SPAN: August 1977

4MBBICANS 011 VACATION. Every summer millions of Americans head for the

sea, the mountains and outdoor cultural scenes like that in the photo abovethe National Music Camp at Interlochen, Michigan, one of the most famous summer music schools in the U.S. From June to September, more than 2,000 students come to the camp to study music and drama, ending their 'cultural vacation' with a series of public performances. See story beginning on page 24.

SPAN A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

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Beginning with the next issue, SPAN will have a new editor, Jacob Sloan. "Jake" is new to SPAN but not to India. From 1966to 1969he was editor of the American Reporter, the Delhibased fortnightly newspaper then published by the U.S. Information Service. In 1970-71 he was Cultural Affairs Officer at USIS in Calcutta. From 1971 to 1973 he lived in Madras and, as USIS Resident Specialist in American Literature, traveled with his wife, Anne, throughout India. ("I would give the lecture, she would give readings from the authors I discussed. Anne is a former radio actress. Her dramatic readings from American poetry were a particular delight to audiences.

I sometimes feel they tolerated me as a peripatetic professorial type; Anne they enjoyed. Some 65 universities in India had papers in American studies. We visited virtually everyone of them.") Since 1973 Jake has been in Washington as Deputy Editor and Acting Editor of a scholarly periodical well known to many of our readers-the American Review.

Before joining USIS in 1965,Jacob Sloan (left) wrote articles and book reviews for Commentary magazine and film reviews for other publications. ("Those were exciting days for me at Commentary because some of the finest minds in America wrote there- Nathan Glazer, Daniel Bell, Irving Kristol, Clement Greenberg.")

When Commentary decided to print poetry, the first poems they chose were Jake's. In 1944 he published a volume of poetry, Generation of Journey, a revised edition of which was printed in 1972by P. Lal's Writers' Workshop in Calcutta. Jake is equally distinguished as a book editor and translator, He is proudest of having edited and translated (from the Yiddish) Emmanuel Ringelblum's Notes From the Warsaw Ghetto (McGraw-Hill, 1956).

What does he think about coming back? "I love India for many reasons," he says. "The common people have a wonderful sweetness and warmth; in many Indians one finds historical sophistication, a sense of the past that makes for brilliant irony and ambiguity. When one travels a lot in this country, one learns to reject the stereotypes that some Indians have about their countrymen in other regions-as we Americans have about our countrymen, Texans, for example. I was pleased to find that-contrary to what some big-city wallahs told me-there are people of high intellect and ability all over India, even in the smallest provincial universities. Another lasting impression gained from my travels is that India really is moving ahead. There is a great dynamism in this country, a great surge forward. I am struck by the vast potential. I remember a women's college in an obscure town in Tamil Nadu. I was giving a lecture there on American literature. The students showed enormous interest. I wondered what their backgrounds were. Children of schoolteachers, or of IAS officers, or of uppermiddle-class businessmen? I later found that almost all of them were the children of illiterate farmers. What a tremendous jump in one generation!"

I'd like to conclude on a personal note. I've been SPAN editor for five years. If this has been the most irtteresting and rewarding job I've ever had, it's partly because India is such an interesting and rewarding country, partly because the SPAN staff is one of the finest groups of professionals anywhere. And so, I would like to say thank you and farewell to India and SPAN, to its writers and to you, its readers.

-S.E.

5 10 14

Donald Barthelme: 'His Imagination Flowers Dark and Rich' by Pria Karunakar

18

20

The Photographic Fantasies of Ryszard Horowitz

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How Do Americans Spend Their Summer Vacation?

30 34 38

The Clean Synthetic Fuel That's Already Here: Methyl Alcohol by Edmund Faltermayer

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Science, Education and Human Values An interview with Dr. Paul Hurd by Judith Mudd

Making the Fabric That Makes the Tires

by A. Ranganathan

44 45 49 Front cover: Charlie Chaplin's sorrow-laden face peeps out of a shoe in this poster, made for a revival of his films, by the famous advertising photographer Ryszard Horowitz. The shoe looks very like the one Chaplin eats in his film, The Gold Rush; the red rose is Horowitz's own, perhaps a tribute to the great comedian. See page 20.

Back cover: Playing frisbee, a popular outdoor pastime with many young Americans, becomes a highly skilled sport in the hands of experts. See story on page 49.

STEPHEN

ESPIE, Editor; JAY W. GILDNER, Publisber.

Managing Editor: Chidananda Dasgupta. Assistant Managing Editor: S.R. Madhu.

Editorial Staff: Mohammed Reyazuddin, Avinash Pasricha, Nirmal Sharma, Krishan Gabrani, Murari Saba, Rocque Fernandes. Art Director: Nand Katyal. Art Staff: Gopi Gajwani, B. Roy Choudhury, Kanti Roy. Chief of Production: Awtar S. Marwaha.

Photographic Services: USIS Photo Lab. Publisbed by the United States Information Service, 24 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi 110001, on behalf of the American Embassy, New Delhi. The opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the United States Government. Printed by Aroon Purie at Thomson Press (India) Limited, Faridabad, Haryana.

Pbotograpbs: 24- Tomas Seonelt; 25 inset-courtesy Eastman Kodak Company. 26-W.S. Keller, U.S. National Park Service; Ron Barlow, courtesy St. Louis Commerce magazine. 27 (clockwise from left center)-Leonard Nadel, courtesy Friends magazine; Bruce McAllister. courtesy Friends magazine; Bryan Harry; Andrew H. Brown, courtesy National Geographic magazine. Š NGS; Barry Blacl:.man; Bill Kuykendall. 28 top left-Flip Schull, Black Star: center-Jim Mahan; bottom right-Kenneth Klementis. 29 top-Steve Wilkins; bottom-U.S. Travel Service.

32-Christopher Springmann. 41-Avinash Pasricha. 49 & hack cover-John G. Zimmertnan, Sports lI/us/ra/ed. iCl Time Inc. Use of SPAN articles in other publications is encouraged, except when copyrighted. For permission, write to the Editor. Price of magazine: one year's subscription (12 issues), 18 rupees; single copy, 2 rupees 50 paise. For change of address, send an old addreSs from a recent SPAN envelope along with new address to A.K. Mitra, Circulation Manager, SPAN Magazine, 24 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi 11000I. (See change of address fortn on page 48.)

COMMUNICATION' IS A TWO-WAY STREET In a recent statement to a Senate subcommittee, the Director of the U.S. Information Agency discussed the free flow of information across national borders and the dangers of government control of news and information media. An abridgment of Dr. Reinhardt's statement follows.

Since the very beginnings of our history as an independent nation, we have had the strongest commitment to the maintenance of the right of free speech for all.

And we continue to follow most fervently this commitment to the fundamental right of every individual to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any medium and regardless of frontiers.

Today, more than ever before, this reaffirmation is important because, on the one hand, the major developments in communication technology have produced an information explosion, the potential of which is dazzling and, on the other hand, because we are encountering unprecedented attacks on this basic philosophy.

Some of the dimensions of the revolution in technology are almost beyond comprehension. Coaxial cables capable of 10,800 channels each are soon to be replaced by millimeter waveguide systems of ultrashort frequency which will carry up to 250,000 channels. Compounding the increase in the number of channels with the increase in the capacity of each channel means that the capacity to transmit "bits" of information per second per channel will jump from 648 million in a coaxial cable to 15,000 million in new systems. And when laser systems now on the drawing board or already in preliminary testing come into operation, the figure may jump to 100,000 million.

These technologies enable the mass of human knowledge to be indexed, stored, retrieved, transmitted and shared by people all over the world. Wisely used, such information systems can accelerate development in the poorest countries.

Potentially, today's technology can afford new levels of educational and cultural enrichment to the earth's inhabitants.

More profound and widespread understanding among peoples must inevitably flow as another consequence of the fulfillment of this communication revolution.

With this enormous potential so obvious to us, with our background, education

and traditions of free speech going back to Thomas Jefferson and the Bill of Rights, with the United Nations incorporating commitments on the free and open exchange of ideas in its Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is difficult for Americans to comprehend, let alone be concerned with the mounting criticisms of these concepts in recent years. Yet these criticisms are coming from several quarters and are based on different arguments.

From our ideological adversaries has come the argl!ment that information and communication are not only "sovereign rights," but monopolies of the state. They hold this position, we believe, because they recognize the power of information in maintaining control over their populations, and contrariwise the power of outside, uncontrolled information. From their beginnings, they have been aware of the importance of mass media but most recently, as they have promoted the idea of detente abroad, they have intensified their internal struggle against what they choose to label "reactionary bourgeois ideology" but which, in effect, means the Western ideal of freedom of thought, freely expressed. This, despite the solemn pledge of all signatories to the Final Act at Helsinki, in 1975, to "facilitate the freer

and wider dissemination of information of all kinds." As we believe that free speech is democracy's chief weapon against tyranny, so do the leaders of these totalitarian states believe that control of free speech is a vital weapon in preserving their structure ....

(There has been a] recent flood of conferences dealing with international .communications. In the past year or so there have been such meetings of the nonaligned countries in Tunis, in Mexico City, in New Delhi and in Colombo.

There was a series of regional UNESCO meetings and the UNESCO general conference at Nairobi, the meeting in Geneva of the World Administrative Radio Conference [WARC] of the International Telecommunication Union [lTV], and the continuing discussions of subgroups of the United Nations Outer Space Committee. This rapid conjunction of meet.ings has brought into urgent focus the need for the United States to examine this issue carefully and comprehensively and to formulate a policy and an agenda for addressing it in the months ahead.

The Soviet concept of "sovereign rights" has been supported at some of these international meetings by noncommunist states for nonideological reasons. Thus, at last January's WARC meeting, Western European, African and Asian nations voted with the Soviet bloc to allocate fixed frequency and orbital slots for each ITV member nation outside the Western hemisphere. The United States argued unsuccessfully that satellite technology was new and that any proposal for developing firm allocations now would freeze technology too soon. The next effect of this action everywhere except in the Western hemisphere will be to deny the use of satellites for international television transmissions unless prior consent is given by the intended recipient and by all other countries that may be affected technically.

The reason for the positive vote by the Soviet orbit countries was, without

doubt, ideological; some other nations, particularly in Western Europe, simply needed right now a rational plan for the efficient use of frequencies because of the technical problems they were facing. And still other nations-those in the Third 'World-used this forum, as they have been using every other one, to battle against what they have begun to call the "cultural imperialism" of the developed world.

Leaders and intellectuals in these Third World countries have indicated they recognize the pitfalls of government control of information media .... These leaders are, nevertheless, disturbed by and angry at the near monopoly the developed world has in supplying the books they read, the TV and movie films they watch, the news stories they read, and even the foreign universities they must attend for much of their higher learning. In such a situation, according to the ministers of information of the nonaligned countries meeting in New Delhi last year, "freedom of inform ation really comes to mean the freedom of these few to propagate information in the manner of their choosing."

This imbalance exists; and because we are concerned that all peoples should have the opportunity to share in the potential benefits of modern mass communication, we have pledged our determination to help develop and increase two-way communication among peoples.

This must be done in a way that preserves the independence and fruitful diversity of sources of all information. Let us not fool ourselves, however, into thinking that we can ever completely effectuate a bal~nce. But we can understand, we can sympathize and we can take action.

The most effective way to reduce this imbalance in the two-way communication flow is not to choke off with control the communications capacity of some, but to increase the communications capacity of all. I said this last year at the UNESCO conference in Nairobi, Kenya, where I had the honor to head the American delegation. I was speaking on a resolution which would have the effect of sharply curtailing the international flow of news.

Eventually enough nations came to realize that passage of this resolution might not be in their long-term interest and so, instead, they voted to call for strengthening the information and communications systems of the developing world.

The United States and other nations pledged assistance to help the developing world in this endeavor. These pledges helped gain passage of the resolution.

Now we must make good on these pledges-because the ideological offensive

has only been blunted, nol broken, and cational and Cultural Affairs. The Department of Agriculture has sponsored an other nations may look more favorably annual pr"ogram to bring 40 specialized on these ideas unless they see real progress toward redressing the imbalance. More journalists to the United States for trainimportant, however, than simply winning ing which includes on-the-job experience a point ideologically is the need to keep on newspapers in the mid-West. At faith with our own pasic morality and Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, the World Press Institute has trained principles.

We must act if we are serious about 'over 200 foreign journalists, and many Third World journalists have studied at the importance of utilizing communications resources to their potential, if we Harvard University under the Nieman Fellowship, program. My own agency, believe that what we are doing for mankind is the measure of our endeavor in human USIA, which administers the State Derights and the legacy we will enhance for partment educational and cultural programs abroad, maintains a press center future generations.

Actually, the process of bridging the in New York and another in Washington communications gap has already begun to assist foreign newspeople, many of and in some areas is advancing at a rapid them from the developing areas.

I am pleased to be able to report to you rate. For example, more than half the that just a few weeks ago, America's nonaligned countries have INTELSAT earth stations. Many of them are con- leading newspaper executives began translating the' U.S. pledge of assistance to nected by telex. India lists 71 nonaligned developing nations into action. At the countries with which it can communicate April meeting of the American Newspaper and Kenya lists 67.

At the Nairobi UNESCO meeting, I Publishers Association, Clayton Kilpatrepeated the willingness of the United rick, editor of the Chicago Tribune and a States to continue to share its knowledge valued member of the American delegation to the Nairobi UNESCO meeting, and expertise regarding communication facilities available for experimental under- announced, formation of a World Press takings. For example, as a result of our Freedom Development Committee to supplying India with the use of the U.S. bring news media people from developing ATS-6 [Applications Technology Satel- countries into closer contact with newslite] communications system, India was men in developed countries. Among the able to conduct a year-long program on special goals of the new group is creation agricultural techniques, family planning of a manpower pool of experts in all phases of publishing and broadcasting and hygiene instruction, and occupational who would be available to assist press skills. fndia is now planning to build its and electronic media in Third World own satellite. Indonesia plans to use countries. The committee also plans to satellites to connect its 50 major islands, assess the technical needs of developing and 20 Arab nations hope to establish a countries' media and to channel to them satellite network. Brazil has plans to link available equipment.

1,000 of its widely scattered communities And just two weeks ago the United by space satellites. But despite these Press'lnternational broadcasting advisory developments, many nations are just enter- board resolved at its annual meeting to ing the 20th century in communications participate in any professional effort to terms. At Nairobi, I further stated that insure the free flow of news, including the United States and other nations with technical and editorial assistance.

The formation of the World Press highly developed mass media should endeavor to make available, through Freedom Development Committee is the bilateral and multilateral channels, both kind of positive action we favor-a happy governmental and private assistance to augury, I hope, of the balanced and other states in helping to develop their principled approach that will be taken to mass media. We suggested that UNESCO address these problems. There are many other possibilities for helping redress the itself should join in these efforts. imbalance.

In fact, the United States Government Suffice it to say, there is need for the and private groups in this cmmtry have been engaged in journalism training pro- United States to continue to enunciate grams for some years. Between 1970 and its basic policy in favor of the free flow of 1974, some 1,137 media specialists 'from 'information to people the world over, to Africa, the Near East, East Asia and illustrate the dangers of government conLatin America have come to America for trol of information and to take positive training under grants provided by the action to help those with legitimate 0 U.S. State Department's Bureau of Edu- grievances. We cannot relax. !

GOOD NEWS FOR DIABETICS!

PRODUCTION OF'HUMAN INSULIN' POSSIBLE

by EVERLY DRISCOLL SPAN Science Correspondent in Washington

In a major breakthrough in genetic research, scientists at the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF) have succeeded in transferring an insulin-producing gene of a rat to bacteria - the first step toward the production of human insulin for the world's growing numbers of diabetics.

Diabetes is caused by a defect in the body's production or use of the insulin hormone, which controls the metabolism of sugar and other carbohydrates. Diabetics are at present dependent on animal insulin, which is.decreasing in supply as the number of diabetics increases.

A recent announcement contained news of several "firsts."

One-the analysis of a part of the insulin gene never before examined-will eventually aid scientists in understanding what causes diabetes to occur at all in some individuals.

The gene, the basic unit of heredity, carries chemical instructions for making hormones, like insulin, from amino acids. Each protein or hormone made by.the body is controlled, in its chemical composition and in its production and use, by a specific set of genetic instructions.

Another first was the successful "cloning" -or reproductionof the insulin gene. The transferred gene, a copy of a gene taken from the rat's pancreas where insulin is made, reproduced itself in large quantities in the bacteria.

The next step in the California research will be the transfer of genetic material that tells the gene to start-and stop-its production of rat insulin. That will probably occur within two years or so, according to Dr. William J. Rutter of UCSF's Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. "It's just a matter of time," Below: These E. coli bacteria, seen through an electron microscope at the University of California in San Francisco, have been impregnated with insulin-producing genes-a major breakthrough in genetic engineering.

he says. The transfer and cloning of the rat gene in bacteria were considered the most difficult part of the research.

The final and most important step, of (;ourse, is the production of human insulin by transfer of the human gene to the bacteria "factories." Dr. Rutter sees this step occurring within five years-just in time, many think, to avert a major worldwide shortage of insulin. Today, insulin for human use is purified from the insulin of cattle and pigs. A shortage of this animal hormone is developing as the number of diabetics increases. Furthermore, many diabetics are allergic to animal insulin and develop deleterious side effects.

The technology that made this announcement possible, called "gene splicing," was first developed by California scientists several years ago. It involves the DNA molecule, deoxyribonucleic acid, of which all genes are made.

The first step was to find the specific gene responsible for production of insulin. This in itself was a difficult task. The bacteria used as "factories" in this experiment, the E. coli, have 3,000 to 4,000 genes. Humans carry tens of thousands of genes.

Once the rat gene for insulin production had been found and isolated, the California researchers were able to examine its chemical composition and copy it. Then they were able to splice the copy to a ring of bacteria DNA called "plasmids" that exists outside of major bacteria DNA. To do this, they added an enzyme to both the copied gene and the bacteria DNA This enzyme "cut" the DNA at particular points in the chemical sequence, leaving "sticky ends" that joined spontaneously to any other DNA cut with the same enzyme.

Thus the copied rat insulin gene joined with the bacteria DNA This is called "recombinant DNA" Some of the recombined DNA then inserted itself into the bacteria; and the bacteria containing the new DNA began to copy the rat gene for making insulin.

In spite of this amazing breakthrough in genetic engineering, many scientists have questioned the wisdom of carrying out research in recombinant DNA. Discussing the many hazards involved in the new technology, they say that one of the most serious dangers is the possibility of these man-made bacteria escaping the laboratory and infecting the population with new and incurable diseases.

The U.S. Congress began hearings this year on bills to. regulate all DNA research in the United States. Senate and House bills are both still pending, but they differ on major issues: The Senate bill requires an II-member commission to regulate recombinant DNA research, the House bill gives this authority to the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.

Advocating the continuance of the research, Dr. Rutter said, "These experiments with insulin really emphasize the benefits over the risks; they point out the possible practical application of recombinant-DNA research." [For a complete report on the controversy, see article "New Strains of Life-or Death" on pages 34-37 of this issue.]

0

u4merica's First Lady

.

. osalynn Carter She came to the White House with confidence, experience and definite ideas for some big projects. She is likely to be a guiding force behind the President's Commission on Mental Health; she's campaigningfor the Equal Rights Amendment, encouraging volunteerism, and helping the aged. To do all this, 49year-old Rosalynn Carter has estab'fished an arduous d~iIy routine. She usually spends eight hours a day at her desk surrounded by four 'in' and 'out' boxes-and fresh flowers. An article on America's new FirstLa~y begins on the followingpage.

