SPAN: December 1961 by SPAN magazine

III all informal atmosphere at the White House in Washingtoll, one of the meetings between Prime Minister Nehru and PrEsident Kennedy, during the former's recent visit to the United States, is recorded by press photographers.

ON a hill rising in the heart of the American capital, Washington, D.C., and overlooking the city is one of the world's great religious edifices-the National Cathedral. The cathedral is non-denominational; it has no congregation of its own and religious leaders of many faiths from all parts of the world have preached from its pulpit. Towering above a beautiful, wooded 57-acre site on Mount St. Alban in Northwestern Washington, the cathedral embodies the salient features of fourteenth century Gothic architecture. Graceful pinnacles spire above the buttresses of massive limestone walls. Inside, the vaulted ceiling of limestone. rising 100 feet above the floor, is supported by massivc pillars with rich details of intricate carving and sculpture. The walls are adorned with stained glass windows of rare beauty. Religious themes inspire many of these windows and others are dedicated to the memories of great -men and women. One window portrays Florence "lightingale. nineteenth century nurse and philanthropist. Another shows Thomas Jefferson holding thc U.S. Declaration of Independence. Three stained glass windows in memory of three pioneer leaders of the American labour movement-Samucl Gompers, William Green and Philip Murray-were presented to thc cathedral by the AFL-C10 in 1960. Several distinguished men who devoted themselves to the service of their country lie buried in the crypt of the cathedral. Notable among them are President Woodrow Wilson, Admiral George Dewey and Secretary of State Cordell Hull. The construction of this church. ;vas started in 1907. Today more than sixty per cent of the building has been complcted. Some of the building materials have been brought from foreign lands, and people of different faiths in the United States and other parts of the world have contributed to its erection, ornamentation and ecclesiastical furnishing. The National Cathedral is conceived as a symbol of the faith and hope which settlers from all parts of the world brought with them to a new land and which enabled them to live together as brothers under God in a united nation .•

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AN MAGAZISE

DECEMBER 1961

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1'._ LEGENDS OF CHRISTMAS Paintings by James Lewicki SILENT INDIANS by John T. Reid

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John V. Lund,

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Sikandra Road, New Delhi, on behalf of The American Embassy, New Delhi. EDITOR

Edward

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United States PRINTED

J. Middleton.

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ANGEL'S GIFTS. In some countries, a heavenly rather than an elfin figure like Santa Claus is credited with bringing anonymous gifts to children on Christmas.

e HE CHILDREN of America, whose ancestors came from all parts of the world, possess a treasury of legends surrounding their favourite festival, Christmas, which is celebrated on December 25th, the birth anniversary of Christ. The story of the nativity of Jesus is set down in a few short chapters in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke in the Christian Bible. But through the ages, the story has been lovingly embellished, so that today a great treasury of folk tales belong to the season of the religious festival. Most of the tales originated before the printed word could fix them and so they were passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth, enriched with each re-telling. Artist James Lewicki spent two years to research and paint the colourful anthology of Christmas legends presented in this issue of SPA . The paintings are reproduced by the courtesy of Life Magazine. The best known legendary figure of Christmas is Saint Nicholas, or Santa SAINT CHRISTOPHER. A powerful Claus, who is derived from the generous deeds of a very kind man named young giant named Reprobatus once Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra in Lycia in the Fourth Century. One of the tales searched for the strongest master to of Nicholas concerns a merchant who had lost his fortune and could not give serve. He sought out the devil but disdowries to his three daughters. Hearing of their plight and knowing that they covered a weakness: that sinister would not be able to marry, Nicholas rode past their house one night and tossed personality feared religious symbols. a sack of gold through a window into the room where the girls were sleeping One day Reprobatus carried a child (see opposite page). This provided a handsome dowry for the eldest girl, who was across a river on his shoulders. Amazed able to make a suitable marriage. The following year he repeated the deed for at the child's great weight, he comthe second daughter and a year later did the same for the youngest. Christmas mented upon it and was told: I gifts from unknown sources are thus said to come from Saint Nicholas. bear the sins of the world. ThereThis and the stories illustrated on the following pages are some of the folk after Reprobatus served the child and legends which American children will be hearing and re-telling during the became known as Christopher, the Christmas season.Bearer of Christ.

A MIRACULOUS HARVEST. Jesus was born in the village of Bethlehem ill the Kingdom of Judea. Herod, King of Judea, planned to kill the child lest his throne be threatened. Fleeing before Herod's soldiers, Joseph and Mary, the parents of Jesus, came with their child to afield where afarmer was sowing grain. Not wishing the man

HEROD'S ROOSTER. According to one legend, it was a rooster that convinced Herod of the truth of the report of Three Wise Men from the East that a great king had been born. Herod scoffed, saying that if the news were true the roasted cock on his table would crow. As Herod gaped, the bird stood and crowed.

to tell a lie, Mary bade him to tell the soldiers the truth; that is, that he had seen the family pass as he was sowing his field. As soon as the family moved 011, the grain came to full ripeness. When the soldiers arrived and heard the farmer's story, they turned back because they naturally assumed the family had gone by months before.

THE FLY AND THE SPIDER. Fleeing before Herod's soldiers, the weary family of Jesus paused to rest andfell asleep. The soldiers approached, but a fly awakened Joseph and the family hid in a cave. A spider spun a web across the entrance of the cave and the soldiers passed it by, convinced by the web that no one had gone inside.

JULE-NISSEN. The hero of this legend is a whimsical pixy who lives in the attics of Danish houses. The family must set out a bowl of their Christmas porridge for Jule-nissen on Christmas Eve, or the elf will play mischievous tricks in the house and barn. On Christmas morning, when children find the cat purring contentedly near Jule-nissen's empty bowl, they accept this as proof that the cat has witnessed his feast.

BEFANA. La Befana is a wandering old crone, a kind of Santa Claus for Italian children, who makes her rounds twelve days after Christmas. Once she lived in a lonely cottage on a caravan route. One night the Three Wise Men came by, following a bright star, and stopped to ask directions to Bethlehem. Before they departed they mentioned that they were taking gifts to a newborn babe, but did not elaborate. Later a shepherd stopped at her home and told her that the babe was the Son of God, urging her to go see for herself. But by the time La Be/ana had loaded her shoulder pack and donkey with gifts, the shepherd was out of sight. Unable to follow his trail, she has been going, ever since, into houses on the twelfth day after Christmas, giving all children gifts in the hope that some day she will find the right child. But to bad children La Befana gives only ashes and switches. In Russia, La Befana is known as Baboushka.

THE CALLICANTZARI. Peasants in some sections of Macedonia fear the dreadful Callicantzari, ferocious supernatural beasts that wander upon the land from Christmas until the twelfth day after. The Callicantzari demons are said to rob, assault and crush all who cross their paths. It is wise to get a priest to come with a sprinkling vessel to chase them away. It is also a good precaution to paint black crosses on doors, windows and chimneys where a beast might enter.

THE ROBIN. To keep the fire in the stable burning, a heroic bird fanned the embers with its wings. The glow of the flames turned its breast forever red and it became the Robin.

THE NIGHTINGALE. Each night Mary sang the baby to sleep, but one night Jesus was restless. Sleep came when a nightingale joined in the lullaby, and a grateful mother endowed all nightingales with her lovely voice.

MANTLE OF FIRE. Seeking to bring warmth. to Mary and Jesus all a cold Ilight, Joseph left the stable in which the baby was born. In his search for live coals he came upon three shepherds huddled around afire on a hillside. The shepherds were perplexed that their dog did not challenge the stranger. With their permission, Joseph took some coals, piled them onto his cloak, which, incredibly, did not burn, and departed. The shepherds then saw a shower of stars and an angel bade them go to the stable. There they found Jesus basking by a fire on the cloak, which was still unscorched.

THE TALKING ANIMALS. A favourite Christmas story oj very young children is the aile about wondrous occurrences as the farm animals rejoiced on the night of Jesus' birth. The proud cock hopped to a high perch and announced the news he had heard to his friends gathered in the barn. The animals decided to go to Bethlehem to pay homage to the newborn babe.

THE LITTLE STRANGER. In this story, illustrated below, lies one of the many legendary origins of the Christmas tree custom. A poor woodman and his family dwelt in a cabin in a desolate forest. One cold Christmas Eve, as they huddled around their fire, there came a knock at the door. Looking out, they were astonished to see a child standing alone in the snow. Although they had little food for themselves, they took the child in, fed him and gave him a warm bed. Later in the night,

the family Ivas awakened by lovely music. Looking out, they again beheld the child standing in the snow but now clad in splendid, princely raiment. A chorus of angels was singing and the family knew that this was the Christ Child, Jesus. He told them that in return for the kindness they had shown him, he would plant before their door a fir tree which would always bear fruit on Christmas. The gay decorations on Christmas trees symbolize thefulfilment of the prophecy.

