SPAN: September 1975

THE APOLLO-SOYUZ SPACE MISSION ~THE MOST DANGEROU MAN IN AMERICA'

REVI... ED BY NAYA TARA SAHGAL

NA ONA ' PRO HECI£S BV IL.ARMSTRONG A SHORT STORY .

BY WILLIAM SAFtbVAN

SPAN A LEITER FROM THE PUBLISHER Speaking of U.S.-Soviet detente in a press interview last year, Dr. Henry Kissinger noted that "detente does not mean the absence of competition." On the other hand, detente does mean the presence of co-operation, and Soviets and Americans have been increasing the number of areas in which they co-operate. U.S.-Soviet trade has been growing in the past three years. So has American investment in the Soviet economy. The latest development, of course, is cooperation in outer space, and in this issue we're proud to feature two stories on the Apollo-Soyuz rendezvous (pages 4-8) and fortunate to have as the writer of one of them the scientist who has possibly done more than any other man to make space travel possible: Dr. Wernher von Braun.

We have a number of other distinguished byliners in this issue, including another famous name in space exploration -Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. In "An Astronaut's Prophecies" (page 28), Armstrong discusses what life may be like in future human colonies on the moon-as well as the possibility of sending manned spacecraft to Jupiter and Titan (the largest of Saturn's moons).

Of our three Indian contributors, two of them may be new to SPAN readers.

On page 40 Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterji, one of India's foremost philologists and Sanskrit scholars, writes a warm personal tribute to his friend of 45 years, Dr. W. Norman Brown, the American Indologist who died early this year.

Author of our essay on the art of Thomas Hart Benton (pages 20-27) is Geeti Aisha Ali, who brings to her subject a solid background in both American and Indian art. She discusses "commitment to meaningful subject matter" and "the search for national identity which continually recurs in the history of each country." She makes comparisons between Thomas Hart Benton and Indian artists Jamini Roy, Amrita Sher-Gil and Bhupen Khakhar.

The third of our Indian byliners, Nayantara Sahgal, has written for SPAN before (January and May 1974), and her novels are well known to our readers. Mrs. Sahgal has just completed her eighth book (her fifth novel), which will be published early next year in England and the U.S. On page 40 of this issue, Mrs. Sahgal reviews a new biography of Benjamin Franklin, The Most Dangerous Man in America,

by Catherine Drinker Bowen.

But this month's SPAN isn't all serious. There's an assortment of cartoons on page 39. And our fiction offering is a whimsical new short story by an old America,n writerWilliam Saroyan, who is still delighting millions of readers.

"The Inscribed Copy of the Kreutzer Sonata" (page 16) is about the marriage of Gaspar Bashmanian and Roxie Apkarian; it's also about Tolstoy's short story, "The Kreutzer Sonata," which Gaspar loves so much he gives Roxie a copy in which he writes: "May we always live on a high Tolstoyan plateau of deep socialistic truth and humanitarian beauty."

Well, they had four boys and three girls and ••...into every fight came the inscribed copy of 'The Kreutzer Sonata,' first as a guide to silly sorrow, and then as a weapon thrown.by Roxie Apkarian s~raight at the head of the philosophical, spiritual inscriber, Gaspar Bashmanian."

Reading this story, one would never guess that its author is 67 years old. William Saroyan obviously agrees with Bernard Shaw's pronouncement that youth is such a wonderful thing it's a crime that it's wasted on the young. -A.E.H.

2 4

5 9

12 16 20 28 32 34 39

The Inscribed Copy of the Kreutzer SOIuda A shorf~tory by William Saroyan

An Astronaut'.s Prophecies

by Neil A. Armstrong

40 The Most Dangerous Man in America

by Nayantara Sahgal

45

46 w. Norman Brown-A 49

Tribute

by. Suniti Kumar Chatterji

Front cover: The vitality of Thomas Hart Benton's art is evident from this work, "Jessie With Guitar" (1956, oil tempera, 108 x 78 em.). An article on the great American social realist and a portfolio of his paintings appear on pages 20-27.

Back cover: Star projector in the Hansen Planetarium in Salt Lake City reproduces, with embellishments,the constellation Draco the Dragon. See page 49.

Managing Editor: Carmen Kagal. Assistant Managing Editor: S.R. Madhu. Editorial Staft': Mohammed Reyazuddin, Avinash Pasricha, Nirmal Sharma. Krishan Gabrani. Murari Saha. Rocque Femandes.

Art Director: Nand Katyal. Art Staff: Gopi Gajwani. B. Roy Choudhury, Kanti Roy. Suhas Nimbalkar.

Chief of Production: Awtar S. Marwaha. Photograpbic Seniees: USlS Photo Lab. PubUsbed 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 Govemment. Printed by Arun Mehta at Vakil & Sons Private Ltd., Vakils House, Sprott Road, 18 Ballard Estate, Bombay 400038.

Photographs: Front cover-Joplin Council for the Arts. Inside front cover-Ebony magazine. 2R.N. Khanna. 3-8-NASA. 13-The Sacramentf) &e. 2O-Lee E. Battaglia. 21-27-ThofnQS Hart Benton: A Personal Commemorative ~ 1973 by the Joplin Council for the Arts. 28-NASA. 33-Eddie Earnshaw, The National Observer. 34. 37-Avinash Pasricha. 41-courtesy INA Museum. Philadelphia. 44 to~ollection of Graeme Lorimer, courtesy Newsweek Books; bottom-courtesy Nehru Memorial Museum. 45 bottom right-I.D. Beri. 47-Arun Ganguly. Inside back cover (clockwise from top rishn-Hal Rumel; courtesy Ballet West; Gwen L. Johnson; George Hall. Back coW'rcourtesy Hansen Planetarium.

Use of SPAN articles in other publications is encouraged. except when copyrighted. For permission, wrile to the Editor. Subscription: One year, 18 rupees; single copy, 2 rupees 50 paise. For change of address, send old address from a recent SPAN envelope along with new address to A.K. Mitra, Circulation Manager, SPAN magazine, 24 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New DelhUIOOOI.

NEWS& VIEWS U.S. IN VANGUARD OF AID-GIVING NATIONS Discussing preparations for the Seventh Special Session of the U.N. General Assembly, Charles A. Cooper, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Affairs, recently made the following points in a statement to a subcommittee of the U.S. Congress: • The United States has long been in the vanguard of those concerned with accelerating the,economic development of poorer countries. Recent developments include adoption of a generalized preference scheme to assist developing nations expand their exports; a U.S. proposal for a special trust fund in the International Monetary Fund (IMF); a S75Q-million increase in U.S. aid to the poorest countries in the past 12 months; U.S. support for additional funding for multilateral financial institutions; and U.S. proposals for liberalization of IMF aid to nations whose export earnings are reduced by declines in raw materials prices.

• Development by its nature is a longterm process .... Increasing productivity, which is a gradual process, is the basis of development, not increased transfers of wealth which are one-time in nature.

• Investment is the driving force of economic development. The basic focus of assistance to the developing nations must continue to be on increasing investment. Great care should be taken that proposed new programs do not weaken support for a continual expansion and improvement of these efforts.

• The increase in oil prices was responsible for a large part of the deterioration in the economic position of the nonoil-exporting developing nations since 1973. The terms of trade of the oilimporting developing countries would have improved by almost eight per cent between 1972 and 1974, if the price of oil had remained constant. The effects of price increases for food and fertilizer appear to be transitory as prices of basic foodstuffs have already fallen substantially and fertilizer prices are now coming down, as are freight rates.

U.S. URGES CARE IN REVISION OF U.N.lCHARTER In anticipation oftheJulY 28 to August 22 ad hoc Charter Review Meeting at the United Nations, the American U.N. delegation issued a statement in response toa request by U.N. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim last January for all member states to present their views on Charter review in this 30th anniversary year of the United Nations.

Excerpts from the American delegation's statement follow: "The United States believes that the [U.N.] Charter constitutes for member states the principal bond creating a worldwide community of nations despite the .existence of widely differing views and philosophies of government. Consequently, any serious effort to reconsider or revise the Charter must be looked at with great care lest the basis for the sometimes fragile ties among member states· be weakened. We see no evidence of agreement now among the United Nations membership on even the broad objectives of over-all review.

"The United States is not in principle opposed to changes in the Charter but considers that such changes can wisely be approached only on a case-by-case basis. Only when there is a reasonable prospect for the development of necessary agreement on the specificamendment concerned should such efforts be pursued ....

"We believe that the United Nations' overriding need at present is to function as a 'center for harmonizing the actions of nations' as stipulated by the Charter itself. We believe that the rededication to this objective and the taking of practical steps to encourage respect for both assenting and dissenting views in the decision-making process is the most important contribution that could be made to move the United Nations toward the ideal of international co-operation that the Charter was designed to attain."

SPAN WINS INDIAN GOVERNMENT AWARD FOR PRINTING AND DESIGN

A few weeks ago in New Delhi's Vigyan Bhavan, the Vice President of India, B.D. Jatti, presented SPAN's publisher, Albert E. Hemsing, with a First Prize in the Indian Government's 17th National Awards for Excellence in Printing and Design. In the 15 years of its existence, this was the seventh year in which SPAN won First Prize in the English monthly magazine category.

The National Awards for Excellence in Printing and Design were instituted in 1955 by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and have ever since represented India's highest recognition of quality in printing and graphic arts.

Only those publications that are both designed and printed in India are eligible.

The entries are judged by a committee representing printers, publishers, artists, .admen and other specialists in the graphic arts.

ATS-6 TELECASTS APOLLO-SOYUZ, GETS READY FOR USE BY INDIA After a six-week space journey onethird of 'the way around the globe, the U.~. Applications Technology Satellite ATS-6 arrived at its new posi~ion over Africa in late June-in time to relay telecasts from the July 17-19 Apollo-Soyuz rendezvous in space [see stories on pages 4 and 5]. This was the first time an unmanned satellite had been used to relay television broadcasts from manned spacecraft back to earth.

For about half of the time that Apollo and Soyuz were'orbiting the earth, the two-spacecraft were out of range of the ground stations of, NASA (the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration). The new location of the ATS-6, however, enabled it to communicate with the docked spacecraft when ground stations could not.

The largest and most powerful communications satellite yet built, ATS-6 was launched on May 30, 1974,into orbit over the Galapagos Islands. Since its speed of travel in orbit was the same as that of the earth's rotation, the satellite was effectively "stationary" over the Galapagos Islands, an ideal location for giving it a complete, continuous view of the entire' United States. In this position, it was used for several American medical and educational projects.

On May 20 of this year, NASA fired the ATS-6 rockets to begin the craft's 12,000-kilometer trip to its new "stationary" location over Lake Victoria, in East Africa, which put it within range of India for a major educational experiment of the Indian Government called Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (commonly known by the acronym SITE).

SITE's plans call for the daily feeding of four hours of educational TV programs to ATS-6, which will relay them to 2,400 villages in six Indian statesAndhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan. [See "U.S. Launches Unique Teacher Satellite," August 1974 SPAN.] An important factor in the SITE project-as in the ATS-6 medical and educational experiments in the U.S.-is the satellite's enormously powerful transmitting ability. The ATS-6 signal is so strong that it cim be picked up by very inexpensive ground terminals. These terminals, designed and built by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), cost about $600 each. Each terminal consists

of a three-meter-diameter antenna made radio signals. of chicken wire mesh, a converter and a Another ATS-6 experiment in the year television receiver. ahead will collect data on earth's geomagIndia is responsible for all the SITE netic field from a worldwide network of programs, which will be transmitted from ground-based magnetometer stations. stations in Ahmedabad and New Delhi. :Research organizations in Africa, the Each picture will be accompanied by two Middle East and Europe will participate, sound tracks, so that each film can be as will the Soviet Union's Institute of broadcast simultaneously to two of the Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and six states. Thus while villages in Andhra Radio Wave Propagation in Moscow.

Pradesh receive a program in Telugu, ATS-6 has already recorded a number¡ villages in Karnataka will receive the of "firsts" during its year in space-the same program in Kannada. The programs first aircraft-to-ship communications rewill offer instruction in improved agricul- lay by satellite, the first direct flight contural techniques, family planning and hy- trol of an aircraft by an ocean air traffic giene, teacher education and various .controller using a satellite, and the first other educational skills. search-and-rescue operation (a simulaUniversity of Chicago scientist Dr. tion) directed by satellite.

John Simpson says the SITE project is a In addition to these, ATS-6 was used "fitting memorial" to Dr. Vikram Sara- by various U.S. Government agencies in a bhai, who was chairman of ISRO when number of experiments. The U.S. Dehe died in December 1972, three years partment of Health, Education and Welafter ISROsigned an agreement with fare used the satellite to determine if eduNASA on the use of ATS-6. Dr. Simpson, cational and health TV programs could a colleague and friend of the late Indian be transmitted effectively by satellite. The scientist, says that one of Dr. Sarabhai's programs were beamed mainly at remote chief goals was "finding an inexpensive regions of the United States-areas such way to make educational television avail- as the Rocky Mountains and Alaskaable to thousands of Indians" and that where people are isolated from major this worthwhile goal "is now being ful- , health and educational facilities. The filled through SITE." , satellite was also used for two-way While it spends its year over Lake Vic- medical conferences; for transmission of toria, ATS will also be used for a number X-ray, cardiac and other medical test of technological experiments involving data; and for actual diagnosis. (Social scientists in Europe, the Soviet Union, workers could "show" patients to docthe Middle East, Africa and India. The tors hundreds of miles away and receive chief goal of these experiments is to de- instructions on how to treat them.) termine how effectively high-frequency' Following its use by India for a radio signals can travel through atmos- year, ATS-6 will be moved back to its pheric disturbances such as rain, snow original position over the Galapagos and hail. The experiments will gather data Islands in the Pacific Ocean for continued on the effects of atmospheric particles on use by the United States.

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FIRST INTERNATIONAL DINNER PARTIES IN SPACE In what Indian newspapers called a 'cosmic union,' Apollo and Soyuz docked for scientific experiments-and for meals including everything from American soup to Soviet nuts.

The American Apollo spacecraft docked with the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft on July 17, and the Soviets hosted the first international "banquet" in outer space. The menu: a choice of soups from the cuisines of various Soviet republics (including a Ukrainian beetroot-and-cabbage soup, a Georgian mutton broth, and a Russian sorrel-and-spinach soup); veal, chicken, p?itc, ham and sausages; and for dessert, nuts, cakes and fruit juices.

A day later the Americans hosted a return dinner for the Soviets: choice of potato or fish soup; beef steak; rye bread; cheese; and for dessert, almonds, strawberries and tea with lemon and sugar.

They weren't banquets. There was no candlelight-not even plates, knives and forks. The first international dinner parties in space were simple affairs. The hungry spacemen sat around a table to which tins and tubes of food were attached by special cords. (If they hadn't been attached, the zero gravity would have made them float away.) English and Russian labels told the spacemen what they were eating.

Both meals had been prepared by expert "space cooks" and approved by flight planners in both countries. The dinners were really reunions of old friends because Astronauts Stafford, Slayton and Brand and Cosmonauts Leonov and Kubasov had trained together for two years before their joint mission began on July 15, 1975 [see article on opposite page].

The July 15 launches were momentous events in both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. Preparations involved attention to the minutest details: The official Soviet time had been advanced by one-th()usandth of a second to synchronize it with U.S. time.

Soyuz was first, and it blasted off into the s-kyat 17501ST, July 15, from the Baikonur cosmodrome, 2,240 kilometers southeast of Moscow, where the American Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Walter Stoessel, was guest of honor. This was the first Soviet satellite launch to be televised live, and millions around the world watched it.

In Washington, U.,S. President Gerald Ford was also watching, along with Soviet Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Dobrynino Soon after, Dobrynin hurried away to

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catch a plane to Cape Canaveral, Florida, where thousands of people including officials from 65 nations had gathered to watch the Apollo launch, seven and a half hours after the Soyuz launch. This event was also televised to the world.

Soviet Communist Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev wished the two crews "a successful mission and return to earth," and said: "The Soviet leadership hopes that the joint flight will be a success and show the possibilities offered by co-operation in space exploration. " In his prelaunch message, U.S. President Gerald Ford said: "In a few short hours, yo~ will be opening a new era in the exploration of space. Although others have gone before you, you will be blazing a new trail of international space co-operation.

Never before have representatives of two countries lived and worked together in space. It is a historic occasion. I know you are proud to be playing such an important part in it."

It' was a dramatic as well as a historic occasion, and the drama came when Apollo first sighted Soyuz, gradually edged toward it, activated its docking mechanism, then coupled and locked with Soyuz six minutes ahead of schedule.

"Weare docked!" shouted Apollo crewman Vance Brand. "It was beauti¡ ful!" said President Ford as he watched the docking on television.

The spacecraft remained docked for two days, between July 17 and 19, during which

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time the crews exchanged visits and held their two dinner parties. The astronauts and the cosmonauts did more than eat.

While docked they photographed the atmosphere to discover how much nitrogen and oxygen are present at that altitude.

They studied the resistance of spacemen to micro-organisms in each spacecraft. They melted metals (germanium and silicon) in a "space furnace" -an experiment that might some day enable scientists to develop new materials with exceptional mechanical and electrical properties. They also studied the effect of space flight on biological rhythms-such as the growth of cells, the development of "fungal cultures" from different time zones on earth.

Although the prime goals of the ApolloSoyuz project were scientific and technological, other aspects ofthe mission did not go unnoticed. U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said the mission was an example of bilateral co-operation in an area "in which 15 years ago we saw o.urselves in almost mortal rivalry." He saw Apollo-Soyuz as "symbolic of the distance we have traveled."

New Delhi's Hindustan Times, however, cautioned against over-optimism. Cooperation, it said, "has got to be brought down to earth." On the other hand, the editorial also said: "The association in space proves that for all practical purposes the earth has become one entity. Different ideologies or forms of government cannot overlook this fundamental fact."

