Clippings from George S. Benson

Continued fr. e one) . ~ other industNes -:- had alQlQSt no real introduc– gradually they can pull lion to day by day livini in le away from the rural The People's Republic of s :by offering them bet- China. ter in cities," Dr. One of the things most of Benson said. the tourists have no occasion · Dr. Patterson said he was to obierve is the fact that the amazed at tbe tremendous Chinese people are given p-owth of American tourist coupons for purchasing cer– trade in China. Dr. Wu, tain goods and they can pur– President bf the Department chase only within the range of Education of The People's of tbeir coupons, Dr. Benson Republic of China, told them · said. If a man has coupons that the number of tourists for '25 a month he can spend who visited China last year no more than that even he two million and they are might have $100. Old people expecting it to be higher this who are unable to be produc– year. He said Americans us- live receive very small ed to top the list in the allowances and spend only a number of tourists in China few dollars a month. Other · but • year the leading people . who are producing · country is Japan. Dr. Patter- receive higher wages. son remarked that One thing that is rather everywhere they went they surprising to people who ere seeing Americans and have thought that Com- Japanese. munism was a great leveler Dr. Patterson recalled was to hear Communist that there were only 24 peo- guides explaining that the pie in the group in which he working people are divided and Dr. Benson traveled but into nine different classes thoae 24 were each buying and each one is paid ,ccor– hundreds of dollars' worth of ding to the class in which be materials to bring home; fallt. Dr. Benson said. 'lben paying hotel bills and his~ fo~ buying things transportation represented are likewise gauged accor– another figure. So with two ding to the standard of living million tourists, they were the gO¥ernment is willing for _probably netting SZ50 million . t em to reach. Since • or more from the tourist everyone is on government trade. pay, the government can Qp-tainly China was doing know what part of their . her best in catering to the money is being held in sav– tourist trade, Dr. Benson tnp and can raise their said. The tourists prices accordinllY to keep located in good hotels. 'ffley the people froJQ ha_ving sav– were .serYed bQiled water to mas and keep the money in avoid cases of dysentery that the bailds ofthe government. used to be so common iD con- Russia recently announc– nectlon with visits to a.ma. ed that she believed there 'ftley were also · ...,.rilllf an werea~ billions of abundance of good food and dollars in the savings of the th tourists were people of Russia and that tnilllpor.t."1 from city to city they were going to raise the either in ~ial prepared prices on the items that the coaches on the train or in _ .............,,._ Ul08t ec,JbJDOnly buy ,OI.-... Ker, air concll,. to In thole sav- tl eel Japanese :-inlll, ;m .. iatmc••id. UIIIIWIIIII· JIUDlted tourism excluded papers and ion pro– grams, but evm so, her peo– ple are learning eDOUlh -about the West that they are beginning to urge a '1igher standard of living for Rus– sians, lie said. Since China is opening her doors to tourism and since they are coming in such large numbers it is bound to awaken the Chinese people to the standard of living that prevails in the West because their tourists are coming from capitalist nations like Japan, West Germany, the . United States, Switzerland, England and France. Yet Communism has thoroughly dominated all activities in Russia for more than 60 years and all activities in China for more than 30 years, Dr. Benson said. Dur– ing this time the standard of living in the free world bas climbed rapidly but in· the Conummist world it has climbed slowly. The com– mon people in Communist nations cannot · help but become irr.itated and disturbed as they learn more about the failures of the Communist system, he add- ed. "Russia does have one field in which she bas achiev– ed arid that's the military field. China doesn't have any field in which she has really achieved or has made any distinctive headway under Communism. Russia bu robbed her people in all other areas in order to surge ahead militarily," Dr. Ben– son said. " e should all rejoice that the American people appear to be re-assessing the merits of Communism and develop– ing higher esteem for the old · American ideals and policies and principles. The three most important principles on which America built are: faith in God; faith in CGD– stUutional government; and faith in private enterprise," he said. (t) ~ n 0 C .., ~ OQ (t) en OQ (t) rr ~ (t) - - 3 (t) en en 3 ~ (t) (t)