SPAN Saga of India's by V.S. Nanda
National
Augusl
Effort
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Two Decades: World Events
2
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III
Retrospect
II
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Amerjca's Two-Party I)
System Snaps Back
15
,
I
A Race on the Wind
20
I
President Johnson J:..-', '_)"7
and His Cabinet
The Case of the Compulsive Iy L
24
Collector
26
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Farewell to Fear
32
by Tomi Keitlin with Norman M. Lobscnz II
.j
Private Wealth for Public Good
38
by Glenn White !)
When a Justice Retires Asia from the Ad Front cover Graphic interpretation of India's national symbols blends colours of flag with form derived from clrakra. An article on the progress achieved during the twenty years of Indian Independence appears on pages 2-10
Back cover Pilot peers upward as he is carried aloft by a colourful hot-air balloon. The exciting sport of balloon racing, which has won many new fans during the last few years, is featured in the picture story on pages 20 to 23.
W.D. Miller, Publisher; Dean Brown. Editor; V.S. Nanda. Mg. Editor. Editorial Staff: Carmen Kagal, Avinash Pasricha, Nirmal K. Sharma, Krishan G. Gabrani, P.R. Gupta. Art Staff: B. Roy Choudhury, Nand K. Katyal, Kanti Roy, Kuldip Singh Jus. Production Staff: Awtar S. Marwaha, Mammen Philip. Photographic Services: USIS Photo Lab. Published by the United States Information Service, Bahawalpur House. Sikandra Road, New Delhi-I, on behalf of the American Embassy, New Delhi. Printed hy Arun K. Mehta at Vakil & Sons Pvt. Ltd., Narandas Building, Sprott Road. 18 Ballard Estate, Bombay-I.
Standing on the ramparts of the historic Red Fort in Delhi, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru unfurled the national flag and addressed his countrymen, year after year, on Independence Day. This annual ritual, marking the rebirth of the Indian nation, has been followed by his successors in office.
SPAN OF EVENTS AMONGTHE MANYmemorable dates in the long and chequered history ofIndia, none has greater significance than August 15, 1947, when the country achieved independence after nearly two centuries of foreign rule. On that date, to quote Jawaharlal Nehru, India stepped from the old to the new and the soul of the nation, long suppressed, found fresh utterance. Jawaharlal Nehru guided the destinies of free India for nearly seventeen years. Blending patriotic fervour with democratic ideals and a thoroughly modern outlook, his ambition was to transform the country's primitive economy as rapidly as possible. Most of the big development projects-the multi-purpose river valley schemes, the m:ghty steel plants, the country-wide community de.¥elopment programme, the expansion of technical ed ucation-owe their genesis and progress to his vision and inspiration. A passionate believer in peace and international goodwill, Nehru also played a vital role in building 1 ~~
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democracies-India and the United States. Lal Bahadur Shastri continued the works of peace begun by his illustrious predecessor and also gave the nation a most inspiring lead in the critical period of the Indo-Pakistan war in 1965. His sudden death immediately after he had signed the Tashkent Agreement, deprived the country of another great leader. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who now leads the nation, has inherited many of the qualities of her famous father. At the invitation of President Johnson, she paid an official visit to the United States within a few weeks of her election. The visit evoked many expressions of mutual goodwill and friendship. As India enters the twenty-first year of its independence, it has every reason to face the future with hope and confidence. On the following pages, an article reviews the progress which India has m:lde on many fronts during the past two decades in spite of difficulties •..••...•.rI
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India's ational effort ADDRESSING THECONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY ofIndia on August 14, 1947, on the eve of Indian independence, Jawaharlal Nehru said: "At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom." Twenty years later, what has this awakening meant in terms of national progress and political freedom? As one surveys the Indian scene today and tries to make an objective assessment of problems, achievements and expectations, the picture that emerges may not be exciting but it is far from gloomy. In fact it is highlighted by notable success in many spheres and inspires confidence in the country's ultimate ability to attain the cherished goals of a democratic State. Critics who are impatient with the comparatively slow pace of India's development over the past two decades are apt to overlook the enormity of the task which Indian nation-builders had to face when the country achieved independence. After nearly two centuries of foreign rule, India hardly figured on the industrial map and its economy was in a state of stagnation. The masses were steeped in poverty and for millions living standards were barely above the subsistence level. Literacy, at about fourteen per cent, was woefully low. The educational system-originally evolved by Macaulay in the 1830s and designed to produce staff for government offices-laid undue emphasis on the humanities while vocational and technical training was neglected. In public health, although appreciable progress had been made in fighting disease and promoting sanitation, epidemics like malaria, cholera, influenza and smallpox continued to ravage the land. The power and transport resources of the country were entirely inadequate to provide the needed support for
expansion of agriculture and industry. On top of all this, the unprecedented and unforeseen migration of some nine million people from Pakistan to India, following the partition of the Indian sub-continent, created colossal problems of relief and rehabilitation. It took more than a decade to resettle most of the refugees, and the aftermath of the partition is still a potent factor affecting both government and people in many ways. Formidable setbacks to progress, too, have been the Chinese invasion of 1962, the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965and the failure of the monsoon for two successive years. The drought affected not only food grains but also commercial crops such as sugarcane, jute, oilseeds and tobacco, and the low prod uce of these crops in turn adversely affected industrial production and export earnings. In the face .of difficulties of such magnitude, it is not surprising that results have fallen short of expectations. The Third Five Year Plan did not achieve many of its targets. The growth rate of national output, even before the depression which followed in the wake of the drought, was only about three-and-a-half per cent against the hoped-for six per cent. The last two years have actually witnessed a recession in the economy and, for the first time since independence, there has been a drop in the growth rate. Fifteen Years of Planning But let us turn to the other side of the picture and look at some of the positive gains made during fifteen years of planning from 1951 to 1966. Per capita income-which is the commonly accepted and easily understood criterion of a country's progress-rose continued
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from Rs. 275 to Rs. 325 at 1960-61 prices and is expected to rise further to Rs. 417 at the end of the Fourth Plan. India's elementary and secondary school system was expanded to provide education for about sixty-eight million students-almost three times the number in 1950-51. There was an even larger proportionate increase in the number of college students, which rose from 300,000 to 1,500,000, and in the number of students enrolled for technical degrees or diplomas. India is now turning out more than 10,000 engineers and 5,000 doctors every year. About 360 industrial training institutes are imparting instruction in many skilled trades to some 100,000 young men and women. In addition, 30,000 apprentices are being trained in various industries under a special all-India scheme. Technical education is being constantly nourished by scientific research. Under the general control of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, about forty national laboratories and institutes undertake research, both basic and applied, and covering every field of economic and industrial activity. With the commissioning of the first nuclear reactor in August 1956, India stepped into the atomic age and has since planned and carried out several programmes for the development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Work on three atomic power stations, one at Tarapur near Bombay, another at Rana Pratap Sagar in Rajasthan, and the third at Kalpakkam, Madras, is now in progress. In public health the most outstanding achievement has been the near-eradication of malaria. The number of malaria cases dropped from 100 million to a negligible figure in 1966. As a result of improved medical facilities and stepping-up of public health activities, the death rate declined from twenty-five to sixteen per thousand and expectation of life rose from thirty-two to fifty years. The common man has benefited from the opening of an additional 6,000 hospitals and dispensaries, besides 8,000 maternity and child welfare centres and some 5,200 rural primary health centres. Development of energy resources, including coal, hydroelectric power and petroleum, has been remarkable. Installed capacity for generating electricity rose from 2.3 million kilowatts to 10 million kilowatts in 1966 and is expected to reach 20 million in another five years. Twenty-five major river valley projects have either been completed or are in various stages of construction. The large increase in electric power generation has enabled extensive electrification of rural areas. About 55,000 towns and villages have been electrified. Before independence the indigenous oil industry was
rudimentary and the country depended almost exclusively on imports for its requirements of petroleum products. As a result of vigorous, large-scale exploration, new deposits of oil were discovered in Assam and Gujarat, and production of crude oil increased from 60,000 tonnes in 1951 to about 5,000,000 tonnes in 1966. Establishment of six oil refineries in the public and private sectors has increased total oil refining capacity to about twelve million tonnes and contributed substantially to savings in foreign exchange. Progress of other basic industries has been equally satisfactory. Production of iron ore and steel has increased five to six times, and spectacular advances have been made in the manufacture of industrial machinery. The country's heavy engineering units are now able to design, erect and equip complete plants for the manufacture or processing of textiles, tea, cement, paper, sugar, chemicals, metal parts and several other products. Steam, diesel and electric locomotives, railway wagons, coaches and automobiles are all being made in India with the exception of some components. Import of these components, too, is steadily diminishing as the country marches towards self-sufficiency. Output of machine tools has vastly increased and is currently valued at about Rs. 30 crores a year. The domestic market for consumer goods is large and is constantly expanding. Indian manufacturers have been fully alive to its potentialities and indigenous goods have now almost entirely displaced the imported products. Notable examples are cloth, bicycles, sewing machines, radio sets, electric fans, razor blades, watches, soap and cosmetics. The pharmaceutical industry, with a current annual turnover of Rs. 150 crores, is another outstanding example of an indigenous industry'which has kept pace with a rapidly growing demand. All kinds of modern drugs, including vitamins, hormones and antibiotics, are now produced in India, and part of the output is exported. High Priority for Agriculture
This optimistic portrait of the progress of Indian manufacturing industries is doubtless at the moment overshadowed by the difficulties and anxieties of the food situation and the comparatively unsatisfactory state ofIndian agricul- . ture. But even in the case of agriculture-although yields are still low by world standards-total production offoodgrains has considerably increased since 1950, and in 1964-65, a record year, it was about sixty per cent higher. To meet the needs of a growing population, India has continued
Montage at left shows, among other things, construction of a new fertilizer factory, mining of iron ore, increasing output of consumer goods such as bicycles, improvement of facilities for technical education, and modernization of air transport.
found it necessary during the past few years to import substantial quantities of wheat, rice and other agricultural commodities. The largest supplier has been the United States which, under its Food for Peace Programme, has so far shipped to India about fifty-one million tons of foodgrains and has accelerated shipments in recent months to meet the emergency caused by the unprecedented scarcity conditions in Bihar and some other parts of the country. Since agriculture supports seventy per cent of the country's population and is the foundation for a sound economy, it now receives the highest priority in all plans of economic development. A vigorous, nation-wide effort is currently directed towards improvement of agriculture and attaining the goal of self-sufficiency in food as rapidly as possible. The massive effort is many-sided but is concentrated on obtaining higher yields per acre of cultivated land. Since little addition to arable land is feasible, intensive cultivation alone must give increased production. This is being achieved by making available to the farmer new seeds, adequate supplies of water, fertilizer and pesticides and technical advice. A bout five million acres of land are now being intensively cultivated with high-yielding varieties of rice and wheat and it is hoped to extend the area to more than thirtytwo million acres by the end of the Fourth Plan. Particularly hopeful is the prospect of obtaining two or even three crops a year of selected quick-maturing varieties. Until 1951 India was not producing any chemical fertilizer. The present output is, however, more than 300,000 tonnes a year and, with the recent and projected increase in production capacity, it should be eight times this figure by 1970. Manufacture of tractors and pumps for irrigation has been stepped up. Urgent consideration is being given to minor irrigation schemes which can be quickly implemented. Agricultural education and research are being considerably expanded. In the light of recent experience, emphasis is now on the development of drought-resisting varieties suited to lands which are sparsely irrigated or receive scanty rainfall. Soil and water management studies are receiving special attention. Extension services, to carry the results of laboratory research to the farmer, are being strengthened. Even more important than technical advice and assistance are material incentives for the farmer and the availability of credit on reasonable terms. Land reforms aimed at eliminating absentee landlordism and establishing peasant proprietorship have now been adopted by most of the States.
