SPAN: April 1965

SPAN OF EVENTS Recent American visitors to India have included businessmen, teachers and students.

Prime Minister Shastri with J.L.S. Steel, centre, and P.K. Goenka at the 20th Congress of International Chamber of Commerce in New Delhi.

Miss Ruth Slenczyska, American concert pianist, discusses programme with Miss D. Nanavati for All India Radio broadcast.

Ten winners of the popular essay contest, sponsored by India Pavilion at the New York World's Fair, visit Red Fort during their stay in Delhi.

Ambassador Chester Bowles addressed U.S. business and professional leaders at Roosevelt House, New Delhi. The group representing many large corporations visited India during an Asian tour organized by Time Incorporated, publishers of Time, Life and Fortune magazines.

INDIAN ART TREASURES IN AMERICA

7

by Pramod Chandra

MY VIEW FROM THE INDIA PAVILION

by Vimala

15

Vaidya

A LONG HOT SUMMER Illustrations

21

by Tracy Sugarman

THE MONTH OF THE BIG HEADACHE

42

by Richard E. Saunders

ROOSEVELT AND JOHNSON: THE GREAT SOCIETY

ARCHITECTS OF

46

by V. S. Nanda FRONT COVER: A parade of pictures from New York World's Fair, reopening this month for its second and final six-month season. For impressions of the Fair, see story by a guide at India Pavilion, beginning on page IS.

The surrender of Lee to Grant on April 9, 1865, portrayed

by Louis Guillaume. marked the end of Civil War and slavery. The article beginning on page 21 describes events of a century of civil rights activity.

BACK COVER:

"Why I would like to visit India" was the subject of the essay and an all-expenses-paid eighteen-day tour of India was the prize.

Mrs. Adelyn Breeskin, Washington, D.C., art consultant, and M. L. Dutta-Gupta, Principal of Delhi College of Art, study exhibition entry.

The comprehensive eight-page Directory of U.S. Assistance to India's Economic Development which appeared in the February issue was carefully checked for accuracy. But readers have advised that projects at Belgaum, Ghataprabha and Tunga Anicut are in Mysore State. The error is regretted.

EDITORIALSTAFF: Lokenath Bhattacharya, K. G. Gabrani, Avinash Pasricha, Nirmal Kumar Sharma. ART STAFF: B. Roy Choudhury, Nand K. Katyal.

PHOTOGRAPHICSERVICES:USIS Photo Lab. Production Manager: Awtar S. Marwaha. Published by United States Information Service, Bahawalpur House, Sikandra Road, New Delhi-I, on behalf of The American Embassy. New Delhi. Printed by Arun K. Mehta at Vakil & Sons Private Ltd., Narandas Building, Sprott Road, 18 Ballard Estate, Bombay-I. Pages 21 to 28 printed by offset at G. Claridge & Co., Caxton Works, Frere Road, Bombay-I. Subscription rates for SPAN: One year, Rs. 4; two years, Rs. 7. Address subscriptions, including remittance to nearest regional distributor. NEW DELHI, Patrika Syndicate (Pvt.) Ltd., Gole Market; BOMBAY,Lalvani Brothers, Dr. Dadabhai Naoroji Road; MADRAS, The Swadesamitran Ltd., Victory House, Mount Road; CALCUTTA,Patrika Syndicate (Pvt.) Ltd., 12/1 Lindsay Street. Subscriptions are not accepted from outside India. • Manuscripts and photographs sent for publication must be accompanied by stamped, self-addressed envelope for return. SPAN is not responsible for any loss in transit. SPAN encourages use of its articles in other publications except where copyrighted. For details, write to the editor, SPAN. • In case of change of address, cut out old address from a recent SPAN envelope and forward along with new address to A. K. Mitra, Circulation Manager.

Please allow six weeks for change of address to become effective. •

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TO HELP THE ILLANO INFIRM: A UNION

OF HANDS

The modest efforts of ten thousand

AND SKILLS

and more U.S. Peace Corps volunteers, scattered

over some fifty countries including India, are making their impact in many ways on the lives of people in those countries. The pictures on these pages tell the story of a husband-and-wife team who helped contribute to the efficiency of a big, medical institution in Chandigarh. Now back home, they retain many pleasant memories of India.

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Herman Schoenfeld, right, inspects model of the Institute with General Bhatia, director.

TO THE CALL of the Peace Corps, Herman and Lila Schoenfeld of New Braunfels, Texas, arrived in India in June 1963. Mrs. Schoenfeld is a qualified nurse who graduated from the University of Utah and served on the staff of St. Mark's Hospital, Salt Lake City, Utah. Herman Schoenfeld, forty-five, a mason by profession, worked for a building construction company.

On arriving in India, Mrs. Schoenfeld was assigned to the Institute of PostGraduate Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh. Mr. Schoenfeld worked on several projects in the Punjab before joining his wife in Chandigarh early in 1964. He organized a maintenance system for the diversified equipment at the Institute, a vast complex of medical and auxiliary facilities housed in a group of buildings which will eventually cover an area of 125 acres and are estimated to cost about Rs. 3.5 crates: With a teaching staff of some seventy-five specialists, headed by four DirectorProfessors, the Institute offers advanced courses in Medicine and Surgery, and is equipped to train doctors and researchers in various branches of medical science.

It also offers courses in nursing and nursing administration.

R

ESPONDING

Mrs. Schoenfeld attends an elderly patient who has been brought into the ward after a bronchoscopy (examination of lungs) diagnosis.

A

UNION

OF HANDS

Important Photographs by

AND

SKILLS

Continued

duties of surgical nurses are challenging, reqUire preC1Slon and discipline.

AVINASH

PASRICHA

Mrs. Schoenfeld discusses preliminaries with the surgeon and senior nurse preparatory to beginning the day's programme.

MRS. SCHOENFELD'S SPECIALITY is surgical nursing and during her assignment at the Chandigarh Institute she assisted the surgical staff in establishing nursing procedures for such complex operations as open heart surgery, a comparatively new medical technique for India. "The Institute is doing excellent work," Mrs. Schoenfeld reports, "and its staff of doctors, nurses and administrators is higWy skilled."

Under the direction of Lt. General S. P. Bhatia, the Centre's Medical Superintendent and the four Director-Professors, the staff has teaching and research responsibilities as well as offering medical services to residents of the area. A major part of Mrs. Schoenfeld's Peace Corps assignment was to help in training nurses to assist the Institute's surgical staff. Harbans Gill, a young Punjabi nurse, worked closely with Mrs. Schoenfeld, and is now assisting in most operations performed at the Institute. But Mrs. Schoenfeld most enjoys working in an operation theatre.

"Every operation is a new challenge," she says. "No two are the same, and the surgical nurse's responsibilities demand precision, competence and calmness. And every operation offers the patient new hope for health and happiness."

The job of the surgical nurse is to see that all instruments are in the proper position and sterilized. When the operation is underway, she assists the surgeons in their complex, often delicate and sometimes tense efforts to correct a deformity or save a life. She often anticipates the needs of the surgeon, and slaps the correct instrument into his hand at the precise moment he needs it. The skill of the surgical nurse can be a vital factor in the success of an operation.

Mrs. Schoenfeld helps a student nurse put on her surgical gown and cap as she gets ready for duties in the operation theatre.

Varied needs of the hospital often call for improvised equipment such as this box for powdering gloves devised by Mr. Schoenfeld.

Institute's maintenance section helps prevent mechanical failure of its equipment.

A GREAT MEDICAL CENTRE such as the one at Chandigarh uses thousands of pieces of equipment ranging from mechanical hearts to bedside tables. But constant usage requires continuing effort to keep equipment functioning. It was in the area of maintenance of equipment that Herman Schoenfeld's experience proved useful to the Institute.

"A cot is pretty useless if one wheel is missing," Mr. Schoenfeld says, "so we helped set up a repair shop to keep everything in working condition." Before Mr. Schoenfeld's arrival, one man had the maintenance responsibility. Now twelve members of the maintenance staff handle general repairs and meet emergencies created by breakdowns. "We attempted to establish a programme of preventive maintenance," Mr. Schoenfeld reports, "that keeps equipment functioning and is a safeguard against mechanical failures."

The Schoenfelds returned to Texas earlier this year with pleasant memories of their Peace Corps assignment in India.

An art historian reviews the treasures of India to be seen in U.S. museums, selecting twelve masterpieces that represent the wide range of Indian art.

Boston Museum's exquisite sculpture of Yakshifrom 50-25 B.C., even in its present mutilated and silted state, is an object of supreme beauty.

INDIAN ART TREASURES ,IN AMERICA Indian art, visiting the great art museums of the United States, will have mixed reactions at what he sees in these institutions located around the country. He is likely to be surprised by the generally small size of the collections of Indian art if he is familiar with the vast collections in India; but nevertheless he will not fail to be impressed at finding small but decent collections in places where he least expects to see them. And, among these works of art, he will often find objects of the finest quality.

