the handle bars proved too narrow . . . “] I always thought that handle bars that were too wide wouldn’t go through any given opening, but that if they were too narrow, they would.

F. R. McWILLIAMS Grand Rapids

Sir:

… If an umbrella can go up a rainwater spout down, but can’t come down a rainwater spout up, why did the motorcycle handle bars get caught if they were too narrow for the saloon door?

FRANK L. SNAVELY Lancaster, Pa.

¶TIME had its up side down.—ED.

Journey Into the Interior (Contd.)

Sir:

Thank you for such a good story on Secretary McKay and his Department of the Interior [Aug. 23]. It makes an excellent case history for my classes in public administration here in Bangkok where we are starved for materials of this kind . . .

JOHN HOLDEN Bangkok, Thailand

Sir:

… If Giveaway McKay wants to get rid of our national forests, let him give them back to the Indians, whom he also wants to wash out of Interior’s hair. Then . . . maybe we could persuade the Indians to set aside a few trees for me and other unprofessional nature lovers to sit under during our vacations. I strongly suspect that Mr. McKay has friends, not only among the cattle barons and lumber kings, but also among the motel magnates, who gnash their teeth at the thought of the millions of Americans who annually go camping in our national forests and parks.

KAY GROVE

Colorado Springs, Colo.

Sir:

. . . The line of straightforward reasoning and policy set by Secretary McKay is merely another reason for my belief in the Eisenhower Administration and its attempt to return the simple, straightforward type of government for the people, not the politicians.

JOHN G. WARMATH Auburn, Ala.

Presidential P.S.

SIR:

EXCUSE ME, BUT VARGAs BLAMING AMERICANS FOR HIS DOWNFALL IN HIS FAREWELL LETTER WAS NOT ONLY A VAGUE PHRASE AGAINST “INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL GROUPS [TIME, SEPT. 6].” HE ALSO SAID, “THE COFFEE CRISIS CAME, AND OUR MAIN PRODUCT WAS VALORIZED; WE TRIED TO PROTECT ITS PRICE, AND THE ANSWER WAS SUCH A VIOLENT PRESSURE ON OUR ECONOMY THAT WE WERE FORCED TO GIVE UP”. . . IT IS AMAZING HOW VAGUE YOU CAN BE ABOUT CLEAR ANTI-AMERICAN DEMAGOGUERY WHICH IS NOT PURELY COMMUNIST.

CARLOS LACERDA

RIO DE JANEIRO