The price structure and return to the farmer are under constant review by government and minimum prices for cereals and other important agricultural commodities are fixed from time to time on the recommendations of the Agricultural Prices Commission. The usurious money-lender is being steadily ousted by some 350,000 co-operative credit societies. These concerted measures hold the promise of a rapid and much-needed boost for Indian agriculture. And a substantial increase in agricultural output would, of course, not only help solve the country's food problem but would have a wholesome effect on the entire economy. Rising rural incomes would stimulate the demand for factory products and give a fillip to industrial production. With more foodgrains coming into the market prices would tend to stabilize and inflationary pressures would be curbed. Progress on the food front, and in fact of the entire economy of the country, is however likely to be jeopardized if population continues to grow unchecked. The present rate of growth is 2.5 per cent, which means an addition of about twelve million every year. Realizing that control of population is a key factor in the success of all development, the Government of India has launched a nation-wide programme of family planning. More than 16,000 centres, where advice on family planning is given and contraceptives dis.tributed free, have been opened, mostly in rural areas. The aim is to reduce the birth rate from its present high incidence of forty to twenty-five per thousand as speedily as possible. Social Change Family planning is, of course, essentially a programme of social uplift a~d it fits into the pattern of social development which has transformed the lives of millions in India during the past twenty years. Characteristics of this change are a desire for innovation and improvement, and a break with those traditions which are meaningless under current conditions. Nowhere is social change more evident than in the new status ofIndian women. Not long ago they lived in seclusion with few interests beyond those of the home and family. But today there is hardly any sphere of public activity in which they are not prominent. Female education has made rapid strides since independence, equipping hundreds of thousands of women for professional, administrative and secretarial jobs. This mass entry of women into the professions has not only had a salutary effect on the economy but has brought about significant changes in social behaviour. It has broken continued
Education and training are changing old habits and ways of life. Girls seek higher education in ever-increasing numbers; some. work in research laboratories. The farmer learns new methods of agriculture â&#x20AC;˘.the pattern of rural life is transformed.
down sex barriers, raised the status of women and given them a sense of self-confidence. Legislation, notably the Hindu Succession Act which conferred equal rights of inheritance on Hindu women, has further developed the trend towards equality. In the wake of freedom, winds of change-psychological, social and political-have also swept across the nation as a whole. Adult suffrage, coupled with the spread of education, has led to a growing consciousness of individual rights. The last general elections, in which more than 150 million people exercised their right of vote, demonstrated the maturity of the electorate and were, in the words of U.S. Ambassador Chester Bowles, "a resounding testimony to the vitality of Indian democracy." The strength of Indian democracy was also amply demonstrated when transition of power was effected smoothly following the deaths of two Prime Ministers within a brief span of eighteen months. Notwithstanding these and other changes in governmental set-up, the country has an outstanding record of political stability during the past two decades. The election of aM uslim to the Presidency has been hailed as evidence of India's strong faith in secular and democratic principles. Indian-American Relations In the colossal task of national development under a democratic system of government, India has received valuable aid from other countries, especially the United States. While Indian-American relations have considerably devel.oped since independence, their beginnings can be traced as far back as the eighteenth century. An American consulate was functioning in Calcutta in 1793 and consulates were opened in other Indian port towns in the nineteenth century. Maritime trade between India and the Unit~d States grew briskly and, according to a report of the U.S. Consul in 1845, of the ships docked in Calcutta during that year threefourths were American. Side by side with the growth of trade contacts, intellectual and cultural links were also being forged. This is evidenced by the interest of American Transcendentalists such as Emerson and Thoreau in Hindu literature and philosophy, the visit of Swami Vivekananda and, in later times, of Rabindranath Tagore to the United States, and Mark Twain's visit to India. When the Indian freedom movement began in the early years of this century, there was understanding and sympathy
in the United States for the Indian cause, heightened perhaps by the fact that India's struggle was against the same colonial power from which America won its independence. Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violent passive resistanceadopted by the Negro American leadership for its civil rights campaign-also attracted considerable attention. But an opportunity for American assistance did not occur till the Second World War. As one of the authors of the Atlantic Charter, President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not hesitate to express his profound interest in "independence for all those who aspire to independence." Early in 1942 he wrote to Churchill voicing his concern with the Indian situation and offering to help in finding a solution. After the failure of the Cripps mission, he urged Churchill to make a further, final effort to prevent a breakdown of the negotiations. He remarked that American public opinion could not understand "why, if the British Government is willing to permit the component parts of India to secede from the British empire after the war, it is not willing to permit them to enjoy what is tantamount to self-government during the war." Since the advent of Indian independence in 1947, India and the United States have come much closer to each other. A constant two-way traffic of educational, professional and cultural exchanges has been established. Large numbers of Indian students, educationists and leaders in many spheres of national activity have visited the United States and come back with fresh ideas for accomplishing the tasks which await them in India. Hundreds of visiting American scholars, writers, teachers, administrators and specialists in different fields have also come to this country, have learned something of India's rich and ancient cultural heritage and in many cases contributed their knowledge and skills to the many-sided development of modern India. U.S. Economic and Technical Aid Financial resources and technical know-how are the two essential ingredients of economic development. The United States has made massive contributions of both to India under the aid programme which began in 1951. The total aid extended or committed so far in the shape of grants and loans under various agreements with the Government of India is about $7,800 million (Rs. 5,800 crores). It exceeds the amount of assistance given to India by all other countries put together. While U.S. aid covers almost all sectors of the economy, continued
India's transport facilities-road, rail and seaare developing to keep pace with its growing industries and markets. While construction of huge dams and multi-storeyed buildings proceeds apace, health and nutrition needs are not neglected.
its impact has been particularly significant in certain areas of development. In improvement of agriculture, expansion and modernization of industry, development of power resources, expansion of facilities for technical education, and promotion of public health schemes, it has played a valuable role. Of special interest in the context of the present food shortage and the urgent need for India to become selfsufficient, are the U.S. financial credits for import of fertilizer and construction of fertilizer factories at Trombay and Visakhapatnam. The Trombay plant commenced production in November 1965 and the Visakhapatnam factory will be in operation shortly. It is estimated that the fertilizers produced by these two factories will increase the country's food production by about 1,350,000-rorrs:-U.S. assistance to Indian agriculture includes aid to nine major irrigation projects. Among these is the Nagarjunasagar project in Andhra Pradesh, which will provide irrigation for some thirty-five lakh acres of land. The popularly known Package Programme of improved agricultural practices, which will be extended to more than a hundred districts in the Fourth Plan, is assisted by the Ford Foundation and the U.S. Government. Another development is the establishment, with U.S. aid, of seven new agricultural universities which are producing skilled graduates, promoting research and strengthening extension services. In the industrial field, supplies of U.S. machinery, components, spare parts and raw materials have helped many Indian industries to modernize and expand. In addition to aid to specific projects, a large amount of non-project assistance has benefited a vast number of industrial enterprises by making available to them the foreign exchange needed for essential imports of non-ferrous metals, machine parts, lubricants, chemicals, rubber and other miscellaneous products. Cheap electric power is a primary need in India and the U.S. has extended financial and technical assistance to a number of hydro-electric and thermal projects. The biggest of these is the Sharavathi Hydro-electric Project in Mysore, of which the first stage has already been completed. When fully in operation, it will produce nearly a million kilowatts of electricity. Development of transport and communications is vital to an expanding economy. The bulk ofIndia's passenger and goods traffic is carried by its railways, which are striving both to meet the increased traffic demand and to attain selfsufficiency in rolling stock. An important U.S.-aided railway project is the Diesel locomotive Factory at Varanasi, with an annual capacity of 150 locomotives. American assistance to public health projects in India has been substantial and diversified. It has contributed to the success of the malaria eradication programme and mass vaccination campaigns. It has given a fillip to medical education in all its phases. Indian doctors and medical teachers
have received advanced training in the United States, and American medical specialists have come to India to help with educational programmes at medical and nursing colleges. Teaching aids and professional and laboratory equipment have been supplied to a number of Indian institutions. Another, and perhaps even more important, area of education in which U.S. assistance has played a useful role is that of engineering and technology. Fourteen regional engineering colleges have been assisted with financial grants and more than five hundred Indian engineering teachers have had specialized training in the United States. The Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, which is aided by a consortium of nine American universities and has about thirty American professors on its faculty, is developing into one of Asia's premier technological institutions. Teachers of science and technology at the school and college level have also been.benefiting from the U.S.-assisted Summer Science Institutes Programme which was inaugurated in 1963 to familiarize Indian teachers with the latest methods in science teaching. This year's programme comprised 130 Summer Science Institutes and attracted more than 6,000 Indian teachers from all over the country. About 170 American professors came to India to participate in it and share experiences with their Indian colleagues. While educationists, technicians and all kinds of highlyskilled specialists have an important role in national development, there is also need for devoted workers at a less specialized level-men and women imbued with the ideal of service, who can mix freely with ordinary people and help them increase their professional efficiency or improve living standards. Such an element is provided by the U.S. Peace Corps workers, who are contributing to the betterment of life in India's towns and villages while they also learn something about Indian traditions and culture. "The real objective of taking foreign aid," said Prime Minister Indira Gandhi some time ago, "is the ultimate elimination of such aid. It is only to help us to stand on our own feet." The aid which India is receiving from the United States and other friendly countries should enable its economy to reach the "take-off" stage before long. Indian leaders realize that greater self-help and more efficient mobilization of India's own resources are necessary to quicken the pace of growth. That a tremendous effort has already been made is obvious from the fact that the internal resources harnessed for development during the first three Five Year Plans have been four times as large as the total amount of foreign aid. Twenty years are not a long period in the history of a India's nation. In spite of many trials and tribulations, record during these years is one of progress on many fronts. And today the country stands poised for a breakthrough to a viable and expanding economy, with the promise of increased opportunities and a fuller life for millions of people. END
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Children cheer as AmerIcan brings food supplies to West Berlin during the 18-month-long Soviet blockade of city in 1948-49.
Escorted by Indian custodial troops, North Korean prisoners-of-war reject repatriation and wave South Korean flags. War lasted 1950-53.
Two decades: world events in retrospect
The past twenty years-a period of many-sided development of free India-witnessed far-reaching changes in the world scene. Many new nations came into being, but military conflicts, intern~tional crises and aggression kept up tension everywhere. At the same time notable advances were made in science and technology and nation-building activities offered new hope for millions. Racial barriers were lowered. There were new, exciting trends in art and architecture. Youth broke with convention, sought fresh outlets for its exuberant energy. The pictures on these pages portray some of the events which have made up the mosaic of ('h"no-p in thp hot
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Gigantic mushroom resulting from the first H-Bomb blast in the Marshall Islands in 1952 rose to a height of 40,000 feet-as tall as 170 Qutab Minars.
In October 1950, Chinese Communist troops marched into Tibet to "liberate" that country-an action condemned by civilized countries throughout the world.
After the division of Viet-Nam in 1954, more than a million people fled from the Communist North. Here, refugees crowd into ships bound for South Viet-Nam.
John Glenn's 1961 space flight in a Mercury capsule made him the first American to orbit the earth, was one of the earliest U.S. space successes. , ~~)4'
Captured by Hungarian freedom fighters, during revolution in October 1956, Soviet tank moves down Budapest street. Uprising was later crushed by Red Army.
During 1962 Cuban missile crisis, an American official points out rocket sites on the island at U.S.-convoked emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. 6).-'<t7 -
A great wave of freedom swept across Asia and Africa in the past 20 years, bringing independence to more than 50 nation~. Below, Kenya leaders at "uhuru"-ceremony.
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Pallbearers at the 1953 funeral of Josef Stalin, later denounced as a tyrant, include (from right) Malenkov, Stalin's son Vassily and Molotov.
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Op art, with its purely visual appeal, and Pop art, which satirizes aspects of popular culture, are two of the most exciting art movements of the 'sixties.
At signing of nuclear test ban treaty in 1962 are, seated from left, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and British Foreign Secretary Lord Home.
