One might think that man has evolved in science as other species have evolved in size, and that science, because of its uncommon development, will extinguish mankind.

In order to unseat our fear of the destructive power of science . . . culture, as we have defined it, must take science by the hand and lead it.

The task before UNESCO is to promote science and find the ways and means whereby all nations shall share its benefits and collaborate in its development under conditions that culture shall preside over those benefits and collaboration.

President Miguel Alemán of Mexico addresses the opening session of the Second General Conference of UNESCO held in Mexico City, where 36 nations met to fashion UNESCO's program for 1948. The Conference, which marked the first anniversary of UNESCO, opened on November 6 and continued through December 3, 1947.

Truman Sends Greetings

President Truman sent the following telegram of greeting to the 600 delegates from 34 nations at Mexico City:

I am confident that this Second General Conference of UNESCO will be able to strengthen the principles of free inquiry, free expression, and free collaboration as a sound foundation for a lasting peace. The full support and the best wishes of the American people are with you.

UNESCO Leaders Visit Texas

The following excerpts were taken from a news story appearing in the Dallas Morning News of October 31:

A man named Eisenhower, with a homburg hat, a very familiar grin and a kind of college-boy enthusiasm about him, sat at Love Field Thursday night and explained the meaning of a funnysounding, difficult word-UNESCO. He was Milton Eisenhower, younger brother of General Ike.. With Assistant Secretary of State William Benton, and more than forty others, Eisenhower was on his way to the UNESCO Conference .. Mexico City.

...

in

"UNESCO", he said, . . . "means just getting people to understand other people! . . . Born a year and a half ago in Paris, UNESCO has gone through the various adolescent stages of every new organization", Eisenhower explained.. .. "You might say that it doesn't take an international organization like UNESCO to start things off. Every town can form its own UNESCO. Read, listen to lectures, see good films-learn about other peoples. Already they're doing that back in my home town in Kansas."

Benton, overhearing the last remark, had a word.

"Kansas", said the Assistant Secretary of State, who has a deep love for Texas, "is barely worth a good breeze out of Houston."

This point was strongly contested by Eisenhower. And so it was that the two officials, debating cheerfully the merits of their favorite states, left for Mexico City to tell the nations of the world how to get along with each other. Detroit Schools Feature UNESCO Theme

Detroit schools in their observance of American Education Week, November 9-15, emphasized the UNESCO theme, according to a report submitted by Mrs. Kathleen N. Lardie, supervisor, Department of Radio Education, Detroit public schools, and a member of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO. The Detroit Teachers Association American Education Week Committee, working with the committee on UNESCO, prepared a comprehen

I hope there is not one of us so uninformed and so naive as to suppose that the proposal to destroy the world by push button can be countered by anything except another push button. The machinery behind it must be geared to a modern mechanism of peace so overwhelming in power and so extensive in its connections into the lives and hearts and workshops of the world that there is no place for war. . . .

One of the delegates at [the National Commission's meeting in] Chicago stood on the street in front of the hotel. His conference badge was (Continued on page 10)

Student-Exchange Program Advocated

The Division of International Exchange of Persons of the Department of State called a meeting early in November, at which Paul Saintonge of the Save the Children Federation discussed a proposal for cultural interchange between schools of Europe and schools in this country. The Save the Children Federation, which is the American member of the Union for Child Welfare, was organized in 1932. In 1940, the organization helped with the evacuation of children in England and began work on the Continent in Belgium, Finland, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden, to which countries it sent food, clothing, and school materials. It will soon start lending assistance to schools in Austria, Italy and Poland.

Dr. Saintonge stated that he is now in a position where he can implement agreements on the exchange of students through the Ministers of Education in Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. Having already assisted 400 schools, Dr. Saintonge said that this winter the organization hopes to experiment with 100 schools in France, 50 in the Netherlands, and 50 in Belgium on the interchange program.

F. Ernest Johnson Praises Religious
Resolution Passed at Denver

The problem of the relationship between religion and UNESCO has aroused the keenest interest in many communities. In this connection the Rev. Dr. F. Ernest Johnson made the following commentary to fellow members of the Commission at Chicago:

I have always thought of UNESCO as representing the idea of cultural internationals . . . which brings peoples in direct relationship with each other. Now I am well aware of the fact that we operate in a political framework. We were warned last night that if we try to separate ourselves from governments we will become ineffectual. But certainly in the present situation it is imperative that the autonomy of cultural activities be preserved to the greatest possible degree..

I am perfectly well aware that in the minds of many well-disposed persons religion is regarded

as a divisive force rather than unifying force, and I am sometimes surprised, when I hear people talk about that, that they don't recognize that everything that is vital and elemental in life can be destructive as well as constructive. I suppose love has created as much tragedy, as much violence, in the world as anything else. If anything is taken very seriously and if it is very elemental, of course it can be productive of violence as well as cooperation and peace.

In this country we have, of course, because of the heterogeneity of our religious population a problem of understanding at home. I was very much impressed with the way in which the Denver conference approached the problem of the relation of religion to the aims with which UNESCO is concerned. This was really pioneering.

Free Flow of Ideas Is Essential for Peace, Editorial Declares

Commenting on the Chicago conference of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, an editorial in the Christian Science Monitor states:

A refreshing faith that lasting world peace is a practical, attainable goal was evident among those attending the . . . meeting. . . . With With that faith goes a conviction that a free flow of ideas throughout the world is essential in establishing peace. . . . Where political censorship is imposed by a fearful or despotic government, the people lack the knowledge and understanding with which to implement their natural desire for peace. UNESCO therefore faces the major challenge of demonstrating to reluctant governments the advantages to be gained through the free interchange of ideas and information.

