HE ESTABLISHMENT within the Department of State, approximately six months ago, of e Bureau of International Cultural Relations flects the increasing emphasis by the U.S. Governent on the development of understanding between e peoples of America and the peoples of the rest the world through a medium other than diploatic negotiation. The cultural medium is not ew in foreign relations. The culture of France, for cample, lies deep in the minds and hearts of many tions of Europe and Asia as a result of the longme strength of the French intellectual movement d the ever-expanding influence of the French lanage under Government sponsorship. Other naons, through schools and universities, have made e lives and thoughts of their peoples known intiately in foreign lands. The American people themIves, through private and church organizations, as ell as through the Government programs they

*Special Assistant to the Secretary of State for the Coordination International Educational and Cultural Relations. Mr. Thayer : right in photograph) is shown with President Homer Davis Athens College in Greece, looking over plans for new dortory construction to be financed in part by U.S. Government ds. The occasion was the ground breaking on April 27, 59, by U.S. Ambassador to Greece, James W. Riddleberger. Mr. Thayer was graduated from Harvard College in 1923 and m Harvard Law School in 1926. He practiced law in New rk City for many years and served as Assistant District Atney. He was a member of the U.S. Delegation to the United tions conference in San Francisco in 1945, and served as ecial Assistant to the U.S. Ambassador to France, and later the U.S Minister to Rumania. He is a trustee of St. Mark's ool, Southboro, Mass.

By Robert H. Thayer*

support, have representatives in every nook and cranny of the globe. The Fulbright and SmithMundt Acts are beacons of congressional recognition of the importance of cultural exchanges. What then is the significance of the creation of the Bureau of International Cultural Relations within the executive department?

The American Image, Past and Present

Policy is written in many ways and in many places, but the only successful policy we can have is that which expresses the character of our people. The attitude of the American people toward America as well as toward the rest of the world must be the basis of our policy. Are the American people, even that highly educated and articulate part represented by our colleges and universities, wholly prepared today to give up the "little America" approach to our domestic and world problems and move forward into what in fact is now "one world," though a world which is not yet organized and for which the very ideas needed to organize it are not clearly defined? We are much concerned today with attempting to project an image of the United States. abroad. But I wonder whether our real problem. does not lie in the need of developing a new image. of ourselves at home-a new concept of what the United States is; for the United States is not what it was in the 19th century or even what it was 20 years ago, and yet we are still giving much attention to ideas which have largely lost their validity. We have only recently begun to learn to wear gracefully

the mantle of our great material wealth. We are only at the threshold of appreciating that our basic American philosophy has carried us successfully through the materialistic era following the industrial revolution into new fields of responsibility. Until we learn this ourselves, we cannot convince the peoples of other nations.

There was a time when the image we quite unconsciously projected abroad was well defined and in nowise ambiguous. Liberty and the rights of man were clearly the basis of our philosophy. Liberty was obviously more precious than material wellbeing. In recent years we have created an enormous and complex industrial system in this country, and it is with the maintenance and expansion of this system that we still seem preoccupied today. The key to much of our thought lies in the word "production," and it is this image of ourselves as producers that we are inevitably projecting abroad through our aid programs. We have begun to learn from experience in these programs that to increase production and to improve living standards will not alone bring conditions of peace and stability and win for us the cold war. Education in increasingly large doses is sorely needed. We must do more than talk democracy; we must teach it. We must be careful not to deny our own revolutionary heritage and leave to the Soviets and Chinese Communists an apparent leadership in the revolution now in being in Asia and Africa which began in Europe and America. We must assume active leadership in the realm of ideas and cultural values as well as in automation and the development of model kitchens.

Needed: An Image True to Basic Values

Our political system originated in association with moral values, values which we must not permit to become concealed behind our concern with the techniques and skills to increase production. Economic development divorced from moral principle and purpose has no real social value and can lead but to dictatorship. The nihilism of the Communists is better suited to a world engaged only in production for the sake of production. The great. strength of our American society lies in its ability. to assist other nations to understand and enjoy life as well as to produce for its mere sustenance.

Our foreign programs have been necessarily so predominantly economic that the American people

are inevitably somewhat confused about their p tentially deeper meaning. The activities of o Government for promoting international edu tional development and cultural relationships, cause they are less tangible and less akin to day-to-day material interests, are insufficien appreciated. It is vitally important that they expanded to meet our ever-growing needs in t changing world. Support of our educational at cultural programs should be based on the sa sense of urgency as that for our economic aid p grams. Yet our commitment must also be cont uing and long range. I do not believe that we C. now say that our programs in any particul country will go on indefinitely or that they w cease at any particular time, for I believe that! programs which we are operating will lead to yet unknown involvements and to new concep of relationships between nations.

This is not a static world, though we tend to a sume that it is static save in terms of econon growth and scientific development. We must n let our concern with the problems of increasi production in other lands make us lose sight! human relationships in a world which in the tec nical sense can probably feed all who live in but cannot survive as one world unless cultur as well as economic problems are solved.