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Negro children in front of Supreme Court building recall the tribunal's historic 1954 decision outlawing segregation in U.S. public schools•
The last two decades were a period of turmoil for mang nations~ but tl,ey also saw tl,e attainlnent of I,eights not scaled before-botl, 01' earth and in tl,e remote reaches of outer space.
The Great Wall of Berlin, built by the East German Communist regime' in 1961, was raised higher to seal off the escape route to freedom in the West.
The sorrow at John F. Kennedy's tragic and untimely death in 1963 overflowed the boundaries of the United States to engulf millions throughout the world.
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Political upheavals have ,.ot affected progress of tecl.nology~ industry~ art~ democratic idetlS.
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Nikita Khrushchev, seen here in characteristic action at a session of the United Nations, was ousted as premier and party chief in 1964.
Wall posters are main source of information for outside world about Communist China's power struggle since mid-1966.
The Beatles have cast their spell on youth everywhere, including India. . Millions of their song records have been sold during past three years. (7- r-/4
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From near ankle-length in '47 skirts have gone above knee in current "mini-skirt" vogue.
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A spectacular evelopment in space exploration was the 21-minute space walk by Astronaut Edward H. White during 1965 Gemini-4 Oight.
Developed nations enjoyed great economic boom. U.S. doubled its Gross National Product; highway building was one stimulant.
In the midst of war, South Viet-Nam's 117-member Constituent Assembly was elected and met at end of 1966 to draft a national constitution.
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New York office building illustrates architectural trends, changing skylines.
Assembly line in Japanese automobile factory exemplifies nation's rapid recovery after World War II and industrial progress in recent years. "...
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THECAMPAIGN for the 1968U.S. Presidential election began on November 4, 1964, the day after Lyndon B. Johnson won one of the largest victories in American history. There were political observers who saw in Mr. Johnson's victory the end of the two-party system in the United States. The overwhelming defeat of the Republican candidate, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, appeared to some to have destroyed the Republican Party as a major force in American political life. President Johnson won a majority of votes in fortyfive States; Senator Goldwater won only five States, most of them in the south. To many it seemed that the Republican Party was dead. Actually only one wing of the Republican Party was defeated: the far right or extreme conservative wing of the party. The moderate and liberal wings survived the debacle, somewhat shaken but by no means destroyed. Several of the leaders of the moderate and liberal elements-Governors Nelson Rockefeller of New York and George Romney of Michigan, for example-had dissociated themselves from Goldwater and his followers, or, like former Vice President Richard M. Nixon, had maintained such impeccable neutrality between the party's extreme elements that they emerged as the effective leadership of the Republican Party. The prophets of doom who had virtually performed the last rites over the Republican Party after the disaster of 1964 were themselves laid low in the Congressional and gubernatorial elections of 1966. While there was no national election for the Presidency and Vice Presidency, many Rf'publican candidates for the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, State governorships and State legislatures won smashing victories over their Democratic opponents. And most of the Republican victors were of the moderate, middle-ofthe-road variety. Only one Republican candidate for a major office-former film actor Ronald Reagan of California-had
AMERICA'S
TWO-PARTY SYSTEM SNAPS BACK
PRESIDENT
LYNDON
Democrat
B.
JOHNSON
been associated with the party's right wing, but had worked hard-and successfully-during his campaign for the California governorship to create a more moderate political image. His campaign speeches were models of moderation, conservative but not reactionary. But nearly all of the other Republican candidates who won major offices in 1966 -Rockefeller of New York, Romney of Michigan, Brooke of Massachusetts, Percy of Illinois, Hatfield of Oregon-were attractive candidates, widely recognized for their progressive views. It was a Republican year and those who knew their American history were not completely surprised. If the two-party system was dying in the U.S., the Republican Party had not yet been informed of its imminent demise. The 1964 election was not the first disaster for the Republican Party. It had been all but buried after its defeat in 1912 by Woodrow Wilson, but the four victories of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1932; 1936, when he won forty.~sixof the forty-eight States; 1940; and 1944) and the unexpected election of Harry Truman in 1948 seemed to have established an irreversible trend. While the party did not control the administration during this twenty-year period of Democratic victories on the national level, Republicans gained seats in many Congressional elections and could often exert considerable influence on legislation with the assistance of southern conservative Democrats, even without a full Republican majority in the Senate and House. The Republicans, after twenty years as the "out" party, became the "in" party in 1952when they elected attractive, moderate candidates, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Senator Richard M. Nixon. When Eisenhower and Nixon repeated their 1952victory in 1956,crushing Democrat Adlai Stevenson with even greater force, predictions of the demise of the Democratic Party were heard throughout the land. By mid-1959 it appeared that the Republicans might easily win again. Vice President Richard Nixon enjoyed the bless-
*
ing of President Eisenhower, the Republican Party was strongly organized throughout the country, and the Democrats were fighting among themselves. But the resiliency of the two-party system was demonstrated again with the hair-line victory of Senator John F. Kennedy over Vice President Nixon in the 1960 election, one of the closest in U.S. political history. Only the narrowest of margins-one lakh votes-spelled victory for Kennedy. And while the majority was equally narrow in the Congress, it was the Democrats who were in control once more. The death of President Kennedy tested not only the two-party structure, but the whole American political fabric as well. Suddenly, on that tragic November day, there were no political parties. The national interest eclipsed the narrow interest of party politics as the leadership of the Republican Party quickly placed its full support and prestige behind President Lyndon B. Johnson. With both the Democratic and Republican parties firmly united, continuity was maintained and a crisis averted. It was one of the finest hours in American political history. But 1964 was an election year. By midsummer it was clear that the conservative wing of the party, headed by Senator Goldwater, had won control of the Republican machinery. Goldwater men had placed their followers in key positions to win the nomination for Goldwater in the Republican convention. In spite of a last-minute effort by moderate and liberal , members of the party to "stop Goldwater," the Arizona Senator won the party's nomination on the first ballot. The only question facing the Democratic convention that year was the candidate for Vice President. No incumbent President who sought re-nomination has been denied it in this century, and by tradition, a President can suggest a man he would prefer as his running mate. In 1964, President Johnson asked the convenâ&#x20AC;˘ Because of the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, passed in 1951, President Eisenhower, even had he wished, could not seek a third term. The Amendment limits Presidents to two elected terms.
VICE PRESIDENT HUBERT
H.
HUMPHREY
Democrat
GOVERNOR
GEORGE
Republican
ROMNEY
tion delegates to nominate Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota for the Vice Presidency. The Johnson-Humphrey landslide victory did not, as some had feared, bring an end to the two-party system. The Republican Party began the process of re-building and re-.organizing, and by 1964 could offer attractive candidates in most State and local contests-and elect many of them at the polls. Now the 1968 campaign for the Presidency is under way. No one has declared himself to be a candidate, but several Republican leaders appear to be considering the possibilities. This month at State and county fairs across the country, many politicians will make speeches, shake hands and "meet the people"-activities designed to enhance their popularity and their political fortunes. Public opinion polls are being watched with more than casual interest. Nearly every possible Republican contender has been pitted against President Johnson in the public opinion polls with varying results. Most of the serious candidates will conduct private polls to evaluate their chances, to determine the issues which are of vital concern to the people, and to judge their public acceptance. President Johnson, who is eligible under the Constitution for another four-year term after his current term ends in January 1969, is virtually assured, as his party's leader, of the Democratic nominationassuming hiUs.a candidate. Under the unwritten code of American party politics, it is still too early for him to state flatly that he will seek another term, and his leadership now would be weakened if he were to decline the nomination, a contingency that appears unlikely. Nevertheless, not long ago a reporter asked the President at a press conference to "end the speculation for us all and tell us (a) if you intend to run in 1968; and (b) if Hubert Humphrey will be your running mate." About his own plans, Mr. Johnson wryly said that he didn't know there had
been that much speculation and added: "I am not ready to make a decision about my future after January of 1969 at this time. I think that down the road-several months from now-would be the appropriate time for an announcement of my future plans." His answer to part (b) of the question was this expression of confidence in Vice President Humphrey: "I have never known a public servant that I worked better with or for whom I had more admiration, or who I thought was more entitled to the public trust than the Vice President. I felt that way when I asked the convention in Atlantic City to select him. I feel even stronger about it today." The only other prominent Democrat frequently mentioned as a candidate for either President or Vice President is Senator Robert Kennedy, who has repeatedly said that he supports President Johnson for re-election. In the Republican Party the race is wide open, with these men apparently the leading contenders at present: Richard Nixon, George Romney, Charles Percy, Ronald Reagan. Mr. Nixon served two terms as Vice President in the Eisenhower Administration and lost the 1960 election to John F. Kennedy by a narrow margin. Although he has acknowledged the establishment of a national "Nixon-for-President Committee," Mr. Nixon said that this is not a formal announcement of his candidacy and added, "I have made no decision with regard to my own political activities." In the tradition of American politics, it is, of course, too early to develop a fullfledged campaign. Meanwhile, Mr. Nixon undertook a two and one-half month world tour with calls on leaders of many countries, including India, a tour reminiscent of those he undertook during his Vice Presidency at President Eisenhower's request. Supporters of Michigan Governor George Romney have opened a Romneyfor-President headquarters and he is in
SENATOR ROBERT
F.
KENNEDY
Democrat
GOVER 'OR RONALD
Republican
REAGAN
demand as a speaker for events in various parts of the country. Although Governor Romney refused to support Republican candidate Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election and is not popular with those members of his own party who regard this as disloyalty, he stands well in the public opinion polls, and his recent tour of six western States was regarded as a big success in terms of numbers who turned out to see him and donate party funds. Although Charles Percy became a national figure only last November when he was elected to the Senate from IlLinois, he is being mentioned frequently for the Presidential nomination. At forty-seven, he is the youngest of the prominent Republicans, and has been the most active of the freshman Senators. California's Governor Ronald Reagan said that he would run as a California "favourite son" candidate, which means that he would keep the big California vote from being split between opposing candidates on a first ballot at the 1968 Republican convention and attempt to deliver it to one nominee on a subsequent ballot. Meanwhile, Governor Reagan, who won his office on a pledge of sound financial management, has been busy presenting his programme to the State legislature. There are others who might yet emerge as the Republican Party's candidate for President in 1968. Governor Rockefeller of New York, although he disclaims any desire to seek the Presidency, has vigorous supporters throughout the nation. And there are those whose names have not yet even been mentioned, but mig4t, as the months pass, emerge as candidates. Although people often discuss methods for making national campaigns shorter, to save money and energy, longer campaigns and the attendant publicity do have value in acquainting the public with the candidates and their views. At any rate, the campaign which will elect a President in 1968 is well under way. And the twoparty system appears to be healthier and stronger than ever. END
It has a heartbeat, pulse and blood pressure. Its chest moves as if breathing. The eyes dilate and blink. Muscles twitch. Its "skin" looks and feels like human skin. The mouth opens and closes; there are teeth, a tongue, vocal chords, everything found in a human mouth and throat. This is a capsule description of Sim One (meaning Simulator One), a computer-controlled, life-like manikin that responds in many ways exactly like a human patient. It even reacts to drugs in about the same way as people do. Physicians in training in the United States are now learning complex medical and surgical procedures with the help of Sim One, but its main purpose is to train anaesthetists. The manikin is especially well suited for training in what anaesthetists call "endotracheal intubation," a complex technique which calls for slipping a tube into a patient's windpipe to administer anaesthetic gases through it directly to the lung. That procedure is now used in most major surgery. Formerly, the delicate procedure took training physicians at least three months to master, but with Sim One two days of instruction and practice are often enough. While the training physician practises on Sim One, the instructor can monitor each step at a central console. The instructor can talk with the student, can stop the procedure at any point for as long as desired, then resume from that point or start all over again-all of which would be impossible if a patient were ." being treated. The instructor can over-ride these automatic computer-controlled responses to introduce problem situations. By pushing the appropriate buttons, the instructor can cause an increase or decrease in the manikin's heart rate, blood pressure or respiration. Sim One can be made to vomit, suffer heart stoppage, go into shock or meet up with various other emergencies. In procedures with patients, physicians meet such emergency problems only very rarely, but with Sim One they can be repeated over and over to give the physician thorough experience to cope with such cases. The computer can also be commanded to deliver a print-out of everything that has taken place at any time or at the completion of the exercise for thorough analysis of the physician's performance. Sim One is in use by the School of Medicine at the University of Southern California at Los Angeles County Hospital. The manikin was developed by university researchers working with engineers at the Von Karman Centre of the Aerojet-General Corporation at Azusa, California, under a $272,000 grant from the U.S. Government's Office of Education. Sim One is expected to be the first of a whole generation of such computerized medical robots for use in a wide variety of training missions. In the future, robots may bleed and sweat and perhaps even groan.