UNESCO Needs Stronger Educational
Program and Larger Budget

More than half of the editorial comment contained in the November issue of the Phi Delta Kappan was devoted to UNESCO's program.

The publication calls for a stronger UNESCO program in the field of education. Asserting that the Preparatory Commission had recommended that about 15 percent of the total income of UNESCO be used in educational projects, the editorial declares that "as nearly as can be discovered" only 5 percent of the 1947 income went toward educational purposes. It adds: "Much is to be done in the study of methods in teaching international good will. How much of the budget, how many staff members are being turned to this job?"

Concerning the UNESCO budget, the editorial points out that the fiscal sum for 1947 of less than

$6,000,000 is "one eightieth of one day's cost of World War II" and that the proposed 1948 budget of approximately $8,000,000 is less than a fourth of the amount appropriated this year by the Illinois State legislature for the University of Illinois. The editorial avers that "a billion a year for UNESCO would be a good investment".

Voluntary Relief Societies Urge Aid for
Educational Reconstruction

A resolution urging that a part of the funds received by the International Children's Emergency Fund should be set aside for UNESCO's work of educational reconstruction was unanimously approved by the Third Conference of International NonGovernmental Organizations on Reconstruction and Rehabilitation in Paris recently.

The resolution also requested that the International Children's Emergency Fund and the United Nations' Appeal for Children should concern themselves with the cultural needs of youth in the war-devastated countries.

Another important resolution urged adequate budgetary provision "to meet emergency cases requiring direct operations in the field of reconstruction and rehabilitation".

The conference decided to create a Youth Service Camp Committee which will pool the experiences of the different organizations and coordinate their activities, as well as advise UNESCO on the conduct of camps with a view to promoting international understanding and reconstruction to the greatest possible extent.

Canadians Seek Two Million for
Educational Reconstruction

A conference of 100 representatives of voluntary organizations throughout Canada was called on July 29 by the United Nations Association in Toronto. It was decided that $2,000,000 would be sought from Canadian contributors toward UNESCO's urgent task of reestablishing education services in war-devastated countries. A national council to receive the funds was organized. The drive will open as soon as possible. The donation is to be in addition to the $300,000 voted by the Canadian Parliament as its share in UNESCO's 1947 budget.

UNESCO Names Field Scientific Officer for Far East

Jan Smid, Czechoslovakian civil engineer, is in Nanking, where he will set up UNESCO's Field Science Cooperation Office for East Asia and the Philippines.

The function of such centers is to make available, in areas where the need is especially felt, information and help on scientific matters otherwise obtainable only with great delay and difficulty.

Dr. Huxley Gives Address of Welcome

The Women's World Fellowship recently held its international congress at UNESCO House, Paris. Julian Huxley, Director General of UNESCO, made the welcoming address, in which he asserted that UNESCO could accomplish nothing if it did not have the support of such bodies as the Women's World Fellowship.

THE CRITICS' CORNER

Excerpt From a Letter From Bruce Barton Regarding UNESCO

I don't see how anybody can fail to have a sympathetic attitude towards UNESCO, though I think the Preamble to its Constitution is a superficial analysis of the causes of wars.

"Ignorance of each others' ways and lives" hasn't been the cause of the most terrible wars in history. The Peloponnesian War which destroyed Greek civilization was fought by people who knew all about each others' ways and lives, lived on the same little piece of land, had the same blood in their veins, and spoke the same language. This is even more true of our own Civil War, and it is generally true of these last two wars between England and Germany, whose peoples have so much in common that they should be natural allies. One cause of war that is seldom mentioned and ought to be widely propagandized is over-population. Countries with declining birth ratesFrance, England and ourselves are always "peace-loving" countries, meaning they are for the status quo. Countries with high birth rates, as Russia, Germany, Italy, Japan, are the perennial threats to peace. (Signed Bruce Barton.)

American Leadership in Theatre Institute Urged by "Theatre Arts" Editor

Rosamond Gilder, editor of Theatre Arts, in a leading article in the November issue of that publication tells of the meeting held in UNESCO House in Paris last summer to initiate plans for an International Theatre Institute. The first step in the formation of the institute, according to Miss Gilder, will be the establishment of national centers in each country. Miss Gilder holds that the ultimate goal of an International Institute will be "the facilitating of the exchange of companies, the possible establishment in each country of an International Theatre building which will receive national or representative companies from other states playing their own masterpieces in their own language."

Calling on the American theatre to take its "appropriate place-a leading one-in a field where international understanding and good-will can be enormously effective", Miss Gilder concludes:

"As a matter of strict and practical fact the United States cannot afford any longer to act like a bashful child in matters of cultural exchange. Let us not leave all our contact with the world outside our bounds in the hands of soldiers and the politicians. We talk a great deal among ourselves about our 'way of life' but we leave it to the films to export a version of it that is so fantastic and sugar-coated that it only adds to the confusion of mind of our would-be friends. The theatre comes nearer to the core of the matter and, by its human presence and its human truths, by its people as well as its products, it can help to bring into accord the minds and spirits of men wherein alone lies any hope for the future." STAFF NOTES

Constance Roach, formerly organization secretary for the National League of Women Voters and chief of training for the Office of Price Administration, joined the UNESCO Relations Staff on October 22. Miss Roach will be in charge of organization relations for UNESCO activities within the United States.

Mrs. Susan Valenstein has resigned from the staff to visit her home in Cascade, Iowa, where she will stay with her mother until army regulations permit her to rejoin her husband, 1st Lt. Earl Valenstein, now stationed in Okinawa.