• •

••

S

hehas no mandate, no prescribed powers, and only a limited budget for staff. Yet just six months after moving into the White House, Rosalynn Carter, 49, is convinced that she can "make a difference." As she puts it: "I just know when Jimmy was Governor there were so many things I could do that I worried about my priorities.

I feel the same way about this. There's no end to what I can do in the White House."

Her agenda in the White House reflects her own personal temperament, which was formed in an all-work-littleplay girlhood in Georgia, as well as the feminist temper of the times. If her first breathless weeks in the White House are any clue, she may become the most activist First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt, whose public years she has thoroughly studied. Rosalynn has taken as her special interest the needs of the people she believes are "underserved" by Government, especially the mentally and emotionally ill, and the cause of human rights-especially women's rights. Just as Mrs. Roosevelt was called "the Assistant President," Rosalynn Carter could also have an impact on the making of national policy, advising on her husband's programs as well as advocating her own, sometimes sitting in on Cabinet meetings and pushing legislation she supports.

"I think she inherently understands she's in a position where she can electrify people and generate excitement," says Mary King, an old Carter friend who is now deputy director of ACTION, the Government's volunteer agency. "She wants to do something national in impact and realizes she's in a position to use that influence to do good."

Mrs. Carter has already displayed her considerable powers. Largely hidden from public view, she has established an arduous daily routine. She usually spends eight hours at her Chippendale mahogany kneehole desk surrounded by fresh flowers, four "in" and "out" boxes and her daughter Amy's pink-and-blue gingham pillow, which she has tucked on an empty bookshelf in her yellow-and-apricot East Wing office.

Starting at 9 :30 a.m., she makes telephone calls to gather information from experts in the field of mental health, has meetings with her staff, answers heaps of mail, and lobbies for the Equal Rights Amendment. * Allowing a halfhour for lunch with Jimmy in the family dining room and a half-hour at 4:30 to

do homework or play with Amy, she sometimes leaves her office as' late as 6 :30. Consequently, there are evenings when she goes straight from work to the theater in her office clothes. One night, when the President decided at the last minute to go see Hal Holbrook in Mark Twain Tonight! at the Kennedy Center, Rosalynn sat in the Presidential box in the beige Ultra suede jumper and navy blouse she had been wearing all day.

If the Carters are home for the evening, Rosalynn takes her battered black Samsonite attache case back to the family quarters and works until the President finishes in the Oval Office.

They retire about 11 p.m. Even dinners are working sessions. One evening, Zbigniew Brzezinski, White House adviser on national security, came over for a light supper to brief the Carter family and some staff members. Rosalynn found it so fascinating she told friends she thought it was too bad the discussion couldn't have been on public television.

Tuesday and Thursday mornings, she presides over a 45-minute staff meeting in her conference room around a highly polished oval table, surrounded by green leather chairs. Staffers claim she guides those meetings decisively, making speedy decisions. "She knows exactly what she wants," says Ann Anderson, her deputy press secretary. She goes around the table eliciting opinions and information from her team of 16 women and two men, and sometimes gales of laughter can be heard pealing down the red-carpeted halls.

"It's really nice to work with her," says one staff member who, like many others, calls her "Rosalynn." "She's businesslike, but very informal. I looked up from my desk one morning and she was just standing there .... If she wants something, she'll just walk right down the hall instead of phoning."

Most afternoons, she is plagued with meetings-with the budget office, with the legal counsel, with the chief usher, Rex Scouten, and the housekeeping staff, with her son Chip about his projects, with her project planners. Rosalynn occasionally works on Saturdays, too.

On one weekend, she spent the day at a mental-health conference and managed to have lunch with the wife of a friend who had been hospitalized. She's no timewaster.

'The aim of the proposed "Equal Rights Amendment" to the U.S. Constitution is to ensure that "equality of rights under law shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex." For the amendment to become a part of the Constitution, it has to be ratified by the legislatures of three-quarters (38) of America's 50 states. So far, 35 states have ratified it. See article in the July 1977 SPAN, "Do All American Women Want Equal Rights?"

She has also embarked on a program of extracurricular studies. From 9 until noon on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, she takes Spanish lessons in the solarium, to become fluent for several Latin American trips she plans to take during the next four years. And every Tuesday night at 7 p.m., she and her husband take a refresher speed-reading course so they can cope with the mountains of reading that confront them daily.

If she has found plenty to do as First Lady, Rosalynn has at least been relieved of one wifely duty. For 25 years, she sprang out of bed at dawn and fixed her husband a hearty breakfast-coffee, grits, eggs, toast, juice. But Jimmy discovered recently that he has little time for breakfast and, what's more, does not really like it. "He has just orange juice," she says. "In fact, he told me during the campaign that he enjoyed his mornings so much more because he didn't have to eat the big breakfast I used to fix for him .. 1 wish I had known that 25 years ago."

It is, of course, Rosalynn Carter's special working partnership with her husband that will define her role and determine her effectiveness as First Lady.

But she also comes to the White House with confidence, experience and some definite plans. She clearly plans to be the guiding force behind the new President's Commission on Mental Health, to lobby for the Equal Rights Amendment, to encourage more volunteering among Americans and help for the aging. .

"She'll do what she did as First Lady of Georgia," the President predicts. "She probed to see how she could be of service to the people. She involved herself in programs to combat alcoholism and drug abuse .... She took the initiative in mental retardation. She'd come to me and say, 'This is what we need to do.' Then she'd come back to me with a description of what was necessary. And that's what we implemented. It was innovative and workable." Asked if he would try to silence Rosalynn if she were as outspoken as Betty Ford, he smiled, "If I did, it probably wouldn't do any good."

Like Eleanor Roosevelt, who traveled widely, Rosalynn plans to serve as roving ambassador for her husband. She has already stood in for him at the inauguration of President Jose L6pez Portillo of Mexico and is expected to fly to Latin America to promote some cultural and student exchange programs.

Rosalynn also intends to take many trips within the United States to visit hospitals and nursing homes and attend

mental-health hearings.

Rosalynn Carter's first priority, clearly, is improving the delivery of mentalhealth services in the U.S. Her first week in the White House was spent discussing her plan for the President's Commission on Mental Health with Dr. Peter Bourne, a special assistant to the President and close friend of the family.

She asked him to find out how Presidential commissions were formed and which ones had been successful in the past.

She also wanted Bourne to arrange an inspection trip to the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, so she could study what research was being done. "She wants to help those who cannot either afford mental health or those who are in remote areas where services are not available," explains Bourne. "She is also worried about adolescents who

'If her first breathless months in the White House are any indication, Rosalynn Carter could well become the most activist First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt.' are usually reluctant to go to a place called a 'mental-health center.' She wants to see mental-health services available in the market place."

A few days later, on February 5, Rosalynn quietly slipped out of the White House to attend a board meeting of the National Association for Mental Health in Arlington, Virginia. The meeting was completely closed to the press; not even a pool reporter was permitted inside.

"She wanted to be here like the rest of us," one board member said. "She didn't make a speech or anything. She just listened and took notes and voted on the issues." After the meeting, Rosalynn lingered to talk to the other participants.

She discussed the concept of what she calls "the underserved" with Judy Schotzko, a fellow board member from Blue Earth, Minnesota. "She is interested in prisoners who receive inadequate mental care," said Mrs. Schotzko later. "And she said, because she's from a rural area, she wants to see more facilities ... in rural communities .... " Less than two weeks later, with Rosalynn standing by his side, Carter signed an executive order creating the President's Commission on Mental Health. The commission is charged with

trying to identify America's mental-health needs. It will assess the quality of existing services, estimate the nation's mentalhealth needs over the next quarter century and try to identify what research the Government should support in both the prevention and treatment of mental illness and mental retardation.

Dr. Thomas Bryant, a friend of the Carters' who has been president of the Drug Abuse Council since 1971, was appointed executive director. (Ironically, Rosalynn could not be designated chairman because Presidents are prohibited from appointing close relatives to civilian positions. "So," said Rosalynn with a twinkle, "I am going to be a very active honorary chairperson.") She promised to work on the commission every week in its offices in the Executive Office building. She will attend mental-health hearings around the country and help to raise private money to supplement the commission's small budget.

for the ERA there, but with less success.

The amendment was defeated on March 1.

After another surge of critical calls and some anti-ERA picketing in front of the White House, Mrs. Carter stopped announcing all her activities on behalf of the ERA. Nevertheless, she ordered her projects director, Kathy Cade, to meet with representatives from ERAmerica, a .coalition of 120 groups supporting ratification, as well as Senator Bayh, Mary Brooks of the League of Women Voters, Roz Baker of the National Education Association, and Presidential aides Midge Costanza and Mark Siegel to discuss strategy for passage of the ERA. The President and Mrs. Carter are said to be quietly reassessing their ratification strategy and may go beyond the personal, last-minute lobbying of the past few months. For the moment, however, Mrs. Carter plans to limit herself to phone calls.

* * *

Rosalynn Carter has already identified but not yet acted on her third and fourth priorities: help for the aging and encouragement of "volunteerism." She plans to meet with Ellen Sulzberger Straus, founder of Call to Action, a national citizen complaint service, and will probably become involved with ACTION, the volunteer Government agency that encompasses the Peace Corps, VISTA, and Foster Grandparents. "The volunteerism Rosalynn is talking about is simple citizen participation," explains Mrs. Straus. "She's interested in people joining together to bring about social change outside the pay system and she wants to provide the leadership. Rosalynn, I think, wants to emphasize that programs can work if implemented by people helping people. Like her husband, she wants to see that people really care about each other again. We've lost that."

The public is already familiar with Mrs. Carter's public self, the no-nonsense, 1950's housewife with the circle pin, drip-dry suits and short permanent wave. They feel they understand this woman of clear purpose, deep religious faith and accomplishment. She is, of course, all of these things, but she's much more complex.

What is surprising, for someone who seems so comfortable in most social situations, is that Rosalynn Carter is basically a loner. She has few intimate women friends with the exception of her childhood chum, Ruth Stapleton, Carter's evangelist sister; Edna Langford, the mother of her daughter-in-law, Judy; and Madeline MacBean, her assistant.

Rosalynn's second priority in the White House is passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Although she did not publicly work for the ERA in Georgia except to wear an "ERA-YES" button, she's now actively campaigning for passage of the amendment, as is the President.

"She'll speak softly and carry a big stick," says Mary Hoyt, her press secretary. Two days before the inauguration, January 18, Rosalynn learned that the Indiana State Senate was tied, 25-25, on the ERA. On the advice of Senator Birch Bayh, she phoned W. Wayne Townsend, an Indiana State Senator who had supported the amendment but now seemed to be wavering. Rosalynn was not the first Carter to lobby Townsend; Carter's daughter-in-law had been dispatched to Indiana two weeks before to talk to him. "There was no high pressure," Townsend recalls. Rosalynn was "very sweet and pleasant. She talked about. . .

Judy Langford's trip out here to lobby for ERA and other things, and she said she hoped I'd vote for the amendment.

Of course, she didn't convince me; I was planning to vote for it anyway."

That afternoon, when Townsend voted for the amendment, it passed, 26-24, and Rosalynn was credited with breaking the tie.

The White House received 50 critical phone calls and Townsend was plagued with hate mail, but Rosalynn persisted in her low-key telephone campaign. She and Jimmy both phoned several North' Carolina legislators urging them to vote

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ROSAL YNN CARTER continued

"I've never had time for friends," Rosalynn told me. "I've always worked too hard. Besides, I never was one for coffee klatches .... " Jimmy Carter is her best friend.

At the same time, she is seen as a self-contained, basically happy woman with a very stable personality. "She is the most put-together woman I know," says her press secretary Mary Hoyt.

"She knows exactly who she is and what she wants."

As there is little artificial about Rosalynn Carter, neither is there much room for levity or leisure. During the campaign, she spent more than five weeks in Florida, but never paused for a swim or sunbath (she's allergic to sun, pollen, dust, dogs"everything"). She isn't interested in most forms of exercise, but instead tries to maintain her vigor by swallowing multivitamins. She has never smoked and drinks only occasionally, usually a glass of wine, which is all she serves at White House dinners.

Rosalynn Carter was not always the

self-confident political wife she is today.

"You wouldn't believe her a few years ago; she was painfully withdrawn," says Lehman Franklin, a friend of the Carters' from Statesville, Georgia. Her life has been a series of struggles, overcoming poverty, her own introversion, her smalltown background. "My philosophy is that you do what you have to do," she has said; and her life attests to that credo. It's a story of personal growth and a strong marriage.

It began when Jimmy decided to leave the Navy and return to Plains to take over the family peanut business after his father died in 1953. Rosalynn had resisted the move. After a dreary childhood in Plains, spent looking after her three siblings while her mother worked, Rosalynn was enjoying the glamor of a naval officer's life: the travel, the independence. She now sees the return to Plains differently: "I think the relationship [with Jimmy] really started when we returned to Plains," she says. She became an integral part of the family business,

President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn.

The President has said of Rosalynn: "She helps form my positions because she has a sensitive way of understanding what other people feel."

and, for the first time in their marriage, felt indispensable, needed and involved: "As the business developed, Jimmy would come to me and say, 'Does this work; should we continue to do this?'''

Author James Dickey says of Southern women, "They're very loving and very affectionate but they really think their men are dependent. upon them. If their man is brilliant, they think he's brilliant because they've helped him be brilliant.

Basically they think their men are weak and could never have gotten anywhere without their help."

To some extent, Rosalynn seems to have felt this way about Jimmy's political career. She recalls when he was elected for the first time, as a State Senator, in Georgia in 1962. "I had to manage the business three months a year when Jimmy was away in the State Legislature. And

I felt very, very important, because he couldn't have done it at all if I hadn't managed the business."

Nor does she give Jimmy the entire credit for winning his gubernatorial race in 1970. He decided, in that campaign, that he needed her to go out and campaign for him, despite her painful shyness.

And she did, stumping the state with the entire family. To her way of thinking, she and her family were an integral part of his victory. "We've always worked together on everything. And we've always had a tremendous sense of accomplishment, like when Jimmy got elected Governor .... It was not that Jimmy got elected Governor. It was that we all did .... " Once Jimmy became Governor, she was confronted with a whole new set of problems-running a million-dollar mansion, directing a staff of 14, entertaining hundreds of people every week.

But she also realized she could use her platform as Governor's wife to accomplish things she wanted. She immediately made mental health her main priority, perhaps because she knew two members of Carter's family who had been institutionalized for mental problems.

She had also been struck, while campaigning in the gubernatorial race, by the frequent questions people kept directing at her: "What will he [Carter] do to help me with my retarded son if he's elected Governor?" or "I have a child with an emotional problem. Where can I get help for him?" Rosalynn recalls asking her husband about it one night: "Jimmy, why do they tell me all about their problems?" she wondered. "Because," he said, "you might be the only person they ever see who may be close to somebody who can help them."

As Georgia's First Lady, Rosalynn not only attended mental-health hearings all over the state and helped to spearhead the opening of 136 new mental-health centers, but she also worked as an ordinary volunteer at the Georgia-¡ Regional Hospital in Atlanta, selling candy in the gift shop, giving shampoos, visiting patients on the wards and making followup calls to patients who had been released. "She never thought of herself as something special," recalls a- fellow volunteer. "She'd do anything for patients." She even played touch football with them. "There was only one thing I couldn't get her to do," says Barbara Sugarman, Georgia's director of Volunteer Services. "She had learned the hula in Hawaii and really knew how to do it, so I asked her to perform for the talent show one year, but she talked Jimmy into reading 'Twas the night before Christmas' instead."

himself. "She operates independently from me .... She helps form my positions America's First Lady believes because she has a sensitive way of underthat she's in a position standing what other people feel. Also, she is able to get a much more frank where she can activate people and unbiased expression of criticism from to work for important people than I can. They can appro~ch social goals and use her Rosalynn and say, 'I think Jimmy ought to do this,' or, 'He's hurting himself when influence to help achieve them. he fails to do this.' So in every possible way she's a full partner or better. ... " Even after her husband left the The fierce devotion between them is Governor's office in 1974, Rosalynn con- rather unusual for a couple who've been tinued to attend meetings of the National married for 30 years. They hold hands Association for Mental Health. She was constantly, even in church, sit with their appointed a member of its board in knees touching, think nothing of kissing in June 1976. public. His feeling for her was never Most friends agree that Jimmy's run- more evident than the morning after ning for President was what stretched the third debate last autumn when the Rosalynn's capabilities and talents to two of them made a joint appearance their fullest. Few could believe the way in Virginia. Rosalynn had been traveling retiring Rosalynn set about campaigning, all over the country for the past several conquering her initial diffidence with weeks lionizing Jimmy Carter. On the will power and some loving encourage- stump, Rosalynn always gave the speech ment from Jimmy. With her determi- her all, but that morning was different. nation to see her husband .President, She was showing off for Jimmy, who she searched out hard hats on construchad never heard the speech before but tion projects, canvassed restaurant was paying no attention. He was going kitchens, senior-citizen homes and airport over notes with a man sitting next to him.

"I've known him all my life," she. waiting rooms for votes. She never let a hand go by. She campaigned alone, said. Suddenly Jimmy looked up. maintaining the same back-breaking "I think his background is so important, schedule as her husband, beginning with the fact that he's a farmer, he's worked for 4:30 a.m. factory shift changes and often a living. The fact that he's a businessman ending at midnight. is so important. I worked. The children She became a seasoned politician, steady worked. I kept the books. We worked and unflappable. Last autumn, appearing hard. We scrimped and saved to make on "Meet the Press," a TV show that the business a success." Jimmy was lishas broken lesser mortals, Rosalynn field- tening intently.

"When he was Governor, he abolished ed a barrage of questions on Carter's issues, his ,ethnic purity gaffe, and his 278 of 300 agencies. He got the phone statements in the Playboy interview with company to check how much waste there the aplomb of Scarlett O'Hara. Mter- was and he saved $800 just on the phone ward, Senator Fritz Hollings of South bills .... Jimmy Carter knows human Carolina commented to a friend that beings in this country. And Jimmy has it was "the best political performance never had any hint of scandal in his under fire that I've ever seen." She was business or personal life.?' Tears were equally impressive narrating Aaron Cop- beginning to trickle down Carter's face. land's A Lincoln Portrait last autumn He brushed them away and, as she before an audience of 2,000 in Washing- finished, sprang to the lectern to thank ton's Constitution Hall, with Leonard her, kissing her and squeezing her so Bernstein conducting a full symphony hard he lifted her off the ground. "That's orchestra. Rosalynn had read neither beautiful," he whispered. "Beautiful. ... " the score nor the text until dress rehearsal, Carter stepped up to the microphone but, though her -knees were quaking, she with his arm around Rosalynn. "How never missed a downbeat. Making her many of you would like to have Rosalynn way through a sea of accolades 'afterward, as First Lady?" he asked. The crowd she whispered to me, "Can you believe' roared approval. Carter's face radiated I did that?" contentment. "So would I," he said.

0 Rosalynn also enjoyed her reputation as Carter's personal campaign adviser.

About the Author: Kandy Stroud is a free-lance "I have very strong opinions about everywriter who often contributes articles to McCalls, thing. And I always let Jimmy know -how Ladies Home Journal, and other magazines.

I feel," she says. "He doesn't always For more than a year, she has been covering the react well to everything. But there are Carter family and recently published a book very few things Jimmy decides that we titled, How Jimmy Won,from which she adapted don't talk about." Carter admits this the article printed on these pages.

ANDREW YOUNG ON HUMAN RIGHTS

,

'Freedom from want and freedom from fear have to be secured,' says the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, quoting Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai. Ambassador Young, in a recent speech to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, asked the world to mount a determined attack on the three evils of 'hunger, torture and racism.' He concluded: 'We must unite against the common enemies of mankind .... We dare not be timid.' An abridgment of the speech follows.