A 'patient' who defies death
THE SCENE: Reno, Nevada. The event: a balloon race. Whoever flies farthest and lands within an hour will win. Balloon flights began in 1783, but their popularity diminished with the invention of the airplane. Now, a new interest has arisen and balloon racing has won new fans. At the crack of a pistol and the wave of a flag, contestants and their crews sprint towards the lifeless, plastic-coated nylon bags spread out before them, 100 yards away. With speed and precision, they light the burners that will inflate the massive bags with hot air. As it fills to its capacity (which may range from 27,000 to 87,000 cubic feet), a balloon swings upright, straining to be airborne. Then, while the six-man crew fights to keep the gondola on the ground, the pilot
scrambles aboard. With a final, mighty push underneath, the men send the colourful onion-shaped vehicle soaring into the air. Simple as it looks, floating across the sky is no child's play. Manoeuvring above mountains and fighting unfavourable winds are just part of the job. The air inside the envelope must be kept at least WO°F hotter than the air outside to keep the balloon aloft. But if it gets hotter than 250°F, the skin may become brittle and crack. Landing can be tricky, too. Unwary pilots have descended into lakes, trees and even next to a lion pit in a zoo! But to the adventurous, skilled pilot, the danger is nothing compared to the serenity, the sense of freedom and absolute joy of soaring silently above the earth.
A RACE
ON THE WIND Left: The race gets underway as flight crew dashes to the lifeless, seventy-nine~foot-long balloon. Moments later, blower roaring, the bag billows. Above right: A crewman makes last-minute check of the giant balloon as it is readied for a flight and swells around him as an overpowering umbrella. Right: Aloft at last, the pilot soars high up in air-5,OOO feet above earth. Red strap attaches 10 rip panel that deflates balloon for landing.
Interest in the old, hot-air balloons has revived and once again they are wafting in the air streams over the United States.
Below: Propane burners help pilots manoeUvre their craft. By turning a valve, they can gain or lose height.
Right: Crews fight to hold balloons downas they strain skyward. Released, they may climb 20,000 feet for race.
Lawrence F. O'Brien, 50, Postmaster General, has recommended changes which will-if approved by Congress-eliminate the Department from the Cabinet, and place U.S. postal services in a privately-run corporation.
Dean Rusk, 58, Secretary of State, holds the senior position in the Cabinet, and is the President's chief adviser on foreign affairs. He has visited India several times in his present position and was stationed in Delhi during World War II.
Robert S. McNamara, 51, Secretary of Defence, has served in this demanding job since 1961. Under his direction, the U.S. defence establishment has been reorganized and streamlined. He served in India with the American Air Corps during World War II.
W. Willard Wirtz, 55, was appointed Secretary of Labour in 1962 with a record of achievement as law professor and labour arbitrator covering more than two decades. In 1966, he visited India and met labour leaders.
Orville L. Freeman, 49, Secretary of Agriculture, has been a key figure in U.S. Food for Freedom programme and a frequent visitor to India. Along with Secretaries Rusk, McNamara and Udall, he was appointed to the Cabinet by President K,ennedy in 1961.
Alan S. Boyd, 45, Secretary of Transportation, heads the newest Department constituted early this year. It brings together 34 Federal Agencies concerned with the nation's transportation: roads, ports, rails, waterways and airlanes.
Robert C. Weaver, 59, is the first Negro to achieve Cabinet rank. He heads the Department of Housing and Urban Development, created last year. A Harvard-trained economist, Dr. Weaver bas worked in government agencies since the early 'thirties.
and
John W. Gardner, 55, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, has a wide range of responsibility for efforts to improve and refine quality of American life. He also served as a consultant on education to many Federal agencies before Cabinet appointment in 1965¡
Alexander B. Trowbridge, 37, Secretary of Commerce, is the youngest and newest member of the Johnson Cabinet (average age is 51). A graduate of Princeton University, he joined the Department as Assistant Secretary in 1965. Stewart Udall, 47, Secretary of the Interior, was a leading conservationist as a member of the U.S. Congress. His progressive views on the protection of natural resources led to his appointment by President Kennedy.
6?-/J--SL
(1&12.-1"l'0M W. Ramsey Clark, 39, Attorney General, directs the U.S. Department of Justice. His father, Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark, served the same office before being named to the Court in 1949. He resigned on his son's appointment to the Cabinet.
The case of the compulsive The leading Indian art dealer in America, Nasli Heeramanek is more connoisseur than businessman. As a buyer, he is said to be "helpless to resist if the object appeals, and heedless of cost." IN NEW YORK'S mid-Manhattan area, there is a lone turn-of-the-century house that stands incongruously in a row of sleek apartment buildings. Dominating the entrance to the house is a carved wooden door, Danked by two impressive stone lions. Inside, the white walls contrast with the richness of Indian carpets, the dull golden gleam of old brocade, and the vibrant colours of Indian tapestry. Almost everywhere, there are ceramics, bowls, jars, vases, ivory carvings, bronze statues, and sculptures on tall pedestals. It is almost like walking back along the corridors of history into a splendid bygone age: This is the home of Bombay-born NasH Heeramanek, an art dealer-indeed, the art dealer in America who has made a career of the arts of India. Heeramanek has spent most of his sixty-five years collecting Indian art and instilling into others an appreciation of its beauty. A collection of Heeramanek's Indian and Nepalese treasures is currently touring American museums. The 300 art objects, a few of which are shown on these pages, include stone sculpture, bronzes, paintings, textiles, .manuscripts and pieces carved out of crystal and . jade and agate. When the tour has ended, the
Decorative sandstone pillar of the Mathura school, circa A.D. 25-50. is from Heeramanek collection now touring American museums. Young womun with afluted cup in her hand isposed before branches of a blossoming Ashoka tree. Above her are a man with a cap-like hair style and a bejewelled woman. The extravagant degree of personal ornamentation and the semi-realistic style (best seen in the leaves of the tree) are typical of the Mathura school.
collector ~~~
fvh~
collection will be permanently installed in six galleries of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which is' generally acknowledged to have the finest collection of Indian art in the U.S. In a recent interview, Heeramanek said he had chosen this particular time to make his gift to the Boston Museum because he had suffered a heart attack not long ago and wanted to be sure his works of art would be cared for properly. "I am all right now," he said, "but I feel I should plan ahead. Then, I shall be able to leave my works with a clear conscience." As part of his plan, Heeramanek recently presented to the National Museum in New Delhi a magnificent collection of pre-Columbian art. The more than 350 objects represent all the major civilizations of Mexico and other centres of Middle America, the outstanding cultures of Peru, and examples of the peripheral cultures of Chile, Argentina and Brazil. Though especially rich in pottery, because of the wide and creative use of clay in ancient America, the collection includes wood and stone sculpture, textiles, utensils and fine metal ornaments. A few of these pieces have been on display at the National Museum, and a full-scale inauguration of the Heeramanek collection will be held shortly. "The offer of the gift late last year came as a tremendous surprise to us," says Dr. C. Sivaramamurti, Director of the National Museum. "We are indeed grateful," he adds, "not only because a collection of this magnitude is really priceless but also because it will mark the first time that pre-Columbian art will be adequately represented in any museum in Asia." (continued)
Vishnu from ninth-century Kashmir is in a bronze alloy inlaid with copper and silver. The normal face is human, the faces on the sides are the lion a~d boar, while behind is that of a demon. Two of his hands hold the lotus and conch, the other two rest on the heads of gada-nari and cakra-purusa. personifications of his weapons, the mace and war-discus. Pedestal top has a lip to drain off liquids poured ritually over image. Four-faced
After a boyhood permeated with art, Heeramanek spent years studying under well-known art authorities.
Painted cotton fabric, far left, is attributed to Golconda around the middle or second half of the seventeenth century. Surrounding the dancing pari in centre are other paris playing various lIlusical instruments. A number of gazelle-like animals lie among rocks in the lower left hand corner, while birds, hares, plants and trees .fill the rest of the spaces. Border shows an arabesque of leaves and medallions against an orange-brown background. Mughal hookah bowl at left was made in the first quarter 0/ the eighteenth century. Standing about eight inches high, its very thin clear glass has a lotus design painted in red, yellow and green. The /lowers, buds and leares are outlined in gold.
Rajput painting, lefi, is a page /ro/11a Bhagavata Purana series believed to belong to Mewar, circa 1540. Gamda, Vishnu's vehicle, carries the god and his consort Lakshmi as they sit on a bed of lotllses. Vishnu is depicted again, lower centre, while at the right a princely couple pays homage. Tn this painting the artist re-used the paper of an earlier Islamic manuscript, and Persian writing can be seen beneath the sur/ace of the painting. Smiling head/rom Mexico (300-800 A. D.), below, and a pottery figure, probably of a priest, from Northern Peru (600-800 A.D.) are two items from the 350-piece pre-Columbian collection donated by Heeramanek to the National Museum in New Delhi.
. 5N' - b'T - 9--- ~
I
I
Talking to an American journalist, Heeramanek said, "I love my objects and I want to see them well placed. I am giving the preColumbian works to India because I have taken so much from there. I feel they should have something back from me." "It is the first time," he went on, "that such a collection has been presented to my native country." Heeramanek's memories of his native country are largely tied up with his father, a Bombay art dealer of Parsee lineage who was known throughout India as a connoisseur of Asiatic art, particularly Chinese ceramics. The atmosphere of Heeramanek's boyhood was permeated with art: problems of identity and significance and quality were daily fare. "At the age of nine," Heeramanek recalled, "I was already collecting old coins. When I was thirteen, my father suggested that I collect Indian textiles instead, and he gave me swatches from high-quality samples as a beginning. " Four years later, because his father's New Delhi gallery was being poorly managed, young Nasli asked if he could take it over and the elder Heeramanek consented. On his first day at the gallery, Nasli had the proverbial beginner's luck-he sold two porcelains. Heeramanek then began to advertise the gallery in newspapers and magazines. "I did this," he said, "by copying the format of other advertisements. I attracted quite a few buyers this way, even Lady Irwin, wife of the then Viceroy of India." The collector's first ties with the United
States might have stemmed from acquaintance at that time with "an elderly, charming American couple from San Diego, California. They were travelling by train through India, making long visits in various cities." "They invited me to dinner," Heeramanek said, "and then bought a number of art objects from the gallery. They also gave me letters of introduction to art authorities in New York, which later proved very useful." After several months the New Delhi gallery was sold, and Heeramanek returned to Bombay. "A period of depression followed," he said, "when father was robbed during a European trip. We were in a terrible state financially because we had lost many of our best pieces. So I asked if! could go to England with our remaining art objects. There I had some success in selling the rarer items to museums and private individuals." At this period in his life, Heeramanek, who is largely self-taught, decided to make a serious study of art. "I would study at the British Museum in the morning," he recalled, "and spend the afternoons with such distinguished art authorities as Sir Laurence Binyon, who taught me how to appreciate beautiful manuscripts and other art works .... I took a serious interest in learning and wanted to learn from the best." After two years in London, Heeramanek went to Paris and opened a gallery there. Three years later, he turned it over to his brother and left for the United States. He landed in New York with $75 in cash in his pocket and a fortune in treasures in a trunk. Heeramanek's first years in the United States were not easy. Russell Lynes, former managing editor of Harper's Magazine and a long-time friend of the India-born collector, has an interesting account of this period in a recent issue of the magazine. Heeramanek's first considerable sale in New York was to another dealer. "I had a fragment of ancient textile," he told Lynes, "and I had seen this dealer buying a similar fragment in Paris and I knew I could sell him my piece at any price. I went to see him and I told him I had the piece and he told me to bring it to him. I told him to come to my hotel room if he wanted to see it; it was my place of business. He refused, but as I was getting into the elevator, he sent somebody after me to find out when he could come. I told him six o'clock, and the dealer was there at six o'clock. I told him my price was $1,100. He offered me $650, then $750; finally he got to $1,000, and then he went away. The next day he sent a man with $1,100 in cash. I do not overprice things, and so I do not believe in bargaining." Another spectacular Heeramanek sale was that of a 500-carat emerald cup that once continued
Nasli Heeramanek's theory has always been "to buy five, sell four, and keep the best for himself."