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¡ .U.S.-SOVIIT LII'B-UP I. SPICI

In the cutaway drawing above, the American crew (left) and the Soviet crew greet each other after joining their spacecraft in earth orbit during the- Apollo-Soyuz Test Project of mid-July 1975. On the following pages, space scientist Wernher von Braun discusses the historic mission in a background article written several months earlier.

APOLLO¡ SOYUZ

continued

T

he time: Mid-July 1975. A U.S.S.R. Soyuz spacecraft manned by two cosmonauts is launched into a 268-kilometer-high orbit from the Baikonur cosmodrome in central Asia.

Seven-and-a-ha/f hours later, as the Soyuz passes, overhead, a Saturn IB rocket takes off from the Kennedy Space Center in Flordia, with three astronauts riding in pursuit in a slightly modified Apollo Command Module. After about two days of orbital adjustments, the Soyuz and Apollo rendezvous and dock.

For the next two days the two spacecraft remain linked together.

The U.S. and U.S.S.R. crews visit each other's spacecraf~ and perform joint experiments. They communicate with their respective mission-control centers, while the new Applications Technology Satellite 6 of NASA (the U.S. Government's National Aeronautics and Space Administration) serves as a relay for almost uninterrupted worldwide TV transmissions from abroad to spectators on the earth.

When joint experiments are completed, the two spacecraft separate andpractice afew more link-up maneuvers. Thereafter each craft goes its own way to the completion of its flight. The Soyuz descends on land in U.S.S.R. territory, and the Apollo comes down later in the Pacific Ocean.

The Soyuz-Apollo dual flight program will be a demonstration of how American and Soviet scientists, space engineers, and astronauts and cosmonauts-rivals for the past 18 years-can also work as a team and do difficult things together. But this historymaking extension of U.S.-Soviet detente to space is not all. It may well set the stage for future international space missions so . ambitious that they can be accomplished only by pooling the resources and talents of the two countries, and possibly of others as well.

When Soyuz and Apollo were conceived a decade ago, the two spacecraft-development teams followed their own independent criteria, hunches and engineering philosophies. The Soviets selected an airlike cabin atmosphere-a nitrogen-oxygen mixture at a pressure of one atmosphere (14.7 pounds per square inch), While training together in the U.S. space center in Houston, Texas, equ~l to sea-level atmospheric pressure on earth. For Apollo, the Soviet Cosmonaut Aleksei A. Leonov and U.S. Astronaut Thomas Americans chose pure oxygen gas at a pressure of only .34 at- P. Stafford, commanders of the Soyuz and Apollo flight crews, display mospheres (five pounds per square inch). a plaque commemorating the joint American-Soviet space mission.

For a docking mechanism, the Soviet engineers came up with a ring-and-petal design having the advantage of no centrally At the time of launch, the Docking Module will be carried located parts to be moved out of the way to clear the passage aboard the Saturn IB, in the con~cal section between the Saturn between two docked spacecraft. The United States selected a instrument compartment and the aft end of the Apollo Service probe-and-drogue design-much lighter, but a bit awkward beModule.

In a Saturn V lunar launch, the same section accomcause parts must be removed after docking to provide a free modated the Lunar Module. Upon arrival in orbit, the Command passageway between spacecraft.

To change either the basic Apollo or the basic Soyuz would and Service Module will separate from the Saturn IB, turn around have required a series of costly reverification tests, including and extract the Docking Module from its berth, just as the Lunar several manned flights. It would have deprived both sides of con- Module was extracted after translunar injection.

Pushing the Docking Module attached to its nose, the Comfidence in their proven designs, and substantially added to the mand Module finally will make rendezvous and link up with risks of the joint venture.

So it was wise and economical to create, instead, an adapter the Soyuz. To make this possible, extensive co-ordination between element called the Docking Module, which can dock with the both sides was necessary on such details as the search-and-apApollo Command Module at one end and with the Soyuz at its proach system, common radio communicati~ns, beacons, signal . other end. This new piece of space hardware, a cylinder 1.5 meters lights and optical docking aids.

While the two spacecraft are docked, the Soyuz pressure will be in diameter and three meters long, also serves as an airlock to permit crewmen to go from one to the other of the two differently reduced from its normal one atmosphere to .68 atmospheres. pressurized craft. It is large enough to hold two space-suited This will enable crewmen to transfer from Soyuz to Apollo without astronauts or cosmonauts, but they will normally make the taking excessive time in the Docking Module to breathe pure oxygen and force nitrogen from their blood. transfer between spacecraft in shirtsleeves.

Commander of the Soyuz, Colonel Aleksei A. Leonov, was the first man to "walk" in space, during the flight of Voskhod 2 in March 1965. His crewmate, Valery N. Kubasov, is a civilian engineer, who was a member of the Soyuz 6 crew in 1969.

Skipper of the American craft, Air Force Brigadier General Thomas P. Stafford, is a veteran of two Gemini flights and of the Apollo 10 mission, which demonstrated rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit-the final dress rehearsal for the epochal first lunar landing.

Stafford's crewmates are Vance D. Brand and Donald K. ("Deke") Slayton, who has never been in outer space before but .probably knows more about the crew problems of manned space flight than any other astronaut. Ever since the early Mercury days, he has served as director of flight-crew operations in Houston or, as he puts it, as the "mother hen" of the fledgling astronauts.

Deke would have been an early astronaut himself but was grounded when an electrocardiogram revealed a slight heart irregularity-reportedly common and trivial except by space doctors' or flight surgeons' extremely rigorous standards. Now the medics have changed their minds and given him a long-hoped-for green light.

Even without taking into account the momentous political and long-range aspects of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP),

its program of experiments will make it worth every penny of its $250 million price tag.

In addition to testing the techniques for possible space rescues -the main goal of the mission-the Apollo-Soyuz program will provide the chance for the crews to work together in joint flight on a half-dozen experiments-some proposed by each country.

In one such experiment they will use a small electric furnace to explore possibilities for manufacturing and testing improved magnetic materials and crystals of various semiconductor materials in the weightlessness and vacuum of space.

Other joint experiments will include a new way to gauge the density of the tenuous atmosphere at orbital altitude by noting absorption of ultraviolet rays transmitted from Apollo and bounced back by Soyuz.

On its own, Apollo's program will include tests of the possibility of producing improved vaccines and serums in space for use on earth, measurements of local earth-gravity anomalies to aid studies of mineral resources, earthquakes, volcanic activity and continental drift, and a multitude of experiments in astronomy and life sciences.

Because of the ASTP's international nature, the training for its crews of astronauts and cosmonauts was unique. Leonov and Kubasov spent many weeks at the U.S. space center in Houston, Texas, while Stafford and his men (as well as the Apollo backup team consisting of Alan L. Bean, Ronald E. Evans and Jack R. Lousma) familiarized themselves with equipment and took simulator training at the Gagarin Training Center in Zvyozdni Gorodok ("Star City"), 56 kilometers east of Moscow.

In these training sessions, astronauts and cosmonauts, wearing similar yellow, green and blue coveralls emblazoned with a special Apollo-Soyuz emblem, were on professional, friendly, first-name terms. They found that their communication was most effective when the cosmonauts spoke English and the astronauts spoke Russian.

Both crews made great progress in learning the other's language. At a press conference in Houston, Tom Stafford surprised his audience with a fluent address in Russian, while Leonov fielded reporters' questions in flawless English.

Joint training sessions were by no means limited to the flight crews. On the basis of "technical necessity," American flight controllers were trained to sit at some consoles of the Soviet mission-control center, and vice versa.

NASA recently decided to use an improved ring-and-petal docking system, developed for the ASTP Docking Module, as the standard link-up mechanism for its forthcoming space shuttle, too. The shuttle's primary payload for manned science and application experiments, the spacelab being developed by Europeans, will be compatible with this new docking gear.

Standardized coupling devices are not only a necessity for mutual assistance and rescue operations in space. They are an absolute "must" for any major joint international space ventures -for which, it is hoped, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project lays the groundwork. Perhaps the most significant of all the 1975 mission's experiments may be its first trial in space history of a prototype of the compatible docking mechanism of the future.

D About the Author: Dr. Wernher von Braun, one of the world'sforemost space scientists, was the guiding intellect behind America's entire Apollo project. The author of a large number of books on space, Dr. Von Braun is now a vice president of Fairchild Industries.

APOLLO-SOYUZ

Below: The Apollo-Soyuz primary crews pose with models of their spacecraft.

Standing: Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford (left), commander of the American crew, and Cosmonaut Aleksei A. Leonov, commander of the Soviet crew.

Seated (left to right): Astronaut Donald K. Slayton, Docking Module pilot of the U.S. crew; Astronaut Vance D. Brand, U.S. Command Module pilot, and Cosmonaut Valery N. Kubasov, engineer of the Soviet crew. Photo at right: Cosmonaut Leonov (left) and Astronaut Stafford train together in an Apollo spacecraft Docking Module at the U.S. space center in Houston, Texas.

CAN ,THE

ENVIRONMENT BE SAVED?

Yes, says the author, if we don't insist on saving every known species of life. We must also realize, he adds, that to much of the Third World the main 'environmental problem' is poverty.

In June of 1972 I was administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and in that capacity was a delegate to the first worldwide conference on the environment in Stockholm, Sweden. While there I hosted a luncheon for all the African delegations south of the Sahara. For four hours all of us present discussed the environment as a global issue. Before that luncheon I knew intellectually that the less-developed countries of the world viewed the environment differently than we did. Afterward I understood the difference viscerally. To the African delegates the issue of the environment was created by the developed countries of the world to keep them less developed. Their primary concerns were providing their people with food, clothing, and shelter. When that was done, they would worry about the environment.

I was trying to convince them that they needn't repeat our mistakes in the process of meeting the legitimate material aspirations of their people. I shall never forget how during my plea the minister of the environment from Ghana jumped to his feet and shook his finger at me, saying: "You just don't understand. Let me give you an example of how my people view the environment. If you discovered a widely used pesticide was killing fish, your people would demand that you ban it. In Ghana my people would use it-to kill fish-and then eat them. That a pesticide had such lethal capacity would be good news to them." Obviously, the problems of protecting the environment in Ghana were not the same as in America.

In April 1973 I was in Nairobi, talking to many of the people working for the United Nations Environmental Program (U.N.E.P.). I remember a conversation over coffee that I had with a Pakistani, who

byWILLlAMRUCKELSHAUS

was advising U.N.E.P. about energy policy. He suddenly asked me, "Do you know what is the number-one environmental problem in the world?" With some curiosity I confessed I did not and' asked him what it was. He replied with great assurance and no hesitation, "poverty."

Although we often assume universal agreement on what we mean by "environment" or what criteria should be applied to determine whether it was "saved," there is no agreement about either. Understanding this is crucial to avoid needless disputes stemming from different assumptions.

To the Ghanaian and the Pakistani, the environment meant people and their im-¡ mediate problems. They were concerned about clean air and pure water, but these are clearly secondary to providing the people of their societies with the necessities of life. Without debating the validity of their priorities, let me define my terms.

By environment I mean those natural things that surround us, from the essentials to sustain human life, such as the earth's atmosphere or healthy air or drinkable water, to the nonessentials that nevertheless make life sustainable, such as wild animals or wild places or human living space. Preserving the essential ingredients of life and the rich natural diversity of the planet is to me inherently worthwhile. To concentrate on this does not deny the validity of other human concerns but rather limits the reach of this inquiry.

Beyond that, whether we have "saved" the natural things that surround us involves elements of judgment and criteria for measurement. Preserving all of the wide diversity' of the planet as we now know it would be "'saving" the environment in the absolute sense. Even this would not be enough truly to save all the environment,

Even if, as some claim, the earth could feed around 67,000 million people, 'full human potential is more likely to be fulfilled if the things we save include wild animals, wild places, and room to swing our arms.' because some rivers or lakes or airsheds would have to be restored, not just preserved. Short of preserving all of the things that surround us-which is probably impossible -how much can we lose and still claim salvation? This is where judgment enters.

It is my belief that in spite of the incredible complexities of the modern world, we can preserve the essentials of life and enough of the nonessentials to claim victory.

Some of the species currently on the endangered listwill undoubtedly vanish from the earth. More rivers and lakes and airsheds will be polluted. The release of toxic and persistent chemicals and compounds will continue and could cause adverse local or even global health effects or ecological disruptions. In the foreseeable future population will continue to increase, natural resources will diminish, and the carrying capacity of the planet will be challenged. , Of course, natural disasters that have occurred throughout the history of the world will recur and could do us in, regardless of man's best efforts.

It is precisely these kinds of projections that have led some to predict doom and to give up and others to recommend drastic reordering of our national and world institutions to cope with impending disaster.

This group, whom we may justifiably call the "doomsayers," is in turn attacked by the "debunkers."

The latter's claim is that the world models and exponential projections made by the doomsayers do not bear up under scientific inquiry or al). examination of the history of worldwide trends. We needn't worry, they say, as our world is capable of feeding over 60,000 million people. There are substitutes available for all of our diminishing resources. Chemicals can be controlled; rivers and airsheds can be restored. Yes, we will lose some species, but this has been part of the condition of life throughout our planet's history. Besides, the exponential projections of population, pollution, and economic growth of the doomsayers will not occur, because historically forces have combined to halt similar trends. .

Thus the argument' continues to rage and, in my judgment, because of its growing vituperation and the unprovable projections of both sides, obscures rationality and impedes action. While we argue about

what is or is not inevitable for the planet, we fail to think about what is advisable for I man. Will population outstrip the ability of the earth to sustain it and result in a collapse of societY,as we know it? I don't know, nor does anyone else. We should keep trying to get the answer, but in the meantime we should be asking ourselves whether twice as many people oil the earth in the next 33 years is a good thing-is it advisable for man?

We may be able to continue, with adequate controls, to release chemical compounds into the environment without rendering the planet uninhabitable, but is this prudent? Is it advisable for man? I could go on, but my point is that we needn't finally answer the questions raging in the debate between the doomsayers and the debunkers in order to act wisely. While many of the participants in the debate would admit this, the positions they have staked out and the thrust of their argument fosters inaction through the creation of an excess of despair or false hope.

Yes, the environment can be saved to the satisfaction of all but the most atavistic preservationist if we exercise prudence.

First, some things have to be done. We must distinguish between saving the essentials and saving the nonessentials.

All should be able to agree that we need air, water, and land of sufficient quality to sustain life. We must take steps to ensure that adequate research and monitoring are being done so these precious resources are preserved. We must recognize air and water and land as finite resources. They can be used up. When we consume them, there is a planetary cost. Or in the terms of the economist, air, water, and land must be viewed as capital, not income. This will not be easy and will take a considerable wrench in the philosophy or beliefs of much of the world.

To preserve the essentials, we must ensure that before we release new persistent chemical compounds into the environment in massive quantities, we adequately test their impact. The massive release of chemical compounds that nature cannot break down quickly and easily is of dubious wisdom. The time to test these new compounds is before they are released. Once a substance like DDT comes into widespread ~se, many people and even societies in the

A hiker pauses to admire the scenery in North Cascades National Park, Washington State. U.S. conservationists won another battle against loggers and other "developers" when this vast wilderness area was declared a national park in 1968.

world come to rely on its continued use.

Removing it then becomes much more difficult, and the process of removal itself has its own adverse environmental impact.

We must continue to examine carefully the predictions and world models of the doomsayers. The fact that some of the models used are not scientifically verifiable or that strongly asserted facts turn out to be questionable assumptions should not deter us from continuing to improve our ability to predict the future based on what we know of the present. The questions raised by the doomsayers are legitimate ones.

Suctessfully debunking answers proferred does not eliminate the questions. We must seek the real answers instead of reveling in a Pyrrhic victory.

We need to understand more about the political, religious, and cultural roadblocks to necessary change. If in our continued examination into the assumptions of the doomsayers, we find one of them to be incontrovertible or the evidence of impending calamit.y overwhelming, we need to be able to respond quickly. This response can be effective only if we have anticipated the factors that will inhibit it and have planned for their neutralization.

For instance, if one of the chemicals now in widespread use should prove to

':

present a real health hazard to man or the planetary ecosystem, what are the political factors inhibiting its quick and effective control? Likewise, what are the cultural or religious barriers to effective population control if it could be overwhelmingly demonstrated that such control was necessary for man's survival?

Starting with the assumption that all things politically possible can be done, we should not underestimate the difficulty in effecting international institutional change to cope with the emerging challenges to the environment. The fragility of U.N.E.P. itself is a case in point. The agency is barely two years old and finds itself beset with organizational problems, located geographically as it is in Nairobi and out of the orbit of its sister U.N. agencies. Further, U.N.E.P.'s continued financing is subject to the whims of the participating countries. There is overlapping jurisdiction with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and there is no U.N. machinery for resolving the inevitable disputes.

Optimism must be tempered with reality. Since 1972the nations of the world have convened worldwide conferences on the environment (Stockholm-1972), population (Bucharest-1974), control of the seabeds (Caracas-1974), and food (Rome-1974).

The institutional changes resulting from these conferences have been few and, so far, tentative. The failure immediately to form effective international bodies to cope with ill-defined problems should not be

surprising. The ties of national sovereignty are strong and tight. Man has never shown a propensity to change his style of life or traditional loyalties unless the case for doing so is overwhelming.

As a microcosmic example, the case for the people of Los Angeles, California, to search seriously for alternative modes of transportation would seem to be very strong. The air is foul; the noise, congestion, and inconvenience are constant; and the Los Angeles basin approaches the limits of its carrying capacity. Still the automobiles increase faster than the population, and the public pressure to change is at best sporadic. My point is that just as in Los Angeles, so in the rest of the world, people will tolerate much and still not demand fundamental change-particularly where the change demanded will affect a long-cherished possession, such as national sovereignty or an automobile.

Clearly, one of the missing elements needed to effect change necessary to save the environment is world leadership. Although it is impossible to prove, I have the impression that at no other time in the history of our country have the people been so far' out in front of our political leaders in their awareness of the complexity of modern life, their willingness to eschew easy solutions, and their receptiveness to new approaches to ordering their lives.

