SPAN: May 1965

CONTENTS MAY

1965

FOR VOLUME

VI

~ JAWAHARLAL NEHRU: HIS LIFE AND HIS INDIA GREAT LEADER OF A GREAT PEOPLE

by Hubert H. Humphrey, Vice President of the United States

~r.J FROM MIGRANT LABOURER TO FARM OWNER

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L,· 1fS

Jalabala Ramachandran

'A GREAT DISH OF TEMPTING FRUIT THOSE MISCHIEVOUS CARTOONS

by Paul R. Hill

ARE THEY GIANTS OF CURRENT U.S. LITERATURE? ~~

JOHN O'HARA: LITERARY STORM CENTRE

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by Lokenath

Bhattacharya

BELLOW'S HERZOG:

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY

IS U.S. CONGRESSIONAL

REFORM NECESSARY?

An interview with Dr. James MacGregor

Burns

FUTURE CHESS CHAMPION?

by V. S. Nanda

tS

HIGHWAYS AND THE CITY

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MY INDIA ALBUM

Photographs

by Lynn Millar

FRONT COYER: A view of the "Marriage Pavilion," one of the many imaginative displays at the Nehru Memorial Exhibition held in New York City.

The exhibit attracted some 50,000 visitors. See story beginning at right.

COYER: A selection of memorial stamps issued by many countries to honour the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy, whose birth anniversary falls in May. Special albums have been printed of these popular stamps.

BACK

W. H. WEATHERSBY,Publisher; DEAN BROWN, Editor; V. S. NANDA, Mg. Editor.

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•

Vice President Humphrey's address opening the exhibit fittingly commemorates the late Prime Minister's death a year ago this month.

GREAT LEADER OF A GREAT PEOPLE

BY HUBERT

H.

HUMPHREY

Vice President of the United States MAN of our time, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was a disciple of Gandhi. That in itself marked him for greatness. But in addition he was a teacher, political leader and statesman, not only for his country but for the whole world, a true leader of all people.

Twenty-five years ago, in April 1940, he wrote of America that more and more of India's thoughts were attuned to "this great democratic country which seems almost alone to keep the torch of democratic freedom alight in a world given over to violence and aggression and opportunism of the worst kind."

A tribute such as that from a great leader of a great people is something that should endure for generations yet unborn.

In the past twenty-five years America's thoughts have turned more and more to India and to the man who did so much to keep the "torch of democratic freedom alight" on the vast continent of Asia, of which too many of us know too little.

But now Nehru is gone. The eulogies have been read. The editorials have been written. His ashes are now a part of the waters and the soil of India, the land to which he gave himself unsparingly. In the United States Jawaharlal Nehru was and is widely esteemed as the George Washington of his country-the man who guided his nation through the most difficult founding years. In these formative years he won great admiration and respect because he led in freedom and left a legacy of working democracy, an example for the community of new independent nations to follow. Long before he became Prime Minister he wrote that the test of a nation's heritage is the kind of leaders to which it has given its allegiance. In his own lifetime he demonstrated once again the ancient truth that in governing a nationwhether new or old-political leadership, and I underscore leadership, is most important of all. He succeeded in moulding a nation of continental proportions, of varied linguistic and religious groups-in the face of the most formidable economic, social and political obstacles.

But he is remembered today because he not only looked inward to the problems that were staggering his country-but outward to the problems of the world. In playing a world role, he charted a course of non-alignment for India between East and West. Though the paths of non-alignment can sometimes lead to pitfalls, he never abandoned his belief in nor his commitment to the necessity of preserving freedom. I have always thought this distinguished great man was a true ally of every freedomloving country without the formality of a treaty or an alliance.

In playing a world role, Prime Minister Nehru always attached special importance to the United Nations-and it is especially fitting that this exhibit opened in New York, the seat and home of the United Nations-and in the year 1965, International Co-operation Year.

The International Co-operation Year I might remind you Continued on page 3

A

GREAT

DESCENT

FROM

KASHMIR:

"We were Kashmiris .... Early in the eighteenth century our ancestors came down from that mountain valley....

Those were the days of the decline of the Moghul Empire. " "Japanese victories over Russia in 1904-5 stirred up my imagination. Nationalistic ideas filled my mind. I mused on Indian freedom and Asiatic freedom ..•. "

TOWARDS FREEDOM: "For I was then like a person possessed, giving myself utterly to the cause I had espoused .... "

MARRIAGE:

"My marriage took place in 1916 in the city of Delhi. . . . 1 was twenty-six at the time and she (Kamala) was about seventeen ....

And yet, with all my appearance of worldly wisdom, 1 was very boyish, and 1 hardly realized that this delicate, sensitive girl's mind was slowly unfolding like a flower."

DISCOVERY OF INDIA:

"1 read her history, and read also a part of her abundant ancient literature, and was powerfully impressed by the vigour of the thought that lay behind it."

"In ages long past a great son of India, the Buddha, said that the only real victory was one in which all were equally victorious and there was defeat for no one ... ."

THE GANDHI PAVILION: "He brought freedom to India and in that process taught us many things.... He told us to shedfear and hatred; he told us of unity and equality and br.otherhood; of the dignity of labour and of the supremacy of the spirit. Above all, he spoke and wrote unceasingly of truth in relation to all our activities."

"He is undoubtedly an extremist, thinking far ahead of his surroundings. He is pure as crystal and truthful beyond suspicion. The nation is safe in his hands.... And I know this-that when I am gone he will speak my language."

GANDHI

ON NEHRU

YEARS IN JAIL: Jawaharla1 Nehru was imprisoned nine times and spent 3,262 days in jail. "One misses many things in prison, but perhaps most of all one misses the sound of women's voices and children's laughter. Once I remembered being struck by a new want. I was in the Lucknow District Jail, and I realized that I had not heard a dog bark for seven or eight months."

SPEAKING TO THE MASSES: "In the course of about fOllr months, I travelled about 50,000 miles ... million persons actually attended the meetings I addressed."

on a rough estimate ten

"I do not idealize the conception of the masses. The people of India are very real to me in their great variety and in spite of their vast numbers I try to think of them as individuals rather than as vague groups."

Commentary throughout the exhibit is in Nehru's own words.

THE WILL: "I

DAY OF INDEPENDENCE-August 15, 1947: "Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge. . .. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom ....

The past is over, and it is the future that beckons us now. That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity."

"I am making this request that a handful of my ashes be thrown into the Ganges at Allahabad to be carried to the great ocean that washes India's shores ..•. "

WITH CHILDREN: "If you were with me, I would love to talk to you about this beautiful world of ours, about flowers and trees and birds and animals and stars and mountains and glaciers .... "

have received so much love and affection from the Indian people that nothing I can do can repay even a small fraction of it .... "

"The major portion of my ashes, however, should be carried high up into the air and scattered from that height over the fields where the peasants of India toil, so that they might mingle with the dust and soil of India. "

Unique exhibition encompasses the vigorous life and dynamic times of Jawaharlal Nehru.

was first proposed by Prime Minister Nehru to the U.N. General Assembly in 1961.

Under his leadership India established itself as a major voice in the United Nations. When the history of our times is finally written, the role played by Indian forces in United Nations peace-keeping operations-in the Congo, Gaza, Cyprus, Korea and elsewhere-will merit special commendation. It should merit the eternal gratitude of all peace-loving people throughout the world.

President Johnson said at the time of Mr. Nehru's death: "For so long we had counted on his influence for good .... " The period of his influence was long; it included the tenures of four of our Presidents: Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Harry S. Truman.

Each of these Presidents knew him well and two of them visited him in New Delhi-President Johnson in 1961 while Vice President and President Eisenhower in 1959. Mr. Nehru, besides his 1949 visit with President Truman, came to Washington in 1956 to meet President Eisenhower and again in 1961 to talk with John F. Kennedy. There is a charming photograph of the Prime Minister walking arm-in-arm with Mrs. Kennedy on the White House lawn. It was a short time later that Jacqueline Kennedy made the journey to India and the welcome given to this young woman by Prime Minister Nehru and his countrymen warmed the hearts of all Americans. It is a privilege for us to welcome here another distinguished lady, the late Prime Minister's daughter, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, who is widely known and admired in our country.

The connection between the United States and Mr. Nehru goes back to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Nehru's faith in the U.S. was matched by Roosevelt's wartime encouragement of post-war freedom for India.

From Franklin Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson, American interest in India's development has continued. I recall with satisfaction that in 1951 I joined with some of my colleagues in supporting legislation which enabled India to obtain American wheat to alleviate the severe food shortage of that time.

Since those days, relations between our countries have grown close. The late Prime Minister's vision of a new India in which the common man would be free from the age-old shackles of poverty, disease and social discrimination-a new India to be created by hard work, self-help and democratic planning and methods-has attracted the support and assistance of my country. I believe that this assistance should continue and will continue. I am confident that it will.

In the later years of his tenure an unprovoked attack by the People's Republic of China on India's territory invoked an immediate sympathetic American response. At Prime Minister Nehru's request, President Kennedy rushed emergency military assistance to India's embattled armed forces. We shall continue to help India's defence in a common resolve that free men can and must defend themselves and their liberty when challenged by outside totalitarian aggressors.

Nehru was among the first to perceive that a new era had come with the splitting of the atom. His profound grasp of the realities of the nuclear age led him to resist the temptation to develop an independent nuclear capability. As one who under-

Opening ceremony was attended by, from left, Mrs. Humphrey, Mrs. J. F. Kennedy, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Vice President Humphrey.

stood the perils of nuclear proliferation, Nehru would rejoice that his successors have heeded his advice and resisted the call to join in a nuclear arms race which could only bring the vicious peril to Asia and to the world.

There should be no surprise that the United States-and there should be no surprise about this any place else-stood with India in its hour of need. For we share so much: the rule of law, free elections, an operating democratic system, the checks and balances of a written constitution, a belief in the integrity of the individual, a desire for extending the benefits of modern science and society to all.

The exhibit depicts the Nehru about whom I have spoken, his growth, the growth of India and his friendly relations with the United States. I am pleased that the Government of India has put it together so that we and hundreds of thousands of Americans can see it.

I hope that this exhibit will give those who view it something of the vision of the man it depicts, a visionary who felt that India would only advance if it could dream dreams, draw strength from its great past, and put vision and dreams into actions. And that vision was well expressed in a statement by Mr. Nehru made in 1939: "And yet, and yet, tlle sands run out and this mad world rushes on, and problems multiply and if we do not keep pace with them we perish. The world of today is not for the complacent or the slow of foot or those who are the slaves of events .... " If we are to honour his vision, we must use time as a tool and not as a couch. As heirs of Nehru I am confident you will need his prophecy and honour his vision. As friends of India we in the United States will rejoice in your success in achieving these aims.

What I like best about Prime Minister Nehru is the fact that he did not just read history. He made it. He didn't wait for events. He is the man who created the events. We must use our time as he did as a tool for progress and not as a couch for indifference.

Colour photographs of the exhibit appear on the following two pages. A description of the display begins on page 6.

Exhibit was produced at National Design Institute.

The lOG-panel Nehru Exhibit at Union Carbide Building, 270 Park Avenue, included rare historical objects, several hundred photographs of Nehru, as well as papers and memorabilia. The exhibition was sponsored by External Affairs Ministry, Government of India and produced at National Design Institute, Ahmedabad. Pictures at left and above offer general views of the exhibit. At section, below, devoted to arms, etc., used by British soldiers, attractive hostess gives visitors information on the display.