belonged to Emperor Jehangir. It was from this sale that he obtained funds to open his first gallery in New York. Going back to his first meeting with Heeramanek, Russell Lynes writes, "I met him through a young woman who was working for him in the gallery (her job was mainly pacifying the telephone company and the landlord and watching the newspapers for the names of visitors to the city who might conceivably be turned into collectors). On one occasion Heeramanek and the young woman and I loaded about $15,000 worth of sculpture and paintings and illuminated palm-leaf manuscripts into an open Ford touring car, and eager but with the art uninsured we set out for Boston." In Boston, of course, lived Dr. Ananda Coomaraswamy, the great and gentle Asian scholar whose name Heeramanek has revered since the time he was a boy. Keeper of the Indian collections at the Boston Museum, Coomaraswamy was one of the most powerful influences in the Indian collector's life. He refers to him as "a man of the greatest erudition whose very presence seemed the embodiment of India's ancient cultural heritage, and who responded with infinite patience to those who sought knowledge through him." Heeramanek describes the balding and bespectacled Coomaraswamy as "almost a recluse who lived only for his research and writing." He rarely mingled socially, Heeramanek observed. "When I would visit his home," he said, "he would work till dinner time, take a half-hour off for chatting after dinner, and then go back to his typewriter." Heeramanek said that the characteristic he most admired in Coomaraswamy was his humility and respect for another's viewpoint. "Most scholars are egocentric," he said, "but not Coomaraswamy. I recall an incident when I showed him an object and asked how he would date it. He replied, 'Tenth century.' I had a different opinion, explaining that I thought it was a fourth- or fifth-century piece. He hesitated, then said to me, 'Perhaps you are right, but do some more research on it'." "Coomaraswamy taught me to look at an object and really see it. He also taught me that a great man could admit he was wrong," said the collector.
Heeramanek still remembers the day he was called to Coomaraswamy's bedside. "When Ananda was dying," he said, "his wife called and asked me to come to Boston immediately. That is how close we were. I would say that Coomaraswamy was the greatest expert on Indian art of this century. And it might be another century before we see another scholar as great." A close friend describes Heeramanek as "a man of nervous, high-strung temperament who seems to have no understanding of repose. His avocation is his vocation; he lives for art; it is his work and his play. When not in pursuit of an object, he is engrossed in its study. As a buyer he is not only helpless but heedless: helpless to resist if the object appeals, heedless of cost. His state of mind alternates between exhilaration over a new acquisition and anxiety over the payments. He is more connoisseur than businessman, more collector than buyer." According to another friend Heeramanek "looks like and smiles like a finely-cut secondcentury A.D. Buddha." Now an American citizen, Heeramanek is married to an accomplished artist, the former Alice Arvine, who gave up her profess-ion to share the work of her husband. "We have more or less the same taste and collect together," he once remarked. "My husband's theory has always been to buy five, sell four, and keep the best for himself," said Mrs. Heeramanek. It is this "best" that is now touring American museums, but the Heeramanek house in New York is still filled with things of lasting beauty and value. Heeramanek said that he has witnessed "a
great evolution in American understanding of Indian art" from which he derives "great satisfaction." During his forty years in the United States, interest and enthusiasm have grown to the extent that large audiences are drawn to exhibitions ofIndian art, and Indian art and culture has become a subject of serious study on almost every American ¡campus. Among U.S. educators, scholars and museum officials, Heeramanek's reputation as an authority on Indian art is firmly established. Speaking of his collection, one of them noted that his treasures are "of such richness and variety, and selected with such sureness of taste, that it seems unreasonable that they should have been assembled by a single collector." Heeramanek's attitude towards his pieces is like that of a parent who has no favourites among his children. "I love the things of beauty of man's handiwork," he says. But friends suspect that there are two outstanding sandstone sculptures of 10-25 A.D. that claim a special place in his affections. Heeramanek once said, "Throughout my entire career I have been sustained by the vision of the great and nameless artists of India whose works have come to be entrusted to me. It has been my responsibility to try to select those works which best express the intensity and fervour of their devotion to God." Because of a slingshot accident at the age of eleven, Heeramanek has been able to see out of only one eye. "That one eye that remains," wrote Lynes, "must be one of the single most penetrating instruments of aesthetic measurement in the world." END
Dear Sir:
Dear Sir: I read with much interest the illustrated feature "What you need, when you need it" in your July 1967 issue. The American householder is indeed lucky to be able to call such a variety of services to his doorstep by merely picking up a telephone. I was particularly impressed to read that American mothers need not buy diapers for their babies but may rent them and that there are weekly laundry services which exchange clean diapers for soiled ones. There is growing need in India, especially in big cities, for the kind of services mentioned in the article. My own experience is that even in a metropolitan city like Delhi such services are almost non-existent. For instance, it is almost impossible to get a qualified plumber at short notice. Masons and carpenters are fully occupied with new construction work in government or privately-owned buildings and it is extremely difficult to hire them for short periods for urgent or petty repairs. This also applies to painters, decorators, electricians and other skilled workers. The dhobi is notorious for his delays and his aptitude at making even new clothes threadbare by beating them on a stone slab. How one longs for the convenience of self-service laundries of the type shown in your picture! It seems to me that many of these services c0uld be organized in the urban centres of India without a great deal of capital investment. If they are efficiently run and the charges are moderate, there is no reason why they should not thrive. Perhaps some enterprising people will get the needed inspiration from your article and benefit both themselves and the community. (MRS.) LAKSHMHYENGAR New Delhi
Dear Sir: While noting the revolutionary new techniques that were adopted in the construction of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (June 1967 issue of SPAN) one is reminded of the great Psalm of King David (ps 8 :5-8). "Thou (God) hast made him (man) a little lower than the angels and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou mad est him to have dominion over the works
of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea and the beasts of the field; the fowls of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the Seas."
cock established himself as the master of the suspense film in the 1930s with such thrillers as The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes.
JAGDISH PRAKASH GUPTA Pali-Marwar
Dear Sir: I have read with much interest the article "Sowing seeds of prosperity" by K.G. Gabrani appearing in the June 1967 issue of SPAN. The work being done by the newly set-up agricultural universities patterned after the Land Grant Colleges of the United States is indeed commendable. These universities which serve to co-ordinate three activities, namely, teaching, research and extension services, have sown the seeds for an impending farm revolution in India. In our State of Andhra Pradesh also the coming into being of the agricultural university augurs well for the farmers who badly need technical information on modern and scientific methods of agriculture and animal husbandry. This development is all the more significant in view of the food problem that is presently affecting the whole Indian nation. We have before us the inspiring example of the American farm movement which through the agency of extension education has brought about astounding results.
Dear Sir: While I enjoyed reading the article
DR. PARVESH CHANDER KAKAR Hyderabad
B.J. WILSON Parvathipuram
Dear Sir: Please accept my thanks for publishing "John Steinbeck in Viet-Nam" in your June 1967 issue. I am greatly moved by the liberal ideas and ideals of that great man of letters. A man in quest of truth will certainly come to the correct conclusion; I wish Steinbeck great success in his venture. He very lucidly depicts the real condition of the people of Viet-Nam. He is also trying to give a correct picture of the devastation wrought by the Viet Congo
"The Postwar American Film," published in the June issue of SPAN, it has in my opinion certain glaring lapses. How is it possible to speak of the postwar American film and neglect to mention Walt Disney? Surely Disney has contributed more to the motion picture medium than any other individual in Hollywood. Again, while you cite such directors as Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann and Elia Kazan, why have you overlooked a man like Alfred Hitchcock? I feel the article is incomplete without these two important figures. SURESH MEHTA Bombay Editor's Note: The exclusion of Walt Disney is not an oversight. His first Alice comedies were created in the early 'twenties; the Oswald the Rabbit cartoons appeared in 1926-28; and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released in 1938. So Disney is not really a postwar phenomenon. Nor is Hitchcock. Undoubtedly a great director, Hitch-
Dear Sir: The article on "clock gazing" in the June issue of SPAN discusses researches of Dr. G.S. Sirohi on the biological clock. These researches on plant productivity are interestil)g and certainly significant in the context of India's immediate problems. There is one facet of this phenomenon which has not been touched upon in your article, however: The damaging effects caused by the erratic behaviour of the 'clock.' When these clocks decide to misbehave, the result can be grave. For instance, the occurrence of cancer in man is sought to be explained as malfunctioning of the biological clock in some cells, resulting in their abnormal and uncontrolled growth. I wonder if some study is in progress in this direction in this country. Such a line of investigation may lead to positive findings. SAILEN DAS Cuttack
FAREWELL
TO FEAR
thirty-three years old in 1955 when she lost her sight completely. She was at the time a career woman with a responsible job) and endowed with tremendous enthusiasm and energy. In her book Farewell to Fear, written in collaboration with Norman M. Lobsenz, size tells the story of her emergence from the shock of blindness tofinal victory over it. The following article is adapted from her book. TOMI KEITLIN WAS
"it's fun to be blind." I cannot read a book or a newspaper when the spirit moves me; I must wait until someone can read it to me or until the book is available on reo cords. My biggest problem is not blindness, but society's attitude towards it. There is still an enormo'us amount of what might be called unthinking prejudice, or even well-meaning prejudice. It takes the form of over-protection of the blindfor their own good, of course. Perhaps I am over-sensitive, but I feel tha t people who gush about my "courage," people who are "amazed" when I do some simple thing for myself, also display a form of prejudice against the blind. This is a corollary of pity, and pity imputes inferiority. The courage of the blind is not something special. It is just ordinary, everyday guts, the kind everyone must have in order to survive. And the reason I am telling this story is not merely to demonstrate how one person overcame blindness, but to show how the human spirit-drawing on its fundamental strength-can triumph over adversity of all kinds, whether it be the fear of growing old, of poverty, of illness, ofloneliness.