My further perception, dimmer but nevertheless real, is that the same thing is- true of much of the rest of the world. Any fair sample of speeches made by the world leaders at the aforementioned internation-

al conferences shows an appalling lack of vision. Instead there is a constant appeal to parochial interests, to a narrow world view, to traditional nationalistic, racial, and ideological divisions. The same is true regardless of whether the "leader" represents a developed or less-developed country, the Western or Eastern bloc, the Third World, or the Orient. Even when the rhetoric shows a spark of vision, the subsequent performance fails to meet the promise.

If, for example, we don't slow present population growth rates, what will it mean to man? If the earth can feed 67,000 million people, as a recent report of one of the debunkers claimed, what happens to the quality of life of that incredible mass of people? If present trends continue, we will have 14,000 million people on the earth by the year 2035. Is it a good idea to increase the number of people on our planet by 10,000 million in 60 years? The answer to this question has nothing to do with our ability tol sustain life for that many people but rather seeks to understand the relationship of that mass to the quality of life for the individual.

Clearly, the institutions charged with the production, transportation, ¡and distribution of food to almost four times as many people as today inhabit the earth will have to have a degree of power and authority not possessed by any existing institutions. This will inevitably mean erosion of personal choice and individual freedom. Do we want this kind of world?

Is it advisable?

We should be asking ourselves these kinds of questions and others. They should be posed with imagination and fervor by world leaders. Political answers need not -await scientific certitude.

The environmental debate needs to be refocused. We can save those natural things that surround us. Man will sustain himself. But if in the process of survival we concentrate simply on avoiding calamity, we run the risk of denying to the individual the possibility of realizing his full human potential. That potential is more likely to be fulfilled if the things around us we save incluqe wild animals, wild places, and room to swing our arms.

Yes, the environment can be saved, but we need to focus less on the inevitable fate of man and more on the quality of his journey, whatever the fate.

0 About the Author: William Ruckelshaus, first

administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a former Deputy Attorney General of the United States, currently practices law in Washington, D.C.

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II

FRILL OR FUNDAMENTAL? Far too many environmentalists are overconcerned with the 'frills"-the esthetic and sentimental aspects of ecology. The author reminds us of the hard scientific basis for our environmental concerns, how disruptions of the world's delicate ecosystem endanger the lives of everyone of us.

In a paradoxical way, it seems to me that some of the most conspicuous manifestations of "environmental awareness" pose a subtle threat to the cause of ecology, in that they are so largely emotional and esthetic.

Magazine advertisements plead with us to halt the slaughter of the harp seal pup, as beautiful a creature as nature has devised. Bumper stickers ask us if we have thanked a green plant today, posters ¡enjoin us to save the blue whale, and newspaper photographs show us birds whose lives are threatened because their feathers have been drenched by spilled oil, and they can no longer fly.

I do not mean to suggest that such causes are frivolous. They indicate concerns that are deeply felt and well-founded.

My uneasiness, rather, stems from a fear that these efforts, in emphasizing the esthetic and humane aspects of ecology, tend to minimize its underpinnings in unsentimental science.

Because the public is exposed to so much emotion and so little compensatory science, "ecology," I'm afraid, is in danger of becoming synonymous with a softheaded desire to repeal technology and reinvent the Garden of Eden. And the mischiefis that when ecological concerns come into conflict with other social needs or appetites-as increasingly they do these days-policymakers in industry and government tend to regard ecology as a desirable but dispensable extra. In competition with economic concerns, an improved environment is viewed as sort of dessert on a

social menu; it's nice if we can afford it, nation's coast is the source of this run-off? but let's make sure we can buy the meat Is it a reasonably proximate and localized and pptatoes first. source-the coast of Chile, for exampleOn the contrary, our biosphere, the ;where we can pinpoint the problem and subject matter that ecology studies, is the take corrective measures? Or is it a much meat and potatoes of human life; it is the more distant point, such as California, and other things, the supposedly "fundamen- a much more complex food chain that tal" and "practical" concerns of society, involves many more creatures than shrimp? which are society's dessert, the "extras" The penguin is a cute little thing, an made possible by man's primeval success amusing creature as it waddles around so at securing the most favorable niche in the solemnly in its tuxedo. It would be a shame chain of life. That niche was awarded to to have it extinguished by DDT. But ecolman largely by the form of good luck ogical science-as distinct from ecological known as evolution-but evolution offers romance-says to man: "Don't worry no guarantees to any creature, and man about how cute penguins are; worry about will need more than luck to preserve his the fact that you eat shrimp, too." place in the world.

It would be much easier to argue the He will need, above all, to learn to view case for ecology if such clear and direct his world in a holistic, integrated wayconnections between environmental damfor the simple reason that the world is age and man's health could be demonan integrated interdependent system. This strated in every case. In most they cannot because those connections don't integration supplies the basic principle or -not exist, but because we simply don't know natural law of ecology, a law that canwith only minor exaggeration-be stated: the role of most species in the ecological ladder. Further, disruptions in ecosystems "Everything affects everything else.': This is a law, not a sentiment. And it is often cannot be perceived until long after ecological science, not ecological romance those disruptions are introduced.

"Ladder" itself is an oversimplification, or esthetic regret, that dictates concern implying a fixed, orderly progression from when we find-as we are now doingtraces of DDT in the body fat of penguins top to bottom. The word ecologists use in the Antarctic. Assuming-as I feel is reticulum-a five-dimensional network reasonably comfortable doing-that nobody is spraying the South Pole with Right: The balance of nature is the subject mosquito killer, we ha~e to wonder how of this ecology lesson in an elementary the stuff got there. Penguins eat shrimp; school in Sacramento, California. More and one possible explanation is that the shrimp more schools in the United States are absorbed DDT and passed it on. teaching hard scientific reasons why mankind But where did the shrimp get it? Which should be concerned with the environment.

or web with a staggering number of interconnections. Dr. David Pimentel once diagramed the relationships between the cole plant, of the genus brassica, and three other types of creatures; the. herbivores that eat the plant, the predators that eat the herbivores, and the parasites that lodge in the predators. Dr. Pimentel stopped when his diagram showed interrelationships among 50 species, because the number of lines made the chart hard to read; it would be impossible to charttheecological relationships among the other 160 known species of herbivore, predator, and parasite that live in the cole community.

It is this complexity of ecological systems, and our ignorance of significaI}t parts of them, that make ecologists worry about endangered species. Everyone is a danger signal, warning us that a system formerly at equilibrium is heading toward disruption; even if we do not understand that system fully-and the niche that the endangered species occupied in that system -we must be concerned.

Two hundred and ten creatures fight out their lives and deaths in the shadow of the cole plant; how many creatures are linked to the blue whale, and what will happen to their numbers, their dispersion, and their putative linkages to man if the blue whale goes? Will the amount of commercially vahl;able marine life increase? Or will the effect of the whale!s demise-

extended down and out along every unknown strand of the ecological web, to creatures too small to see, perhaps to creatures unknown-be to free predators, now controlled, for their own population explosion?

Scientists know why humans should thank a green plant. I wonder hnw many others do-:-whether they appreciate the role of green plants in replenishing oxygen, absorbing carbon dioxide, and forming the base of the food web; or whether they simply think it's nice to have green plants around for visual variety.

The distinction, I believe, is criticalnot in a snobbish way, as a matter of urging the scientifically illiterate among our fellow citizens to take off their hats and speak in hushed voices when they approach our shrine; but in an entirely practical, socially essential way, as a means of heightening the public's perception of the gravity of eGological concerns.

Today, our attention is focused on what we in the United States term "the energy crisis." This is indeed a crisis, in that a combination of quadrupled prices for imported oil, increasing consumption, and declining domestic production threatens the industrialized West, and Japan, with economic collapse.

Yet the word "crisis" also connotes a relatively brief period of time, an instant when matters are settled for better or

worse. It may take 10 or 15 years, we realize, before we can achieve energy selfsufficiency; but then, the general impression seems to be, our "crisis" will be over and we can relax. In the United States we can resume our comfortable rate of economic growth, our "American standard of living."

I am not at all convinced that we will ever be able to do this-not, at least, in the sense in which we understand "economic growth" or "American standard of living" today. On the contrary, I think our past patterns of exploitation of the earth's resources, coupled with the deeper political significance of the Arabs' quadrupling of prices on oil, confront us with the necessity for altering our conceptions of "growth" and of "living" in some profound ways.

Painful as the oil boycott was, it had the potentially salutary effect of remind¡ ng us that a resource which we treated as if it were infinite-is finite. Energy, moreover, is only one component of the human ecosystem. Whether we find new oil or not, whether we learn to harness solar energy or not, light and heat are only two factors in the.ecological dynamic that supports man.

The number of men the earth can support is another factor-and, at present, that factor is out of control. We have to worry about food and the various strategies for increasing its production. We

'The words economy and ecology stem from the same Greek root: oikos, meaning house. Economy is the management of the house. Ecology is the study of the house. The house is the earth.' have to worry about water, because at present rates of population growth our fresh-water needs by the year 2000 will be 240 per cent those of today's. Desalinization technologies, now economically unfeasible, may help us meet that "crisis" somewhere up the line.

But it seems to me that unless we stop counting on future technologies to save us from present distress, one day the problem will beat the solution to our door. Man, having devoted more and more of the interest of his ecological capital simply to staying alive, will finally-as is usually the case with spendthrifts-be forced to go ints> capital, and to turn his ecological system on a course of irreversible decline.

I paint a gloomy pictur~ and, by now, some might conclude that I am a doomsday ecologist-a limits-of-growth man who enjoys preaching apocalypse in the comfortable knowledge that I will have been gathered to my fathers before the lights go out.

In fact, I favor continued growth~but only after we have sorted out in our minds the difference between "growth" and "consumption." The' wonderful American economic machine began by satisfying needs, and it so excelled at this function that before too long it had enough extra capacity to start satisfying appetitesthe things that are not absolutely necessary to life, but make it mor.e attractive.

Now this extraordinary machine, having satisfied the appetites of the affluent among ,us, is more and more devoted to creating appetites. "Okay," goes the American sales-promotion rationale.

"We've sold everybody electric lights, air conditioning, a refrigerator, a freezer, two TVs, an electric carving knife, and a gadget that turns on lights at dusk. Now what else can we make that uses electricity?"

I composed that list carefully: I own every item on it. It is not American industry which is the villain of this homily; but the American consumer-me, and 100 million well-meaning persons like me. And it is not the American' businessman who must be bludgeoned into changing his ways, as if he had deliberatelY chosen to pollute the water and air, to coat the mallard with oil, to amplify our wastes with_no-return bottles that have to be re-

turned somewhere.

All 'of us have elected environmental damage, albeit unwittingly, by voting with our dollars for convenience, and we will all have to change our ways--:-either un-, willingly, in helpless response to one shortage after another, or willingly, in rational, deliberate response to the twin perceptions that everything affects everything else, and that we are spending not, only our dollars, but our earth.

There is a considerable amount of this perception in President Ford's 1975State of the Union message. It opens with the somber declaration that "The State of the Union is not good." Much of that message is devoted to energy, and to the President's economic program. At one, point, Mr. Ford offers a comm~nt about constantly increasing federal expenditures which seems to me applicable, in a much broader sense, to the American way of life. Divorced from its context, it reads as follows{ "Part of our trouble is that we have been self-indulgent . . . and now the bill has come due."

The energy component of the President's program is aimed at requiring Americans to begin paying that bill, through higher prices on oil. In the short term, of course, we will see higher prices on many items that are made from petroleum or its by-products, or require energy for their production and transportation.

The long-term results, however, seem to me more important, and they will not show up for some time. Higher prices for oil will trigger a whole series of individual personal decisions and corporate decisions that will reduce our consumption. Corporate managers often have a number of alternative processes from which to choose the same result; their choice usually depends on selecting the most attractive cost-benefit ratio.

The production of aluminum, for example, demands much higher energy inputs than the production of other types of metal-:-and one result of higher ,oil prices will be to make aluminum a less desirable choice. Auto manufacturers, seeking a competitive edge to exploit in their marketing, will have an incentive to produce cars that yield better mileage.

Metropolitan bus and rapid-transit com-

panies, assured of a growing market for mass transportation, will have the financial incentive to put more vehicles on the street, to extend their routes-and will begin reshaping the expressway map.

"Everything affects everything else."

As President Ford said, we have been self-indulgent-and now we must learn' to pay a higher price for our comforts, or learn to choose among them. H.L. Menckefi once defi'ned puritanism as "a, sinking feeling that somebody, somewhere, is having fun." But after quoting that definition in a speech some years ago, Dr. Charles Frankel, a former Under Secretary of State and then Ptofessor of Philosophy at Columbia University, pointed out that "the puritan had one very great moral insight: That insight is that the satisfactory life is' an athletic one. It's a life lived on a regimen. It's a life in which a decision to be or do something is a refusal to be or do many other things."

As the United States approaches its 200th birthday, Americans could do worse than to recapture that insight of their puritan fathers, with all the self-discipline it implies. Our deepest, most abiding problem is to convince those who make decisions, and those who must accept them, that conservation is more than a shortterm tactic calculated to solve a temporary problem. Conservation is a strategy for the long term; we must accept it as our new mode of life.

Accepting it will require a new perception of "environm~ntal awareness," one that goes beyond emotion, to dispassionate science. The people and their leaders must be convinced that ecology deserves at least as loud a voice at our social bargaining table as economics.

I have tried to argue that decisionmakers and the general public which must accept hard decisions need. to know that ecology is a science concerned with the system that supports man, and that the romantic orientation of much of our current "environmental awareness" places ecologists at a disadvantage in confrontations involving such obviously "practical" concerns as the economy. I have attempted' to show that ecology is every bit as practical a concern.

But let me stress once again that these

Tracesof DDT have beenfound in the bodyfat of penguinsin the Antarctic, mostprobably absorbedfrom the shrimp they eat. Whileecologistsadmit that "the penguinis a cute little thingand it wouldbe a shame to have it extinguishedby DDT," theypoint out that our real concernshould be with human beings who also eat shrimp that may be filled with DDT. remarks should not be interpreted as disparaging those who, quite rightly, protest that man's continuing destruction of his environment will rob us and succeeding generations of variety and beauty in nature.

Science must provide the intellectual muscle for the fight to defend our ecosystem against indefinite compromise-but the nonscientist's regard for his world and ours provided the initiative long before the Club of Rome first assembled. Some~ what before the first pioneering "ecologist" realized he had the makings of a new discipline, the ancestors of bumper-sticker ecology raised eloquent ,warnings. The sobering lesson for us specialty-proud professionals is that these amateurs read their rude signs and portents with an irritating precocity.

To support that assertion, let me cite excerpts from a letter written to U.S. President Franklin Pierce in 1855 by a chief of the Duwamish Indians named.

Sealth. From a corruption of his name we derive Seattle, the city built on the land his tribe inhabited. If you listen closely to his words, you will, I think, agree that the

intervening 120 years have transformed his poetry into disturbing prophecy: We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One jJoriion of the land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and . when he has conquered it, he moves on. He¡ leaves his fatfJers' graves, and his children's birthright is forgotten. The sight of your cities pains -the eyes of the redman.

But perhaps it is because the redman is a savage and does not understand.

There is no quiet place in the white man's cities. No place to hear the leaves of spring or the rustle of insects' wings. But perhaps because I am a savage and do not understand, the clatter only seems to insult the ears. The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of the pond, and the smell of the wind itself cleansed by a midday rain, or scented with a pinon pine. The air is precious to the redman. For all things share .the same breath-the beasts, the, trees, the man. The white man

does not seem to notice the air he breathes.

Like a man dyingfor many days, he is numb to the stench.

What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to man. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of.the earth.

It matters little where we pass the rest of our days; they are not many. A few more hours, a few more winters, and none of the childrfn of the great tribes that once lived on this earth, or that roamed in small bands . in the woods, will be left to mourn the graves of a people once as powerful and hopeful as yours.

The whites, too, shall pass-perhaps sooner than other tribes. Continue to contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in your own waste. When the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses all tamed, the, secret corners of the forest heavy with the scent of many men, and the view of the ripe hills blotted by talking wires, where is the thicket? Gone. Where is the eagle? Gone. And what is it to say good-bye to the swift and the hunt, the end of living and the beginning of survival? We might understand if we knew what it was that the white man dreams, what hopes he describes to his children on the long winter nights, what visions he burns into their minds, so they will wish for tomorrow. But we are savages. The white man's dreams are hidden from us.

Working in a most unscientific way, with nothing but intuition and love to guide him in the collection and interpretation of his random data, Chief Sealth wrote an environmental impact statement which -120 years ago:..-embodied the basic ecological insight: "All things are connected ..

Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons . of the earth."

The words economy and ecology stem from the same Greek root: oikos, meaning house. Economy is the management of the house. Ecology is the study of the house-.

The house is the earth.

It is our turn now to discover whether civilized people can learn to understand their house as well as this man who called himself a savage.

0 About the Author: Dr. Russell W. Peterson, a chemistwho wasformerly governorof the State of Delaware.is currentlychairmanof the U.S. Councilon EnvironmentalQuality.

TI-IE. INSCRIBED COPYOFTI-IE

was, I loved her, whoever she was, but Gaspar said, "Who is that laughing?"

"Some girl at the party," I said.

"That kind of laughter IS no good."

"It sounds good."

"It is the laughter of the animal."

We heard the laughter again, and then from around the neat white farmhouse, where the lilac and rose trees stood together like ladies and gentlemen, 'came running a dark girl dressed all in white, still laughing, herself prettier than her laughter. Chasing the girl were three more girls of her own age, or perhaps a little Gaspar Bashmanian, who older, in dresses of green, blue, understood the enormity and majesty of the human experience, and red, who were making the who loved children (the human sign shame, shame, at her, scraprace of tomorrow, he called ing one forefinger upon the other. them), suddenly became engaged "My God," Gaspar said, and to a girl of 17 who lived on a , I thought he meant how beautiful, how charming, but ,he went on to muscat vineyard in Reedley with say, "how vulgar." her father and mother, the Apkar "Who is that girl in the white Apkarians.