CAN THE LIFE of a great man be portrayed?

How can his words, his deeds and his love for his country be recaptured? How can the inspiration he gave the world be shown in a memorable tribute?

Two of America's most creative and imaginative designers, Charles and Ray Eames, became concerned with these questions when they were invited by the National Design Institute, Ahmedabad, to be consultants in the preparation of a memorial exhibit honouring Jawaharlal Nehru. Their efforts resulted in a unique collection of photographs and memorabilia on the life and times of the great Indian leader, to which New York, the venue of many an exhibit of international importance, was host recently.

Opened a day after India's Republic Day, on January 27, the exhibit-titled "Jawaharlal Nehru: His Life and His India" -remained open through March 18, and was housed in the modern glass and stainless steel building of Union Carbide Corporation at 270 Park Avenue.

Charles Eames' suggestion to the Ahmedabad Institute was that in creating the display, they should be forward-looking, inventive and imaginative so that the designers' aim of portraying as many aspects of Nehru's life as possible should be

H

OW

achieved in full measure. "To properly advise the Institute," says Mr. Eames, "we thought long and hard on how you treat the life of such a great man conceptually. First, we developed a photographic exhibit in an effort to show as many humanistic aspects as possible-little things to show what makes a man like Nehru great. We tried to show his stand on all crucial questions.

Then we built a physical structure by using a number of elements such as photographs, fabrics, art objects and sound. We outlined our ideas and brought them to India for discussion with the Institute staff. They approved of the plans and then went to work on the project."

To be certain that in the planning stage the Institute had tile proper advice in every area, Mr. Eames called in for consultation Alexander Girard, another famed American designer.

He also requisitioned the services of some talented members of his California staff.

The New York exhibition, in its final form, testified eloquently to its designers' skills and imagination. Divided into forty sections and the work of twenty-two artists working eighteen hours a day for three months, it was a pictorial record of Nehru's acti vities in the national and international arenas. It was portrayed against the background of the main events and forces

which moulded his career and contributed to the shaping of his greatness. Nehru's unceasing efforts and sacrifices to build modern India were documented with material collected from hundreds of Indian and foreign sources, including Magnum Agency, Life, Time, and the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Throughout the exhibition, Nehru's words appeared in eloquent explanation of the pictorial content.

Photographs, numbering 1,100, ranged from miniature to larger-than-life size and traced the life of Nehru from his "Childhood at Allahabad" to the "Scattering of the Ashes."

Many pictures from the personal albums of the Nehru family were publicly displayed for the first time. Some rare photographs included Nehru's pictures in prison taken by British photographers, and pictures of Motilal Nehru's car (the first in Allahabad when even the British Governor did not have a car) and Nehru's grandfather Gangadhar Pandit.

Also on display were many historical objects, including flags, uniforms, drums, banners and posters, as well as objects of Indian cultural interest including musical instruments, paintings and sculpture. Imaginative pavilions-for example, a marriage the pavilion depicting Nehru's wedding ceremony-enhanced impressiveness of the display. An item which attracted much Nehru was arrested nine times for leading India's independence movement. This rare picture of his was taken in Nainital jail.

attention was a replica of a jail cell-a forceful reminder to the audience that Nehru spent ten years of his life from time to time in Indian jails. In addition, there were fabrics, handicrafts and articles used in Indian homes, as well as special items used on festive occasions.

To convey more of "the feel oflndia," says Charles Eames, "we pinned the exhibit stands to the floor with colourful Indian gunny cloth bags rather than just screws and nails. We used brass fixtures to display exhibit materials because we felt that they reflected Indian culture more than other devices. Our aim throughout the exhibit was to emphasize something substantial of India wherever the eye might turn to light."

To make every facet of the display reflect the quality, purpose and atmosphere of India was also the aim of Dashrath Patel, Director of the Institute in Ahmedabad and one of the principal planners of the exhibition. "The selection of material," says Mr. Patel, "for preparing and decorating the panels as weJl as their design have been done with a view to portray a genuine Indian atmosphere .... " The New York exhibit evoked great public interest and was seen by some 50,000 people. The visitors' book contained such laudatory comments as "remarkable," "enlightening," "best of its kind," and "excitingly different."

An American student, who viewed the exhibit during her lunch hour, said that she "learned more about Prime Minister Nehru's life at this time than she had learned from all the books she had read." A housewife commented; "I always thought of the Prime Minister as one of the world's greatest men. I am more convinced of this idea after seeing this great exhibition.

The way in which the material is organized to show different phases of his life makes the display especially interesting-and it is shown in one of the city's best exhibit halls."

Among the most interesting comments was the one made by an American secondary school teacher who said, "What a wonderful thing it would be if school children throughout the country could see this exhibit. What an inspiration it would be and what curiosity it would arouse."

Dignitaries also praised the exhibit. Chief Justice Earl Warren of the U.S. Supreme Court remarked, "It makes Nehru live again. Americans have great regard for him as a man who believed in statesmanship, a man of peace. Tills exhibit gives us a very warm feeling." Senator John Sherman Cooper, former U.S. Ambassador to India, recalled his "nostalgic wonderful days when I knew Nehru in India. It was a great privilege to know him. In our country we have great respect for him and great affection for the people of ... India."

New York State's Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller brought greetings to the Indian hosts of the exhibition from the people of his State. He said that Prime Minister Nehru holds "a warm place in the hearts of all Americans. He symbolized for this country all of the hopes and aspirations for individual freedom . . . . We honour his great contribution to peace .... " The Nehru exhibit is the most ambitious project undertaken to date by the National Design Institute, since it was founded in 1961 with the help of the Ford Foundation.

The exhibit will be displayed in several European cities before returning to India where it will be permanently housed at "Tin Murti"-Nehru's official residence in New Delhi and now a national memorial. •

The Kelleys' enterprise and industry

FROM MIGRANT LABOURER TO FARM OWNER

have made them the possessors of a 1lO-acrevegetable farm in Maryland.

still grey and the dew cool these May mornings when Andrew Kelley, a successful commercial vegetable grower and one time migrant farm labourer, plants his new tomato and pepper crop on his 1l0-acre farm near Preston in Maryland. For twenty-two years now, ever since they decided to invest their savings in sixty-one weedgrown acres and a tumbledown farmhouse, May has been one of the Kelleys' busiest months.

Mr. Kelley and his wife have worked hard since the day in 1943 when they paid $600 down for the farm. Mrs. Kelley still recalls vividly the day the family moved into their new home: "We were still wondering how we were going to make it through winter and grow a crop with only $160 as we moved into the shabby, three-room house."

The Kelleys had been tenant farmers in the Southern State of Georgia for eight years before they became migrant labourers.

T

Andrew Kelley, former tenant farmer and migrant worker, operates tractor on self-acquired farm.

HE SKY IS

Each of those years had been debt-ridden and both Andrew Kelley and his wife knew that if they wanted to live decently and give their children an opportunity in life, hard work on their own farm was the only way.

Their first step was to leave Georgia and join the stream of farm workers who follow the crops from Florida to Maryland, earning a meagre living as field hands. Two years later, while they were working in Caroline County; Maryland, they saw a farm for sale. For one year, they saved to meet the amount needed for a down payment. When they finally moved in, they had been three years on the road.

The Kelleys have never again been homeless. Instead they have seen their family take firm root and flourish. They had four children when they came to the farm, now they have eight.

One by one, as the children grow, their lives vindicate all the struggles their parents underwent.

Andrew Jr., their eldest, is on the farm too. He is an agricultural graduate and takes care of the transporting and marketing work of the farm. Three sisters next to him in age include a New York accountant, a dietician in a Baltimore hospital, and a recreational supervisor for the city of Baltimore-all a far cry from seasonal crop pickers. The younger children, who were born on the farm, are in school and college. The youngest, Blanche, is seven years old and knows nothing of her family's previous hardships.

To gain a prosperous farm, a comfortable seven-room house and education for their children, the Kelleys have worked hard and steadfastly each succeeding year. They did not do it entirely unaided. They made intelligent use of the benefits that the U.S. Government provides for cultivators. But loans and credits for seeds and implements were not the only help the Kelleys needed. In the first few years they made costly mistakes by misjudging the market, or through ignorance of improved farming practices. So they asked for, and received specialized guidance to avoid making further mistakes. The county's agricultural adviser, Martin G. Bailey, who knows the Kelleys well, has been a friendly witness to their progress. "Within eleven years," he said, "they had paid for the farm, added fortynine acres to it, purchased a tractor, a truck and other needed

equipment, and enlarged their house into a modern, sevenroom home."

This was achieved by concentrating on vegetable farming to supply produce to markets in Baltimore and Washington.

How well the Kelleys have implemented their decision can be seen by what they did in 1963. It was by no means a year of ideal weather but the family marketed 8,000 bushels of string beans, tomatoes, pepp<:rs, cantaloupes and cucumbers, 5,000 watermelons and 14,400 ears of corn. For better prices the family trucked the produce to Baltimore themselves but the excess was sold to wholesale buyers who come from as far away as Philadelphia to bid for the vegetables still standing in the fields.

Mr. Kelley attributes much of his success to close cooperation with the county extension service and other agricultural agencies working with the Co-operative Extension Service -the Soil Conservation Service, Farmers Home Administration and the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service.

He also serves on the County Extension Advisory Committee on Agriculture and 4-H Club work.

Vital factors which Mr. Kelley feels have assisted him are farm management, the application of recommended production practices and keeping abreast of market conditions.

Mr. Kelley says, "we grow varieties (of vegetables) that people like best, and we aim for early and late markets to get better prices."

Last summer they brought their crop of peppers to market a month ahead of some of their neighbours. Now Mr. Kelley plans to build a hothouse and start plants even earlier. To reap these benefits the Kelleys contacted their county extension agent for advice on early and late varieties of vegetables. They also secured from the county extension office a set of plans recommended by the Agricultural Engineering Department at the University of Maryland for constructing an economical greenhouse on their farm.

A commercial vegetable farmer must grow quality produce.

Andrew Kelley has seen to that by being extraordinarily selective in purchasing seeds for planting, gathering his vegetables during the morning when they are firm, and hiring sufficient labour to Continued on next page

Mr. Kelley, left, cleans up for lunch after a busy morning. He installed modern bathroom himself when he renovated the house.

Family meal at midday, right, is children's affair. Mrs. Kelley piles plates with tasty food she cooked in labour-saving kitchen.

Purcell, 17, works on farm but plans college course in music.

He attends high school, practises and does chores in free time.

pick the crop when it is at its most desirable stage of ripeness.

At the peak of his harvesting season, he employs twenty-five or thirty migrant labourers who themselves may some day become farm-owners.

Possibly the most important factor in the Kelleys' success was their strong family spirit. The children have been inspired by the example set by their parents. Andrew Kelley and his wife have shown a tenacity and industriousness that kept their family going all through the years when the children were small and the going hardest. They are also happy and patient people. Their children have developed the same admirable character traits.

They have been outstanding 4-H Club members. Andrew Jr. and his sister Tessie have each served at different times on a delegation of eight club members to represent Maryland at regional 4-H Club conferences. These club members were selected for their outstanding project work and junior leadership in their community.

Blanche is still too young to have done anything like that; her father's farm is a big playground. She and her playmates have swings and bicycles, and they find the long rows of tomatoes and peppers ideal for playing games.