I AM BLIND, but don't let that depress you. It doesn't depress me. On the minus side I am sharply aware of the beauty that is lost to me. On the plus side, I can draw upon a storehouse of visual memories. I know what the world looks like, and this is a tremendous help in finding my way about. People ask me if I see anything, or if I live in a black void. When I wake in the morning I see light, because there is light. If the sun is shining I see it from the warmth on my face; or I see rain when it patters on the windows. I see if grass is green or brown by the way it smells and feels. And when I turn out the light at night to go to sleep, I Mrs. Keitlin first lost the sight of see darkness. My other senses did not become sharper her right eye in 1953 when size acciafter I lost my sight. There is no truth to dentally scratched the eyeball with a that old wives' tale. But I did learn to use pencil point. The eye became infected my remaining four senses properly again. and after five unsuccessful major opEach of us does this naturally when we are erations it had to be removed. When youngsters. Remember the smell of spring, the infection spread to her left eye, an of wet cement, of sawdust? The feel of attempt was made to transplant living grass and mud under bare feet? The sense corneal tissue supplied by the Eyeof eerie pressure in the air just before Bank for Sight Restoration, Inc. After a thunderstorm? the operation, the patient was taken When we grow up, we take the easy way-we rely on sight. The other senses to see her doctor. dull from disuse. Only when sight goes Though he spoke unemotionally there does one realize how much of the world was compassion in his voice: "Mrs. Keitcan come to him through the other senses. lin, the transplant has failed. There is I am not trying to convince you that nothing more that can be done for your condition. You will not see again." I stayed numb for many days. People This excerpt is printed with permission from Farewell to Fear by Tomi Keitlin with Norman brought food to me. I did not eat it. People M. Lobsenz, published by Bernard Geis Assoasked me how I was. I did not answer. I ciates and distributed by Random House, Inc. only wanted to be alone in my room, with Š1960 by Tomi Keitlin and Norman M. Lobsenz.
the shades down and the blankets over me and the door closed. I was completely immobilized, physically and psychologically. I was like a hibernating animal whose blood runs thin and slow as the dark cold approaches, and who seeks to survive by retreating into suspended animation. Suspended animation is as safely close to death as a human being can come. I had virtually to die as a sighted person before I could be reborn as a blind one. I had been ill before, and sightless before, and dependent before. But always I had been able to keep functioning to some degree. Now, seeing myself as utterly
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With the help of Duchess, her dependable guide dog, Mrs. Keitlin does her own shopping downtown.
helpless, I was helpless. I would not move unless someone guided me. I insisted I could not cut my own food. Often I demanded to be fed and dressed. Someone had to stay by my side all day. And if I did not always get all this attention, I threw a tantrum. I accused my friends of rejecting me in my time of need. In short, I regressed to an infantile level. I was resentful, possessive, self-pitying, and afraid. Above all, I was afraid. How people-friends and strangers alike-stood for the hoops I jumped them through, how they stood for my fear-born continued
"I had always used both ears and eyes when listening to concerts. Now I had only ears-and I heard harmonies I'd never known before .... For the first time in weeks I forgot myself, my blindness, my fear."
insults, for my rages, for my periods of vicious silence, I will never understand. I can only be grateful for the fact that while they gave me all the patience, support and compassion I needed, they refused to pity or indulge me. I can remember asking Ruth, the old friend with whom I was staying, to give me a cigarette. "There's a pack on the coffee table," she said. "1 can't find them!" "Try," she said calmly. I was furious at her, but I got up, felt my way to the coffee table, fumbled along its top until I came to the unmistakable feel of the pack. When I lit the cigarette and got back to my chair, Ruth said, "That's better." At the time this seemed like unnecessary cruelty to a poor blind woman. I did not understand she was trying to help me to grow up for a second time. At a critical point in this period, Ruth and Hans, her husband, persuaded me to go to a concert at Tanglewood. At first I balked, I knew I looked no different than before I'd lost my sight. Yet irrationally I felt that ugly blindness was written all over my dark glasses. I felt that people pointed at me, whispered about me, were revolted by me. But I gave in. When we sat down I felt as if everyone of the thousands in the audience was watching me. Burning with self-consciousness, I turned to Ruth to ask her to take me home. Just then, applause greeted Charles Munch, the conductor of the Boston'SYJllphony, as he walked out. I heard the opening measures of the Beethoven Pastorale Symphony. The elegant phrases never sounded so beautiful. I had always used both ears and eyes when listening to concerts. Now I had only my ears-and I heard harmonies I'd never known before. The smooth ministration of music was untying the knots inside of me. For the first time in
weeks I forgot myself, my blindness, my fear. That night I didn't let anyone put me to bed. I fell asleep quickly and slept the night through. I was weaned.
First steps towards independence Little by little I came out of the early stages of deep shock. I began by learning to swim again. I'd always been a good swimmer, and I knew the main obstacle to be overcome was fear-fear of bashing my head against a pool wall, or of losing direction in a lakt? and swimming away from shore. I started by swimming five strokes out and five strokes back while my friend Helena stood on the pool rim telling me whether to head right, left or straight. To be doing something physical, by myself, without anyone holding or guiding me, was a marvellous sensation. Soon I was taking ten strokes out and back, then twenty. After a few days I had enough confidence to try it without Helena. I felt my way down the three steps into the water. I swam alone! Soon I was swimming half a mile every day. It gave me the good feeling that although my eyes didn't work, the rest of me was functioning. I started to take long walks alone. If I stayed on the footpath that ran along the highway I could cover about a mile without having to cross traffic. I concentrated on walking as a sighted person does so that I would avoid the worst of the "blindisms"-the shuffling gait, the swaying body, the down-hung head. I forced myself to walk with confidence; to take a normal stride, head held high, eyes forward rather than cast down. The only concession I made was to come down on the heel of one foot while my weight was still on the toes of the other. This helped keep me from stumbling over unevennesses in the ground. All of these advances encouraged me
to the point where I applied for entrance to the Seeing Eye School in Morristown, New Jersey, which trains the blind to use seeing-eye dogs as guides and protectors.
At the Seeing Eye School, Mrs. Keitlin took the four-week course given to 100 sightless persons each year at Morristown. After careful instruction in the use of a seeing-eye dog, she was given one of her own, a German shepherd called Duchess. Gradually Duchess became my dog. We began training together-at first for only a block or so at a stretch, then over longer and complicated routes. Each day I mixed her food-horse-meat, meal, liver, and suet-with my own hands, and offered it to her. Each day she refused it or nibbled just enough to exist on. Then we took our first solo trip through the streets of Morristown. That evening I mixed Duchess's food, held it out to her-and she took and ate it all! That same evening she ignored my instructor as we passed him. I was almost in a frenzy to be on my own with Duchess. Because of my impatience it seemed everyone I came into contact with after leaving the Seeing Eye was determined to be over-solicitous. When Duchess and I finally arrived back home in Springfield, Massachusetts, after my four weeks of training, the porter got me a cab and handed me into it as if I were a fragile old lady. The cabbie wanted to help carry my suitcase to the door of the apartment. "You sure you're gonna be all right, lady?" I told him I was positive. I heard his footsteps retreating down the hall, and I closed the door. At last I was alone. I called Duchess. "Want to go for a walk, baby?" We went around the block-the same block which, ages ago, I had once stum-
bled my way around with the help of a cane. We made the circuit so quickly I decided to do it again, and then a third time. I whispered to myself, "It works! It works!"
Her first attempt to make breakfast for herself proved disastrous. She broke the milk bottle, spilled the egg on her pajamas and banged her knee against a chair. She then decided to organize the kitchen more efficiently and methodically. I took everything out of the refrigerator and cleaned it with a dishrag. Then I put the food back, memorizing the location of each item. I systematized as much as possible: dairy goods on one shelf, meats on another, tall bottles in back, jars in front. It was a simpler chore than I thought it would be. To the housewife with sight, An avid golfer, Tomi Keitlin drives the ball towards sOllnds made by a friend down the fairway.
the identification of food by any other means must seem insuperable. Actually, it is perhaps the easiest of all categories of objects to recognize by the other senses. Nothing else has the shape or feel of a bottle of milk, or a carton of eggs, or a box of cereal. Cheese and butter give themselves away by their consistency; and if there is more than one kind of soft or hard cheese on the shelf, its aroma identifies it. Vegetables and fruit name themselves by size and shape; I feel sorry for the housewife who cannot feel the difference between a carrot stick and a celery stick, or an apple and a pear. Poultry has its unique shape, and so do the various cuts of meat. Today I can go into any strange kitchen, open the icebox and tell by touch and smell almost exactly what is in it. The kitchen cabinets took longer to organize, mainly because there were more items in them, and because I had to use the three-step stool to reach the top shelves. I remembered the kinds and amounts of china I had. Most of it I stacked in the corners of the top shelves, keeping only four of each plate, cup and saucer handy for everyday use. I did the same with glassware. I used one cabinet for dishes and glasses, another for bowls and pitchers, and a third for assorted items such as coffee pots, mixers and toasters. I arranged the pots and pans in the cabinets under the kitchen counters. And all the time I was fiercely drawing mental pictures-visualizing where each piece was going, and then concentrating to fix its location in my memory.
Mrs. Keitlin went back to her job as regiollal director oIan educational organization. At seven a.m. on a cold, snowy Monday, Duchess and I went back to work. We walked the six miles from my house in the suburbs to my office in downtown Springfield. We both needed the exercise, but more important, I wanted to know if
I could find my way, and I wanted to be alone as long as possible. I needed to get to grips with work privately so that my first fumbling efforts would be unobserved. My officewas on the fourth floor. Years of habit led me smoothly as we left the elevator: two right turns, then the first door down the hall. I felt for the key with the triangle of adhesive tape on it. I unlocked the door and crossed the threshold, scuffing what was evidently a pile of mail on the floor. I stood still, letting the familiar feel of my big desk, and the familiar smell of dust and books and leather chairs re-create for me the two small, cluttered rooms that were my second home. I piled the mail on my desk, I made a tour of the office, touching file cabinets, storage shelves, bookcases--every object there to make sure I knew exactly what there was, and where it was. There were two main tasks to be done first, I realized. One was physical organization. One of the main functions of my office was to distribute pamphlets, books, records and documentary films to community groups. And I had to be able to-keep track of the inventory of these items. The second task was going to be keeping up with the flood of reading matter vital to my work: the mail, of course; but also newspapers and magazines, bulletins and journals. A call to nearby Springfield College produced three students who volunteered to read officecommunications for me on a regular daily schedule. One of my friends -who had studied Braille transcribing while I was in the hospital-offered to translate any material I wanted for permanent reference. One of my volunteers suggested the tape-recorder for important news in the daily newspaper. She would drop the tape in my mailbox at home during the day, and when I got home at night I could listen to the playback. Whipping the office into shape was easier than I had expected. All the items that my organization mailed out or circulated among civic groups were stacked and labelled in Braille by my staff. I worked out a chart to keep track of which films were in use: a combination of Braille
"One of the most difficult things about being blind-for me at least-is that there is seldom a time when one can rest on his oars. Today's accomplishment creates tomorrow's problem."
labels and thmnbtacks-square thumbtacks for films in the office, round-headed ones for films that were out. I got a dictating machine, so if a visitor came while I was out he could leave a spoken message rather than a written one which I might not know about until next day. Another doubt plagued me: whether the men and women I had worked withrepresentatives of schools and ParentTeachers Associations, of Negro groups and labour unions, newspaper men and radio broadcasters, city and State officials -would have lost their faith in my ability. Would they write me off as a desk-bound figurehead? Would they name me to committees, or feel that they should not "impose" on me? Part of the answer came a few days later, when I arrived at a restaurant to have what I assumed was going to be a quiet lunch with a friend and found a score of myoId associates waiting to surprise me. This reunion also revealed an unsuspected talent: I could identify by their voices almost all these people, some of whom I hadn't spoken to in more than two years. This is a vital knack for a blind person, for it bridges beautifully that first moment of m~eting when any awkwardness is likely to arise. I have gotten to the point today where I can identify close friends not only by voice but by their tread, or their patterns of walking. Each day presented new problems but each also resulted in progress. Most exciting of all, I'd been asked to make a speech in a city fifty miles away. My first task was research. With the help of my files and my volunteer readers I gathered the information I needed and reduced it to a series of notes in Braille. I'd hoped to get to the meeting hall early enough to explore it but a sleetstorm slowed the bus, and as soon as I arrived my host led me to the platform. Then I heard him say, "And now our speaker for
the evening, Mrs. Thelma Keitlin." I was on. Caution advised me to move slowly lest I become tangled in Duchess's leash, or trip over some object on the stage. But I thrust caution behind me, got up promptly from my chair, gripped Duchess's harness and strode briskly to what I estimated was the centre of the platform. I felt for the rostrum. For a moment I panicked when I could not find it. Then I realized there probably was no rostrum; otherwise someone on the stage would have hurried to lead me to it. Without a rostrum, there was no place for me to put my notes. Quickly I slipped them into my pocket. When I started talking, I realized that the initial instant of stage fright I'd always suffered was gone. I also discovered that my left foot wasn't trembling in its usual nervous gesture because I was using it to hold down Duchess's leash. And as the speech progressed I realized it was a betterthan-ordinary one. When I finished a burst of applause hit me, and Duchess bounded up to accept her share. My heart was full when friends and fellow-workers came to congratulate me. They would have done so even if I'd been an abysmal failure. But I knew they meant what they said. And I knew I'd conquered another hurdle in the struggle for my right to live.
