SPAN: August 1965

AUGUST 1965 Fifty Paise

SPAN

OF EVENTS Apparently hovering in space, White was actually moving at some 17,000 miles per hour above earth. Black bag held umbilical cord.

The U.S. space programme to land a man on the moon by 1970 took a big step forward when Astronaut Edward White recently walked in space. These photos are first colour pictures of man "walking" in space.

COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHS of American Astronaut Edward Higgins White II, thirty-four, were taken as he "walked" in space 140 miles above the earth. Cameras mounted on the Gemini IV spacecraft made some of the pictures and others were made by Astronaut James Alton McDivitt, thirty-six, commander of the craft, on its third orbit of the earth. During the twenty minutes White manoe!lYred ___ r::-:: weightless in space-twice as long as originally planned-he moved freely near the spacecraft, made photographs, and used a small hand-held propulsion unit to aid his movement. An umbilical cord, drawn from the black bag seen in some of these pictures, held communications lines to the Gemini craft and also provided the Astronaut with oxygen. When he faced the sun, his space suit withstood temperatures up to 121 degrees Centigrade, while the temperature at his back was 65° C. below zero. The gold-coloured visor on his space helmet shielded his face from the intense rays of the sun and the special twenty-layer space suit protected him from extremes of both heat and cold and was also designed to protect against small particles moving in space at high velocity.

White found the experience exhilarating and returned to the spacecraft with reluctance. After sixty-two orbits, ninety-eight hours and 1,700,000 miles in orbit around the earth, McDivitt and White returned to earth, their flight a complete success. Two~dater they accompanied Vice President Hubert Humphrey, head of the National Space Council, to the International Air Salon in Paris where they explained details of their flight. Gemini IV demonstrated its capabilities for sustained flight;, and within the next few weeks Astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad will blast off from Cape Kennedy for a seven-day flight in Gemini V, another step in preparations for a manned U.S. landing on the moon by the end of this decade.

T

HESE

CONTENTS

FOR VOLUME

VI

t.1?~

PRESIDENTS AND THE PRESS

by Kent Obee

THE HUNGRY Astronauts Charles Conrad, left, and Gordon Cooper, right, are expected to make seven-day flight in Gemini V within the next few weeks.

EARTH

Lc,~

HOSPITAL BUILT FOR THE YOUNG

I~

THE PHILOSOPHY OF AMERICAN PRAGMATISM Astronaut White made this photograph of a spacecraft ever made in space.

of Gemini IV, the first picture The craft fimctioned perfectly.

PROTECTING

(,z)f<8IJ --

It

by Sidney Hook

CONSUMERS'

.;

INTERESTS

Alf.!..) }S

by John F. Kennedy

NEW FRONTIERS

by N. Balakrishnan

FOR FOOD AND WEALTH

Lt,J

Nair

ZOOSIDE STORY ~

by Ja/aba!a Ramachandran

DESIGNING

"J

INDIA'S FUTURE AIRCRAFT

by .Mohammed Reyazuddin

MEDICAL CARE FOR THE AGED: A DEBATE

by Wi/bur J. Cohen and Donovan F. Wam.

"eJIti-' e: .z'YIA~

FRONT

COVER:

Edward

J ."kM, -

4•

46

JJ~?

White in space. See Span of Events, prpceding page.

Raj Kumar, white tiger cub born to white Rewa tigress lvfohini in Washington zoo, with sister Rani. See page thirty-six for story on the exchange of animals. Photo by Joe Heiberger, Washington Post.

BACK COVER:

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

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

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

The new fertilizer plant at Trombay, near Bombay, shown under construction on these pages, will go into production this year to help provide nourishment for

THE HUNGRY EARTH

Ammonia Synthesis Tower where nitrogen and hydrogen will be synthesized to make liquid ammonia.

HEMICAL FERTILIZER production is one of the most important investments in agriculture. Plants require sixteen elements in order to grow. Three of these, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, come from air and water; the other thirteen are found in the soil. The primary nutrients among these thirteen elements are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

They are consumed in large amounts and are present in all complete fertilizers. Calcium, magnesium and sulphur are the next group in the order of importance for plant growth. The rest of the elements are called micro-nutrients since they are required in only very small quantities. They include zinc, boron, copper, manganese, molybdenum and chlorine.

These sixteen elements are needed every day by every plant that grows. But the proportions vary with different plants.

Cotton requires one recipe, rice another. Different quantities CONTINUED

C

Liquid ammonia will be stored in this Horton's sphere at the Trombay factory when plant goes into production. Workmen, perched on scaffolding, are painting the sphere for insulation.

If all the plant food produced at the Trombay Fertilizer Factory is consumed in the State of Maharashtra the agricultural output in this State should increase by 13,50,000 tonnes.

The 260-foot high urea tower of tILe urea plant.

Network of pipelines carries gases used in this unit.

of the elements are consumed at various times. For instance, in the seedling stage a cotton plant requires only a small amount of all the sixteen elements; during the period of rapid growth the plant needs larger amounts of all elements and especially more nitrogen; finally, during the fruiting stage the plant needs more phosphorus because phosphorus is concentrated in the seed. If any element needed at any given time is in short supply, even though all the others are present, the deficiency limits the plant's growth in exact relation to the shortage. To correctly apply fertilizers it is therefore first necessary to analyse the soil into which a crop is to be planted so that the proper combination of elements is added to make up the particular deficiencies of the soil at that place.

In India there is widespread deficiency of nitrogen. Nearly seventy-five per cent of our soils are short of phosphorus and twenty-five per cent are short of potash. Our problem is not only to maintain the current fertility of the soil, which is poor, but to enrich it.

Man has been taking nutrition away from the soil for thousands of years all over the world. India is not by any means the only country with depleted soils but it is still one that returns to the soil far less than many other nations. While India's fertilizer consumption per acre of agricultural land is one kilogram, in France it is 27.17 kilograms, in West Germany 65 kilograms, in the Netherlands 82.24 kilograms, in Japan 94.61 kilograms, and even in the little used soils of the United States, where man has farmed for food on a large scale for less than 400 years, the input of fertilizer is 6.74 kilograms per acre.

There are three main reasons why Indian farmers use so few fertilizers, and they are all complementary. Present farming practices are still, on the whole, strictly traditional, and farmers do not know of the advantages of chemical fertilizers. Even if they did, chemical fertilizers are in short supply and expensive; there is insufficient Indian production and a large amount of our fertilizers has to be imported. The machinery needed to set up fertilizer plants has to be largely imported too, and it is extremely expensive. So producing fertilizer is a very costly affair initially, but on the other hand, not producing it, and importing food and fertilizer is even worse.

At present the total area under crops in India is about 384.6 million acres, of which 70.1 million acres are irrigated.

In this extremely large area, which should consume about 40,00,000 tonnes of fertilizer, we are actually using only about a quarter of a million tonnes, a large part of which is imported.

To make up this huge deficit a crash programme has begun that will see the completion of six new fertilizer plants by 1968.

There are already five fertilizer factories functioning in India.

One of the largest of the six new plants is the Rs. 3l.4 crore Trombay Fertilizer Factory, which is expected to start operating during the next few months.

Seventeen miles from the heart of Bombay and close to the ESSO and Burmah Shell Oil refineries which will supply the plant the basic raw materials, naptha and refinery gas, the Trombay fertilizer plant has been designed to produce 90,000 tonnes of nitrogen and 45,000 tonnes of phosphate (P20S) annually in the form of 3,30,000 tonnes of nitrophosphate, a complex fertilizer containing 12.9 per cent nitrogen and 12.9 per cent phosphate. The plant will also manufacture another fertilizer, urea, which is more concentrated and contains forty-six per cent nitrogen.

The illustrations on these pages of the fertilizer factory at Trombay are the work of a promising young Bombay artist. Jatin Das, who, at 24, has already WOII public and critical acclaim. Born in Orissa he has been painting since childhood.

He won first prize in his university, Utkal, alld later took part in the 1958 Youth Festival in New Delhi. Graduate of Bombay's J. J. School of Art he is a veteran of many competitions and has won several awards from the Bombay Art Society, the Orissa State Lalit Kala Akademi, and at several State exhibitions in Maharashtra. His work is in collections of the late Jawaharlal Nehru, and U.S. Ambassador Chester Bowles. New exhibits of his work are planned for Calcutta alld Delhi.

India has embarked on a crash programme to meet minimum fertilizer requirements by 1971.

This plant will be one of the single biggest units of its kind in the world and will incorporate five separate sections: the ammonia plant, manufacturing 350 tonnes of liquid anhydrous ammonia per day; the urea plant manufacturing 300 tonnes of prilled urea per day; the nitric acid plant manufacturing 320 tonnes per day; the sulphuric acid plant manufacturing 200 tonnes per day; and the nitrophosphate plant manufacturing 1,100tonnes per day.

Built with American aid in the form of a $37.8 million loan from the U.S. Agency for International Development to cover the cost of the foreign exchange components, and a further loan of Rs. 13.4 crores in rupee equivalent from PL-480 funds to meet local currency needs, the Trombay Fertilizer Factory is an outstanding example of international co-operation in the field of industry. Contracts for building the plant have been awarded to American and Indian firms, but the control of the project, which is in the public sector, is in the hands of the Fertilizer Corporation of India.

Today the 537-acre factory site is a vast expanse of geometrical shapes-towers, shining spheres, and gleaming pipes. At present scaffolding webs some of the structures and long-necked cranes rub noses against the sky where once feathery palm trees swayed to the sea's breezes. The plant is still in the "shake-down" stage and, as almost inevitably happens in the case of a new installation of this kind, some adjustments, replacements or alterations may be necessary before the factory starts operating.

It is "expected, however, that after preliminary trials the plant will go into production within the next few months.

To house the staff a modem township has been built on a 288-acre site close by. There are 1,750 residential units, recreation clubs, a co-operative store and a fair price shop.

It has been estimated that the use of one tonne of plant nutrient increases crop yield by ten tonnes. On this basis, if all the plant food produced at Trombay is consumed in Maharashtra, that State's agricultural output should increase by 13,50,000 tonnes. On a country-wide scale it is hoped that by 1966 fertilizers will have accounted for forty per cent of the expected twenty-eight million tonnes increase in food production.

A fertilizer factory such as the one at Trombay requires an investment of thirty to thiTty-five crore rupees. To import the fertilizers which India still does not manufacture, between twenty-five and thirty crore rupees of precious foreign exchange are spent annually. To buy the food that cannot be grown without sufficient fertilizers, another Rs. 150 crores are spent each year. Arithmetic and logic' thus both emphasize the imperative need for construction of more fertilizer factories in India.

If these endeavours are successful, India by 1971 will be producing over three million tonnes of fertilizers~ a figure which is ten times that for the year 1963-64. Though still short of optimum requirements, a fertilizer output of this order should be enough, provided there are no unforeseen adverse factors, to enable us to produce all the food we need. In the meantime the United States is assisting India to import fertilizers on easy terms. During the current year a sum of $40 million (nineteen crore rupees) has been earmarked for this purpose from the U.S. "Non-project" aid funds. This aid is in the form of a long-term loan repayable over a period of forty years.

+

+

~

When homesickness overwhelms the child, he has the freedom to step out into the hall to telephone his parents at child-sized call station.

Getting better is easier when you're cheerful, is an adage followed by most mothers and this Baltimore hospital.

Tiny patient at Children's Centre, part of famed Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, contemplates shuffleboard court. A simple game, it does not call for much energy but keeps tlIe child busy and amused.

A sick child does not like to be alone and at the Centre every effort is made to relieve the young patient's loneliness. Centre encourages mothers to stay overnight, provides such facilities as chair-beds.

A physical therapist patiently tests reflexes of a sick child. Chronic diseases or unusual ailments often demand painstaking, intensive treatment by several specialists.