Museums with important sections devoted to Indian art are located, as one might naturally expect, in the large cities in the Eastern United States. Of these, the Boston (Massachusetts) Museum of Fine Arts has the most extensive collection with examples of Indian sculpture and painting of almost all periods and styles, including a small fragment from the wall paintings of Ajanta. The Indian section is particularly strong in Rajput paintings from the Himalayan region and sculptures of the early and mediaeval Indian schools.

The scope and variety of the Boston Museum's collection make it truly representative of the wide range and achievement of Indian art. This attainment is not surprising in view of the fact that the Museum of Fine Arts was served by the late Ananda Coomaraswamy, certainly the greatest scholar of Indian art in our

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STUDENT OF

time. Boston is also fortunate to have in nearby Cambridge the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University, which has a fine collection ofIndian miniature paintings, notably of the Mughal School.

The great Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has a fair range of objects, both sculpture and Mughal painting, and at the lesser-known Brooklyn (New York) Museum one is astonished to see a very choice group of paintings from the famous Dastan-i-Amir-i-Hamzah, undertaken for the Emperor Humayun and completed in the reign of Akbar.

The Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) Museum of Art has organized in recent years a fine collection of stone sculpture; here, also, are the well-known wooden mandapa from Madura and a good collection of Nepali objects.

The Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., devotes almost all of its attention to painting, particularly of the Mughal School, but the few sculptures, including the two bas-reliefs from Bharhut and the magnificent bronze image of a standing goddess from South India are quite outstanding.

The Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland, also has a small but very fine and little-known selection of Mughal paintings.

Second only to the museums of the East Coast, and often competing with them in excellence, are the collections of Indian Continued on page 14

Earliest to be appreciated in the West because of its resemblance to Greek and Roman art, this 2nd century Gandhara stele, in the collection of Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, depicts with a rare vitality and passion a scene from Buddha's life.

Serenity and not the cloying sweetness that often marks such works distinguishes the stucco head of a 4th-5th century Bodhisattva, preserved in the Seattle Art Museum.

Ninth century bronze image of Siva, acclaimed for its effective and geometrically disposed ornamental scheme, is in collection of Nelson-Atkins Museum.

Housed in the Freer Gallery, Washington, D.C., this 10th century bronze image of standing goddess has been acclaimed for its supple modelling, assured stance and benign maternal expression.

A 14th century object of artistic beauty from Nepal is a six-armed gilt copper image of Vasudhara, goddess of abundance. It is in the Cleveland Museum.

Characterized by clarity of ornament and precision, this 16th century bronze image of goddess Parvati in the Philadelphia Museum of Art is of great aesthetic charm.

Vividly capturing the general pandemonium, as a physician takes the pulse of a sick man nearing death, this folio from Dastan-i-Amir-i-Hamzah, circa 1570, in the Brooklyn Museum is an outstanding example of the realism of Mughal painting.

Hanging in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, this rare carpet with unusual hunting design from the Akbar period, circa 1575, portrays the struggle between simurgh and the elephant-headed griffin.

From the hand of Basavan of Akbar's atelier, this painting, circa 1595, in Metropolitan Museum. New York, is from a book of poems by Amir Khusrau, shows a Muslim 011 his way to Mecca meeting a Hindu.

This folio from Divan of Anvari, circa 1588, in Harvard's Fogg Museum shows a poet reading a verse to his patron in a luxuriant garden filled with rich, opalescent hues and shimmering colour.

An early 17th century work of realism from reign of Jahangir. the painting illustrates scenes connected with the birth of a prince. It is owned by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

art in the comparatively new museums of the U.S. Midwest.

The two most outstanding institutions are the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, and the Cleveland (Ohio) Museum of Art. The former has few paintings, but a choice group of sculpture. The bronze images, both from North and South India, are of great beauty and a tribute to the discriminating taste of their collectors.

The Cleveland Museum displays an equally select group of objects, but the range is somewhat larger. In addition to stone sculptures of almost every period, one finds superb bronze images, both from India and Nepal, and a fine collection of paintings of the various Rajput Schools. Among the notable Indian exhibits is a unique, illustrated manuscript of the Tuti Namah or "Tales of the Parrot." Probably the earliest Mughal manuscript yet discovered, it is invaluable for the light it throws on the origins_of both the Mughal and the Rajasthani Schools.

The third great centre of Indian collections in the United States is presently taking shape on the West Coast. The Seattle (Washington) Art Museum, which has a large and varied range of objects, is particularly strong in mediaeval stone sculpture. In San Francisco, California, the M.H. De-Young Memorial Museum has been endowed with the collection of Avery Brundage, and is making plans for its display in a new gallery.

If one were to analyse the contents of American museums, three trends in collecting would become apparent: The first is clearly discernible in noteworthy collections of Gandhara sculpture and Mughal painting. These types of Indian art were the earliest to be appreciated in the Western world, one for its relationship to Greek and Roman art and the other for its "realism."

The second trend, most clearly visible in the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, bears clear testimony to the pervasive influence of Ananda Coomaraswamy. Possessor of a keen and brilliant mind, he, more than any other scholar, established the place of Indian art in its own right as one of the treasured heritages of mankind. He set himself deliberately against the current taste, rejecting productions of the Gandhara School as hybrid and fatally compromised works, and even denying Mughal paintings-on the basis of their secular subject matter and realistic style-a place in the mainstream of Indian art. It is but natural, therefore, to see in the Boston Museum an emphasis on Rajput painting and schools of Indian sculpture, other than those of Gandhara. Other American museums have also started to reflect to a greater or lesser extent, the re-evaluation of Indian art made by Coomaraswamy.

The third and most recent trend is marked by the rise of a new "connoisseurship" where the emphasis is on what are considered to be objects of the highest quality. For example, a work of art is judged worthy of being included in a collection because it is intrinsically "beautiful," and not because it sheds light on a certain aspect of India's history or archaeology, or is iconographically significant. This selectivity has prevented an indiscriminate growth in the size of Indian collections in the United States, and at the same time has begun to endow them with distinctive personality.

The growing appreciation and study of Indian art, however, has remained considerably ahead of the expanding collections, so that the desire to see and enjoy Indian works is not fully satisfied by the holdings in American museums. This interest of the American public has led to an increase in loan exhibitions.

A large number of such displays have been held in recent years, some of them of great significance. The most important exhibition of Indian sculpture ever held in the United States is undoubtedly "Ancient Sculpture from India," now on tour.

The illustrations of Indian art objects accompanying this article are a representative selection of fine quality art objects in American museum collections. The two items on page 8 are of the Gandhara School. The first, a stele depicting a scene from the life of the Buddha, is in the William Rockhill Nelson GalleryAtkins Museum. Of above average quality, it is filled with a vitality and passion that are not generally observed in Gandhara sculpture. The stucco head of a Bodhisattva in the Seattle Museum is conceived in terms of a dignified serenity that sets it apart from the cloying sweetness and sentimentality of much work of this type.

The items on pages 11 and 13 are outstanding examples of Mughal paintings which constitute a very important part of American collections of Indian art. On page 11 is a folio from the great Dastan-i-Amir-i-Hamzah, a major undertaking of the imperial atelier of Akbar, of which relatively few examples have survived. This painting shows the Hamzah style at its best, full of swift, restless movement, vigorous characterization and fine detail. The arrival of the physician, who is shown taking the sick man's pulse, is the signal for general pandemonium and panic, the presumption being that death is around the comer. On page 12 is a painting from a book of poems by Amir Khusrau, the most eminent Indian poet to write in Persian; it is from the hand of Basavan, an acknowledged master of the atelier of Akbar. The next page, centre, has a painting on a much smaller scale showing a poet reading from a book of verse in a luxuriant garden filled with rich opalescent hues and shimmering colour. It is a folio from a manuscript of the Divan of Anvari, a work of jewel-like perfection now in the Fogg Art Museum.

At right, on page 13, is a famous work in the Boston Museum, painted in the reign of Jahangir and illustrating scenes connected with the birth of a prince. Whoever the artist may have been, he was no doubt a master and a portraitist of the greatest merit.

Also on the same page is a rare carpet of unusual design from the Akbar period. The hunting scene is common enough, but the struggle between the simurgh and the elephant-headed griffin, who has in turn seized elephants in its claws and trunk, translates it into the realm of phantasy.

Among works of the early Indian School of sculpture, the Boston Yakshi (page 7), even in its present mutilated and silted state, is a supreme achievement.

One often comes across bronze images of excellent quality in the Indian collections of American museums. Of these, one of the most outstanding is the large standing image of a goddess in the Freer Gallery of Art (page 9, right). The supple modelling, assured stance and benign maternal expression endow the image with supreme dignity. A similar image of great charm, in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (page 10, right), is characterized by an entirely different kind of workmanship, marked by clarity of ornament and precision.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum's image of Siva (page 9, left) is a unique object, with a most effective and geometrically disposed ornamental scheme. The six-armed gilt copper image of Vasudhara in the Cleveland Museum of Art (page 10, left) is of Nepali origin, the strength of the modelling not yet lost in a welter of jewellery. •

MY VIEW FROM THE INDIA PAVILION As one of twenty-four women guides at India Pavilion in World's Fair, Vimala Vaidya answered thousands of questions about life in India. Her story, illustrated with humorous drawings by Ronald Searle, appears on these pages.