Blanche today lives a life that once seemed out of reach to her parents. A comfortable home, a labour saving kitchen, enough room for privacy, clothes, ice cream, playthings, all these are part of Blanche's every-day life. And to bystanders like Martin Bailey, the county.agent, who have watched the Kelleys grow and flourish, their material possessions¡ and their warm family ties are standing tributes to the old fashioned virtues of thrift, initiative and industry.

Blanche, the youngest child, swings in the front yard, while her nephew watches admiringly. Behind them her mother sorts tomatoes.

An Indian student finds life at New York University a rich and rewarding

experience.

'A Great

Dish of Tempting Fruit' o GEETAKAPUR,of Delhi, New York with its cultural riches is "a great dish of tempting fruit" which she is never tired of sampling. Studying for her Master's Degree in Art Education at New York University, this twentytwo-year-old Indian girl is benefiting from the varied opportunities for social and cultural contacts which the University and New York City offer to foreign students. .

The city and the university are indeed closely linked in the day-to-day activities of the students and provide common avenues for social, cultural and aesthetic satisfaction. "The larger campus of the university," says the New York University Bulletin "is the city itself-the business, cultural and artistic centre of the nation and the home of the United Nations." The two main academic campuses are the University Heights Centre and Washington Square Centre, but located in various parts of the city are a number of technical and professional institutions.

While New York University with its fifteen colleges, schools and divisions scattered in and around New York City, is not a typical American university, it has the distinction of having one of the largest student enrolments in the country-about 40,000, including more than 3,000 foreign students from about a hundred countries. The university offers about 2,500 different courses in humanities, fine arts, sciences, engineering, medicine, commerce, business administration and law. Its libraries contain more than, 1,200,000 volumes.

Geeta Kapur, some of whose activities are portrayed on these pages, has made an almost perfect adjustment to her American surroundings without much effort. Many students from abroad, however, need friendly counselling and assistance in such matters as living accommodation, proficiency in the use of the English language, unforeseen

T

Continued on next page

For Geeta the University is an unfailing source of cultural and aesthetic satisfaction. financial difficulties, social contacts and participation in appropriate extra-curricular programmes.

The new student, arriving for the first time in the United States, is often met and welcomed at the airport or dockside by a representative of a student body or other city organization. This is a gesture which is much appreciated by the new arrivals.

Foreign students in New York can either live in a college dormitory, alone or with a room-mate, or take an apartment with an American family. The New York University's two main campuses have residential rooms and dining halls which serve inexpensive meals. Miss Kapur-like many other foreign students-has found that living in a dormitory with an American student helps facilitate the process of adaptation to a new way of life; it also has social and educative value. Those students who cannot be accommodated in the dormitories or wish to make other living arrangements are assisted by the University's International Student Centre in House, getting suitable quarters. International located near Columbia University, has been a place of residence for both foreign and American students in New York for many years.

NYU's International Student Centre, as its name implies, exists solely for the convenience of foreign students and has a comprehensive programme of activities for their benefit. It arranges receptions and dances, general tours of New York City, boat rides around the Island of Manhattan, and visits to American families.

The lounges and cafeterias at the International Student Centre and other campuses of New York University are the hubs of social life and afford daily opportunities for new contacts. Geeta Kapur says: "Sometimes I sit at a table where there are strangers and start talking to them. We students begin many lasting friendships here in the cafeteria."

This, too, is the experience of many other foreign students. For instance, Miss Aleki Elias of Iraq, who is also a graduate student in art education, regularly visits the cafeteria at noon to make new acquaintances. She says: "I try to meet American students; that is what I am here for-to study and to learn more about American life." Mr. Krishna Saksena, of Agra, who is studying for a doctorate in international relations and is interested in American attitudes towards politics, has found visits to the Student Centre not only of social value but useful as an aid to his special study.

Several foreign students have expressed their astonishment at the amount of intelligent interest shown in other countries by their American collegemates. This heightened interest of American students in international affairs may possibly be part of what Continued on page 16

The University is world's largest privately supported institution. one student terms "the historical movement of the times."

In the case of some foreign students, inadequate knowledge of the English language is a major handicap which not only slows the process of adjustment to their new life but may also adversely affect their academic work. To help such students, New York University provides facilities for language training. The American Language Institute for International Students, which is part of the University's Washington Square Campus, conducts special courses in English.

In common with many other American universities, New York University normally requires a prospective student from abroad to provide information regarding his ability to meet essential expenses on tuition fees, board and lodging, and other incidentals. Difficulties sometimes arise, however, after the student arrives, and in such cases, especially where he is making good grades and shows promise, the university does its best to help him. It offers a large number of scholarships, for which both American and foreign students are eligible. The International Student Centre, too, has a fund from which shortterm emergency loans are advanced to deserving foreign students.

The foreign student who is worried about finances and anxious to help himself can, of course, also usually find part-time employment or full-time employment during holidays. The university has an office of Placement Services which helps an average of 10,000 students a year to find such employment, and many foreigners avail themselves of its services.

The large number of professors and lecturers on the staff of New York University-nearly 4,700makes it possible for the faculty members to give individual attention to students and promotes a very special relationship between teachers and students.

Commenting on this relationship, a foreign student from Cyprus states: "Most of the teachers seem really interested in your problems and want to help .... As often as they can, they ask questions of the foreign students about their countries. It gives the students a chance to contribute and to broaden the discussion."

Informal, friendly discussions between students and teachers and informal counselling under the university's adviser system are indeed a feature of American academic life which foreign students particularly appreciate.

More than any other American city, New York with its cosmopolitan attitudes and its population drawn from many nationalities, is well equipped to make the foreign student feel at home and to widen his cultural horizons. â&#x20AC;˘

The political cartoon has played a significant role in American history. It has changed public opmlOn, influenced elections, exposed corruption.

Benjamin Franklin drew this cartoon of a snake cut up into many parts to urge on the original thirteen colonies the need for unity to fight the common foe.

Famous "Gerry-Mander" cartoon, drawn by Gilbert Stuart in /811, introduced a new term still used in the United States for absurd geographical grouping for political purposes.

THOSE MISCHIEVOUS

CARTOONS IS A political cartoon?

What sets apart the men who draw them from others in the profession of painting, drawing and sketching?

Bill Mauldin, Pulitzer prize-winning editorial cartoonist of the Chicago Sun Times newspaper boils it down to this: " ...

You must either have a basic responsibility and dilute it with mischief, or be mischievous and temper it with a sense of responsibility."

Men, it seems, have always drawnhave put their ideas in the form of pictures. Cave-men carved pictures on the walls of their homes and the first known writing was simply a form of "picture"

W

HAT

writing. The Egyptians were adept at the art and adorned their pyramids with a form of political cartoon.

Since then, men of all ages have caricatured, lampooned, lectured and pleaded with readers about issues of the time and the men in public officewho have changed the course of history. For their efforts, some cartoonists have been repaid handsomely. For others, the reward has been the' whipping post, vituperation and prison sentences.

In America, the political cartoon has formed and changed public opinion, has helped win wars, influenced national elections and wrecked corrupt political machines. In its influence on newspaper

readers, it often has more convincing power than the editorials which surround it.

The men and women who settled the English colonies in America in the early part of the seventeenth century came largely from European countries and brought with them not only the mores and customs of their homelands, but also an intense love of personal liberty that was later to find expression in the U.S. Constitution. This was strongly reflected in the struggling press of colonial times. Benjamin Franklin, publisher, inventor, statesman-and cartoonist, as early as 1754 drew his famous cartoon "Join or Die," urging the thirteen original colonies (depicted by a cut-up snake) to forget individual differences and unite against a common foe.

Paul Revere, whose chief claim to fame for modern U.S. schoolboys was his historic horseback ride at night through the countryside, warning of advancing British troops, was also a watchmaker, silversmith, engraver-and cartoonist of sorts. His "A Warm PlaceHell," drawn in 1768, depicts the devil and a winged assistant, herding the seventeen reluctant "Rescinders" of a strong colonial address to the British Crown, into the cavernous jaws of a hellish dragon.

Such cartoons, amateurish by modern standards, were the works of men who felt deeply about the problems of the times but who were not professional artists. The opportunity to make a living by drawing editorial cartoons exclusively did not come for nearly 100 years, with the development of the modern metropolitan newspaper.

Meanwhile, men continued to express themselves in political drawings depicting the national issues as they saw them.

For the most part humorous drawings were simply a kind of "graphic reporting." Such early efforts were laboured, and the humour often as unsophisticated as the rugged individuals who drew them.

If comic effect was achieved by exaggeration, placing human heads on creature bodies and sheer grotesqueness, the result Continued on next page

Hundreds of caricatures, including this "elongated Lincoln" in Harper's Weekly, appeared between 1860 and 1864 either praising or lampooning Lincoln, left. Drawn for Judge, Victor Gillam's 1896 cartoon "The Sliding Scale (Citizens Take Notice) ," above, warns of impending ruin if free trade and increased public debt are encouraged.

was understandable to readers. Because most of their readers lacked formal education, it was necessary for the cartoonist to rely on elaborate detail.

While today's cartoonist need only indicate with a single curved line, such an elaborate device as a human ear, the pen-men of earlier times felt obliged not only to draw a well-developed ear, but to spell out in elaborate detail many other aspects of cartooning commonly understood by readers today. In most cases, the messages in "balloons" were script-written and verbose, the artist apparently content to draw his characters in unlikely situations and let them tell the reader the message in lengthy and flowery prose.

An exception because of its simplicity, was the powerful and influential cartoon drawn by Gilbert Stuart in 1811. Political leaders in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to secure the election of two party Senators, redistricted the Commonwealth with an absurd disregard for geographical facts. With a few deft strokes, Stuart converted a map of the area into the famous salamander-like creature known as Gerry-Mander. The name of the Commonwealth's governor was Gerry. The cartoon needed no caption or overline. Readers got the message at a glance.

After a period of imitating European cartoonists, a more native school of talent began to "educate" a hetero-

geneous public to American symbolsdevices instantly recognized by, readers.

The eagle became the symbol of the United States. John Bull represented England. The devil was associated with the political forces with which a particular cartoonist disagreed, while a bosomy young female, representing "Columbia," symbolized political goodness and truth.

At an early date Uncle Sam in the form of a thin, bearded elderly gentleman began to represent the Federal Government.

National issues of the day were presented forcefully if not artistically.

Presidential campaigns, the Mexican War, the abolition of property qualifications for voting, the addition of new territories and the duties and powers of

'BUT WHYDIDNT YOO SAVE SOMt MONE"\' FOR T~E FUTURE, WHEN "''''E~ WERE GOOD?

The frustration of the Great Depression of the 1930's was caught by John Tinney McCutcheon of the Chicago Tribune in this 1932 Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoon, "A Wise Economist Asks A Question."

YOUR EDITORS OUGHT TO HAVE MORE SENSE THAN TO PRINT WHAT

I SAY!

States versus those of a new and emerging Federal structure were all treated with vehemence by cartoonists of varying political persuasions. It was a period of tremendous growth for the people of the United States and the great issues of the day were pictured in elaborate detail by the cartoonists.

The events leading to the Civil War in 1861 foreshadowed the struggle by many years. The 'cartoons which proclaimed the merits or demerits of slavery vs. anti-slavery, States rights vs. strong central government, and "Southern" vs. "Yankee" sentiment on the right of original States to secede from the Union which they had created, mounted in bitterness as public sentiment rose on the question.