HOSPITAL BUILT FOR THE YOUNG

A

a small adult and he needs to be treated differently." This is the guiding concept of the new Children's Centre at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, as stated by Dr. Robert E. Cooke, Paediatrician-in-Chief.

From premature infants, who require a great deal of personal attention, to adolescents, the Centre exists to help patients with any affliction. Chemical disorders, chronic ailments, or physical and mental handicaps demand complex and intensive treatment. This is combined with the Child Life Programme which keeps the hospital environment as near as possible to normal living. The goal is to achieve the most highly developed speciality service for children.

CHILD IS NOT

The sick child does not like to be alone and the Children's Centre tries to make hospitalized children a part of the life around them. For this reason, glass partitions, not walls, separate the rooms in the Centre. Two to four children occupy each room and all the furnishings are scaled to child size.

The child enters the hospital through a small, comfortable doctor's office which helps to dispel the "Big Institution" feeling.

From the moment he arrives, the staff tries to make him feel at home. Special diagnostic facilities, with adjoining laboratories, make the most exacting measurements of a child's bodily processes. All efforts are exerted to help him live as productively as possible.

CoNTINUED SPAN

August 1965

17

A new-born baby receives special attention from a group of nurses.

The Centre is designed to provide diagnostic research facilities.

Recreation room is well equipped with piano, toys, a variety of games and hobbies to attract Centre's young, ambulatory patients.

U p- to-date care, including all diagnostic and research facilities are available in Children's Centre.

A staff doctor greets a new patient and wins his confidence.

Health problems, and not family status, determine admission.

No pains are spared to make hospital life close to home living.

Smile on the face of young patient is ample reward to the staff.

The Centre is designed to provide not only the services of a complete general hospital, but also the close collaboration of all the medical specialities of the entire Johns Hopkins research centre. Each floor has special rooms for teaching where doctors, nurses, and interns may evaluate X-rays and tests of their patients. The Centre"s strength is the total concentration of both medical and surgical talent in one place.

Paediatrics and child surgery are inseparable in treatment, in teaching, and in research.

After surgery, for example, the child is watched constantly for an average of seventy-two hours, until all danger passes, before being returned to his regular room. There are sleeping rooms for the doctors on the floors with children, so that there is a doctor available at all hours. The Centre mobilizes the greatest amount of care for the sickest at the point of greatest need.

Keeping a child contented with his surroundings is important to his recovery. A sick child often feels a desperate need for his mother: the Centre encourages mothers to stay overnight and provides chair-beds. The Centre is decorated in bright, cheerful colours. Most cheerful day of all, of course, is when the patient gets all dressed up to go home and the nurses gather around to say good-bye. Children are admitted in accord with their health problems, not their families' economic status. They are placed in rooms and on floors with others their own age, unless special medical requirements demand other arrangements. Opened in March 1964, the Centre has eleven floors, accommodates 270 beds.

CONTINUED SPAN

August 1965

19

The Centre is attached to famed Johns Hopkins hospital. Here doctors learn special techniques for care of children.

Cheerful in spite of a recent operation, boy frolics when examined by doctors.

a little

Prag~atism, the one distinctive philosophical movement which has emerged in America, reflects a scientific humanism. "It tests all social institutions," says Professor Sidney Hook, "by the quality of personal experience they make possible and by the opportunities individuals have to express dissent, to challenge any and all dogmas."

BY SIDNEYHOOK, Professor of Philosophy, New York University

路THE PHILOSOPHY OF AMERICAN PRAGMATISM

O

NE APPROACH to the understanding of philosophic movements is to view them in the context of the civilizations or national cultures in which they arise. Thus, empiricism is associated with Great Britain as its natural home, dualism and rationalism since Descartes have flourished in France, while idealism in profuse and wild varieties seems indigenous to Germany.

This approach is. illuminating but has obvious limitations, since most philosophies claim a universal validity for their tenets which transcends their cultural and national contexts. The latter, therefore, can at most account for the origin and acceptance of a philosophy but not for its truth.

It must also be acknowledged that every culture gives rise to a cluster of quite different philosophies which are influenced by. various sectional, economic, and religious interests. Except where a state or government supports an official philosophy, it is not easy to explain why one philosophy rather than another becomes the dominant or characteristic mode of thought. For in philosophy, as distinct from science, there are no commonly agreed-upon canons of establishing truth.

Pragmatism is a philosophy usually associated with the United States.

Abroad it is known, like the United States, more by what its critics say of it than by the declarations of its authentic spokesmen. Thus some critics interpret pragmatism as a philosophy which glorifies activity for its own sake. Others denounce it as expressing the materialism of American economic life, as merely interested in results. Still others dismiss it as a set of techniques which encourages

wish路thinking, as a philosophy that seeks to restore the gods banished by modern science. Pragmatism has been charged both with sacrificing the present for a future which never comes, and with neglecting the past for the. sake of the immediacies of the moment.

These criticisms are all the more surprising because according to the pragmatic philosophers themselves, pragmatism is nothing more than an extension of the logic and ethics of scientific inquiry.

However one appraises pragmatism, it is indisputably the one di~tinctive philosophical movement路 which has emerged on the American scene. In the early centuries after America's discovery the new world imposed a mode of life on the settlers far different from anything they had路 known in Europe. But their ideas about the world, including their conceptions of philosophy, were European. In everyday affairs they lived forward; in affairs of the mind, they remained colonists of Europe long after they achieved their political independence and launched the unique historical career of the American republic.

PHILOSOPHY AND"THELABORATORY MIND" All this changed in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The first and in some respects, the foremost, figure in the emergence of the pragmatic philosophy was Charles Peirce (18391914), son of a famous American mathematician, and himself schooled in the natural sciences. Peirce formulated some of the central tenets of pragmati~m in two famous essays: "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" and "The Fixation of

Perhaps the bes.t-known of contemporary American philosophers, Professor Hook has written widely both on professional topics and on public issues. His writings in formal philosophy include The Metaphysics of Pragmatism, John Dewey, and From Hegel to Marx. He has reached a wider audience with pungent essays on social and political controversies, collected in several volumes.

Belief." For Peirce pragmatism was an expression of "the laboratory mind" which he contrasted sharply with "the seminary mind" characteristic of traditional philosophy. He was also a logician whose pioneer studies contributed to the development of symbolic logic.

Peirce stressed the importance of general ideas whose meaning he interpreted as habits of action in experience in contrast to, and criticism of, European positivism and sensationalism. The latter interpreted the meaning of an idea in terms of images or sensations, but Peirce criticized this conception as leading to subjectivism and nominalism. Images and sensations, Peirce argued, are private and make a mystery 'of communication.

For him the meaning of a term like "man" was not a complex of sense data but a set of objective responses which differed from the responses we make to stones or stars. In other words, objective behaviour, not intuition, was the key to meaning. No matter how complex a term or expression is, its rational meaning "lies exclusively in its conceivable bearing on the conduct of life." This experimental approach revealed the vagueness and downright meaninglessness of many terms in traditional metaphysics and religion.

Although Peirce was not always faithful to his own pragmatic maxim, he pointed the way to the future development of pragmatic philosophy by underscoring' the fact that the methods of critical common sense and experimental science provided. the best methods of reaching warranted knowledge-as against the methods of authority, intuition and a priori reasoning.

Peirce's influence was primarily mediated by his more famous contemporary William James (1842-1910), who called attention to the revolutionary character of Peirce's contributions and their promise in liberating man from the fetishism of words and empty abstractions. William James himself applied the pragmatic maxim most fruitfully in his Principles of Psychology to the analysis of key concepts like "purpose" and "mind" in which he showed that empiricistic sensationalism and traditional idealism shared common premises that were challenged . by the pragmatic analysis as well as

by the findings of scientific biology and psychology.

The sensationalists could not find any mental datum which corresponded to "purpose" or "mind," and the idealists therefore introduced something from beyond experience to give sense to the stream of images in consciousness. James interpreted "purpose" and "mind" as a pattern of behaviour of the organism as a whole. A man's intelligence or purpose could be read out of his objective responses to the situation in which he found himself. There was no need to postulate the existence of a self or soul over and above the differential responses the organism makes. Mind is present whenever an individual reacts to the future as if it were already present.

On the other hand, in his book on Pragmatism, James departs considerably from Peirce's rigorous emphasis on general ideas as habits of action, and tends to interpret meaning in terms of specific, particular effects which are directly observable without experiment.

He believed that there are certain immediate "truths by acquaintance," as distinct from "truths by description" to which we have direct access. The result was to confuse irrelevant psychological effects with relevant scientific consequences. This is particularly true of James's tender-minded ventures in theology. Unfortunately, most criticisms of pragmatism are based on these departures of James from the views held not only by Peirce but by other leading pragmatists, notably George .Herbert Mead and John Dewey.¡ George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) was an original thinker who, influenced

by Hegel, Darwin and James, developed a theory of social behaviourism to explain the 9rigin and effects of ideas in experience. He interpreted the mind and the self, not as substantial, unverifiable entities, but in' terms of social acts of which the symbolic processes,Of language are central. Self-consciousness develops from language, and we know our mind and self only by knowing others whose gestures and language we mimic and internalize. Mead denied that the social dimension of experience could be reduced to the psychological or to the physical, and claimed that cultural and historical elements entered into the very basic

DEWEY'S

THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE

Pragmatism as a systetmltic philosophy really comes of age in the work of John Dewey (1859-1952) who returns to Peirce's starting point, eschewing the vestigial elements of metaphysics in James. Dewey outflanks many traditional problems of philosophy by showing that, like the alleged problem of the existence of the external world, they rest on question -begging or selfdefeating assumptions, and seeks to build a theory of knowledge to guide man in his efforts to understand the world and build a better society, on the basic pattern of scientific inquiry.

The processes of natural and social change invite man, according to Dewey, to a continuous reconstruction of ideas and social institutions in 'the course of which he sees human nature itself as profoundly modified. He views experience not as a by-product of the impact of an external environment on a passive consciousness but as a process of interaction between an acculturated organism and the world as historically given. Man takes as well as receives.

He makes selective responses to problems. His thinking, when it eventuates in knowledge, is always a doing, although not all doing is thinking. Dewey therefore is sharply critical of traditional empiricism and positivism, especially of their view that experience consists of particular facts, atoms of feeling, or sensations without relations or connections. He also criticizes the belief that the mind is ultimately explicable as¡ a mosaic of sensations. The data of sense for Dewey are not knowledge but the stimuli to knowledge-getting. He conceives of logic in a comprehensive sense as the methodology of inquiry, and intimately related to the discovery and testing of new truths. Formal logic and mathematics are conceptual tools or instruments by which we fruitfully order knowledge. They are not the grammar of eternity or laws of being. His two greatest works, which develop these central ideas, are Experience and Nature (1923) and Logic: The Theory of Inquiry (1938). Dewey's profoundest influence has not been among professional philosophers,' most of whom during his

John Dewey outline4 a set of principles which supplied men with VISIonsof a better social life.

lifetime were idealists, and later dualists and positivists. His greatest following has been drawn from educated laymen in the field of psychology, education, law, politics and social thought. These have found in his writings, if not a philosophy to live by, certain leading principles which made their activity more meaningful to them and supplied visions of a better social life.

CRITICISM

FROM MANY SIDES

Pragmatism as a philosophy is on the defensive today in the United States particularly in academic philosophical circles. First, there is opposition from the traditionalists in philosophy who believe that metaphysics and ontology give genuine knowledge about the world which science and scientific methods cannot provide. This is reinforced by theologians who contend that pragmatism is too secular, that it deprives men of the promise of salvation, and of the sustaining belief that the world au fond is a moral cosmos. Second, there is opposition from the logical positivists who contest the validity of the pragmatist conception of philosophy as a quest for wisdom, and find lurking in the pragmatist philosophy vestiges of traditional philosophy. They deny that judgments of value, especially moral value, are objective and descriptive in character, and that their validity or invalidity can be established by scientific reasons no matter how broadly "scientific" is interpreted.