These good people threw a great party in honor of dress?" I asked God, or anybody.

"I don't know,~ Gaspar said, the groom-to-be, Gaspar the gentleman, Gaspar the reader of "but God help the man who marries her."

Tolstoy, Gaspar the 27-year-\>ld philosopher and personal friend Around the house they disappeared, and out of the house of trees.

And everybody was invited. came Apkar Ap'karian himself, By horse and buggy, by Ford straight to the car, straight to my and Chevrolet, by Dodge and uncle Gaspar. "Come, my son, come into the house," he said.

Dort, and by Moon and Kissel Kar, the relatives of both sides "What took you so long?" " 'Slowly to the wedding, slowbegan to arrive at the vineyard ly to the grave,' " Gaspar said. in Reedley, and I myself, 12 years old, riding with Gaspar in his "The old sayings are wise sayOverland, arrived there tbo, just ings," Apkar said, "but there may be sayings we have never ,heard at dusk, at that most somber moment of the day. and shall never hear that may be , And the first thing I heard was even wiser. 'Swiftly to the wedthe laughter of an unseen girl, ding, swiftly away from the a laughter that made me believe killer.' " everything was worthwhile. Gas"Swiftly away from what killpar sat behind the wheel of his er?" Gaspar said. open car and listened. The laugh"Loneliness, my boy," Apkar ter came again, and all I knew said. "It is better to be in a life-

KREUTZER

SONATA

A story by William Saroyan

long fight with somebody one can see-one's wife, one's children-than to live in the empty peace of the killer who can never be seen. Come along, I'll have her mother bring her to you."

The parlor was a shambles of loud people drinking, singing, talking, and dancing, and after the cheers and the jeers-"Ah, why should you be so lucky, and I so unlucky?"-the girl's father took Gaspar to a ,far room, followed by her mother, several very old men and women, alld four or five boys and girls. In the room was a very large bed, and the father said, "Everybody, sit down, please. And you, woman, go fetch your daughter and present her to Gaspar Bashmanian, her husband-ta-be."

I

couldn't wait to see who it was that Gaspar was going to marry, and when I saw that it was the laughing girl in the white dress, I felt "What a lucky dog you are," but at the same time I felt "Oh, no, let this one be for me."

As for Gaspar, he tried very hard to conceal his disappointment, and failed. To him, this was the animal girl, and there she stood before him, all composed, deadly serious, and just a little scared, just a little worried about how to be,. because he was a handsome man, perhaps the handsomest she had ever seen, and appropriately severe and demanding. Therefore, she didn't want to make any mistakes that might impel him to notice who and what she really was; but that was precisely what he was noticingthe healthy, bathed, dressed-up daughter of a vineyardist and his illiterate but very wise wife.

Should she hold out her hand, small and white and for two weeks

rubbed day and night with lotions, or should she bow, or should she smile, or should she just stand there like an exposed fraud and wait?

At last she put out her hand, but when Gaspar didn't go for it instantly, she drew it back, blushing, and then he put out his hand, but now she was bowing', and her hands were clasped behind her back, so that Gaspar had to reach all the way around her to meet her hand on its way back, but as it wasn't on its way back, he withdrew his hand, whereupon the girl straightened Up' from the bow, brought her hand out again, smiled, her face as red as the petal of a rose, but again Gaspar hesitated, she drew her hand back, and then, slightly pushed by two running small girls who were in her family, she began to lose her balance, reached with both arms to Gaspar for help" he embraced her, but only in order to keep her from falling, she wrapped her arms around . him;;their heads were almost together, Gaspar forgot his reading and kissed her on the mouth, while the little girls cried out and the little boys whistled, and Apkar said to his wife, "They will have a happy man:iage and many children. " Gaspar stopped kissing the girl, but now she kissed him, and the girl's mother said to her father, "A happy marriage and' many children, but perhaps not beginning this very minute. Take the young man to the men and let him get drunk, I must talk to my daughter."

At this moment a young man began to sing "Ramona" on a phonograph record.

The mother gently tugged her daughter away from Gaspar, who was taken away by the father saying, "Gaspar, my boy, I have never seen a swifter flowering of love," to which Gaspar, now off cue, replied, "Charmed, I'm sure."

"Fow about it?" I said. Gaspar glanced at me out of dazed eyes and very swiftly said, "You must read Tolstoy's The Kreutzer

Sonata."

"Ramona," the phonographrecord singer sang, "I hear the murmurs in the hall."

He heard the what in'the where?

But it really didn't matter. We all knew what was going on. Ramona had looked at him, and that was it, he was there at last, and wanted to know of himself, "What took you so long?"

"What did the singer say?"

Gaspar said. " 'Ramona,' " I said.

"I'm sure somebody told me," Gaspar said to the girl's father, "but in the confusing events of the last few minutes it has slipped my mind-what is your daughter's name?" '~Araxie. But everybody calls her Roxie. When is the wedding to be, my boy? Next 'Saturday?"

"What's he saying now-that singer?" Gaspar said to me. "'Ramona, Ramona.' What do you care what he's saying?

What are you saying?"

But now we were back in the room where the party was going on. Gaspar was handed a small tumbler full of the white firewater of our people, made by Apkar himself out of his own mtiscat raisins, with his own still, a hundred or more gallons a year, enough for everybody, rahkhi, unlicensed, tax-free, one hundred proof, and other proof as well, proof of being there, for instance, thick in the fight, nobody will ever see youth again, except in the faces of his own kids, "Drink, Gaspar, everybody drink to Gaspar." But a man of the opposition called back, "Why should we drink to him, cleaned and pressed? We 'drink to our gi~l, Roxie Apkarian, the dark Rose of Gultik." Was somebody being insulted already, long before the wedding?

"Be careful, please," somebody unseen on our side said.

"We drink to our boy, Gaspar, also of Gultik. There are many Roses of Gultik for Gaspar to pluck, remember that, friends, and be careful."

"By turns let us drink to each other," Apkar roared. "There is

plenty to drink. By turns to each, and soon enough we'll all be drunk. Weare all from Gultik, in our beloved Hayastan. Everybody drink to Gaspar."

"Wrong, entirely wrong, the girl comes first. Everybody drink to Roxie."

"Are we being insulted?"

"Take it as you like, the girl comes first. Since when are rules to be broken?"

"Careful, please."

All of the men and the boys who weren't already standing got to their feet, all fists that weren't clenched became clenched, all except Gaspar's.-He looked around at the men of the opposition, and then at the men on his side, and then, again off cue, said, "It is indeed an honor."

"Bet your life it is," somebody growled. "Where do you come from to take the hand of our beautiful girl, Roxie?"

"2832 Ventura Avenue," Gaspar said.

"Not far enough away. Who cares about your broken-down house at 2832 Ventura Avenue?

Is that a suitable place to take our Roxie?" , The sides, with lifted glasses in one hand, fists raised slightly, began to move toward each other, and then Gaspar said, "I deem it a privilege and an honor to drink to Miss Araxie Apkarian."

Whereupon he gulped down the contents of his glass, impelling everybody else to do the same, each drinker cheering or breaking into song.

Thus, the fight, tl;le inevitable fight, was postponed-but for how long? That was the question.

Somebody put needle to disk, the singer took off about Ramona again, and although the phonograph was' in the corner of the room, and loud, everybody who had anything to say was heard by everybody else, and almo&t immediately the fight began to shape up again. One of the Roxie boys said to one of the Gaspar boys, "And just who do you think you are?"

"Trigus Trolley."

"Who?"

"You heard me."

"There's no such name."

"There is now."

"You're one of the Bashmanians, that's who you are."

"You asked me who I am and I told you. If you want to fight, fight, don't argue."

"The Apkarians don't fight in the parlor, the way the Bashmanians do."

"If they don't fight in the parlor, they'd better not ask for a fight in the parlor."

"Just wait until the fight starts, I'll get you."

"You'll get me the way the cat gets the dog that chases her up the tree."

"Who do you think you are to call me a cat?"

"Fight, or go back where you came from."

Roxie's mother went to the boys and said, "Don't fight, we are all in the same burning house." Another proverb, or saying of the people of Gultik.

And then she went around among all of the men and said something to each of them, so that all we did for the next couple of hours was eat and drink and sing and dance, and then suddenly Gaspar was hit in the nose.

He in turn instantly knocked down the man who had hit him, and J ran across the room to a boy who was ready and waiting, who knocked me down-a terrible surprise and insult.

I leaped to my feet, but already the whole fight was over.

Apologies were made, admiration was expressed by each side for the other, wou'nds were treated, drinks were poured and handed around, broken glass was picked up, the needle was put to disk, and the .singer began to sing "Ramona" again.

On our way home, zigzagging in the Overland down the empty country road-going in the wrong direction-Gaspar said, "The Kreutzer Sonata."

"What about it?"

"I must read it again as soon as possible-tonight, perhaps."

"Why?" "It is a story by Tolstoy about

marriage. " "What happens in the story?"

"Everything, and all wrong," Gaspar groaned.

dentist who had just come out to California from Boston, and Gaspar said, "There, you see. It .wasn't love. She never loved me."

He got into his Overland.

"Where to?" I said, jumping

The wedding had.be~n scheduled for four weeks later, another Saturday night, but the Saturday before the wedding, Gaspar took Roxie to a movie in Reedley, and then to an ice-cream parlor, and the next day he said, "My God." "She's the most beautiful girl in the world," I said.

"Beautiful, yes," Gaspar said.

"Just like in The Kreutzer Sonata, but beauty, real beauty, must come from inside, from the heart, from the mind, from the spirit."

"Her beauty comes from all over."

"I wish it did, but it doesn't."

"Something happened," I said.

"What happened?"

"She lives on a material plane," Gaspar said. "She thinks only of material things. She wants to know what kind of a house are we going to have. How are we going to save money to get a better house? What kind of car?

What kind of furniture? What kind of clothes? If that's the way she is now, how is she going to be after she becomes my wife?"

"She'll be just fine," J ,said.

"You're one of the luckiest men in the world."

"If only she lived on a spiritual plane, too," Gaspar said.

"Teach her to live on a spiritual plane.That's your territory."

"I am trying," Gaspar said.

"Two weeks ago I gave her a copy of The Kreutzer Sonata, inscribed from me to her."

"Did she read it?"

"She says she read it, but it doesn't seem to have had any effect on her at all."

"Maybe it's not the right kind. of book for her."

"She asked me to buy her a wristwatch. Asked me."

"Buy her one."

"I must think about this. Very carefull y. " The wedding was postponed three times, and then Roxie Apkarian became engaged to a

in.

"I'm going out there to kill the dentist."

He went out there.

Roxie cried and ran away from a face-to-face confrontation with him and refused to come out of her' room, and -her father said, "Gaspar, my boy, she does not love the dentist, she loves you."

Two weeks later her engagement to the dentist was broken, the engagement to Gaspar was on again, the wedding was scheduled for a month later, and this time it took place on schedule.

The men of the opposition at the wedding party jeered, saying, "Gaspar, oh, Gaspar, how about tonight?" And Roxie's women cursed their men and said, "How about right now if Roxie feels like it? Right here in the parlor?"

"A man's world, to be sure," one of the prettier women said, "and -a rather spiritual sort of world at that, too, but just let Roxie tug at the top of her silk stocking and whose world \Yould it be then?"

As it is in this world and life, for the people of Gultik as well as most others, in almost no time at all they were the parents of four boys and three girls, it had been a rough fight all the way, Roxie herself broke the "Ramona" phonograph record: And into every fight came the inscribed copy of The Kreutzer Sonata, first as a guide to silly sorrow, and then as a weapon thrown by Roxie Apkarian straight at .the head of the philosophical, spiritual inscriber, Gaspar Bashmanian. "May we always live on a high Tolstoyan plateau of deep socialistic truth and humanitarian beauty."

In short, don't count on being terribly spiritual unless you are also always slightly'sick. " A proverb overlooked by Gultik, but' seized upon eagerly by Fresno.

0

About the Author: William Saroyan has earned for himself a prominent place in 20th-century American literatw"e. A delightful humorist, Saroyan writes warmhearted stories on such themes as man's innate goodness and the joy of living. He has also been described as "a writer with the ability to establish a dramatic counterpoint between what is said and what is left unsaid." Born August 31, 1908, Saroyan began writing at the age of 13. In 1940 he won the Pulitzer Prize as well as the Drama Critics Circle Award for his play The Time of Your Life. Assessing his work, British novelist Elizabeth Bowen said of Saroyan: "Probably since O. Henry nobody has done more than William Saroyan to endear and stabilize the short story."

Thotnas Hart Benton¡.

1890-1975 III February of this year, Thomas Hart Benton, the patriarch of American realism, died in his studio at the age of 85, having just completed the basic work on his last mural.

The subject itself, the "Origins of Country' Music," reveals his con'stant fascination with the rural scene, his concern for returning to a grass-roots culture. For more than five decades, Benton had been painting earthy robust scenes of the American Midwest to which he belonged-scenes of farmers, hillbillies, miners, railroad hands, and the Mississippi River boys of his native Missouri. The muscular heroic figures that crowd his canvases have a certain nostalgia about them. Benton chose for his subjects all that is basic and unchanging about the American scene and society-all that upheld the dignity of man and of human labor. There isa compelling realism about these scenes, but there is also idealism here inasmuch as the destiny of man at work is extolled, exaggerated and glorified. It is this quality of superheroism, as well as superrealism, that perhaps appealed most strongly to the popular instinct of America.

In "The Young Fishermen" (opposite page) we are drawn vividly into an idyllic river scene with ,a boat that half emerges from the immediate foreground. The trees and the water are more emerald green than "nature green," the flesh is more warmly pink than the flesh of man, and the mountains in the distance are more ice blue than real mountains ever are. Whether Benton would admit to it or not, this is an idealized treatment.

Everypart of the river scene is tinted, superbly overdone, with a more-tangible-than-the-real look about it that compels us to remember the scene.

This solid approach to the three-dimensional-this physical realism-is drawn from the works of the French masters, such as Courbet painting his beloved mountains and trees of the Massif Centrale. It is found much earlier in the classic figures and dramatic landscapes by Poussin, with a mercurial quality of light and chiaroscuro in the figures that is nev-

Though he was never accepted by the U. S. art establishment, Thomas Hart Benton was an enormously successful painter becaUse"be spoke directly to the people. The 85-year-old ,artist died recently, three hours after completing a mural. 'er again equalled. It is this quality oflight and color from the European masters which Benton seems to have retained from his years of' study in the Louvre in Paris, when he had rejected all else of his training. It is this which brings to his pictures a classic or epic content.

Benton quickly became a leader and an early exponent of 20th-century American "scene painting," which represented the reaction against abstract art. In the mid-thirties, when he had returned from New York to set-

tIe in his native Missouri, regionalism was widely expressed in both literature and art.

We read it in the plays of Tennessee Williams, the short stories of John Steinbeck, the novels of William Faulkner. We see it in the native customs and people painted by John Stewart Curry, in the wry humor of artist Grant Wood, in the crisp haunting loneliness of allnight diners and abandoned houses painted

by Edward Hopper. And we see it most vividly and vigorously expressed in the full-blown , exuberance of Benton's rural scenes.

To this small group of painters, realism was far from dead. On the contrary, they believed that it was the answer to America's search for a truly native style. Benton, the most articulate and aggressive of them, summed it up well in his autobiography. Speaking of Curry, Wood and himself, and their popular appeal in the 1930s, he said: "We were different in our temperaments and many of our ideas, but we were alike in that we were all in revolt against the unhappy effects which the Armory Show of 1913 had on American painting. We objected to the new Parisian esthetics which was more and more turning away from the living world of active men and women into an academic world of empty pattern. We wanted an American art which was not empty;and we believed that only by turning the formative processes of art back again to meaningful subject matter, in our cases specifically American subject matter, could we expect to get one."

This commitment to meaningful subject matter, or in other words to figurative or image art, is a continued search for national identity which continually recurs in the history of each country. It expresses itself powerfully in the murals of the Mexican painters, in the images of the, Japanese printmakers of today. It becomes an all-purpose, unifying and integrating factor that serves well at the time of crisis, for example, in the Depression of the 'thirties in the U.S. In India it was, curiously enough, the 'thirties and the freedom struggle that perhaps gave impetus to

vital new paintings produced by Jamini Roy and by Amrita Sher-Gil. Significantly, they too returned to folk and ethnic traditions, which today no longer seem to inspire contemporary expression except in the most academic or decorative manner.

By the same token art today faces a certain kind of spiritual bankruptcy, being barren of direction and sometimes content. John Berger's quote from Jimmy Porter about there being few good causes left to fight for certainly has validity for art. In these terms what distinguishes Benton from his contemporaries is the sense of vigorous optimism which he brings to his work. There is in it none of the kind of disillusion on which most postwar art in Europe is based, as for example the work of Marini, Giacometti and Buffet. There is no fragmentation here, no splintering or dissecting or distortion of the human form. Man is , made whole again, seen through the ideal spectrum in which perhaps we would like to viewhim: healthy and alive and held firm in the grip of his work.

Such subject matter lends itself most effectively to large-scale murals. Benton excelled in the art. Some of his best work is to be seen

in the New School for Social Research and in the Whitney Museum of American Art. On the walls of the New School he staged the drama of American life, with great rolling scenes that drew on everything from the Old South to the fire and steel of factories to the frivolities of urban life and the cinema. We are reminded, but remotely, of the vast panoramas by the Old Masters who, as W.H. Auden remarks in his poem, fused everything into their panels from a dog scratching its behind t9 a miracle taking place elsewhere and Icarus falling calmly out of the sky into the sea.

Through the years, nothing changed much in Benton's style or approach. In his 1906 mural of "Joplin at the Turn of the Century" (above) we see the same integrated vision that combines the farmers at work and the gentlemen at cards with-dead-center-the pathos of new immigrants entering the town. Long after, when we have forgotten what the subject was about or what it said, what we carry away with us is Thomas Hart Benton's historic vision of the world.