THE CHRISTMAS ROSE. According to a Christmas legend of Sweden, a band of robbers lived in hiding in the great Goinge Forest. One summer day the matriarch of the clan ventured out oftheforest and stopped at a monastery. She told a kind old monk, Abbot Hans, of the wondrous flowers that bloomed miraculously in the forest on Christmas Eve and invited him to come to the bandit hideout to see them. The abbot told his bishop who, though sceptical, promised a pardon for the outlaws if the abbot could bring back proof On Christmas Eve the abbot and a friend went into the forest. Bells began pealing and the woods burst gloriously into bloom. Insects and birds soared

in warm breezes and a dove landed on the friend's shoulder. Horrified, he ordered it to return to hell, which he believed to be the source of the strange happenings. The blooms faded and the earth took on its customary winter cover. The abbot reached hastily for a withering plant and as he clutched it, he fell dead. The friend carried him back to the monastery. In the abbot's hand were two root bulbs, which were planted at the monastery. The next Christmas Eve they blossomed, giving the bishop the proof he required for the pardon. There were no more miracles in the forest, but each year the Christmas rose has bloomed.

silent ind in salem

Photographs oj relics in Salem's Peabody Museum are reproduced by courtesy oj the museum.

T was indeed a strange and startling sight to run across a group of Indian gentlemen in the midst of a New England coastal town. They were dressed in somewhat old-fashioned costumes of their native land and were designated by such names as Durgha Prasanna Ghose, Rajendra Dutte, Nasservanjee and Raj Kissen Mitter. It was not the fantasy of a weary traveller. The gentlemen were life-size figures, carefully modelled in clay, representing merchants who actually lived in Calcutta and Bombay in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. I came upon their quiet company in the halls of the East India Marine Society of Salem, Massachusetts, and their presence there is not the result of mere meaningless chance. The town of Salem, some sixteen miles north-east of Boston, was settled in 1626 and soon thereafter became a thriving fishing village. During the American War ofIndependence, Salem sailors fitted out over ISO ships which became the larger part of the new republic's navy. After the war, Salem merchants began to use their vessels to establish new trade relations with the distant Orient. In 1785, one of the most enterprising of the Salem shipowners, Elias Hasket Derby, sent his fast-sailing ship, the Grand Turk, to Canton, China. Three years later, Mr. Derby's ships, the Light Horse and the Atlantic, visited Bombay and Calcutta, opening for the first time direct trade between the former English colonies in America and India. Soon after, commerce between Salem and Indian ports increased by leaps and bounds: between 1788 and 1800, fifty ships cleared from Salem for India, a sizable number for that day. Salem was transformed from a quiet colonial village into a busy seaport connected with far-off and exotic parts of the world by scores of swift sailing vessels. Its narrow streets were thronged with young men who 14

SEan

Decemher 1961

had just returned from China, Mauritius, Sumatra, Calcutta and Bombay, and its wharves and warehouses were bursting with cargoes of silks from India, spices from many parts of the Orient, palm oil from West Africa, tea from China. Parrots and monkeys from tropical forests were a common sight. The profession of Salem sea-captain created a highly honoured status, and the records show generation after generation of hardy seamen who engaged in the trade with the East Indies. Nathaniel Hawthorne, a native of Salem and one of America's early literary greats, wrote: "From father to son, for over a hundred years, they followed the sea; a grey-haired shipmaster in each generation retiring from the quarter-deck to the homestead, while a boy of fourteen took the hereditary place before the mast, confronting the salt spray and the gale which had blustered against his

sire and grandsire." Hawthorne's own father was a sea-captain and in Salem today one can examine the title page of a sea-journal of the old captain, lettered by his famous son; it reads, "Nathaniel Hawthorne's BookI820-Salem ; a Journal of a Passage from Bengal to America in the Ship America of Salem, 1798." A member of one of the famous sea-going families of Salem, Jacob Crowninshield, achieved a minor niche in history by bringing in 1796 to the United States from Bengal the first live elephant to be seen in the New World. According to a contemporary account, the elephant "accommodated himself to his straitened quarters and hard fare with a patient philosophy worthy of general imitation. " On the evening of August 31, 1799 an unusual group of mariners gathered together in Salem. Their purpose was to form an association with a very select membership: those men who had sailed as Captain or "supercargo" of a Salem ship which had gone beyond the Cape of Good Hope. From its foundation until 1867, 350 ship's masters and supercargoes qualified for membership. One of the aims of the new association, the East India Marine Society, was "to form a Museum of natural and artificial curiosities, particularly such as are to be found beyond the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn." Immediately the doughty captains began to contribute mementos of all kinds collected on their far-flung voyages: artifacts from the South Seas, arms and armour from Japan and China, beautiful carvings in ivory and accurate clay figurines from India, bronze Buddhas from Tibet. To this day the stream of contributions to this odd collection have continued and now it constitutes one of America's notable museums, especially in the ethnology of the South Seas and the civilization of Japan. Its collection of ship models and marine paintings is also remarkable. It is now called the Peabody Museum of Salem in honour of George Peabody, a banker-philanthropist who, in 1867, gave a substantial endowment to the Museum.

Early Salem merchants formed ties of cordial esteem with their Indian counterparts. The life-size figures of Indian gentlemen which the visitor sees displayed so prominently today in the Peabody Museum were gifts to the American merchants and seem to have served the purpose of photographs to let them know the kind of men they were dealing with in faroff India. The visitor seeking further material illustrative of India will find it in considerable abundance. He will see palm-leaf manuscripts of the Hindu holy books, Indian musical instruments which were the gift of Durgha Prasanna Ghose, pieces of Mogul

armour, miniature paintings of Shah Jehan and Akbar, a replica of the Taj Maha1, scores of doll-like figures representing people from various walks of life in India, early prints of Indian scenes, and many other remembrances of those long voyages made by Salem men over a century ago. By the middle of the last century, Salem had lost its importance as an international seaport, its harbour being too shallow for larger vessels. Its ancient houses, sturdily built by men of the sea, now gaze on modern factories, but still in the hearts of many Americans it is a vivid reminder of their forefathers' first contact with India.e

The U. S. Congress

At Work

HEN the U.S. Congress is in session, from early January until mid-summer, the marble corridors of the great domed Capitol in Washington echo with the sound of many feet, some hurrying, some walking leisurely. The hurrying footsteps are those of persons who are at the Capitol on serious business, including members of Congress themselves. The leisurely step's are those of sight-seers, some wandering at random singly or in pairs, some-usually youngsters from various parts of the United

States-in guided groups. By and large, the camera-carrying visitors have come for their first glimpse of their national lawmakers at work. Unless they are unusually fortunate, they are likely to feel a sense of disappointment on entering the visitors' gallery of the Senate or House of Representatives. The legislative chamber of the Senate has seating accommodation for its 100 members; the House of Representatives, physically the largest legislative chamber in existence, seats 437 members. But on any ordinary day when the Senate is in session, there may be only a dozen or so members on the "floor." In the House, attendance may be fifty, or less. And the proceedings witnessed by the casual visitor are likely to be dry and technical. Occasionally, of course, a sudden outbreak of spirited debate or the taking of an important vote causes every seat in the Senate or House of Representatives to be filled, and gives visitors a dramatic story to take home with them. The principal reason for the seeming lack of interest by Congressmen in the proceedings in their respective chambers, particularly in the earlier part of each session, can readily be traced to the U.S. Congressional committee system. As in every legislative body, there is far more to the work of Congress than appears on the surface. Woodrow Wilson, perhaps the greatest authority on government to serve as President of the United States, noted this when he wrote: " ... it is not far from the truth to say that Congress in session is Congress on public exhibition, whilst Congress in its committeerooms is Congress at work." The committees and their numerous subcommittees provide the foundations on which are based the deliberations and decisions of "Congress on public exhibition." But the legislative process is far more complicated than a simple committee-Congress relationship. Unappreciated by a casual

spectator at sessions of Congress or its committees is the vital role:- of certain key members of Congress: the powerful chairmen of the committees and subcommittees; the Majority Leader in the Senate, whose parliamentary role on the floor of the Senate and whose private conferences with members of his own political party have decisive bearing on many legislative proceedings; the Speaker of the House, who as presiding officer and leader of his party in that chamber, is similarly influential. In addition, the Minority Leaders in the Senate and House play influential roles in organizing the opposition party. Thus, behind the laws which flow from the formal deliberations of Congress there may have been weeks or months of study by specialists, extended hearings or intensive investigations by legislative committees, private meetings among members with like political affiliations and Bipartisan conferences and even, when foreign affairs are concerned, Congressional visits to other countries to make studies and confer with officials overseas. In the end, the prosaic phrases of a legislative measure may give birth to a programme for promoting the peaceful uses of atomic energy or committing the American nation to some new and significant social step, providing economic assistance for a substantial part of the world or otherwise setting the stage for developments of historic magnitude. Nonetheless it is in the committee rooms, scattered through the Capitol building and in both the Senate and House of Representatives Office Buildings, that visitors to the Capitol should look to see Congressmen in action. It is here that the American form of democratic government can best be seen in operation, and more than two-thirds of these committee meetings are open to the public. Before examining in detail the Congressional committee system, we should perhaps note the composition

of Congress itself, which, of course, determines the membership of the committees. To begin with, Congress is truly bicameral. Although the Senate is sometimes referred to as the "upper" chamber, to all intents and purposes the Senate and the House of Representatives are equal in formal powers, equal in their influence on the end result of the legislative process. Neither can impose its will on the other. The House has always been chosen by direct popular vote, and since 1913 the Senate has likewise been so chosen. A plurality vote is all that is necessary for election. There are two Senators, elected for six-year terms, from each of the fifty States, regardless of population. Thus, Nevada, with a population of slightly over 265,000, has the same number of Senators as New York State, with a population approximating 16,000,000. One-third of the Senate is elected every two