I would like to thank the members of this Council for giving me the opportunity to address you this morning. I wanted to come personally to emphasize the importance which my Government attaches to the work of the Economic and Social Council [ECOSOC] and to reaffirm our commitment to seek with you in this body solutions to the many and complex problems which confront us....

The fundamental importance of the Economic and Social Council is obvious. The most critical task we confront both as individual nations and collectively is the advancement of the quality of life of humankind in all its aspects. That is the business of this Council, and the peoples of the world are rightly looking to us for initiative and leadership in their quest for social justice ....

It is because my Government and people are so concerned with this quest, as are all governments and peoples of the United Nations, that I feel compelled to warn us against what I -sense

is an impatience on the part of my people with international development programs, or what we call "foreign aid programs."

It is not that the American people, or the people of any nation, are basically opposed to helping other people, or even in making sacrifices to aid other nations in their struggle against oppression and poverty. It is that too often the American people, and the peoples of other nations, have been disappointed that their efforts have not resulted in any appreciable help for the poor of the world, nor the liberation of the oppressed.

No one can doubt the idealism and generosity of the American people. For example, in the 10 years, 1969-1978, the United States will deliver more than $10 billion worth of food under our Public Law 480.

But it is often asked why the poor of a rich nation should be taxed in order to aid the rich of a poor nation. A significant part of the dissatisfaction of the people of the United States with the programs of international development is that so much

of this nation's efforts have been directed to glVlng military rather than economic and social aid, and to bolstering repressive regimes. If we are to maintain the commitment of our people, and if you are to maintain the commitment of your people, to the economic and social programs of development, and to the human rights programs, we must be able to demonstrate that these programs really work, that they really affect, in a real and positive way, the lives of the hungry, the poor, the oppressed, the tortured and the homeless ....

Some truths can never be repeated too often. They must always be before us. The most fundamental truth of all is this: Man is born to be free and all that we do must be devoted to the well-being of human beings-every type of human being of whatever race or religion-of whatever sex-and in all societies, new and old, rich and poor. This truth, this great objective, belongs equally to everyone-every nation represented in this chamber, every country in the U.N., and those not in the U.N. We are talking about an idea which is inherent in the human condition. It is humankind's nature to strive for dignity, to struggle for justice, to hunger for freedom, and to seek to live in community.

There is yet another truth flowing from this reality which is equally compelling .... All of us in official service must be constantly reminded, and must do our best constantly to remember, that the responsiveness of the governing elites to the popular will for justice, for peace, for dignity and for freedom is the test by which we should be measured.

This point has very recently been made by a man who has worked for justice and human dignity all his life. I refer to the new Prime Minister of India, Prime Minister Desai. Speaking on April 7 before a meeting of nonaligned nations in New Delhi, he said: "We have learned from Gandhiji that there is no nobler quest than to work for justice and a better life for one's fellow brethren. He taught us, too, that dedication to the service of one's people must not be a concealed lust for power. What the people need today is a happy contented life fully utilizing the aids which science has placed and will continually place at the disposal of mankind. Life cannot be merely mechanized if the end is to be happiness and contentment.

"There has to be a moral and spiritual base for development along with its materialistic content. Freedom from want and freedom from fear have to be secured to make that base. We have dedicated ourselves to the task of achieving these freedoms along with the right to liberty."

It is hard to match the eloquence of this great Indian statesman. But let me try to say in a few simple words of my own what this means-and what it doesn't mean. It obviously doesn't mean that we and all our societies have to be perfect. Obviously, we can't. No matter how hard we try, there is going to be a lot of room for improvement elsewhere. No system within societies, no amount of wealth, will create perfect justice ....

We have long since come to realize that development cannot be measured in terms of gross national product. The shine of steel from a new mill is quickly dulled if its workers or their brothers and sisters still in the countryside must ¡liveil\ fear, be it fear of political repression or fear of not being able to feed themselves and their children.

I would like to speak of three of those fears today: The fear of hunger, the fear of torture, and the fear of racism. I suggest that these three are basic problems that we could attack with near-unanimity and high expectations of significant success, if we agreed to focus on them as our priorities.

Hunger and famine are, perhaps, the problems that affect directly and most drastically the greatest number of human beings. Today as many as 400 million people-IS per cent of the world's population-are starving. Hundreds of millions more receive only minimal food requirements. Perhaps 100million children suffer chronic malnutrition. There are virtually no countries in the world where all the people have a healthy diet all the time.

These problems are not simply the legacy of international manipulations and maneuverings, as some would have it.

'The shine of steel from a new mill is quickly dulled if its workers ... must live in fear, be it fear of political repression or fear of not being able to feed themselves and their children.'

Instead, they often reflect mistaken perceptions of growth. We have all been guilty of ignoring our rural populations in pursuit of machines and methods to propel us along the path of industrialization. In our country, we turned our back on the sturdy, small farmer and skilled craftsman whom our President, Thomas Jefferson, acclaimed as the strength of our nation. Today, millions of Americans have left the farms of rural America to seek their fortunes in our cities. There, crowded together, depersonalized and hungry, too many have failed to find what they had sought. .

If developing countries can learn some things from our mistakes, they will be able to adjust productive systems to meet their own special conditions of climate, geography, and human resources.

The international community can and should do much to help. Surplus countries can provide food aid. We in the United States hope to rework our own legislation so that our food assistance can help foster long-term developments. Through the International Fund for Agriculture Development, we and other countries with the financial means are supporting efforts ¡and helping farmers, particularly small farmers in the poorer countries, to increase production.

All food-producing countries can help by working to fulfill the goal we set at the seventh lpecial session [of the U.N.] to reduce by half the food now wasted because of poor storage . aAd handling~foo.d ~ugh to feed the 400 million f)eople who are )tarvirrg. In the field of foodgrains, we also need to estaba.c:a.a.~y~m ~ nationally held reserves to provide basic food security, the United States is urgently reviewing this questiQn to see how we ..might be able to help get negotiations IIl{)ving... .Efforts ~ i~easilli food prOduction will not be successful unless all Rations face up to the problems of poor distribution of land o~ cm.dof income, t-o inequity l>etween traditional groups. For, witbout justice, there can be .ttO true stability,

and there cannot be true social stability until everyone has enough to eat. As long as there is hunger anywhere it will affect people everywhere. . . .

While poverty spreads, and famine is a real possibility, small groups in almost every nation live lives of luxury and waste. We dare to say these things here because the silent poor majority of the world is not also deaf and blind-though they do not out of fear and a sense of hopelessness remonstrate against the gross inequity in the distribution of the goods of the world, they see, and they hear, and they understand. They will not, and should not, be forever ignored ....

At this session we have before us a resolution of the Commission for Social Development which recommends that we invite the Secretary General to set up a small working group to recommend how we can better integrate social development efforts into the work of the United Nations system. I would like to reiterate my Government's strong support for this resolution.

We cannot seek a more just international economic order, a better system of economic progress and cooperation without reference to man's basic needs and what we have come to call social considerations.

I would like next to turn to the problem of torture. There's an obvious connection with the problem of fighting hunger.

In each case the central focus is the same-the dignity and the worth of the human personality. If we are to mean what we say about promoting human rights, we should be concerned whenever a human being suffers, whenever his physical or spiritual existence is threatened, either through lack of food or through abuse of his body.

To put it bluntly, it is nothing less than deplorable that in our supposedly enlightened time, some of the gravest offenses

'The silent poor majority of the world is not deaf and blind-they see, and they hear, and they understand. They will not, and should not, be forever ignored.' to the human person known throughout human history are still being committed. We know that torture exists in many parts of the world today. Not only is it practiced in its most debased and horrible forms, but science and technology have been perverted by sick minds to invent unbelievably cruel, if highly sophisticated, modern methods ....

The struggle to eliminate torture is, in my opinion, of basic importance, even though relatively few people are actually tortured in comparison to those who suffer and sometimes die from hunger. Torture is not used today primarily as a means of extracting information from a few hard-core opposition militants, but rather is increasingly used as a means of intimidating masses of poor and oppressed people. Torture is used as the leading-edge of the whole system of intimidation, and such a system exists in almost every society in some form ....

We must attack torture. In so doing we will make it possible, perhaps, for the poor and oppressed to find more spokesmen, so they can be more truly represented at the tables of deliberation of the world.

I want to make it clear that we in the United States understand that our own society still has subtle but very strong systems of intimidation at work that inhibit the possibilities of our

poor, our discriminated against, and our dissidents from speaking fully to address themselves. The bright but poor young man from our ghettos is much more likely to go to jail and find himself abused there. For those few from affluent families who get in trouble with the law, lawyers are readily available, while for the majority of the poor minimal legal assistance is very difficult indeed.

One thing else needs to be mentioned. The outcry against torture that has arisen in the last few years has, unfortunately, produced new and subtler ways of intimidating the spokesman of the poor and the oppressed, and of driving the dispossessed into even greater despair and passivity. In particular, it is now increasingly common to just murder a dissident, or to illegally kidnap the dissident and quickly murder him. In such cases, the security forces of a nation often disclaim any knowledge of the act, and there is no tortured person left to later tell the sad story of suffering inflicted on him by other human beings.

So when we speak about torture, we mean three things: physical torture, the general problem of "missing persons," and the problem of political assassinations ....

Let me mention some of the kinds of torture of which I have recently heard, from various parts of the world. In some cases, the prisoner is hung by his or her knees, with the mouth taped tightly shut. Then a piece of cotton is stuffed in the nostrils-the head hanging down, perhaps held tightly in place by the hair. And then, water is dripped from an eye dropper on the cotton, until the prisoner nearly drowns with only a few drops of water applied, The terror-not to mention the great potential for permanent physical damage-is hardly imaginable to us.

We have all heard the stories of how electric shocks are used to torment prisoners-a sad application of modern technology. Of how leather or canvas hoods are placed on the prisoners' heads. Of the sexual violations of especially young female prisoners, that even has gone so far as to the raping of people of religious orders before groups of security personnel.

And then there are the more "subtle" kinds of torture, using drugs, or enforced dehydration. I know of one case where a peasant leader was hung for over two days in a refrigerated room with a group of corpses, also suspended by meat hooks, and constantly bombarded by a loud-speaker denouncing him and telling him that if he didn't denounce his fellow peasant leaders he would be allowed to stay there until he, also, died.

I know of a case today where Protestant pastors are imprisoned in a darkened cell, with one meal per day and no human contact allowed, apparently in the expectation that they will finally go mad.

Such stories-there are many of them-I only mention them here to remind us that we are dealing with flesh-andblood problems-problems we can help solve-problems of the greatest urgency and poignancy.

For the past several years, the General Assembly has taken a number of unanimous decisions reiterating its total rejection of torture and endorsing measures to combat it. We now have a declaration on the protection of all persons from being subjected to torture, unanimously adopted by the 30th Assembly.

But, in spite of these ringing pronouncements ... we have reports that torture still continues ....

Whatever the reasons for torture, our concern must be to do everything we can to see that this practice is brought to an end .... It has been useful to strengthen the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners. We support as well

the effort to draft a body of principles for the protection of all persons under any form of detention or imprisonment which is now before the Subcommission on Discrimination and Minorities. Every modest step taken to strengthen the fabric of law as it applies to persons under any form of detention is to be encouraged. Support for these legal advances by all governments can be significant in strengthening the national barrier against mistreatment of persons in making less likely the abuse of prisoners by lower level officials.

We have not yet fully exploited what is universally acknowledged to be the ultimate remedy at our disposal-publicity and public condemnation. Isn't this problem of torture of such gravity that we should seriously consider taking additional steps?

I have in mind steps that would help us both to expose areas where torture has been a part of a consistent pattern of gross

In the struggle against torture, 'we have not yet fully exploited what is universally acknowledged to be the ultimate remedy at our disposalpublicity and public condemnation.' violation of human rights as well as to learn from the experience of some governments which have institutionalized legal norms for the protection of dissidents .... • First, no cond1tions which may threaten the existence of a government, however weak or insecure it may feel, are such as to justify resort to torture. This proposition is recognized by the U.N. covenant on civil and political rights, which absolutely forbids derogation from the prohibition against torture, even in times of public emergency threatening the life of a nation. • Second, as a practical matter, infliction of torture as a means to maintain order is ultimately self-defeating. This reaction of revulsion and the renewed determination to bring down regimes which. grind down their populations almost always creates even greater problems of public order. • And third, looking at historical experience, it has been true that many new and weak governments have taken hold and have survived without resort to such methods.

These are some. of the reasons we feel it would be worthwhile to consider how we might establish a group which would investigate under U.N. mandate the problem of torture on a worldwide basis-to tell us where it exists and persists, to identify the most flagrant instances, and to inform us about cases in which governments have successfully resisted or curbed resort to torture .... An authoritative, comprehensive report from such a group would motivate us all, I am sure, in the direction of a new and more effective effort to eliminate this evil.

I want to mention another important area of work. I referred earlier to the perversion of science and technology which have led .to new forms of assaults on the physical and intellectual integrity of human beings. The Subcommission of the Human Rights Commission has recently been asked to formulate guidelines for the protection of those detained on the grounds of mental ill health ....

The problem of torture and the measures we take in the U.N. to combat it are part of a bigger problem, namely, the United Nations role in promoting human rights and the development of machinery to carry out that role. We attach great im-

portance to strengthening the United Nations human rights. machinery. My colleagues will recall the remarks of President Carter on this subject in his address on March 17 [see May 1977 SPAN] ....

Each member of the United Nations is now under a mandate from the Assembly to develop and propose new ideas for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights through the United Nations. We take this assignment very seriously, and will be proposing initiatives in the future. As the President indicated, we think there is much to be said for the idea of establishing a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In addition, we want to find ways to make the Commission on Human Rights a more effective body. We think the key lies in more complete cooperation with the Commission on the part of all nations ....

One of the most serious problems confronting humankind today is the problem of racism and racial discrimination. In this area, the people of the United States have a peculiar responsibility. As a nation long afflicted with the prob1em~ of racism and racial discrimination, we feel a responsibility to contribute to the world struggle to eliminate all forms of racism and racial discrimination, and our President recently called upon the American people to move toward ratification of the convention of this name.

Furthermore, we have been engaged, in the United States, for more than a century in a serious, nationwide struggle, in many respects successful struggle, against racism. Our ongoing struggle, which is not completed by a. long shot and which continues, has been in general in an open and problem-solving way which minimized violence to persons. The experience of the United States offers, we believe, many examples from which the rest of the world might selectively profit. We are still struggling to appreciate the richness of diversity, and to purge ourselves of the curse of believing in conformity and uniformity in this country; nevertheless, perhaps no nation has made as much progress in its struggle against racism as the United States.

That this transformation took place over a relatively short time, in the face of a problem many thought was insoluble, is not only a source of pride for Americans but grounds for faith that fundamental changes can take place when people of good will, everywhere in the world, show determination to work for them ....

I have suggested some priorities which I hope can unite us in a new consensus .... The Economic and Social Council is one of the princip~l places where this consensus can be formulated, strengthened, and put into practice. Indeed, this is our mandate under the Charter, and the people of the worldthe hungry, the persecuted, and the tortured-expect no less from us. And it is exactly in these areas that real progress can be made. These are not areas in which nationalism and racist ideologies can forever repel the great desire of the peoples of the world for justice ....

The struggle for Justice and peace is a necessary prerequisite to the building of any real world order: Where there is no justice, order is tyranny. So, political confrontation in ECOSOC ,is unnecessary, and unhelpful. We must be able to unite against the common enemies of humankind ....

Perhaps in the past we have been too timid, perhaps we have asked too little of ourselves, of our nation, of the United Nations. Before the massive problems of racism, torture, and famine, we dare not be timid.

0

The world of Donald Barthelme, one of America's leading post-modernist writers, is peopled by ordinary individuals living out the daily life. It abounds in dragons and glass mountains, 'leaping fathers' and 'the electronic awareness' of 'flowers plugged in.' Private terrors and small delights, parody and provocation, satire and sadness transform this daily world by an imagination that flowers dark and rich. a mild furor in certain circles. The New Yorker magazine decides to publish the complete novella in a ,single issue. It is a You see before you the elegant experi- signal honor for an unknown young writer mentalist rather than the powerful man of and an unprecedented event in publishing letters you were led to expect. His voice history. Writers predictably split into camps. is light in tone. He understates or spins A new term is coined: "post-modernist upon hyperbole. Watch, do you catch that fiction." No one is quite sure what it means flash of the outrageous! Observe, ladies yet; it is a blanket term for writers of the and gentlemen, his impeccable timing. It sixties like John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, is Donald Barthelme, the sad and wise- Donald Barthelme whose work is beginning eyed clown; the gentlest, the timeliest and the to surface now (and, will stretch to inmost witty that our ragged metaphysical cir- clude young writers like Ishmael Reed).

Barthelme's vignettes, parodies and short cus with its lean lions, its performing seals, and its tightrope walkers has yet produced. stories continue to flow. They appear in A roll of drums: Hemingway and Faulkner magazines first and then in collections: Practices, Unnatural Acts pass away; the sixties open. Already the Unspeakable epic hunters and heroes begin to take on (1968); City Life (1972); followed by Sadness distance, bowing out like ancestors in a in 1973 and Guilty Pleasures a year later. sepia photograph. Intense and larger than The phrasing is ironic, provocative, slightly life still, they come from a landscape of deprecating. With his two most recent books certainties and strong convictions. American however there is a perceptible shift in tone. literature will never be quite the same again. The Dead Father, his second novella, was published in 1975; since Amateurs, his latest A new sensibility is in the making.

The first signals come from theater. In collection of short stories, appeared only 1961Edward Albee's American Dream opens last year, this is as good a time as any to Off Broadway; a few years later, Arthur take a second look at Barthelme the writer.

Kopit's Oh Dad, Poor Dad. There is some- Who is he? What is he saying? thing dangerous, stylish, odd and rather One day a wan and scruffy dragon came into the alarming here; something terribly, frightcity looking for a disease. He had in mind ending his eningly funny. As these signals flicker out, life which he felt to be tedious, unsatisfactory, taxfiction picks up where theater leaves off. troubled, lacking in purpose ....

Come Back, Dr. Caligari pleads Barthelme's first collection of stories in 1964.

(Do we permit ourselves to be disarmed for a moment by the campy nostalgia?) Three "What have you got?" asked the dragon, thinking of years later Snow White appears. It stirs up diseases, Q: You are an ironist.

A: It's useful.

- DONALD

BARTHELME,

1972

"Everything," said the nurse. "There is nothing we do not have. Our Intensive Despair Unit is the envy of the profession. You will be edified. Everything will be all right. Trust us. The world is waiting for the sunrise."

Many fine diseases passed through his mindrabies, gout, malaria, rinderpest. Or, he thought suddenly, I could get myself slain by a hero.

Enter at this moment a Colonel of Sanitation.

They go off to lunch at a quiet place: "pretty waitresses, Diners' Club & American Express Cards accepted." They engage in civilized conversation.

"Tell me," said the dragon, "Are you West Point?"

"Sandhurst," said the colonel. "Now, what is it, exactly, that is eating you and making you wan? Some order of death-wish I would imagine .. , . " "You have put your finger on it," said the dragon.

"Dragons exist. Only a fool would ,doubt it. You suffer however from a sort of general meaninglessness," "Since the thirteenth century."

The colonel thought for a moment. "You could be an endangered species," he said, "That would give you a meaningful life-role. We love and cherish our endangered species and extend to them every courtesy."