Finally, there is opposition from the linguistic analysts who affirm that the pragmatic, experimental approach to meaning is much too narrow, that ordinary speech is more subtle and justifiable than any attempts to reform it in the name of science or greater clarity. This amounts to saying that pragmatism leans too heavily on scientific models of meaning and that every mode of discourse, whether in art or religion, has characteristic ways of establishing when its expressions make sense, and does not need aid from experimental methods in science to clarify that sense. To the pragmatists such a position represents a semantic counter-revolution which opens the gates once more to vagueness, ambiguity, and obscurantism parading as profundity.

CHARLES PEIRCE: "It is the man of science, devoting all the energies of his life to the cult of truth, not as he understands it, but as he does not yet understand it, that ought properly to be called a philosopher."

According to the pragmatists an idea is not an image or impression but virtually a plan of action.

Many of these criticisms take technical form, and some of them have a , . measure of justification, for pragmatism has until now been marked more by. speculative audacity and refreshing insights than by careful attention to details. The whole notion that a statement has meaning only if it can be verified experimentally has come under attack and it is claimed that there are some meaningful expressions in science as well as ordinary language which do not conform to the pragmatic criterion, . or for that matter even to the positivist one. For example, if for an expression to be commonsensically or scientifically meaningful, one must ~e able to indicate under what conditions it would be falsified, what is one to make of the statements "For every woman, there exists a suitable husband" or "F or every metal, there exists a solvent."?

The failure to find one or any number of suitable husbands for a particular woman, or solvents for a specific metal, would obviously not be evidence of the falsity of the statements in question, because one could still continue the search. Whatever the answers made to these difficulties, it would be extreme to deny scientific meaning to such expressions. No philosophy can legislate for the scientists. Nonetheless, it must be admitted that beyond a¡ certain point in the process of inquiry which seeks to confirm or invalidate them, it would be pointless to continue to assert expressions of this kind.

PRAGMA T1SM TODAY

Since the death of Dewey, pragmatism as a philosophy has no one outstanding representative.

In the field of technical philosophy certain aspects of his thought are being developed by several leading figures despite their criticism and rejection of important points of detail in his work. The first is Clarence 1. Lewis (1883). His An Analysis oj Knowledge and Valuation develops a pragmatic a priori whose validity is independent of any particular sense content and whose justification is based on its fruitfulness in extending knowledge.

Lewis also defends a naturalistic theory of "the good" against positivism but denies that "the right" is an empirical concept. Even closer to the spirit of

Dewey's thought is Ernest Nagel (1901) whose monumental The Structure oj Science offers detailed contextualistic analysis of fundamental concepts in science without imposing on them antecedent philosophical principles.

His approach to logic expresses a sophisticated form of naturalism which repudiates the view that its laws are derived in any way from ontology.

Gail Kennedy (1900) has been applying Dewey's methods to the logic of social inquiry, and Charles Morris to the theory of signs and to a typology of world views. Many of the younger philosophers who have been influenced

by Dewey-like Morton G. White and Abraham Kaplan-have rejected some of Dewey's characteristic views as incompatible with results won by modern semantic analysis. Despite their differences from Dewey, all these philosophers have developed some of his central insights-above all his conception of a free philosophy, uncontrolled by a church, state, or political party, drawing its knowledge from the autonomous sciences and using the sharpest analytical instruments to clarify and help solve "the problems of men." All believe that, to be greatly significant, a philosophy must have something to say to others besides professional philosophers.

Although emphases have changed in the evolution of pragmatic philosophy from Peirce to Dewey to its present-day spokesmen, there are certain concepts which are basic to any exposition of pragmatism.

Most important of them are its theory of meaning and its theory . of truth.

THE NATURE

OF IDEAS

As a theory of meaning, pragmatism is best and most simply presented in terms of its doctrine concerning the nature of ideas.

What is an idea? According to the pragmatists, and in opposition to some dominant empirical traditions, an idea is not an image or impression. If an idea were an image, it would follow at once that no one could share ideas.

For images are private and personal, psychological events in somebody's mind, of whose meaning we may be in doubt.

An idea or meaning-in the sense in which we can apply terms to them like

"valid or invalid," "correct or incorrect," "probable or improba ble" -is something which must be communicable to others.

Else a common body of knowledge or science would be impossible.

Self-deception on this score is easy.

We have a tendency to confuseJamiliarity with clarity. Familiarity, however, is not a guarantee of understanding.

Everyone is familiar with the concepts of space, time and simultaneity, but very few can clearly state what it means to assert that two events, not in the field of direct perception, ace simultaneous.

There are two fundamentally different approaches to the notion of an idea.

The first approach, exhibited predominantly in the traditional stream of thought in philosophy, is that one can test whether he has an idea or meaning by intuitive means. One looks inside himself to discover whether he has an idea and what it means. The only test of the presence of an idea is subjective awareness, a click of certainty through the inner shutter of feeling. Pragmatism rejects this completely.

It maintains that the only test of whether or not one has an idea or a clear idea, corresponding to a particular term or expression, is whether one can indicate what the uses of the expression are and what they lead to in the way of specific behaviour in specific situations. In other words, according to the pragmatists, an idea is virtually a plan of action.

But pragmatism recognizes that any particular term or expression which has a history will have clusters or layers of meaning that contain reference to memories and previous experiences. Similarly, one can telI whether he shares the same idea with another person to whom one is speaking ultimately only in terms of the possibility of joint behaviour between them in concrete situations. You understand me well to the extent that you intelligently co-operate with or obstruct my purposes.

Notice two interesting historical things about the pragmatic theory of ideas.

In a certain sense, this theory of ideas is derived from the Kantian view that the mind is active in knowing, that it is the principle of activity and not the tabula rasa postulated by John Locke.

In this sense Kant may be regarded as one of the fathers of pragmatism.

The consequences of a "true idea," after it has been implemented, will.be confirmed by experience.

But as distinct from Kant, Dewey and the pragmatists naturalize the concepts of mind and idea, and construe both mind and its various modes-whether ideas, feelings, qr wills-in terms of modern scientific, biological knowledge.

From the pragmatic point of view there can be no ideas in the world without human beings. But ideas do not mirror the world. Their function is to enable the organism as a whole to solve the problems which confront it in a world it did not make. Or, put more exactly, the function of an idea is to enable the organism, living in a certain culture at a certain historical time, to solve problems that confront it in a world which man. did not create although, within limits, he has altered and can alter it.

WHAT IS A "TRUE"

IDEA?

If this is what pragmatism means by an idea, what does pragmatism mean by a "true" idea? What is its conception of truth? The answer is: a true idea is one whose consequences, when the operations which constitute its meaning are carried out, are such that they are confirmed by experience. enabling us to solve the problem in relation to which the idea was projected as a plan of action.

In other words, the pragmatic theory of truth may be called the experimental theory of truth. And if you ever want to test your knowledge of pragmatism, I suggest that you translate the pragmatic theory of truth into the idiom or language of the experimental theory of truth, wl;lich asserts that every statement of fact about the world of nature, society, and man is a statement whose truth ultimately depends upon the outcome of an experiment of some kind.

It is important to observe the implications of this - experimental theory of truth. For it follows that everything that may be said about the logic of a valid experiment, according to the pragmatists, may also be said about warranted assertions concerning the world. For example, it is elementary but important that in every experiment some action is performed. Suppose I say: "This is paper." Now, you may ask, "What is the experiment? How can I test the truth of the assertion?" Well, for one thing

WILLIAM JAMES: "The pragmatic method looks away from principles, categories, supposed necessities; towards fruits, consequences, facts ....

The ultimate test of what a truth means is the conduct it dictates or inspires."

Pragmatic analysis denies even directly perceived truths until they have been tested by experiment.

you cannot suck the truth out of your finger tips. You cannot merely by pure thought convince yourself, "This must be paper." However, I say: "If this is paper, then when I write on it, my writing will leave some marks; if I put a match to it, then it will burn, etc."

Thus you have a way of telling with a good probability whether your statement is true or false. These are simple kinds of experiments. But, please note, in each case, the experiment introduces behavioural change into the world, so that, in the course of confirming an assertion I have acted upon, and interacted with, the world. I repeat; every time I confirm a truth about the world, I make a change in the world. I don't change the entire world, of course. But I must change a part of it to conduct a genuine experiment. The pragmatists assert that this is true not only of theories but even of judgments of perception. "This is the silvery Moon or the coppery Sun," I say. How do I test the truth of such a statement?

I change my position, screw my eyes up-I do something to my body which becomes an instrument of perception.

In this way, I change the interacting system of energies which defines my position in the world. An important consequence of this analysis is the denial of immediate truths, even truths of direct perception.

This is the first significant thing to bear in mind about the pragmatic or experimental theory of truth.

The second thing to observe is that the theory marks a radical break with the traditional or correspondence theory of truth. How can we have a theory of correspondence when there is no real correspondence? What does it mean to say, as Aristotle puts it, that an idea is true if it corresponds or agrees with its object? Can an idea literally correspond or agree with an object? Obviously no; they are entirely different sorts of things.

There is no sense in saying, "You can put an idea into correspondence with things," if correspondence suggests resemblance. For to know that an idea resembles a thing, one must already have some knowledge of the' thing directly which would make the resembling idea superfluous. Further, if we believe that our idea resembles its object like a

picture resembles a person, what does the truth of this belief consist in?

Resemblance to a resemblance? This sets up an infinite regress.

There is a sense, according to Dewey, in which you can say something corresponds with something else in the way in which, perhaps, a key corresponds with a lock. But a key and a lock do not agree or look alike or resemble each other. The conclusion is that an idea. is true, not if it tends to agree with anything, but if it enables you to achieve something: a purpose, an end, or a goal.

Or, to put it more technically, it is often assumed, and it has been assumed in the past, that every time we use a word there must be an object which the word names, and when we use a word correctly the word can be put into one-to-one correspondence with some object. But the modern study of language shows that this is a mistake.

There are also expressions like "and," "or," "nonetheless," or what we call syncategorematic expressions which do not name or designate or correspond with anything. In English, if I say "despite," does "despite" correspond with any particular entity? Obviously not.

Yet it has a meaning. The pragmatists assert that judgment no more corresponds with a state of affairs than a term corresponds with an entity. Judgments are controlled intellectual patterns of response which reorganize by experiment existing states of affairs.

THE

MEANING

OF "PRACTICAL"

The third point is most important of all for the understanding of pragmatism.

It is important because almost all critics of pragmatism have misunderstood what pragmatism asserts by the term "practical." What pragmatism means here by the term "practical" is similar to what Marx meant when he criticized Feuerbach for neglecting praxis in his conception of truth. Unfortunately, "practical" rin English) is sometimes used in the same sense as "useful."

Therefore critics of pragmatism, especially Bertrand Russell, assert that since pragmatists have a "practical" theory of truth, they believe that whatever is useful is true, that whatever is literally profitable is true, that whatever helps us to make money is true. That is

what we hear about pragmatism all too often from men who should know better. Actually, what pragmatism means by "practical" is nothing more than activity, behaviour, experiments, which . are not necessarily useful. Pragmatists assert that all thinking is practical and mean by this that all thinking is experimental, that since it is experimental one has to introduce some practical change in things, one has literally to do something to and in the world. It does not mean that all doing is knowing and all knowing is useful or pleasant.