When the war began, Thomas Nast who was to become one of America's' greatest political cartoonists, was eighteen. He had already been employed as a draftsman on the illustrated press

of New York and London for two years. He had ridden on Garibaldi's train during the campaign of 1860 which had freed Sicily and Naples, and sent sketches of the leading events home to New York and to the London Illustrated News. But Nast matured during the Civil War, and Harper's Weekly which went into nearly every town, army camp, fort and ship placed his powerful drawings in view of citizens and soldiery alike. President Abraham Lincoln called Nast "his best recruiting sergeant." It was not until after the war, however, that his cartoons became caricatures. It was some fortyfive of these biting, incisive pictures in Harper's Weekly that finally exploded in one year the boss-ridden, corrupt Tammany Hall, a society which was formed shortly after American, independence and gradually acquired control of the political mechanism of the Democratic Party in New York City and county. Under unscrupulous leadership, Continued on next page

New York Daily Mirror readers chuckled over this 1952 cartoon of an irate President Truman berating the press for supposedly unauthorized publication of stories on atomic plants, guided missiles.

Herbfock's cartoon, "Of Course 1KnowIt's Mrs. Roosevelt," for Washington Post commemorated the seventieth birthday of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt in 1954.

especially that of "Boss" William Marcy Tweed in the 1860's, it became notorious for its corrupt administration and unhealthy political influence. Nast later invented such I).ational symbols as the Democratic donkey, Republican elephant and the Tammany tiger.

The last thirty years of the nineteenth century were the golden age of political caricature in America, when the cartoonists' work was more eagerly discussed, more vividly and artistically drawn, and more fearlessly published-and more savage-than ever before or since.

During this time, the daily newspaper had solved the technical problems of reproduction and the daily "editorial" cartoon arrived as a regular feature of journalism. No longer did the cartoonist follow a different trade and draw "on the side." With better pay and job security, those with talent found positions on the many papers and magazines which served a more literate and discerning readership than earlier. Such men as Joseph Keppler and Victor Gillam car-

ried on the high standards in cartooning set by the great pen and ink artist, Thomas Nast. Keppler's Puck magazine was uproariously Democratic in national politics, while Judge, for which Victor Gillam drew, was Republican. Each took firm stands on the issues of the day-opposite from each other in the political spectrum.

It was the era, too, of the growth of such powerful newspapers as the New York World by Joseph Pulitzer, the New York Tribune by Henry Grady, the New York Times by Adolph Ochs and the San Francisco Examiner and New York Journal by William Randolph Hearst. Such papers were extremely competitive both in economic and political beliefs and quick to invent or adapt to their own uses each new journalistic device. Photos began to appear in newspapers along with feature articles and humorous cartoons, for the public demanded to be entertained as well as informed.

As the best of the political cartoonists

This cartoon wasfirst published in the Oregonian of Portland, Oregon, over the caption "Another Myth Exploded." Lettered on the drawing was the line: FDR says-it is not at all true that he has "grilled millionaire for breakfast;" that what he really likes is scrambled eggs.

President Kennedy's determination to meet the challenge posed by the steel industry is vividly portrayed in this cartoon for St. Louis Post-Dispatch by Bill Mauldin.

went to the large papers able to pay big salaries, the demand of the smaller papers for political cartoons resulted in syndication of the cartoonists' works from the metropolitan dailies. The effect was to spread across the nation the works of the most capable of the cartoonists and feature writers. For a modest sum, the smaller papers could thus give their readers the best editorial cartoons.

From the turn of the twentieth century through the "Roaring Twenties," "Depression Thirties" and "Frantic Forties" as American cartoonists have termed these ten-year periods, they presented aspects of national interest as they saw them.

And as America lost some of its naivety, as its citizens became better educated and more politically sophisticated, cartoonists' works became simpler.

Today's reader would not devote the time to struggling through the mass of flowery prose that filled the "balloons" of early nineteenth century political cartoons. Now the artist, with rare exception, tells the prose part of his work in a sentence or short paragraph in a cut-line or caption. He lets his pen or pencil do the major job of conveying his idea.

Since 1922, when Columbia University began to award Pulitzer prizes for the best political cartoon of the year, the nation's top cartoonists have vied for the honour. Without exception, the top winners are marked by a moral earnestness without which no cartoonist of stature is likely to give his work a quality of universality or permanence.

If the political cartoons of a century ago were marked by a high degree of partisanship and bitterness, the best of modern American works are characterized by generosity and fairness and a bit of bite. â&#x20AC;˘

JOHN

O'HARA

SAUL BELLOW

ARE THEY THE GIANTS

OF CURRENT

U.S.

LITERATURE? JOHNO'HARA AND SAULBELLOWrepresent two main currents of American fiction writing today. It is perhaps futile to bring two writers together into a world of sameness for a writer's world is after all his own creation, something distinct and unique. But both O'Hara and Bellow have an outstanding stature among contemporary authors and are linked together by a common effort to depict and interpret a growingly complex world.

Hence this combined appraisal of both writers.

Controversy has swarmed around John O'Hara, one of America's' most popular writers for thirty ,years. Some critics call him the "great American bore." To others, he is the master of the short story form and one of the truly great figures in American literary life. His astounding popularity and, in particular, his phenomenal productivity are often viewed with suspicion, as if they must necessarily be a sign of hack-work. O'Hara seems to ignore the criticism as he produces touching, poignant and authentic stories with remarkable speed and skill.

Like O'Hara, Saul Bellow is also a highly controversial figure. But there is a growing consensus that he may turn out to be one of the foremost American novelists of his generation-the generation following Hemingway, Faulkner and Fitzgerald.

After his Adventures of Augie March and Henderson the Rain King, acclaimed examples of the author's freedom of style and astonishing inventiveness, Herzog, his sixth and latest novel published last fall, zoomed to the top of the national best-seller lists. The appearance of this novel has inspired some of the liveliest literary criticism in recent years, from which a selection is presented on pages 26 through 28.

AT AN informal literary meeting in New Delhi, a discussion on American author John O'Hara produced two distinctly discordant, and widely contradictory, opinions. "Intolerable," and a "great American bore," some said. Others, equally emphatically, hastened to remark: "a magnificent architect of stories," "a tremendously valuable writer."

Between these two extreme view points, amounting almost to a total adoration in one case and an almost total defiance in the other, all O'Hara readers-:-irrespective of countries-seem easily recognizably, irrevocably separated. How far or whether at all they should be thus separated is beside the point. What is important is that any writer who is powerful enough to either antagonize his readers so profoundly or make them like him so intensely, must at least be a writer of unquestionable merit.

This in itself is a sufficiently valid reason why O'Hara's work should be given a serious consideration by critics and readers everywhere.

John O'Hara, better known for his short stories than his novels, received recently the distinguished Award of Merit from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

The only other literary prize he ever won was the 1956 National Book Award for his novel Ten North Frederick.

These are all the laurels he can boast of, and that is a bit unfortunate, since he loves to have them. "I want the badges," he openly says.

Not that a prize necessarily makes a writer great, but it might be interesting to examine why a great many of the leading figures of the modern literary world have often been tempted to snub him. The charges against O'Hara, whom many consider as the "granddaddy" of today's American short story form, are numerous, and any critical account of his work would be incomplete without a careful consideration of those charges. But, before such consideration, it might also be worthwhile to add that all such charges notwithstanding, O'Hara's astounding popularity has made him, financially, one of the most successful writers of this century.

For the last fifteen years or so, according to knowledgeable sources, O'Hara's average annual income has topped $100,000 or approximately five lakhs of rupees, and this not including his earnings from Hollywood as a screen writer which must also be substantial. Looking at this success from another angle, the sales figures of his books in all editions have already crossed the fifteen million mark in the U.S. itself, and his works have been translated into almost eve~y major language of the world.

O'Hara's phenomenal popularity with his readers might have partially contributed to much of the adverse criticism centring round his work. But by far the most oft-quoted charge against him is that he wastes his indomitable energy and indisputable talent on useless details, that his impressive body of work, utterly and aggressively non-speculative, lacks a sense of purpose, that nothing else

R

JOHN O'~ARA: LITERARY STORM CENTRE

ECENTLY,

._.••••

_________ than the dissection of social snobbery is his only avowed. theme. John O'Hara, it is often alleged, is a tape-recorder.

He certainly seems to possess a photographic eye and a phonographic ear. In his decor of country-club civilization which he knows intimately and analyses with remarkable accuracy, he would leave no details overlooked. "If you are an author," he once said, "and not just a writer, you keep learning all the time. Today, for instance, I was thinking about dialog, listening to dialog of some characters in my mind's ear, and I learned for the first time in my life that almost no woman who has gone beyond the eighth grade ever calls a fifty-cent piece a half-a-dolIar." Just to give an idea of the fantastic lengths to which his passion for details can sometimes go, hjs critics would often list an astonishing variety of people and things as O'Hara sees them and describes in his books. O'Hara, for example, seems to know with the sureness of instinct everything that is there to know about automobiles and victrola records, saloon owners and political bosses, mine owners and steelworkers, night clubs and whore houses, locker rooms and investment banks, baseball players and boxing contests, Broadway stars and Hollywood starlets. He can describe, with what his critics have called an "uncanny exactitude," what upper middle-' class American women wore or drank in 1925 or 1937, or what social gestures are required of one attending a two-fifty (meaning two dollars and fifty cents) countryclub dinner dance. In addition, in his unfalteringly clean, quick and sure style, O'Hara makes his characters speak a dialogue whiCh in its admirable colloquial force and precision is nearly flawless.

But all this to what purpose, some of his critics seem to ask. His works, these critics say, can at best be exquisitely contemporary period pieces. Even his best known powerful first novel, Appointment in Samarra, has been dismissed by some as hardly more than a period novel.

O'Hara, being primarily a novelist of manners, is doomed to be outdated in no time-such seems to be the verdict of a section of critics. . There are still graver charges against him. O'Hara's works, according, to some others, have a marked sexual quotient; he deals in raw sex and seems to be obsessed with sexuality; as a writer, he has a perpetual love affair with rapacious females. And all this leads to an even graver charge, the gravest against him, that the world he depicts is substantially inhuman, devoid of vital sympathies and any central, redeeming philosophy of life.

O'Hara's enormous productivity. is one more point which has not only puzzled his critics but has made them suspicious of the quality of his work. Today, at sixty, "in spite of aches in spine and tendons," he seems to possess an apparently inexhaustible urge to express himself, and has already published twenty-four impressive volumes of fiction, short stories and plays. In the fore-

â&#x20AC;˘â&#x20AC;˘'.7__ '

word to one of his recent collections of short stories, Assembly, he says, "All but three or four of these stories (there are twenty-six of them in the collection) were written during the summer of 19.60. I wrote most of them in two sittings of about three hours apiece, and it was some of the most joyful writing I have ever done."

How prolific a writer John O'Hara is can be seen from this single instance. Elizabeth Appleton, his last novel published in 1963, was his eleventh book and fifth major novel since 1955. The novel, completed in 1960, had to await publication until two volumes of short stories (Assembly and The Cape Cod Lighter), a Hollywood novel (The Big Laugh), three novellas and a volume of five plays could make their appearances. Since Elizabeth Appleton, he has published two more large collections of new stories, The Hat on the Bed and The Horse Knows the Way. In addition, he has now expressed a desire to devote himself fully to the novel form for some time to come.

