30 JANUARY 1988, Page 21

Half Marx

Sir: Timothy Garton Ash reports that 'ordinary' Americans still feel that the words in the US Constitution are 'good, true and important' (Prom Winter Palace to White House', 7 November). Against this perhaps should be weighed the fact that, according to a recent survey, some 45 per cent of US schoolchildren thought 'from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs' was among those words.

Jim Holt

Assistant editor, The New Leader, 275 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001