DID NOT realize, until I was standing on duty in the India Pavilion at the World's Fair in New York, that I had brought the most popular Indian exhibit with me. It was small, round and red, and I carried it about on my forehead. It was my bindi.

We were twenty-four girls working as guides at the India Pavilion. Most of us wore bindis and never did we expect, when we were chosen in Delhi, that our bindi, which we put on as unthinkingly as lipstick or pins in our hair, would prove our most valuable helper in the fascinating job of explaining India to Americans.

Our bindi broke the ice immediately.

I remember one day two old ladies, their faces tender with commiseration, saying, "Excuse us if we seem impertinent, but, my dear, are all young girls branded like you are on your forehead ?" They thought the bindi was an exotic, heathen mark, and I am afraid they were a little let down when I showed them how it would rub off.

Someone else, in another flight of imagination, thought my bindi was a ruby embedded in my forehead. Many people thought that it indicated our caste. Whatever the preconceived notion, it was our bindi that started off most conversations with the thousands of American visitors to the India Pavilion.

Working at the World's Fair was an exciting experience. Part of the excitement for me, and all the other girls too, I am sure, was just the fact of being in New York, U.S.A. I arrived in New York after a twentyseven-hour air journey. The last stretch,

I

from London to New York, had seemed endless sea, sea, sea and more sea, and sometimes not even sea, just clouds. So when the captain of the aircraft announced on the speaker that we were approaching the east coast of North America, I leapt from one side of the. cabin to the other searching for the Statue of Liberty.

But instead I saw strange pools of mud floating in the ocean, dotting what appeared to be a very irregular coastline.

With every large dot I thought, "This must be Long Island," but with all my acrobatics I did not see the Statue of Liberty as we made our descent towards Kennedy Airport.

I hung on to my excitement all through customs. Just let me get out of the airport, I thought, and I will be walking, dwarfed and overwhelmed, under the fabulous skyscrapers of New York. All through the ride to the apartment house where all the Indian guides were staying, I looked hungrily out of the car window. But I saw just ordinary houses with lawns in front of them. It hit me hard when the driver told me that we were on Long Island, in Queens, where the buildings are not so tall, that in a couple of minutes we would be passing the Fair grounds and a minute after that we would stop at the apartment house. Bang, went my secret thrill! For days after my selection the thought of staying on the thirtieth or fortieth floor had consumed me.

All the other guides had arrived in New York a few days earlier than me, so Usha Razdan, one of the supervisors, was sent back from the Pavilion to meet

me in my apartment. Usha, whom I already knew, looked quite at home in a pair of slacks and a blouse to match.

"Are you hungry?" she asked me.

"No. I'm just exhausted." I replied, and I was, but my adventure had only just begun. Half an hour later I had to plead, "Usha, if you don't mind, I'll have a bath and change, and then will you come with me to Manhattan? I've got to see those skyscrapers or I'll never believe I'm here."

We rode into Manhattan on a subway.

I had my first glimpse of Manhattan Island, at its best at sunset, from the subway window. I still could not believe I was in New York; it looked exactly like a picture in a calendar.

It was early evening when Usha and I started to make Manhattan change from a calendar picture into a real place for me.

We started in Times Square. There seemed to be thousands of lights, cars and people swirling around me. We walked past bookshops, record shops, cafes, cinemas. Suddenly, under my feet, a gust of hot wind blew up my sari. I jumped away, fearing an earthquake.

Usha laughed, "It's a subway vent," she explained.

How we walked that evening. Up and down Broadway and in circles. We saw the film Becket, we spent hours browsing through records and books, we ate supper twice. The first time I ordered a real American hamburger but was disappointed to find that I preferred Indian hamburgers, where the bun is fried. The Continued on next page

"Unisphere, symbol of Fair, looked as if another planet was hovering just above ground." second time I decided on a solid American club sandwich and that was a satisfying experiment.

Describing how I discovered New York may not seem to have much to do with the Fair but part of the World's Fair's charm for us Indian guides was the flavour of New York that it carried. I do not think I will ever be able to separate the Fair from the city in my mind.

The Fair overwhelmed me when I saw it the first time next morning. Huge pavilions stood by the side of beautiful avenues. They stretched away as far as you could see. Fantastic shapes carried names familiar even in India. The IBM Pavilion was shaped like an egg, ninety feet high and was covered by the letters IBM repeated nearly a thousand times.

The Unisphere, symbol of the Fair, swung into one's line of vision around the first corner. It looked as if another planet was hovering just above the ground. Indeed, it represented what the earth looks like from 6,000 miles out in space. It was a huge, metal sphere, formed of an open grid of meridians and parallels with stainlesssteel land masses, resting delicately on the three tips of a steel tripod. This feat amazed me all the more when, later on, I learnt that the Unisphere weighed 900,000 pounds, was 140 feet high and 120 feet in diameter and is the biggest globe in the world.

A whole city of people seemed to be walking the broad avenues. Greyhound carts, like extra large scooters, purred sleekly past, filled with eager sightseers.

Walking to the Indian Pavilion on Kennedy Circle we saw Thailand, Ireland and West Germany. The world was there all right, at the Fair-a real mela, a wonderful, streamlined, international mela.

After that walk through the world I felt at home when I reached the Indian Pavilion. It was a massive, square building, softened by a veil of water that curtained the whole ground floor. Inside when you looked out of the glass walls of the ground floor, you saw through a cool haze of falling water, a wonderfully pleasant sight in New York's sweltering summer.

The theme of the Pavilion was India's Illustrations reprinted from HOLl DA Y, July 1964. Š 1964, the Curtis Publishing Co. Also: Viking Press, NY. "From Frozen North to Filthy Lucre" by R. Searle.

ancient culture evolving through the centuries into the complex, progressive India of today-its democratic government strenuously trying to achieve the objectives of a welfare State, its religions and faiths, its arts and crafts and literature.

All this was shown on the ground floor.

There was thick carpeting and the exhibits, sculptures, paintings, old artefacts, handicrafts, even a whole, glass decorated, mud wall from Saurashtra, were arranged so that each object caught your attention.

There were charts and blown-up photographs too, but the Indian Pavilion was remarkable for the number of objects of art and models on display. You could see them without any glass cases coming in the way. A model of a railway engine, all complete but tiny in scale, for instance, delighted little American boys who can no longer see a real "chug chug train" in their own country.

The families who visited our pavilion every day were much like Mother and Father and questioning youngsters anywhere. But there was a difference. Almost every person, young or old, carried a camera. We Indian girls, in our saris, were always running into a phalanx of cameras. For six months we were treated

like celebrities. One afternoon, I remember, nine of us walked into the Fair grounds together, all wearing a new uniform sari that had been given us the day previous, a beautiful, rich, wine coloured Banaras silk, with gold work all over it. We were almost mobbed! Click, click, click went the cameras from movies to Brownies. Much of our time at the Fair, on or off duty, was spent in saying "cheese"!

All of us spent a lot of off-duty time at the Fair. We looked at the other exhibits and we ate. You could go on an eating tour of the world at the Fair. 1 ate myself through Belgium (waffles), Tunisia (sweetmeats), New Mexico (anchaladas and tortillas), Hong Kong (spring rolls), and Morocco (kababs). When we were rich we went to the exotic, high priced restaurants to eat delicacies like the Danish smorgasbord and Swiss fondues.

Lean days found us at the lunch counters getting ourselves a sandwich and a slice of chocolate cake for seventy-five cents.

Every alternate week our shift would be on late duty and then we had dinner at an Indian restaurant in the Fair. The roof was made to look like the ceiling of the Mt. Abu temple and the Indian food, Continued on page 18

Eastman Kodak's model of moon, below, interests many, inspires those with romantic inclinations. Right. West Berlin offering: an authentic reproduction of the Berlin Wall.

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cooked by someone else, not ourselves, saved many of us from homesickness.

We did not only eat. I remember looking at the seven-foot tall, handsome, Watusi dancers at the African Pavilion.

An awed audience watched their graceful, long-limbed leaps in the sand. Suddenly my neighbour, an American, said, "Gee, look, they are wearing sneakers."

So they were, and we Indian girls explained how many things like tennis shoes and cycles and Coca Cola are as much a part of our world as theirs.

One of the exhibits I liked very much , and visited many times, was the Pepsi Cola Pavilion. It took you on a tour of a miniature world inhabited by miniature, animated dolls. They were all very pretty dolls and they all wore their national costumes and spoke, or rather, sang, in their national languages. And what did they sing in their small voices? They sang, "It's a small, small world." Working at the Fair I felt just the way those dolls did, and I often joined them in their song.

There was a lot of fun to be had at the Fair just wandering around. There was a huge fountain, the Fountain of the Continents, around the Unisphere. One day two of us kicked our chappals off, picked our saris off the ground, and dangled our feet in the fountain. That was good until a policeman snapped, "Can't put your feet in the water, Miss."