The colonel declares him to be an endangered species. The dragon thanks him.

He is assured that the president is vitally interested in endangered species. "He has a list." The dragon enquires if men are on it. The outraged colonel exits with the bill.

Meanwhile ....

The dragon filled with self-regard and convinced that he has at last gotten a message to the Authorities,

bought a two-dollar stop smoking.

lottery ticket and decided to

Barthelme is not always as pointed as this. Guilty Pleasures is a collection of parodies and political satire, some very clever indeed. His signature however is unmistakable: the mild and inoffensive antihero up against the slightly smug "knowit-all" of the people he encounters. They are the inquisitors; he, the earnest enquirer.

They may win when the chips are down.

But he has the satisfaction with all his doubts of a certain wit, of knowing what is going on. He may not make the great metaphysical gesture. But he has his private satisfactions. He has expressed himself.

If "The Dragon" begins with intimations of mortality and finds that living is not so bad after all, other Barthelme stories begin with conscious insouciance to prepare for something less than we expect: 1 was trying to climb the Glass Mountain. The Glass Mountain stands at the corner of 13th Street and 8th Avenue.

Is this the Fabulous Quest for an Ideal?

Or the Climb to the Top in a Competitive Society? Perhaps both?

200 feet up and the wind was bitter •...

'Ten bucks you bust your ass in the next four minutes!"

his acquaintances shout from below. At the Top waits a fierce eagle who must be made to carry him to the fabled princess.

Will he make it? Will he not?

1 approached the symbol with its layers of meaning, but when 1 touched it, it changed into only a beautiful princess.... Nor are eagles plausible. Not at all, not for a moment. ("The Glass Mountain," City Life, 1972)

He ends, downing two birds with one stone. The illusion is splintered with no sense of self-satisfaction, but with a certain stoicism, almost sadness and a puckish awareness of the neatness of the anticlimax.

Barthelme's instrument is the iktara or single string. He is modest, his preferences simple: the story, the belles-lettres, the essay.

Within these he has a masterly versatility and control, a wry and civilized use of language, an unerring sense of when not to say too much; most spectacularly the fey, unstudied whimsy that never lets him down.

As when a child begins to fantasize, he takes off from some small or imagined detail that evokes strong needs or anxieties.

Then the fantasy takes over and launches the story, anchored every now and then to

observed or familiar details, cruising through the wildly improbable. As in the very best fairy tales the story is both escape from and metaphor for the situation to be escaped.

Somewhere along the line we can expect a recovery or transformation in mood that effectually returns us to the "Here and Now." Call this magic, if you wish. Even when it is the "magic mirror" that cannot tell a lie.

Barthelme has on occasion written for children. His metier however is as a writer of adult fables for a Consumer Society where we don't always live happily ever after. The speaker alternates between the Child and the World-weary Adult with an occasional touch of the voyeur. Take Snow White.

It has more in common with Disneyland than the old fairy tale (the Brothers Grimm still lurk in the background though, if only to be turned upside down). The writing has pace and is as crisp as a comic-strip animation raced through at double speed.

She is today's Snow White. She shares an apartment with the seven dwarfs. They are manufacturers and merchandisers of baby food. One gathers that the enterprise prospers. The evil stepmother is now a different kind of witch and the prince. it has been remarked, "turns out to be pure frog." Barthelme invites us into the story; at one point provides a questionnaire as to how the novella may proceed.

Is it as innocent as it seems? A nubile young beauty alone in an apartment with how many did you say ... ? Is it as sinister as the cynic would have us imagine? Look at the advantages to be gained from the dual point of view. Somewhere between pure fairy tale and "Oh come on, you can't fool me" a third interpretation slips in.

There is the world outside the apartment and the world inside. Both are ambiguous.

The dwarfs are busy miners of money.

The Protestant Work Ethic in fact. "Whistle while you work!" Yet they are also at a strange state of prepubertal arrest. No Big Father Figure standing over them. No marriage problems, no hysterics after the day's work or threats of a divorce. No children clamoring around the paternal knee when all they want is to sit back in the armchair with their evening drink.

"Clean your face," 1 said to the child. "It's dirty."

"It's not," the child said. "By God it is," 1 said, "filth inheres in nine areas which 1 shall enumerate." "That is because of the dough," the child said. "We were taking death masks." "Dough 1" 1 exclaimed, shocked at the idea that the child had wasted flour and water and no doubt paper too in this lightsome pastime ....

"Death 1" I exclaimed for added emphasis. "What do you know of death?" "It is the end of the world," the child said, "for the death-visited individual. The world ends," the child said, "when you turn out your eyes." This was true. I could not dispute it. "Your father is telling you to wash your face," I said, locating myself in the abstract where I was more comfortable.

"I know that," the child said, "that's what you always say." ("Critique de la Vie Quotidienne," Sadness, 1973)

Now it is the Child turned Inquisitor.

It happens to the best of us sooner or later.

If there is an element of Ionesco in what we have heard so far, the merest hint of Kafka, "Views of My Father Weeping" (from City Life), begins by referring to, even while it affectionately mocks Dostoevski: An aristocrat was riding down the street in his carriage. He ran over my father.

After the ceremony I walked back to the city. I was trying to think of the reason my father had died. Then 1remembered: he was run over by a carriage. ... Yes, it is possible that it is not my father who sits there in the center of the bed weeping. It may be someone else, the mailman, the man who delivers groceries, an insurance salesman or tax collector, who knows. It is some one's father. That much is clear.

The gray in the head, the puff in the face .... He is trying to make himself interesting.

The son decides that the situation calls to be avenged. He duly makes enquiries.

He is dutiful but a little faint hearted.

After all, he recalls, "his enjoyment was diminishing. " He recalls without surprise the improbable infantile diversions of his father: his father scribbling with colored crayons on a white wall, straddling a dog, playing cowboy with a water pistol, jamming his thumb into a tray to pink cupcakes in order that "a thick smile spreads over the face of each cupcake."

The story remains unresolved as the parent-child relationship. Much of its delightfulness comes from Barthelme's fascination for totems; he must have them down too, from the amazing spin-off of the words themselves. They are sheer nonsense. Pure nonsense is a lyrical and abstract thing, not half as easy as one would imagine.

Underlined by frequent flash forward and flash back (typically Barthelme), the non sequiturs hold water: The father was child once and the child becomes father. Barthelme thrives on the unexpected and the ridiculous.

Everything is grist for his mill: social fads, ideas, problems, relationships, society itself.

His opponent is pretension or excess of any kind.

In the process he reveals himself. Taking off from the current cult of Extra Sensory

'Barthelme thrives on the unexpected and the ridiculous. Everything is grist for his mill: social fads, ideas, problems, relationships, .society itself. His opponent is pretension or excess of any kind.'

Perception, he says: "We thought about the blue flowers. Different people had different ideas about them." Henry wants to "turn them on." Gregory says: "Wait a minute. What kind of current are we turning them on to? Is it safe for the flowers?" . Grace says: "Well turn them on and see!"

The humanist position is not to plug in flowers ....

The new electric' awareness however requires that the .flowers be plugged in right away. My own idea about whether to plug in the flowers or not is somewhere between these ideas, in that gray area where nothing is done really; but you vacillate for a while thinking about it. The blue of the flowers is extremely handsome against the gray of that area. ("Brain Damage," City Life, 1972)

That was five whole years ago. The "blue of the flowers" is still extremely handsome though the "gray of that area" has deepened and darkened since.

In The Dead Father, Barthelme returns to a preoccupation that we have seen growing.

It is the large and impersonal Authority whether institutionalized, politicized or vested in the person of the Parent. However, it is the manner of the return that is revealing.

Amateurs follows on its heels, a series of skillful and gravely witty studies in dida vu.

Taken together, these two reopen and develop two complementary and consistent aspects of Barthelme's concern. And in this present stance we encounter yet again that strange animal "post-modernism."

The poetry of sheer nonsense flows on: The leaping father is not encountered often but exists. Two leaping fathers together in a room can cause accidents .... I saw a leaping father in a park.

He was two feet off the ground and holding a one-foot diameter brown leather object that he was pushing away from himself-a sin of some sort, I judged. He was aiming it at a net. The futility of the project saddened me ....

The story itself is more powerful and more articulate than any we have come across in Barthelme's work so far. It is an end process. It concerns a stupendous figure: Thtlre is nothing unusual about the foot except that it is seven meters high ....

The figure is vigorous and quarrelsome.

And strangely ambivalent:

Nineteen men drag it cross-country by cable to bury it. It is of course the Dead Father, powerful, wise, vain, childish. He has an artificial leg. His children alternately placate him, insult him and defend him, this their Gulliver, their giant lingam. After many advel1tures, he is finally made to disappear below ground.

What a voice, said Julie, I wonder how he does it.

Intolerable, Thomas said, Grand. I wonder how he does it.

As always with Barthelme, brand names, place names, lists and measurements lend a specious air of precision to a situation that is at pains to contradict itself. The symbol turns in on itself, is contexted in a world of ambiguous relationship and shifting allegiance. Inconsistent. Uncertain and therefore incredibly funny. The child reacts by laughing at what scares him. The adult makes a wry joke of it. In this zany world where identity slips and time slithers, what is it but a game to which we do not have the key, a lila, an illusion.

This is the post-modernist world.

Modernism was the American writer's response to World War I and its aftermath, the Great Wall Street Crash, bread lines, the flood of unemployed, the hectic birth of the entertainment industry. ("Draw your chair up to the edge of the precipice," said Scott Fitzgerald once, "and I'll tell you a story!") Came World War II. America of the fifties pulled itself together determined to make good. Conveniences, mass media, affluence of all kinds, multinational corporations, these began. Yet personal relationships continued to fracture as before; doubt, despair, ambition, exploitation. The scale of them had changed with the times. The pace was different. Where was the promised land?

By the sixties the speed and eventfulness of American national life was sown with private doubts. Cold War? Vietnam? Race Riots? Nuclear Fall-out? And yet the man strap-hanging in the subway like yourself was a nice guy, if like yourself, bemused.

"Who the hell out there's controlling things?" the average American asked. Old certainties fell away.

The new writer responded with a battery

of narrative skills. Unbelievable, he was inclined to say, Crazy. He took his stand with Imagination.

For John Barth the world is a chimeraa preposterous mythological animal.

Pynchon views it as an intricate gestalt.

The symbol may evince itself as meaning but disappears as you watch in clouds of smoke. His novel, V, is the oscillation of the pendulum; time. Is the angle of refraction from the prism of experience. Is the spread legs from which we entered the world.

Is the paradigm of all encounter. And Barthelme?

He is simpler. A word that matters to him is "quotidian": the commonplace of every day, It has its ennui and its private terrors. It has too its compensations and its small delights. (There is the flight of fancy when all else fails.) His stance toward it is spare and compassionate but ironic and undeceived. Amateurs brings this clearly into focus. "Amateurs" are "they who love." Says Barthelme at the end of one of the stories: The story ends. It was written for several reasons.

Nine of them are secrets. The tenth is that one should never cease considering human love ....

Each of the 20 stories deals with the attempt at contact and the varying degrees of success or failure. Each is shapely and individually freighted with some aspect of love or lovelessness. The whimsy is there still.

Paul gave Eugenie a very large swordfish steak for her birthday. It was wrapped in red and white paper.

The paper was soaked with swordfish juices in places but Eugenie was grateful nevertheless. He had tried.

Or regard the dean of a Midwestern college amiably engrossed in some very purple verse suddenly forced into "confrontation" with a horde of wide-eyed porcupines. Should he enroll them for a semester in "Alternative Life Styles"?

Thousands and thousands of them. Three miles down the road and comin' fast.

Or should he bust them? Porcupines?

Decisions. Decisions.

The difference between Amateurs and the earlier collections of stories is that these are, in the main, grave. They run on the energy of the q?estioJ;ls that generate.

verbal pun with its vague sexual menace.

Even the dwarfs make a comeback. With a difference. Now they are workers in a printing press run by a countercultural teen-ager. They love their work. They wax lyrical about it. They are stern, even fierce, about their work. They take it seriously.

They are loyal. But are they, they wonder occasionally, in safe hands? There is no time to consider the question. Will they become defunct? What about the Revolution? But were they not the ones to print the manifesto? And too the letterheads for "The Office of Permanent Change and Price Control" ("18pt. Ultima on a 20 pound laid stock") that followed?

So change follows change. But some things seem to remain the same. For Barthelme one of these permanencies is the ad of fantasy itself. His act. Perhaps one of the most delicate and revealing of the new stories is a wistful tale called "The Great Hug." It is about a Balloon Man. He does not sell green, red nor white balloons.

He does not sell to children. He does not like to be photographed. And the balloons themselves are not forever ....

Balloon Man sells the Balloon of Fatigue and the Balloon of Ora Pro Nobis [i.e. "Pray for Us"] and the Rune Balloon and the Balloon of the Last Thing to Do at Night, these are saffron-, cinnamon-, salt-, and celery-colored respectively. He sells the Balloon of Not Yet and the Balloon of Sometimes. He works the circus, every circus. Some people don't go to the circus and so don't meet the Balloon Man and don't get to buy a balloon ....

One day the Balloon Man will meet the Pin Lady. And the Pin Lady? She's into puncture.

them rather than on the sheer delight of parody or fun. They are somber, rich, reflective. The barb is often sharper. If The Dead Father was Barthelme's last passionate attempt at the grotesque, if it involved the laying of his private ghosts (remember Faulkner's As I Lay Dying), with Amateurs he comes to terms with his role as narrator of fables for the times. Both are essential parts of the man and the writer. Like left hand, right hand. They even intertwine.

For the first time since Come Back, Dr. Caligari, he alludes to. his war experience.

Here is a Korean war veteran who is reconscripted and unable to explain that he has been through it all before. We leave him stuffing 800,000 gallons of olives with

400,000 gallons of pickled omons for the general's cocktail.

Barthelme's imagination flowers dark and rich. We take a look at a torero, the Culture Hero surrounded by his mother, his mistress and his hangers-on. He has been gored in the foot. His career is over. A bishop enters and condoles with him over roast beef and Chivas Regal. An Andalusian gypsy queen enters and demands to see the wounds like stigmata. She wants it.

She has him carried off like a mad Magdalene.

Enter the bull.

The Pin Lady is passionate. She tells the truth. They need one another, the Balloon Man and the Pin Lady. She is the Real that pricks the dream. Till then we need to dream. Dream makes us feel a little better; it is the event that happens to us and which goes floating out into the world. It has its uses. Yes. In Hiridi we call it man ki mauj.

There is the smell of sawdust, the crack of the Ring Master's whip, the sudden spill from the trapeze. There is too, delight, surprise, the hope of love, a little laughter.

Says Barthelme:

About the Author: Pria Karunakar received her mas- •.. ter's degree in American literature from Vassar College in New York. For her other articles in SPAN, see the March 1977 and December 1976 issues.

W

T

A short story by Donald Barthelme The presiding officer noted that there was a man standing outside the window looking in.

The members of the committee looked in the direction of the window and found that the presiding officer's observation was correct: There was a man standing outside the window looking in.

Mr. Macksey moved that the record take note of the fact.

Mr. O'Donoghue seconded. The motion passed.

Mrs. Brown wondered if someone should go out and talk to the man standing outside the window.

Mrs. Mallory suggested that the committee proceed as if the man standing outside the window wasn't there. Maybe he'd go away, she suggested.

Mr. Macksey said that that was an excellent idea and so moved.

Mr. O'Donoghue wondered if the matter required a motion.

The presiding officer ruled that the man standing outside the window looking in did not require a motion.

Ellen West said that she was frightened.

Mr. Birnbaum said there was nothing to be frightened about.

Ellen West said that the man standing outside the window looked larger than a man to her. Maybe it was not human, she said.

Mr. Macksey said that that was nonsense and that it was only just a very large man, probably.

The presiding officer stated that the committee had a number of pressing items on the agenda and wondered if the meeting could go forward . . Not with that thing out there, Ellen West said.

The presiding officer stated that the next order of business was the matter of the Worth girl.

Mr. Birnbaum noted that the Worth girl had been doing very well.

Mrs. Brown said quite a bit better than well, in her opinion.

Mr. O'Donoghue said that the improvement was quite remarkable.

The presiding officer noted that the field in which she, the Worth girl, was working

was a very abstruse one and, moreover, one in which very few women had successfully established themselves.

Mrs. Brown said that she had known the girl's mother quite well and that she had been an extremely pleasant person.

Ellen West said that the man was still outside the window and hadn't moved.

Mr. O'Donoghue said that there was, of course, the possibility that the Worth girl was doing too well.

Mr. Birnbaum said there was such a thing as too much too soon.

Mr. Percy inquired as to the girl's age at the present time and was told she was thirty-five. He then said that that didn't sound like "too soon" to him.

The presiding officer asked for a motion.

Mr. O'Donoghue moved that the Worth girl be hit by a car.

Mr. Birnbaum seconded.

The presiding officer asked for discussion.

Mrs. Mallory asked if Mr. O'Donoghue meant fatally. Mr. O'Donoghue said he did.

Mr. Percy said he thought that a fatal accident, while consonant with the usual procedures of the committee, was always less interesting than something that left the person alive, so that the person's situation was still, in a way, "open."

Mr. O'Donoghue said that Mr. Percy's well-known liberalism was a constant source of strength and encouragement to every member of the committee, as was Mr. Percy's well-known predictability.

Mrs. Mallory said wouldn't it look like the committee was punishing excellence?

Mr. O'Donoghue said that a concern for how things looked was not and should never be a consideration of the committee.

Ellen West said that she thought the man standing outside the window looking in was listening. She reminded the committee that the committee's deliberations were supposed to be held in camera.

The presiding officer said that the man could not hear through the glass of the window.

Ellen West said was he sure?

The presiding officer asked if Ellen West would like to be put on some other committee.

Ellen West said that she only felt safe

on this committee.

The presiding officer reminded her that even members of the committee were subject to the decisions of the committee, except of course for the presiding officer.

Ellen West said she realized that and would like to move that the Worth girl fall in love with somebody.

The presiding officer said that there was already a motion before the committee and asked if the committee was ready for a vote. The committee said it was. The motion was voted on and failed, 14-4.

Ellen West moved that the Worth girl fall in love with the man standing outside the window.

Mr. Macksey said you're just trying to get him inside so we can take a look at him.

Ellen West said well, why not, if you're so sure he's harmless.

The presiding officer said that he felt that if the man outside were invited inside, a confusion of zones would result, which would be improper.

Mr. Birnbaum said that it might not be a bad idea if the committee got a little feedback from the people for whbm it was responsible, once in a while.

Mrs. Mallory stated that she thought Mr. Birnbaum's idea about feedback was a valuable and intelligent one but that she didn't approve of having such a warm and beautiful human being as the Worth girl fall in love with an unknown quantity with demonstrably peculiar habits, vide the window, just to provide feedback to the committee.

Mrs. Brown repeated that she had known the Worth girl's mother.

Mr. Macksey asked if Ellen West intended that the Worth girl's love affair be a happy or an unhappy one.

Ellen West said she would not wish to overdetermine somebody else's love affair.

Mr. O'Donoghue moved that the Worth girl be run over by a snowmobile.

The presiding officer said that O'Donoghue was out of order and also that in his judgment Mr. O'Donoghue was reintroducing a defeated motion in disguised form.

Mr. O'Donoghue said that he could introduce new motions all night long, if he so chose.

Mrs. Brown said that she had to be home by ten to receive a long-distance phone call from her daughter in Oregon.

The presiding officer said that as there was no second, Ellen West's motion about the man outside the window need not be discussed further. He suggested that as there were four additional cas~s awaiting disposition by the committee he wondered if the case of the Worth girl, which was after all not that urgent, might not be tabled until the next meeting.

