Panorama

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Part of Panorama

Title: Panorama
Issue Date: Volume XIX (Issue No. 1) January 1967
Year: 1967
Language: English
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extracted text: JuwIa mL jfUow ydtyiMi: PANORAMA needs intelligent readers 1. Informative materials 2. Interesting ideas 3. Enlightening opinions 4. Broadening views 5. Controversial thoughts / 6. Critical comments 7. Idealistic suggestions 8. Humorous remarks 9. Serious statements 10. Meditations on life and work. All these are either original productions or selective adap tions and condensations from Philippine and foreign publica tions. Usually brief and compact, lasting from two to ten minutes to read, each article offers a rewarding experience in one’s moments of leisure. Relax with Panorama. We say this to the busy student and the teacher, the lawyer and the physician, the dentist and the engineer, the executive and the farmer, the politician and the preacher, the employer and the employee. PANORAMA is specially designed for Filipinos — young, middle-aged, and old, male and female, housekeeper and houselizard. Special rates for new and renewal subscriptions to begin . on November 1, 1966: 1 copy ..................................... 1 year ..................................... 2 years .................................. Foreign rate: .......................... 50 centavos P5.00 P9.00 $3.00 (U. S.) For one year’s subscription of 5 pesos, a person receives the equivalent of 12 compact pocketbooks of lasting value and and varied interest. COMMUNITY PUBLISHERS, INC. Inverness, (M. Carreoh) St., Sta. Ana, Manila, Philippines tmi rniupFiNa mamini of eooo auome Entered m second class mail matter at the Manila Post Office on Dec. 7, 1955 Vol. XIX MANILA, PHILIPPINES ____________No. 1 TALENT AND SUCCESS Though it may offend our sense of justice to find that of two men who by equal effort have acquired the same specialized skill and knowledge, one may be a success and the other a failure, we must recognize that in a free so ciety it is the use of particular opportunities that deter mines usefulness and must adjust our education and ethos accordingly. In a free society we are remunerated not for our skill but for using it rightly; and this must be so as long as we are free to choose our particular occupation and are not to be directed to it. True, it is almost never possible to determine what part of a successful career has been due to superior knowledge, ability, or effort and what part to fortunate accidents; but this in no way detracts frorh the importance of making it worthwhile for every body to make the right choice. In a free society a man's talents do not “entitle” him to any particular position. . . All that a free society has to of fer is an opportunity of searching for a suitable position, with all the attendant risk and uncertainty which such a search for a market for one’s gifts must involve. There is no denying that in this respect a free society puts most individuals under a pressure which is often resented. But it is an illusion to think that one would be rid of such pressure in some other type of society; for the alter native to the pressure that responsibility for one’s own fate brings is the far more invidious pressure of personal or ders that one must obey. — F. A. Hayek in The Constitu tion of Liberty, p. 82. THE CASE FOR AUTONOMY FOR PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION (Continued from the December 1966 Issue) This discussion of the freedom of private schools from government control may be further reinforced by one other decision of the United States Supreme Court which involved a law so closely identical to the present Philippine statute and regulations on the subject as to make one think that it may have served as the model of the latter. That was the decision in the case of Farrington v. Tokushige (273 U. S. 284). The law was passed by the legislature of Hawaii for the regulation and supervision of private schools con ducted in language other than English or Hawaiian. The main difference between the two measures is that the Philippine statute is not simply applicable to fo reign language private schools but to all private schools without ■ distinction. In other words, our law is more comprehensive. The Hawaiian law was declared unconstitutional first by the United States District Court which held that it violated the due process clause because it deprived the owners and managers of private schools of their constitutional right to li berty and property. On appeal, the United States Supreme Court upheld that decision and declared that the provisions of the law and regulations were parts of a deliberate plan to place private schools under a “strict governmental control” and thus violated the due process clause protecting the rights of owners, parents, and children in respect of attendance upon Panorama schools as announced in the cases of Meyer v. Ne braska (262 U. S. 390), Bartels v. Iowa (262 U. S. 404), and Pierce v. Society of Sisters (268 U. S. 510). A general summary of the provisions of the Ha waiian statute could impress us with their close si milarity to those of our own law and regulations on such subjects or features as the following: 1. That no private school may be conducted in Hawaii without a written permit from the depart ment of public instruction. 2. Tha classes shall be held only during certain hours of the day and week and only for so many weeks in a year. 3. That the department of public instruction has power to prescribe by regulations the subject and courses of study of all the private schools, and the entrance and attendance, requisites or qualifications of education, age, school attainment, demonstrated mental capacity, health and otherwise, and the textbooks to be used. 4. That in every school no object of study shall be taught, nor courses of study followed, nor en trance nor attendance qualifications required, nor textbooks used, other than as prescribed or permitted by the department of public instruction. 