Judging by any standard, this is a spectacular record of writing performance. But, O'Hara reminds his readers, "It is not to be inferred by the layman or the tyro author that because the writing looks easy, or because I say it came easily, hard work was not involved."

Yet even his fecundity is often used by critics to dismiss O'Hara as little more than a hack. The charges which critics have made against O'Hara would have encouraged a lesser man to sell his typewriter and take up truck driving. But if O'Hara, with his obstinate persistence, could still "stick to his guns," it is because he has a sustaining confidence in himself and his writing. Secondly, and happily, on the other side of the controversy, there is also an influential section of discerning critics who consider him not only a prolific writer, but a tremendously gifted and faithful writer as well-a writer whose work they think has great relevance to our times. They say O'Hara is only apparently preoccupied with me'l'e surface, but when one probes deeply into his world, one soon realizes that this writer is mainly concerned with something much beneath the surface. His principal theme is the lonely man's tragedy in agrowingly uncontrollable and virtually impossible world. As to the charge of exhausting detail and the absence of a central vision of life in his work, admirers say that O'Hara uses detail for emotional impact and that his passionate concern is with the melancholy of the passage of time, the pathos of human existence.

Much of the adverse criticism of his work is perhaps due to the fact that his kind of writing is not fashionable these days. Since the advent of Freud and Joyce, it is the psychological or symbolic novel which has lately come to monopolize the interest of a great majority of Iiterary critics.

But what if John O'Hara has chosen to take an altogether different path, pioneered in the past by America's Henry James and Hemingway? He has more affinity with Continued on next page

I I~

" If you are an author, and not just a writer, you keep learning all the time."

"I want to get it all down on paper while I can. The United States in this century is what I know, and it is my business to write about it to the best of my ability, with the sometimes special knowledge I have."

"The '20s, the '30s, and the '40s are already history, but I cannot be content to leave their story in the hands of the historians and the editors of picture books."

"I want to record the way people talked and thought ~nd felt, and to do it with complete honesty and variety."

"Nowadays I get letters from students who are the sons and daughters of men and women who read my early short stories when they first came out. Thus, without realizing it, I was writing for posterity, and posterity is here."

Henry James than with Hemingway who, though always a great favourite of O'Hara, was less a commentator on social mores than a poet. And there also exists an essential difference between the content of O'Hara and what Henry James tried to achieve. While the older novelist was concerned exclusively with the contrast between the American and European upper classes, O'Hara subjects to an almost clinical scrutiny a limited but well-defined American milieu: the tight-knotted New York-Philadelphia social axis. In this endeavour, even his bitterest critics admit, he has successfully explored for the first time "a good dea] of interesting territory."

O'Hara has his reasons for being primarily an interpreter of social realities. In the foreword to a recent collection of three novellas published under the collective title Sermons and Soda- Water, he explains this extraordinary, self-appointed task: "I want to get it all down on paper while I can. The United States in this century is what I know, and it is my business to write about it to the best of my ability, with the sometimes special knowledge I have. The '20s, the '30s, and the '40s are already history, but I cannot be content to leave their story in the hands of the historians and the editors of picture books. I want to record the way people talked and thought and felt, and to do it with complete honesty and variety." In terms of what he fixes as his goal-a portrayal of America he knows-O'Hara has a unique place in today's literature.

Elsewhere, he reverts to this question of honesty as he as a writer understands it and says, "The author may write rapidly, and I do, but let it not be inferred that I 'dash them off.' The way I feel about writing, which is practically a religious feeling, would not permit me to 'dash off' a story." And as to the charge that being no more than a writer of manners he is destined to be outmoded soon, O'Hara answers from his own experience: "Nowadays I get letters from students who are the sons and daughters of men and women who read my early short stories when they first came out. Thus, without realizing it, I was writing for posterity, and posterity is here."

Being so concerned as he is with the mores of society as material for his art, his actual life and society should naturally be expected to provide the background of his stories. Gibbsville, the geographical and sociological site of many of his most important literary achievements, is in reality Pottsville, a pleasant but rather stuffy little Pennsylvania town, where John Henry O'Hara was born on January 31, 1905, the eldest of eight children. His father, Patrick Henry O'Hara, was a reasonably wealthy man and a physician of more than local fame. Details about .his family, which he himself has noted, seem to have a direct bearing on his literary activities. The O'Haras once owned five cars simultaneously, four in town and one on their l60-acre farm; young O'Hara was a member of the country' club, attended three dancing schools and all the dances in the vicinity-a background which has

.~ often served O'Hara the writer. Mahantonga Street at Pottsville, which becomes Lantenengo Street in his fiction and on which stands the three-storey, wood-and-brick mansion of his father, is the most fashionable quarter in town. Amidst such surroundings young John, say his biographers, soon developed into an arresting youth, a dandy, long of jaw and quick of eye. He was also rusticated from Keystone State Normal school for pursuing a trustee's daughter.

Thus, his own background explains much of his preoccupation, as a writer in later years, with contemporary urban society and higher class manners. It is only recently, perhaps for the first time in one of his latest volumes of short stories, The Hat on the Bed, that he has also prominently dealt with the middle class, the lower class and even the declassed people. But most of his central characters have so far been men and women of dignity and ability, accustomed to wealth and power, who, caught in the web of vastly complicated fabric of existence, suddenly realize the pathetic futility of their efforts.

This predominant theme-"the sadness of potentially valuable lives failing, but not without some dignity"was markedly present even in his first work of fiction, Appointment in Samdrra, published in 1934. This now classic novel tells the tightly constructed, doom-ridden story of Julian English, an auto salesman and the son of a prominent physician, whose mindless slide down the inescapable path to self-destruction makes him a tragic hero of modern times. The novel was set in the anthracite town of GibbsviIIe, Pennsylvania and, though an immediate success, was also vehemently criticized because of its strong sexual quotient. O'Hara's reaction to this criticism was that adultery was a fact of life and that the best people, as also the worst, often indulged, directly or indirectly, in bed or out, in adulterous thought, or talk or act. To the charge that in the novel he had deliberately maligned his old hometown, O'Hara replied that GibbsviIle, in terms of the forces of wealth, class and moral tradition, was not to be taken as a special case but a microcosm of the eastern U.S. in the first quarter of this century.

Since the initial success of Appointment in Samarra, he has published¡a number of novels such as Butterfield 8, Hope of Heaven, Ten North Frederick, From the Terrace and Elizabeth Appleton, to name only a few. From the Terrace, his most ambitious work so far, is a 897-page panorama spanning half a century and describing, against a background of the mannered world of the very rich, one man's extended history of surface happiness and spiritual malaise. The story of Ten North Frederick, another important work which won the prestigious National Book Award in 1956, is about an accomplished and successful lawyer named Joseph Chapin and his sterile aspirations to political position.

But it is in the short stories rather than in his novels that O'Hara's real genius comes into full play. For the sheer

craftsmanship, often amounting to a veritable tour de force, the splendid economy of words, and the total effectiveness, a great many of his short stories are unique of their kind. And there is often more to them than the mere. craftsmanship. Invariably towards the end, there is a sudden redeeming event, frequently trifle in appearance but latently meaningful, an unexpected glimpse of tragedy, a compassionate view, not uttered but subtly hinted, of the futility of human condition. In short, a vision of life, which is precisely what some critics have accused him of lacking. There is some truth to the allegation that most of O'Hara's larger works, including the long short stories and novelettes, lack that cohesion and unity of purpose which characterize his short short stories.

"The Public Dorothy," one of O'Hara's latest short stories, for instance, is a case in point. This is not a story particularly hailed even by his admirers, but it is typical of O'Hara and its inherent pathos would be evident to Indian readers without firsthand knowledge of America or American social manners. O'Hara's forceful colloquial prose, direct and unadorned, his camera-perfect description of detail, his masterly touch with dialogue, all these characteristic qualities are on view here, within the narrow space of less than six full pages. Thematically, a drama of existence, "The Public Dorothy" portrays the pathos of one lonely life as viewed from the perspective of his many years of efforts and intangible pleasures of living.

The story is about a middle-aged society lady-"the girl and then the woman who had gone from pretty girl to beautiful woman and in looks was the gainer"-and her rich, well-established lover. They are far from being really happy, but through mutually agreed ritualistic deceptions, they try to prove to people that so far as their happiness goes, they are an illustrious couple.

One afternoon, while lunching with her at a public restaurant, the lover feels he cannot bear her childish chatter any longer and is tempted to say, "Will you for God's sake shut up." But knowing that he is not strong enough for the circumstances he has to meet, he says nothing.

Instead, he goes-alone-to spend the rest of the afternoon in the club library; he uses the club stationery to write:' "I love you, Dorothy. Please forgive me." If Dorothy does not see this note-and she will not, 'he knows-it matters little. This is a note he writes to himself, to feel forgiven and to have the courage to .continue.. But to continue what? His own lonely journey, of course.

O'Hara, through all his creative efforts extending over three decades, has tried to state and define this lonely man and his unspeakable tragedy. In both concept and content, this essentially is a tragedy' of the modern, urbanized man. Contrary to what has been so repeatedly alleged, O'Hara has little concern for a self-pitying futilitarianism. Instead, beneath an elegant and deceptively placid surface world, and penetratingly .drawn intimate portraits of social and domestic life, his works reveal a deeply meaningful image of man.

,_

â&#x20AC;˘â&#x20AC;˘

11

Herzog is the story of a forty-five-year-old professor, Moses Herzog, who is thrown into a chaotic state by the break-up of his second marriage. He makes frantic trips-by plane, train, ferryboat, taxi and subway-to confront people who might, but do not, help explain his weakening grip on reality. His career appears to be shattered and he has abandoned his work on a new book. Alone in a big old house in the Massachusetts countryside, Herzog compulsively writes letters he will never send. He writes to everyone he can think of-to his friends, to the dead and living members of his family, to General Eisenhower, to Nietzsche. As the novel ends, Herzog finds calm. He makes up his mind to pick up the pieces as a new freedom, confidence and strength take hold and help bring him back to reality.

Critics' reactions to this novel have ranged from awed admiration to disappointment, but no reviewer was unmoved. Here is a sampling of their comments, suggesting the varied responses produced by Her,zog.

SAUL

BELLOW'S

HERZOG:

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY

11"_

BELLOW'S

NEWSWEEK: Because it is the most fully achieved work of our best novelist, Saul Bellow's new novel is a literary event of the first importance .... Herzog has the range, depth, intensity, verbal brilliance and imaginative fullnessthe mind and heart-which we may expect only of a novel that is unmistakably destined to last.

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. IME: Individual episodes in Herzog are brilliant; Bellow can wring a rare pathos out of the most unlikely, unlovely material .... No one, in fact, slices life with a sharper eye than Bellow. But on the whole, the new novel is disappointing. Moses E. Herzog, teacher-scholar, is everybody's doormat. Things happen to him; he does nothing.

He is tossed out of his own home by his wife and her lover. He is bullied by lawyers, psychiatrists, cops, a priest and friends ....

It is just that Bellow does not seem to be covering any new ground. Towards the end, Herzog reflects: "I look at myself and see chest, thighs, feet-a head. This strange organization, I know it will die. And inside-something, something, happiness .... Something produces intensity, a holy feeling.... 'But what do you want, Herzog?' '-But t hat ,..s Just It-not a so I'Itary t h'mg, I am pretty we11sat'ISfied to be, to be just as it is willed, and for as long as I may remain in occu,pancy.'''

There must be more to say than that.