Mr. Macksey asked what were the additional cases.

The presiding officer said those of Dr. Benjamin Pierce, Casey McManus, Cynthia Croneis, and Ralph Lorant.

Mr. Percy said that those were not very interesting names. To him.

Mr. Macksey moved that the Worth girl be tabled. Mr. Birnbaum seconded. The motion carried.

Mr. Birnbaum asked if he might have a moment for a general observation bearing on the work of the committee. The presiding officergraciously assented.

Mr. Birnbaum said that he had observed, in the ordinary course of going around taking care of his business and so on, that there were not many pregnant women now.

He said that yesterday he had seen an obviously pregnant woman waiting for a bus and had remembered that in the last half year he had seen no others. He said he wondered why this was and whether it wasn't within the purview of the committee that there be more pregnant women, for the general good of the community, to say nothing of the future.

Mrs. Mallory said she knew why it V'(as.

Mr. Birnbaum said why? and Mrs. Mallory smiled enigmatically.

Mr. Birnbaum repeated his question and Mrs. Mallory smiled enigmatically again.

Oh me oh my, said Mr. Birnbaum.

The presiding officer said that Mr. Birnbaum's observations, as amplified in a sense by Mrs. Mallory, were of considerable interest.

He said further that such matters were a legitimate concem of the committee and that if he might be allowed to speak for a moment not as the presiding officer but merely as an ordinary member of the committee he would urge, strongly urge, that Cynthia Croneis become pregnant immediately and that she should have twin boys.

Hear hear, said Mr. Macksey.

How about a boy and a girl? asked Ellen West.

The presiding officer said that would be O.K. witli him.

This was moved, seconded, and voted unanimously.

On Mr. Macksey's motion it was decided that Dr. Pierce win fifty thousand dollars in the lottery.

It was pointed out by Mrs. Brown that Dr. Pierce was already quite well fixed, financially.

The presiding officer reminded the members that justice was not a concern of the committee.

On Mr. Percy's motion it was decided that Casey McManus would pass the Graduate Record Examination with a score in the upper 10 per cent. On Mr. O'Donoghue's

motion it was decided that Ralph Lorant would have his leg broken by having it run over by a snowmobile.

Mr. Birnbaum looked' at the window and said he's still out there.

Mr. O'Donoghue said for God's sake, let's have him in.

Mr. Macksey went outside and asked the man in.

The man hesitated in the doorway for a moment.

Mr. Percy said come in, come in, don't be nervous.

The presiding officer added his urgings to Mr. Percy's.

The man left the doorway and stood in the middle of the room.

Tl;1epresiding officer inquired if the man had, perhaps, a grievance he wished to bring to the attention of the committee.

The man said no, no grievance.

Why then was he standing outside the window looking in? Mr. Macksey asked.

The man said something about just wanting to "be with somebody."

Mr. Percy asked if he had a family, and the man said no.

Are you from around here? asked Mrs. Mallory, and the man shook his head.

Employed? asked Mr. Birnbaum, and the man shook his head.

He wants to be with somebody, Mrs. Mallory said.

Yes, said the presiding officer, I understand that.

It's not unusual, said Mr. Macksey.

Not unusual at all, said Mrs. Brown.

She again reminded the members that she had to be home by ten to receive a call from her daughter in Oregon.

Maybe we should make him a member of the committee, said Mr. Percy.

He could give us some feedback, said Mr. Birnbaum. I mean, I would assume that.

Ellen West moved that the man be made a member of the committee. Mr. Birnbaum seconded. The motion was passed, 12-6.

Mr. Percy got up and got a folding chair for the man and pulled it up to the committee table.

The man sat down in the chair and pulled it closer to the table.

All right, he said. The first thing we'll do is, we'll make everybody wear overalls.

Gray overalls. Gray overalls with gray T-shirts. We'll have morning prayers, evening prayers, and lunch prayers. Calisthenics for everyone over the age of four in the •.

5-7 p.m. time slot. Boutonnieres are forbidden. Nose rings are forbidden. Gatherings of one or more persons are prohibited.

On the question of bedtime, I am of two minds.

0

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC FANTASIES OF RYSZARD HOROWITZ

'Close one eye because the camera has one lens,' says Horowitz. 'Hold up your hand to look at someone. Squeeze his head in your fingers. Stand him in your palm. Your mind objects vigorously. You are destroying the logic of spatial relations. But a camera will record the distortion and allow you to make a point.'

YSZard Horowitz was born in Krakow, Poland, in- 1939, the son of a construction contractor.

He and his family were imprisoned during the Nazi occupation of World War II, and he thinks he may be the youngest survivor of Auschwitz. As a youth, he developed a dual bent, studying painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, and also trying his hand at photography. The year he turned 19, he held major shows in both disciplines.

In 1959, Horowitz went to the United States to study painting at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, but he soon switched to photography and advertising design. His daring techniques impressed the graphic arts world of New York City and he became a director of a leading advertising agency. In 1967, he opened his own Fifth Avenue studio for advertising, fashion and editorial photography.

Using his lens like a paintbrush, the photographer-surrealist captures the fragile stuff of dreams for the hard-edged world of advertising photography.

Some critics say Horowitz's pictures are "too artistic," others say they are "too commercial."

Resigned to the cross fire ("At first it used to annoy me; now I just don't listen"), he presses on with his experimenting, in movies as well as stills. He ascribes much of his originality to his training in art. "I was fortunate," he says, "in that I studied at the finest art schools in Poland, and my teachers gave me not only a thorough understanding of art history but also a great sense of discipline."

Horowitz's photos have appeared in magazines around the world and he has won a number of prestigious awards. "It's wonderful," he says. "I am able to sell pictures that I like myself."

D

R

With Horowitz, advertising photography has acquired a new meaning and dimension. At left is one of his designs for a textile advertisement.

Photo at far left isfor the promotion of a tie-dyedfabric.

~

Some think he is 'too artistic'; others say he is 'too commercial.' 'At first it used to annoy me,' says Horowitz. 'Now I just don't listen.' Resigned to the cross fire, he presses on with his daring experiments, in movies as well as stills.

Giving free reign to his flights of fancy, Horowitz creates photographic images that are both exotic and ecstatic. Below: An advertisement for lipstick.

Right: A cover design for afashion company's annual report. Below right: An adfor birth control pills.

From mid-June to early September, it is summer vacation time in the United States. Cars, campers and station wagons swish past each other on the highways all over the country as Americans head for the seas, the mountains, a remote cabin in the woods, a quiet spot beside a stream, a horseback ride along a lonely beach. For Americans, vacation is a passionate ritual, a national pastime, an expanding industry. In some countries, people maintain a mix of business and pleasure evenly spread over the days of the week and the months of the year. Many of them take off long hours everyday for a leisurely lunch followeg by a siesta. Most Indians regard mid-afternoons and early evenings as quiet hours of rest and relaxation. Not so the Americans. Americans work hard, play hard, divide work sharply from leisure. Vacation time is the time to get away from it all, a time to forget what is left behind and what may come later-for the whole family. For some it may mean simply enjoying rides in amusement parks. For others it may mean getting close to nature-as it increasingly does for so many Americans-a walk in the forest, a trek in the mountains. It may mean fishing, rock climbing, canoeing, backpacking, hunting, or just plain camping.

Some prefer the sea- the warm, sleepy, gregarious feeling of lying in the sun alongside thousands of others, the warm lull alternated with spurts of cool swimming. Among other pastimes there are surfing and sailing. But unlike the French, vacationing Americans do not go to that one place-the beach, at that one time-August.

Everyone goes everywhere all summer longthe sea, the ,lakes, the hills, the mountains, the national parks, the amusement parks. They go backpacking up through the forests to the peaks, motoring through parks glimpsing the wildlife.

They go to many kinds of camps-the supervised ones to which eight million kids go to learn about nature, to ride on animals, to swim and to play many sports. Families go camping sometimes to save hotel bills, sometimes to get close to nature, or both. They¡ go just everywhere there is to go.

AIlIBICAIS 01 VACATIOIcontinued Some prefer the "summer culture circuit" - the outdoor concerts, the open-air theaters that dot the countryside, the art exhibitions, the music festivals. Many go to Dude ranches to play cowboy and sit around a campfire eating chuckwagon food to the strains of cowboy music. Others love excitement-the thrills of hanging from a glider high up in the air to the cheers of the crowd below, or riding the surf, or tumbling off rafts upset in the rapids. The quiet and the frenzy, the action and the contemplation are all there to the fill to suit the different temperaments of a great variety of people all over America. But the revelers have hardly had enough when the nights begin to have that nip in the air. The time comes to pull the shutters down on the cottage, to say good-bye to summer friends, put the sleepy kids into the car and head back, refreshed but weary, to the workaday world again.

0 •.

ENERGY

THE CLEAN SYNTHETIC FUEL THAT'S ALREADY HERE

METHYL ALCOHOL Amid the great search for new kinds of energy, America is largely overlooking a low-polluting fuel that can be produced from plentiful domestic resources with no further technological advances by anyone. It is the same liquid that warms hors d'oeuvres in chafing dishes, that powered Hitler's V-2 rockets, and that boosts the speed of racing cars at the Indianapolis 500. It is the fuel that in 1922-during earlier worries about a world petroleum shortage-was hailed by inventor Alexander Graham¡ Bell as "beautifully .clean and efficient." It is called alcohol.

Nature and industry have created hundreds of alcohols, each with a different arrangement of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms. Most are far too expensive . for consideration as fuels, including ethanol, the basic ingredient of alcoholic beverages. The only way to make ethanol without using oil or natural gas is by costly fermentation methods. The one alcohol that has a real chance is methanol, or methyl alcohol, which has the simplest molecule (CH30H) and is the cheapest to make. Though few Americans realize it, methanol is just about the only liquid fuel that we already know how to synthesize from coal at a price consumers might be willing to pay. Indeed, it may offer the only hope of meeting the goal, set forth by President Carter, of reducing oil imports by two million barrels a day by 1985.

A clear, almost odorless liquid, methanol is the same lethal "wood alcohol" that was once a by-product of charcoal production. The U.S. already produces 1.2 billion gallons of methanol a year.

It is now used mainly in making the glue that holds plywood layers together and in manufacturing a host of wellknown plastics, synthetic fibers, and drugs.

But the steadily growing annual output, while large for the chemical industry, is the energy equivalent of only two days' gasoline consumption. The present output is made entirely from natural gas, long the cheapest feedstock but now in dwindling supply. To relieve the energy shortage, methanol would have to be

drogen-the same medium-BTU gas that was long used in homes until it was Americans, like people displaced by cheaper natural gas. While some of the techniques for gasifying everywhere, are looking for wood and trash are comparatively new, alternative sources of energy. systems for turning coal into manufacOne of these might well tured gas can be ordered right out of catalogues. Once the synthesis gas is be methyl alcohol, a liquid produced, it is a comparatively simple fuel that can be synthesized matter to pass it over a catalyst to form from coal and may soon methanol, using new techniques developed over the years and used around the world. be competitive in price.

Methanol is an amazingly versatile fuel. It travels well by pipeline, railway, barge, or conventional tank truck, and produced in far larger volume from more unlike electricity or gas, it can be stored abundant sources. easily and safely near the point of use.

Some of those feedstocks are all about It is a stable liquid at atmospheric temus. Methanol is one of the logical fuels perature and pressure, unlike hydrogen, to make from such renewable sources another much discussed "fuel of tomorof energy as forest and farm wastes-a row," which requires thick-walled pressure fact that has commended it to the editors tanks or expensive refrigeration. It is of the Last Whole Earth Catalog and less explosive than gasoline-though it anyone else concerned about our heavy is also a bit more toxic. dependence on mined fuels. In Maine Nearly every energy-using device in a group of industrial and land-develop- America could be adapted to burn ment companies and a new venture called . methanol. Factories that now use natural Maine Wood Fuel Corporation are both gas in operations requiring a very clean studying the feasibility of making gas flame (e.g. baking and glass annealing) or methanol from wood chips and from could quickly switch to the new fuel by the branches and brush left behind by substituting pumps and nozzles for burtimber cutting. Methanol can also be ners. Though great controversy rages produced from garb~ge. The city of over the benefits of adding methanol Seattle is seriously considering building to gasoline as a fuel extender, nobody an $82-million plant to manufacture in the U.S. questions that autos can run methanol from the municipal refuse that on straight alcohol, and run better in now must be hauled to increasingly distant many respects than they do now. For landfills. less than $200, two Stanford University Waste wood and garbage, as well as graduate students modified a small Gremplant stalks and manure from agricultural lin car to run on methanol. The car scored operations, represent a lot of potential the lowest emissions of any liquid-fueled fuel. By some estimates, enough energy vehicle in the 1970 Clean Car Race. could be "grown" out there to keep all Methanol not only works in convenof America's cars and trucks running. tional automobile motors, but may offer But coal is still abundant in the U.S.,. advantages in such promising variants and it can be delivered in big tonnages as the stratified-charge engine, or in to methanol plants scaled up to a maxi- radically different power plants such as mum efficiency. So coal would probably turbines and fuel cells. It might also be be the main source for a long time to come. the most convenient fuel for motor vehicles To produce methanol, all these mate- in a future age of abundant new energy rials are first converted under high tem- sources. Harnessed heat from the sun, perature into a so-called synthesis gas the earth's interior, or fusion reactors composed of carbon monoxide and hy- could well be used t.o produce methanol

from water plus coal or limestone.

Methanol has only two drawbacks, one minor and one that could prove formidable. A gallon of methanol contains only half as much energy, expressed in British thermal units (BTUs), as a gallon of gasoline; to travel the same distance, therefore, a car would have to carry twice as much fuel in an enlarged tank. But, on the average, this would add only 2 per cent to a car's weight, for example, the equivalent of an extra 70-pound youngster in a twoton family sedan.

The important obstacle-at least for now-is methanol's price. Three years ago, that seemed like the least of the problems. Chemical companies, beset by temporary overcapacity, were selling methanol made from natural gas for about 12 cents a gallon, retail. Since then, oversupply has turned to shortage and the price has climbed to a recent level of 38 cents.

The rising cost of coal and the ballooning capital cost of erecting new syntheticfuel plants of any kind have damped the hopes of some enthusiasts that methanol made from domestic coal could compete commercially with gasoline. Indeed, those swollen capital costs are just as serious a problem for the U.S. as OPEC price increases. Current estimates of the price of coal-derived methanol, which vary considerably by company and rise almost monthly, average about 35 cents a gallon at the plant. That price, which corresponds to 70 cents for gasoline at the refinery, may not look so unattractive a few years from now when conventional fuels may be much costlier. But so long as gasoline remains cheaper-recently about 35 cents at the refinery plus another 20 cents or so equally divided between distribution costs and taxes-methanol cannot make it unless the government provides an economic incentive for a switch. One way would be to boost Federal gasoline taxes sharply while keeping methanol tax-free.

But every other liquid-fuel substitute for petroleum is beset with even more serious problems. Shale-oil products, for example, might prove cheaper than methanol. But large-scale development of shale deposits is barred, at least for now, by such difficulties as the disposal and revegetation of staggering amounts of tailings. The only proved systems for converting coal to synthetic oil and gasoline, such as the one being expanded in South Africa, are outmoded and probably more expensive than making methanol.

Cheaper ways of liquefying coal, now under development in the U.S., represent the only other alternative to methanol

on the horizon. In these new processes coal would be converted directly from a solid to a petroleumlike liquid without the gasification step. But the U.S. will probably not be ready to start building the first full-sized coal-liquefaction plants for about five more years. And by that time the economic advantage of the new processes may be canceled out by further inflation in construction costs.

This seems a likely development to the officials at Continental Oil Company, which produces as much coal as oil.

They are deeply interested in both methanol and liquefaction, and they believe the latter will eventually produce a fuel something like 15 per cent cheaper than methanol, as measured in equivalentenergy terms in constant 1977 dollars.

The catch is that liquefaction plants will be built with construction dollars of the 1980s, while methanol plants can be started right now. "Because of inflation," says vice president James E. Landers of Conoco Coal Development Company, a subsidiary of Continental Oil, "new technology will never make obsolete a methanol plant built today."

Conoco's own figures show how inflation has already worsened the whole arithmetic of energy conversion. Three years ago, the company was telling security analysts that methanol made from coal

CARTER STRESSES NEED FOR NEW SOURCES OF ENERGY "With the exception of war," said U.S. President Jimmy Carter in his "fireside chat" on television with the American people on April 18, 1977, talking about the energy problem, "this is the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetime." He asked Americans to "act quickly" to help overcome the energy crisis that the country is facing. He called for a drastic reduction in the annual growth rate in U.S. energy demand and increased research into new and unconventionai sources of energy that are permanent and reliable.

"We must start now to develop the new, unconventional sources of energy we will rely on in the next century," the President said. "By acting now we can control our future instead of letting the future control us" [see article, "We Must Act Now" in June 1977 SPAN].

could be sold profitably for about 11 cents a gallon. Since then that figure has been doubled to 22 cents, i.e. the equivalent of 44 cents for gasoline at the refinery. Still, this is no worse than the recent effects of inflation on synthetic natural gas and electricity. Even now, Conoco figures, methanol would cost no more, BTU for BTU, than synthetic natural gas. And it would cost less than electricity from a new generating plant using the same amount of coal.

Methanol might also find a niche in other specialized energy markets. It has great promise, for example, as a peaking fuel for electric utilities. Roughly a third of a typical electric company's capacity operates only a few hours a day when demand is highest. Much of the peaking capacity consists of rows of gas turbines that cost only a fraction as much per kilowatt of capacity as base-load units.

They consume only a tiny percentage of all the fuel used to make electricity.

Accordingly, an expensive fuel burned in them has a negligible effect on over-all electric rates charged to customers.

Methanol just happens to be a good turbine fuel. "We love it around here," says an official of the Electric Power Research Institute, the electric industry's new research group. Despite qualms about methanol's cost, the institute is funding some research on new ways to make it and also hopes to conduct an extended test at an electric-generating station.

Other tests have already proved encouraging. In a turbine at Florida Power Corporation, which had been running on No. 2 oil, the emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO.) dropped an astounding 74 per cent when methanol was substituted. This is noteworthy because existing turbines are unable to meet the Federal Government's proposed emission standards for NO. with any conventional fuel, even natural gas. When methanol was burned at Florida Power, carbon monoxide emissions rose considerably, but were still comfortably below Federal limits for that pollutant. The test was carried out by AMAX, a leading coal producer interested in making methanol, and United Technologies (formerly called United Aircraft).

Turbines also run more efficiently on methanol, though precise data are lacking.

It is true that roughly twice as many gallons of methanol must be burned to provide the same number of BTUs as oil. But a turbine burning methanol generates up to 6 per cent more power per million BTU s. By redesigning the turbine to fit the characteristics of methanol, that advantage could be raised

further. The inlet temperatures of today's turbines are deliberately held several hundred degrees below optimum to minimize damage to turbine blades from trace metals in fuel oil.

Price is the only thing keeping methanol out of the utility market, which is potentially eight times as big as present m~thanol production. Electric-power companies in the U.S. are in no mood these days to pay more for anything.

Even at $15 a barrel, oil is still only half as expensive, in energy-equivalent terms, as methanol at 40 cents a gallon.

The most exciting role for methanol would be to power autos and trucks.