Span

December

1961

Foreign economic assistance programmes are discussed by Secretary of the Treasury Dillon, centre background, before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

years, The entire House of Representatives is elected every two years. Representatives are chosen from single-member Congressional districts within the individual States'. Each State, regardless of its population, is entitled to at least one Representative. Thus, in contrast to their Senate equality, New York has forty-three Representatives; Nevada, one. At the beginning of each two-year term of Congress the majority party in each house assumes the responsibility for organizing its chamber. Under the two-party system, this means that members of either the Republican Party or of the Democratic Party are in control of the respective chambers. In the present Congress-the 87th-the Democrats have a solid majority in both houses. In the Senate the presiding officer is the Vice-President of the United States. He is not chosen by the majority party in the Senate, but is elected along with the President of the United States by voters of the entire country. He cannot participate in debate in the Senate, and cannot cast a vote except to break a tie. Other chief officers of the Senate are the President pro tempore, a member of the majority party, who presides if the Vice-President is absent; the Majority and Minority Leaders; and the party Whips, who round up members for an important vote. Principal officers of the House of Representatives are the Speaker, who presides, the Majority and Minority Leaders, and party Whips, all chosen on a party basis. 18

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December 1961

Similarly, the all-important committee system of Congress is organized along party lines, with the majority party holding more seats on each committee than the minority party and naming the committee chairman. Each house has a certain number of standing, or permanent, committees: the Senate, sixteen; the House of Representatives, twenty. The names of the standing committees, as a few examples show, indicate the fields of their interests and jurisdiction: Agriculture, Appropriations, Armed Services, Education and Labour, Foreign Affairs, Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Public Works, Finance, Judiciary. In addition to the permanent committees, select or special committees are occasionally created to serve one or another special purpose. Ordinarily, these have a more limited life and more restricted jurisdiction than the major legislative committees; they expire when their particular jobs are finished. There are also a dozen Joint Committees, such as that on Atomic Energy, which comprise members of both Houses of Congress, and function for both. WITH both Houses organized and the necessary committees set up in each Chamber, Congress is ready to perform one of its main functions: legislation. The enactment of a law involves many steps and actions; the first are these: A bill or resolution must be introduced in the House or Senate by one or more of its members. Only a

member of Congress may introduce proposed legislation, although, of course, it may originate in anyone of several sources: the White House, any of the administrative bureaus of the federal government, a labour organization, a farm group, a religious society, or even with private individuals. Upon its introduction in either house, a bill or resolution is referred by the presiding officer to the appropriate standing committee. No legislative proposal is in order for consideration by the Senate or the House of Representatives until it has been considered by the proper committee. The practical necessity for this procedure is apparent at once when the huge number of bills and resolutions placed before Congress at each term is considered. In the two-year term of the 85th Congress (1957-58), 20,604 measures were introduced. Obviously, Congress as a whole could not give even cursory consideration to most of them. The committees make this unnecessary. To cope with the spate of measures introduced at each session of Congress, the committees have been broken down into subcommittees, each handling a certain segment of the work referred to the full committee. To help them perform with maximum efficiency, each standing committee, most of the special committees, and some of the subcommittees have their own staffs, made up of clerical and professional personnel as required, and varying with the magnitude of their responsibilities or the nature of their assignments. In addition, each

Republican Senator Smith, a legislator for twenty years.

Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn holds a press conference on the progress of pending legislation.

Copies of bills in various stages of enactment are kept in the House Documents Room.

Office of Legislative Council maintained by the Senate and by the House solely for bill drafting purposes.

AT sional

committee and in fact all members of Congress individually have access at all times to expert advisers and specialists in the Legislative Reference Service of the Library of Congress. They may also freely consult the

THE opening of a Congresterm it is customary for the members of each political party in each house to select a committee or committees to prepare the lists of committee memberships for ratification, first by the general party membership and then by the respective houses. In practice, however, the discretion of the selecting committees is limited by the principle of seniority, under which it is normal for a member to remain on a committee from session to session, if he so desires, as long as he reJ1lainsin Congress. Thus, newly elected Congressmen are at the bottom of the lists in the two houses when it comes time to name members of, or to fill vacancies on, the important committees. The seniority system goes even further, extending to the selection of the chairmen of the committees. It has been noted that the present Congress has a heavy Democratic majority in both Houses: Hence all committee chairmen are members of the Demo-

cratic Party and are among the members who have served in Congress continuously for the most number of terms. However, when a Senator serving on two committees rises through long service to the top position on both, and his party is in control, he has a choice between two chairmanships, but he may not hold both. This problem does not arise in the House of Representatives, where, because of its larger membership, members usually serve on only one standing committee. To note the comparatively few bills the various standing committees report to their respective houses out of the scores and hundreds each committee considers is to realize the great control the committees have in determining the fate of proposed legislation. Not quite so apparent is the important power exercised over the legislative process by the committee chairmen. As its presiding officer, a chairman can often, by himself, determine the fate of a pending measure by not calling his committee together to consider it, by creating procedural difficulties for the committee which hold up its work, or by parliamentary manoeuvres.

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December 1961

At one time, indeed, the chairmen's power was so great that Woodrow Wilson, before he became President, declared: "I know not how better to describe our form of government in a single phrase than by calling it a government by the chairmen of the Standing Committees of Congress." It is possible, however, for a committee to cope with a chairman who attempts to ride roughshod over its wishes. On one occasion both Republican and Democratic members of a committee acted in virtual unanimity to break the hold of its chairman on pending legislation. On another occasion the Democratic members of a committee withdrew in protest against the Republican chairman's claim that he had sole authority over staff appointments. They stayed away from meetings until he capitulated and a compromise was reached. It is also possible, by petition of the majority of the members, for either house of Congress to bring to its floor pending legislation which one of its committees holds "bottled up." This procedure is seldom resorted to, however, since Congress leans so heavily on the decisions of its committees. All bills must be approved by both the House and the Senate in identical form before they are submitted to the President for his signature to become law. Obviously, a measure passed by the Senate dies if a duplicate of it is not passed by the House. But here, again, there are several well-defined procedures for compelling the committee to release bills for House

action, and for overruling its decisions as to time and length of debate. From what has been shown of the partisan organization of Congress, it might be inferred that the majority party in each house has ironclad control of legislation. Nothing could be further from reality. In fact, it is generally agreed that no means of rigid party control are presently in use by either the majority or minority party. The reason for this, to a large extent, is that one of the outstanding characteristics of Congress is that its members are elected on a regional basis and regard the ties between them and their constituents as stronger-by far-than those with their national political parties. The result is, in effect, not a bi-party but a multi-party legislature, whose votes are often cast not according to the wishes of party leaders in Washington, but on the basis of how proposed legislation may affect the Congressmen's home regions and the people in them. This regionalism carries over into some of the powerful standing committees. As has been noted, membership of these committees is governed by the preferences of members of Congress and their seniority. Normally members of the Senate and the House of Representatives desire to sit on committees that deal with subjects important to their constituents. Thus, the committees on agriculture, for example, have few representatives of urban areas; similarly, the committees having to do with mining, commerce, fisheries, etc., are usually dominated

The House Majority Leader discusses a bill with Democratic colleagues.

by Congressmen primarily interested -on behalf of their constituents-in these matters. Another important factor contributing to the regional character of the standing committees is the existence of so-called "safe" constituenciesthat is, areas where one or the other of the two political parties enjoys a safe electoral majority. This, of course, is most noticeable in the Southern States where the Democratic Party is predominant. As a result of this situation and a tendency of the Southern voters to return incumbents to Congress term after term, Senators and Representatives from the Southern States build up impressive seniority, which is particularly important when the Democratic Party is in a majority in Congress. In the present Congress Southerners are chairmen of ten of the standing committees in the Senate, thirteen in the House of Representatives. Side by side with the sectional, economic, and social motivations that influence members of Congress in their voting are political considerations urged upon the members by the

party leadership in both Houses. In the Senate, the Majority Leader, who is chairman of the steering committee which decides on the priority of business and the conduct of debate, has been compared in power with the President of the United States. Through conferences in his private office, telephone conversations, and astute parliamentary skill on the floor of the Senate, the Majority Leader undoubtedly wields a strong hand in guiding proposed legislation to successful culmination, or defeat. Similar power has been attributed to the Speaker of the House. The Speaker is, in effect, a triple personality: presiding officer of the House; a member of that chamber, with the right to cast his vote on all questions and also the right to leave the chair and participate in debate on the House floor; and leader of the majority party in the House. Although the Speaker no longer has the control over the House of

his counterpart exerRepresentatives cised half a century ago, the Speakership continues to be one of the most powerful offices in Congress, deriving its powers and duties from the Constitlltion, the rules of the House, decisions of previolls Speakers, and general parliamentary law.