Another game we had was to speak on the 'picture phone' in the Bell Telephone Pavilion, and accompany our conversations with the most dramatic mime we could work up.

On duty we learnt a lot about India ourselves. Showing American engineers our machines I learnt more about machines, for instance, than I had ever known before. The delight of American women in our many types of fabrics reminded me of the variegated skills of our weavers.

The Indian Pavilion was one of the most popular exhibits in the International section and there was a steady stream of visitors each day.

The General Motors exhibit, "Futurama," is shaped like a giant helicopter. But to artist Searle it gives the ominous appearance of the biggest, meanest monster in captivity.

Industries, big and small, were represented by their products, ranging from tooth-brushes and bangles to milling machines. There was an entire section given to industrial, agricultural and atomic research activities in India. Part of our job was to keep our eyes and ears open for people interested in purchasing.

When we came across such people, we would give them the immediate information required on the item, and a trade enquiry form to fill up.

We were frequently surprised to find how many of our visitors had been to India themselves. One day while on duty I noticed a young American wearing a blazer, with a crest on the pocket with New Delhi written across it. New Delhi is my home town, so I asked why he wore this crest.

"I was a Marine stationed in Delhi," he explained, "I returned two months ago but I still miss it." He was with his girl friend and he took her hand and smiled and said, "Actually we have come here so that I can introduce her to the glories of tandoori chicken."

A great many Americans had been stationed in India during the War. At least three times a day a middle-aged man would saunter up to me and say, "Do you know, I was in India once," and then relate stories of days spent in the wilds of Assam or of gay times in Calcutta.

We used to go home each day to a real American apartment like the ones women's magazines photograph. The Indian Government had made excellent arrangements for our stay. We had a selfcontained, one-room apartment each, all in the same building. The room converted from a full scale drawing-cumdining room in the day into a most comfortable bedroom at night, without the least effort. It was very modern in style with a large window running across the width of one whole wall. Everything was space saving, and the cooking range, oven, grill, sink and refrigerator were all in one piece. The colour scheme of my apartment looked as though I could have chosen it myself. It was in one of my favourite combinations: orange, brown and black upholstery against white Continued on page 20 Tired by the pursuit of progress, many Fair visitors would like to soothe aching feet in a pool under the Unisphere.

"Looking at the bustling Fair grounds, it seemed impossible that it could ever close down." walls and lampshades.

When we were not on evening duty we had to fend for ourselves for dinner, and this I enjoyed because it brought me closer to every-day American life. When I first arrived I was extremely meticulous about following directions on packets. I said to myself "even if a packet tells me how to boil water I will foIlow it." That great respect for the printed word did not last long though; I could soon turn out a fuIl meal without reading a word.

New York being a cosmopolitan city, an excellent Indian food store was unearthed by one-,of the girls. The store

stocked everything from "lakar hajam. pathar hajam" chooran to six types of dal and soon after that whiffs of home cooking wafted round the corridors of our home every evening.

The comer provision store owner and his wife became friends of ours, so also the chemist, the janitor and his wife, and the Chinese laundryman, who checked in a sari as "one and a half tablecloths!"

We worked a six-hour shift day, six days a week, which left us ample time to explore the opportunities New York offered us. We devoured the museums, theatres, art galleries, cinemas and depart-

ment stores. For me personally an inexhaustible measure of live jazz and live drama kept me on the go. I have only one regret, that it was the off season for opera, classical music and ballet, though I did manage to see a' performance of the Leningrad's Kirov Ballet Company just before I left.

Compared to some of the others I did not travel much simply because I do not really enjoy one-day visits. However, I did get to Washington and loved every minute there. I went down by a Greyhound coach, and took the Greyhound day excursion tour round the capital.

Apart from the historic sights, of which I found the simple grandeur of the Lincoln Memorial the most impressive, I enjoyed my trip because of the contrast gracious Washington offers to New York.

I also went on a day trip organized by the Fair Hospitality Committee to the Robert Moses Power Project and the Niagara Falls. The gigantic power project where man has won a push-button control over nature frightened me, and the Falls, with all their immense, tumbling waters, seemed to me less overwhelming.

As our six months trickled away into the last few weeks, then days, we crowded more and more into ~very minute left.

All of us had shopping to do and several times we even shopped late in the evening at the stores that stay open all night.

Looking at the bustling 600-acre Fair grounds each time we went on duty, it did not seem possible that it could ever close down.

And then, surprisingly, one day it did.

Suddenly there were no more people, no more music, and the packers went quietly about their job. We did not have time to ponder and grow sad tbough.

The first batch of thirteen girls of whom I was one, left the next day. Twenty friends came to see us off at the airport and all of us were laughing and waving and crying. From the aircraft window I looked down and saw the Fair grounds. The myriad lights had been turned off. Only the main lights remained, reminding us that the stupendous job of dismantling, in part, would soon begin, and then would follow the mighty preparations for the 1965 season. Many of us nurtured the hope that next year might see us back again in New York and at the World's Fair. •

In 1865-a century ago-Negroes in the U.S. were officially freed by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

Efforts were begun to educate them and provide them with farms, but they were a leaderless and totally unorganized community of mainly illiterate agricultural workers-and left to the mercy of their former masters. Hate and violence erupted. If the Negro was not to be a slave, many white Southerners seemed to declare, still no force on earth would give him equal status with them. But despite this discouraging aftermath, the Civil War was not fought in vain. The Union was preserved. Slavery was abolished. And the principle of equality was established as a tenet of the national government.

While the Civil War did not lead to great progress for most Negroes, the new system of segregation and institutionalized discrimination had nowhere the coercive force of slavery. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century a small but immensely significant Negro professional class began to emerge which in the next generation did provide articulation for racial equality.

But the decisive factor in the extension of Negro rights came in 1948 when President Harry Truman banned racial discrimination in government hiring and the armed services. The die wa~ cast: civil rights would remain a central issue in U.S. political life. The Supreme Court decision against school segregation; the use of Gandhian principles of non-violent resistance to segregation; the great March on ,Washington-all led, finally, in 1964, to the most comprehensive civil rights legislation ever passed by the U.S. Congress. In that continuing struggle, young Americans in the summer of 1964 moved to rural Mississippi in a drive to help Negroes register as voters. Those exciting weeks are recalled on these pages.

A LONG HOT SUMMER NEWSPAPERScalled it "the THE hot summer." In the year before,

long, 1963, .the tempo of civil rights demonstrations had mounted steadily. And then in August came the great March on Washington: more than 200,000 people standing in the sun before the Lincoln Memorial, singing, listening to Martin Luther King's nowfamous "I have a dream" speech. ("I have a dream that the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will sit down together at the table of brotherhood.")

All across the country college students were swept up by the urge to turn the words of democracy into acts, the ideals into actuality.

They raised money and participated in demonstrations. And by the spring of 1964 it became clear that when college let out in June, hundreds of them would be moving South to work in the drive to get Negroes there registered as voters . . Civil rights leaders well knew that disorganized, undisciplined activity would do much more harm than good. And so COFOCommittee of Federated Organizationswas launched to teach the students, on a college campus in Oxford, Ohio, the disciplines of "non-violence."

When they got to Mississippi they. must truly understand the philosophy of non-violent citizen protest enunciated by Leo Tolstoy and the American, Henry David Thoreau, and brought to full flower in the passive resistance movement of Mahatma Gandhi. Now in an American version it had been dramatically effective in the civil rights movement.

/ Lecturing volunteers: "Politics without morality is chaos.

Morality without politics is irrelevant:" By mid-June several hundred students of the 800 going to Mississippi-men and women; Southerners and Northerners, Negro and wilite-had assembled in Ohio. Their "faculty" was composed mainly of young men about their own age but already well experienced in the work of organizing Southern Negroes in the civil rights movement.

Als'o on the campus was Tracy Sugarman who had offered to make for SPANa portfolio of drawings of the young COFO volunteers in action. Sugarman, himself deeply interested in the civil rights movement, was much moved by what he saw. His journal is studded with vivid observations.

On June 15 he writes, "The innocence of these nice-looking kids seems to weigh heavily on the hearts and minds of the experienced civil rights veterans, like Jim McLaurin, who are in charge. They insist that the kids search their minds. Anyone who remains cavalier about the work ahead has not been listening. At least twice we were urged not to' go to save the Negro; that only when we recognize that we are saving our own ideals, should we go.

"June 16: The trainees want changevisible change-in the power structure and political arrangements in their time. To them political power is real; 'the power of good' that the speakers talk about seems mystical. The group leader, Bob Zellmer, said simply, 'Politics without morality is chaos. Morality without politics is irrelevant.'

Non-violence, he said, is the method that has been agreed upon by COFO. Anyone participating must accept this-or not go. The crowd seemed to accept it.

"June 17: I have decided to go with Jim McLaurin's group to Sunflower County.

I think he is a good leader, and I feel as sure of him as can be possible this soon."