I shall take an illustration used by John Dewey himself to show how false, how utterly false. is the interpretation of pragmatism according to which it identifies truth with usefulness or truth with what makes you happy (or literally its "cash value" if we misunderstand William James's colourful phrase). Here is the illustration, somewhat altered for purposes of present exposition. Suppose I am very thirsty and I want to drink a glass of water. I am all alone. I reach for the glass of water, but at the same time smell and taste something peculiar about it. "Oh dear," I say to myself, "this water may be poisoned." I think and I think and I think; but I can never make certain by pure thought whether the water is poisoned or not.

I see a bottle nearby labelled "Poison."

How do I know that the contents of the glass came from the bottle-and if it did that the bottle is correctly labelled?

The only way' ultimately I can tell whether the water is poisoned is by an experiment. I look around. Perhaps I can test it by some chemical means. They are absent. Perhaps on an animal. But there is no animal. Perhaps a visitor will come. The macabre idea flits through my mind of testing it on him.

But a visitor does not come and I am spared the temptation and wickedness.

But I must know sooner or later whether it is' poisonous or not. I am getting thirstier and thirstier. Finally I perform the experiment. I take the glass and I drink it. And with my last expiring words] say, "Yes, it was poisoned!"

The experiment was successful. But the patient-meaning me-dies.

I proved the truth of the proposition. But what was useful or pleasant about it? What have I to be happy about? But the

experiment involved activity. It was "practical." The truth was found in "the praxis."

This illustration is a simple case.

But when you examine the ways of modern science and the procedures of everyday affairs, whether in physics or technology or life situations, ultimately you will find this is the basic pattern by which we test the truth.

MAN

AND

ETHJCS

This leads me then to a brief statement of the pragmatic theory of man, or what one might call pragmatic philosophical anthropology. On the basis of their theory of meaning and truth, which, I repeat, is primarily an expression of the logic and ethics of modern science, most pragmatists assert that man is a

part of nature. Man is a natural creature who by using symbols and meanings redirects and transforms within limits the natural and social world. In other words, . for pragmatists, man's intelligence is natural, social, and historical.

Above all, it is creative. This conception of man differs from the idealistic view which asserts that the whole world is created by man, that the world, so to speak, lies in some mind or Minda conception which pragmatists regard as a manifestation of metaphysical conceit, bad logic, and worse psychology. Pragmatists differ not only with idealists but with the materialistic view that man is a passive creature moulded and pushed from behind by mechanical forces, a slave of physical energy he can never control. Pragmatism is inter-

mediate between the insanity of believing we can create the whole world, including its conditions, and the passivity or cowardice of .asserting that we are mere passive creatures or slaves of fate unable to redirect or redetermine affairs.

The pragmatic theory of human value or ethics maintains that the good in human life is essentially related to human desires, that nothing is gqod outside an actual or possible human reference. It also points out, howe'{er, that not everything desired is desirable.

Many things we now want we later discover are not good for us. This is the source of regret. Wisdom consists in living one's life in such a way that regret is reduced to a minimum. Consequently, pragmatism maintains that the good is that which is chosen after.

JOHN DeWEY: "C6'Jfiict is the gadfly if thQugHt. It stirs us to observation " I.¡' . '-I.. â&#x20AC;˘ . n yze;nory. f-Instlgates to inventIOn. shotks:"us out of~heeplike passivity .... t-very great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination." .

h

Pragmatism represents a family of doctrines and beliefs that seeks to provide a perspective on life.

reflection, and that the good depends upon intelligence. The function of intelligence is to relate the good to the historical nature of man, to his nature as he discovers it to be by reflection and by scientific investigation, Pragmatism believes that values are relative, not absolute, relative to developing human needs and human desires when they are reflectively considered in an individual and social context. Pragmatism believes, consequently, that values are. objective, not subjective.

Here as elsewhere it may be called a theory of objective relativism. "Objective relativism- but how is this possible?" you may ask. I will give you a simple illustration. Suppose someone asks, "Is milk good?" To which we reply: What do you mean, is milk good? By itself milk is neither good nor bad. (I) Milk is good in relation to an organism 0; that is to say, if the organism 0 can flourish by using milk, then milk is good for it. (2) The same milk, however, may be bad in relation to organism 0' if it is not nourished by milk. Now proposition (I) and proposition (2) are not contradictory, for the first asserts milk is good in relation to 0, and the second bad in relation to 0'.

They are referring to two different things.

Both propositions are true; that is to say, both propositions are objective. Both propositions are also relative. If you ask the pragmatist whether there is anything which is absolutely good for everything and anything, for all places and times, he would reply that he does not believe that there is anything of this character.

The burden of proof rests on those who assert that such a good exists. The only absolute good for the pragmatist is intelligence, for it is intelligence which enables us to find out what is good for what and for whom, when and where, and to what degree.

Pragmatism leaves open the question of whether morality in addition to being objective is universal. It says that this depends upon whether or not there are common interests or common needs, and whether or not they can be reconstructed, shared, or made common. To the extent that there are common needs or common interests, then morality is not only o'bjectlve but may become universal. If it turns out that there are

no common needs or common interests, then morality will be objective but there will be different moralities, plural moralities. Pragmatism is not dogmatic on this question. It leaves open the possibility of plural moralities. It denies that history can solve this question, that the objectively progressive value can be established by the mere fact of victory and survival. For this would entail the brutal and false view that might is right.

If a dictator triumphs this does not make the event good or right-certainly not from the point of view of his victims.

PRAGMATISM

AND

THE

TRAGIC

SENSE OF LIFE

It is sometimes said that pragmatism is an optimistic philosophy, a philosophy of a young nation, a young people. This seems to be a gross oversimplification.

For me, pragmatism is not necessarily an optimistic philosophy. What it says is something like this: we live in a world of problems, a world in which there are many evils. Some of them may be unavoidable, many of them are remediable, but which is which we cannot tell until we put to work in the solution of all problems the only method which until now has given us the most reliable results, viz., the metho,d of scientific inquiry whose logic and ethics pragmatism strives to articulate. Pragmatism does not offer any guarantee that problems must or will be solved. It leaves guarantees and the quest for certainty to religion and traditional metaphysics. It strives by using intelligence to broaden the horizon of human beings. Its categorical imperative is: make every effort to employ rational, scientific methods in human and social problems before you resign yourself to the great evils of experience.

For me, the philosophy of pragmatism-and here I undoubtedly show temperamental differences from other pragmatists-is based on the tragic sense of life. Why do I say this? Because, as I read experience, I recognize that the self grows by the limitation of possibilities. Indeed, as Peirce says, all development consists in the limitation of possibility. When one looks back on his life, one sees that there are many things that one might have been. In every choice we sin against some other vallie.

It is not only that the better is the enemy

I

of the good, but the good is almost always incompatible with another good.

That's the first reason for my belief that the philosophy of pragmatism is based on the tragic sense of life-even when we have chosen wisely or intelligently. Our natural predicament, morally speaking, is that we must sometimes take one life to save many. This is the paradigm of the human condition.

The second reason is that a good deal of life consists in struggle. Every victory implies a defeat. Every victor is made possible by someone defeated, sometimes by a victim. Some who are defeated deserve their fate but unfortunately many who are innocent of guilt share the same fate. When one regards the total scene, one cannot help but feel grief for those who did not survive, for tliose who despite their gallant efforts never made it, for those who lost even when they were not altogether undeserving.

Finally, the ideal of perfection transcends all performance. Vision out· strips human reach no' matter how many things are achieved. There is always a goal which seems to mock all our efforts. In the end, time and death have a sharp tooth.

Technical difficulties aside, pragmatism represents a family of doctrines and beliefs which seeks to provide a perspective on life and to articulate a philosophy by which one can live in a problematic and precarious world. It stresses the role of intelligence in creating a social world in which men can enjoy the fruits of reason. The best fruits of reason are those that can be shared without being diminished- the values of knowledge, art, friendship, creation, as well as the appreciation of variety in intellectual and personal life.

Pragmatism emphasizes individuals, not individualism.

It tests all social institutions by the quality of personal experience they make possible, by the occasions of growth they open up.

It also tests them by the opportunities individuals have to express dissent, to say "No" to arbitrary power, to cooperate and to experiment, to challenge on scientific grounds any and all dogmas.

Pragmatists view their philosophy as il scientific humanism appropriate for men who live in an age of experimental sCIence. • ••

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•

s#&2

}

t

Two-thirds of all spending in the U. S. economy comes out of the pockets of individual consumers. In a special message to Congress) the late President John F. I<.ennedyforcefully reiterated the responsibility of the Federal Government to provide adequate protection for every consumer) safeguarding the health) well-being and standards of all Americans. Excerpts from President Kennedy) s message are presented below) and articles describing Government agencies which protect the interests of all Americans will appear in future issues of SP AN. )

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PROTECTING CONSUMERS' INTERESTS

T

HE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT-by nature the highest spokesman for all the people-has a special obligation to be alert to the consumer's needs and to advance the consumer's interests. Ever since legislation was enacted in 1872 to protect the consumer from frauds involving use of the United States mail, the Congress and executive branch have been increasingly aware of their responsibility to make certain that our nation's economy fairly and adequately serves consumers' interests.

In the main, it has served them extremely well. Each succeeding generation has enjoyed both higher income and a greater variety of goods and services. As a result our standard of living is the highest in the world-and, in less than twenty years, it should rise an additional fifty per cent.

Fortunate as we are, we nevertheless cannot afford waste in consumption any more than we can afford inefficiency in business or government. If consumers are offered inferior products, if prices are exorbitant, if drugs are unsafe or worthless, if-the consumer is unable to choose on an informed basis, then his dollar is wasted, his health and safety may be threatened, and the national interest suffers. On the other hand, increased efforts to make the best possible use of their incomes can contribute more to the well-being of most families than eq uivalent efforts to raise their incomes.

CONTINUED SPAN

August 1965 29

The march of technology-affecting, for example, the foods we eat, the medicines we take, and the many appliances we use in our homes-has increased the difficulties of the consumer along with his opportunities; and it has outmoded many of the old laws and regulations and made new legislation necessary. The typical supermarket before World War II stocked about 1,500 separate food items-an impressive figure by any standard. But today it carries over 6,000. Ninety per cent of the prescriptions written today are for drugs that were unknown twenty years ago. Many of the new products used every day in the home are highly complex .... Additional legislative and administrative action is required if the Federal Government is to meet its responsibility to consumers in the exercise of their rights. These rights include: (1) The right to safety-to be protected against the marketing of goods which are hazardous to health or life.

(2) The right to be informed-to be protected against fraudulent, deceitful, or grossly misleading information, advertising, labelling, or other practices, and to be given the facts he needs to make an informed choice.

(3) The right to choose-to be assured, wherever possible, access to a variety of products and services at competitive prices; and in those industries in which competition is not workable and government regulation is substituted, an assurance of satisfactory quality and service at fair prices.

(4) The right to be heard-to be assured that consumer interests will receive full and sympathetic consideration in the formulation of government policy, and fair and expeditious treatment in its administrative tribunals.

To promote the fuller realization of these consumer rights, this Administration has sponsored a wide range of specific actions to strengthen existing programmes. Major progress has already been achieved or is in prospect in several important areas. And the budget includes recommendations to improve the effectiveness of almost every major programme of consumer protection .... Under our economic as well as our political form of democracy, we share an obligation to protect the common interest in every decision we make. I ask the Congress, and every department and agency, to help in the fulfilment of that obligation. â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘â&#x20AC;˘

Searching for new sources of food and vital minerals to meet the needs of the world's growing population,

scientists turn hopefully to the vast, watery expanses of the ocean.

