The Habit

An announcement that the British Broadcasting Corp. plans to spend more than $11 million on TV during the next three years brought an august warning last week to the august London Times. Its author: T. S. Eliot.*

Missouri-born Poet Eliot, a naturalized British subject, warned his fellow countrymen that, during a recent visit to the U.S., he had found nothing but anxiety and apprehension over TV's effects ("mentally, morally and physically") on children. And even if TV should achieve a lofty cultural level, "the fears expressed by my American friends were not such as could be allayed by the provision of only superior and harmless programs. They were concerned with the television habit, whatever the program might be."

*Recently awarded a $2,800 London Sunday Times literary prize for his hit play, The Cocktail Party.

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