I

I

The Town: Across broad acres ~. of young cotton, Ruleville, Mississippi.

Classes on college campus at Oxford, Ohio, taught students the disciplines of "non-violence."

McLaurin's group made its headquarters in Ruleville. The young people, who ten day~ before had been deep in their books, now moved into the modest homes of Negro families deep in Mississippi's cottch lands. Each day as the Negroes returned from the fields, groups of volunteers walked through the town asking them to register to vote. Every evening there were meetings to organize local support. Sugarman describes one: "June 23: We followed Moore up dusty back' roads to a nice church where we found twenty-five people interested in fostering the movement. The meeting was run somewhat tentatively but Moore is a big, gentle

man and he inspires confidence.

The psychological impact of the volunteers on the local audiences is electric and obvious.

They are flattered and grateful. The mere presence of the volunteers acts as a prod to action .... McLaurin spoke of his own suffering in the movement with great honesty, and exhorted the audience to sing with him 'Ain't gonna let nobody turn me round.'''

Contact with the white community was held to a minimum. Both the mayor and the sheriff were civil, but they made it plain that outsiders were not welcome in Sunflower County.

The COFO volunteers were well aware that even a small incident could flare into serious trouble.

On June 24 the volunteers who would man the "Freedom Schools" for Negro youngsters and their elders arrived; "scrubbed girls mostly," Sugarman records: "All eager to get started and pleasantly surprised at their modest, comfortable, spotless quarters in various Negro homes.

My respect and admiration for these kids is infinite." Some 1\),000 books for the school's library had been contributed by sympathizers: "The kids worked and sweated, delightedly yelling out when they came across a book used for a college paper. They are kids who know and love books and their happiness in tearing into this mound of pulp was apparent."

But always, just beneath the exhilaration and love, lay tension: "Tonight Mrs. Hamer (one of the Negro community) is very distressed. The girls who have come down are being indiscreet. They have wandered into town which is against our rules, cut across white property, sat playing cards outside with Negro boys. She wants . McLaurin to lay down the law on deportment and using good sense."

Continued on next page

Sorting the 10,000 books contributed for the Freedom School library.

Volunteer registratIOn workers prepare to canvass the town of Drew.

"I want you folks in Mound Bayou to meet these good folks. We can learn a lot from them."

Mary Lou Hamer, Negro worker, implored people to register.

On the courthouse steps waiting to register.

As the days went on, hot and humid, the work-and the evening meetings-went on.

The idea of voting, the idea that change is possible took hold of Negroes in the town.

Some of the best workers were local youngsters in their upper teens. The volunteers, on their part, continued their drive to persuade people to register, ferrying their' recruits to the courthouse at Indianola and waiting while the registrar questioned each prospective voter to establish his literacy, a voting requirement. One of the most effective-and certainly most colourfulregistration recruiters was Mary Lou Hamer, a local Negro woman, who had worked in the freedom movement for many years.

Sugarman describes her recruiting technique: "She came roaring up to the ladies assembled for class like a half-demented locomotive spewing steam and water and noise. She shoved her way into the group and cajoled, wheedled, and implored-all in a bellow.

In a rolling battery of Biblical quotations and allusions she brought Pharoah to Sunflower County, and appointed the reticent minister to be Moses, leading his flock to register in Indianola! She was magnificent and the rest of us were pallid indeed in her wake. By the time she returned to the car, a number of overwhelmed women were choosing seats in the cars available to proceed to register at Indianola."

Continued on page 26

"I've been to register before -and I'll keep going until they say I'm qualified to vote."

Students/rom a nearby college visit to debate the race issue.

Youngsters were wide-eyed as

Demonstrators are arrested, jailed three days before bail was raised.

The leaders decided that July 16 would be "Freedom Day" and planned a large demonstration at the courthouse in Cleveland, Mississippi. Sugarman describes the day: "The courthouse is large and imposing with spacious lawns and immense oaksa beautiful relic of the Confederacy. Today it was to see the first such political demonstration in the history of Bolivar County, and, as the county attorney, Mr. Valentine, observed drily to me, 'Folks down here aren't used to seeing picket lines. It's not like up East. It's hard to take.' Crowds gathered across the avenue from the marching pickets .... The temperature rose as the day edged forward. The police sweated under their gear. The pickets spelled each other. The Negroes, infinitely patient, waited to register. Of the forty who came, twenty had been registered by the end of the hot

was to set in motion attitudes and actions within the Negro 'community, to inject the yeast of democracy-self-respect, education, and the vote-and let its natural and irresistible forces work. The volunteers, middleclass, well-educated youngsters for the most part, were themselves prime beneficiaries of democracy. They were there to argue, chant, sing, harangue against segregationbut never to strike in anger. Though they avoided violence, they sometimes courted arrest when it served their purpose,-and were arrested. To some extent they understood the hostility of the white community, and to some extent the white community understood them. It was an evener match than would appear on the surface: the white Mississippians had the officials, institutions, and tradition-the so-call~d "power structure"-on their side. But the volunteers had the certain knowledge that both the tide of history and the great majority of their countrymen were on their side. Young as they were, these boys and girls, in the summer of 1964, were the cutting edge of democracy in America, pressing to the limit the rights it grants to organize, to speak, to demonstrate-and to bring about changes in society. As previous generations have told their children of their feats in wars, the summer in Mississippi would be the great campaign and badge of honour for the COFO volunteers in years to come.

Continued on next page

In a quiet, old courthouse park, the unfamiliar sight of pickets.

McLaurin: "When you're not working, you should be out of sight."

afternoon. Jonathan Black, the group leader, ran the demonstration' effectively and sensitively. The demonstrators handled themselves well. The town knew they were there.

And the white community started on the long hard road of accepting something unpalatable (mixed pickets-boys and girlswho were black and white) without reaching for the torch. There were no incidents (perhaps a new ulcer for the county attorney).

The people arrived, demonstrated, registered and returned to their town late in the afternoon-ail without interference of any kind.

The county attorney and I chatted for ten minutes. He was still tense and exhausted -and was obviously relieved that the day was going to end soon. He seems to accept the idea of change, but it hurts him."

The summer was a typical example of non-violent agitation at work: the object

Song and clapping filled the church when McLaurin arrived.

Sugarman's final entry in his journal sums up the impact, the significance, of the summer in a way that requires no further comment: "July 23: The meaning of this whole incredible summer was summed up for me tonight. After a day of sketching, AI and Chuck drove me with them to see the police chief to be sure our evening meetiilg would have police protection outside the hall.

The chief agreed.

"By seven the Baptist Church was half full with young women who had come early, and - by 7 :30 the entire haH was packed with an eager, excited, expectant crowd of 250. A sprinkling of children, a large' group of teen-agers, a number of elderly-and for the first time, many people between eighteen and thirty. John Harris got them singing. By the time McLaurin arrived, the place was moving with clapping and song. McLaurin, who grew up in Mississippi, was grinning and shaking his head in disbelief. 'Man! This is Indianola!'

This must have been the most exciting moment since he entered the movement.

As the meeting was getting under way, a Negro policeman, a great ox of a man, entered the hall. He was asked to leave.

McLaurin turned to the crowd: 'This is private church property. This policeman has no right to be here. Do you want him to stay or go?' 'Go!. Go!' they shouted. At this point the policeman, somewhat panicked by the noise, drew his revolver. But quickly some of the white policemen outside entered the hall'and took him away.

"For an hour McLaurin spoke-preached really-Daniel, -Shadrach, Meshack and Abednigo-parables and personal memories of humiliations-which found echv in his listeners who responded, 'Yes!' The youngsters were wide-eyed, watching a folk hero who was qne of them-showing thembeing brave for them. The oldsters watched, eyes moist, unbelieving half smiles as they heard spoken aloud 'what they',d never thought they'd hear said by a Mississippi Negro in the Delta. 'Freedom!' they shouted, 'Freedom now!' " •

McLaurin: "This policeman has no right being here."

Demonstrators: "Make Mississippi a progressive Stale."

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A PORTFOLIO OF PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIES Abraham Lincoln was. thirty years old when Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, French painter and physicist, invented photography in 1839. The itinerant "daguerreotype artists," with their mysterious looking cameras, reached America in the summer of 1840. Six years later Lincoln sat for his first photographs, a practice he continued with frequency until his death in April 1865. While John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson were photographed only after their Presidential terms, Lincoln was the first U.S. President to be photographed almost entirely throughout his public career. There are, in all, eighty-six known photographic portraits of him, in addition to fourteen other photographs taken in the open air. A selection of his portraits is presented on the following pages.

This daguerreotype,

taken

in 1846 by a Springfield artist, is the earliest known photograph of Abraham Lincoln. An elected Representative in the 30th Congress, Lincoln was then thirty-seven years old, had served four times in IDinois Legislature, made himself a name as a lawyer.

One

of the best portraits,

above, of lawyer Lincoln was made on May 7, 1858, the day lincoln cleared, with the aid of an almanac, Duff Armstrong of a murder charge.