From the time Benton painted the New School murals (1930), his directness of approach encountered hostility from the U.S.

art establishment, who labeled the "scene painters" as regionalists. Of course they were regionalists, but they fulfilled a function during the years of the Depression by bringing in a new and vital link with the past. When we compare this movement surging through the U.S. to the current art dilemmas in India, it seems relevant to ask why we have not taken a more introspective look at our own roots.

To my mind, the only Indian painter who bears comparison is Bhupen Khakhar of Baroda. By introducing genre scenes from the life of a tailor or the view from a local teashop, Khakhar focuses our vision on the familiar and the typical. rather than on individualized experience. Although his work is not disparaged, it has not met with the encouragement or attention it deserves.

Benton may 'have been a traditionalist in . many ways, but not completely. The turbulence found in his work has little to do with the subject, and is not even required for it.

The turbulence derives from the rugged character of the man who perceived all life in terms of energy and dynamic form. The furious energy with which he has wrought his mountains (Text continued

Oil

page 26)

Joplin at the Turn of the Century, 1896-1906; 1972; mural; 1.68 ;<4.27 m.

Jessie and Anthony; 1965; acrylic; 61 x 76 cm.

THOMAS HART BENTON continued

Trail Riders; 1964; acrylic; 142 x 157 cm.

(Text continued from page 22)

is breathtaking in its wild beauty, and makes "The Trail Riders" (pages 24-25) stand apart from his narrative scenes. In true humility before nature, his heroes here are rendered in miniscule size in the foreground. Mountains, trees, and the muscular-limbed figures of his compositions are all embodied with this inner energy that brings passion into his better work.

After Benton returned to the Midwest, to teach at the Art Institute of Kansas City, he

never regretted leaving the East. "The pressures are too great, the dirt's too mUCh,the stinks are too much and the intelIectual world stinks too." Which sums up his antagonism to intellectualism in general, and to intellectual art in particular. .

It was the prettiness, the effeteness, the sophisticated trivia of pure geometry, that Benton lashed out against with vigor. And he was not one to mince words, scathingly noting the fact that most museums were run "by a

pretty boy with a curving wrist and a swing in his gait." He maintained a perpetual feud with the critics. "If the people didn't demand my representation," he claimed, "I wouldn't be in the museums at all." Because of mounting popular response, the price of his paintings rose to astronomical figures. At the unveiling of his mural "Joplin at the Turn of the Century," he faced the crowd and said: "Now you're going to pay for it, all $60,000!"

With deliberation he chose for his subjects

About the Author: Geeti Aisha Ali, formerly art controversial themes, as for example the bib- warts with the good stuff." critic for the Times of India, is a lecturer at the In sum, Benton was that curious enigmalical theme of the naked Susanna in a local setting with Ozark farmers peeping around the artist who was despised by the critics and Delhi School of Planning and Architecture. She the tree at her. By choosing to represent the by the art establishment and yet who, with the received her B.A. in art history from Bryn Mawr Ku Klux Klan or the corrupt political figure American people, thrived as one of the most College in Pennsylvania and her M.A. in art history from the University of Chicago. Geeti Aisha AU of Tom Pendergast, he again invited com- popular and successful painters in the history studied art with Dr. Stella Kramrisch at the Univerment, but remained firm on his stand. He will of American art. A fellow Midwesterner and sity of Pennsylvania and has taught Indian cultural and no-nonsense history and Hindi at the University of Wisconsin. be remembered for his incisive comments that another down-to-earth express his essential integrity: "These inci- man, President Harry Truman, once said of dents are a part of American history and Thomas Hart Benton: "He's the best damned should be included. You have to take the painter of America."

0

Fifty years from' now, says the first lunar explorer, there will be underground cities on the moon, man will certainly have visited Mars, and probably Titan, largest of Saturn's moons.

After more than 50 years of exploring the moon, every crater, hill, nook, and cranny of any interest at all will have been visited and revisited. Lunar exploration will be limited to the scientific, specialist and indefatigable prospector and rock hound. Exploitation will have superseded exploration. Mining, manufacturing, and special services will be the principal business of the colonies and will provide the majority of jobs for the inhabitants.

Inhabitants? Celitainly. Perm'!-nent? Perhaps. But most individuals will be on a temporary assignment. Perhaps a two-year contract, fringe benefits, and all expenses, with a bonus for a renewal after a two-month paid vacation back home on the earth.

The lunar colonies will be underground, protected from the temperature extremes of the fierce sun of the lunar daylight (2500 F.) and the black cold of the night (-2000 F.). The length of the lunar day (high noon to high noon) is more than: 700 hours, but underground the days will be maintained at 24 hours, requiring a minimum of adaptation time for the rocket-lag-plagued new arrival.

A typical lunar colony (e.g., Hillsburrow) .will consist of a number of underground apartments and workrooms connected by tunnels. As the moon has no atmosphere, all habitable spaces will have to be pressurized with air or a breathable mixture of oxygen and other gases. Extreme care will be taken to prevent air leakage, and pressure-sealing doors throughout will isolate any room with a suspected leak.

Spherical- and cylindrical-shaped spaces are preferable for pressurized compartments, and they provide multiplestory living and working-areas. Stairways will not be used because of their poor volumetric efficiency. In the weak lunar gravity, many people will simply jump from one floor to the next, needing only an occasional handgrip to maintain balance. Ladders or cable elevators will be provided for those who are less agile or are carrying heavy loads.

It is conceivable that one day man may want to build an atmosphere on the moon to avoid the necessity for these safeguards against the inconveniences of living so near a vacuum. For the present, however, the vacuum is one of Left: Astronaut Neil Armstrong, who was the first human to set foot on the moon, is shown against the background of the lunar landscape. The photograph, taken by astronauts of a subsequent Apollo moon mission, shows tracks left by the hand-pulled cart IIsed by them to transport equipment.

man's best reasons for being on Luna. The handy, highquality vacuum, along wit~ the ready availability of both very low and very high temperatures (using a simple solar -furnace), makes possible the manufacturing of high-purity metals, vacuum-cast alloys, and specialized electronics components superior in quality and less expensive than their best competitors on the earth.

For centuries it has been known that the moon rotates about its axis at essentially the same rate as it revolves about the earth in its monthly orbit; consequently, it always presents the same face toward the earth. For the lunar colonist living on that face, therefore, the earth does not rise in the east and set in the west, but rather, it remains nearly motionless, a beautiful, blue, slOWly spinning orb, forever locked in the same position in the sky overhead.

Aside from providing a certain sense of security, this characteristic has a very useful feature. A directional radio antenna can be pointed toward the earth and locked in place: It need not be movable as it would have to be if it were to track a planet moving across the sky (as the moon moves from the earth1s viewpoint).

The far side of the moon has, of course, no such advantage. Communications wiJll be relayed, however, by way of a satellite orbiting about the moon.

This disadvantage of the far side-of never being able to enjoy the beauty of the earth overhead-is compensated, to a certain extent, by a very important advantage.

Radio receivers located on the far side are unable to receive transmissions from the earth (except, of course, by the satellite relay). They can hear neither the intentional transmission (AM, FM, PTM, PCM, LF, HF, VHF, et cetera:) nor the unintentional (static, signals generated by lightning, electric motors and generators, manufacturing operations, and so forth).

Who would want to escape this cacophony of man and nature? The person who wants to listen to the unadulterated transmissions from outer space: the radio astronomer.

Hence the radio telescopes and X-ray telescopes (for similar reasons) will be among the first permanent installations on the lunar far side. Their dish-shaped antennae will fit very nicely into natural craters, providing ready-made structural bases. ' The natural craters will be useful in other ways. For example, deep craters near the lunar poles will be in continuous shadow. Forever untouched by the warming rays - .,6f sunlight, such locations are extremely cold-near abso-

'The new frontiers, the new challenges away from our home planet wili amount to a freeing of our civilization from its prison of inevitability.' lute zero. Such places would be ideal low-temperature laboratories, far better than any such places on earth, and among the best such places in the entire solar system. Here the "cold" scientists will be able to investigate that fascinating point where molecular motion nearly stops, where electrical properties of materials take on an entirely new character, where the relation between matter and energy takes on a whole new meaning.

In these remote outposts, ~nd in colonies like Hillsburrow, conservation will be a way of life. "Waste not, want not" will be a mandate rather than a slogan. Most important will be those elements not naturally available on the moon. Paradoxically, hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, is unavailable. As is carbon. No hydrogen and carbon: no water, food, fuel lubricants, plants. Oxygen, on the other hand, is a constituent of many lunar rocks and can be obtained as a by-product of the processing of the lunar ores: Lunar agriculture, to provide a percentage of nonsynthetic foods (and an occasional flower), will be carried on underground under artificial lights. In the growing rooms, the temperature, humidity, and lighting will be maintained at optimum growing conditions. The amount of power required is far less than that necessary to condition naturalsunlight "greenhouses" on the surface. All plants will be grown in trays filled with a modified lunar soil and fed with a nutrient solution with semihydroponic techniques. Livestock will not be included because of their low food-producing efficiency. .

The power for all operations will be electricity. Giant solar generators will convert sunlight to electricity. Some of the power will be used to spin large flywheels to incredibly high speed, accumulating the power necessary to drive generators during the long lunar night.

The lunar inhabitants as well as the colonists ,on other planets and planetoids will not have left the earth for pur-

poses of solving our population problems. No practical methods of transporting large quantities of people and goods is likely to be devised in this century or the next. But the new frontiers, the new challenges, and the new opportunities away from our home planet will amount toa freeing of our civi.lization from its prison of inevitability.

We always face the possibility, however remote, of a worldwide catastrophe. Both man-made and natural disasters that would completely destroy the human race can readily be hypothesized. A number of observers have noted the sur¡ vival value of an extraterrestrial colony that would prevent the extinction of the race in such an event.

Our civilization has not yet matured to the point of being able to select its long-range goals. Once we have decided whether our ultimate purpose is to preserve our species; to evolve to a higher form; or like the majority of the other animate species before us-the dinosaur, the mammoth, and the passenger pigeon-to disappear from the face of the earth, we will be much better able to know whether our fascination with the universe around us is a principal ingredient of our destiny.

Although the only extraterrestrial colonies in existence in 2025 will be on the moon, man will certainly have visited other celestial bodies, probably Mars and a few carefully selected asteroids. Our interest, 50 years hence, will be in devising ways of reaching those places previously thought to be completely unsuitable for man. .' , Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn. Unmanned instrumented probes will have visited all these places and sent back pictures and measurements of their physical, chemical, and even biological characteristics. But these data will merely whet the appetite of man. He must go and see and touch. He must experience both the motion and the emotion. And the more seemingly impracticable the goal, the more intense the fascination. .

In 2025 such a fascination will exist with Titan, the largest of Saturn's moons. Three-quarters of a billion miles from the earth and nearly as large as Mars, Titan is nearly a planet in its own right. Its surface area is two-thirds the size of the land area of the earth. It has usually been considered inhospitable, not only because of its extreme distance from the sun and its consequently low (.,.250 F.) temperatures but also because of its predominantly methane atmosphere.

However, for the dedicated explorer, this atmosphere is less formidable than might at first be thought. Methane is a colorless gas, and a methane atmosphere might permit the exploration of Titan from an aircraft.

Jet engines could be designed to run on methane, although the manner would be the inverse of those to which we are accustomed. On the ear~h the atmosphere contains oxygen, which combines with the fuel-gasoline-carried in the aircraft tanks. On Titan the fue'!would be ingested from 0

the atmosphere through the engine inlet, and the oxygen would be carried in the aircraft tanks. Indeed, Titan's methane might be used as spacecraft fuel for the return trip to the earth.

Of course, methane is poor for breathing, but we have become accustomed to oxygen masks, space suits, and pressurized cabins, which would certainly suffice. They might not, however, even be necessary. During open-heart and other advanced surgery, patients are kept alive for extended periods with vital organs such as the heart and lungs completely bypassed. If the oxygenator of the heart-lung machine were miniaturized; it could be worn around the waist, surgically attached to the cardiovascular system, replacing botl1 the lung and the necessity for breathing. This sort of device could be useful to skin divers on the earth as well, since the depths to which they can dive are limited by the gas mixtures and pressures necessary in the lung. With the oxygenator, the lung and windpipe would not be used and could be filled with water, eliminating most of the normal difficulties with deep diving.

Although many would be very reluctant to submit to the surgical procedures necessary to enjoy this sport, ex, plorers of the great planets, Jupiter and Saturn, very well might comply. The giant planets-Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune-are in a class of their own, not only because of their size (Jupiter has a diameter ten times that of Earth, Saturn nine, Uranps and Neptune four) but also because of their densities (low, about equal to water) and their tremendously deep and stormy atmospheres of methane, hydrogen, and ammonia. Unmanned probes will have penetrated those turbulent shields and revealed what lies below. Jupiter might have a solid surface, a liquid surface, or perhaps no identifiable surface at all. Assuming a surface does exist, the gravity would be such that a man's weight would be more than double its earth value. Difficult to breathe, difficult to walk, impossible to enjoy, but not difficult to swim.

In a cabin filled with liquid, the body buoyancy would offset the burdensome weight, and the crew, equipped with their oxygenators and fluid-filled lungs, would move as freely as scuba divers on the earth at a depth of 15 feet.

Such hypotheses seem to be merely fantasies. The high gravities also mean that extremely large energy expenditures are required to travel from the surface up to a Jovian orbit.

But such fantasies are only one scientific breakthrough away from the possible, certainly not too much to dare in 50 years.

Who will the explorers and colonists be? What flag will they carry? They may be expeditions under American, Russian, or other national ensign, expeditions under a U.N. (or similar organization) banner, or expeditions under the auspices of an international consortium of spacefaring nations.

History whispers that the initiation of such expeditions

may be 20 per cent dependent on noble goals and technical ability and 80 per cent dependent on who pays the freight.

The lunar colonies will have few difficulties in this respect, as they can be expected to show promise of running in the black. Exploratory flights to the remote parts of the solar system, however, will repay their backers with little more than new knowledge and the satisfaction of achievement.

Fortunately, nations and individuals committed to such nonmonetary rewards seem always to appear, and the climb up the path of progress is permitted to continue.

Once a colony or expedition exists, however, the importance of its day-to-day problems far outweighs considerations related to national and international problems back home on the earth. The tremendous difficulties of meeting and adjusting to the challenges of strange lands and hostile environments will weld the participants into a team where they can do no less than their very best for their fellows, and will bind their loyalties above all else to the survival of their group.

There will be differences, as predictable as the inevitable squabbl~ng of political factions in any government, but the adversities of nature will be far more important than the adversities of individuals. Those who survive will have developed new strengths. After thousands of years of surrender to the human weaknesses of avarice, prejudice, and greed, man will find ways of improving himself.

Perhaps it won't matter, in the end, which country is the sower of the seed of exploration. The importance will be in the growth of the new plant of progress and in the fruits it will bear. These fruits will be a new breed of the human species, a human with new views, new vigor, new .resiliency, and a new view of the human purpose.

The p~ant: the tree of human destiny.

0 About the Author: Neil A. Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, July 21, 1969, is now professor of aero-space engineeri!'g at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, and lives on a farm nearby.

CELEBRATING THE BICENTENNIAL As the celebration of the American Bicentennial moves into high gear, many predict that it could be the most varied, the most expensive, the most spectacular birthday celebration in history. More than 3,000 projects have been drawn up by a variety of organizations.

Co-ordinating them all is the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration.

Hundreds of books, 'operas, symphonies, ballets, symposiums and lectures will mark the Bicentennial. Historic buildings are being restored, significant revolutionary events are being re-enacted.

Washington's Smithsonian Institution will unveil its latest treasure, a $40-million , air and space museum, whose exhibits will cover the span of flights from balloons to Apollo l1's landing on the moon.

The Bicentennial has sparked a many-splendored cultural explosion. Estimates are that about 1,000 plays, 100major orchestral compositions, 300 operas and several hundred ballets will be presented as part of the celebration. Sizing up

flashing, hear guns firing, the impact of Bicentennial breathe air surcharged with activity on U.S. arts gunpowder. In the carriage and letters, a government dedicated to the ethnic official predicted: origins of Americans, "It will be the biggest shot talking mannequins discuss in the arm for the arts the cultures of many and humanities in the lands. Wherever the Freedom nat<ion'shistory."

Train stops, local A sampling of projects communities greet it with songin the arts: a Bicentennial fests, historic re-enactments, composition for the Philadelphia concerts. In the words of Orchestra by composer. a Freedom Train official, "If Leonard Bernstei n; two new people can't get to the dance works by choreographer Bicentennial, we'll bring the Paul Taylor; and a BicentennialBicentennial to them." related history of Michigan by historian Bruce Catton.

Another highlight of 'MASTER OF Bicentennial celebrations will LITERARY MADNESS' be a number of traveling "It's been five long exhibitions. The most elaborate cheerless years since his last," of them is the Freedom Train, says an advertisement about an $18-millio~ package of American humorist 24 history-laden cars. The train S.J. Perelman's set out on March 26 on a tour latest book, Vinegar Puss. of 76 cities from coast It is fortunate, says one of to coast. When it completes its Perelman's aficionados, that journey late in 1976, more the "undisputed master of than 50 million Americans literary madness" will have viewed it. The has not been restored train houses precious documents to sanity by his recent from national archives stay in England. such as President Kennedy's Perelman has nibbled at the handwritten draft of his English language ever since Inaugural speech, and artifacts he began to wrtte (he is from a plethora of museums now 71 and has written 19 books). and private collectors (gold He is the creator of a new miners' tools, American Indian totem poles, Martin Luther King's idiom-such words as "mommixed," "buttinsky," vestment robes). There is a "boffin," "wattles," "arbledouble-scale replica of the bargle," and "horripilating"; and Liberty Bell that weighs more such expressions as "let a snarl than 16,000 pounds, a gift be your umbrella," "everything from the American Legion. Says is leeches and cream," and Jon A. Foust, president "ripostes you'll never riposte." of the American Freedom Train Association, "This is a Talking to Time magazine, once-in-a-lifetime experience .... , he described himself in Timestyle These artifacts have never as "button cute, rapier keen, been displayed together before." wafer thin and pauper poor."