NEW FRONTIERS FOR FOOD

AND WEA.LTH OVERING SEVENTY-ONE per cent of the surface of the globe, the oceans are estimated to contain, 330,000,000 cubic miles of sea water which weigh a staggering one and a half million, million, million tons. This vast watery world besides being the abode of thousands of different species of plants and animals which can be economically exploited as a rich source of food and life-saving wonder drugs is also a huge depository of valuable chemicals and costly minerals.

If world population goes on increasing at the rates recorded in recent years, the present figure of 3,000 million may well be doubled by the end of the century. Whatever the other implications of this astonishing population explosion, one inescapable fact is the inadequacy of the traditional food resources of the land to sustain the vastly increased number of people. In many developing countries the arable land available for cultivation is steadily decreasing under the pressure of urban development.

The reduction of farmlands and produce resulting from this process is being offset by bringing new virgin lands under the plough, reclaiming marshy or arid areas and adopting improved methods of cultivation. While these efforts are commendable and vital to national economy, there is also the imperative need to explore and develop new sources of food.

The oceans which abound in fish, shell fish and algae can come to the rescue of man. There are great possibilities in this watery world. In South-east Asian countries, with their steadily increasing population, the sea is an important potential source of additional food. Here the adjacent waters offer an enormous food producing capacity. With the science, skill and means at our disposal it should be possible to increase the production of sea foods sufficiently to cope with the increase in population.

Our knowledge of the oceans has considerably increased in the last thirty years. Science and technology have progressed rapidly and better types of gear have been used for fishing.

These have helped to find and catch more fish. As a matter of fact it will not be an exaggeration to state that the pro.gress in fishing in the last thirty years has been greater than that made in the previous 3,000 years. Calculations show that the world fish catch had doubled from about twenty million metric

C

ABOUTTHEAUTHOR:Dr. N. Balakrishnan Nair, who holds the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Science, is Reader in Oceanography in the University of Kerala. He studied Marine Biology and Oceanography at University of Bergen, Norway, and is the author of several publications on these subjects.

tons in 1948 to almost forty-five million in 1962. The cOlilltries that catch the maximum quantity of fish are Japan, Peru, Communist China, the Soviet Union, and the United States.

Through a scientific approach with international co-operation, it should be possible to save millions of starving people from the pangs of hunger. Present world estimates show that on an average every person gets only ten kilograms of sea food a year. The Japanese are the biggest fish eaters with a per capita consumption of seventy-two pounds per year. In England, Scandinavia and Holland the average consumption is about forty-four pounds a year and in the United States it is about eleven pounds on the average.

In India the per capita consumption of fish is as low as four pounds a year, and it is apparent that a substantial increase in this figure would have a salutary effect in easing the pressure of demand for foodgrains and giving the people a reasonablypriced, palatable and nutritious, substitute food. The Government of India is alive to the importance of the problem, and a special Fisheries Division in the Ministry of Food and Agriculture has been entrusted with the task of developing the country's marine and inland fisheries. Of special significance is the scientific work-including that of the Indian Ocean Expedition referred to later in this article-being done to explore and locate new fishing grounds and improve fishing methods.

For instance, it has been established that the Bay of Bengal has nutrient-laden bottom waters which can enrich the surface water to create conditions favourable for higher fish production.

Valuable information has been collected on plankton, ocean currents, etc., which helps fishermen locate shoals of fish with greater accuracy.

Schemes have been introduced for mechanization of fishing craft and suitable designs developed to suit the needs of different regions and conditions of fishing. At present about 3,000 mechanized boats are in operation, and the number is expected to increase to 8,000 in another five years. Mechanization has the great advantage of enabling fishermen to fish in offshore waters which were previously inaccessible, and also results in considerable saving of time and physical effort. Backed by research and coupled with use of improved fishing gear and the other techniques being evolved at the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology in Cochin, it is expected that mechanization will enable India to steadily increase the present annual catch of 1.2 million tons by about half-a-million tons a year. Fish preservation, transport and marketing facilities are being simultaneously improved to cope with the increased production.

CONTINUED SPAN

August 1965 31

Besides the well known sea foods such as fish and shell fish there are several other substances in the sea which can be utilized as food materials both for man as well as for poultry and cattle. Zoo plankton-the tiny animals that drift about in the oceans-may prove to be a good source of food. If this abundantly' available material can be economically collected on a commercial scale and processed into pleasing and palatable foods, it can prove to be a rich source of protein food. Marine algae which grow extensively in the sea are other promising sources of food. These weeds have the ability of processing their own food by means of photosynthesis, a process of nature in which sugars and other basic foods are formed in plant tissues containing the green pigment chlorophyll in the presence of sunlight. The acquatic plants have also the ability to convert the energy of sunlight into proteins nearly ten times more efficientlythan land plants. Calculations show that algae farming can be several times more efficient in energy utilization than is the average agricultural crop like rice and wheat.

Algae can also be the source from which valuable fodder for livestock can be obtained or they can be processed as rich ingredients of mixed cattle feeds and even as excellent palatable human foods. Certain species of algae are useful for extraction of medicines while others can be used as fertilizers. Multiatom solid alcohols, ethers, vinegar, nitrocellulose, starch and gelatinating agents like agar-agar and alginates can also be processed from marine algae. There are, however, certain practical difficulties in harvesting them economically. Many of these algae are diffusely scattered and when present in substantial quantity appear only as a thin soup in the upper lighted regions of the oceans.

The sea bottoms, especially in the tropics, contain huge amounts of organic fertilizers. These fertilizers accumulate in the cold, dark floor of the deep sea when animals and plants die and sink to the bottom. The dead bodies are partly eaten by animals that live there and the rest undergo rapid decomposition through bacterial activity and transform into soluble substances that can be used by plants. But in the dismal darkness of the deep sea no plants can grow.

Plants grow well only where there is light; they are seen only in the upper layers of the oceans where sunlight penetrates.

In the absence of plants, fertilizers accumulate there without being used. But if this water is brought to the surface by currents or vertical movements of sea water such as convection currents, wind mixing and upwellings, these fertilizers become available for the plants there. In some regions of the sea there are regular upwellings-rich plant growth areas. To graze on these tiny plants, zoo plankton composed of small marine animals gather and attract large shoals of fish which, in turn, feed on zoo plankton. Such regions are excellent fishing grounds. It seems possible that new fishing grounds can be created if the rich bottom water can be brought up to the surface.

In colder seas the bottom water is regularly brought up seasonally during winter when the sea is virtually 'ploughed' through natural phenomena. This natural process enables the surface layers to get periodically fertilized. These regions contain greater concentrations of fish than in the tropics where no such mechanisms exist to bring up the nutrient-rich water from the bottom. This is the reason for the comparatively poorer catches from the tropics. Scientists are working on this problem with a view to finding a cheap method for stirring up the deeper parts of the oceans and bring to the surface fertilizers which can promote organic production. Taking advantage of the

slight difference in temperature and salinity at the top and the bottom, vertical pipes are being employed to raise water from lower levels. Another method suggested is to set up a large heat source such as an atomic pile at the bottom to produce vertical convection currents to displace the nutrient-rich bottom water. But these are very costly procedures at present.

Sea water is a unique solution with a very small quantity of everything dissolved in it. Water being an excellent solvent every drop that falls down as rain takes up an extremely small quantity of mineral and the waters collect, form rivulets and then rivers and at last reach the oceans. After reaching the sea the water is again lifted up into the air by evaporation by the wind and the sun to form the clouds, leaving behind a great quantity of minerals in the sea. Again the clouds burst into rains and the process is repeated. This is the water cycle.

Each year some 333,000 cubic kilometres of sea water are lifted in this manner into the atmosphere and again returned as rain.

For this, nearly a fourth of the sun's energy that falls over the earth is utilized. The drops of water that fall on earth act like little vehicles carrying minerals from land into the sea leaving the oceans the greatest depository of salts and minerals. Scientists have detected the presence of more than fifty elements in the sea water. For example, each cubic metre of sea water contains 0.008 milligram of gold. What makes it extremely difficult to collect these useful and costly metals and salts is the huge amounts of water involved-nearly ninety-six per cent of sea water is simply fresh water with only about four per cent in solids. Some of the minerals are in such a dilute form that we have yet to discover sufficiently sensitive instruments which can detect their presence. The water can, however, be separated from the salts either by freezing (when sea water is frozen, fresh water can be removed in the form of ice crystals) or by simple evaporation (exposing sea water to sun and wind in shallow salt pans).

Different methods and processes are employed in various countries for desalting. At San Diego, California, a process called 'Flash evaporation method' is used which costs Rs. 5.00 for 1,000 gallons, and electrodialysis is in operation at Israel.

Nuclear-powered desalting plants are being planned in California which can produce a billion gallons a day at an estimated cost of about fifteen paise per 1,000 gallons. Such a plant would also produce electricity at a cheap rate.

'A third of the twenty-two million tons of common salt consumed yearly in the world is extracted from sea water, the rest being mined. The annual average consumption per head is about eight kilograms. From 1,000 cubic metres of sea water nearly 1.3 tons of salt can be separated. That the sea is an inexhaustible source of this most essential substance can be seen from the fact that its waters contain 38,000 million, million tons of this salt, a quantity that is estimated to last for nearly I,700 million years.

Many other useful salts can also be commercially extracted from sea water. Sodium sulphate used in the manufacture of paper-pulp and glass, in medicines, in dyeing and in the preparation of cattle powders and caustic soda is one such salt.

Other such salts present in sea water are magnesium chloride, magnesium sulphate, calcium sulphate and potassium sulphate.

The light and strong magnesium highly useful in the aircraft industry for the manufacture of superlight alloys can be commercially extracted from sea water. By using magnesium the weight of alloys can be reduced by twenty to thirty per cent; three lakh tons are annually extracted at present from the sea.

CONTINUED

"Our knowledge

of the oceans has much increased

in the last thirty years ....

There are great possibilities

in this watery world."

SPAN

August 1965 33

The U.S. participates

III

an international

Potassium salts used in farming, photography, pharmaceutics, and in the manufacture of glass, soap, gun powder, etc., are present in sea water in sufficient quantities for commercial exploitation. In India 'bitterns,' the solution left after the separation of common salt, rich in marine salts, is not used properly. Scientists feel that if efficiently processed it will be possible to recover in India at least 3.8 lakh tons of magnesium sulphate, 65,000 tons of potassium sulphate and 7,000 tons of bromine from salt bittern, annually.

Processes for the recovery of salts and metals must be so designed that during the process good fresh water can also be obtained as a side product and this, if planned properly, may prove to be economical. The process of desalting sea water is at present expensive, costing about Rs. 5.40 for 1,000 gallons.

Low cost caustic soda, bromine, flourine, chlorine, magnesium compounds, hydrochloric acid, soda ash, and potassium compounds can also be produced from the thick brine after the fresh water is separated for human use.

Besides the much-needed food, water, chemicals and minerals, the sea can also provide us with miracle drugs. The varied forms of animals, plants and microbes that live in the sea might in the near future prove to be a limitless source of valuable pharmaceuticals. Many kinds of anti-biotics and other useful drugs can be obtained from the sea. The poison present in marine fish and other animals of the sea contains effective curative substances. One called holothurin, which exists in sea cucumbers, has been found to possess growth inhibiting properties and may prove effective for the treatment of cancer.

Similarly, the poison of the toad fish has been found useful in combating diabetes.

Further, the sea bottom is a huge store of valuable ores.

Large quantities of manganese, iron, copper, cobalt and nickel, phosphorus, etc., occur on the ocean floor in the form of lumps called nodules. New techniques and devices are being developed to bring these to the surface. Recently engineers have used "In colder seas bottom water is brought up seasonally when the sea is virtually 'ploughed' through natural phenomena."

project of intensive oceanographic

research.

methods to suck them off the sea floor.