On June 3, 1860, a little over a fortnight after Lincoln's nomination for the Presidency, Alexander Hesler of Chicago visited Springfield and made the photograph at left of the Republican candidate, "slick and uncomfortable in a stiff-bosomed shirt with pearl buttons."

Taken

by Alexander

Gardner of Washington on November 15, 1863, the portrait above is one of the bestknown Lincoln photographs. Shortly before the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, President Lincoln was taken to Gardner's studio "to fulfil a long-standing engagement." Mathew Brady, perhaps the best known photographer of the period, made the portrait at left, probably in 1863, soon after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.

Portrait

of

Lincoln with his son Tad, above, made by Mathew Brady on February 9, 1864, is a widely circulated photograph, which has had its place in many homes. The photograph album which Lincoln is holding was an effective device used

by Brady to bring the two sitters together.

The picture at right,

by Alexander Gardner, is Lincoln's last portrait, taken on April 10, 1865, four days before his assassination.

SPRING IN THE DESERT

T

HE DESERT shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose, is a prophecy that comes true spectacularly every spring for a few weeks in the American Southwest deserts of Arizona, California, and New Mexico. Like magic, these tawny wastelands, stretches of baked earth under the summer sun, suddenly break into dazzling colour after the gentle rains of March and April.

Wildflower seeds which have lain dormant for eleven months a year, germinate and spring into radiant bloom under the intense rays of the desert sun. The hot,

dry winds of summer will soon shrivel them, but during their short but precious, joyous life they blanket the land with many-hued splendours.

In the picture above, the rippled sand flows around islands of white primroses. The flowering cactus in the picture at right, which grows in the deserts of southern Arizona, has this baffling name: "Claret-cup hedgehog." The first part of the name was inspired by the plant's wine-coloured blossoms and the last part by its thorns. Later, it produces a purplish, edible fruit.

E

ndless acres of lavender verbena carpet the floor of the Borego desert in southern California, above, highlighted by an occasional cluster of sunflowers.

The verbena leaves are varnished and waxy, enabling the plant to survive the heat. The tall shrubs are creosote bushes.

Spring brings 143 different kinds of wildflowers into bloom in the Borego desert. In the wild garden, right, at the foot of a canyon blooms the tall ocotillo which has flaming red blossoms at the tips of its spiderlike branches, and close by are yellow encelias and pink-blossomed cacti.

ART

IN AUTO

RESEARCH

In the search for better cars, scientists explore a world whose grandeur, measured in microns, matches the gaudiest fancies of abstract painters. To convey to the public the enchantment of science, General Motors Research Laboratories in Warren, Michigan, assembled an exhibit of micrographs, enlarged from 100 to 5,000 times, for loan to art institutes.

An interference microscope view, above, shows that when a hard sapphire ball is rolled across a pure crystal of copper, tiny hills form in the crystal's surface.

Car's stress areas, right, seen through polarized light microscope, develop in thin polyethylene film. Colours reveal early stages of mild stress variations.

Result of many oxidation experiments to control rust, this specially prepared single crystal iron whisker, above, is a great help to researchers who can observe from it the formation of various stages of oxidation.

To protect cooling in radiator, an inhibitor, potassium dichromate, is used with glycol anti-freeze. Exposed to daylight, mixture produces sludge which forms crystals, above, identified here with a polarized light microscope.

Mechanical properties of carbon steel, for automotive parts, can be altered by heat treatment. High temperature makes sharp contour lines etched in the steel, above, which has been photographed at 2,500 degrees F.

Harmful ingredients in engine exhaust gases corrode mufflers and tail pipes, contaminating air. By cooling and filtering exhaust gases, engineers have produced organic nitrogen compound which forms the crystals shown above.

TOPIC of cartoonists in portraying the advent of spring in the United States is the final struggle that the average citizen goes through as he sits hunched over his Federal annual income tax return with pursed lips and furrowed brow.

It is a timely characterization, because income tax returns must be in the hands of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the Federal Government's Treasury Department by April 15 of each year. And it is one that strikes a responsive chord in most Americans: last year about 64,000,000 personal income tax returns were filed-though it was found after examination that one-fifth of the people filing did not have to make any payment.

While they see nothing particularly humorous in giving up a share of their earnings, most Americans have come to look upon the income tax as the most equitable method ever devised of meeting the costs of administering the government since it distributes the burden according to ability to pay.

A government must raise revenues in one way or another to pay for its operations. Whatever the method, it must acquire a portion of the wealth produced by the work of its citizens.

Many governments raise their revenues by indirect taxes. While there are some indirect taxes in the United States, the largest source of Federal revenues is the income tax. This is applied in direct proportion to a citizen's income-the larger the income, the larger the percentage of income that is paid in taxes. Under this "graduated" kind of tax, the person with the smallest income and the most dependants receives the greatest protection.

Thus the income tax is a major instrument for redistributing the national wealth while raising needed revenues.

From its inception (in 1913)the Federal income tax has been the subject of constant revision by Congress. No matter what other legislation is proposed, every session of Congress receives its quota of suggested changes in the law. In response to arguments urging revision of rates thought to be unfair to one or another income group, Congress has changed the rates, or amended sections of the law, such as exemptions or deductions, in a variety of ways intended to apportion the tax obligation more equitably.

The annual tax report itself has been made easier by the introduction of short, simplified forms. But if the taxpayer thinks a detailed computation of all his income and outgo will result in a lower tax payment, he is free to use a long or more detailed form.

This itemized return favours those with unusual expenses within

A

FAVOURlTE

THE MONTH OF THE BIG HEADACHE

Drawings

by

ROBERT OSBORN

Courtesy

LOOK

..

_--------~~

the year, such as extended illness, or a house damaged by fire.

There is also provision in the law for current payment of taxes-most individuals who receive more than $10,000 in annual income are required to file a statement by April 15th of income expected that year, and then pay the tax on it in quarterly instalments. They must still make an annual return, to account for any difference between the expected tax and the actual income tax.

One aspect of the income tax system that is prompting foreign governments to borrow from the American experience to an increasing extent is its proven effectiveness in raising the large amounts of revenue needed by a modem society with the least damaging impact on the economy.

Before World War II the United States, along with most countries, derived the bulk of its revenue from indirect taxes such as levies on the manufacturing, distribution, and use of commodities. The tremendous cost of fighting the war and of keeping up with the needs of an expanding economy required a reorientation of the American tax system. The solution adopted was that of broadening the income tax base as well as increasing the rates, through revisions made in 1944 in the revenue law.

Because of the economic facts of life, more and more countries-both highly industrial and in a less advanced state of economic development-are seriously studying the problems involved in the collection and administration of income taxes.

Many are sending tax officials and college authorities to study American methods, and many countries including India have invited U.S. specialists to study and advise on tax administration problems.

What impresses foreign students of the American income tax system the most is the high degree of voluntary compliance it enjoys. The Internal Revenue Commissioner has placed it at about 97 per cent. This means that in all but a negligible number of cases, the taxpayers send in the amounts they owe without the necessity of any further action by the government.

This high rate of public co-operation is attributed to three factors. One is the general acceptance of the income tax as a fair and just way of financing the government.

The second factor is the extreme precaution that IRS has always taken to assure the taxpayer that his return is inviolate.

Ever since the income tax law was approved before World War I, it has been impressed on individual taxpayers that the information divulged in their returns will be kept in the strictest confidence. Auditors and other Revenue Service officials whose

duty it is to examine the returns are bound by law not to divulge any information they may learn.

A third factor is the knowledge that any tax return may be subject to a check-up. IRS reviews returns on a sampling basis so as to cover all types and classes of taxpayers from all sections of the country.

Thus, a reasonable amount of enforcement is necessary for effective operation of an income tax system-but it also imposes a considerable administrative burden. It is probably no exaggeration to say that the examination and classification of returns is the key to the whole administrative problem; especially when the income tax is applied on such a large scale. This also assures taxpayers that their neighbours pay their fair share of taxes.

To tax officials from other countries who are studying the U.S. system, this phase of the problem is important-especially the extensive use of electronic equipment. Under IRS's automatic data processing system (ADP), information from tax returns and documents is converted to electronic tape at regional service centres, and then processed through the master file of taxpayer accounts maintained at the National Computer Centre at Martinsburg, West Virginia.

Individual accounts for each taxpayer are kept up to date on electronic tape. The machines produce schedules for refunds, or billings, or other necessary action.

This system ensures proper application of credits and otherwise reduces processing errors. It benefits taxpayers who may overlook prior years' credits, or advantages provided by law.

The ADP system also provides a systematic, uniform, nation-wide check on failures of individuals or businesses to file returns; improves mathematical verification of returns; increases ability to detect improper refund claims. Also, it permits checking of data reported on information documents-such as, dividends and interest payments-against information on tax returns.

Most important, from a tax administration standpoint, the computer method gives the IRS the capacity to handle the growing avalanche of paper work. The data processing system provides better service to taxpayers and improves compliance capabilities of the tax agency, and greatly improves tax administration generally.