PUBLIC opinion polls have demonstrated that while criticism may beand not infrequently is-levelled at some of the actions of Congress, the American people show no signs of disapproval of its overall functioning. The present set-up, Americans feel, places a premium on individualism in Congress, and makes it possible for all shades of opinion-conservative, liberal, middle-of-the-road-to be expressed on the floors of the Senate and House of Representatives and in their committee hearings. Congress thus serves as an effective forum for expressing varying facets of public

0p1l110n-not merely party opinion. The United States is not a homogeneous nation; rather it is composed of a heterogeneous society with a multiplicity of interests, some of them antagonistic one to another. To serve such a nation, then, Congress must regard itself, by and large, as a pragmatic instrument for reaching compromises satisfactory to large segments of the American society and to the nation as a whole. To reach such compromises requires reasonableness in accommodating conflicting views; and in this Congress has generally been successful. The continuing record of this success was succinctly stated on the opening day of the 86th Congress by the then Senate Majority Leader, Lyndon B. Johnson, now Vice-President of the United States, when he remarked on the floor of the Senate: "This is a body of reasonable men and women. Our continuing unity exceeds our passing divisions.".

ATOMIC-POWERED

Weather

Reporting System

SIX-YEAR pioneer "atoms for peace" effort in the United States has resulted in the development of a group of small nuclear power devices designed to perfoml many practical, beneficial tasks. Two of these devices made their debut this year on the same day-one far out in space and the other half-buried in the earth. The date was June 29, 1961. Shortly after midnight, the Transit IV-A navigational satellite containing one of the devices was launched at Cape Canaveral and became the first space vehicle to be powered by atomic energy. Twelve hours later, the Chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission reported that signals transmitted by the satellite's atomicpowered radios were being received on earth. This system became the world's first radioisotope-powered weather station. The unmanned station, he revealed, had successfully operated for more than one month, automatically transmitting reports on temperature, wind speed and barometric pressure. The first atomic-powered weather station is installed in a remote Arctic area, where it will make year-round observations. Others may be placed in barren, uninhabited areas that at present represent serious gaps in the weather-reporting network used to make long-range predictions. Since much of the world's weather is "born" in polar areas that are quite inaccessible, atomic stations that operate for years automatically and unattended can improve weather forecasts, and afford increased protection for crops, lives and property.

Technicians attach the tiny nuclear power generator to the Transit satellite prior to launching.

The atomic devices now powering the Transit satellite and the weather station are similar in many respects. Both are based on the same principlethat radioisotopes decay spontaneously, at a rate fixed by nature, creating heat which can be used to generate electricity. The "heart" of these devices is a heavily shielded, completely safe capsule containing a small quantity of a radioisotope. Both devices use thermoelectric generators, with no moving parts, to convert the heat emitted by the radioisotope directly into electricity. The generators are composed of thermocouples, which consist of two dissimilar metals joined in a closed circuit. When the two metals are kept at different temperatures, heat "fed" into them creates an electrical current in the closed circuit. The thermocouples provide continuous power for the operation of instruments, including

electronic apparatus for transmission of information. The atomic generator power "package" of Transit IV is roughly spherical in shape with a diameter of only about five inches. It weighs slightly less than five pounds and produces 2.7 watts of electricity. During the five-year expected life of the satellite, it will continuously recharge the satellite's batteries, producing in that time as much power as about five metric tons of conventional batteries. The atomic power generator in the Arctic weather station weighs 55 pounds, is cylindrical in shape with a diameter of 18 inches and a height of 20 inches. Its tiny shielded capsule contains about one pound of strontium-90, which emits sufficient heat for the production of five watts of electrical power. The station is designed to operate for two years without refuelling or servicing and will use its two atomic-powered radio transmitters to broadcast weather reports at three-hour intervals. Its transmitters have a range of 1,500 miles. Through special construction and elaborate tests, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission has made certain that no radiation can escape accidentally from these two atomic power devices. Tests have proved that the capsules cannot be broken open as the result of impact, fire, explosion or after long submersion in water. The safety and efficiency of these unique "atoms for peace" power devices make them economically and operationally ideal for tasks that require a small, lightweight, reliable source of electrical power..

A jive-pound atomic generator is tested on a centrifuge that simulates the acceleration of a rocket launch into space

MAN arrived in the United States in 1938 with no knowledge of English, and only a drafting table, T-square, his books and $8.00. He now has an architectural, planning and engineering firm consisting of himself and five partners, and a staff of more than 150, with offices in several of the largest cities. Victor Gruen Associates have achieved international recognition as architects and planners, through their major American shopping centres, outstanding urban renewal projects and individual structures. But Victor Gruen's influence on the future look and functioning of American cities-as well as on the habits of their citizens-is not at all limited to the visible examples of his planning acumen. He believes passionately in preventing automobiles from entering central urban areas and in reshaping cities according to the cell or cluster type of construction. To persuade as wide an audience as possible, he writes and speaks frequently on his favourite subject. He has pleaded his cause in a

speech before the International Municipal Assemble, in articles' for Life Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, and in a lengthy interview published in the magazine U.S. News and World Report. How he manages to encompass all his activities is a puzzle to those who observe him in the process. In an interview The New Yorker magazine called him the "middle-aged, barrel-chested man ... with heavy brows, unruly dark hair and a no less unruly Viennese accent, a sort of intracontinental guided missile." And the amount of JUl,velling he does would justify the epithet. In everything' he does: - Tiowever, he is sustained, and impelled, by an enthusiasm for his self-assumed mission that apparently provides him with an extra supply of energy. Gruen's determination that cities should be remade into pleasant and convenient places to live, was formed some years ago, deriving to a large extent from some of the basic theories of architects Le Corbusier, whose

OPEN SPACE IN THE CITY

concepts he wrote about in Austrian magazines, and Adolph Loos, whose obituary he wrote for a Viennese paper. He was born in Vienna in 1903, the son of a lawyer whose interest in the theatre and abilities as a pianist led to his representing many connected with those arts. When Victor was fifteen, his father died, bequeathing him no suggestions as to a career except to avoid the legal profession. But his father entrusted his guidance to an architect friend, whose firm young Gruen entered, to work first as a bricklayer and then in designing, supervising and co-ordinating. During this period he took hiking trips in Austria and Gemlany, always returning with enthusiasm for the layout of some medieval city he had visited. After some time in the office of his father's friend, he opened his own, but found his commissions very much curtailed because of the depression. He had just received his largest to date, when Hitler's troops arrived in Vienna, to give him three terrorizing months before he managed to get a visa for the United States, where he arrived in 1938.

The Mission of VICTOR

GRUEN

(Continued)

OR the next 10 years, a period of much hard work with some setbacks, he built shops and stores and finally earned a reputation which encouraged him to venture into the field of large-scale projects. He opened an architectural office in Los Angeles, adding other offices later as he expanded the firm by the addition of five partners and planning and engineering divisions. Gruen and his partners-with one of whom he had won a prize in a housing competition in Vienna-now work on a co-operative basis with great enthusiasm and the confidence that no problem is too hard to tackle. One of the major jobs Victor Gruen Associates undertook made history in its field. It is the Northland Shopping Centre, outside the city of Detroit. It spreads over more than 160 acres, with some 80 stores clustered together within an area reserved for pedestrians. Shoppers walk through landscaped gardens, under trees, and sit on benches to look at the sculpture and watch the play of water in the fountains. As Gruen himself says in support of his crusade for beautiful cities: "In Detroit, six or seven thousand people make their way to Northland on Sunday afternoons. The stores are closed, so what are they doing there? Looking for open space. They window-shop and stroll through the gardens and sit on benches and soak up the sun and enjoy the fountains and sculpture. What Northland teaches us is this-that it's the merchants who will save our urban civilization. : .. As art patrons, merchants can be to our time what the Church and the nobility were to the Middle Ages." Other major shopping centres followed Northland as have a variety of other projects: city redevelopment, single stores, industrial and retail buildings, banks, community centres, and others. Gruen's most famous city plan, for Fort Worth, Texas, has not yet been carried out. But parts of it, primarily the traffic-free pedestrian mall and ring roads, have been imitated elsewhere and it has without question had strong influence on planning across the country. To combat traffic congestion-"slow murder by the automobile," Gruen calls it-he envisioned transforming the downtown area into a pedestrian island, ringed by express highways and six huge parking garages. No store or office in a traffic-free square mile would be more than a threeminute walk away.