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HENEWYORKTIMESBOOKREVIEW: Over the past ten or fifteen years Jewish writers-Bernard Malamud, J. D. Salinger, Norman Mailer, Philip Roth, inter alia-have emerged as a dominant movement in our literature. Herzog, in several senses, is the great pay-off book of that movement. It is a masterpiece, the first the movement has produced .... It is full of Jewish wit, humour, pathos, intellectual and moral passion. . . .

Herzog is a great book because it has great characters.

First, Herzog himself. He wanders about, distracted, charming and nervy, a kind of intellectual Oblomov on the run .... His mood shifts in great swoops and glides; he revisits in imagination the scenes of his broken marriages, his broken career, his childhood. He disappears from New York, turns up in Vineyard Haven, flies to Chicago, where, gun in hand, he spies through a window his ex-wife's lover bathing Herzog's own small daughter and realizes he can never seize the swift logic of the assassin. . . .

Madeleine, Herzog's second wife, is a great character.

She is beautiful, brilliant, cracked and is working for a doctorate in Russian church history with the aim of rising like a phoenix from the ashes of her former husband's

scholarly reputation. . .. Herzog is all for justice, while Mady's passion is for justification: the marriage has been a tragedy and a farce. Her lover, Valentine Gersbach, a red-headed knave who poles himself along on a wooden leg like a Venetian gondolier, is a great character. He is full of schmaltz and spouts the latest stencils of psychology while he takes dishonest advantage of a friend. The author draws this modern Tartuffe with love, hatred and a racy vividness.-Julian Moynahan. Š 1964 by The New York Times Company. Reprinted by permission.

L. IFE:

Herzog is a disappointment because it claims a lot for itself and then doesn't deliver ....

There is a predictability to much of the action, which is doubtless part of Bellow's intended symbolism (at least one would hope so), but which in any case doesn't do much for the narrative. Once one has seen Bellow's caricature of a wife, one knows that she is going to do something awful to Herzog, and once one has seen Bellow's caricature of a "good friend" one knows that Gersbach is going to take Madeleine away from Herzog and that she is going to want to be taken ....

Bellow's effort proves, as if it needed to be proved, that it"s virtually impossible for a first-rate writer to write an uninteresting book. But Herzog remains a small novel by a big writer.-M. J. Arlen

THENEW REPUBLIC: For all its vividness as perform-

ance, Herzog is a novel driven by an idea. It is a serious idea, though, in my judgment, neither worked out with sufficient care nor worked into the grain of the book with sufficient depth. Herzog, he tells us, means to write something that will deal "with a new angle on the modern condition, showing how life could be lived by renewing universal connections, overturning the last of the Romantic errors about the uniqueness of the Self, revising the old Western Faustian ideology .... " This time clearly speaking for Bellow, Herzog declares himself opposed to: "the canned sauerkraut, of Spengler's 'Prussian Socialism,' the commonplaces of the Wasteland outlook, the cheap mental stimulants of Alienation, the cant and rant of pipsqueaks about Inauthenticity and Forlornness. I can't accept this foolish dreariness. We are talking about the whole life of mankind. The subject is t60 great, too deep for such weakness, cowardice .... " And in the magazine LOCATION,Bellow has recently written an attack on "the 'doom of the West' (which) is the Established Church in modern literature." It is a Church,

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he says, which asserts the individual to be helpless among the impersonal mechanisms and sterilities of modern life; it cultivates self-pity and surrender; and it is wrong ....

Bellow is being just a little too cavalier in so readily disposing of a central theme of modernist literature. Surely, as it was manifested in the work of writers like Joyce, Flaubert, Eliot and Baudelaire, the sense of alienation expressed a profound and even exhilarating response to the. reality of industrial society. (An imagining of despair can be as bracing as a demand for Joy can be ruthless.) And does not the sense of alienation, if treated not as a mere literary convenience but as a galling social fact-does this not continue to speak truthfully to significant conditions in our life?-Irving Howe

BOOK WEEKOFTHENEWYORKHERALDTRIBUNE:Above all, this novel positively radiates intelligence-not mere brightness or shrewdness or that kind of sensitiveness which sometimes passes for mind among us. It is a coherent, securely founded intelligence-a real endowmentl-of genuine intellectual quality which, marvellously escaping the perils of abstraction, is neither recondite nor esoteric.

It is directed towards imaginative ends by a true and sharp sense of the pain that rends the human world of its ills, both curable and incurable, and equally by a bracing, unfailing sense of irony and humour serving to counteract such chronic vulnerabilities of intelligence as over-solemnity of mind on the one hand and perversity of sensibility on the other.-Philip Rahv

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HENEWYORKER: Moses Elkanah Herzog, PH.D., is an original figure in our literature, and now that he is safely born we will all be quick to perceive that he was sorely needed and is henceforth not to be done without. (In literature, as in life, we never know what we're missing until it arrives.) His sudden exultant gusts of lunatic letter writing are, merely as devices for constructing a novel, new and very funny. They explode on the page with the compact incandescence of poems. In horror and holy glory, he dashes off a note: "There is someone inside me.

I am in his grip. When I speak of him I feel him in my head, pounding for order. He will ruin me.... " He sits down and scribbles a never-to-be-mailed letter to an exwife, an ex-mother-in-law, an ex-mistress, a lawyer, a doctor, Professor Hoyle, Adlai Stevenson, Nietzsche ....

He, harangues them, urges tliem to think twice, pleads with them to pull themselves together and see things his way,

while all round him his own life lies in spectacular ruin, as big and grave and dark to him as a capriccio by Piranesi.

-Brendan Gill. Š 1964 The New Yorker Magazine, Inc.

NEW YORKREVIEWOFBOOKS:Mr. Bellow has something like a genius for place. There is not a descriptive insinuator of what a city like New York is like from minute to minute who comes anywhere near him. Some novelists stage it, others document it; he is breathing in it. He knows how to show us not only Moses but other people, moving from street to street, from room to room in their own circle of uncomprehending solitude .... A wanderer, he succeeds with minor characters, the many small figures in the crowd who suggest millions more. The dialogue of a Puertb Rican taxi driver, a Chicago cop, a low lawyer, a Jewish family, people brash, shady or saddened with the need of survival and whose ripeness comes out of the dirty brick that has trapped them, is really wonderful. It is far superior to Hemingway's stylized naturalism; Bellow's talk carries the speaker's life along with it.-V. S. Pritchett

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HECHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Since World War II there has been an urgent instinct among V.S critics and readers to choose a successor to Hemingway as the champion of the American novel.

The first candidates were the war novelists, and for a brief period Norman Mailer seemed the logical contender.

When he failed to adapt to what for lack of a better term might be called the civilian novel, there was no major panic. Surely another young novelist was typing away in obscurity, worthy to emerge and seize the prize. . . . There is every indication that Mr. Bellow is going to be the next name submitted to the American public as champ, and there is every possibility that he may last longer than most. ...

Whether Herzog will be long remembered for itself is, open to question. It is a little self-conscious, a little overdirected, a little narrow in the frame within which it dramatizes its .concerns. Even though its protagonist promises to break out of his egoism, he has an awfully egoistical time doing it.

What Herzog may well do in the future is serve as landmark for a change in posture by the American novelist.

No mean achievement.-Melvin Maddocks. Reprinted by permission from The Christian Science Monitor. Š 1964 The Christian Science Publishing Society. All Rights Reserved. â&#x20AC;˘

IS U.S. CONGRESSIONAL REFORM NECESSARY? In its January 1965 issue SPAN published an article by the well-known American political scientist Dr. James MacGregor Burns, in which he expressed the view that U.S. Congressional reform was necessary to remove the bottlenecks which delay legislative procedure and can obstruct passage of progressive measures. Recent endorsement by Congress of a large number of the Administration's proposals has, however, been productive of more important legislation than has been passed in many years. During his visit to India in February, the editors of SPAN asked Dr. Burns to discuss his views on this and related subjects. The interview follows.

UESTlON: You have stated: ''The Presidential leader must be more than a skilful manipulator or brilliant interpreter. He must be a constructive innovator." Could you give us a brief appraisal of President Johnson's role in the light of these comments and the President's performance so far?

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DR. BURNS: President Johnson has been more of a skilful manipulator and brilliant interpreter than he has been a constructive innovator so far. Since he came into office he has been living essentially off the great issues of the Kennedy Administration. But he is increasingly developing his own style and his own emphasis and now I think his own innovations. They are not completely innovative because what I am going to mention actually had its background in the Theodore Roosevelt Administration and later on in others. Where he is innovating, I think, is in the relation between the Federal Government and the quality of American life instead of simply the quantity of American goods. He is concerned about recreation, about leisure, about matters like immigration which affect the style of American life, and as he moves more deeply into these qualitative problems of American life and moves away. somewhat from the quantitative problems, then I think we will see the kind of constructive innovation that I was referring to here.

Q: There is a feeling among some liberals and intellectuals that President Johnson's moderation and emphasis on consensus might affect his handling of problems calling for a bold. imaginative approach. What are your views on this?

DR. BURNS: 1 think you are right that there is some feeling along that line but it is diminishing rapidly. The feeling arose from the fact that for years Lyndon Johnson was a Texas Senator or Senator from the Southwest. He had to take a moderate position as a Senator from the Southwest. Now that he is President and acting on his own, this liberal suspicion, this left-wing fear of Lyndon Johnson as too moderate, has rapidly been diminishing. He continues to talk about a great consensus and how he wants a consensus behind him, and this also evokes some worry on the part of liberals. But the amazing thing about Lyndon Johnson is that he will talk one evening in a very bland way about the need for consensus and then within a few hours he will take a position on something like immigration or civil rights or medi-care or some other burning issue and there will be no faltering at all, as far as the actual position is concerned. So I think the liberals are discovering a new Lyndon Johnson in the Presidency.

Q: You-have written about the delays and devitalization arising from the American system with its "interlocked gears of government." Yet President Johnson was able to get about sixty per cent of his 217 specific requests accepted by Congress during the 1964 session. Would you care to comment on this?

DR. BURNS: This book that you mentioned, The Deadlock of Democracy, appeared in 1963 at the height of the deadlock of democracy under the Kennedy Administration. Kennedy had been elected by a very bare popular margin-just a tiny percentage of the majority needed-and he was very conscious all through his Administration that he lacked, that he had not aroused, the popular majority that he wanted. And he hoped that he would have a wide majority in 1964 to put through his big programmes. His death, the incredible national and international reaction to his death, I think, precipitated a tremendous change in American politics. I

think many Americans wanted to memorialize Kennedy in the policies that he favoured. They gave him a kind of support in grief after his death that they did not give him necessarily during his years in office.

That was one factor-a rallying of the American people behind the Kennedy programme after the assassination. The second thing was the coming to power of an enormously skilful politician who was able to call in his debts and credits from the Senate and from the Congress generally. And the third development was the nomination by the Republicans of a man who so boldly challenged what the New Deal and the Fair Deal and the New Frontier had stood for. In rallying the American people to withstand the challenge by Barry Goldwater, Johnson was able to organize a great consensus-sixty to sixty-five per cent consensus of the American people. So we did have an unlocking of the deadlock during 1964. That unlocking may continue in 1965 as a result of the outcome of the election. In a sense Barry Goldwater did what I and many other people had hoped liberal Presidents would do. He canalized and polarized American sentiment. He showed conclusively that the New Deal, Fair Deal, New Frontier, Great Society kind of concept did have the overwhelming support of the American people. By one of those paradoxes of history, the liberals of the United States owe a kind of debt to Barry Goldwater in helping strengthen the liberal programme.