Many energy experts scoff at the idea, arguing thai if petroleum becomes scarce, America could shift home heating and industrial processes to electricity made with coal or nuclear power, leaving plenty of gasoline for motor vehicles. But political pressures, particularly from consumers who are loath to replace oil furnaces good for half a century or more, might block such a shift. Cars, on the other hand, have a comparatively short life. Virtually all the 100 million vehicles now on U.S. roads will be scrapped over the next decade, and cars designed to run on a new fuel could be phased in quickly. And rather than risk a future shortage, many drivers might be willing to pay a lot more than they do now for a motor fuel they could always be sure of getting.

As a first step, many methanol enthusiasts advocate adding alcohol to gasoline as an extender. An addition Df 10

per cent methanol to gasoline would, on the face of it, save 5 per cent of present consumption, or about 300,000 barrels a day of imported petroleum. Most oil companies greet the idea icily, warning of new marketing complications and other problems. Yet Atlantic Richfield already blends up to 7 per cent alcohol into its gasoline without any complaints from customers. (The alcohol in this case is tertiary butyl alcohol, a by-product from a chemical operation that would be too expensive if produced separately as a fuel.)

Some researchers consider methanol a wonder-worker when added to gasoline.

Thomas B. Reed of MIT's Lincoln Laboratories, one of America's most outspoken methanol advocates, cites the results that he and his colleagues achieved with a 1969 Toyota. With a mixture containing 15 per cent methanol, the Toyota got 5 per cent more miles per gallon even though the addition of methanol had the effect of cutting the total number of BTUs reaching the engine.

A number of tests have also shown that the addition of methanol can significantly reduce auto exhaust emissions.

But studies by some oil companies, notably Exxon, depict methanol as a veritable contaminant that neither improves fuel economy nor brings a big enough reduction in emissions to justify the problems encountered in adding it.

The slightest addition of water causes methanol to separate from most gasolines and sink to the bottom of a car's tank, feeding straight methanol to an engine tuned for a blend. This can cause either

Methanofs blue flame, barely visible in the saucer at right, contrasts with the yellow fire of gasoline. The brightness of the burning gasoline is incandescent carbon, which can leave sooty deposits in gasoline engines. When methanol burns, its carbon remains bonded to oxygen, so there is neither glow nor soot.

starting difficulties or stalling.

There is no doubt that methanol brings fewer benefits in American cars of recent vintage than it does in pre-1970 cars, which were tuned rich, i.e. set for a relatively high ratio of gasoline to air for quick pickup. In the older cars the fuel savings and lower emissions may be mainly due not to any magic in the methanol itself, but to the "leaning" effect of blending in a fuel that has only half as many BTU s per gallon.

On the other hand, a test drive of 1974 and 1975 Chevrolets by the author of this article revealed none of the "drivability" problems emphasized in those oil-company studies. The only noticeable exception, in cars running on 10 per cent methanol at the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration's (ERDA) research center in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, was a somewhat hesitant response when the cars were accelerated gently from a stopped position. Minor changes in carburetor design could easily take care of that. "Our drivers generally see little difference in drivability up to 10 per cent methanol," says Richard W. Hum, who is in charge of the ERDA tests. "But you run into problems between 10 and 15 per cent."

There may be better ways to put methanol on the highways. Under a government contract, Mobil Oil Corporation is building a pilot plant to make a good grade of gasoline from methanol.

Some BTUs are lost in the conversion, so it takes 2.4 gallons of methanol to make one gallon of gasoline. If a gallon of methanol cost, say, 35 cents, a gallon of gasoline made from methanol might cost $1.

Within a few years, it might also make a lot of sense to burn methanol straight in vehicles adapted to take full advantage of its superior characteristics.

To begin with, methanol performs well over a much wider range of fuel-air ratios than gasoline does. Racing cars run very rich and gulp large amounts of methanol for the distance covered. But regular passenger cars could run on an ultra-lean fuel-air ratio, equivalent to one that would cause gasoline engines to misfire. The extreme leaning can reduce all three major pollutants from car exhausts-an impossibility in ordinary gasoline-powered cars. A methanol car also runs cooler, further reducing one pollutant, oxides of nitrogen.

Merely by running leaner and cooler, test engines have already scored noteworthy energy savings on straight methanol. On a dynamometer test stand at Conoco, a Ford engine consumed from 15 to 26 per cent fewer BTUs per horsepower-hour with methanol than it did with gasoline. And that engine did not even take advantage of still another feature of methanol, its high octane rating. In recent years the compression ratio in cars has been lowered to about 8 to 1, partly so cars can use unleaded gasoline without knocking. With straight methanol, the compression ratio can be boosted to 11 or 12 to 1.

This has been tried on a single-cylinder research "engine at Exxon's research laboratories in Linden, New Jersey. The combination of leaner operation and a higher compression ratio, an Exxon study says, produceq energy economies ranging from 26 to 45 per cent. If the same savings could be realized in a multicylinder engine, methanol cars might not have to carry twice as many gallons of fuel after all.

Instead, they might manage with only 50 to 75 per cent more.

In return for carrying extra fuel, the future mOtorist who buys the first methanol-powered car on his block would enjoy several benefits. He would probably save several hundred dollars in maintenance costs over the life of his car, which would run cleaner without the buildup of carbon deposits. Several hundred dol-

to handle gasoline, as well as the uneven distribution of fuel to the engine's various cylinders. The solution may lie in fuel 'Methanol is one of the most logical fuels to make from such injection, increasingly used in imported cars, or in some promising new developrenewable sources of energy as ments such as "super-atomization." When broken down into extremely small dropforest and farm wastes.' lets through such devices as the "Dresserator" under development by Dresser Industries, methanol flows evenly like lars' worth of antipollution devices needed a gas. to meet the Federal Government's 1978 To burn methanol now, some skeptics emission standards-including some that argue, is to eat cake when there is still the U.S. automobile industry is having plenty of bread. Much¡ of the bread, trouble developing-might also be missing however, belongs to OPEC, and our from the car, since they might not be only hope of getting OPEC oil at a tolerneeded. And the owner could stop worry- able price is to demonstrate a readiness ing about OPEC. to adopt substitutes. Since methanol is To bring out a methanol car, the manuthe only liquid fuel that can be made facturers would have to make some minor from coal now, it would not be terribly changes. Since methanol tends to daring for the Federal Government to eat away at such materials as aluminum, underwrite the first big plant to some magnesium, and the terneplate coating on extent, especially since the risks are comgasoline tanks, substitute materials would paratively small. If the OPEC cartel have to be used in the fuel system. Because collapsed or big new oil reserves were it takes more heat to vaporize methanol discovered, growing chemical demand than gasoline, fuel entering the engine probably could absorb the methanol outmight have to be preheated. Volkswagen put. Or the plant could be converted to has adapted test cars to run on straight making synthetic natural gas, since all the elaborate coal-handling facilities and methanol by heating the intake manifold with exhaust gases. A small amount of the "front-end" gasification components gasoline or some other easily vaporized could be used for making such gas. Says fuel is also injected to get the engines Eric Reichl, president of Conoco's coalstarted. Another special problem, the development subsidiary: "Eighty-five per tendency of methanol cars to produce cent of the system is the same." objectionable formaldehyde odors in their For a few million dollars a year, exhaust, can be dealt with by adding the government could also help gather water to the fuel, at a small reduction in some of the additional data needed before fuel economy. The one problem that the U.S. could sensibly begin a largemight take a few years' engineering work scale shift to methanol. More vehicle is the sluggish acceleration of some meth- tests should be conducted, involving fleets running on blends and on straight alcohol. anol cars.

All the test cars running today exhibit The logical test vehicles for straight some of these problems because they methanol are taxis, postal trucks, or are one-shot modifications done on shoe- police cars that are fueled and serviced string research budgets. Ronald Welker, from central garages, where their performance can be closely monitored. Though a parking-meter reader in California's Santa Clara County, complains about air pollution appears to be a minor the time it takes to start the methanol- problem, some research on the atmospowered 1972 Valiant that he drives 'on pheric effects of large-scale methanol his rounds under a test being carried out use would be a wise precaution. Somewhat by the University of Santa Clara. "Some- more needs to be known, too, about the times it takes 10 minutes," he says, possible health hazards of methanol fumes even though the car has a system for in poorly ventilated garages.

None of this research would represent injecting propane during cold starts. During starting, he adds, the car gives off a waste of funds, for the world must strong formaldehyde odors. "My buddies get ready for a post-petroleum fuel in all say, 'If that's such a pollution-free any case. With oil supplies limited and no fuel, why does it smell so bad?''' The more Persian Gulfs likely to be found, car also is less peppy on the freeways, the only question is whether we start Welker adds, though another driver found using new fuels five years from now or 0 a few decades later. no such sluggishness.

The sluggish response, most researchers agree, is due to the inadequate vapori- About the Author: Edmund Faltermayer is a memzation of methanol in carburetors designed ber of the board of editors of Fortune magazine.

GENETIC ENGINEERING

NEW STRAINS 01 Scientists have recently succeeded in re-arranging the basic genetic material of living things, and so have opened an exciting new research frontier.

But recombinant DNA technology, warns an eminent biologist in this article, 'is so far-reaching in its potential for harm that decisions on how to handle it must not be left to the scientists alone.'

Early in July 1976, the 10-man City Council of Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the urging of some concerned Harvard scientists, voted to ask Harvard University to halt temporarily the construction of a new $500,000 laboratory for specialized genetics research.

This move on the part of the Mayor and other local elected officials against the scientific decisions of the university was unprecedented, but so was the dramatic reason for it-the fear that the biologists, who propose to tamper with the genetic apparatus of microorganisms, would create a new Andromeda-like strain that might escape their control.and spread an incurable disease to the population.

The Cambridge Council's intervention in Harvard affairs cannot be dismissed as an overreaction of ignorant laymen to the esoteric pursuits of science, for it has been spurred by the carefully considered opinions of some distinguished workers in biological researchNobelist George Wald is one of the leaders. They are concerned with the recently attained power of biology to alter the genes of living things and create new and possibly dangerous hybrids of animals, plants and viruses. Of course such alarms have been raised before: The A-bomb, nerve gas, biological warfare, the destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer by fluorocarbon sprays-all have been held up as threats to human existence. But all of these dangers can, in theory if not in practice, be limited or controlled. The threat of a new form of life is more compelling, for once released, it cannot be controlled, and its effects cannot be reversed. A new disease may simply have to run its course, attacking millions in its path. The Cambridge Council undoubtedly had some stark vision of such a biological holocaust when it made its decision. (Harvard responded to the council's request by setting up a committee to consider the city's concern about the laboratory.)

The scientists who alerted the Cambridge City Council are not typical. Most of those not directly involved in the new genetic research take a hands-off position, perhaps out of reluctance to interfere with the venerated "right" of scientists to free inquiry. They may also fear that negative publicity associated with biological research will disillusion the public and diminish the funds so necessary for all types of research. Meanwhile, scientists working in the controversial areas are motivated by their own intellectual curiosity and the powerful drive for success and recognition.

Recent discoveries in molecular genetics have provided spectacular new techniques whose exploitation is difficult to resist so long as scientists continue to focus on innovation rather than social benefit. The involved scientists are aware that their experimentation entails some risks to the public, but they argue that adequate precautions can be taken to make the risks acceptably small. At a major international conference held early in 1975 at the Asilomar con-

ference center in Pacific Grove, California, leading molecular biologists took the rare step of proposing rules to limit genetic research. More recently, they have been instrumental in drawing up a similar set of guidelines that has just been issued by the Director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

The guidelines may alleviate the nervousness of some scientists, but-as a researcher in molecular biology for 25 years-my own view is that they will not effectively reduce the danger. Indeed, they may actually lull us into a false sense of security.

The danger has developed with the discovery of a special form of DNA, the substance that controls the growth and reproduction of all living cells. Ordinary DNA is a large molecule shaped like a double helix, or spiral staircase; it is found in the nucleus of every living cell. We now know that the arrangement of atoms in the helix reflects the code, or set of instructions, that guides the development of every cell in the fulfillment of its genetic destiny. The new form of DNA, known as recombinant DNA, is simply a mosaic of DNA fragments obtained from different types of cells. These patchwork molecules, man-made in the laboratory, have the power to enter a host cell and become a part ot its permanent genetic complement. What they may do to the cell we do not know.

The discovery of recombinant DNA is one of the more striking technological achievements of our century. The story began in 1944 when a team of scientists, Oswald T. Avery, Colin MacCloud and Maclyn McCarty, at the Rockefeller Institute (now Rockefeller University) showed for the first time that DNA is the hereditary substance of living cells. Later work showed that the long DNA molecule is composed of sections called genes. Each gene determines a characteristic-hair color, for example. Another discovery important to the development of recombinant DNA was made by William Hayes and Joshua Lederberg in 1952. They showed that bacterial cells contain circular DNA molecules, called plasmids, in addition to the main DNA molecule. The plasmids are small, easy to handle in the laboratory and can enter other bacteria with ease. The plasmids also contain a series of genes, linked together in the form of a circle. In 1962, W. Arber and D. Dussoix showed that bacterial cells contain a substance, called a restriction enzyme, that acts as a fine chemical scalpel to split foreign DNA molecules into specific fragments. This process, part of the bacteria's defense mechanism, occurs when a bacterial virus infects a bactenum. The enzyme was purified from bacteria by H. Boyer and his coworkers, and in 1972 it was shown by J. Mertz and R. Davis of Stanford University School of Medicine that the split DNA fragments have "sticky ends" -when the ends touch they stick to each other. This astonishing characteristic of the DNA fragments makes genetic engineering possible.

Recombinant DNA is actually very easy to make. Any high school student can do it. Restriction enzymes are available commercially and may be used to split DNA molecules from any sourceman, cancer viruses, bacteria, plants, insects-to produce fragments with sticky ends. When a split plasmid DNA from a harmless bacterium is mixed with another split DNA, say from a cancer virus, their sticky ends join, and a new, hybrid plasmid is formed. This new form of DNA has the characteristics of both DNAs-bacterial and cancer-from which it was made. To make vast quantities of this new entity, it is only necessary to mix the new plasmid DNAs with bacteria. The bacteria absorb them and then manufacture exact copies in limitless number. Using bacteria as factories in this way, any kind of recombinant DNA can be made in large quantity.

IFE-OR DEATH This possibility is so attractive that both Stanford University and the University of California have applied for patents for DNA recombinant technology.

This technology is, of course, very exciting to molecular biologists. Its application to basic research promises to provide answers to a number of fundamental biological questions. With this desirable end result in mind, scientists feel justified in taking the risks inherent in the technique.

For example, Paul Berg, who directs a large facility at Stanford University School of Medicine, has stated that the ability to produce largequantities of gene fragments with recombinant DNA procedures permits expanded study of the structure of genes and .how they work to produce enzymes that influence an organism's development.

David Rogness, also of Stanford, has shown that the methodology provides a way to find the location of specific genes within the chromosome (a chromosome is a very long molecule of DNA). This may give scientists deeper insight into when and where enzymes are made. These matters are worthy of attention, but I am confident that these as well as other problems of molecular biology can be solved by using other, safer experimental procedures-albeit over a longer period of time.

We have also been told that recombinant DNA research may offer us a number of practical benefits. Paul Berg has stated that

byUEBEFCAVAUERI

"if the genes that produce the enzymes that make vitamins, antibiotics or hormones can be made to function in E. coli, then this bacterium, which can be grown in large quantity in the laboratory, could be used to produce these materials."

Berg has also said the research could yield "important benefits to expanding the world food supply." Our food supply depends upon the availability of fertilizer, which provides the nitrogen essential to plant growth. But abundant nitrogen exists in the atmosphere, and certain plants-legumes-are able to take advantage of it; they contain bacteria that convert the atmospheric nitrogen to forms plants can use. Recombinant DNA technology, according to its proponents, might make it possible to create major food crops with a similar ability.

In another area, Berg has asserted that "the isolation of genes put us at the threshold of a new form of medicine, gene therapy, to treat crippling genetic diseases."

These claims, however, may be overstated. It may well be possible to produce vitamins or hormones such as insulin by means of genetic engineering, but commercial production of such biological chemicals has been possible for years. The idea of creating food crops nourished by atmospheric nitrogen is intriguing, but at the 1976 International Symposium on recombinant molecules, held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, plant scientists reported not only that goals such as these are difficult and distant, but they are more likely to be achieved by the traditional methods of genetics rather than by the new molecular recombinant techniques. As for gene therapy, Berg himself says that "though simple and attractive in principle, this step has many pitfalls and unknowns, and these still have to be examined carefully before such therapy could be considered."

But to measure the true value of such potential benefits, we must weigh them against the hazards of this technology. The research involves many unknown factors beyond the control of the scientist.

Since the plasmid and nonplasmid DNA fragments may combine in many different ways in a given recombinant experiment, it is necessary to create vast numbers of cells with unknown genetic alterations in order to obtain a cell containing a specific recombinant DNA. The probability of creating a dangerous genetic agent in the process is real, and there is no way to test for the danger. The scientist does not know what he has done until he has analyzed the newly created cells-at which point it may be too late.

Furthermore, because recombinant DNAs can reproduce themselves in their host cells, they can become permanent residents wherever the host cells are found, and once released into the world, it would be impossible to control them. In this respect, they are quite unlike any other man-made hazard. If we stop manufacturing DDT or Red Dye No.2, they will cease to be problems. The air and waters of the earth will gradually return to normal if we stop pouring wastes into them. Not so with genetically altered bacteria; a single unrecognized accident could contaminate the entire earth with an ineradicable and dangerous agent that might not reveal its presence until its deadly work was done.

The recombinant process: in the diagram at left, the elliptical figure at top represents a bacterium containing one chromosome (a large DNA molecule J. and two plasmids (smaller circular DNA molecules). The large circle represents a virus with chainlike DNA molecules. After both plasmid and viral DNA molecules are isolated and treated with restriction enzyme, they break apart. Afragment of viral DNA joins the plasmid ring toform a new recombined molecule and the plasmid is re-absorbed by the bacterium, which multiplies without limit.

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Recombinant DNA technology has 'put us at the threshold of a new form of medicine, gene therapy, to treat crippling genetic diseases.'

In agriculture, the new technology could yield 'important benefits to expanding the world's food supply' by creating new crops.

Dr. Robert Sinsheimer, chairman of the Biology Division of the California Institute of Technology and chairman of the editorial board of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has warned that "what we are doing is almost certainly irreversible.

Knowing human frailty, these structures will escape, and there is no way to recapture them." Erwin Chargaff, Professor Emeritus of Columbia University and a recipient of the U.S. National Medal of Science and other honors for his work on DNA, has written, "I should say that the spreading of experimental cancer may be confidently expected."

The widespread use of E. coli bacteria in this new genetic research increases its dangers. From the point of view of public health, this bacterium is the worst of all possible choices. It is a normal inhabitant of the human digestive tract and can easily enter the body through the mouth or nose. Once there, it can multiply and remain permanently. Thus every laboratory working with E. coli recombinants is staffed by potential carriers who could spread a dangerous recombinant to the rest of the world. E. coli is found in the sewage that flows through all of our communities; it lives in all warm-blooded animals, in insects and in fish; it is present on grass and vegetables and in water.

In addition to its ubiquitousness, E. coli is very promiscuous and during mating has a formidable propensity to transfer from one cell to another plasmid containing genetic information. This exchange can occur even with some other types of bacteria. Dead E. coli can also transfer their genes. Even weakened strains of E. coli, which require special laboratory conditions for growth, are able to pass on dangerous recombinant genes to healthier bacteria.

Scientists choose E. coli for use in genetic engineering research because more is known about its genetics than about those of any other cell, and they do not wish to spend the time necessary to study the genetics of a substitute. The few years required to study such an alternate loom large to the scientist with his eye on the Nobel Prize.