The sea is a huge reservoir and transformer of the heat of the sun. It is also a transformer of the energy of the wind as well as the cosmic energy of the moon's attraction. Thus the sea represents a gigantic source of energy. It is possible to produce electric power from the sea. In one method the generation of power is from the thermal energy of the sea on the principle that the change of heat into energy requires a hot source and a cold source. In 1954 the consumption of electricity of the world was 1,345,000 million kilowatt hours and the demand for electric power is increasing at an annual rate of seven to ten per cent. The hydroelectric power capacity of all the rivers on our planet equals 3,750 million kilowatts.

The energy of the tides in the oceans is estimated at 1,000 million kilowatts. If even a part of this energy is harnessed, it will be a substantial contribution to the world's power resources.

Every day the need for fresh water is increasing. The expected increase in population demands greater food production on land and this depends on the skilful management of water resources. Ritchie Calder, an authority on the use of water, has estimated the amount of water needed for the major agricultural crops. To grow a ton of sugar-cane by irrigation, about 1,000 tons of water must be consumed. A ton of rice requires 4,000 tons of water and a ton of wheat about 1,500tons.

At present only about four per cent of the total river flow is used to irrigate 310 million acres of land which represent one per cent of the land area of the earth. To feed a population which is estimated to reach 4,000 million by 1980 and more than 6,000 million by 2,000 A.D. extended irrigation farming and more intensive cultivation are essential. For this, availability of water is a vital factor.

It appears obvious that the different aspects of the oceans of the world need to be understood in much greater detail than at present for the effectiveutilization of their vast potential resources. Until now man has been able to exploit only a very tiny fraction of what the sea can offer him. This is partly due either to our ignorance or incomplete knowledge about this portion of the earth. While our knowledge of the Mediterranean, the Atlantic and the Pacific is fairly satisfactory, we know very little about the Indian Ocean which borders the most thickly populated regions of the world.

In 1962 a project known as International Indian Ocean Expedition was undertaken by a Special Committee on Oceanic Research of the International Council of Scientific Unions, a non-governmental organization, with the object of carrying out large scale scientific studies of the Indian Ocean. UNESCO is co-sponsoring the project with organizational and technical assistance. An unparalleled international co-operative endeavour, this expedition represents the most intensive oceanographic research project ever undertaken. Forty-five research ships and several scientists from twenty-five nations are making a combined attempt to collect scientific data methodically through well planned programmes. The United States is a major participant in this concerted effort, and has provided nearly a dozen research vessels and several airplanes for making meteorological observations. It is hoped that the valuable data thus collected may help us to learn as much as possible about the Indian Ocean and provide a basis for the effectiveexploitation of its resources.

This will certainly contribute substantially to the food and mineral output in bordering areas, thereby releasing millions from ,j:}Jmger, poverty and misery.

"Water is lifted up into the air by evaporation to form the clouds.•••

The clouds burst into rain and the process is repeated."

SPAN

August 1965 35

BY JALABALA

RAMACHANDRAN

Delhi photographs Washington

by

RAGHUBIR

photographs

by

SINGH

JOSEPH

PINTO

ZOOSIDE STORY Indian animals in a Washington zoo and American animals in Delhi zoo are lively variations on the cultural exchange that takes place between the two countries.

Pink-tinted flamingoes pose elegantly in Washington zoo. In wild state they migrate annually to breed in swamps on Indian coasts.

W

VISITORS ENTER the new aviary at the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C., they are often warmly greeted with a "Hello. How are you ?"

The friendly receptionist is a tiny Indian hill mynah who lives in one of the first enclosures in the unique building that houses birds at Washington lOO. This mynah has also been known to emit a raucous "wolf-whistle" at especially attractive visitors.

A little further on stately flamingoes parade on fashionable pink legs in a large glass-enclosed area. In mild weather the glass panels are pushed aside to allow the flamingoes to wade in an outdoor pool.

These Indian birds are only two of the several Indian species, animals and birds, that engross visitors to the zoo with their beauty and antics. Mohini Rewa, the white tigress, is a special favourite.

She was bought by the Washington zoo from the Maharaja of Rewa at whose palace in Central India she was born. Gloriously feline in every¡ sinuous movement, she now has to share visitors' admiration with her year-old cubs, two yellow, one white. The cubs were named recently at a special ceremony by Indian Ambassador B. K. Nehru. The white cub, a male, is Raj Kumar; his yellow brother and sister are Rama and Rani. Their father is no less handsome for being a deep yellow Bengal Tiger, which may seem a little less exclusive to some people but apparently impresses his wife.

Another popular couple are Shanti and Ambika, the HEN

elephants. They were gifts to the children of the United States and their recipients cannot get over the thrill of having them, riding them and feeding them peanuts. The Maharaja of Mysore, who used to own Ambika, always calls on her when he is in Washington, and so far she has not forgotten him.

More frightening are the huge, armour plated pair of one horned rhinoceroses from Assam, also gifts from India. The male, Turan, is exceptionally big, and is coloured white. Watching him chew through mounds of fodder or lower himself heavily into his wallow are truly awesome sights.

Spotted and black leopards, serval cats, a Himalayan bear and a cuddlesome lesser panda, jackals and more tigers-all from India-have settled down in the Washington zoo. So have deer, monkeys and several varieties of birds.

The Indian animals in Washington zoo, some of the most popular exhibits there, have to accustom themselves to the cold, snow and sleet, unknown to all except the Himalayan bear and panda. The American animals at the Delhi Zoological Park have to adjust to hot and dry weather.

There are seventeen North American animals and birds living in Delhi at the zoo. They range in size from the bulldozerlike bison with huge, shaggy head and shoulders to four little raccoon cubs born to their American parents on April 11 this year. These raccoon babies had an eventful birth with international overtones. A raccoon is a small creature with a sharp foxy nose, short legs with front handling paws like a squirrel's

Couple watch white-tailed Virginian deer in their park-like enclosure in Delhi zoo. Animals were part of gift from the U. S. Government and were formally given to the zoo by the then Ambassador to India, John K. Galbraith. The pair later presented zoo with a faun. and a thick grey coat with a bushy ringed tail. The American raccoon couple were given a home in a hexagonal cage whose six apartments each have an open-air yard bounded by wire mesh. The raccoons' next door neighbours are raccoon dogs from Russia. As the female's delivery time approached she kept as far away from the male as possible. One early morning on his first round, the keeper could not see her outside at all. He peered into her dark, inner room. No sign there either. Then he saw her, spreadeagled half way up the Russian side of the fence. At ground level was a hole she had apparently made to get through. The Russian raccoon dogs were huddled subduedly in a far corner of their enclosure. And near the wall of the inner cage a small, mewling bundle of fur-four newborn raccoon cubs-could be seen.

Their father, as browbeaten as his foreign cousins, sat in the furthest corner of his yard. It took considerable time and coaxing to get mother and cubs into an entirely private cage. That is where she still is, watchfully guarding her furry and now highly active children.

Delhi zoo spreads over 240 acres. It is bordered on one side by a railway embankment which acts as the municipal border between the built-up area and the city's green belt.

Standing on any of the grassy knolls in the zoo's undulating park a visitor can see the Jumna, more than two miles away.

Waterways which leap with fish, silver in the sunlight, widen into lakes for the water birds. The dome of a Mughal ruin which CONTINUED

Tarun, one of two Indian rhinoceroses at Washington zoo attracts awed crowd. Zoo houses over 2,000 mammals, birds, reptiles,fishes.

Delhi and Washington zoos initiated new methods of care and display of their inmates.

has slipped into the largest lake in the zoo, softened by tall water weeds, provides a popular nesting place for the migratory water fowl that look upon the Delhi zoo as a sanctuary.

Buildings have been kept to a minimum, and have, as far as possible, been made to look like natural rock shelters. Where more formal constructions were necessary they have been blended pleasantly into the atmosphere of an Indian scrub jungle, with pathways winding through acacia thickets, opening suddenly onto the magnificent spectacle of lions prowling a rocky ramp or an elephant plodding methodically along, his sugar-cane ration on his back.

Only a few animals still live in the older section of the zoo, with its conventional cages. When the zoo is completed animals from the same geographical regions will live in proximity so that a visitor can see the animals and birds of Africa, for instance, in simulated African settings.

Delhi's dry weather and lack of extreme cold is a climate to which most animals and birds adapt readily. This makes open-air enclosures feasible and it is possible for zoo visitors to imagine themselves on the open range, as they watch the bison grazing gently, a crow perched on his back. Virginian deer, the stag with velvet-like antlers, play nearby. The raccoons lead their involved family life just next door, and their morose looking neighbour, the Canadian porcupine (actually from the U.S.A.), is only a couple of doors away. A little further on the Canadian geese (also from the U.S.) greet the visitor with a chorus of silly squawks.

Two of the most charming American inhabitants in the zoo are the tiny, one-kilo Capuchin monkeys. No taller than a man's forearm, long-legged and slender with reddish fur, pale, hairless faces and soft hands, they eagerly offer a small paw from their cage to shake hands. They are also impulsive acrobats and, if favourably impressed, will dowse the unsuspecting passer-by with their drinking water.

These two Capuchins did not, like the bison, porcupine, raccoons, deer and others, come as part of the American Government's gift to the zoo presented by John Kenneth Galbraith during his tenure as American Ambassador to India. Instead, they were sent by an American businessman, who wanted to exchange them for a pair of panther cubs. The Capuchins arrived, the panthers were sent, and then the Delhi zoo received a frantic letter from the businessman's wife in'which she implored zoo authorities not to send the panthers; she could not imagine sharing her home with these ferocious animals. Unfortunately the panthers had already left and since no more letters have been received from her. A second request for panthers arrived from her husband a year later, however, which set zoo authorities to speculating whether the wife had suffered a fate similar to the young lady of Niger, who went for a ride on a tiger.

What became of the Capuchins though is plain to see. They are thriving, each eating a banana, a tomato, carrot~ onions, water melon, leafy vegetables, bread and milk-everyday.

Exchanges such as these are one of the principal means by which zoos all over the world obtain a variety of animals.

The white tiger cub who was injured by his mother shortly after birth in the Delhi zoo a couple of years ago (she removed a large part of his tail), is not ideal for display. But he is still a prize possession as a stud animal whose offspring may be exchanged, some day, for another American bison, an animal

Virginian deer faun, born a few months ago, sips water from protective moat. Delhi zoo makes extensive use of natural barriers. rigorously protected from export in the United States.

All imported animals do not settle down as easily as the little Capuchins. The American pumas, who arrived on March 1, 1962, escorted by Dr. Waldfried T. Roth, General Curator of the National Zoological Park, Washington, D.C., together with a selection of other American animals and birds, were unhappy about their journey in a specially chartered aircraft. They liked their new surroundings even less and protested by going on a hunger strike. They turned up their noses at mutton, even eggs and milk. It took a week to get them feeding once more, and only by using such painstaking procedures as tempting them in the middle of the night with breast of chicken.

The Indian collection at the Washington zoo and the American collection at the Delhi zoo are examples of the care naturalists take these days to select and then keep in appropriate conditions, animals from different parts of the world.

The days of miserable looking animals imprisoned in rows of crowded, concrete, iron-barred cages are gone. Natural surroundings are created as closely as possible, foods are chosen not only for their correct nutritional value, but also to allow the animal or bird to retain its natural feeding habits as far as possible. To ensure, for instance, that herbivorous animals get enough green fodder, the Delhi zoo maintains a fifteenacre farm to ensure fresh supplies all through the year. Correctly planted paddocks to browse in for grazing animals are also provided.

,gi

Shanti and Ambika, the two elephants, are gifts from the children of India to American children. Washington zoo keepers have devised new ways to keep this pair, and the other 800 different species resident in the zoo, comfortable in the inclement weather of the capital.