Gruen's restless and creative mind is continually occupying itself with ways to renew cities, all based on a pattern of cellular grouping of neighbourhood units, with the cells joined tel make a cluster, and the clusters forming a city. Green spaces, strict separation of human from transportation activities, improvement of public transportation, and the building of concentric ring roads with massive parking facilities adjoining them -these aims are at the heart of Gruen's plans for cities of the future, and at least some of them he has been able to incorporate into cities he is redesigning, He maintains a home in contemporary style in Los Angeles and a duplex-apartment in New York, a city whose transformation he has long since thought out and which he would gladly undertake. His apartment consists of the top two floors of an eleven-storey, sixtyyear-old building designed by Stanford White. Gruen has redesigned it only to the extent of knocking out partitions to give additional space, removing the moulding, partly unsheathing and rerouting the stairway leading from the lower floor to his studio offices on the floor above. As background to a man who is anything but relaxed, white walls and rugs, contemporary furniture, a few cherished antiques and occasional brilliant colour notes create an informal and relaxed atmosphere. There is a marked absence of gadgets. "I believe in throwing out old irrelevancies," comments Gruen, "not in adding new ones." His American publications include the books How to Live With Your Architect, and, in collaboration with econombt Larry Smith, Shopping Towns, U.S.A. His articles have appeared in leading magazines of architecture, city planning, business, interior design and traffic-engineering. He lectures to audiences of an equally wide range of interests. His work has been shown not only in -the United States but in Canada, Australia, Mexico City, Paris, Moscow and Berlin and he has gathered up an impressive number of awards and citations. In a recent speech Victor Gruen said, "The city of our dreams will not only be functional, healthy and convenient, but exciting, inspiring, vital and, because of this, truly beautiful ... the Sixties will see paper plans become reality and dreams take a big step towards realization." If this proves to be true, it will be in a large measure because of the efforts of Victor Gruen.o

The Spirit of Christmas

THROUGH the centuries Christmas has grown from a day of Christian commemoration and worship into a unique world festival celebrated by millions of people of many faiths. Its spirit of friendliness, gaiety and charity, and its message, renewed from year to year, of peace on earth and goodwill towards men, have a universal appeal. Presentday Christmas celebrations in America have their roots in customs and traditions extending over many periods of history and drawn from many cultures. For instance, it was the Dutch settlers in New York who introduced Sinterklaus -the genial, generous, patriarchal Santa Claus with his reindeer-driven sleigh, whose nocturnal arrival on Christmas Eve is so eagerly awaited by children. The lighted candles in windows which are supposed to attract Santa Claus and guide him to the beds or fireplaces where he can unload his gifts are, however, an Irish custom. This is very similar to the Indian custom of keeping at least one light burning in the home all night on Diwali to welcome Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. Also reminiscent of the Diwali celebrations in India are the brilliantly illuminated and decorated streets and buildings of American cities during the Christmas season, and the candles and lanterns which shine from the windows and porticos of houses decorated with wreaths of holly and festoons of fragrant balsam. Again, the singing of carols on Christmas Eve is an old English institution, the Christmas tree had its origin in Scandinavian mythology and assumed its modern form in Germany, while the mistletoe dates back to the ancient Druids. While Christmas celebrations vary in different parts of the United States, a common element is the spirit of gaiety and generosity which pervades the country.

HE CENTRE of attraction in both private dwellings and public places is the Christmas tree. Gaily decorated and sparkling with coloured lights, a variety of ornaments and the symbolic star at the top, Christmas trees-of which about twenty-five million are sold every year in the United States-range in size from the nomlal table-high type to the giant 70-foot evergreen planted in the White House grounds in Washington. The White House Christmas tree, known as the National Community Christmas Tree, is decorated with garlands of coloured electric bulbs and large, coloured glass ballsone for each of the fifty States of the Union. When, on Christmas Eve, the President turns on a switch to light the national tree, it is the signal for the lighting of other community Christmas trees all over the country. IN AMERICA, as elsewhere, Christmas is the traditional time for family reunions and exchange of greetings between relations and friends. Apart from the feasting and merriment, American cities have a wide selection of cultural entertainment for Christmas. Music is in evidence everywhere and most symphony orchestras offer special programmes. In New York city an electric carillon on top of the Empire State Building plays carols throughout the festive season. Oratorio societies, of which the best known is the Oratorio Society of New York with a group of some 170 singers, present some of their most impressive creations in the field of ljturgical music. Numerous other singing groups make their traditional appearances at Christmastime. For children there are special concerts, plays and pageants depicting the Christmas story, fairy tale performances and dance fantasies. In recent years television has brought many of these Christmas shows to homes and families everywhere in the country. But the greatest joy of the festive season lies in giving, especially in giving to the needy and sharing one's happiness and abundance with those less fortunate. In addition to individuals, several social and philanthropic associations organize group-efforts to help and to cheer the indigent, disabled or homeless. Christmas gifts and donations are not confined to the community or country. Thousands of gift parcels are sent overseas every year, since the true spirit of Christmas transcends communal and national boundaries and expresses itself in universal love and brotherhood .â&#x20AC;˘

The Spirit of Christmas The Spirit of Christmas The Spirit of Christmas

The Spirit of Christmas

(Continued)

DEBORAH stuffs a rubber toy in the dog's stocking.

ONeEA YEAR LITTLE Deborah is only five years old, but she is following Christmas customs a century old. She finds an orange in her stocking because to hergreatgrandfather, growing up on the American frontier, an orange was a treasure seen only at Christmas. Her grandfather, though a poor parson, somehow always managed to surround his family with warmth and cheer at Christmas time. Today Deborah and her little brother David love Christmas because there is something of each generation in it. The family sings together the old carols and reads the same stories and trims the tree with ornaments that have lasted several human lifetimes. Christmastime strengthens family ties and traditions and is, first of all, a family festival..

THE FAMILY always decorates two trees, a big one and a little one.

. .••.

THE CHILDREN arise at dawn 011 Christmas morning to get their stockings.

This description of what a future voyage into space might be like is written by a senior missiles adviser to the U.S. Army Chief of Staff lor Intelligence, but his views are not necessarily official.

a prophetic

E who departs the earth, outbound for another world, leaves day and night behind. For, seen from space.,these ancient opposites lie side by side in light and shade upon the mundane globe. And, thus looking back, the astronaut will know the lonely exaltation of "breakoff," 1he sense of parting from his mother world. Now in the deep of space through which he moves there is no dawn nor dusk, nor up nor down; these and many a familiar earthly thing are only memories. But he is still an earthman. Earth substance and the basic routines of eartWy life must sustain him on his far journey. To provide sustenance for future astronauts, a vigorous and varied programme of research is now in progress. Reports of it bear such titles as "Space Ecological Systems," or "Sensomotor Performance During Weightlessness." Dry, careful and full of jargon, those reports. Hazy spots remain. The experts disagree on the best choice of methods in some areas. And engineering development has just begun. But in the"m.inds of the researchers, a vision of man's way of life in space grows steadily more clear. A brief glimpse of that vision, sketched in familiar terms, but fully consistent with current scientific knowledge, is here presented. Let us get acquainted with some astronauts of the Nine1een Seventies, en route from earth to Mars, and follow them through the duty cycle which is the spaceman's "day." Perhaps a chime, gentle but crystal clear, will wake our astronaut as he literally floats in slumber. For he is weightless, restrained only by cords attached to a light elastic harness that keeps him centred in his sleeping space. With a yawn he enjoys the fading recollection of a dream of home. Perhaps he stretches a bit as he unfastens the sleeping cord-though he can hardly become cramped if he sleeps in mid-air. Grasping a convenient guide pole, or handrail, he propels himself, with a gentle pull, aft through a port into the "gym." The habitable part of the ship is a sphere in which the gym is the rear-most section-that is, nearest the propulsion rockets. As one moves forward from there along the central guide pole he comes in succession through the sleeping space for the ship's personnel, the "wardroom" with its eating and recreation facilities, and the ecological section containing the ship's lifesustaining equipment. In the forward end is the control room, containing the communications, navigation and manoeuvring equipment. The sphere and its contents were assembled in earth orbit. It is not designed to take off from or to land directly on planets, but to move forever around or between them. The gym room has a "floor"-that is, a flat endto which are attached a number of stout elastic cords terminating in hooks or handles. The hooks, our space-