For the public at large, however, the difference between 20 or 22 years in the achievement of some hypothetical benefit cannot justify the risks. Consider, for example, the fact that DNA from cancer viruses has already been introduced into a weakened form of E. coli (the ability of this form to survive in the human intestines is disputed at p~esent). Suppose a laboratory technician accidentally pours a culture of these bacteria into a sink-not an unlikely occurrence. In the trap of the sink, or farther on in. the sewage system, malignant properties are transferred from the laboratory bacteria to normal E. coli. The sewage, with the bacteria containing cancer genes, is eventually discharged into the sea near a shellfish bed.

People in distant places eat the shellfish and the bacteria take up residence in their intestines and are spread from person to person.

In the individual the bacteria can transfer recombinant DNA containing cancer genes to human cells. The result-cancer, normaVy not infectious, is spread in epidemic proportions by normally harmless bacteria.

The introduction of genes from cancer viruses into E. coli is

only one of a number of ways in which cancer might be spread by recombinant DNA. Biologists suspect that the DNA of all normal animal cells contains inactive cancer genes. Cancer may normally arise when these genes are activated by some unusual disturbance such as tobacco tar or air pollutants. Similarly, the transfer of a supposedly harmless recombinant DNA from E. coli to a human cell could act as a monkey wrench in the regulatory machinery that controls the cell's dormant cancer genes.

It is possible, intentionally or unintentionally, to construct highly dangerous agents of other types, worse than anything yet envisioned in biological warfare. For example, E. coli or other bacteria that normally live in man and animals could be given the ability to produce deadly toxins, such as that of botulism. Protection by immunization would be out of the question. It is quite possible that an agent of this type might arise inadvertently, since in many experiments the. nature of the genes implanted into a new host is unknown. The sudden appearance of new disease-causing agents is a threat not only to man directly but to the animals and plants.

There is danger even in purposely designed recombinant agents.

Suppose, for instance, that drug companies are eventually successful in producing insulin [see "Good News for Diabetics!" on page 4] or other products by growing genetically engineered E. coli on an industrial scale. The slightest leak would constitute a major hazard. If bacteria producing insulin were to find their way into a human host, the result could be insulin shock and very likely death.

Not all the danger of recombinant work lies in cancer or in strange new diseases. There are also the hazards of success. The aim of genetic engineering is to speed up the evolution of chosen organisms .. In so doing the slowly developing balance among living systems may be changed in sudden and decisive ways. Natural evolution works gradually on all species at the same time. If we undertake to control evolution ourselves, we cannot hope at once to control the myriad factors that make the world habitable.

Scientists have been slow to acknowledge all the dangers inherent to genetic manipulation. I myself must admit that, while I felt uneasy about future hazards when I carried out experiments on bacterial transformation 15 years ago, I did not ponder the full scope of the problem until recently. But today many of the hazards are immediate, and biologists can no longer shirk their social responsibility.

The question of hazards was discussed at a special meeting of the advisory committee to the Director of the National Institutes of Health called early last year by Dr. Donald S. Fredrickson.

Most of the scientists present at this meeting defended recombinant DNA technology, citing all the benefits to be realized by basic biological research. Among them were David Baltimore from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Paul Berg and David Hogness from Stanford, Donald Brown from Carnegie Institution of Washington and Charles Thomas from Harvard Medical School.

On the other side of the aisle were a few lone critics. A constant voice was that of Robert Sinsheimer. He emphasized that a major problem of recombinant DNA technology is the crossing of genetic barriers between species, an activity that opens an unfamiliar area of biology. He also has pointed out that scientists have ignored "the potential broader social or ethical implications of initiating this line of research-of its role as a possible prelude to longer range, broader scale genetic engineering of the fauna and flora of the planet, including, ultimately, man .... " In a philosophic sense Sinsheimer has said, "Would we wish to claim the right of individual scientists to be free to create novel self-perpetuating organisms likely to spread about the planet in an uncontrollable manner for better or worse?

I think not."

Those who have carried out the research on recombinant DNA and favor its continuation are respected scientists from large

universities. I feel, however, that there is a large silent majority of scientists who would speak out for a sane solution if given the opportunity.

The safety guidelines put forth by the National Institutes of Health have been hailed eagerly by workers in the recombinant DNA field who wish to express their public concern. But in the meetings and discussions that preceded publication of the guidelines the focus remained on safety measures; scarcely a voice raised the fundamental question of whether the research should continue at all. Rather, on the implicit assumption that the work ought to proceed, they devoted painstaking effort to the formulation of safety precautions to prevent accidents. Here there was some controversy, the participants being divided between those who wanted lax rules, and those who wanted still laxer rules. The viewpoints varied with the participants' degrees of vested interest in recombinant research, and most had been involved to some degree. As Professor Chargaff said, " ... the incendiaries formed their own fire brigade."

In pointing out that the decisions have all been made by scientists, Senator Edward Kennedy, Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Health, objected that "the factors under consideration extend far beyond their technical competence." There has been no significant input from experts in public health, ecology, sociology, ethics or philosophy, and no effort has been made to inform the public of the dangers or to solicit popular opinions.

Briefly, the guidelines have two basic features. The first is physical containment. This means that the laboratory must be equipped to minimize the chance that experimental organisms might escape.

The laboratory is kept under negative pressure so that air does not escape but is pumped out through filtered vents. For more hazardous experiments the worker must shower before entering or leavingthe facility. The second feature, called biological containment, involves the use of enfeebled organisms so that if some do escape they cannot survive in the outside environment. None of the precautions is foolproof.

In the course of 25 years of Army research on biological warfare agents at Fort Dietrich, equipped with the highest level of physical containment facilities, there were 423 accidental infections and three deaths. Accidents due to human error are inevitable, all the more so because scientists under pressure become inured to taking risks. The temptation to do things the easy, quick way instead of the safe way is hard to resist. In the case of recombinant DNA, it is an all or none situation-only one accident is needed to endanger the future of mankind.

Biological containment is a new concept in laboratory safety, one that has not really been tried. The rules therefore involve guesswork, and some are arbitrary. For instance, one of the National Institutes of Health rules states that an experiment using recombinant E. coliis safe only if no more than one out of 100million of the bacteria is able to survive outside the laboratory. (It should be noted that 100million is a small number as laboratory bacteria go.) This raises some difficult questions. In testing the safety of an E. coli strain how much time should be allowed for all but one of the 100 million bacteria to die? Since different recombinant DNAs inserted into the bacteria may affect their survival, how can they be tested in advance, without incurring a risk during the test? Obviously. it is impossible. Dr. Stanley Falkow of the University of Washington School of Medicine has said, "It is also clear from our studies that a carried plasmid [i.e. a plasmid inside a bacterium] may have a profound effect on the survival and carriage of E. coli ... it may not be too farfetched to suggest that some DNA recombinant molecules could profoundly affect the ability of [weakened] E. coli to survive and multiply in the gastrointestinal tract." Moreover, how can all the possible bacterial growth conditions outside the laboratory be simulated for the test?

It is generally known that most laboratory accidents are not due to faulty' equipment but to human error, and the possibility of human error increases with the eagerness of the scientist to push for faster results. Thus even if scientists swear to adhere to the guidelines, I doubt very much that they can be effective. Harvard biology professor Carroll Williams is quoted as saying, "Scientists are racing for advantage and priority in a hotly competitive field and are likely to do what they can to win the race. The competition in this field is really fantastic. One scientist even told me, 'If we don't get the containment facility we want, we'll just reclassify our experiments fr,Oma higher to a lower security requirement.' ... I believe him."

The pace of recombinant DNA research is increasing daily.

Students hoping to assure their future are flocking to centers of recombinant research-Stanford, Boston, Paris, Stockholm, Geneva, London-and biologists everywhere are turning to the new techniques. Reflection about ultimate values or social priorities is not part of the scene.

In the development of the atom bomb during the war there seemed to be a compelling rationale for its urgency and secrecy, even though many physicists now bemoan the actions they themselves favored at the time. There is no such compelling reason to rush into recombinant DNA research, and I believe we should do everything possible to halt its current frenzied pace. The lure of the Nobel Prize is a strong force motivating scientists in this field. I would suggest that the Nobel Committee announce that no awards will ever be given in this area. At the same time, I would urge the U.S. National Academy of Sciences to call for an immediate worldwide moratorium on recombinant research so that the issues can be examined more carefully and safety measures can be developed in a thorough manner rather than in the current crash-program atmosphere.

In my view, recombinant DNA technology is so overpowering and far reaching in its potential for harm that decisions on how to handle it must not be left to the scientists alone. At the Asilomar conference, Alexander Capron of the University of Pennsylvania Law School told the assembled recombinant researchers: "As crucial as your research seems to you to the achievement of progress, you should be prepared for the eventuality that the public may not agree." .

It would make sense, certainly, for the U.S. Congress to set up a National Biohazards Commission analogous to the Atomic Energy Commission, with legal authority to evaluate, license, supervise and inspect all activities that may subject the public to biological hazards of any kind. In addition, I hope that the United States will take the lead in forming an international council on biohazards in order to establish a uniform worldwide policy.

I am aware that these suggestions may be regarded in some circles as a threat to freedom of research. Freedom to search for truth has always been a precious academic right, and every scientist jealously guards it. But,this venerated 19th-century idea can no longer be entertained in the light of this new technology, A new dimension has entered the picture-the element of risk for humanity at large.

We must ask, with Professor Chargaff, "Have we the right to counteract, irreversibly, the evolutionary wisdom of millions of years, in order to satisfy the ambition and the curiosity of a few scientists?

This world is given to us on loan. We come and we go, and after a time we leave earth¡ and air and water to others who come after us. My generation ... has been the first to engage, under the leadership of the exact sciences, in a destructive colonial warfare against nature. The future will curse us for it."

0 About the Author: Liebe F. Cavalieri is a member of Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York City and professor of biochemistry at Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in Ithaca, New York.

SCIIICI, IDUCATIONAID BU.AN VALUIS 'We ought to teach science for its values, for its uses in improving human liberty and the quality of life,' says Dr. Paul Hurd, an eminent educator at Stanford University. 'Scientists should be more socially responsible. They are in possession of our most valuable asset-knowledge.'

MUDD: Professor Hurd, you have said HURD : Yes, that's right. There was the that science curriculums in elementary and old idea that science has always been value secondary schools must be organized in free. Scientists were supposed to be cold, a context of human values and social isolated individuals dedicated to finding dilemmas so that they will be more re- something new, a new piece of knowledge. sponsive to the well-being of people. Could Now the picture has begun to change, especially in the United States. People you elaborate on this?

HURD: Western science has spent 400 said scientists should be more socially years gathering a tremendous amount responsible. They are in possession of our of knowledge. It is about time we put most valuable asset in the world-knowlit to human use. Young people spend edge. This knowledge should be applied time in school learning about all the to making more use of knowledge. Preachievements of science. The time has viously, the scientists' dedication has never come to learn how to use science for the been to use knowledge, only to discover general advancement of the welfare of new knowledge and perfect the old people and society. That is the kind knowledge. of instruction that should go on in schools.

Science has become an integraf part of MUDD: Could you give us an example every culture and for almost every society of making use of existing knowledge? around the world. The difference 'between HURD: A good example would be the a developed society, a developing society Green Revolution, which has had an and an undeveloped society is ltlDre impact on India, the Philippines, Mexico or less represented by the amount of and other places. Scientists took all that scientific information it can marshal to was known about improving plants in focus on problems. So, when you look order to increase production and improve at a country or. society and ask where quality. The result was that for the same does it stand in modern times, you sort ··amount of h.uman labQr, you got two to of judge by how many scientists it has, three times the amount of food. That's how tlliloyengineers it has, and how applying·~ to help reduce poverty, it puts thill modern science to use. That applying knowledge we already have. means we ought to teach science for values, for its uses in improving human MUDD: You said in one of your recent liberty and the quality of life. articl~s thlltfbe task we fllCe is to align the toochiJtgl()j sciena with JKJcialrealities, and to tJo so we 'Iud lo consU;kr the MUDD: It sounds as if you're interfti:'ting an element of cOrfJpassionfI'Itoscknce. recent shifts in our culture and the changing

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responsibilities of science within this culture. Would you describe some of the recent shifts in American culture?

HURD: One shift that took place in America was toward a greater awareness of human rights, greater embarrassment to see poverty and the lack of equal opportunities among people. This general awareness peaked around 1968-the youth revolt, the college riots. This was not only true in the United States but in France and elsewhere. It was a cry of the youth of the world for greater "relevance," for a higher quality of life for all. Now, they often didn't define this. But what the movement really represented was their unhappiness with the excessive materialism they saw around themselves. It was a time when young people wanted to help other people. The Peace Corps and similar organizations arose. At the same time there was the first awareness of what was happening to our environment-that it was getting polluted, that man's habitat, this world, was deteriorating rapidly.

Also, around this time the energy problem was emerging. Tlu:.re was an awareness of world food problems and of the number of people who were starving. People asked why all this should happen when we have the knowledge to Sblve these problems. Then, at the same time, there was the dawn of the S~-Age in.I%9-man walked on the moon.' And peoPle sa'id: Well, if you can do all of these things, then why do we have disease&? Why

Dr. Paul Hurd (left), Professor Emeritus of the Stanford University School of Education, was in India recently with Professor Marjorie Gardner of the University of Maryland to discuss science teaching with Indian experts in many cities. Dr. Hurd presented a broad picture of the changing role of science in American society. He pointed out that rapid developments in many fields of science were fragmenting knowledge; to become relevant to the average citizen, science teaching must integrate many disciplines. He believes that science curriculums must shed the rigidities of the traditional-disciplines approach that has dominated science teaching for so long. Such curriculums must become increasingly multidisciplinary and oriented toward solving the actual problems of living. The study of the human being should form the basis of all learning.

do we have cancer? Why doesn't science turn its attention to human needs? And this forced on scientists a new social responsibility.

MUDD: Your field is biology. How does all this apply to the teaching of biology?

HURD: In teaching biology, we have always used some lower animals such as frogs, fish, or rats to be dissected and studied intensely. Well, it is my feelingand it's a feeling gaining considerable popularity in the United States-that the animal we ought to study is the human being. Five or six years ago I surveyed, with government support, young people who had dropped out of school and young people who were very poor. I asked these 14- and 15-year-olds: If you could study anything that you wanted to study in school, what would it be? And they said that they would like to study themselves.

I asked what they would like to study next.

They said other people. Now every life process that occurs in a rat or a frog also occurs in a human being. So why don't we just study human beings in the first place?

the responses of people to different problems. The students gather information, each independently of the others. They bring their reactions to class, and they put all the information together. They discover that everybody doesn't agree on what ought to be done.

MUDD: How does this program

relate to teaching students to recognize values?

Europeans because we had a surplus of corn. It was no solution to the European food problem, however, because the people there were not used to eating corn.

Scientists knew that the average European needs a minimum of 1,500 calories to live on, and so many million tons of corn would supply enough calories for everyone. But the Europeans fed the corn to animals-to them it was hog food. One could also say, for example: Well, it would help solve the world food problem if more people ate wheat instead of rice.

But people forget that the problem is not as simple as changing one's diet. Storage of grain is a big problem-rice does not mildew, wheat does. So these are complicated issues. They entail what we call "systemic thinking," rather than linear thinking. In systemic thinking you start with a problem; you gather your information, but then it just spreads on-you can have four or five different answers, and then the actions for each of those.

So there are four or five different actions, and that's like a system.

MUDD: How can systemic thinking be applied to problems associated with technology?

HURD: Understanding technology is like understanding economics. It's one of those forces in life that are often misunderstood. Fot example, many feel that when you make technological advancements, you're going to throw a lot of people out of work. Well, this happens sometimes.

But they forget that it takes just about as many people to make the new equipment involved in these technological advances.

It makes a dislocation, but it may not affect the total number of people. Television, when it was first put on the market in the U.S., made work for almost six million Americans in building, repairing, servicing alone. And back when we introduced the automobile, it did the same thing. People said what will you do with all the horses, what will happen to the buggy makers, the people who raise the feed? But look what it did-the number of gasoline stations, the number of tire manufacturers and so on.

MUDD: Professor Hurd, could you de-

HURD: One of the values is appreciating that in a democracy people have a right to have their own opinions, and that one must respect the opinions of others. Here you have a laboratory of society, and in society you find that people get different ideas from the same information. The environment looks the same to all but the solution does not seem the same. So, one of the first values to recognize is that when it comes to applying scientific knowledge to various societal problems, there is a diversity of points of view and this diversity should be respected. There are diverse aspects to every single issue in society. Most societal problems do not have a single solution. We start out with a plan of action, and then there are alternative actions because some of the plans don't work.

scribe some of the experimental programs you're involved in?

MUDD:

What would be an example of a plan of action that didn't work?

What are some of the most important science-and-human-values dilemmas in the world today?

HURD: I remember many years ago, when the war in Europe was going on, America sent shiploads of corn to the

HURD: The dilemmas that we're in right now are often dilemmas of ignorance.

In genetic engineering, for example, re-

MUDD:

teaching

HURD: One is called "The Human Sciences" program, which we have at the, junior high school levels. Our laboratory activities consist of studying people, and

'In teaching biology, we have always used some lower animals such as frogs, fish or rats to be dissected and studied intensively .... Every life process that occurs in a rat or a frog also occurs in a human being. So why don't we just study human beings in the first place?' combinant DNA might make it possible to eliminate malnutrition in the whole world by building more protein into plants -so that we don't have to waste so much of our food on animal protein. One way to get that protein would be to breed new kinds of plants that have protein, which plants typically don't have. And that is a possibility. But what causes the problem right now is that you're not sure, when you develop a new type ofliving substance, what exactly will happen. It's possible that it may do good things, but bad things may also happen [see "New Strains of Life-or Death," page 34].

MUDD: Doesn't the use of nuclear energy pose a dilemma?

HURD: Now with nuclear energy, there are over 500 peacetime uses. For example, to trace a dangerous blood clot in the body, there is radioactive iodine. It pinpoints the position of the blood dot.

Another example is the lubrication of an automobile engine. Until we had nuclear materials, we didn't know just where the wearing on the engine occurred. Soientists make the metal radioactive and, by analyzing the oil, they can tell where the wear on the engine is and how to lubricate it better. But because nuclear energy started with the bomb, people are afraid of nuclear plants. They are afraid they will blow up. That's the lack of technological literacy. Plants don't blow upthey can't blow up.

MUDD: So you feel that nuClear energy has benefited the world? .,.

HURD: The· world would be a very different place if we hadn't discovered nuclear energy. Biology did not become a fully developed> science until after we got radioactive tracers that we could put in foods. Until these tracers came along, we never really knew how foods were digested, or wharhappened to them when one ate, or what were the specific foods that were digested and how digestion worked. Certain· kinds of cancer ·are als6 detected through radioactive tracers. So, when it comes right down to it, every year more lives are saved through radio~ active materials than are destroyed.

MUDD: In one article you said that to make science teaching relevant to society, technology and people, there is need for an interdisciplinary curriculum. Could you elaborate?

HURD: What it means is that when you take a problem the answer cannot be found only in scientific terms because the problem has economic aspects, societal aspects and cultural aspects. So you put all those disciplines in the same course.

The course is a unified, integrated, interdisciplinary curriculum. This means that from an educational standpoint we can't any longer afford to package knowledge in terms of biology, physics, chemistry-pure sciences that represent traditional disciplines. There is too much to know. Four hundred years of science have accumulated; we have more than 100,000journals in print, publishing scientific research every year. Now, to summarize and teach In one year all that has been known, say, in 400 years of biology, is just foolish. You can't do it. Science education needs to bring those things together and build bridges between different fields of knowledge, develop some coherence to the knowledge, and in other ways relate it. And you can do this only when you organize it around specific problems.