Now, by implication of what I have said, this may not be a permanent unlocking of the deadlock; only the future will tell. But certainly at the moment the United States is catching up for years of delay and obstruction in Congress, as witnessed by the passage of the Civil Rights Act after many years of Congressional obstruction on effective civil rights legislation.

Q:

Do you still consider that Congressional reform is necessary to prevent undue obstructions and delays in the legislative process?

DR. BURNS: Yes, I do. President Johnson has had success with his legislative programmes in 1964 and may again have it in 1965. As a historian and political scientist, however, I am not just concerned about Lyndon Johnson. I am concerned about the man who will be in the White House after Johnson. And as a matter of fact, I am concerned about Johnson himself, because my argument in The Deadlock of Democracy was that the obstruction to the programme was not just a matter of factions in Congress. I was arguing that those factions dominated a structure of slow-down and stalemate in Congress resting in turn on the Committee structure, the domination of Congress by conservatives through the seniority rule, the Rules Committee and other factors of slow-down and obstruction in Congress.

So my position is that only when the institutional and structural bases of conservative opposition are undermined will we really unlock the deadlock of democracy over the long run.

Q:

DR. BURNS: Yes. Here again it seems to me there have been very important changes in the last year or two, although again the future will determine how important those changes are. Again, Goldwater acted as a catalyst. He, in effect, tried to organize the two conservative parties, what I call the Congressional Democrats and Congressional Republicans, into a conservative party, to overcome the two liberal parties which I call the Presidential Democrats and the Presidential Republicans-the party of Kennedy and Johnson and the party of Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower, Wendell Wilkie and say Nelson Rockefeller.

Goldwater felt that if he united the two conservative parties he could defeat the two liberal parties.

The whole country was aroused by this challenge, one way or the other, and two things went wrong with Goldwater's estimate. First of all, he did not have the votes. He had argued that the conservative cause in the United States really had a great reservoir of support. Once there was a clear confrontation, a clear test, he felt that a conservative candidate would rally an immense number of Americans who had never bothered to take part in or had been very active in previous elections. He was wrong, it seems to me. The election outcome shows that during this epilogue-and, of course, this could change-the liberalism we associate with Roosevelt and Truman and Kennedy and Johnson, did have strong majority and perhaps even moderate conservative support in the United States.

Goldwater's second miscalculation was of Lyndon Johnson as a politician.

The fact is that Lyndon Johnson did not let Goldwater make a real coalition even of the two Congressional parties. Johnson still maintained enough personal standing in the Congressional Democratic party. In effect Goldwater was left with about one-and-a-half parties and Johnson had about two-and-a-half parties. Now that is what happened in 1964. The question is about the future. And here I think it depends on whether Johnson keeps working for this great consensus, trying to get the support of three parties and perhaps even four parties, or whether he feels that

You have maintained that there are in fact four main political parties, not two, in the United States, both Republicans and Democrats being split into a Presidential party and a Congressional party, and that this split affects governm(!ntal efficiency and decision-making. Do you still hold this view in spite of the changes in party strength following the last elections?

he must move ahead on policy. He is still talking about consensus and about having the support of practically all the American people. Whether he moves ahead on some of these controversial policies is a question to which, I think, we are getting our answer now. We are getting it in the actual policies that Johnson is supporting. He is taking a strong liberal position on his proposals to Congress.

Hence, I think what may well happen in the years ahead is that a more effective politician than Goldwater will indeed be able to bring about a coalition between the two conservative parties, while Lyndon Johnson and perhaps people like Hubert Humphrey or Robert Kennedy in the future will unite the two liberal parties. So, to answer your question, I would say that events in the last year or two have blurred and somewhat obscured the four-party system but that the four-party tendencies are still there and may well be back with us depending upon the course of future events.

Q:

Would you elaborate for us what you have termed "the central dilemma of American foreign policy?"

Q: During the short time you have been in this country, have you had any Indian reactions to the point we have been discussing?

DR. BURNS: The central dilemma of American foreign policy is this: it is a divided mind on the part of the American people and the American foreign policy makers as to their main goal. They have two goals and these goals are not wholly consistent.

On the one hand, as a nation we could be called basically a "have" power as against a "have-not" power, a nation basically enjoying the great natural resources and a powerful position in the world. As such a power, the United States wants very much to keep the world intact, to keep these tensions and hatreds that crisscross the world from boiling up into war and into uncontrollable violence. The United States, because it does possess nuclear power, has a very heavy sense of its own responsibility not to let some conflict escalade into the possibilities of a nuclear war. In pursuing that general foreign policy, the United States is spending great effort in trying to mediate problems and trying to settle things, and in doing this it has to be very pragmatic. For example, in a situation it might feel it has to work with a dictatorship. In trying to build power in Europe against the possibilities of Soviet aggression, the United States will make a deal with a dictatorship in say, Spain, a dictatorship that many Americans have unhappy memories about. We are doing this around the world, and lots of time we make deals with or make settlements with or even work with governments or leaders that many humanitarianminded people do not like. Certainly, these agreements seem a long way off from our democratic pretensions.

On the other hand, the other great value, the other great goal, of Ame~ican foreign policy-making is indeed to help carry out the revolutionary goals which we feel we have begun to reach in the United States and which we think would be good for the world. That may be presumptuous of us, but in any event we believe that we have made democracy work in our country despite our failings. We are trying to achieve equality and freedom in our country, and we think we have achieved a good deal of it. We think this would be good for the rest of the nations or the rest of the world. So here we are trying to follow rather Utopian and idealistic policies. We want to expand democracy throughout the world as we understand democracy, meaning freedom and equality. But anyone who takes us seriously, believing in democracy one day, then seeing that we have made one more deal with a dictatorship the next day, says: "What is going on here? These people are hypocrites. They are not living up to their pretensions."

That is what I mean by the dilemma of our foreign policy-making. We are caught between our short-run pragmatic goals of adjustment and accommodation and compromise and our long-run revolutionary goals of democracy, by which I mean the expansion of freedom for all people and the expansion of equality of opportunity for all people at home and hopefully, in the long run, in the rest of the world.

DR. BURNS: Yes, the point I have just been making is one that seems very relevant to Indian attitudes. Often, when I give a lecture here to an academic audience, I am sure to have some member of the audience during the discussion period stand up and say: "How can you deal with a man like Syngman Rhee in Korea or Franco in Spain, or with militaristic dictatorships in Latin America?"

My answer to him is just what I said: that we are caught in this dilemma. I think in the long run we will resolve the dilemma but in the short run it makes a very good deal of confusion and misunderstanding about American foreign policy.

And by the way, Americans are confused too, because there are many people at home who are idealists. They may be conservatives as well as liberals, who cannot understand why we need to be doing one thing with our right hand and something else with our left. â&#x20AC;˘

The development of the electronic computer, with its capacity to handle instantaneously large masses of facts and figures, is a major technological achievement. It has relieved man of much monotonous

routine and its future is fraught with exciting possibilities.

As the pictures on these pages show, India is also moving into the computer age and many machines have already been installed by educational

and technical institutions.

FUTURE CHESS CHAMPION BY

V.

S.

NANDA

PHOTOGRAPHS

BY AVINASH

PASRICHA

AND RAGHUBIR

TIS NOT inconceivable that the world's chess champion by the end of this century will be a computer."

This statement by a leading American manufacturer of electronic data-processing equipment is based on a reasoned, sober evaluation of the present outstanding performances of computers and their seemingly boundless potentialities. Originating in the late nineteenth century as a simple, manually operated tabulating machine, the computer has now reached a stage of development where it can "manipulate symbols a million times faster than a man with pencil and paper and can make calculations in a few minutes that might take man alone a century." To quote more specific figures, one of the latest IBM (International Business Machines) models can do 357,000 additions and subtractions, 178,500 multiplications or 102,000 divisions in one second.

To this fantastic capacity of its arithmetic unit for lightnin'g calculation, the modem electronic computer adds other equally impressive and even more amazing qualities. A stored programme device enables the machine to retain information and produce it instantaneously on call. And an operation called conditional transfer gives it the sentient being's ability to choose the right answer from several alternatives.

Here is a random sampling of current computer achievements in varied fields of human activity, big and small.

Since the Second World War computers have come into increasing use for

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S. K. Monga, left, research student of Delhi University. straightens a roll of punched tape before feeding it to computer.

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planning and implementing defence strategy. At present the United States Defence Department operates 800 or more computing machines. The U.S. Air Force's SAGE (semi-automatic ground environment) project relies on strategically located computers which interpret information gathered by radar about every aircraft flying over U.S. and Canada and, when necessary, alerts and prepares the Air Force for suitable action against hostile aircraft.

At Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both of which claim the credit for originating computers and have contributed largely to their development, the machines are assuming an increasingly important role in scholarly studies and research.

Apart from such scientific applications as working out the orbits of satellites and stresses in new bridges, computers are proving their worth in these institutes as invaluable aids to historical, social and linguistic studies. Scholars at Harvard have used them for translation of literary and technical treatises, to analyse vast collections of old census material, to determine the authorship of disputed historical documents by counting word frequencies, and to aid psychiatric and psychotherapic studies by a similar analysis of the patient's word usages.

Centres of learning and research are usually the first to adopt new scientific tools, and it is not surprising that, following the American precedent, some educational institutions in India have already invested in computers. Two examples of this are Delhi University and the Indian Institute of Technology,

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Kanpur, both of which have installed the IBM 1620 computer system. The electronic brain of this system can retain 40,000 separate bits of information which may be either stored permanently or erased at any time. The machine is capable of making complex calculations within a small fraction of a second. The Kanpur Institute has a separate computer section, to which three American visiting professors are attached. Students, especially those engaged in engineering and technological research, are encouraged to make use of the facility and have found that the computer has considerably speeded up their work. Similar results are reported from Delhi University where the computer, installed in the Physics Department, is being used mainly for research in physics, chemistry and applied mathematics.

Continued experimentation with computers has led to the addition of a new word to the dictionary and the evolution of a new branch of science-Simulmatics.

It is the computer study of a simulation of real-life situations or problems. The known facts or data relating to the problem are fed into the computer and new variable elements are introduced to forecast the future under changed conditions. It is claimed that simulated computer studies are proving helpful in decision-making processes in business, advertising, political campaigning, national economic planning and other spheres of individual or public activity.

Professor Jay Forrester, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who has been exploring the possibilities of the computer as a management tool, carried out Continued on page 35

is intently absorbed in the answers being tapped by the console typewriter to a

Calculations for weather forecasts are greatly facilitated by this computer in use at the India Meteorological Centre, Bombay.

Computer studies helped solve an important national problem of agricultural productivity. an interesting experiment. Using one minute of computer time, he simulated the operation of an entire business over a period of as long as 400 weeks. The Harvard Business School, too, has been extensively experimenting with computer simulation and recently published a book titled New Decision-Making Tools for Managers: Mathematical Programming as an Aid in the Solving of Business Prob/ems.

As an example of the application of simulation techniques to a big national development project, mention might be made here of a problem posed by an Asiatic country, which Harvard experts were called upon to help solve. The problem was how to arrest increasing deterioration in the fertility of a large river and canal irrigated plain where many ancient civilizations flourished and which is one of the important wheat-growing areas of the world. The water table in the valley had been steadily rising, presumably because of seepage from the large network of canals, and water-logging and salinity were gradually making large tracts salty and marshy. In fact, it was reckoned that the country was losing almost an acre from production every five minutes.