Skiing and mountain climbing One of the most difficult things about being blind-for me at least-is that there is seldom a time when one can rest on his oars. Today's accomplishment creates tomorrow's problem; tomorrow there will be something more, something new, to accomplish. I wouldn't have it any other way. But I must admit it's wearing. In February of 1956 I was spending a long week-end in the country with a group of friends. There was fresh snow and my friend Helena said, "Wouldn't it be fun to go skiing?"
"All right," I said with a calm I did not feel. "Let's try it." My false courage evaporated when I got to the top of the hill next day. But somehow honour seemed at stake. The skis did not feel as awkward as I'd expected. I flexed my knees and pointed the skis towards each other in the snowplough position. We decided the best thing would be for Helena to go down the slope slightly ahead of me, calling out directions much as I did to Duchess. I pushed off before I could freeze up. My skis slid smoothly over the snow. Ahead of me Helena called, "Forward ... forward, right a little, forward .... " I was moving downhill, slowly to be sure, but moving. The tenseness had disappeared. I shouted, "Helena! I'm skiing! I'm skiing!" Despite her blindness, Mrs. Keitlin does handyman chores around the house like any other housewife.
When I reached the bottom, still on my feet, I was filled with a tremendous sense of accomplishment. I didn't care how gradual the grade was, nor how slowly I had traversed it. The important thing was, I had done it! My sense of balance-usually poor in the blind because of their inability to orient themselves spatially and because of their generally flabby physical conditionhad proven better than I expected. My leg muscles stood up well, thanks to the exercise they got working with Duchess. I had learned from personal experience the value of being in good physical condition. In collaboration with my friend Bonnie Prudden, who worked in physical education, I proposed a fitness programme for sightless youngsters to some of the major blind organizations. The majority of sightless youngsters are blind from birth or infancy. With no knowledge or memory of a visual world to serve as a mental guide, they find it especially hard to orient themselves in space. Their natural efforts to do so are frustrated by understandably over-protective parents and teachers. Thinking to protect them from harm they isolate them from physical experience. The results are predictable. Most blind children are muscularly flabby, over- or underweight, uncoordinated, scarcely able to do anything for themselves. Worse, they are scared to move in the physical world around them. While blind children cannot play ball (which automatically excludes them from much of the activity in school physical education classes), they can tumble, climb, run, skip, jump and do special exercises which build strength, flexibility and co-ordination. I found an unexpected chance to interest people and public institutions in our plan to help these children. Bonnie had taught me to be a passable mountain climber. Though I had been surprised, and scared, when she suggested it, after the first few fumbling efforts I began to get the feel, the rhythm of climbing. Mountaineering is essentially a followthe-leader business. Bonnie was a skilful
Blindness does not deter her from scaling peaks. Taped instructions guide her ~p a mountain trail.
leader. She would move up the face of the rock to a secure position. Then, tying into a piton or steel spike driven into a fault in the rock, she would secure me as I climbed. She called directions: "Move your right foot about four inches to the left shift your weight to the right side put your left hand about'a foot straight up .... " After a summer and autumn of frequent practice, climbing had become part of my life. I was chafing because nearby mountains weren't challenging enough. And we soon discovered a highly practical reason for finding more challenging ones. We were planning to make a film demonstrating how our physical fitness programme was working in a home for blind children in Italy. Pictures of me making a dangerous ascent would dramatically underscore the point of the film which we hoped would stir public interest in new kinds of help for the blind. So Bonnie and I set out to climb the Five Towers in the Dolomites. A guide led and as Bonnie followed him she talked into a tape-recorder microphone hung
around her neck, spelling out the route in minute detail, describing the direction and distance of every move of hand and foot. When it was my turn to climb, I switched the recorder-which was slung over one hip-from "record" to "playback"-and simply followed her instructions. At first the climb was comparatively routine. The jagged corrugations of the rock face provided more than enough holds for fingers and toes. But as I climbed higher, as the sense of "exposure" increased, the smoother the mountain face became. Despite Bonnie's precise instructions it became increasingly hard to locate the tiny niches and crevices. Our slow progress became even slower. I could sense from the chill of the rock that the sun had been completely obscured. The rain began to fall, and the precious, precarious holds became wet and slippery. I lost all track of time, and abandoned myself completely to the voice that came out of the recorder, and to the last gasp of strength and courage that remained
mme. Then the toe-holds and hand-holds became slightly wider and deeper again. We moved faster. The rain stopped. I heard Bonnie's voice near me talking the route to me directly, without benefit of recorder. My right hand reached a jagged knob. I put my left up-and there was only air. I moved my feet until I was straddling a saddle of rock. "Bonnie," I said, "am 1-" "You're at the top, Tomi!" she cried. I was not high, as mountaineers reckon height. I had not scaled a classic peak. I could not see a world spread out beneath me. But just to be where I was, alone between sky and earth, master of blindness rather than its slave-that was reason enough for rapture. Early in my blindness I had been inspired by these words of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas: "When man knows how to live dangerously, he is not afraid to die. When he is not afraid to die, he is, strangely, free to live." I was free to live. I had bid farewell END to fear.
A giant among philanthropic institutions, the Ford Foundation aids programmes of economic and cultural development in many countries. Without its support, says the author, human progress would be the poorer.
AT NEW YORK'S Columbia University a former Peace Corps volunteer named Newell Flather is working towards a doctorate in African history. Flather spent two years in Ghana as a Peace Corps teacher became fascinated with the vast, exotic African continent, and determined to return there armed with new knowledge and insight. He received a fellowship to pay for these studies-a grant established specially for returning Peace Corps workers who seek further education. In Athens, the American School of Classical Studies has been at work for thirty years, painstakingly unearthing a precious forty-acre plot, the ancient centre of the city, the Agora, going back twenty-five centuries. With funds running low, the school applied for and received a million dollar grant to pay for excavation of the final ten acres. In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the public school system recently received a grant of more than two million dollars for citywide improvement in curriculum and teacher training. This programme will serve as a guide in solving common problems shared by a number of large city school systems in the United States. In Calcutta and Ahmedabad, the Indian Institutes of Management have received grants totalling more than $4 million (Rs. 3 crores) to assist them in preparing young executives for positions of managerial responsibility. The link between Newell Flather, the excavators in Greece, the Pittsburgh school system and the Indian Institutes of Management is that the bills-or part of the bills-for these disparate projects were paid by a fabulous institution known as the Ford Foundation. To people the world over the name "Ford" means automobiles. The Ford Motor Company is America's second largest producer of automobiles. Less well known and far more difficult to comprehend is the Ford Foundation, a private, non-profit institution engaged in philanthropy. Ford is by far the largest of some 6,000 private foundations now operating in the United States. A foundation can be defined as a non-governmental, private organization having significant financial resources which it disperses to aid social, educational, charitable and related humanitarian activities that serve the public interest. Foundations do not solicit funds; their business is making grants of money to support research, experimentation, problem-solving and the arts. Most foundations are established by persons of immense wealth, although the first foundation on record in the United States was started with a modest legacy by Benjamin Franklin who, at his death in 1790, established a $300 loan fund to aid young married artisans in his native Philadelphia. (Always frugal, Franklin asked that they
Agricultural development in India has been assisted by the Package Programme, supported by the Foundation and now covering more than a million farmers in fifteen districts. The farmer in Tanjore district, above, sprays fertilizer in his paddy field; left, silos have been built for scientific storage of foodgrains; below, two Foundation consultants discuss a problem in the field.
pay five per cent interest to help build the fund's resources.) As the giant among American foundations, Ford's range of interests and activities encompasses a broad range of social and cultural activity meaningful in a modern society. Some examples: An $85 million Ford grant is being divided among major symphony orchestras in the United States. This grant, largest single action in the history of private support of the arts, will help put the nation's orchestras on a sound financial basis. Since American symphonies are not subsidized by the government and do not operate at a profit, Ford's grant will provide significant benefits for American musical life. A $14.5 million Ford grant in the year 1965, launched an International Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction at the famed Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Centre. The object of this research programme is to find new practical applications for family planning programmes on a global basis. Part of the funds will be used to expand the programmes of the Population Council's Bio-Medical Laboratories. Both centres will share research and information with scientists around the world grappling with the population explosion. A Ford grant of nearly two million dollars to the National Legal Aid and Defender Association will help find better ways to provide legal aid to low-income and indigent criminal case defendants. Experimental programmes in assigned-lawyer systems will be established in twenty American cities. The object of the grant is to find out how ably poor defendants are represented. Ford has also taken Harvard University's Centre for International Affairs under its broad wing. The Centre brings together an international community of scholars and public servants for advanced study in administration and international affairs. Ford has supplied nearly four million dollars to help the Centre expand the programme. These are only a small sampling of Ford Foundation activities. The scope of its good work is revealed in the fact that while twentythree American foundations have assets of $100 million each, the Ford Foundation's assets total nearly three billion dollars. Its programmes are diverse and world-wide. Since it was established in 1936, it has made grants totalling $2.63 billion to some 5,300 institutions and organizations in the United States and in seventy-seven other countries. For the past five years it has given away an average of $250 million yearly; yet its assets show no signs of diminishing, since the Foundation's capital is invested in U.S. Government securities and in the securities of more than 100corporations. The Ford Foundation is in no way controlled by the Ford Motor Company nor does it have any influence in the company's affairs. To make this separation more distinct, the Foundation's trustees have reduced its Ford stock holdings to 31.2 per cent of the capital stock of the company. Like some 200 other general purpose philanthropic foundations in the United States, the Ford Foundation is independent of all other institutions, commercial and non-commercial. It is this independence-and the subsequent freedom of it~ trustees to experiment and innovate as they see fit-that gives general purpose foundations their special and important role in American democracy. Foundations like Ford are legal instruments-corporations or trusts-established to convert private wealth into public endowment. Since early in the nation's history, the responsibility for meeting social, cultural, scientific and educational needs of the people has been shared by governmental and private independent agencies. However important are the contributions of great foundations, they are but a small percentage of the total private voluntary giving in the United States, which is now about $10 billion annually. Of this amount, nearly seventy-nine per cent comes from individual givers, and the rest from business corporations (five per cent), charitable bequests (eight per cent) and foundations (eight per cent). (continued)
The freedom of the Foundation's trustees to experiment and innovate as they see fit, gives it a special and important role in American democracy. Foundations were a late development, really gaining significance at the turn ofthe century, but the American people have always had a habit of working privately for a variety of public causes. As far back as 1830, a famous visitor to America, Baron Alexis de Tocqueville, observed: "In a local community [in America] a citizen may conceive of a need that is not being met. What does he do? He goes across the street and discusses it with his neighbour. Then what happens? A committee comes into existence and then the committee begins functioning on behalf of that need, and you won't believe this but it's true. All of this is done without reference to any bureaucrat. All of this is done by private citizens on their own initiative." The citizen's representatives have passed laws designed to encourage this initiative and sense of personal responsibility. Every taxpayer is allowed a substantial deduction for contributions to private, non-profit agencies of public benefit. Private capital used to endow a foundation is exempt from inheritance taxes, which otherwise may claim the bulk of a large estate. Seventy-seven per cent of the Ford fortune would have gone to the U.S. Treasury after Edsel and Henry died in the 1940s if the family hadn't assigned an even larger share of it to the Ford Foundation. Foundations and other philanthropic organizations are exempt from most taxes. Partly these laws permitting tax-exempt charity reflect a traditional feeling that a man whose genius and enterprise have created wealth should have a say in its disbursement. In effect, they permit him to spend part of his taxes supporting his private notion of the public good. Perhaps the most important consideration involves a basic concept of democracy: that while government expresses the majority view of what should be done for all the people at any given time, individuals must have the means to express different and even opposing views effectively. The minority view often sees something more that needs to be done, and its adherents work hard to try to get it done, whether with private or public funds. Tax-supported government spending for health, education and welfare has had much greater growth than private philanthropy and is far larger in terms of dollars. Ford Foundation officials maintain that the tremendous increase in public welfare programmes (estimated at $50 billion yearly) is due in part to the impetus of private foundations. "In field after field," says Ford's 1965 annual report, "private effort has broken ground for government initiative-from elemental humanitarian work such as care of the blind and indigent to the sophisticated programmes of development and support of social insurance, public health, scientific research, the arts and education." Viewed in relation to the total of private and governmental spending for the public good, the yearly disbursements of the Ford Foundation do not appear to be so large. When former White House aide McGeorge Bundy was named President of the Ford Foundation in 1965, he observed that "the Foundation has unique opportunities to experiment, to seek ways to make the most effective use of its funds." As its charter group observed, this foundation "has no stockholders and no constituents. It represents no private, political or religious interests.-This ... endows a foundation with an inherent freedom of action possessed by few other organizations." What do the trustees of the Ford Foundation accomplish with their freedom and their enormous, if finite. resources? There is no easy answer. In many instances, decades must pass before the results of
S"'~br-
-l..jlO I Urban planning will brmg order to t'he cftaotic growth of Calcutta, above. The Foundation has assisted efforts of the local Metropolitan Planning body.