sketch

of life In space

man clips to spots provided on his body harness. Now, cords attached at belt and shoulders, he swings his feet to the "floor," grilsps the handles, and "stands," held down by the strong pull of the cords, which simulates his own weight as if he were on the earth. He proceeds with a few minutes of brisk setting-up exercises-pulling against the cords, preserving his muscular tone. Otherwise, after a few days he would be too weak to stand or walk on a planet. Finished with his work-out, he opens a watertight door and disappears into the shower. A shower at zero-gravity (zero-g) requires a few special arrangements. With a little pressure, the water comes in through the hole in the ceiling, just as usual. But, with no gravitation to pull it "down," it shows no inclination to run right out through the hole in the floor. The air would rapidly fill with water drops, and the bather would get coated with a thick watery layer. Quickly, he would choke on water drops inhaled with the air. But the chamber has a series of air jets; one to blow in the bather's face, removing most of the water film. The rest of the jets, tangentially directed, whirl the water drops centrifugally to the walls of the chamber, "spindrying" the air. Refreshed, our friend puts on a new outfit: regular underwear, socks, trousers and shirt. With hungry anticipation, he wraps one arm loosely around the guide pole, gives a tug on it with his free hand, and floats off to breakfast. On a space craft in free flight, normally, the crew will have an abundance of leisure time. Not so at launching, and for the first few hours thereafter, for then the crew must be in tense readiness to control any equipment failures and to correct the course by delicate use of the rockets. During those fLrst hours there is little thought of food. What is wanted is a quick draw on a tube of candy paste and a swallow or so of fruit juice. But after that, the preservation of mental and physical vigour against the long periods of uneventful monotony become important ends in themselves. Meal preparation and consumption become then, as on long aircraft flights, a pleasant, leisurely ceremony -if it takes a little time, and some manipulation, so much the better. On this voyage, the routines are well established. The ship is some 250 earth days out from earth and will soon make planetfall to Mars. Our hungry astronaut glides past the sleeping space into the wardroom. Around the "wall" is a series of four

Drawing of a ful/-scale working model 0/ a three-man space station now under construction in the U.S. The ten-foot steel sphere with living and working compartments on two levels is capable of simulating all space conditions except lacking of gravity. Astronauts lVould enter the detachable re-entry tunnel at bottom/or return to earth.

JOU

Y TO M RS little tables, each with two facing seats. He swings himself into one of the seats, and fastens the seat belt that holds him in place. At his feet is a softly padded rail slightly raised from the floor so that he can wedge his toes under it for more secure leverage. Without these fastenings, every movement would displace his body from the seat. From the locker in the wall he obtains eating equipment, and some food packets. A companion-who will be standing the same watch-joins him, and they busy themselves with preparation of the food, always keeping it in closed containers so that bits of it will not escape to float around and clutter up the air. While they wait for the pancakes to bake in the little electric oven, one man slowly draws orange juice into his mouth through a tube from a small plastic bag. His companion holds his own juice bag very steady, his elbows braced against the table. Gently, he squeezes. The fluid wells out to form a drop, then a growing globule. Finally, with a deft motion, he breaks the tube away, and a twoinch, pulsing sphere of orange juice drifts in mid-air before him. He produces a plastic straw, jabs it sharply into the golden mass. Then, with the quiet contentment of the true artist, he slowly drinks the shrinking spherule. , Meanwhile, the more prosaic one serves up the main course. With tongs, he takes a fragrant pancake from the oven. Warm plates are waiting, suctioncupped to the table top. With practised hand, he spreads thick syrup from a tube upon the plate; he lowers the first pancake onto the plate, sticking it in place with the syrup. Now the butter tube, to spread just a trace on top of the first pancake, followed by more syrup, topped by another pancake fastened into place on top by a generous crown of syrup. He shifts the creation over in front of his companion, who speedily inhales the last of the orange sphere and reaches for his plastic

This five-pound atomic generator, covered at bottom right, uncovered at top left, can do the work of 1,450 pounds of electrical batteries.

Jou rney to Mars

(Colltinued)

bag of coffee from the heater. No bubble-juggling with the coffee-he wants it hot, and it would cool if it floated as a steaming ball in the air. With unhurried enjoyment, each man thoroughly chews every tasty morsel. Under zero-g, gulped food does not always "go down." And space meals, like this one, are of moderate size. After the meal (eaten with ordinary forks, plus skill to avoid scattering fr:;J.gments into the air), the liquid-drinking bags are rinsed, refilled and put away. From each plate an extremely thin film of impervious plastic is stripped off, leaving the next clean, gleaming film exposed. This meal, and every other, reflects careful attention to special astronautic requirements. First, the food must "stay put" under zero-g, or much reduced, gravity. It must either adhere to its support, or (like fluids) be completely contained in collapsible tubes or flasks from which it can be taken into the mouth. (Tubed foods for astronauts exist now; they were created for the U.S. Air Force by the combined skills of various companies expert, respectively, in baby foods, in sterilizing techniques and collapsible tubes.) Because solid human wastes are difficult to recycle into useful products, the foods are carefully chosen to be almost totally absorbed into the blood stream, providing a low-bulk diet. A few suitable and familiar items listed by Miss Beatrice Finkelstein of Wright Field (perhaps the first of the illustrious profession of space dietitians) are: liver, chicken, fish, cereals, eggs, desserts, fruit juices, soups, sweets, strained vegetables. Our two astronauts, having completed their breakfast chores, move along the guide pole to the duty area. The first one takes over the pilot's post. The second assumes the duties of the ship's ecologist. Two men who had these duties on the previous watch now move to the wardroom 32

Sl?an

The lIuclear reactor at the rear of this manned interplanetary vehicle would propel it by an exhaust velocity four times that of chemically-powered spaceships. A 100-foot shaft would separate the propulsion unit from the crew's gondola.

for lunch. Another pair, the engineer and the navigator, remain at their posts, to be relieved a few hours later. The navigator has just been taking an optical "fix." The meteor shield has been swung away from the navigation window; Mars is a small, reddish half-moon among the stars. Off to the side, on a parallel course a few miles away, the second ship of the expedition can be seen as a bright point of light reflected from the sun. From the loudspeaker comes the clear, sharp secondsbeat from the previously installed observatory at Dawes Forked Bay, the zero-longitude "Greenwich" on Mars. The ships are about ten days and 1.4 million miles from destination. Their course will take them within a few hundred miles of the Mars surface. At that point, they will use the rockets to slow themselves into a circular

December 1961 A high-thrust single stage nuclear-powered spaceship such as this would enable low-cost travel to the 11100n.

One design for an atomic-powered weather station ill space, thirty-five feet long, it would aid air and sea navigation and forecast terrestrial weather.

orbit around the red world. Cargo packages will be detached, further slowed by retrorocket, then make ballistic entry into the Mars atmosphere. Two packages will be parachute-landed near each of the four Martian tropical stations. Shuttle rockets will then come up to take the ships' crews down to their duty stations on Mars. There they will engage in exploration, prospecting and further production of needed supplies from Martian raw materials. The ships will wait in a Mars orbit-unmanned but monitored by telemetry from its instrumentsfor something more than an earth year, when it will be possible for some of the Mars personnel to begin the 260-day trip home. The pilot of our space craft hopes to take that first trip back to earth. The ecologist plans to stay on with the growing colony, immersed in experimentation with the life forms of two worlds. While on Mars, they will live in comfortable, thickwalled, semi-dugout buildings. The living and working areas of the base will be further sheltered by inflated plastic domes and tubes. These plastic shelters will act as greenhouses to hold in moisture, and to trap solar heat by day and slow its escape at night. They will contain atmosphere maintained by a variety of edible plants, including algae, which consume carbondioxide and give off oxygen. There will be a varied diet, including rabbits and other small meat animals. A growing "industrial area" will be producing from Martian substances the metals, plastics and other materials necessary to the station. Travel will be by fairly conventional ground vehicles, airplanes and probably small airships. Assuming that the Mars atmospheric pressure is near the higher end of the present range of estimates, an acclimated Mars man will not need a pressurized "space suit" to travel outside the domes. He will then wear clothing similar to the "thermilibrium" suit now being developed by the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps for wear by our soldiers in a wide range of terrestrial climates. He will need to carry his. oxygen, but on Mars this will weigh about one pound for a day's supply.

This spaceship, designed by U.S. scientists, has living quarters for five men, pens for animals and areas for hydroponic farming.