MUDD: Does this trend toward a broader, more generalized science curriculum occur through all levels of American education?

HURD: Yes, it's the trend all the way through. In the United States now, even at the doctoral level, it is becoming broader, rather than· more specialized.

You can't advance medicine by knowing only chemistry, or only physics, or only biology. You have to know all three.

There's an old biological principle that the price of specialization is death. Dinosaurs got so specialized they left the earth. So this has caused, at all levels, a greater emphasis upon general education or liberal education within a broader context.

MUDD: How is science teaching organized at Stanford University?

HURD: At Stanford and many other

universities we have whole new majors or courses that last for four years. One is called "Science, Technology and Values," which is also a four-year major.

"Human Biology" is another four-year major at Stanford, Cornell and a number of other universities. And it draws its subject matter from sociology, anthropology, medicine, biology and psychology.

Now if you analyze those, you'll see they are all areas that deal with human beings.

Psychology deals with the human mind, sociology with how people live together, biology with the mechanisms· of how we'r~ put together, medicine with how the organisms are maintained in a healthy form; anthropology gives perspective to people as people, as human beings. And all this is brought together into a new program, which I chair, called "The Human Sciences." It is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation.

MUDD: In one of your articles you said that science describes the world as it is and technology remakes the world to serve human desires. Would you explain?

HURD: You see, the history of mankind has been a history of finding ways to reduce drudgery. First, cattle were used to pull a plow, then horses, then the motor. When we were driving the other day here in India, I passed a train. Wagon after wagon after wagon was loaded with tractors. Nobody wants to go out there and pull that plow. Human beings want better use of their time. They want to enjoy life. That's why we developed these modern devices, like tractors. They give us leisure. But our education didn't teach us what to do with this leisure. Well, we're just beginning to learn how to make use of leisure time. There's more art in America now-more enjoyment of living. Look at all the theaters. Even small towns have theaters. A few weeks ago there was a television program on Roots, the bestselling book by Alex Haley.

Well, that was the most phenomenal thing that ever happened. No one ever thought you could put eight 90-minute programs on television in the evening, spreading over a whole week, all of it dealing with American history, and have

over 100 million people view it and cause restaurants and nightclubs to close because people stayed home to view history.

No sports event ever got that many TV viewers. Now this represents a cultural shift. These people were interested in history because the quality of the presentation was so good-they were interested even though the history portrayed wasn't very flattering to America. We're in the center of a cultural revolution.

MUDD: Has this' "cultural revolution"

affectedthe work ethic in America?

their automobile manufacturing, are a good example. Each worker does four or five things instead of one thing. A team rather than an assembly line builds a car.

And I know in some industries, for example, in the building of computers, which is highly skilled work, one of the largest manufacturers has the men dress in white shirts and ties and the women dress as they usually do-instead of dressing as factory workers. The workers have a social life within the factory and the dress is just a symbol of taking pride in their work.

HURD: The Puritan work ethic is gone,

I think. How can we make work challenging? Well, I think the Swedish people, in

MUDD: Human dignity?

HURD: Human dignity, yes.

Above: A chemistry class in an American high school. The trend in the United States is to teach science in relation to other disciplines because, says Dr. Paul Hurd, scientific problems have "economic aspects, societal aspects and cultural aspects."

AN INDO-U.S. JOINT VENTURE

MAKING THE FABRIC THAT MAKES THE TIRES A joint venture involving three countries, Shriram Fibres Limited combines American and Japanese

technology with the skill of Indian workers to produce quality nylon fabric for Indian tires.

Does that tread look okay?

Is the tire pressure right? That's about all most people know or think about tires. Few know that one of the key elements in tire manufacture is the fabric that is dipped in rubber and placed layer upon layer to give the tire strength and flexibility.

Cotton is used, but nylon is best-especially for truck tires.

One of the major producers of nylon tire fabric in India is Shriram Fibres Limited of Madras. A product of IndoAmerican-Japanese collaboration, Shriram Fibres is a new company that has been in operation for a little more than two years. The plant was set up in Manali, near Madras, in 1974less than two years after the Government of India had granted the company a license. Trial runs were made in early 1975 and production started in April that year. Today Shriram Fibres tire fabric and cord are used by Madras Rubber, Modi, Ceat and Apollo, and with a production of 1,000tonnes, hold

a 35 to 40 per cent share of the market.

Shriram Fibres is a public limited company with Delhi Cloth Mills holding 40 per cent of the equity and the remaining 60 per cent is owned by the general public. The total capital investment is Rs. 110million and it provides employment to about 700 people. The plant is situated on a 150-acre plot in the Manali industrial belt north of Madras City. The American collaborator in Shriram Fibres-Chemtex Fibers Incorporated-has no equity share in the Indian company. Shriram's operation is a good example of sophisticated technology transfer from the United States and Japan to India. The agreement with Unitika of Japan provides only for the transfer of the basic knowhow. Chemtex Fibers translates that know-how and engineering expertise into detailed working plans and drawings.

"Indeed, the unique aspect of this collaboration is that, except for a few pieces of machinery, the entire plant has been fabricated in India from the detailed drawings provided to us

by Chemtex," says Arun Bharat Ram, the dynamic. young managing director of Shriram Fibres. "And the agreement generously provides that Chemtex will continue to transfer to us Opposite page: Nylon tire cord is woven into fabric at the Shriram Fibres plant in Madras.

A technician (inset,far left) checks the number of twists per meter in the tire cord. Inset at left: Arun Bharat Ram, the managing director of Shriram Fibres.

all new developments in the make them," says Arun Bharat manufacture of tire cord and Ram. "Tire fabric is an importfabric for the first five years." ant input in the making of a tire Shriram's engineers were as- and faulty fabric can lead to sociated with Chemtex right tragedy. That is why at our from the beginning of the pro- Manali plant we maintain strict ject and the concept of the plant quality checks at every stage of was jointly developed. Unitika manufacture-from the chemitrained some of the engineers in cals used to make nylon to the Japan and sent a contingent of final fabric that is shipped out. them to Madras for the initial We ensure that every tire that work. The trial run and start-up uses our fabric will be strong and safe." were coordinated by Chemtex.

Shriram Fibres has the in"Weare indebted to our collaborators for providing us stalled capacity for expansion. the sophisticated know-how to Presently their production avermake quality nylon fabric," says ages 70 per cent of the installed capacity of 3,000 metric tonnes Arun Bharat Ram. "Multiper annum, but they are waiting nationals like Chemtex Fibers for an upward trend in the sale Incorporated are the most releof tires before they take expanvant medium of technological sion in hand. With the increased transfer between countries, and emphasis on rural development, they have a vital role to play in Arun Bharat Ram has no doubt countries like ours. We in India do not have the resources for that further development of road research and development in transport will come before long. every field, and the only viable Meanwhile, they are looking into \ allied lines like fish-net alternative is to buy the technoltwines, nylon molding powders ogy from those who have it."

"This isn't to say that we for the engineering industry, and shouldn't further develop our conveyor belting fabrics, as well own areas of research and as exports to neighboring countries and to West Asia. development," he adds. "We A great deal is said these should. But we should also have days about global economic inaccess to the latest techniques that have already been develop- terdependence, and about joint ed at considerable cost in other ventures by business firms from countries. A free flow of tech- different parts of the world as nology from advanced countries the wave of the future. Shriram Fibres of Madras is in the avantmust be ensured."

With the technology made garde of that wave, for it is a available to Shriram Fibres by joint venture between companies Chemtex and Unitika, the in three different countries. 0 Madras factory has been able to produce quality nylon tire About the Author: A. Ranganathan fabric. "Our products, which has published articles in magazines are marketed under the brand in India, the U.S. and other countries. name of 'Tufcord,' are as flaw- He has also written before for SPAN less as man and machine can (see August 1975 issue).

SPAN AUGUST 1977 4:

.

"Aren't you gOing

to ask me to say , A h'?" .

. by La Linkert. Courtesy Drawmg

of Family Health.

'WE MUST WORK TOGETHER'

by JOSEPH S. NYE U.S. Deputy Under Secretary of State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology

In his address (abridged below) to the recent International Conference on Nuclear Power in Salzburg, Austria, a top U.S. official outlined the twin objectives of American nuclear policy: meeting the world's nuclear energy needs and stopping the proliferation of atomic weapons. In pursuing the second objective, the United States has embarked on a major program to examine nuclear fuel cycle alternatives that minimize the risks of proliferation. 'We invite other countries to join us in this endeavor,' he said. 'We must work together.'

The future of nuclear energy is today at a crucial point. For the past 30 years, we have viewed it as the ultimate solution for the world's energy needs. The energy crisis of 1973 and the subsequent large increases in oil prices accentuated this belief. However, in the past few years hard questions have been asked about the effects of nuclear power on the environment, on human health and safety, and on national security. Public opinion all over the world is concerned about the issue of nuclear wastes, the potential sabotage of nuclear facilities, terrorist theft of nuclear materials, and the risks of nuclear weapon proliferation. Our governments must answer these questions.

For our part, the United States has just completed a comprehensive review of our energy policy, including nuclear policy. I would like to review the principal features of this policy, particularly with regard to nuclear proliferation.

President Carter has made it clear that the United States remains committed to the use of nuclear energy at home and to peaceful nuclear cooperation abroad. The President's energy program envisages a substantial increase in our nuclear power generating capacity. Moreover, he has explicitly recognized the considerations that have led other nations to consider nuclear energy to be important in their own energy plans. To those countries that rely on American nuclear cooperation to meet their energy needs, the President has pledged that the United States will remain a reliable supplier of nuclear equipment and resources. Toward that end, we have taken steps to enhance our own enrichment capacity in order to be able to meet our own needs and the needs of other

nations. With those countries (particularly those adhering to the Non-Proliferation Treaty) with which we have not previously engaged in nuclear cooperation and that share our nonproliferation objectives, we remain prepared to undertake negotiation of bilateral agreements for cooperation under which the United States can assist in their use of nuclear power.

Finally, the U.S. for a number of years has contributed funds, technology, equipment, materials and expertise through the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] to assist nations, particularly developing nations, in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. We pledge to continue this assistance. In short, we remain firmly c0lI!mitted to assist other nations in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The current generation of commercial nuclear reactors does not pose a major proliferation hazard.

However, we are left with the key question of how to reconcile the next stage of nuclear power development with the increased threat of nuclear weapons proliferation. This is a question for the entire international community and one of the most important challenges facing us all.

Clearly, the solution to this problem cannot be achieved by one country or even a number of countries working alone.

We need an international solution. The United States stands prepared to work with other countries in searching for such a common solution. Indeed, I believe that unless governments have been able to work together to maintain the distinction between the peaceful and nonpeaceful uses of the atom, we will find increasing public reluctance to accept this energy source.

Nuclear proliferation is a matter of real public concern. The spread of nuclear explosive capabilities to an increasing number of countries would present a serious danger to the world community from which no single nation would be immune. A multiproliferated world would not be a stable world. It would increase the prospect that nuclear weapons might once again be used in war. It would adversely affect the ability of our governments to control international events and expose all of us to new risks. It would have a dissolvent effect on international relationships and increase the prospect of terrorist nuclear attacks.

Given these threats to security, a failure to contain proliferation would inevitably result in serious curtailment of the continued application of peaceful nuclear power. Hence, I believe that nonproliferation is an objective upon which all of us who are interested in the peaceful use of nuclear energy agree. Indeed, this is the fundamental premise of the NonProliferation Treaty.

There are two crucial.elements to the proliferation problem: (l) the motivation to acquire nuclear explosive devices; (2) the technical capability to do so. Neither dimension can be ignored. First, we must diminish the political and security motiva- tions that lead states to acquire an explosive capability. This means reducing the role of nuclear weapons in world politics. In his Inaugural Address, President Carter stated a long-run goal of eliminating nuclear weapons; he has taken steps to reduce nuclear weapon force levels and to move toward halting nuclear tests. The Non-Proliferation Treaty provides another important way to diminish

the role of nuclear weapons. It creates an essential framework for reassurances that one's neighbors are confining their nuclear activities to peaceful purposes and that, in the event of diversion to explosive purposes, the safeguard system provided for by the treaty would give timely warning for diplomacy to work. For these reasons, it is essential that we continue to seek the widest possible adherence to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and to support measures that strengthen the international safeguards system of the IAEA. The second element of the proliferation problem-technical capability-presents us with a different set of challenges. For, if a sudden sense of insecurity should happen to coincide with a capability to produce nuclear explosive devices, further proliferation is all but inevitable. To avoid such situations, we must payattention to capabilities as well as motivations.

We all agree on the need for safeguards and controls on peaceful nuclear activity.

The IAEA safeguard system has been successful in the case of the current generation of reactors in providing an alarm that would ring early enough for diplomacy to work in the event of deliberate diversion. But for certain facilities such as reprocessing, a safeguard system, even if technically perfect,. would not prevent the spread of weapons-usable material that results from normal operation. Therefore, technical perfection of safeguards does not solve the central problem of providing timely warning for diplomacy to work. In other words, our present dilemma is how to cope with developments in commercial nuclear energy which threaten to empty the safeguards of their central political meaning.

It was in response to this dilemma that the United States decided to defer domestically, and not to export, commercial reprocessing facilities ....

The U.S. position on reprocessing facilities has sometimes been misunderstood.

President Carter's April 7 statement did not prejudge the question of whether some form of reprocessing would be necessary if we enter a breeder "economy. Rather, he said that we have a responsibility to search for alternatives that will meet our energy An engineer inspects bundles of nuclear fuel that are piled high in a special storage plant of the General Electric company in North Carolina.

needs while' reducing security. risks. In short, he opposed the premature entry into a plutonium economy ....

'We are left with the key At the same time, we fully recognize the question of how we concern of other countries for security of fuel supply. To accommodate this need, can reconcile the next we will be embarking on a wide-range stage of nuclear power program to provide assured supply of development with the nonsensitive nuclear fuels on a timely, adequate, reliable, and economic basis. increased threat of nuclear Specifically, we will expand U.S. enrich- weapons proliferation.' ment capacity and reopen our order books.

In addition, we will go beyond a strictly bilateral approach. We invite others to join us in exploring: adequate spent fuel and nuclear waste • Multilateral arrangements designed storage, are equally urgent. We are to substantiate guarantees. presently studying a wide range of solu• International arrangements, such as tions which would, as is the case with fuel stockpiles, which might serve as a con- assurances, alleviate the pressure for tingency reserve. acquisition of reprocessing capabilities.

I would emphasize that these concepts These include an expansion of domestic are still in their formative stages and need U.S. storage capacity for spent fuel, the further investigation. The important point, possibility of making storage capacity however, is that the fuel assurances we available for the interim storage of foreign envisage should be designed to provide . spent fuel, and international spent fuel real multilateral incentives for countries storage arrangements, including regional to forego the costly and dangerous acqui- centers. sition of sensitive facilities. To be credible, The logical question that arises is such international incentives must be whether there is still time to affect the nondiscriminatory, and they must not next generation of nuclear technology. increase the dependency of recipient Our conclusion is that we do have time nations on anyone supplier. to examine future fuel cycle alternatives The problems related to the back end of that present fewer proliferation and health the fuel cycle, notably the need to insure risks. This was the basis for the President's

April 7 decision to restructure the U.S. breeder reactor program. I should emphasize that our intent is not to turn the clock back or to deprive any other nation of required energy sources, but to explore whether we are able to shape the future of nuclear technology to serve our broader social purposes, while at the same time we derive the benefits of its energy potential.

Particular technologies always reflect certain social assumptions prevalent at the time of their origin. For example. the objective of embarking on the Purex Process some 30 years ago was to derive plutonium in as pure a state as possible.

As time passes, social assumptions change.

Today, our societies are more concerned about nonproliferation, and we must look again at alternative technologies that may have been rejected as suboptimal in the past but which may today be prefecable because of changed social assumptions.

Alternatives to reprocessing and recycling that have long been overlooked or forgotten because they were out of line with past policies should be closely examined .... These alternatives include the tandem fuel cycle, various coprocessing schemes, homogeneous reactors, the spectral shift reactor, and the thoriumuranium cycle. All of these possibilities have the potential to extract additional energy from a nuclear fuel cycle while making it more resistant to proliferation.

There is no guarantee, of course, that any of them will prove technically and economically viable, but the dangers of nuclear proliferation demand that they be explored while we still have time.

It is in this spirit that the United States has embarked on a major program to examine fuel cycle alternatives. In fact, we will be spending some three quarters of a billion dollars on jhat objective in 1977 alone. We invite other countries to join us in this endeavor. This is the point of the President's call for an international nuclear fuel cycle evaluation program open to all interested countries. We envision that this evaluation program would study urgent problems associated with the current operation of the fuel cycle (such as reliable fuel supply and means of storing spent fuel), as well as study alternative future fuel cycles, including future generation reactors and institutional arrangements for reducing proliferation risks.

Among the specific technical studies envisaged in this proposed multinational effort are: • Uranium and thorium supply.

• Enrichment availability.

• Institutional arrangements related to fuel assurances.

• Spent fuel storage, including study of the technology for long-term retrievable and permanent disposal in international/

President Carter's April 7 statement on energy emphasized that the world should search for alternatives that will meet our energy needs while reducing security risks.

He opposed premature entry into a plutonium economy. multinational repositories as well as near· term capacity options.

• Methods to increase once-through uranium utilization in light water reactors.

• Advanced reactors and breeder options. This includes studies of alternative forms and institutional means of managing reprocessing to reduce proliferation risks in a possible breeder economy.

We will be consulting with many nations-both nuclear suppliers and consumers-on our proposed evaluation program in the weeks and months ahead.

We invite all nations to join us in this effort to the extent that they are interested.

The precise form of organization will be decided upon following discussions with interested countries. The basic con-

cept would be to establish a number of coordinated research and study programs for existing reactor fuel cycles and future fuel cycle alternatives. The efforts in some of these areas are related to on-going programs and could start immediately.

In any event, efforts in each major area would start as soon as possible with as many countries as are interested in that area. International institutions could also be major participants. Each aspect would be coordinated by interested countries ....

There would be no single agreed product of the program. The purpose would be mutual education and voluntary harmonization of policies. In this spirit, the results of studies would be made available, for example, through IAEA symposia and other means. While no specific duration is envisaged, periodic collective assessments would be carried out as appropriate.

In conclusion, let me reiterate that the United States is not trying to stem the progress of science and technology. Quite the contrary, we are inviting others who will be working with nuclear energy to join us in shaping the most advanced work in nuclear technology in a way that reflects our shared social purposes and security.· In short, we must work together to maintain the vital distinction between the peaceful and nonpeaceful uses of the atom for the next generation-of reactors and of people.

0

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EVERYONE'S FLYING FRISBEES! A favorite outdoor American sport for many years is frisbee, which is named after the circular plastic disc, 24 centimeters in diameter, that the two players throw to each other. A forward flip of the wrist can send a frisbee sailing through the air in a graceful sweeping arc.

Ordinarily, players simply spin a frisbee back and forth to each other, striving for maximum distance and accuracy. But like any other game, frisbee has its ex-

perts. Two of them are Victor Malafronte (shown above left and on back cover, receiving). and John Kirkland (above right). The two have teamed up to give public performances in the art of frisbee flying. Describing their feat at an American college gymnasium, Sports Illustrated magazine said: "The frisbee is doing impossible things. Malafronte throws it so that it floats over Kirkland's face. Kirkland blows on it, bounces it in the air with his fingers, leaps, catches it behind his back, whirls and throws it back -all in one fluid motion."