Each car brings a theme Vinegar Puss abounds in such to life with vivid special Perelmanisms, "22 delicious effects. In the Revolutionary morsels from the man who is War car, you see lights to humor what caviar is to mere

food." Perelman writes about people he has known, mainly writers and theater personalities.

He also tells you about strangers and casual acquaintances such as a famous Indian film star. And always, he speaks his mind ("take the mush out of your mouth").

One of the punchiest pieces in Vinegar Puss is "I Have Nothing to Declare But My Genius," a splendid spoof about a prolific hack who dashes off . a few murder mysteries every day before breakfast. (Perelman himself is a painstaking writer, a firm believer in the theory that "easy writing makes hard reading.") Then there is Around the Bend in 80 Days, a rollicking version of Perelman's 1971 trip along the route taken by Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg. (Perelman is very partial to the story. Fifteen years ago he wrote the script for Mike Todd's film version, and was awarded an Oscar.)

Like any other collection of essays, Vinegar Puss isn't uniformly first-rate; yet it's difficult to put down.

The many unexpected turns and twists of phrase and thought grip you. Perelman is at his best when he makes fun of the pompous, the fake and the tawdry, and sometimes he does it quite savagely. But on the whole, Vinegar Puss has more honey in it than acid.

What's the latest career craze among young American women? Unlikely though it sounds, it's the Armed Forces. One Army officer calls the flood of young women applicants "astounding."

"We don't have enough uniforms or living space for

ERICANS RETALKING

BOUli basic training for women," he says. Naval and Air Force recruiting officers are equally baffled.

Women in the Armed Forces work not merely as secretaries, nurses or administrative assistantsthey don army uniforms, fly planes and helicopters,

drawing the same salaries as men.

They have proved quite competent-and no wonder.

The Armed Forces in America prescribe tougher standards for women than for men. Army men, for instance, need to score only 31 points in arithmetical reasoning, grammar and English comprehension; but women must score 59. The reason is that the Armed Forces require fewer women and can therefore be more selective about them.

What draws women to the Armed Forces? Apparently it's many things. A girl who joins the Army straight from school gets a "package" of

benefits she wouldn't get anywhere else-a good salary, excellent professional training, free board and lodging, free medical care, even subsidized college education.

(The Armed ForGes encourage recruits to take college courses, with the U.S. paying much of the expense.) Says Rebecca Steck, 19, who finished high school last year: "If I went to a four-year college, I'd come out with no guarantee of a job. But with the Navy I can be sure of something and I'll be getting paid while I'm learning." Other girls say they are joining the military because they just couldn't let go of their "childhood dream of donning a uniform."

There were nearly 75,OOtl women working with the U.S. Defense Department at the end of 1974; the figure is expected to rise to 110,000 by the end of 1976. Recruiting officers are quite happy about the new enthusiasm of women for the Armed Forces.

And they think they are getting superior candidates compared to the old days. One Army officer says: "The women now applying are of high quality.

Very few have had to be turned awaybecause they couldn't meet the requirements."

THE WONDROUS MINI-CALCULATOR Tens of millions of Americans are playing with and talking about a tiny electronic marvel -the mini-calculator. Small enough to be held in the hand or slipped in the pocket, it does tedious arithmetical operations in seconds, saving time and soothing nerves.

Students for whom arithmetic

was once anathema now actually look upon it as "a fun subject."

How does the mini-calculator work? Well, suppose you want to multiply 4,563' by 8,719. You merely switch on the computer, press the four buttons for the figures 4, 5, 6 and 3, then press the multiplication sign button, then press the buttons for 8, 7, 1 and 9, then press the "equals" button. The answer lights up immediately: 39,784,797.

And it all happens in about six seconds.

In the U.S. mini-calculators cost anywhere between $20 and $700, depending on how much they can "do." A $20 calculator can add, subtract, multiply and divide. The 100 companies that make such simple calculators sold 12 million of them in 1974-to students, to housewives who pay bills and balance checkbooks, to stores and offices. The more complicated mini-calculator does much more than simple arithmetic: It gives you square roots, reciprocals, logarithms, degrees and radians. It is in fact a slide rule married to an arithmetical machine that lives happily in your shirt pocket. The professionals who use it sas it cuts their workload by a fifth.

Not all educators are delighted with the invasion of classrooms by the calculator. Some teachers fear it may spawn a generation of mathematical illiterates who will be lost without their machines. They fear that people will forget their multiplication tables if they never have to use them.

One school official in Massachusetts says: "You just can't give students a calculator

and forget about teaching them how to add, subtract, multiply and divide." But most teachers welcome the minicalculator as a technological tool that will "free them" to teach the basic concepts of mathematics, the theory behind it all, while relegating "te'dious arithmetic" to a machinewhere it belongs. Many universities now allow students to Use pocket calculators for examinations. Soon calc,ulators may take their place with notebooks and pencils as standard items of school equipment. And greater wonders may lie ahead. A California scientist, David Hodges, predicts that l;>y1980 some 50 million bits of information will be stored in a single miniature computer that could be held in the hand. Such a machine could solve mathematical problems, help its owner to master a foreign language or analyze stock market trends. Armed with this pocket know-it-all, a boy student could easily estimate the number of pretty girl students in the school building and compute the odds of one of them saying hello to him that afternoon.

0

ABBAN TorBID

TBI

WORLD! Soybeans are richer in protein than meat or fish.

And their nutritional value, measured against production costs, makes them one of the cheapest foods available to mankind today.

A

mericans continue to sing of amber waves pf grain, not dusty pods of beans; but soybeans, not wheat or corn, are the United States' number one cash crop, and by 1985, they are expected to occupy more acres than any other crop we grow.The U.S. harvested more than 1,300 million bushels---::-78,000million pounds-of soybeans in 1974, 80 per cent of the world's supply. America sent about half its crop to Japan, Europe, China, India, Pakistan, and a dozen lesser countries, and kept the other half at home. Yet few Americans have ever seen a soybean. Soybeans are part of our diet but not of our cuisine, and only food faddists eat them plain. The annual world crop could satisfy the protein requirements of 800 million people, butwe and our customers use it instead to feed chickens and cattle and swine. Mysterious bean: Most Americans know it only as smoky chips of imitation bacon or as a mealy and tasteless party snack. We also know it, though we may be unaware we do, as margarine and cooking oil. Its continued export will help America solve its balance-of-payments problem, but the priorities other countries assign to its use are as wasteful as those oftheU.S. The soybean is a study in contradictions. Spokesmen for American farmers like to call it their miracle crop. It is, rather, a sort of vegetable Candide.

The soybean is small and glossy and spherical, the size and shape of a dried pea.

In its preferred varieties, it is pale yellow, the yellow relieved of tedium bya streak of black at, the bean's equator, at the site of its seed scar. Its hull is also very like a pea's, peeling off easily to release two splits, two halves, that are the reservoirs of the bean's riches. Like other peas and beans-pulses, they are collectively called -the soybean is a legume. Which means, first, that the plant fixes more nitrogen in the soil than it uses for growth-the rule of thumb among farmers is one pound of nitrogen added for each bushel of beanS taken away-and, second, that the soybean is proteinaceous, not starchy, and contains an average of 40 per cent crude protein.

Compare beef and fish at 18 per cent. The soybean contains 3 times .as much crude The many Indian foods at left are all made from soybeans. While the puris are only 20 per cent soybean, the barfi and cake 50 per cent, and the samosas, kachouris and haiwa 75 per cent soybean, the fried soYcdaI, the laddoos, and even the glass of "milk" are madefrom nothing but soybeans-IOO per cent!

protein as eggs or whole wheat flour, 11 times as much as whole fresh milk.

Measured against the cost of its production, its nutritional value makes it one of the cheapest foods available to mankind.

The plant from which the soybean grows-Glycine soja or Glycine max, depending on whose nomenclature you prefer-looks much like other bean plants, with heart-shaped leaves branching from one or more central stalks that attain a maximum height of about three feet. The flowers, which .form on the nodes at each successive stop, are no larger than a match head and usually purple. They are selfpollinating; making it extremely unlikely that hybrid soybeans will ever be developed in commercially useful quantities. In an era when hybrid corn generally produces a harvest of 100 or more bushels to the acre, soybean yields in the United States average only 29, though good farmers with good hmd can push' those yields as high as 50 to 60. The average is low, and has increased from year to year by only fractions of a bushel, and isn't likely to increase much faster in the years ahead. Therefore, soybeans must pay three times the return of corn to be competitive with corn, and except in the best years, they hardly do.

At their high point last year, soybeans returned almost $9 a bushel: an astronomical figure until you consider that corn, three times as plentiful on each acre where it is grown, returned three.

Soybeans require good soil, a growing season of.about 115 days, early moisture, and protection from early autumn frosts.

They are a logical crop for the American Corn Belt, and it is in the Corn Belt that they are primarily grown. Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, Minnesota, Arkansas, and Ohio are the seven leading states in soybean production, but 23 other states devote significant acreages to soybeans.

Kansas, where I live, is 13th in soybean production in the United States, and produces more soybeans than the Soviet Union, and the rest of Europe together. Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas could feed the entire United States if we lived on vegetable protein alone.

I take Kansas as an example. To see ho\Y soybeans are grown there, I visited the Robert Manson farm outside Bonner Springs, Kansas, only 20 -miles from KansaSCity as one travels west along the valley of the Kansas River.

Bob Manson is a strong, youthful man of 47 who grew up on an Iowa farm, served in World War II, tried his hand at other I

work, and went back to farming when he and his wife had children. "We wanted our children to grow up in the cou~try," he says, but he also wanted to farm again, work he .likes better than any other, and he does as well as any farmer in the United States. He and his son, with whom he farms in partnership, have won prizes-a trip to Europe, a trip to Japan-for their' high soybean yields, yields of more than 69 bushels to the acre on specially tended five-acre plots.

M

ansonrentsl ,000 acres ofland in the . rolling country south of the river valley, good soil that was once tall-grass prairie. He lives inan old white farmhouse, set halfa mile back from the highway; to get to his house, you drive through a spectacular grove of walnuts and oaks, where Boy Scouts often camp on week-ends. Almost all Manson's acreage is devoted to row crops, milo and soybeans, though he also plants some wheat and runs a few head of cattle. He plants soybeans in midMay, rotating them with milo at intervals of about three years. "I never put all my eggs in one basket. That way, if one crop goes bad, I've got the others." He has planted soybeans in June, and even, in fields from which he has just harvested his wheat, in early JuLy.Soybeans planted late respond to the deiay _pyshortening their period of vegetative growth and catching up. They can be harvested only days after much earlier plantings are mature.

We walked through one of Manson's exceptionally clean fields in' early September. The soybeans were in bloom and beginning to pod. Manson's rows run 28 inches wide, the most convenient -width for his combine; the trend, he says, is toward narrower rows, so that the plants will overshadow the¡ weeds and keep the sun from drying out the soil. He drills his soybean seed into the ground with a grain drill, simultaneously dressing the soil with phosphorus and potash fertilizer, and later dresses the field with herbicides: Weeds can easily turn a profitable field into a lost field, because the margin of profit on soybeans is so narrow.

Manson harvests his beans in early October, when the pods are full and hard and _brown, when the stalks are dry and the leaves have fallen to the ground. They look pitiful t~en, as scraggly as weeds.

In 1974, in Kansas, they barely escaped being damaged by frost before they had a chance to mature, because frost came early, in mid-September. Like other far-

mers, Manson waits for harvest until the beans' moisture content has dropped to 13 per cent, because buyers deduct 20 cents a bushel for excess moisture, which can cause the beans to mold or rot in storage. The harvest, by combine, is a time of back-breaking labor, of getting up at 5 a.m. and running the combine all day and driving the trucks to the elevators at night and going to bed at midnight and getting up again at 5; running against the weather, running against rain that would mean waiting a day or two for the beans to dry out again, or even against snow; running against the two weeks after maturity when the beans ate likely to fall off the stalks and be lost on the ground. A good tractor costs $15,000, a good combine $25,000. Soybean~ return a profit most years, but not all.

If soybeans were not in soch great demand, if the'y weren't so.useful for weed control and nitrogen renewal in rotation with corn and milo (corn and milo are grasses, soybeans broad-leaved plants: Herbicides that kill one kind of weed protect the other, so rotation gives each crop a clean field), if they weren't such an excellent hedge against one-crop disasters like the 1974 drought, if their planting and harvesting times didn't fall so conveniently between the planting and harvesting times of other, more lucrative crops, they wouldn't be planted at all. Those are major ifs: Planted soybeans are, and planted .they will be, so long as their price stays high. But they're too new a crop to evince much n0stalgia in farmers. No one loves a soybean except the Chinese and the Japanese, who learned to convert it to delectable sauces and palatable curds eons ago.

A

bushel of soybeans, 60 pounds, contains about 48 pounds of soybean meal and 11 pounds of crude soybean oil (the other pound is waste). Neither oil nor meal is a by-product of the other, as cottonseed oil is a by-product of cotton production, or lard a by-product of pork production, and the fact that expanding markets exist for both the oil and the meal accounts¡ for the soybean's success. Export demand for edible oil and protein meal increases by about 10 per cent per year; domestic demand increases by about four per cent per year; America plants more soybeans to meet both demands. Soybeans have never been in surplus, and with U.S. production down 19 per cent in 1974 (because farmers thought 1974 would be a

good year for corn, which it wasn't, and because of bad weather), they may even be in dearth.

Americans use soybean oil in cookingthe growing number ¡of fast-food chains in the United States has added a whole new area of demand-and as margarine.

We use soybean meal, properly processed, in some of our processed foods. But the primary use of soybean meal in the United States is for animal feed, and that is a use to which the rest of the world has recently turned. It was not always so.

Feeding soybeans to animals is an American invention.

The soybean evolved, and was domesticated, in Asia. The Chinese considered it, along with rice, wheat, barley, and millet, a sacred grain, and written advice for its cultivation can be found in Chinese records more than 4,000 years old. A few Europeans cultivated it in the 18th and early 19th centuries, but it doesn't grow well in Europe, where the dry season corresponds to the soybean's planting time, because the bean must absorb twice its weight in water in order to sprout. American farmers showed no interest at all in soybeans until the end of the 19th century, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) turned to scientific farming, decided that soybeans might be valuable as hay and silage and for green manure (grown and plowed back under), and introduced a¡ large number of varieties from Asia and Europe. George Washington Carver experimented with .soybeans, as he did more notably with peanuts, and was impressed with their protein content, but soybeans were first grown as a cash crop in the United States for their oil, and even that use developed slowly. When the United States found itself short of fats and oils during World War I, processors imported Manchurian soybeans to be pressed, believing American beans inferior.

Not until 1924 did the USDA begin reporting annual acreages and harvests of soybeans. They were scanty then: 448,000 acres, 5 million bushels. Acreage devoted to soybeans increased slowly but annually.

Margarine came of age during World War II and after, and still there was too much meal. Soybean production for m~al as well as oil began its soaring growth only in the 1950s, when increasing American affluence brought with it an increasing hunger for meat, and the poultry industry expanded and the feedlot system of fattening cattle and swine came of age.

With soybean meal as a protein supple-

ment in feedlot and poultry-house hoppers, one bushel of corn can almost be made to do the work of two. Between 1959 and 1972, soybean acres doubled.

As high as meat prices are today, they would be much higher if we hadn't learned to use soybean meal for livestock and poultry feed.

The world market, recovering more slowly from the ravages of war, became a factor later, the minuscule market for soybeans as human food later still. The technology for spinning soy protein like nylon, for turning it into fibers that resemble the fibers in meat, was patented in 1957. The process that converts soybeans into textured soy-protein concentrate, the form in which it is commonly added to meat, was patented in 1970. By that year, soybean meal accounted for 66 per cent of the total protein supplement fed to domestic poultry and livestock. We thus use the world's cheapest source of protein to grow the world's most expensive. Candide would want an explanation for that.

S

oybeansare not, by themselves, a complete human food, though they come closer -than most. They contain all eight amino acids essential to human nutrition, but they are low in one-methionine. They contain, in their raw state, antinutritive factors which, fortunately, can be destroyed by heat. They are high in lysine, and that proportion is fortuitous, because cereal grains such as wheat and corn, which contain adequate methionine, are low in lysine. The Mex~can diet has long been based on beans and corn for just this reason of complementarity, and cereal grains and soybeans together constitute a complete and balanced source of human nutrition. That is why the U.S. AID (Agency for International Development) portion of the United States' Food for Peace Program has recently been promoting a flour called Wheat-Soya Blend (WSB) for use in schools and by pregnant and nursing mothers in underdeveloped countries. In the United States, the demand for both oil and meal is still growing faster than the population: We've converted to vegetable oil, but not to vegetable protein. Less than four per cent of the country's annual soybean harvest goes directly into the food we eat, and most of that is additives and extenders, not meat substitutes, not the bean itself.

The conversion of soybeans to food for humans is worth looking at. It isn't important now, but it's likely to become

so. To make soy products for human consumption, processors select U.S. grade number 1 and 2 beans, clean them, crack them, dehull them, and crush them into flakes. The flakes go to solvent ex:tractors, where the oil is dissolved away. Dried, they can then be ground into soy flour or grits that contain about 50 per cent protein ("flour" refers only to particle size, because soybeans contain no dough-forming compounds). Further extraction dissolves away most soluble carbohydrates to produce soy-protein concentrate, which is about 68 per cent protein. Soy-protein concentrate, in turn, can be cooked up to a thermoplastic and extruded like spaghetti to make textured vegetable

protein, TVP, the form that is most commonly added to ground meat. TVP can be flavored and spiced to suit the client: I saw some that was lime green, and tasted like green peppers.