Since the Mars surface gravity is about 0.4 that of the earth, outdoor life with picnics, long hiking or exploratory trips and almost every kind of sport may be practical despite the moderate amount of oxygen and other special gear required. On Mars, our astronauts can look forward to a free, vigorous and varied existence-in sharp contrast to previous tours of duty in the narrow subsurface confines of a lunar base. But meantime the men must continue their exacting duties in the ship. The pilot checks the ship's controls; they are now idle as the ship coasts in free flight. He consults with the navigator regarding the next brief use of rocket power to correct the course, an occasion still several duty cycles in the future. The engineer peers through a binocular microscope, replacing a minute transistor on a small electronic module so that it will be ready if another spare is needed. The ecologist buckles himself into the seat before his instrument panel. First, he makes loving inspection of a miniature rosebush (all of two inches high) growing in a thimble that is taped to the instrument panel. There is a tiny but exquisite red blossom, and two buds. If there is no gravity, a root-bearing plant may be confused as to where to grow roots, branches, leaves and flowers. But our friend is a master of the biologic arts, and he has managed by the use of hormones and light to grow his space-rose. He then begins the check of the ship's life-sustaining system. First, the atmosphere. Oxygen density is maintained equal to that at the surface of the earth. But the amount of nitrogen is reduced so that the total air pressure in the cabin is about that at an earth altitude of 18,000 feet. This reduces leakage of gas from the ship and has some other advantages. Next comes the check on carbon dioxide. By his metabolism each man produces about two pounds per day of this gas. In this ship, a small refrigerator freezes it out of the air in the form of dry ice. It is then dissolved slowly into the water of the algae tanks. Liquid wastes are sterilized and also fed into these tanks. There, the green algae cells use these substances and the energy from sunlight to make food as well as oxygen. Each day, a man requires about two pounds of oxygen. This amount can be produced daily by about five pounds of algae. Of course, the whole algae apparatus weighs much more than this; perhaps 200 pounds per man. The ship operates on a partially closed biologic cycle-that is, all of the carbon dioxide is used up and all of the oxygen is restored by the algae. But only about two-thirds of the food is provided by on-board biologic regeneration. This is produced in the form of algae flour, yeast and a very small amount of fresh vegetables. In an Spa'll

December 196/

A space vehicle powered by electrically charged atoms, ions, might use rotors for a soft landing on the moon.

Journey to Mars

(Continued)

emergency, the crew could, for a considerable time, survive on these items almost without supplementary foods. Or, if the algae should sicken or die, creating a "crop failure," very sparing use of stored foods and oxygen would enable the crew to survive the journey. Normally, the ship-grown products and the food stores from earth are blended by skilful cookery to make an interesting menu. (As of 1961, the art of algae cookery is decidedly in its infancy.) True, the pancakes may have an algae flavour-reminiscent of alfalfa, but your real spaceman may even grow to like it! The ecologist is not inclined towards short rations. He has that combination of science and intuition which adds up to a "green thumb." With loving care he adjusts the salt extractor (algae don't like as much salt as people do) and adds a small dose of the minerals that algae need. Meanwhile, pumps have been passing the algae culture through the harvest filters. He removes the filters, inspects the crop, and puts it in the dryer. As he does so, he reflects philosophically on the strange ways of fatefor the green scum from a stagnant pond (which is the algae) has become the life-sustaining partner of man in the conquest of space. After checking the air for noxious trace impurities, our friend turns to the ship's water system. This is simpler, for water purification is done by distillation of waste water, using solar heat. Water vapour from body moisture is frozen out of the air by the same refrigerator that removes carbon dioxide. Next in line for inspection is the air circulator. On earth, if a man sits or lies in quiet air, the warmth of his breath and body create rising convection currents that carry away exhalation and body moisture. But, at zero-g, warm air could not rise. It would accumulate in a growing cloud of exhalation and moisture about the man. Of course, a slight breeze of air from the ship's circulation system will cure this problem. Then, his inspection completed, the ecologist settles down to watch his instruments. Some hours later, pilot and ecologist are relieved by the next shift. A brief fresh-up in the gym, and they are back in the wardroom for lunch. The pilot chooses chicken soup (taken from a squeezebag) and some bitesize biscuits of algae. The ecologist concocts a "milkshake" made with powdered milk, algae, yeast and a bit of raspberry syrup. Lunch finished, recreation is in order. The ecologist listens to taped music through an earphone and works on a miniature abstract painting. The pilot reads a microfilm book on farming; he hopes for early retirement among the quiet fields of earth. As they pursue their occupations, take a look at these spacemen. Different as they are in temperament, they have important characteristics in common. Small and lean, they weigh about 150 pounds. Each has in his

hair those small gray streaks that are caused by hits of heavy primary cosmic rays; these men are veterans of other space voyages and have served in a moon base. They are in their mid-forties-master astronauts need many years of training and experience. Also, in view of the genetic hazard of an encounter with a "solar storm" of radiation in space, it is prudent to be a father first and do one's space travelling later. Of this crew of twelve, all have been married for at least several years; most have families of children nearly grown. In such men as these, a life-long dedication to achievement and adventure has led to experienced skill in selfmanagement on .Iong, isolated journeys. In them, such passions as sex and aggressiveness are for the time subordinated or sublimated to the task at hand. The pilot carries no pictures of his wife; between them is the bond that only years can bring and astronautic distance cannot break. The ecologist is prone, upon convivial occasions, to make veiled reference to a bohemian youth. Perhaps so, but that was long ago, and the printed record shows that he spent a part of that same youth in lengthy and monastic expeditions to Antarctica. Psychologically well balanced, these men are neither garrulous nor taciturn. Their gifted minds are liberally furnished with a wealth of cultural and professional interests; they are self-contained and have small need of the endless titillations upon which empty minds depend. They would have little interest in the ideas of courage or of fear. They pursue the goals that interest them, neither tolerant of unnecessary risks nor disturbed by those implicit in the task. From our glimpse of them, we may draw a stronger sense of linkage in that mighty chain of which we and they are parts-the chain of human purpose that stretches from the dim past on and up towards the stars .â&#x20AC;˘

These villages under plastic domes would protect visitors to the moon from the effects of radiation and severe temperatures.

The Centaur space rocket, opposite, shown at night in its gantry, is 105 feet high and is scheduled to make interplanetary probes in 1962 and soft landings on the moon in 1963.

•

Ind fa In America Hawaii's Lieutenant Governor James Kealoha welcomes Mr. Raman Sankar.

BRIEF visit to Hawaii-America's newest state and a meeting ground of many ancient cultures-marked the end of a recent one-month tour of the United States by Mr. Raman Sankar, Deputy Chief Minister of Kerala. Mr. Sankar was struck by the similarities of climate, topography and agriculture between Hawaii and his home state, Kerala. He noticed a resemblance even in the looks of the inhabitants of these two widely separated regions and wondered if there were some remote connection between the Polynesians and the people of South India. Mr. Sankar was particularly interested in the activities of the State of Hawaii housing authority and the low-cost living quarters graphically described as "punchbowl homes." During his visit to Hawaii Mr. Sankar also saw the naval base at Pearl Harbour and some of the pineapple and sugarcane fields in the state. Earlier his tour took him to urban and rural centres in the Southern, and Western United Midwestern States. He visited some of the ricegrowing regions in Louisiana and acquainted himself with methods employed in land drainage, rice production and marketing problems. He was also able to study the many-sided programme of the Tennessee Valley Authority and its effectiveness for flood control and prevention of soil erosion, as well as production of electric power for a large geographical area. While in Washington, Mr. Sankar presented to the U.S. Government's Museum of Science and Industry a IO-inch high ivory replica of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbour-a typical specimen of Kerala craftsmanship .•

Governor William F. Quinn of Hawaii meets with the Kerala Deputy Chief Ministor in the state capitol.

In HOl/olulu's Bishop Museum with his guide, Mr. Sankar wondered, below, if there might be an ethnic link between the Polynesians and the peoples of South India.

THE ST. LAWRENCE T

SEAWAY

HE St. Lawrence Seaway, a mammoth complex of power dams, canals and locks, links the oceans of the world with the Great Lakes of the American continent. A vast undertaking and in many ways a unique engineering and construction achievement, tllis has been a cooperative effort of the United States and Canada for the mutual benefit of the two countries. From its broad gulf on the Atlantic, the St. Lawrence River runs through

GA 1,062 miles of Canadian territory before touching the United States to become the boundary with Canada's province of Ontario to the north and the State of New York to the south. The river's main channel and four of the five Great Lakes form the international boundary line. By opening an inland area extending more than 2,300 miles through the Great Lakes-a stretch longer than the whole U.S. Atlantic ocean seaboardthe project has fulfilled the old

Canadian-American dream of an eighth sea and has provided the United States with a fourth seacoast. Among the outstanding benefits that are certain to accrue from this giant, long-heralded Seaway is power development. The river's waters will soon generate annually, for use by U.S. and Canadian industry, some 13 billion kilowatt hours of low-cost electricity, which is about three times the output of Hoover Dam. The steel-blue St. Lawrence River and the

Where once there was only solid earth, engineers built locks around tricky shallows in the river.

