LETTERS

...This compromise was worse than useless—the gentleman in question (and his "repre sentatives") in no way fulfilled the role of defense counsel...

...EDITORS: The rather depressing report on the U.S.S.R...

...We appear to agree that it does not constitute a political opposition, although in an amorphous way it forms a small portion of the technological and bureaucratic elite that the Party leaders must satisfy in the long run...

...Rabasseire seems to assume that the Warren Commission, in a spirit of fairness, purposefully pub lished evidence inimical to its own asser tions and conclusions...

...It is not true, as implied, that social workers played any decisive role in the drawing up of the basic current welfare programs—either the Social Security Act of 1935 or the Economic Opportunity Act...

...The only article in Social Work, the professional journal, about his approach was highly critical...

...VI, p. 232...

...Clean streets, broad boulevards, flowered esplanades, spacious parks, and elaborate buildings for educational and recreational purposes are typical of Soviet cities...

...Mr...

...The social work profession, more than any other profession, has been concerned with the problems of low-income people— even before poverty became "in...

...The trip was oriented toward sight-seeing and took place under the paternalistic auspices of Intourist and their English-speaking guides...

...I must reject the argument that it was proper to exclude the adversary procedure in any genuine search for the truth...

...But I understand that a special catalog of proscribed books is available for those with proper credentials...

...The Commission itself capitulated, belatedly, to that imper...

...The means test in public assistance is degrading and should be abolished...

...The housing shortage, an acute problem since World War II, has been considerably relieved by prefabricated apartment units (usually five to eight stories high) that stretch for miles on the outskirts of the major cities...

...The overwhelming majority of Russians—as of citizens elsewhere—are politically passive...

...EDITORS: Having belatedly read the piece by Bensman and Rosenberg, "Administrative Liberalism and the War on Poverty" (Nov.—Dec., 1966), I object to the wild attack on the social work profession...

...Nor did the Russians who visited my hotel room bother to turn up the volume to circumvent possible "bugging...

...plastrik overempha sizes its significance...

...The economic level of the average citizen has been steadily improving, and the nagging problem of low agricultural productivity seems to have been solved with the bumper harvest of 1966...

...We may an ticipate further "surfacing" in the future...

...The card catalog of Western authors listed my 1954 monograph involving Russian diplomacy in 1917-18 but not my 1963 history of Soviet foreign relations or any other work on the Soviet iegime, even the most sympathetic...

...But at the present time, quantity—a small apartment for every family—is the main goal...

...Moreover, it intro duces a principle that is wholly unaccept able, indeed, unthinkable—that counsel for the defense may be selected by the prosecution, judge, or jury, or any com bination of parties other than the accused or those who argue his innocence...

...The recent abstract art show in Moscow was presumably sponsored by the artistic intelligentsia that emerged briefly from a semi-underground existence...

...Large collections, such as the Lenin State Library in Moscow, include Western books and other banned materials inaccessible to the general public...

...His remarks were candid, thoughtful, and well stated, and my own are intended more as an alternative interpretation than a reply...

...Substandard housing is still abundant, however, and I noticed housewives in parts of Rostov obtaining water from community pumps...

...Rabasseire further suggests that it is unfair and erroneous to quarrel with the Commission's method, arguing that the Commission acted properly in refusing to grant Mark Lane the right of cross-examination...

...But within this group there is a strata of intellectual "idealists" (or malcontents, depending on one's point of view) who are openly critical of many aspects of their society and are roughly comparable to the civil rights advocates in the United States, especially before the "black power" movement, or to the militants opposed to the war in Vietnam...

...96-97 and 135-136...

...What the hell do they want...

...The authors argue that the poor tend to be alienated and apathetic but they object to "outsiders" who attempt to help them organize...

...EDITORS: In his article "Let's Talk Sense About Oswald," in the March—April 1967 issue, Henri Rabasseire suggests that much credit must be given to the Warren Re port because the case for Oswald has been built on material contained in the Report —presumably, in the 26 volumes of Hear ings and Exhibits...

...Poverty should be abolished by one or more of the following—guaranteed employment, negative income tax, demogrants, new social insurance programs for such hazards as loss of paternal support...

...We are even blamed for Moynihan, not a social worker at all...

...The Kremlin leaders still view public investment rather than private consumption as the most important sector of the economy...

...If "public squalor and private affluence" is a stereotype applicable to the U.S., the reverse could be said to prevail in Russia...

...I found the Hermitage collection of French impressionists and postimpres sionists well attended, nor did it strike me that these galleries were located in a "remote part of the building...

...Despite substantial progress in the area of civil liberties in the past decade, Russia is ruled by a party oligarchy fearful of breaking away from the Stalinist legacy of intellectual obscurantism...

...Tours were provided in each city, but I made a point of extensive explorations on my own...

...The "administrative liberal" responsible was not "basically a social worker...

...Obviously, in contrast to their American counterparts, they have few opportunities for open dissent...