The Washington zoo's new aviary is an excellent example of a carefully planned building that provides tropical and other birds to live near-natural lives in the cold climate of the temperate zone. The entrance to the building has been planned to prevent the escape and possible injury of the birds, with perches under the vaulted roof to provide a resting place for any bird which may have flown this far. On the ground floor the enclosures are made to look as little like cages as possible.

Rocks, flowing water, pools and growing plants offer natural settings for the birds, which are grouped according to feeding habits and adaptation to terrain rather than to geographical origin. In one small enclosure humming birds dart and hover over feeding cups. Unlike most of the birds which are fed once daily, these super-active mites must feed often.

The heart of the new building is the spacious Flight Room, where more than 100 birds of forty varieties fly and run free of any barrier. A ramp rises nine feet around three of four sides. The fourth wall has a waterfall which forms a backdrop for a rain forest. Behind the shrubbery pheasants have made a trail the keepers call "Partridge Run." The term "rain forest" is an apt one, for twice a day jets high in the ceiling emit a spray which simulate a gentle rain. Lights in the Flight Room are turned on gradually, much as day slowly dawns in a forest.

Doorways are guarded by colourful curtains of strings of plastic beads, which impede the flight of birds without injury to them but allow easy human access. Temperature in the new building CONTINUED

This American redfox is one of seventeen North American animals in the Delhi zoo. He eats half a kilo of fresh meat every day.

Kodiak bear raises heavy paw in salute in Washington zoo. Note long curved claws of this, one of the world's largest carnivores.

American puma yawns lazily in Delhi cage. Acclimatizing animals to new home is difficult; this puma went on a week's hunger strike.

In these parks birds and animals live natural lives in congenial surroundings.

Indian hill mynah, at home in Washington, perches in new aviary, which sets high standard in care and exhibition of display birds.

is maintained at 68° (F), the best for most species.

A portion of the bird house is patterned directly after one in the Delhi zoo, and is referred to as the Delhi Cage.

It is octagonal, making it possible to view the birds from many angles. The cage is formed from steel mesh, hung from supporting poles. The perches are warmed in winter, for it has been learned that birds can be comfortable in cold weather if their feet are kept warm. Viewing is made easy with barriers low enough for children to see everything and ramps, graded to a ten per cent rise, which allow people in wheel chairs to roll up for a close view.

The design of the new building in Washington is an indication of how the concept of a zoo is changing, reverting to the original meaning of the word 'zoological'-a study of animal life.

Neither Delhi zoo nor Washington zoo is a mere c.ollection of curiosities. They are wide open parks where the enclosed city dweller is re-introduced to the majesty of the forest and the grassy plain: places where birds and animals, living their natural lives, demonstrate the harmony of their existence; where adjectives like 'savage' become absurd and are replaced by human wonderment at the perfection of nature. They are two gardens where knowledge can be acquired by watching, and where humility is gently enforced by dumb creatures, living in our midst with no fear, eloquent in their quiet dignity. • ••

DESIGNING INDIA'S FUTURE AIRCRAFT To meet the growing needs of India's aviation industry, students are learning the fundamentals of aeronautical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

BY MOHAMMEDREY AZUDDIN NTHE STILLNESS of dawn, a small, frail looking aircraft speeded down the runway tugging a sleek, instrumented glider. Two men, running beside the glider, balanced it on its single wheel, until it had sufficient speed to balance itself. Soon the glider lifted off and a few seconds later the tow-plane was also airborne.

Circling above the extensive campus of the Indian Institute of Technology (lIT) at Kanpur, both the aircraft and glider gained altitude. Minutes later the yellow nylon tow rope was released from the glider and it was on its own in free flight.

An hour later the glider came down on lIT's new 2,900-foot runway and pilot John Olcott handed the data to H. L. Sahgal, a student of aeronautical engi-

I

neering who was waiting to collect the infOrmation. The pilot, flying with such precision that the airspeed indicator needle scarcely flickered, had recorded the speed, altitude, temperature, and the number of seconds required to descend 200 feet for each of the fifteen or more test runs conducted as the glider returned to earth. (More recently these tests have been conducted by an Indian pilot, Mr. V. V. Nanda, who was trained by Mr. Olcott.) â&#x20AC;˘ Later that day Sahgal and the six other students of aeronautical engineering processed the data on a digital computer to determine the ratio of the lift to the force of resistance (drag) of the glider.

They then analysed the results to see how they could further increase this ratio by minimizing the drag, thereby

further improving the performance of this first Indian designed and constructed high performance sailplane produced by the Technical Centre of the Civil Aviation Department.

The efforts of this group, the first class of aeronautical engineers in the five-year old Institute succeeded so well that, in the course of two months of tests and modifications, the lift to drag ratio (measure of gliding efficiency) of the sailplane rose from twenty-two to over thirty-one, making the machine competitive with foreign gliders in the same category.

This flight programme is one of the main aspects of the aeronautical engineering course at lIT Kanpur. Others are classroom teaching, flow visualization laboratory, subsonic wind tunnel laboCONTINUED SPAN

August 1965 41

Besides laboratory exercises, the Institute lays emphasis on study of India's aircraft and transportation problems.

ratory and research programme.

The emphasis, as in the case of the glider, is on real problems rather than artificial laboratory exercises. The students are making contributions to Indian aviation even while learning.

The IlT Kanpur was the first Indian Institute of Technology in the country to take action on the Dhawan Committee report which recommended in 1964 that aeronautical engineering should be taught at the Institutes.

Because air transport is so vital to developing nations, aeronautical engineering has tremendous scope in India.

There are situations where the speed and flexibility of air transportation make it more efficient than any other means of moving men and goods. Helicopters and vertical take-off craft can penetrate into the most inaccessible territory. In India the aircraft industry has two basic objectives: first, the defence of the country and, secondly, meeting civilian transportation requirements.

In the view of Professor David C. Hazen, a visiting University, professor from Princeton Princeton, New Jersey, and his colleagues at llT Kanpur, India has adequate facilities for the development of the aeronautical industry. Aircraft are produced at Bangalore and Kanpur and the science of aeronautics has been taught for more than twenty years at the Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore. Madras Institute of Technology and the Panjab University at Chandigarh have also offered courses in aeronautical engineering for several years.

As Professor Hazen has observed, India's civilian needs are for planes designed to move goods and passengers and for such specialized uses as spraying of crops and training of pilots. Aircraft to suit these needs have long been produced in the United States and in several European countries. Although they have been effectively employed in India, they are expensive in foreign exchange and not totally satisfactory, having been designed for conditions far different from those prevailing in this country. Moreover, they are getting obsolete. The headlong rush for bigger and faster planes in the West has also left something of a vacuum in the design and construction of planes most useful for India.

Heat is a problem which constantly affects the efficient operation of aircraft in India. High temperatures reduce the lifting capacity of wings. (The lift of an

airplane is dep~ndent on the density of the air and hot air is less dense than cold air.) Moreover, as the temperature of the intake air of the engine goes up, the thrust of the engine goes down. When designing planes for India, aeronautical engineers must consider the heat problem -a problem which is of lesser consequence to designers of aircraft used in Europe and the United States.

Furthermore, the high temperatures experienced in India result in such high levels of turbulence in the lower reaches of the atmosphere that planes designed for passenger travel must be pressurized to permit travel in the smoother regions of high altitudes.

Another design problem is posed by the comparatively short runways in India which are not suited for big and fast planes. Aircraft have to be so designed that they can use the existing ground facilities without much alteration or additional cost.

The type of personal luggage carried

by Indian passengers is also a concern of aircraft designers. Bedrolls carried by the people in India are large in volume but fairly low in weight-and pose a storage problem in a plane because they require more cubic feet of space than dense cargo.

Planes designed and manufactured in India would not only save foreign exchange, but could also earn foreign for these planes would be exchange, admirably suited for transportation in the tropical countries of Asia and Africa.

There is, of course, a need for transcontinental jet aircraft in India. But there is a more pressing need for efficient and goods planes to carry passengers short distances-200-500 miles. Professor Hazen opines that a pressurized Dakotalike plane capable of carrying from forty to fifty passengers is perhaps the best suited for India's needs for many years.

"If the traffic on the Indian Railways is any criterion of a nation on the move," he told a recent visitor, "then air travel within the country-once it becomes cheap and convenient-has an enormous potential. fo> He also points out that many airstrips and airports in India are not now fully utilized, and can easily handle increased air traffic without too much additional expense.

Prof. Hazen and other aeronautical engineers hope that India will not retake all the steps that have been followed by the aeronautical industries of other CONTINUED

Top panel shows graphic example of pelfeet wind-flow on airfoil, olltlines pattern 0/ wind when plane is in flight.

Professor David C. Hazen, right, explains que of fixing an ai/joil (section oj' airplane

to the students the techniwing) in the smoke tunnel.

Professor Hazen and students watch the behaviour of smoke trails when forced against airfoil. Smoke is used to make the air trails visible.

As the ai/foil is slightly angled, air above and below does not move smoothly and shows signs of a wind-stall.

A complete wind-stall occurs when bottom section 0/ wing gets /ullforce 0/ wind-a dangerous position /01' plane.

The Institute promises to become one of the most important centres of aeronautical teaching and research in the country.

nations. They feel that India's air transport industry can leap-frog many of the errors committed in other countries, using this experience to move ahead quickly with greater efficiency. The country has many natural advantages including a geographical location with a vast potential for developing into an important market for aeronautical equipment.

Moreover India has a developing aluminium industry and produces fine quality steel-both essential commodities in the manufacture of planes. And with the increase in the electrical generating capacity of the country, power can now be easily made available to the aeronautical industry. Another advantage that India has is that the climatic conditions (plenty of clear days throughout the year) are well suited for flight operations. What is needed more than anything else is the technical know-how to design the planes.

It is to provide this technical knowledge and assist in the training of young men to meet the demands of the growing aeronautical industry, that the IIT Kanpur, as mentioned earlier, has instituted its department of aeronautical engineering.

Though still in a very early stage-the first group of seven students will not graduate until next year-it promises to become one of the most important centres of aeronautical teaching and research in India. It has already acquired two wind tunnels and has built a 2,900 feet long airstrip for its Piper aircraft and Rohini glider. A subsonic wind tmmel has been completed at the Subsonic Aerodynamics Laboratory of Princeton University and is expected to be in operation this month.

Digital and analogue computers are also available at IlT to assist the student in his work.

The present facuIty consists of two American professors, but it is expected that by the end of this year it will be augmented by the addition of six highly qualified Indians currently working in other countries.

The programme of study is so designed that engineerilJg graduates can play a meaningful role in the aeronautical industry within some five years. The greatest emphasis is placed on synthesis-the balanced evaluation of the factors leading to successful airplane desicm. At Students solFe complex equations-which describe airplane's behaviour in f/ightwith the help of two analogue computers.

every step the creativity of the student is encouraged.

In contrast with other vehicles of transportation-ships, trains and automobiles-the problems associated with stabilizing and controlling an airplane take a position of pre-eminence in design.

Aircraft are supported in flight by a dynamic reaction of the air against the wing.

This is in contrast to the simpler phenomena of buoyancy experienced by seagoing vessels and road reaction in the case of land vehicles.

Airplanes also fly at relatively high speed, and changes in their attitude can take place very quickly, placing severe demands on the guidance mechanism, whether human or mechanical. And aircraft must be steered in a three-dimensional course, whereas ships and land vehicles require steering in only two dimensions; trains are not steered at all.

The IIT Kanpur aeronautical engineering programme involves the study of aerodynamics, aircraft structure analysis, propulsion science, and guidance and control. Mathematical analysis, analogue computation, wind-tunnel testing and flight testing are important elements of the programme. Mathematical analysis and analogue computation are directed at setting up and solving the complex equations which describe the behaviour of the airplane in flight. Wind-tunnel testing is conducted to obtain accurate information on the aerodynamic forces which are likely to effect the performance of the aircraft. Finally flight testing is required to verify that the flying qualities achieved in the laboratory and on paper are satisfactory in actual flight.