Putting their heads together, Harvard scholars, who had the benefit of previous simulation studies of rivers and irrigation problems in general, began to investigate the relative merits of various remedial measures. To meet the basic need of lowering the water table in the region, they considered such remedies as canal lining, sinking of tube wells and pumping out of underground water. The investigations were co-related with available data on rainfall in the valley and the rate of flow of the ri~ers. A team of scientists also worked out precise answers to the question of how salt behaves in water flowing through soil.

After several months of study and making millions of computer calculations, the experts drew up a comprehensive scheme. Their main recommendation was that tube wells should be sunk on a million contiguous acres of land in the region every year. They also suggested that advantage be taken of the plentiful supply of natural gas in the area to set up an electric power system and plants to make fertilizers. These recommendations were accepted and are now being implemented. Backed by an intensive effort to increase agricultural production

in the reclaimed areas, the computerprepared plan of the Harvard academicians is thus contributing to economic and national progress in a distant country.

And the academicians continue to help by keeping the computers working on such subsidiary problems as crop programmes, diets and education of farmers.

It is not, of course, in the domains of scholarly research and ambitious national planning alone that computers are relieving man of many monotonous, repetitive, routine tasks and greatly increasing his efficiency by handling large masses of facts and figures with ease and incredible speed. The major outlet for computers and the main incentive ,for their development have been provided by business and industry, and today thousands of machines are in use in the plants and offices of commercial concerns throughout the world. More than 4,000 were purchased by American companies in 1963 alone, involving an investment of nearly two billion dollars, and according to some forecasts this outlay will double or even treble within the next few years.

The large expenditure on computer installations can of course only be justified if there are corresponding, substantial gains in productivity or efficiency or economy in establishment and overhead charges of a business. To get the best out of the machines, programmes must be well thought out and carefully prepared.

A recent review has shown that in some U.S. concerns the gains are not yet commensurate with the investment on computers, but experts attribute this to failure on the part of management to exploit adequately the potentialities of the machines. At present profitable operations are mostly those where routine jobs are taken over by the computer-for instance, preparation of pay rolls and bills, recording of sales, processing of insurance data, immediate co-ordination of statistics obtained from widely-separated places. Airlines and other public transporters operating in large areas are finding computers particularly useful and economical in co-ordinating information about passenger bookings and loads and having an up-to-the-minute picture of reservations and available accommodation over the entire transport network.

Apart from these routine applications, however, recent and continuing refinements are equipping the machines to assist management in such functions as analysis of manufacturing and distribu-

tion costs and modernizing inventory systems to establish closer links between stocks and demand. The information feed-back principle, combined with the computer, is proving invaluable in eliminating delays in processes involving constant adjustment of varying factors.

For instance, in an automated oil refinery the computer reacts to hundreds of instruments leading to it and instantaneously and continuously adjusts the controls to regulate heat or pressure or some other detail of the'refining process.

Still in an early stage of development, the feed-back operation, simulation techniques and other sophistications of the computer open up immense possibilities of the machine's entry into the decisionmaking areas which have hitherto been the preserve of top or middle management. As these possibilities materialize and imaginative applications of the computer multiply, many top executives will be freed of the need for analysing details and will be able to devote their energies exclusively to creative planning which demands the highest qualities of initiative, vision and judgment. It is also likely that managerial jobs will become more specialized and fewer.

And this brings us to the old controversy about machine versus man. If the computer is to displace workers at almost all levels of the economic structure, is this not going to result in a progressive increase in unemployment? Some critics indeed have gloomy visions of the longrange impact of computers and see them as disturbing the whole social order.

But they seem to ignore a vital fact amply demonstrated by past experit:nce, namely, that a rise in productivity brought about by the use of machines and introduction of more efficient methods benefits the economy as a whole and creates new job opportunities in other sectors. While a computer-controlled oil refinery employs fewer workers than a conventional refinery, its operations help to bring down costs and prices, leading to an increased demand for petroleum products and greater employment in the petroleum distribution, retailing and allied trades.

This interaction of price and demand is true of industry in general. Productivity gains also accrue from computerized and automated manufacturing processes, in the shape of improved quality, greater utility and new outlets for products. The resultant beneficial effect on consumer Continued on next page

In spite

of its fantastic capacity, the computer has some obvious limitations. demand means more employment for retailers and salesmen. Lastly, the manufacture and operation of computers themselves and development of the computer industry, with its ancillary interests, will mean many more new jobs. According to one estimate, the number of such jobs in the United States in the next five years would be as large as a million.

Computer enthusiasts predict that in two decades or less the machines will have attained a high degree of technological excellence. "They will respond to handwriting, to images and to spoken commands. They will commune tirelessly with one another over any distance. They will recognize a voice, a face or a symbol among tens of thousands." The number of computers in use throughout the world will have increased considerably and they will have a far-reaching, pervasive, beneficent influence in widening man's intellectual horizons, giving him greater leisure for constructive social effort, improving public health by greatly facilitating medical diagnosis and treatment, speeding up and improving the learning process at all stages and, in general, contributing greatly to human welfare and happiness.

Even if this is too optimistic a picture, it is obvious that the future of the computer is fraught with exciting possibilities.

Man, of course, remains the master of the machine and it is difficult to visualize a time when the electronic brain will entirely supplant its own inventor and human counterpart. Notwithstanding its fantastic achievements, the limitations of the computer are aptly brought out by a recent occurrence which was widely reported and amused newspaper readers everywhere. At an American school dance where the computer was fed with relevant data regarding age, physique, tastes and habits of the participants to determine the most suitable dancing partners, a teen-aged girl was dismayed to find that she was teamed with her twin brother!

In the intangible and indefinable superiority of the human intellect over the machine lies man's hope,of freedom from subservience to these gigantic robots of his own creation, and the glorious promise of continued progress towards new pinnacles of achievement.

John C. Lodge and Edsel Ford Expressways meet in Detroit's diamond-shaped interchange.

Both highways speed city's rush-hour traffic.

Bold engineering tackles a motor-age problem: the traffic jam.

HIGHWAYS

AND THE

IS A country on wheels. Of its 190,000,000 people, nearly half are registered to drive 80,000,000 cars, trucks, and buses over more than 3,500,000 miles of highways and streets. A good portion of the distance they travel (roughly 80,000 crore miles a year) has the soul-satisfying zip of the open road; much, however, is clogged by one of the age's characteristic sights: the traffic jam. Traffic density is greatest in and near the big cities, where tides of motorists brave the morning and evening rush hours from and to the suburbs. Most of these commuters have known the experience of driving far and fast to a city's outskirts and then covering the last few miles at a turtle's pace. Trains have not drawn off the congestion; there are just too many cars and too many commuters who prefer the convenience of driving them. To unclog the big-city bottlenecks, the Federal Government, States, and cities have turned to construction of facilities such as the limited access highway at left. With high speeds, ingenious interchanges, and non-stop downtown traffic, this kind of highway offers the best hope so far.

Continued on next page

A

CITY

MERICA

Electronic controls accommodate chanf{ing traffic patterns by flashing varying signals. Operator can also open and close lanes.

In these four cities, expressways help move five million cars a day.

As many as 171,000 vehicles move daily on Los Angeles' Harbour" Freeway at speeds up to sixty-five miles per hour.

CHICAGO,Los ANGELES,Philadelphia, and San FranciscoAmerica's second, third, fourth, and twelfth largest citieshave among them over 9,000,000 people and 5,000,000 automobiles. Though Chicago and Philadelphia had elaborate rapid transit systems to handle over seventy-five per cent of their rush-hour passenger trips to the downtown area, they still found their mid-city streets choked with autos, sixty to eighty per cent of whose drivers would gladly have avoided the snarl. These were simply crosstown travellers who were caught downtown because there were no good routes bypassing the centre. Today all four cities have built and are extending circumferential roads and high-volume central expressways which will carry this kind of traffic. Los Angeles' Hollywood Freeway moves 300,000 people a day, and the city's 100 miles of expressways carry rush-hour traffic in, out, and around the centre at better than thirty miles an hour. Similar speeds prevail in other big cities, cutting congestion, opening up once-jammed business zones, and sharply reducing the number of accidents.

Continued on page 42

Chicago's Congress Expressway removed congestion, opened once-jammed zones, cut nearby street traffic 45 per cent.

Heavily travelled highways intersect traffic circle outside Philadelphia, the fourth largest city of the United States.

lEnsuring speed and safety, Route 40 near San Francisco, California, sends tentacles around interchange and across bridge.

Lacy confrontation of highways near the Chicago airport shows interstate system's engineering to avoid one-grade crossings.

A growing network of non-stop highways spans the entire country.

Port of a vast new chain of interstate highways, the scenic Interstate 10 slips past small California town towards desert.

SLEEK CITY EXPRESSWAYSare urban links in a vast new chain of interstate highways now being built in the United States.

When this network is finished in the early 1970's, its 41,000 miles of six and eight-lane roads will connect nearly all American cities with populations of 50,000 or more. With existing roads handling local traffic, it will be possible for a motorist to drive from coast to coast without passing a single traffic light or stop sign. The programme will consume enough steel for 200 skyscrapers 100 storeys high, enough rock for a world-circling wall fifty feet thick and nine feet high, and enough pavement for a twenty-mile-square parking lot. It will employ 400,000 workers.

Though the network will involve only 1.2 per cent of the nation's roads, it is expected to carry twenty per cent of the traffic.

Over 15,000 miles of the interstate system are already completed, with the Federal Government contributing nine-tenths of the cost, the States one-tenth. Though the Federal Bureau of Public Roads has set up standards and offered a wealth of technical aid, the States will own the highways. These modern roads will achieve optimum levels of speed and safety by having limited access and efficient interchanges to eliminate left turns or intersections at grade.

1956: After six-lane John F. Fitzgerald Expressway was cut through this part of Boston, driving time dropped SPAN

May 1965 43-

MILLAR arrived in India in August 1963, a definite plan to "photograph India." But once here, she soon realized that India is a vast country of endless diversities. Its unity has myriad different faces and expressions. Its people wear different costumes, speak many different languages, have widely different manners. From Kashmir to Kerala, the landscape is equally varied.

To reduce her problem to manageable proportions, Mrs. Millar decided to concentrate on people and doorways and, in so doing, record and reveal something ofIndia's multiple personality. So far, she has taken nearly six thousand pictures, most of them of people, many of doorways. It has not been a rigidly enforced rule, however, and she often records images and events that strike her as pertinent-or that simply catch her imagination.

Presented on these pages is a selection from her India album, consisting of pictures taken in Delhi, Rajasthan, and a few hill districts of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

A member of the American Society of Magazine Photographers, Mrs. Millar's work has appeared in many German newspapers and magazines, as well as in American publications.

Two editions of her book, Berlin and the Berliners, depicting life in East and West Berlin, have been published.

While she is currently preparing to leave India soon with her husband and three children, she looks forward to returning.

"Perhaps by taking another 5,000 pictures I could begin to get . something of the diversity and quality of India on film."

W she had HEN

FROM MY INDIA

ALBUM

LYNN

Man in Jodhpur's

bazaar.

Left, a lady near Kalimpong.

On this page, three Rajasthan doorways. On the opposite page, preparations are made for Dussehra celebrations in Delhi.

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