...which Stanley Plastrik presented in the January—February 1967 issue of DISSENT invites a somewhat different view by another traveler to the "land without Soviets" in the summer of 1966...

...The military establishment and space technology take a disproportionate share of resources that might otherwise provide cheaper automobiles and well tailored suits, but the government has had the wisdom or good luck to avoid the kind of foreign policy fiasco represented by Vietnam...

...It seems abundantly clear to me, as it must be to any close student of the record, that documents containing information embarrassing or contradictory to the Warren Report were published in the Hearings and Exhibits without awareness of their compromising character, not in spite of it...

...Plastrik...

...and the witness had to reply, "That's me...

...The published record indicates that the Commission's investigation was so hurried and careless that on one occasion a lawyer asked a witness, "Was there an E. V. Brown...

...Shall we leave the poor alone so that certain ivory-tower types can write learned dissertations on these quaint people in their pristine state...

...In sum, my conclusions are less gloomy than those of Dr...

...The development of a Westernstyle democracy is highly unlikely, but further political and cultural liberalization is almost inevitable, assuming peaceful relations with the United States and China...

...My impressions were obtained on a twenty-four day tour of the Soviet Union, chiefly of Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Vol gograd, Rostov, Sochi, and Tbilisi...

...Having been led to expect a mediocre and monotonous diet, I was pleasantly surprised by its variety and quality...

...But over and above these considera tions, the real point is that the Commis sion refused its own lawyers the right to cross-examine particular witnesses whom the lawyers considered to have engaged in perjury or other untruthfulness...

...Many of these dwellings are drab and the quality of construction, especially in buildings dating from the Stalin era, leaves much to be desired...

...Plastrik...

...Plastrik I had no difficulty turning off the radio...

...Is there a 'Breakdown' of the Negro Family...

...Not only was permission to cross-examine re quested by them and denied by the Com mission but the witnesses in question were cited in the Warren Report as credi ble witnesses, and their testimony was given great weight in the presentation of evidence against Oswald...

...Free medical care and free education (often with stipends) through the postgraduate level are other services that must be considered in comparing Soviet living standards with those of the West...

...Far from dull, the Soviet Union was a diverse and even fascinating country...

...Dollars rather than clothing were the items in demand, but the rate of exchange was not particularly tempting and suggests that the black market may have lost some of its old-time vigor...

...My personal conversations with Commission lawyers or expert witnesses, as well as comments by such spokesmen to my col leagues among the critics, indicate that the Commission and its legal staff are surprisingly unfamiliar with the contents of the 26 volumes and certainly with the last five volumes of exhibits not read into the record during testimony by witnesses...

...Of course, the average Russian would find the food— generally eaten at major hotels—prohibitively expensive for everyday fare...

...Time does not permit me to comment on other parts of Mr...

...That is not so...

...If our two critics had taken the trouble to familiarize themselves with current social work literature on poverty they would unover these themes among others: Poverty is primarily a societal problem not one caused by personal insufficiencies...

...Perhaps they recall only too vividly the Pandora's box that Khrushchev opened with his famous anti-Stalin speech of 1956...

...Western newspapers and journals, except those of Communist orientation, are not on public sale, and even the libraries eschew ideologically tainted publications...

...Teenagers offering cheap souvenir pins for chewing gum or ball-point pens were much more pervasive at tourist sites than black marketeers...

...That my version of a similar set of "facts" is at variance with his should occasion no surprise...

...Of the increasing number who have had some college-level education, virtually all, I should judge, accept the fundamentals of the Soviet system...

...A "cultural underground" certainly exists, but I think Dr...

...Hotel accommodations were comfortable or better, and unlike Dr...

...I detected no sinister characters lurking on my trail—though conceivably they were more skilled than the opera tives who haunted Dr...

...ative when it appointed the President of the American Bar Association to assume some vague responsibility with respect to the fairness due the accused assassin...

...As historians (and colleagues at the same institution) I think we both recognize the perils of subjectivity and bias as indigenous to our craft—indeed to any discussion of human beings as social animals...

...I was given an impressivelooking library card after some delicate negotiations...

...by Elizabeth Herzog, Social Work, January, 1966...

...In Leningrad (still the most sophisticated of Russian cities) I was waylaid several times by Russians who spoke a bit of English and apparently recognized me as a foreigner because of my alien-looking apparel...

...Rabas seire's article, which are also vulnerable in fact or in logic...

...Impor tant is that the authorities have removed most of the "poster art" mandated by Stalin (and all of his portraits and busts) and have permitted other than "aca demic" paintings in the major art mu seums...

...Nevertheless, slums and the attendant "culture of poverty" that seem endemic to the American metropolis were notably absent...

...An account of this denial of the right of cross-examina tion, not to Mark Lane but to the Com mission's own legal counsel, is found in Inquest, by Edward Jay Epstein, Viking Press, New York, 1966, pp...

...Few wooden structures remain in Moscow and Leningrad, and the newer public buildings are far more attractive than the ornately pretentious "Stalin baroque" that prevailed for some years after the dictator's death...