We have no guides from history on how to we for such a world interrelationship. The history past empires will teach us little, for we are n trying to build an empire in the historic meani of that word. The establishment of an empire. no longer a way to peace as it was in the midd ages. We need ideas and theories suitable to t political organization of a world in which r can feed and clothe himself in a fashion that increase his liberty. Such ideas can only devel. in our Nation as we increasingly recognize that :: material comfort and security of the childhood this Nation have passed and that we must, in oth than purely economic fields, increasingly assur world responsibilities or see our civilization stroyed.

Not a Foreign But an American Policy

T

At the beginning of this article I discussed concept of "policy." I avoided using the phr, "foreign policy," for I believe that the time

sed when we can any longer speak of domestic icy and foreign policy. The two have become . This I believe has a bearing on our work in field of cultural relations both at home and oad. Our American universities and colleges now faced with the task of educating Americans terms of a world that is coming into existence I whose outlines are discernible, and in that cess of contributing intellectually to defining t world and providing the political and social well as economic and scientific theories and as which are needed. And on the foreign side. face the enormous task of assisting the less veloped nations to organize their own educational titutions. These, it seems to me, must ultimately come one and the same thing for surely our rpose ought to be to make it possible for educated n of all free nations to communicate with one other. In this somewhat confused period of hisy with the real America and its original stimulat

culture emerging through its industrial maialistic trappings, at the same time that one rld a new world begins to take shape, it is ing that the Federal Government should assume dership in a concentrated effort to project abroad e true meaning of the United States of America the latter half of the 20th century.

Through the new Bureau of International Cul-al Relations, an expanding Fulbright program

will bring more and more students and professors from foreign lands to American schools and universities and send their American counterparts to study abroad. Leaders and specialists under the Smith-Mundt Act will be invited in increasing numbers to come and see with their own eyes an America which strives to share in one world the benefits of high economic production based on the new American culture.

The technical assistance work of the International Cooperation Administration continues to expand and to have concern beyond what was once thought to be purely technical. Through the new Bureau of International Cultural Relations, plans are being laid to coordinate the exchange programs of all other Government agencies and those of ICA so that, along with the economic development work of that agency, the varied richness of all phases of American life can be presented to other nations.

The very existence of the Bureau indicates the Government's conviction that educational activities. beyond the requirements of economic development are a vital necessity. In this effort the Bureau of International Cultural Relations earnestly seeks the support of the American educational community, not only in assisting to establish and improve educational systems abroad but above all in making. the American people themselves aware of the greatness that lies in the culture of America today.

T

HE Housing Act of 1959 was signed by President Eisenhower on September 23. The approval of this legislation provides $250 million in supplemental funds for the College Housing Loan Pro

gram. Authorizations to date total $1.175 billion (residential facilities, $1 billion; auxiliary facilities, $125 million; and housing for interns and nurses, $50 million).

If the supplemental funds provided by this legislation are added to existing authorizations and commitments as of August 31, 1959, are deducted, the current position of the three funds would be as follows:

By Harry C. Kelly*

HE PURPOSE of the National Science Foundation Act of 1950 is "To promote the progress of science; to advance the Nation's health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense; and . . . other purposes." Within the provisions of the act, prominence is given to the Foundation's responsibilities for the support of basic research, the dissemination of scientific information, and the support of education in the sciences. This article. deals with program activities related to the Foundation's responsibilities for education in the sciences.

The act provides that the Foundation shall "develop and encourage the pursuit of a national policy" for education in the sciences, that it shall be one of the objectives of the Foundation "to strengthen . . . education in the sciences and that it shall "maintain a register of scientific and technical personnel and in other ways provide a central clearinghouse for information covering all scientific and technical personnel in the United States including its Territories and possessions."

Administration of the functions described above is assigned to the Foundation's Division of Scientific Personnel and Education. Formal program activities of this Division were inaugurated in fiscal year

*Associate Director (Scientific Education) of the National Science Foundation. Dr. Kelly was awarded the Ph. D. degree in physics by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1936. Since that time he has engaged in research, teaching, and administration at Montana State College, St. Johns College at Annapolis, and MIT. Between 1945 and 1950, he acted as Chief, Science and Technology Division for the Army of Occupation in Japan. In 1951, Dr. Kelly became Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation for Scientific Personnel and Education, and he held this post until his recent appointment as Associate Director (Scientific Education).

1952 with the launching of the predoctoral and p doctoral fellowship programs with a budget approximately $1.5 million. In fiscal year 19 27 programs in support of education in the scien were in operation with a total of approximately & million obligated.

The Foundation's programs for education in sciences have been directed toward finding ways insuring excellence of instruction during the ye. ahead when mounting enrollments will put a seva strain on the entire educational system.

Principles of Operation

Two fundamental principles have guided t development of these program activities. T first is that since the improvement of education the sciences must come from the scientific ar educational communities, support should be giv to proposals and projects which have originated at developed within these sources. For the most par support has gone directly to individual scientis and science teachers in educational institution professional societies, and other organizations scientists and science teachers for the conduct activities which they have proposed. This pol has helped bring teachers together with others whe work is primarily research.

The second basic principle is that, to a CC siderable extent, the Foundation's programs t education in the sciences should be experiment. and exploratory. An effort has been made to se out, encourage, and support new ideas for th improvement of science education in its ma. aspects. In this era, when educational structu and process must change rapidly to meet the deman