A recent study by the House Ways and Means Committee, which initiates tax legislation in Congress, has confirmed once more that American sentiment is solidly behind the income tax as Continued on next page

Flexible, humanistic and based on voluntary compliance, American income tax methods are studied by a growing number of countries. the main source of the United States Govermnent's revenue.

At the Committee's invitation, more than 500 authorities on the subject of income taxation submitted papers dealing with all phases of the problem. Views were solicited from all segments of society-from economists, college professors, labour officials, civic groups, businessmen, and bankers. The Committee found that although differences existed as to details, there was overwhelming support for placing primary reliance on the income tax.

These studies also revealed that the United States relies heavily on the income tax; in 1964, for example, it obtained 54 per cent of its total budget receipts from this source. This is done through an income tax of the graduated type, in which the percentage keeps increasing as a higher income is reached. It starts at 14 per cent of taxable income-that is, income left after basic deductions have been made for oneself and one's dependants and allowances granted for medical, charitable, and other common expenses. Then the rate climbs by progressively steeper steps, and on high incomes it can amount to as much as 70 per cent. Thus a taxpayer whose taxable income on a joint return is $200,000 pays the government close to 60 per cent, while a man whose taxable income is $300,000 pays close to 65 per cent.

The percentage of the tax in each case is not figured out on the total income or receipts. Taxpayers are allowed certain deductions, such as large medical bills, contributions to educational, religious, or charitable institutions, and expenditures for their businesses or professions that fall into specified categories. In addition, they are allowed generous deductions for dependants. Every taxpayer first of all subtracts from his income a $600 allowance for his own personal exemption. He also deducts $600 for his wife and for each child or other qualified dependants.

Obviously, such deductions mean most to families in the lower income brackets, and become relatively less important as

income mounts. It was brought out in one of 1962's tax papers, for example, that because of such liberal allowances for dependants, a little over one-half of all taxpayers are only subject to the 20 per cent tax rate which was then the lowest tax rate. (The charts on page 45, drawn from Internal Revenue Service sources, illustrate how the tax falls on low, medium, and high incomes.)

Favoured treatment is accorded those who have reached their sixty-fifth birthday. For them, the personal exemption granted others is doubled. Thus a husband and wife who are both sixty-five or older can deduct four times the $600 allowance-a total of $2,400. In addition, old age pensions under the Social Security Act are not subject to any income tax.

A device that has been extremely helpful to IRS in its collection task is what is known as tax withholding. Under this section of the law, employers, both private and public, deduct income taxes-according to law and regulations laid down by the government-from the wages and salaries they pay their employees. The taxes thus withheld are then forwarded to IRS periodically as required.

For the individual taxpayer, the withholding deduction simplifies his annual return. However, he is still required to submit a return with his final computations for the year because of differences in his favour-or otherwise-which will show only in a return which accounts for all income and deductions for the whole year.

In some cases a taxpayer may be entitled to a refund because of unusual expenses he has incurred such as large medical bills, or a new addition to the family which may qualify him for another S600 exemption. In others he may have to pay an additional tax, due to extra income he has received for a special job of some kind or from the sale of property or other assets.

Tax withholding comprises a substantial portion, as much as $39,000,000,000 of the entire income tax volume of $55,000,000,000 a year. However, there are obvious limitations that make it impossible to give the withholding method wider application. For example, there is no way in which it could be made to work in the case of the self-employed, since they do not receive predictable regular incomes. These are the great number of writers, doctors, lawyers, and other professional people who do not work for anyone employer exclusively, as well as countless owners of small businesses in the merchandising and service fields.

By improving its techniques in various ways and resorting to mechanization as much as possible, IRS is constantly increasing

its efficiency. While the volume of returns has increased about fifteen-fold in thirty years, the cost of handling this workload did not go up in proportion. For example, the number of returns handled per employee was 500 in 1930. By 1964 it had gone up to 1,700 and the rate has continued to increase.

But while it may be proud of its record, IRS is in no position to rest on its laurels. It still is confronted by the enormous problem of the projected growth of the population and of the economy over the coming decades. By 1970 it is expected that the number of tax returns will increase 21 per cent over the current volume. By 1980 the forecast is for a 44 per cent increase.

Small wonder then that the agency is mustering its resources to cope with the task ahead. Among other things is IRS's switch from mechanical to electronic methods to handle a large share of its workload. Electronic devices, beside being much more flexible than punch card equipment, are capable of exercising a certain "memory" function. Thus they can scan for indicators and in this way sift out unusual returns for auditing.

Building up public support, understanding and voluntary compliance is another important task IRS must perform. Of the various ways to accomplish this objective, one of the most effective is the use of moving picture films of various types. They are used to inform the public on provisions of the tax law as well as to help them file correct tax returns. Viewed by 50,000,000 people in television audiences and in showings to school and Club groups, these films give.an_instructive account of how the tax collecting agency works and of the men and policies behind it.

Indispensable as its function is, IRS must bow to Congress when it comes to setting tax law, since the American people themselves make tax decisions-and the way they do this is through their elected representatives. Congress has always felt that the people should be conscious of the taxes they are paying -and the income tax indeed makes an impression on the American citizen.

It is certainly a tax he knows he is paying, since even under the withholding system he makes out his return and sends inor gets back-some mOlley. This is still another reason why the income tax has become a central institution in U.S. life, even though Americans may grumble about it at times-and certainly do not exactly relish parting with the money. Through the income tax they are constantly reminded that it is up to them to provide for their society's needs, according to each individual's ability to contribute.

HOW THE INCOME TAX WORKS: 3 EXAMPLES (1964 RATES) Mary Smith - age: 25 - Single - Clerk Earns $5,000 a year Deducts 600 - Standard Personal Exemption Deducts 500 - Standard Allowance for Medical, Charitable and other Common Total $1,100 Expenses - 10% of Gross Income $3,900 - Taxable Income (After Deductions) Pays 17% on first 2,000-$340 20% on next 1,900- 380 Pays total tax

720

Thomas Jones - age: 37 - Married - Three children (aged 3, 6, 8) - Teacher Earns $7,000 a year Deducts $3,000 - Standard Personal Exemptions for himself, Wife, and Each Child$600 each.

Deducts 700 - Standard Allowance for Medical, Charitable, etc., Expenses - 10 % of Total $3,700 Gross Income S3,300 - Taxable Income (After Deductions) Pays 16.6% on first $3,000-$498 18% on next 30054

William Brown - age: 55 - Married and Living Independently - Factory Executive Earns $200,000 - (Salary and securities) Deducts $1,200 - Standard Personal Exemptions for himself and Wife Deducts 2,500 - For Charitable Contributions Deducts 800 - For Real Estate Taxes 1,200 - For Interest on Mortgage Deducts Total $5,700 $194,300 - Taxable Income (After Deductions) Pays 57.6% on first $180,000- 103,680 75 % on next 14,300-. 10,725

ROOSEVELT AND JOHNSON: Architects of the Great Society In pursuing his policies and objectives today, President Johnson draws much inspiration from the ideals and achievements of his illustrious predecessor, Franklin

Roosevelt. As

a practitioner of "the moderate way in American public life," he seeks solution of domestic and international problems by avoiding conflict without surrender of principles.

COMPARISON OF Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United States, with his original political mentor and ilIustrious predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who died twenty years ago this month, can

A

be a fascinating exercise in the study of character and statesmanship and the recent growth of American social and political concepts.

Both men were caIIed to the Presidency at a time of grave national crisis.

Franklin Roosevelt's election in 1932 coincided with a period of unprecedented economic depression when unemployment was widespread and the general picture was one of discontent, gloom and despair. Lyndon Johnson was thrust

into the seat of power following a tragedy which stunned the country and left it confused and apprehensive. Both rose magnificently to the need of the hour and, under their inspired, efficient, dynamic leadership, anxiety soon gave way to hope and optimism.

The American people expressed their confidence in the two leaders in no uncertain terms. President Roosevelt was reelected for his second term by the largest Presidential vote in history, winning the support of forty-six out of forty-eight States and securing 523 electoral votes against his opponent's eight. President Johnson scored an equally triumphant victory last year with his 486 electoral votes from forty-four States and the district of Columbia. He bettered Roosevelt's record in one respect by obtaining sixty-one per cent of the total popular vote against his predecessor's 60.8 per cent.

America and the world have, of course, changed a good deal since the day Roosevelt was inaugurated President, and many of the problems, domestic and international, which confront President Johnson are different in scope and nature from those facing his predecessor. But the demands on national-and worldleadership are as heavy and exacting today as they were a quarter of a century ago, and stewardship of the Great Society calls in full measure for the exercise of those qualities of intellect and character which gave Americans the Roosevelt New Deal.

Today in spite of the country's unprecedented economic strength and prosperity-in 1964 the gross national product rose to a record of $622 !liJlion, with a growth rate of six-and-a-half per centPresident Johnson and his advisers are in no mood of complacency. They are resolved to keep the national economy growing and are on the alert for any signs of recession. Business initiative is being encouraged and price stability maintained. The President's Anti-Poverty Programme is being carried through with increased vigour and he has pledged himself to "open opportunity to all our people" so that everyone may share in the good life which most Americans are already enjoying.