More elaborate extraction results in isolated soy protein, which is 90 per cent protein and is used in coffee whiteners and whipped toppings. Isolated soy protein is the basis fot spun soy protein, the material that produces lifelike imitation cubes of "chicken" and "ham." The USDA estimates that the total market in meat analogues (substitutes) will be no greater in 1980 than it is today, and the USDA is probably right. So the analogues are there, but we don't want them; the analogues

are there, but they're expensive, and the countries that might find them useful can't afford them. As it so often does, technology has spun wonders before their time.

Japan, America's best soybean customer, needs and demands a reliable source of oil and protein meal. In 1973, when the U.S. embargoed soybean exports because we feared we wouldn't have enough for ourselves, the Japanese turned in desperation to other sources of oil and meal, to rapeseed from Canada, for example.

Despite the fact that the present Administration in Washington is committed to a policy of open exports, the Japanese are still considering alternatives. Fish meal is competitive with soybean meal on the world

fIB SOYBBAlllllDll In the accompanying article, Richard Rhodes describes the soybean as a "sort of vegetable Candide." A New Delhi agronomist, N.K. Mohta, likens the soybean to an Indian bride who is welcomed into her new home but with some misgivings, for she is not known very well. Indians have the same attitude toward soybeans, he says.

Soybeans have come to India, but remain relatively unknown. Most Indians do not know that they are one of the richest sources of protein and still fewer know how to make soybeans a part of their diet.

Mohta, the soybean specialist at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, is not unduly alarmed that Indian consumers are unfamiliar with soybeans and few Indian farmers plant them. "The soybean," he says, "has a great future in India.

We have found varieties suited to different agro-climatic regions.

More and more farmers find the economics of soybean cultivation very attractive and of course there is an increasing demand for them." He adds: "It took the Americans 50 years to popularize soybeans, but I believe we will be able to popularize this c~op in much less time."

The soybean, Mohta points out, is not an entirely new crop to India. It has been cultivated for ages in the hill areas of the north and in scattered pockets of Madhya Pradesh. In the hill areas it is known as bhat or bhatmas, but this black variety never made any impact on Indian farming because its yields were low and maturity time was long.

In the' early 1960s, however, India imported from the United States the high-yielding, golden-colored, commercial varieties such as the Bragg and the Lee. Though the initial tests were conducted in only a few centers, they revealed the possibilities of direct introduction of U.S.-bred varieties to Indian farms.

These promising results, plus the desire of the Government of India to meet protein and oil shortages, led to the birth in April 1967 of the All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Soybeans. Since then soybean cultivation in India has increased considerably. For instance, in 1971-72 the area under soybean

cultivation was 32,318 hectares. In 1974-75 it is more than double that figure-64,756 hectares. And the yield in India per hectare is about the same as in the United States.

Mohta feels, however, that soybean cultivation in India would be more extensive and the yield even richer but for the serious shortage of good quality seeds, inadequate farmer knowledge of soybean production technology, and the lack of marketing facilities. But things are improving. The Food Corporation of India is producing Balahar-a soy-based, low-cost nutritious food that is being utilized in various child-feeding programs in the country. The corporation is also setting up a modern soybean processing plant in Faridabad, Haryana, to produce edible-grade soy flour and grits. Modern Bakeries, which produces about 100 million loaves of bread a year, fortifies its bread with five per cent soy flour. At the Uttar Pradesh Agricultural University in Pantnagar, a pilot plant makes milk from soybeans. And at the National Dairy Research Institute at Karnal, Haryana, scientists have developed a soybean-based weaning food.

The use of soybeans by the Indian housewife is another matter, says Mohta. "Very few people use soybeans in their food and those who are adventurous enough to try it are turned off by its beany flavor-a sort of bitterness. But it is easy and very inexpensive to make soybeans palatable," Mohta points out. "All one has to do is to soak the beans in water for about 8 to 10 hours and then boil them for about 15 minutes, or dry-roast the beans in sand. After boiling or roasting, soybeans can be used to make various foods such as milk, curd, cheese. Or they can be used in various proportions to make pakoras, dahi vadas, puris, chappatis, dosas and many sweet dishes like barfi and laddoos."

One of the easiest and simplest uses of soybeans is to add 200 grams of soybean flour to every kilogram of wheat flour. "This will give chappatis or puris made from this mixture a protein content of 20 per cent-or enough protein for a healthy diet," Mohta says.

0

market, and soybean growers living on dry land in the American Midwest benefited enormously in 1973 from the disappearance of fish off the coast of Peru. Soybean exports increased by 50 million bushels that year. The fish are back, but the market now appears to be big enough for both: In 1974, for the first time, the People's Republic of China bought American soybeans, 33 million bushels, about as much as the Soviet Union bought the year before.

or think we need, from abroad. But domestic meat production demands grain and beans that might otherwise be exported. The U.S. can't grow more beans by increasing acreages, because we're already farming most of the available cropland in the country. We aren't using it as efficiently as we might, but increased efficiency is primarily a function of fertilizer and irrigation, and both require oil, one for its manufacture, the other to run the pumps. Furthermore, we don't like to see food prices increase: We have become he world market was never more in- fanatic about food prices, believing they terdependent than it is today. In 1972, measure for us the day-to-day impact of for example, when the Soviet Union de- inflation. To the extent-and it is the greatcided to buy wheat from the United States er extent-that they reflect increased prorather than ask its own population to cessing and middleman costs, that belief is tighten its belt, America suddenly dis- accurate. But to the extent that food prices covered that there wasn't enough wheat to reflect a long overdue adjustment to a go around in the world at the low prices world market where scarcity, not surplus, we had been paying farmers. "We found is the order of the day, that belief is misourselves," says a former USDA official, guided. A world market of scarcity might "like it or not, sharing food scarcity with seem to argue for restricted exports, but 248 million Soviet consumers." As if to restricting exports would not only hurt emphasize that scarcity, the world grain America's balance of payments, eroding reserve reached a new low in 1974, 26 purchasing power even more; it would days, down from 95 days in 1961, pri- also make it likely that farmers would marily because of bad weather in the plant other crops until scarcity was the United States and a shortage of fertilizer order of business at home as well as in Asia. abroad-that is, until prices got back up World demand for U.S. grains is largely to at least marginally profitable levels. a function of growing world affluence. The Soviet grain order in the autumn of 1974, merica is beginning to feel the preswhich the Ford Administration expedisure of these conflicts. Farmers planttiously reduced by more than 50 per cent, edfewer acres of soybeans last year than the included a considerable amount of wheat, year before because they wanted the acres but the bulk of it was corn and soybeans for corn. In December, the USDA installed for animal feed. Whether for animal or al new grading system for beef that has human consumption, foreign demand for put what is essentially grass-fed beef in the American grain has become a hot eco- supermarket. Cattlemen even predict that nomic and political issue, but it's doubtful corn-fed beef will shortly be relegated to that any administration can practically the gourmet case, where its price will limit grain exports in the long run without match prices for corn-fed beef in Europe. making things worse than they already are. Steaks sell there for as much as $5 a pound.

Enter soybeans again, by the side door.

Farm exports are more vital to America than they have ever been: Soybeans, for A few supermarket chains have begun example, represented 10 per cent of the selling TVP-ground beef blends. In one value of all U.S. exports in 1974. Soybeans extensive market test, such blends quickly and other commodities bring our dollars took over from 20 to 30 per cent of ground home, and the U.S. potential for agri- beef sales. They sold for from 15 to 20 cultural production is greater than the cents less per pound. The USDA expects potential of any other nation in the world. vegetable protein to replace 20 per cent of Comes, then, another trade-off, not red meat in processed foods-chili and hot dogs and bologna-by 1980. The U.S. butter for guns-Samuelson's classic-but steaks for oil. America's oil needs drain National School Lunch Program now our dollars: The price of foreign oil in- authorizes the use of TVP, up to 30 per creased 300 per cent in 1974. Our farm cent, in meat dishes, a potential 26 million exports return our dollars. As our farm lunches a day. Manufacturers of TVP are exports grow, so does our ability to buy going after the institutional marketthe oil and other raw materials we need, schools and hospitals and retirement

T

A

homes-hot and heavy, and they are making headway. That means, among other things, that the palates of our children are being trained to accept the taste of beans. The next generation may even prefer it, as many Americans seem to prefer margarine.

I

ncreasing crop yields is not a simple matter. If there is a solution, it is more research, better varieties, possibly a breakthrough or two. Americans want more meat, but the cost begins to pinch us. The developed world, Japan and Europe and the Soviet Union, wants meat, and'is willing to buy our soybeans in order to have it.

The underdeveloped world wants any protein it can get, but can't afford our beans, much less our processed concentrates. Our program, apparently, is going to be threefold: Go back to grass-fed beef, the beef our forefathers chewed; mix vegetable protein into our processed foods; and let our institutional population eat analogues. That is a solution born of luxury. The developed world, in the meantime; appears determined to increase its meat supply by depending on U.S. exports (and those of Brazil, a country whose potential for agricultural production is almost equal to America's and whose soybean harvests have increased from 15 million to more than 176 million bushels in the past decade).

Half the world's population lives almost entirely on vegetable proteins. Vegetable proteins, the soybean first among them, could easily feed the other half as well, now and in the foreseeable future.

With fully efficient agriculture and a vegetable diet, the world could theoretically support a population of 40,000 to 50,000 million people. Meat proteins couldn't even support the population we already contend with, but meat proteins, or rather meat, the world clamors for. As the cannibal said to the Christian, it's a matter of taste. Yet we might remember, as we proceed to the feedlot, that the finest cuisine in the world, the Chinese, is also among the cheapest. It works miracles with soybeans, and it considers beef hardly at all.

D About the Author: Richard Rhodes is a no.elist, filmmaker and magazine writer. A former contributing editor of Harper's magazine, he now writes for such periodicals as Redbook, Esquire, Playboy and Reader's Digest. His latest novel is The Ungodly. In 1973 he made a television film. A Wild Delight: Emerson on Nature.

ON

THE

UGI-ITER

SIDE

"It makes meleel good-that's

why."

© 1974. Reprinted by permission of Saturday Review/World

and Bill Maul.

"Is there someone else, Narcissus?"

Drawing by Chas. Addams. © 1974 the New Yorker Magazine, Inc .

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- ~5. ~R{)SS "Now then, which is the bride?"

Drawing by Lo Linkert. Courtesy

Vancouver Life.

"This dress was advertised as unshrinkable."

Drawing by Samuel Gross. Courtesy Ladies' Home Journal. © 1972 Downe Publishing Company.

THE MOST DANGEROUS IN AMERICA Almost every American has his own vision of Benjamin Franklin, perhaps the most extraordinary of America's Founding Fathers. So did biographer Catherine Drinker Bowen, who died in late 1973 before she could finish her book 'The Most Dangerous Man in America: Scenes From the Life of Benjamin Franklin.' In this review of Bowen's book, a distinguished Indian writer finds similarities between Franklin and a major figure in the Indian freedom movement, her grandfather Motilal Nehru.

From loyal subject of the King of England to American revolutionary was a process not confined to Benjamin Franklin-one unusual personality among many of his generationbut Franklin seems curiously self-propelled in this process: a man who grew not according to the spirit and temper of his timeshe was often in opposition to these-or even by the grace of God, for there is no predominant spiritual quality in his make-up, but in a kind of undaunted naturalness.

A lofty idealism surrounds some of Franklin's distinguished contemporaries, and there was plenty of that about their cause, the clear and immensely stirring argument that separation from the British finally became. But there is something somber about idealism, an emotional flurry and intensity that does not fit into what I discern of Franklin's makeup. He emerges from Catherine Drinker Bowen's book, The Most Dangerous Man in America, without Unamuno's "tragic sense oflife." He is a man comfortably in command of himself, no moans and sighs about him.

Even in youth he shows signs of a formidable discipline. If there are wounds and heartbreaks inhis life, they healthily heal. Nothing festers. He has no stomach for despair and the fanciful in him finds flight and expression in some of the most advanced scientific experiments of his time. He belongs almost wholly to the f!lture, to that middle class the American Revolution throws up and clothes with dignity and increasing authority.

Franklin thinks in terms of the particular, not general principles and abstractions. He speaks of "liberties," not "liberty." He leaves his inventions unpatented so that they may be copied and used freely in every home-

this is an age when science was studied for its own sake and its discoveries considered too elevated to be explained or made available to the vulgar common herd. So I get the feeling that he was not so much a product of his times, made and molded by them, as their initiator on his continent. I am not sure if this can be said of any other 18th-century American, the most progressive of whom were brilliant reflections of the century they were born in, of the Enlightenment and its ideas. They took in and fed back into their environment what they received from the age of reason, its philosophy, its science, politics and attitudes. They partook of the common pool of Europe's intellectual flowering.

Franklin is different. I see him as a uniquely individual phenomenon, a startling upthrust with a freshness and vitality all its own in the low-key, materially and mentally circumscribed colonial world of his day. He is the Enlightenment on American soil, and a herald of it for the narrow, scattered, disunited colonial communities to which he seems to have given the desire to read, the impulse to laugh, the capacity to question and finally to unite.

The "glimpses" Miss Bowen provides are" ... built around a definite plot: the story of Franklin's slow change from an admirer of Great Britain ('Long did I endeavor ... to preserve from breaking that fine and noble China vase, the British Empire.') to a bitter foe of British administration in all its manifestations." Curiously enough I think he would have been as remarkable without his political career-can this be said of many national leaders?-for Franklin stands out in his personal capacity as a tremendous contri-

buting, creative personality in the lasting impact he makes on his times.

This was no revolutionary par excellence burning with the desire for upheaval and change of government. Until far into his life he wanted neither. He liked the ground he stood on, and he was alert and active about improving it and himself in every way he could discover. Give or take the American Revolution, Franklin would still have been a phenomenon. His opposition to the British, later so implacable, and his career as a diplomat put a high gloss on a character that had already left its mark on the domestic and public lives of his countrymen, though there is a dazzle about the accomplishments of his old age spent as America's envoy abroad.

The book ends in 1774 when Franklin had 15 years to live and was about to start a new phase of his extraordinary career. In December 1776, his country five months independent, and Franklin a co-author of the Declaration that declared it so, he landed in France. Europe by then regarded him as America's most outstanding citizen. His writings had been translated into several European languages and his experiments in electricity had excited the scientific-minded French. So had his personality and appearance, which he had a flair for exploiting to the best advantage, putting on what he described as the clothes of "an American agriculturist," abandoning his wig for a fur cap, al).dwriting to a friend, "Think how this must appear among Right: This painting depicts Franklin as afire fighter. wearing the helmet o/Philadelphia's Union Fire Company which he organized in 1736.

He also founded a hospital and a public library.

'Franklin is a uniquely individual phenomenon, a startling upthrust with a freshness and vitality all its own.... He is the Enlightenment on American soil.' the powdered heads of Paris!" It obviously into the prosaic business of setting type and appeared intoxicating, and adulation for him sought an outlet to make the job more inbordered on frenzy. Voltaire spoke of Wash- teresting. Printing was dull and routine but ington's army as "Franklin's troops." Balzac so was most of life, or perhaps few had the wrote of him: "He has invented the lightning time or talent to look at its lighter side.

Benjamin did, striking a note of sparkling rod, the hoax (canard) and the republic."

French ladies copied his hairdo, and his satire with a bulky anonymous contribution portrait appeared on every surface that could to his brother's paper, kept a secret because be worn or flourished-rings, watches, medals James might have thrashed him for his imand snuff boxes. This was the legendary pertinence had he known. Benjamin's effort was a series 0[,-14 letters written by a female Franklin at 70.

Miss Bowen's "scenes" from his life illu- he called Silence Dogood.

He was 16 at the time and had had only mine the passage from adolescence to living legend. She died before she could finish her two years of schooling. He had already read book, but an afterword leaves us her inter- what he could find of arithmetic, geometry pretation of his character, and I have to agree and navigation. Now "extremely ambitious," with her quote from Carl Van Doren: "Frankin his own words, to become a "tolerable lin must have been what he was because English Writer," he extended his reading and nobody could have invented such a figure." invented laborious exercises to enlarge his We are introduced first to the boy, 15th vocabulary, learn spelling and grammar and child of a soap and candlemaker of Boston, style. Mistress Dogood springs immediately unwillingly apprenticed to his brother James, to life. Certainly no reader for a minute a printer. Printing, like so much else, had to doubted her existence. "At the time of my be learned in England and every bit of ma- Birth," went the first letter, "my Parents chinery for it had to be imported from Eng- were on shipboard on their Way from Lonlaird. In the colon'ies reading was little don to N. England. My Entrance into this known and there was not much to read apart troublesome World was attended with the from the Bible and perhaps Pilgrim's Prog- Death of my Father ....

For as he ... ress. There were two newspapers in Boston stood upon the Deck rejoycing at my Birth, besides James's New-England Courant, but a merciless Wave entered the Ship, and in they were dull affairs reporting ship arrivals one Moment carry'd him beyond Reprieve." and departures and antique quotes from _ With this no-nonsense beginning exhibitEuropean papers: "Letters from Moscow ing a vigorous inventiveness, Benjamin makes advise that the Danish Envoy Extraordinary, Silence announce in Letter No. 2 that her M. Westphalen, having shewn his creden- employer, "a Country Minister, a pious tials to the Count Golofskin, Chancellor of good-natur'd young Man, and a Batchelor," the Russian Empire, was receiv'd with all has proposed to her. It is impossible not to possible Marks of Respect. ... " In the gruel- picture her in flesh and blood, delectable, ing round of plying one's trade and raising fully conscious of her charms and with a crops and battling with everything from touch of the bawdy: "There is certainly scarce weather to defense against attack, and cut any Part of a Man's Life in which.he appears off by thousands of miles from courtiers and more silly and ridiculous than when he makes diplomacy, who cared what someone had his first Onset in Courtship. This aukward done at some fancy court four months earlier? manner in which my Master first discover'd James decided to make his paper readable his Intentions, made me, in spite of my and livened it up with ballads, stories and a Reverence for his Person, burst into an undebate on whether or not there should be in- mannerly Laughter: However, having ask'd oculation against small pox. Benjamin, his Pardon, and with much ado compos'd strong and active, would rather have gone my countenance, I promised him I would to sea. Some of that chained energy and take his Proposal into serious Consideration, longing for adventure must have spilled over and speedily give an Answer."