First steps have been taken with a scheme for Calcutta's bustee improvement, shown below. Ford Foundation hopes this plan will bring an end to the slums.
NEW COMMUNI1Y FACILITIES STREET WATER TAPS STREET LIGHTS
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any of its efforts can be evaluated. Giving away money is a much more difficult and complicated task than most people would imagine. In 1962 the Foundation trustees reported that they had decided to keep grants within five broad areas: educational affairs, public and economic affairs, international affairs, overseas development, and the arts and sciences. "The trustees also resolved," their report said, "to apply significantly large funds towards the achievement of major advances on selected critical problems, which, in the foreseeable future, include the following: increased understanding and improvement of the processes of teaching and learning and strengthening of curricula at all educational levels; development of non-commercial television for high-quality cultural, informational and educational broadcasting; strengthening of the Atlantic partnership; accelerating the growth of less-developed countries; strengthening of the position of the artist and of artistic institutions in American life; and, in selected metropolitan complexes, improvement of the physical environment and social, educational and cultural content of urban living." In Calcutta, for example, the Foundation, in conjunction with the Metropolitan Planning Organization, has played a major role in drawing up a comprehensive plan of development for the Calcutta metropolitan area. The first part of the basic plan was published last year and will be followed by further detailed plans including traffic and transportation, housing and slum improvement, industrial development and expansion of educational facilities. In 1964 the trustees enlarged the Foundation's interests in another broad area-population growth and control. Through 1966 they made grants and other commitments under these heads totalling $70.99 million in twenty-seven countries. An example of Indian activity in this area, assisted by the Foundation, is the Institute of Rural Health and Family Planning at Gandhigram, Madras State. Started as a pilot project in 1959, the institute has been a pioneer in India's family planning programme and has developed effective methods for implementing this programme in villages, hospitals and industries. It also offers the first graduate courses in India for advanced sanitarians and health educators and a series of short training courses for family planning workers. The Foundation also boosted its contributions to the arts and humanities and by the end of-1966 had expended $202.2 million in thirty-two countries. Over the years the largest amount of Ford Foundation money has gone to the support of education, in one form or another, in"the United States and abroad. A small but important recipient of the Foundation's programmes is the exchange of scholars between the United States and those of other countries. These exchanges have enabled American scholars to spend extended periods abroad, bringing new strength to international studies in the United States. At the same time, Asian and Mrican scholars have acquired new perspectives on the culture and ideas of the West. Foundation grants have enabled more than 1,500 scholars from India to study in the United States and other countries. Since 1951 the Foundation has made about 400 grants, totalling over Rs. 70 crores, to some 170 institutions in India, the largest support given by the Foundation to any country in the world outside the United States. Perhaps the most important field of interest at present is agricultural development through the popular Package Programme which began in 1960. More than a million farmers are now participating in this programme of improved agricultural practices, demonstrations, extension services and incentive-oriented price policies. It is currently operating in fifteen of India's districts and will be extended by the government to 100 districts during the Fourth Plan. During this period the Foundation will concentrate its efforts on five districts with a high potential while continuing to. give.attention to an additional ten. . These vast plans and programmes belie the Ford Foundation's continued
Outside the United States, India is the largest recipient of Ford assistance in diverse fields. Grants since 1951 total to more than Rs. 70 crores.
modest beginnings in 1936 with a cheque for $25,000 signed by Edsel Ford. The statement of the Foundation's purposes was equally modest. Until its reorganization as a national philanthropy in 1951, the Foundation limited its grants to charitable and educational institutions in the State of Michigan, home of the Ford family and its business enterprises. Edsel died in 1943; Henry, in 1947. These two men, father and son Edsel, had owned nearly all of the stock of the Ford Motor Company. After their deaths, ten per cent of the stock went to their heirs; the remaining ninety per cent was assigned to the Ford Foundation. Today, two grandsons of Henry Ford-Henry Ford II and Benson Ford -serve as trustees of the Foundation, but they neither legally hold nor attempt to exert any control over the Foundation's activities. They are merely two of fifteen trustees, including four educators, five corporation executives, three publishers, a banker, a lawyer and a judge. Explaining the Foundation's independence from the source of its financial wealth, Henry Ford II said: "We felt that this trust was so large that the family should not have control of it." Independence from the Ford family and the Ford Motor Company is crucial in the Foundation's affairs, for whatever it undertakes is subject to a continuing stream of criticism. To the extent that foundations enjoy favoured tax treatment, they are supported by all U.S. taxpayers. Hence, there is no reluctance to criticize Ford Foundation grants or question the trustees' judgment. Almost no one questions the Foundation's right to exist, but a good many persons feel it could make better use of its billions. Why, ask some, does it choose to award a grant to one applicant and refuse another? (Ford says "no" many more times than it says "yes." In 1964, for example, the Foundation received 11,000 requests for grants and approved only six per cent of them.) Others question why Ford chooses to expend large amounts of money on overseas development and international affairs ($538.51 million through 1966) when the money is needed for projects in the United States. In many academic centres telling the Ford Foundation how to run its programmes has become a favourite pastime. The most frequently voiced criticism of the Ford Foundation is that it avoids tackling with boldness some of the more difficult and controversial human problems. "I believe," one critic said recently, "that philanthropy generally is not attuned with the tempo of the times ... (it is) prone to be too complacent, too ready to settle for the tried and true." The critic was not a Foundation rejectee; he was John D. Rockefeller III. The Foundation, with headquarters at 477 Madison Avenue in New York City and fourteen offices overseas, maintains a professional staff of 150 persons who evaluate applications for grants after much research, intensive interviews with applicants, and often personal inspection of the proposed project sites. "Believe me," one applicant said recently, "Ford doesn't give its money away frivolously. By the time they got through analysing the feasibility of my proposal, they knew more about it than I did, saw pitfalls I hadn't dreamed of, and made recommendations that I hadn't even considered. And I'm supposed to be an expert." One method the Foundation uses to stimulate other private giving is to require a grant recipient, such as a college or symphony orchestra, to obtain from other sources an equal amount of money-or in certain instances, three times the amount of the original grant. This "matching
A training seminar in Srinagar, above, brings senior executives together for a course in management: an example 0/ the Foundation's interest in this field.
Family planning centres, below, organized and run by the government, are increasing in number and utility. The Foundation supports this acth'ity.
fund" method serves to encourage contributions far in excess of the Foundation's gift. Ford also usually sets a time limit for its support of a particular project and avoids an indefinite commitment to any individual or institution. In essence, Ford provides the initial funds, not an endowment in perpetuity; once established, the recipient is expected to find other, additional sources of income. Private foundations like Ford have a right to independent initiative and decision-making since their funds are private capital. But all of them have a legal and moral obligation to act explicitly and solely in the public interest. Foundation trustees are not permitted by law to use Foundation money to further their own business interests or those of the founders and staff. They are required to file annual information returns with the government's Internal Revenue Service, providing a detailed account of their income and outgo. This information is open to public inspection, and many foundations, including Ford, go far beyond this requirement by publishing comprehensive annual reports detailing expenditures, objectives and operations. In March 1965, Henry T. Heald, then president of the Ford Foundation, addressed a group of foreign scholars at Columbia University and attempted to explain to them something of the basic nature of American foundations. "Why have foundations flourished in the United States?" he asked. "Relative to other forces and institutions on the American scene, what special functions do they serve? The answers to these questions go to the very heart of our national temperament and social process. In particular, they reflect two deep-seated traditions-pluralism and voluntary activity for the public good." He explained his use of the word "pluralism": "The founders of the American nation fashioned a governmental structure of checks and balances against excess of authority. They left ample room for private effort not only in economic pursuits, but in the realm of education and social welfare. "Social pluralism had already been developing before American independence, if for no other reason than the fact this continent was colonized by people of diverse national and religious origin. In the nineteenth century, of course, successive waves of immigration stirred even further what has been called the melting pot. And in the meantime other diverse forces were set in motion-labour, political parties, burgeoning industrial empires, and a host of special-interest groups. "Dependin~ on the moment and the issue, these forces clash, coexist, or co-operate. But among Americans there is virtually universal preference for dispersal of authority and diffusion of decision-making. Public responsibilities are the shared concerns of government agencies and private institutions .... In the field of philanthropy we value the private sector not from fear of government but because we prize a broad area of choice in approaches, concepts and values.... " And, the former president of the Ford Foundation remarked, "to be sure, there is some difference of opinion about the motives of the great industrial philanthropists. What one man calls a sense of social responsibility another will label guilt feelings. . . . Moti\:ation no doubt varies from case to case. But the fact is that in societies without traditions of shared responsibility, great private wealth has not generally been given voluntarily to the public good, as it has been in the United States." When Henry Ford launched his Model T car in 1909, he announced: "I will build a motorcar for the great multitudes." He did. Today, the riches from his legacy are being pumped back into a society he helped to revolutionize with automobile transportation. The Ford Foundation exists to serve the great multitudes. Its dedication to this task is as unquestioned as the long range effects of its generosity are unknown. What is certain, however, is that the Ford Foundation's resources match its boldest dreams and that human progress would be the poorer without its support. END
When a Justice retires
Justice Tom Clark, left, administers oath of office to son Ramsey as Attorney General, while President Johnson is interested witness.
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Justice Tom Clark, who recently retired from the U.S. Supreme Court to avoid conflict with his son's position as Attorney General, is visiting India this month. He has been replaced by civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall.
ASIA FHOMTHE AIR
The portfolio of aerial photographs on these four pages offers a new look at the changing face of Asia. It brings into sharp relief the ancient patterns of land, ocean and sky alongside new urban developments. Photographer William Hubbell, travelling on commercial airliners for magazine assignments, took most of these photographs during take-offs and landings as be roamed the length and breadth of East Asia.
From an airplane window, the familiar town and countryside is transfigured into enchanting vignettes, ever changing like kaleidoscopic images. Fields, mountains, rivers, buildings, when viewed from the air, change into patterns of lines and patches of colour like those of abstract paintings.