In our present-day world, however, the Great Society cannot exist in a state of splendid isolation and, to quote President Johnson, the United States was "never meant to be an oasis of liberty and abundance in a world-wide desert of disappointed dreams." The President, therefore, has held forth the promise of continued economic assistance to developing nations and "seeking new ways to deal with the explosion in world population and the growing scarcity in world

resources." More than that, he has given the solemn assurance that, wherever the cause of freedom is at stake, the United States will not lag behind in espousing and defending that cause.

In pursuing many of his policies and objectives today, President Johnson is strongly reminiscent of Roosevelt, his ideals and his practices, but there are also interesting variations in each leader's approach to a problem and his methods of achieving his objective. Their biographers are agreed on many points of similarity in their character-a forceful, dynamic, complex personality, unusual energy and capacity for hard work, extraordinary skill in persuading, reassuring and mollifying opponents,. the ability to manage people one way or another. Roosevelt, who was readily accessible to all kinds of visitors, made a systematic effort to augment official sources of information by talking to everybody about almost anything. Johnson, too, has an elaborate system of checking and double-checking with people, both in and outside government, and seldom makes a move without fully familiarizing himself with all aspects of a question.

Roosevelt's dynamic energy and powers of persuasion played no small part in securing, during the first famous Hundred Days (March 9 to June 16, 1933) the speedy passage through Congress of the comprehensive legislation which inaugurated the New Deal. To mention only the more important measures, there came in quick succession the Emergency Banking Act, the Federal Emergency Relief Act, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, the Tennessee Valley Authority Act and the National Industrial Recovery Act. This was indeed a form.idable record of Presidentiallegislative achievement which may be hard to equal. But, as commentators have pointed out, President Johnson has also had conspicuous success in persuading the Congress to accept about sixty per cent of his 217 specific requests during the 1964 session, described as "the most fruitful in a decade." Highlights of this legislative programme are the new Civil Rights Act, reduction in Federal taxestwo measures which were largely stalled in Congress during the Kennedy Administration-and the war on poverty.

The New Deal was a series of experiments, some of them quite radical, in agricultural, industrial and fiscal policy.

It had both the immediate aim of national recovery and the long-term objective of building a better America. In formulating and evaluating his various measures of reform and development, Roosevelt's approach was highly pragmatic and flexible.

Ideas were considered and accepted,

revised or discarded, on their merits, and the main attraction of the New Deal for its protagonists was its flexibility and looseness. In fact Roosevelt's entire concept and practice of government was pragmatic and had its basis in humanism and compassion rather than in any rigid intellectual dogma or system. Critics of the New Deal harped on this absence of an intellectual core and called it opportunistic, while they found fault with Roosevelt himself for his lack of ideology and taking the middle way in deference to the c1amour from the right or the left. But the strength of the New Deal lay precisely in its refusal to tie itself to any ideology, in facing reality and in choosing to rebuild the country by following a course of moderation and continued experimentation.

President Johnson, too, is a pragmatist and a great sponsor and practitioner of "the moderate way in American public' life." His early administrative training including that as State Director of Roosevelt's National Youth Administration, and his extensive experience of public affairs, especially as Senate majority leader, have taught him the value of compromise-not a compromise with principles, but an ability to adapt himself to the realities of the situation, to seek agreement as far as possible by reasoning, persuasion and adjustment rather than the adoption of rigid postures. It is only thus he feels that to day's great challenges of the American Presidency, in the domestic and international spheres, can be adequately met.

In his aptitude and skill at adapting himself to all kinds of people and situations, it is possible that President Johnson excels Roosevelt. Making allowances for the conditions under which the New Deal was launched and the novelty of the idea of government regulation of business in the public interest, it is true that some of Roosevelt's economic measures alienated a large part of the American business community. Indeed in the latter part of his Administration his desire to establish "a partnership in planning" between government and business was largely frustrated by mounting hostility from business and financial interests. Goaded by this hostility, Roosevelt did not mince his words in condemning the concentration of economic power in the hands of those he termed "economic royalists." Winding up his election campaign at the end of October 1936, he said: "We know now that Government by organized money is as dangerous as Government by organized mob .... I should like to have it Continued on next page

said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master."

President Johnson has, however, so far been able to carry massive legislation through Congress without any serious opposition or losing the support of any important group or faction. Conscious of the fact that a part at least of big business had been estranged from government by the Kennedy Administration's tussle with the steel industry, he made a special effort to win its support. His handling of the threatened U.S. railway strike in 1964, when the odds were heavily against settlement, was an object lesson in patient, persistent, successful persuasion. But it was the Civil Rights Bill that provided the real test of Presidential mettle. There are times when, even at the risk of unpopularity and offending old associates and 'friends, principles must be upheld and translated into action. In spite of the forebodings of his advisers and the opposition of some diehard Southern Democrats, the President energetically canvassed support for this vital piece of social legislation and did not rest until it was placed on the statute book.

It was the Second World War that converted President Roosevelt from a national to an international leader. Essentially a man of peace, he was driven into war to defend those concepts and values of freedom on which the American nation was founded and nourished. In planning the grand, global strategy of the war, in consultation with Churchill and Stalin, and in achieving almost incredible targets of production for its successful prosecution, Roosevelt displayed the same resourcefulness and indefatigable energy which had earlier enabled him to pull the United States out of the worst economic crisis in its history.

When Roosevelt died in April 1945, victory was assured although not actually achieved. Before his death he had also helped lay the foundations on which others built the framework and superstructure of the United Nations. Earlier, the famous Atlantic Charter, drawn up

by Roosevelt and Churchill, had defined peace aims and objectives and enshrined

the hopes and ambitions of people everywhere to attain the Four Freedomsfreedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear-which the President had enunciated as the basis of democracy.

Today there is no hot war except the spasmodic flare-ups of violence and fighting in isolated trouble spots of the world. But the tensions of the cold war, born of differences in social and political ideology and the awesome threat of a nuclear holocaust, are continuous and tremendous. As one of the world leaders and guardians of peace, President Johnson has to carry a gigantic load of responsibility. Peace with honour, in our troubled world, can only be guarded by thorough military preparedness, eternal vigilance, a clear vision and unclouded judgment.

To strike the balance between threats or bravado and the determination to resist aggression, to avoid any rashly conceived act or show of force which might lead to unforeseen results but at the same time not to shirk action when essential, to know when and how far to proceed when the bastions of freedom and peace are threatened-these are decisions which call for the highest statesmanship, maturity and finesse of judgment.

President Johnson's policies and actions so far indicate that he is fully alive to his responsibilities and may be expected to make the correct, vital decisions. With his keen sense of history, he is anxious to profit from and avoid the mistakes of previous Administrations. Roosevelt, for instance, in his zeal for social and economic reform, may have overstepped the limits of constitutional propriety when, exasperated by the Supreme Court's opposition to some of the New Deal measures, he made an attempt to "pack" the court with judges of his choice. In any case the attempt was unsuccessful and has been termed a blunder by historians.

President Johnson, with his abiding faith in government by consensus and coordination, would be extremely wary of any such move. To take another example, from foreign affairs, he would do every, thing possible to prevent a situation which might lead to a repetition of the Bay of Pigs fiasco in Cuba during the Kennedy Administration. One of the President's maxims is: "Never move up your artillery until you move up your ammunition."

But these policies and attitudes do not indicate a negative approach by any means. When action is called for, President Johnson is not slow to initiate and implement it. The attack on American destroyers by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in August 1964, and more recently the attacks on South Vietnam airfields, military installations and villages, brought forth swift, restricted, retaliatory action.

His handling of the rioting in the Panama Canal Zone, Castro's cutting-off of water supplies to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo, and the Congo air-rescue operation are examples of positive, firm, restrained measures calculated in each case to avoid conflict without any surrender of basic principles.

Imaginative and flexible in his conduct of foreign relations, bold, confident and just in carrying out a comprehensive programIl).e of domestic uplift, President Johnsonibrings to his high office many of the qualities which make great Presidents.

While history has yet to record its verdict on his Administration, few will deny that, with Roosevelt, he merits the distinction of being "a real artist in government."

Like his great predecessor, he holds that the object of politics is justice and that government must serve no class or group interest but "provide equal opportunities for all and special privileges for none."

Sharing, too, Roosevelt's great energy, industriousness and robust optimism, he believes in "always casting his vote for life, for action, for forward motion, for the future."

Accepting his renomination in 1936 as the Democratic Party's candidate for the Presidency, Roosevelt said: "There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny." Addressing his countrymen on his inauguration as President, Johnson said: "For every generation, there is a destiny. For some history decides. For this generation the choice must be our own. . . . Our destiny in the midst of change will rest on the unchanged character of our people-and on their faith."

Two mighty voices, separated by three decades of change and upheaval, yet singularly-alike in their expression of faith and determination! •

LEE SURRENDERS TO GRANT· ENDING U.S. CIVIL WAR APRI