The Eighth Sea

(Continued)

Great Lakes it drains have been transfonned into a man-made Mediterranean, on which westbound seagoing ships can sail 2,300 miles into North America's heartland. Only two examples would suffice to show the new waterway's enormous impact on both the geography and economy of the continent: first, more than 8,000 miles of new shipping coastline is added to the U.S. and Canada; secondly, such cities along the Great Lakes as Chicago, Cleveland, Duluth, Buffalo, Toronto and Hamilton have become genuine deepwater ports, 500 miles closer to Europe by seaway than they were. Goods shipped before by rail to the Atlantic from the Midwest United States at a cost of $13 a ton can now be sent, seaward, down the St. Lawrence for about $1.70 per ton. EVER since the intrepid French explorers and settlers established the foundations of Canada on the banks of this river, men have dreamed of a navigable deepwater channel linking the harbour of Montreal with the head of the Great Lakes. At last, it is a reality after centuries of speculation, fifty years of serious talk and five years of building. An anny of engineers and workmen-22,000 at peak effort-laboured on the project, completed at a total cost of a billion dollars including the dams and power plants which, though not strictly a part of the Seaway itself, are essential to its operation. The most difficult part of the construction was that of shaping the International Rapids section whose islands divided the river into separate channels. To make navigation possible through treacherous rapids and shallow bends, a power dam was constructed across the north channel to the Canadian shore. A spillway dam was also built to connect one of the islands with the U.S. mainland and provide a deep-draft channel with two new locks to accommodate ocean-going traffic. The 189-mile Seaway resembles a watery staircase with seven gigantic locks as its steps, which now can lift and lower ships through a combined height of nearly 600 feet, a record height for any waterway open to large vessels. 40

span

The opening of the Great Lakeswhich reach a third of the way across North America-to world shipping has proved to be a powerful stimulus to international trade. These lakes spread finger-like into the heartland of the continent to form an inland sea bordered on the north and south by regions rich in natural resources and humming with industrial and agricultural activity. In the U.S. Midwest alone, which the lakes penetrate, there live some seventy million Americans producing two-thirds of the country's export trade by volume, 84 per cent of its automobiles, 75 per cent of its steel and 69 per cent of its dairy products. Thanks to the project, this inland sea, virtually cut off from the Atlantic and ocean-going vessels until the advent of the Seaway, is now accessible to world shipping. Between the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River ports now shuttle ore and grain carriers holding 22,500 metric tons, and ocean-going freighters of up to 7,650 metric tons are plying between the Lakes and the ports of more than thirty countries. The above statistics are a yardstick to measure the importance of this

ambitious, history-making project. Though inaugurated officially on June 26, 1959, the Seaway was actually opened to ocean traffic two months earlier. Already, as many as fortyfive shipping lines are using the Seaway and, up to the end of last year, about 7,500 ships passed through it carrying over twenty million tons of cargomainly iron ore and wheat. The initial operational difficulties are fast diminishing and by 1965 the new waterway expects to handle its full capacity of 45 million metric tons a year. To meet the increasing demands of the age, the Great Lakes cities are also building new piers and dredging new harbour channels to accommodate in the future still larger vessels than at present. However, in the accomplishment of these works there is a meaning that goes beyond the innumerable economic advantages that are bound to flow from it. The Seaway -is another symbol of the spirit of friendship and cooperation that prevails between the United States and Canada, which share an unarmed border that extends the entire width of the North American continent. â&#x20AC;˘

December 1961 Steel mills in Gary, Indiana, line the harbour channels to receive mounds from the western United States and Canada.

The piers of Chicago extend into Lake Michigan to receive trade from the ports of the world.

The city of Cleveland, second largest port Oil the Great Lakes, is the main outlet for the farm and factory production of the State of Ohio.

Graill from the Midwestern plains is loaded into a French ship

from Milwaukee storage elevators.

AMAHL and the night visitors

ONE

cold, clear night, Amahl, crippled son of a poor shepherd's widow, sees a magnificent star. Because he is fond of telling fanciful stories, Amahl's mother pays no attention to his excited description of the sky-"Damp clouds have shined it and soft winds have swept it"and the wondrous star. As they sleep that night there is a knocking at the door of their crude house and Amahl opens it to a fantastic sight: camels regally adorned with costly trappings, a page carrying a cask of gold, and three richly robed kings, who are seeking shelter. The three kings-Balthazar, Kaspar, and Melchiorare following the star which Amahl has seen, the Star of Bethlehem, going to pay homage and bring their gifts of gold, incense, and myrrh to the newborn Christ. After asking Amahl and his mother if they have heard of any unusual births thereabouts, and being entertained by the songs and dances of the local shepherds, the visitors and their hosts go to sleep. Amahl's mother, driven by poverty and hunger, decides to steal some of her guests' treasure to help her crippled little son. The page catches her but she is forgiven by the kings who

"Good evening. May H'erest a while in your house and warm o!lrselves by your fireplace?"

tell her that the child they seek has no need of gold, that she may keep it, for "His haloed head will wear no crown. His might will not be built on your toil." So moved is she by the description of the Child that she insists they take back their gold, "For such a King I've waited all my life, and if I weren't so poor, I would send a gift of my own to such a Child." Amahl, also eager to send some gifts, limps forward with his only precious belonging. "Mother, let me send Him my crutch. Who knows, He may need one, and this I've made myself." He takes one step towards the kings, and then realizes he has moved without the help of his crutch. Step by step, he moves forward, holding his crutch before him. "He walks! He walks! He walks!" Overjoyed and grateful, Amahl begs his mother's permission to go with the kings, to take the crutch to the Child himself. The shepherds' song in praise of the dawn is heard as AmahL and his friends move away towards the great star.

"Hanging over our roof there is a star as large as a window, and the star has a tail, and it moves across the sky like a chariot on fire."

AMAHL and the night visitors

"Mother, darling, I'm not lying. Please, do believe me. Come outside and let me show you."

(Continued)

"Have you seen a child the colour of earth, the colour of thorn? His eyes are sad, his hands are those of the poor, as poor as he was born."

HE tender Christmas opera Amahl and the Night

Visitors is the work of one of America's most exciting

and famous composers, the young, Italian-born GianCarlo Menotti. Of all his works, perhaps, it most perfectly expresses his philosophy that "art should be a gesture of love towards humanity." Menotti is that rare-and fortunate-artist, the bold innovator who is also a resounding success, both with the critics and the public. His operas have been heard by more people-thanks to television-than those of any other composer, living or dead. Menotti is master of all the operatic trades: librettist, composer, and director. In all three he has taken opera out of its grandiose tradition and into an urgently contemporary world. Working with a strong, modern hand, he has substituted language that is everyday and succinct -yet intensely poetic-for the florid operatic declamation. He finds the world full of drama and its commonplace

sounds and scenes are his tools: the persistent ringing of a telephone, the blaring of a phonograph, a line of tired people waiting in a visa office, a neighbourhood wedding. ' To Menotti, music is the ultimate form of expression. He says, "When prose cannot say a thing, you turn to poetry. When poetry cannot say a thing, you sing it. ... I am convinced that every great melody is buried deep in the hearts of all men. When a composer brings it forth, we all respond to it as though we had 'always known it." Certainly as early as he can remember, music has been Menotti's mode of expression. He was born into a musical family in Cadegliano on Lake Lugano in northern Italy, on July 7, 1911. His father was an importer, his mother a musician. All the young Menottis were musical. In the evenings they played chamber music together.

"They are asleep. Do I dare? If I take some they'll never miss it . For my child ... for my child "

"Mother, let me send him my crutch. Who knows, he may need one. And this I made myself ... I walk, Mother ... I walk ...â&#x20AC;˘ "

"Oh, Mother, let me go with the kings! I want to take the crutch to the child myselj."

AMAHL ,

and the night visitors

(Continued)

\\11

The boy began composing music when he was six years old, and wrote an opera, The Death of Pierrot, when eleven. By the time he was seventeen he was described as a spoiled prodigy, lionized in the salons. His mother saw the danger and took him to the United States, where he would be free of his adulatory friends and would be forced to stand on his own feet. Having a scholarship to study under Rosario Scalero, he enrolled in the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Shy and lonely in a strange country, unable to speak the language fluently, he had a difficult time at first, but threw himself into his studies and began writing small pieces for orchestra and piano. At the age of twenty-two he began an opera, Amelia Goes To The Ball, which the critics greeted warmly. It dealt with a charming but flighty young girl who managed to complicate the lives of several persons while getting ready for a ball. The next year he composed an opera for radio, The Old Maid and The Thief. Critics praised its wit and ebullience, but warned against "an overdose of sweet notes." In 1946 Menotti produced a major work which was a brilliant success and firmly established him as a leading composer: The Medium. It is the story of a cunning and mercenary woman who, as a "spiritualist," dupes a sad procession of bereaved persons by pretending to commune with their dead. Later The Consul, in which the desperate hopes of refugees are strangled by bureaucratic procedure, and The Saint of Bleacker Street, which concerns an intensely religious girl and her brother, repeated the success of The Medium. Amahl and the Night Visitors was the first opera ever written for television and has become an annual Christmas Eve feature in the United States. It is a story of faith, dealing with a single dramatic episode, a crippled boy's offering of his most prized possession, his crutch, to the infant Jesus after a visit from three kings. The music has a rare, melodic sweetness, and the story is presented with masterly simplicity and tenderness. As one critic remarked, "Everyone who saw it was a little better person than he was an hour earlier.". "Shepherds, arise! Come, oh shepherds, come outside. All the stars have left the sky. Oh, sweet dawn ... Oh, dawn of peace."