Advanced study programmes are being planned for the future. Graduate students will have the opportunity for creative research on phenomena related to flight vehicles. Facilities will be available for theoretical investigation in such areas as dynamics, elasticity, plasticity, fluid mechanics, magneto-gas dynamics, control system analysis and applied mathematics. Aeronautical engineers with postgraduate training will be qualified for careers in research and academic activity.

Altogether the IIT Kanpur programme is another link in the growing chain of India's air transportation system. It may confidently be expected to contribute to the orderly development and modernization of the country's communications. â&#x20AC;˘â&#x20AC;˘â&#x20AC;˘ lit

MEDICAL CARE FOR THE AGED: One of the most controversial issues to appear on the American scene in recent years has centred around the extent of Federal assistance to the aged for medical care. A proposal was made to Congress by President Kennedy which would extend medical care -hospital, nursing home, home health services and outpatient hospital diagnosisto persons over sixty-four. This plan, known as Medicare, would be financed from Social Security payments. Opponents of the plan labelled it "socialized medicine" and no action was taken during 1964. President Johnson introduced a similar plan early this year, also known as Medicare-and also opposed as "socialized medicine." The opponents of Medicare have offered an alternate plan, the Kerr-Mills bill, which would give grants to States on a matching basis to pay for care for elderly persons of low income. The Kerr-Mills plan is supported by the American Medical Association, the national organization of the country's physicians. On these pages, leading advocates of both plans present their arguments.

The statements are reprinted with permission from Industrial Banker. Š 1964 by the American Industrial Bankers Association.

BYWILBURJ. COHEN,Assistant Secretary U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare

AMABSOLUTELY OPPOSEDto socialized medicine. By that term I mean the government owning the health facilities and employing the practitioners. I do not consider the Administration's proposal to finance hospital insurance through employers and employees a form of socialized medicine since it does not provide for the government to own or operate the hospitals nor does it provide for the employment by the government of any of the practitioners.

There are, however, many people who sincerely believe that any form of governmental programme for the financing of medical care is a form of socialized medicine. If you accept this definition, then the Kerr-Mills programme to supplement health

l

BYDoNOVANF. WARD,M.D. Former President American Medical Association

F

ORMORETHANtwenty years the American Medical Association has been fighting this fight to safeguard for the people themselves a progressive and dynamic system of medicine without equal anywhere on earth.

That is still our aim. It must continue to be our aim.

From the beginning the AMA has been an issue in the controversy over proposals to finance health care of the aged through Social Security. The AMA did not make it so. It has been made an issue by those proponents of the legislation who have undertaken to denounce and abuse the AMA rather than argue the question on its merits.

We are a healing profession with nearly 118 years of history behind us. We were founded "to promote the art and science of

A DEBATE

Wilbur J. Cohen: "The individual can contribute financially to his own security and that of his own family."

Donovan F. Ward: "We reject the basic philosophy of the legislation. We are opposed to making older persons Federal wards."

insurance is a form of socialized medicine and since the American Medical Association supports the Kerr-Mills programme, the conclusion must be that the AMA is in favour of socialized medicine.

It is for this reason that I do not endorse these broad definitions of socialized medicine but rather adhere to the strict definition I have spelled out above.

Moreover, I was the draftsman for Senator Kerr of the Kerr-Mills programme. Hence, since the AMA is supporting the Kerr-Mills programme and I am also supporting it, as a supplement to insurance, it is obvious that there is a lot more to be said about my point of view than you normally read about in the medical magazines and newspapers.

I sincerely believe that, unless some reasonable method is found to take care of the cost of financing hospital and nursing home care for our elderly citizens, the Congress, the State legislatures, and the people generally are going to find some way to do this which might not be as sensible or sound as using the Social Security system to finance the costs.

In other words, what I am saying is that financing catastrophic hospital and nursing home costs for the elderly through

the Social Security system is a method of preventing socialized medicine. I do not think that the overwhelming majority of American citizens want socialized medicine nor do I think such a system would work in such a large and diverse country as ours as compared with the homogeneous character of Great Britain and some other countries.

There is nothing very radical about the Social Security system. As a matter of fact, it is a very conservative approach to dealing with this kind of programme. The Social Security financing system is based on the idea that the individual will contribute part of the cost of his protection. It thus stresses contributory participation against the "free" approach embodied in the Kerr-Mills programme.

The Kerr-Mills approach fails to recognize that the problem of health care protection in old age is not just a problem of the very poor. Even the aged person who has enough income to get along comfortably may suddenly find himself faced with a hospital bill running into thousands of dollars. I believe what is needed is a method to protect the great majority of the aged, who are neither very poor nor very wealthy and who retire with small assets and an income that is just about enough to cover

medicine and the betterment of public health."

It is because of the striving of each succeeding generation to reach that goal that we find ourselves standing where we are today. Now we are the trustees of our profession's noble heritage. We have no choice except to stand firm in our efforts to prevent the standards of health care in this country from being undermined by a radical departure from the unique American way which has accomplished so much for mankind.

What do we stand for in this struggle? We are for, and always have been through our history, complete medical care for everyone regardless of ability to pay for it.

We are for the Kerr-Mills proposal to help those .who need help. We have lately finished a nation-wide educational programme calling attention of elder citizens to this law and urging those eligible to take advantage of its provisions. Seldom has a public service effort of ours awakened a response to equal that produced by the magazine and newspaper advertisements, and the radio-TV broadcasts which we financed to carry the information to every corner of the country.

We have long been for liberalization of Kerr-Mills by the States to make it serve more people and provide increased

services. Forty-seven State legislatures will meet this year. It is incumbent upon those State societies to keep the public informed on proposals for improving the law, and to lead in urging favourable action by the legislators.

We are for the expansion of voluntary health and prepayment plans to enable the solvent and the self-supporting aged to protect themselves against the costs of illness. Private insurance has provided a heartening demonstration of the ability of our free enterprise system to solve a pressing social problem of our time. The fact that more than sixty per cent of over-sixty-five Americans are already covered by insurance is the first major reason why medicare type legislation is both unnecessary and undesirable.

We are for flexible, voluntary retirement programmes in industry so that the productive capacity of older employees will continue to serve society, with the assurance of their complete security when they reach their retirement years.

We are for the preservation of the freedom of our own citizens to spend their own dollars in their own way, not for Washington authoritarians to spend their money for them.

We are for the preservation of a profession in which CoNTINUED SPAN

August 1965 47

Mr. Cohen: "... hospital insurance through Social Security is a middle of the road approach." their daily needs.

Hospital insurance under Social Security would be provided as a right without regard to a person's savings, private insurance, home ownership, and the like. Protection furnished in this way would permit the aged to protect their assets, protect their selfrespect, and to gain comprehensive protection by supplementing the basic Social Security hospital insurance with private insurance and other resources.

If hospital insurance under Social Security is adopted, the financial problems the States face in their efforts to aid the needy aged with their medical costs will be greatly reduced.

But an adequate Kerr-Mills programme that is intended as the main attack on the health-cost problem of the aged cannot be financed without a heavy fiscal drain on the States as well as on Federal general revenues. Many States simply cannot afford adequate programmes.

The Kerr-Mills programme is a necessary underpinning to all other programmes so that any individual who does not have private insurance or Social Security will still be able to have his medical needs met. It is a residual system. It necessarily uses the welfare approach because it has to take into account the needs of the individual, but it can never be a satisfactory system as a primary approach.

Dr . Ward: "We are opposed to this invasion of the voluntary relationship between the patient and physician." imagination, experience, and capability are given full play in prolonging life and alleviating suffering, not one subject to constant bureaucratic interference and direction.

Because we are physicians, concern for the welfare of our patients has been deeply ingrained in our professional lives.

The public has been asked to believe that a programme of government-financed and government-managed health care would yield more and better treatment at less cost. We believe it would give less and poorer care at greater cost.

The patient is the sufferer when the quality and amount of care he receives depends on budgetary considerations rather than on medical need. We know, too, that demands on physicians by those who are seeking a government benefit because it is "free" will take time and hospital beds from those who need care the most, and place our medical facilities in peril of paralysing saturation.

Beyond these points, we reject the basic philosophy of the legislation.

We are opposed to making older persons Federal wards.

We are opposed to exploiting the young by forcing them to assume an unpredictably heavy tax burden to underwrite the

It can only be a supplemental system and work reasonably well if it covers only a relatively small number of people. If it has to cover very large numbers of persons, then it is my feeling that in the long run the people of this country will rebel against the use of a welfare approach and attempt to find something more satisfactory.

One form this reaction might take is to remove the means test entirely, or make it so high that practically everybody over sixty-five would be covered. If we were to wind up with such a system, a system where the costs are paid from general revenues just like money to build dams, harbours and new post offices, I do not see how pressures to expand that type of programme to cover all costs and all services for more and more people could be resisted.

What would be missing is the brake on increasing costs that Social Security has because you have to raise the employee contribution to pay Social Security.

I believe that I am a reasonable middle-of-the-road person.

The proposal for hospital insurance through Social Security is a middle-of-the-road approach between those in favour of sole reliance on the welfare approach through Kerr-Mills on the one hand and socialized medicine on the other. I do not want to be engulfed, nor do I want our nation to be engulfed, by either the welfare approach or the socialized medicine approach.

The contributory Social Security programme stresses the obligation of the individual to contribute financially to his own security and that of his own family. Is this not a better approach than the welfare approach in Kerr-Mills? Is it not far superior to any form of socialized medicine? • 0 •

health care of millions of older citizens who are fully able to take care of themselves.

We are opposed to government undercutting and disrupting the continuing progress of private health insurance and prepayment plans.

We are opposed to offering false promises to the unfortunate who do need help. The measure will provide only a fraction of the care necessary in any serious illness, a fact which few of our aged citizens realize.

We are opposed to this invasion of the voluntary relationship between the patient and the physician.

We deplore the adverse impact on potential students of medicine because of impending government controls over the profession.

We have unmistakable evidence from the utterances of Administration spokesmen and other champions of the welfare state that the election results are to be translated into a mandate for quick Congressional ratification of all such welfare programmes as medicare.

Mandate? There was no debate of the issues in the campaign.

It is generally conceded that the voting was more anti than pro.

The Administration stated its case in the most general terms, and advanced no new, specific proposals for radical reversal of the status quo. Faced with other proposals for drastic changes in the American way of life, the great majority of voters were plainly determined to keep things as they are, and thus made their decision in the polling booth. • ••

LOW COST GOVERNMENT APPROVED AMERICAN ..TEXTBOOKS 1961 Indian students have been. able to buy the latest American textbooks at about a quarter of their price in the United States. This unusual advantage has been given to students in India by ajoint Indian-American textbqok sciteme which has already made available over two hundred and fifty standard works in twenty educational fields.

The Joint Indian-American. Standards Works Programme subsidizes partofthe publishing cost from money given by the United States Governm~mt from the rupee reserve created by its Food for Peace programme. The actual fe-printing and publishing of these textbooks is done by well known Indian publishers. The reprinted textbooks are unabridged editions of the original books. Titles of books reprinted under the programme are '!pproved by the Ministry of Education, Government of India? which obtains evaluations of the books from Indian educators and specialists. The programme is operated under the direction of the loint¡Indian-AmericanBoard with.t4e Secretary?

Education, Government of India? as its Chairman. Fqr a complete list of current textbook titles write to U.S. InfoQuation Service, Books Section, Dept. 8,24 Gurzon Roa~, New Delhi-I. 1.NeE

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