Here started Franklin's itch for the penhe could very well have become a novelistand all his life he wrote down anything of importance to him, and carried on long correspondences with friends and colleagues over matters political, scientific and personal. The printing trade, too, got into his bones. "Benjamin as printer's apprentice was rebellious; he has testified that he longed for escape. Yet to his life's end Franklin remained a printer and took pride in it. Wherever he lived in Europe or America and no matter how exalted his reputation, he managed to have a press at his disposal. It is no accident that his last will and testament, written at 83 (the year before he died), begins, 'I Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia, printer ... .' " Ambition was natural to an environment where people were continually thrown back on their own resources in order to build, to learn, and even to survive. Yet Franklin's appears large even in this setting. His reputation grew and he prospered as own~r of a newspaper, clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly, writer on economics and politics, Postmaster General for Philadelphia, and scientist. This self-made man of unremarkable origins, with his relentless belief in "we, I mean, the middling people ... the farmers, shopkeepers and tradesmen of this city and country," had by his middle forties created several orderly revolutions in his society. He had reformed the American postal delivery system to swiftness and efficiency, invented the lightning rod and the open stove, designed spectacles, surgical and musical instruments and street lamps for Philadelphia, and been recognized by the exalted, receiving honorary degrees from Harvard and Yale and the Copley Gold Medal from the Royal Society of London.

All this development in its sheer persistence, its cool clarity and cheerful matter-offactness contrasts vividly with the atmosphere in which it took place. Massachusetts Bay Colony where Franklin grew up had practiced religious persecution for a hundred years. Religion preached hell-fire and damnation. God sent calamities to punish his people, the devil lurked at every corner and witches had been imprisoned or hanged. This and

bly, with Franklin leading it, was in constant conflict with the Penns, demanding the family be taxed or the Province transferred to the Crown. Part of his danger, Thomas Penn shrewdly recognized, was that "as he is a sort of Tribune of the People, he must be treated with Regard."

Chosen to represent Pennsylvania at the Albany Congress, Franklin produced a statesmanlike plan for a colonial federation Sunday sermons probably provided the only though the subject on the agenda went no relieffrom hard work, for the Puritans frown- further than how to meet the threat of the ed on entertainment. Extraordinary that the French-Indian alliance. Typically he thought irrepressible Silence Dogood sprang from this ahead, convinced that colonial survival and climate, as did each of Franklin's methodical progress depended on unity. The Congress practical assaults on his environment. His adopted his plan but no colonial legislature ratified it. It was too daring for the Amerprinting ventures included Poor Richard's Almanac. Almanacs of the period contained icans and te~ democratic for the British everything from astrology to bad verse. Poor Government.

At 50 Franklin was sent to England as Richard became popular for its wealth of useful information and home-grown humor. agent for the colony of Pennsylvania and Probably more people learned to. read be- later represented New Jersey, Georgia and cause of it. Colonial life was lonely with Massachusetts as well, and it was a petition families living great distances apart; roads from Massachusetts begging His Majesty were bad and travel dangerous. Poor Richard the King to remove Governor Hutchinson must have provided a common identity, the and his brother-in-law, the Lieutenant Govbeginnings of an indigenous Yankee humor eqlOr, from their posts that marked the turning point in Franklin's relationship with and philosophy.

Franklin's "Junto," a club of originally 12 British authority. Franklin loved England artisans, met to study and debate current and had believed in the rightness of the issues, an eccentricity in a society where only British connection even while a succession of the rich and well-born were well educated events-the Stamp Act, heavy import duties inand class distinctions were rigid. Franklin and other unpopular measures-were doesn't appear to have overcome these dis- furiating Americans. Letters from Hutchinson tinctions. It simply didn't occur to him that had come into his hands revealing that the they were of any importance. Miss Bowen Governor had asked for British troops to be writes of his one-fluid theory in electricity sent to crush the growing Boston disturthat it "was not an 'invention,' but a way bances. Against Franklin's express instrucof ... looking at the subject that broke thru tions these had been printed in a Boston old boundaries and let men proceed to fur- newspaper, causing a sensation. The Massather discovery . . . an achievement possible chusetts petition was heard in Privy Council only to the largest minds." This seems the against this background. Hutchinson was crux of his contribution generally. With upheld by the Crown as a faithful and patri"Junto" Franklin made democracy a think- otic servant and Franklin accused of stealing able thought and by the time it arrived he the letters in order to have Hutchinson rehad accustomed Americans to its practice. moved and himself made Governor. His The epithet "the most dangerous man interrogator, Solicitor General Alexander in America" was not bestowed by the British Wedderburn, directed a "torrent of personal Government but by the wealthy, aristocratic invective" against him, met by "the derision, Thomas Penn whose family's private estate the laughter and applause of the spectators," Pennsylvania was. The Pennsylvania Assem- and the British press branded him virtually a

Top Hollywood stars portray the many-faceted careerof Benjamin Franklin for a Bicentennial TV series by the Columbia Broadcasting System. The actors include Beau Bridges and his father Lloyd Bridges as the young man and as printer (opposite page), Richard Widmark as the political rebel (above left), Eddie Albert as the scientist and inventor (above right), and Melvin Douglas as the statesman (far right).

cheat and a liar.

On that day, January 29, 1774, "Benjamin Franklin; man of peace ... beloved by many Englishmen, whose bond with England was as much part of him as bone and sinew, relinquished his final hope of reconciliation with the King and Parliament, and turned reluctantly to Revolution."

Two poignant personal blows follow this public humiliation. Franklin is still in England when his wife dies in America, and his son, William, Governor of New Jersey, whom he assumes will now resign his post, chooses to stay on and remains a Tory. In March 1775 Franklin sets sail for Philadelphia, one would imagine, old, bitter, battered and bruised by the ugliness of the Privy Council hearing. Yet he writes a book-size account from the ship to his son describing his negotiations and interviews. And fascinated as always by natural phenomena, he takes the temperature of the Gulf Stream by thermometer and stores up data to use in experiments afterward. On. his arrival ,home, the Battle of Lexington has taken place and the mood has blazed from rebellion to war. On June 7, 1776, the Continental Congress of which he is a member moves the historic resolution "That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown .... " Less than 150 years later Indian nationalists were caught up in a similar agonizing contradiction in their relationship with the British. Respectors of the Parliamentary tradition, believers in British justice, civilized growth toward nationhood for this generation meant negotiation, good will and compromise. This is what my grandfather, Motilal Nehru, said in his presidential address to the Indian National Congress on December 27, 1919, which met in the highly charged atmosphere following the lallianwala Bagh tragedy: "Fellow delegates, you have assembled here in deep mourning over the cruel murder of hundreds of your brothers and in electing your president you have assigned to him the position of chief mourner....

But through the surrounding gloom has come a ray of bright sunshine which has

Above: Wearing an old velvet coat, Benjamin Franklin enters a glittering reception at the court of France. Also shown in the painting is Louis XVI, seated on the sofa with Marie Antoinette. Below: Motilal Nehru, one of India's most prominent freedom fighters.

cheered many a suffering individual and family in India. His Majesty the King-Emperor has on the eve of this great meeting been graciously pleased to send out to us a message of His Royal clemency ... to all political offenders suffering imprisonment or restrictions of their liberty .... Let us gratefully join His Majesty in his hopes of the future ....

But the lessons which the crowded events of the year have to teach us and the English people are clear. To us they point to the path of steadfast endeavor, the path of sacrifice and patient ordeal. ... To Englishmen they teach the oft-repeated truth that tyranny degrades those who exercise it as much as those who suffer under it. And so it is that England, of old the champion of liberty, assumes a different guise in parts of her own dominions. . . . It is for England to learn the lesson and put an end to conditions which permit these occurrences in her own dominions."

The hope that England would learn was not realized, and my grandfather, friend and admirer of the British, gave up political moderation and the rewards of a brilliant legal career and like Franklin "turned reluc-

tantly to revolution."

There are parallels between him and Franklin-intellect and humanity, a supremely rational approach, and above all a kind of genius for what Jefferson called "the pursuit of happiness." But what strikes me most is the quality of leadership these two projected at a time of confrontation. They did not hasten a situation to rupture. Every effort was made to save it with honor for both sides.

They waited and reasoned, and made meanwhile a colossal contribution to living, rich with the affection, esteem and trust of their contemporaries, before they finally turned their backs on compromise. History will have its upheavals and men will lead them but not many with this mixture of unshakable conviction and glad grace.

0 About the Author: Nayantara Sahgal is a prominent Indian novelist and journalist whose articles have appeared in India's leading newspapers and magazines. In 1973-74 she was "writer-in-residence" at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, where she taught creative writing.

Her many books include Prison and Chocolate Cake, The Day in Shadow, Storm in Chandigarh.

,PRESIDENT FORD'S INDEPENDENCE DAY MESSAGE On July 4, 1975, exactly one year before cal institutions responsible to the people, We must devise safeguards for the America celebrates its Bicentennial Birth- and confirmed at tragic cost the proposi- sacred identity of each and every Ameriday, U.S. President Gerald Ford sent the tion that all Americans are created equal. can, to protect personal freedom and following Independence Day message to Our nation's second century, now ending, individuality from the daily pressures of the American people: saw the development of a strong econo- conformity whether they come from My fellow Americans: mic society in the free climate which our massive government, massive manageAs we begin the 200th year of our political institutions sustained. Our second ment and labor, massive education or .independence as a nation, we the people century transformed an underdeveloped .massive communications. of the United States still enjoy the bless- country into the mightiest and most proWhile we want the benefits of advancings of liberty as we continue to build a ductive nation in human history, with ing technology, individual Americans more perfect union for ourselves and our ever more widespread sharing of econo- must never become coded ciphers in any posterity. mic gains and of responsibility for the central computer, unthinking parrots of The great goals of America are never less fortunate of our neighbors. Two any ideological slogans, uncaring slaves fully gained; the future of America is centuries of sacrifice and struggle, of of any automated assembly line. Every always brighter than its glorious past; conflict and compromise, have gained citizen in our third century of freedom the destiny of America demands the best for us an unprecedented' measure of as a nation must have the personal freeof each succeeding generation,' as it does .political and economic independence. dom to fulfill his or her potential in life, of us today. While we cherish the many We have on this Independence Day of liberty and in the pursuit of happiness. heritages that enrich our land, we of all 1975 a free .government that checks and Many years ago, a Sunday School peoples have no history except what we balances its own excesses, and a free eco- teacher taught me that the beauty of have written for ourselves. We are not nomic system that corrects its own errors, Joseph's coat was its many colors. And Americans alone by birth or blood, by given the courage and constructive co- the beauty of America is its many indioath or creed or compact among princes. operation of a free and enlightened citi- viduals, each of us a little different from We are Americans because we deliber- zenry. This is the amazing history Ameri- the other. Freedom for everyone who ately chose to be one nation, indivisible, cans have written for themselves as we respects the freedom of others is the ,great and for 199 years with God's help we begin our Bicentennial celebration. goal which I see and commend to my have gone forward together.

But what will be the goal of our nation's countrymen for the third century of Our nation's first century saw the firm third century? I see the great challenge American independence. Freedom is what establishment of a free system of govern- of our third century as the advancement the Fourth of July is all about. ment on this continent, from Atlantic to of individual independence in this "sweet I wish you all a grand and glorious Pacific. Our first century produced politi- land of liberty." day.

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GREETINGS FROM INDIAN LEADERS President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sent messages of greetings to U.S. President Gerald Ford on the occasion of American Independence Day, July 4.

"On behalf of the Government and people of India and on my own behalf," said President Ahmed in his message, "I am happy to send our warm felicitations and sincere greetings to Your Excellency and to the Government and people of the United States of America on the occasion of the Independence Day of your country.

Please accept my best wishes for Your Excellency's personal health and happiness and for the prosperity and welfare of the friendly people of the United

!

States of America.

"It is our sincere hope that friendship and co-operation between our two countries would grow stronger in the coming years to the mutual benefit of our two

peoples."

In her own message to President Ford, Mrs. Gandhi said: "The ideals which America symbolized during its war for indepen,dence have inspired many nations. The memorable words of Lincoln and Jefferson were a source of encouragement to me personally and to my countrymen during our own fight for freedom. In the last years we have admired American achievement in science and technology.

"On the eve of the bicentennial celebrations of your revolution, I send greetings to the great American people and wish Your Excellency and your family health and happiness."

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W.NORMAN BROWNOne of India's best-known scholars looks back with affection and warmth on his 45-year association with W. Norman Brown, the eminent American Indologist who died recently.

I first met W. Norman Brown around 1928, after I had come back from Europe and had settled down as professor of comparative philology (linguistics and phonetics) at the University of Calcutta.

From that time onward to his passing away this year, whenever we thought of Sanskrit studies in America, Brown's name invariably came to mind. One might almost say that the two were synonymous.

Brown came to Banaras to study Sanskrit in the early 1920s, and over the years established close contacts with scholars, universities and learned institutions all over India. He was held in high esteem everywhere, both for his learning and for his interest in all aspects of Indian life, and he received honorary doctorates and titles from most of the universities and learned societies in India dealing with Sanskrit and Indology.

Brown had permanent ties with the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia-as professor and head of its Sanskrit and South Asia Studies Department.

During his long career as professor, he was also the most important representative of America at Indological conferences abroad. In 1967, he presided over the 27th International Congress of Orientalists at Ann Arbor, Michigan. He visited India frequently, strengthening the bond of understanding and friendship between the U.S. and India through scholarship.

And the last important position he held was that of president of the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIlS), a body that promotes Indological studies among American scholars and students visiting India and enables Indian Indologists to keep abreast of American work in the field.

In 1953 Brown wrote a general book of an informative character, The United States and India & Pakistan. His scholarly work included some interesting books on aspects of Indian art (mostly Jain art and the Brahmanical-Vaishnava and Sakta art of Gujarat-Rajasthan). He also published texts and translations of some important popular Sanskrit hymns like the Mahimna-stava (1965). His literary output was not voluminous, but its

range was extensive, and his interpreta- scholarly interest in Indology existed tions were sound and acceptable to in. America long before the time of W. Indian Sanskritists.

Norman Brown. Some of the great ideas of Hindu philosophy had filtered down Apart from his scholarly attainments, to Emerson before 1850, and American Brown was most lovable and popular as a man, and I can personally testify scholars began examining Sanskrit around to this through my long association with 1875, after it became something of a him for over 45 years. I had the honor of rage in Europe.

The builders of American Indology were receiving him in my home in Calcutta in 1928, when he met my students at an William Dwight Whitney (1827-1894) and Charles Rockwell Lanman (1850-1941). intimate talk and tea. I remember that he astounded everyone by asking for Both were connected with Yale University, and chewing some very hot green chillies both went to Germany to investigate which would have brought tears to the the source and origin of Sanskrit and eyes of even the most hardened chilli Indological studies (in addition, Lanman lover in India; he quietly said that he also visited India). Both obtained the had picked up this habit in Mexico. He highest recognition from Germany and was at home everywhere, and he was the world and both worked on editions quick to understand and appreciate and and translations of important texts in Sanskrit not attempted previously-parti~ give unstinted approbation when he noted anything praiseworthy anywhere-in an cularly the first edition and English individual, an institution, or a piece of ' translation of the Atharvaveda Samhita, one of the four Vedas. scholarly work. Scrupulously polite and It was Whitney and Lanman who insoft-spoken, Brown was nature's gentleman. troduced and established Indology in It is not widely known that a serious America, and they were followed by a

A TR IBUTE wide range of scholars who have made Sanskrit studies-along with linguistics, comparative religion and comparative mythology-one of the most important intellectual attainments of American scholarship. Whitney's comprehensive Sanskrit Grammar (1879) has been acclaimed as the best and fullest as well as the most reasonable grammar of Sanskrit in any language, and Lanman's Sanskrit Reader (1884-88) is one of the finest introductions to the language.

A number of centers of Sanskrit and .Indology came into being under the inspiration of Whitney and Lanman, and America has during the present century produced a galaxy of Sanskrit scholars and Indologists of eminence, like E. Washburn Hopkins, Samuel Grant Oliphant, Truman Michelson, Franklin Edgerton, P. Dumont, A.W. Ryder and Daniel H.H. Ingalls, besides several scholars who .have specialized in modern Indian languages and in different aspects of linguistics, anthropology, comparative religion and Indo-European studies as an extension of Indology. In these subjects America's contribution has been as extensive and valuable as that of Europe.

But the mantle of Whitney and Lanman as Sanskritists fell primarily on W. N orman Brown; He has been the most

by SU>UTI KUMAR CHATfERJI outstanding American professor of Sanskrit and Indology for more than two generations. He carried on the tradition of Whitney and Lanman almost singlehanded, with total application and dedication.

My personal ties with Brown were extremely close and very happy. It was through his interest that I was invited to Philadelphia as a visiting lecturer in Sanskritic philology for a semester in 1951-52. I recall with pleasure the happy time I had when we as colleagues from different faculties would meet at lunch at a popular place near the university once or twice a week, and would have symposia and seminars which were for us full of profit and pleasure. Later in 1962 when I visited America for the second time, Brown invited me to Philadelphia once again to give courses of lectures and talks to his students. I had occasion to meet Mrs. Brown and their daughter at some of these gatherings. In India, we would frequently meet at the Indian branches of the AIlS at Poona and Delhi, and also in Calcutta.

I feel happy, and sad at the same time, to recall this long connection with a cultured and scholarly man. He was a fine and friendly spirit who is missed by everyone.

0

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About the Author: Suniti Kumar Chatterji, 85, is a venerable figure in Indian scholarship and an authority on linguistics, phonetics and philology. A National Professor in Humanities, he has headed the Sanskrit Commission and the Bengali Academy of Letters, has served on the Official Languages Commission, and has been Visiting Professor to the School of South Asia Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He was awarded the Padma Vihhushan in 1963. His many publications include Indianism and Its Synthesis and Languages and Literatures of Modern

India.

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