5. That the department of public instruction has power to appoint one or more inspectors of the pri vate schools who shall have the right to visit such schools and to inspect the buildings, equipment, re cords, and teaching thereof and the textbooks used. 6. That if the department is at any time satisfied that the holder of a permit to run a school or to teach therein has violated or failed to observe any provision of the act or the regulations, the department may revoke the permit. January 1967 After pointing out in detail these features of the Hawaiian statute and regulations governing the schools concerned, the Supreme Court declared: “The foregoing statement is enough to show that the School Act and the measures adopted thereunder go far beyond mere regulations of pri vately supported schools where children obtain in struction deemed valuable by their parents and which is not obviously in conflict with any public interest. They give affirmative direction concern ing the intimate and essential details of such schools, intrust their control to public officers, and deny both owners and patrons reasonable choice and discretion in respect of teachers, curriculum and textbook. Enforcement of the act probably would destroy most, if not all of them, and cer tainly, it would deprive parents of fair opportunity to procure for their children instruction which they think important and we cannot say harmful.” As previously indicated, the Philippine statute is substantially similar to the Hawaiian statute especially (1) in so far as it requires all private schools to se cure a permit from the Department of Education be fore they may be opened, and (2) in so far as it “gives affirmative direction concerning the intimate and es sential details of such schools, intrust their control to public officers, and deny both owners and patrons rea sonable choice and discretion in respect of teaching, curriculum, and textbooks.” The Court categorically declared that these features constitute a direct inva sion of the property rights of the owners and “de prive parents of fair opportunity to procure for their children instruction which they think important and we cannot say harmful.” It stands to reason that if a system of regulation amounting to control is unconstitutional when applied to private foreign language schools, it is doubly so Panorama when applied to our own private schools, run by our own citizens, and devoted to the education of our own people. The ruling in this case of Farrington v. Tokushige prohibiting the government to exercise control over private schools is cited and Expounded by Justice Felix Frankfurter in the course of his opinion in the case of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (319 U. S. 624, 657-658) in which he pointed out the universally accepted rule that the state may con trol public schools because they are its own property but that it has no right to control private schools because they not belong to it. On this particular sub ject the distinguished jurist had this to say: “Parents have the privilege of choosing which schools they wish their children to attend. And the question here is whether the state may make certain requirements that seem to it desirable or important for the proper education of those future citizens who go to schools maintained by the states, or whether the pupils in those schools may be relieved from those requirements if they run counter to the consciences of their parents. Not only have parents the right to send children to School of their own choosing but the state has no right to bring such schools ‘under a strict gov ernmental control’ or give ‘affirmative direction concerning the intimate and essential details of such schools, intrust their control to public officers, and deny both owners and patrons reasonable choice and discretion in respect of teachers, curri culum and textbooks.’ (Farrington v. Tokushige 273 U. S. 284, 298.) The Philippine statute has, in effect, transferred the academic control and administrative management of the private schools and colleges from the hands of their owners to the hands of the government without January 1967 5 the consent of the former. The inescapable conclu sion is that such an act is a plain deprivation of pro perty without due process of law. The illustrious jurist, Justice Benjamin Cardozo, one of the greatest judges and legal scholars America has ever produced, in his book entitled The Paradoxes of Legal Science, makes some pertinent observations on the constitutional development of the concept of liberty, how it has grown in scope and significance from specific and narrower bases to a much larger and comprehensive foundation which supports the pro tection of freedom in a much wider field of human activity including teaching and learning in private schools. To avoid any possible misconception of his thoughts in this connection, his exact words are here quoted as follows: “The concept of liberty in our constitutional development has undergone a steady and highly significant development. The individual may not only insist that the law which limits him in his activities shall impose like limits upon others in like circumstances. He will also be heard to say that there is a domain of free activity that may not be touched by government or law at all, whe ther the command be special against him or ge neral ' against him and others. By express provi sion of the constitution, he is assured freedom of speech and freedom of conscience or religion. These latter immunities have thus the sanctions of a specific pledge, but they are merely phases of a larger immunity which finds expression in the comprehensive declaration that no one shall be deprived of liberty without due process of law... “A few typical instances will serve to point my meaning. The government may not prohibit the teaching of a foreign language in private schools and colleges. (Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 6 Panorama U. S. 390.) For the same reason, we can safely say, it may not prohibit the teaching in such places of other branches of human learning. It may not take unto itself exclusively the instruc tion of the young and mould their minds to its own. (Pierce v. Society, of Sisters, 268 U. S. 510). Restraints such as these are encroachments upon the free development of personality in a society that is organized on the basis of the family. We reach the penetralia of liberty when we throttle the mental life of a group so fundamental.” Another aspect of the Philippine statute affecting its validity concerns the broad discretion given to the Secretary of Education to promulgate rules and re gulations of a positive nature purposely intended to improve standards of education and the efficiency of instruction in the private schools without specifically defining these terms. Assuming that the legislature could enact measures on the subject, nevertheless it is not authorized to delegate this power to adminis trative officials in broad and unlimited terms. This subjec was involved in the case of Pa_cker Collegiate Institute v. University of State of New York (298 N. Y. 184). The plaintiff, a private nonsectarian school for girls,, challenged the validity of a New York sta tute on the ground that it unlawfully delegated le gislative powers to the Board of Regents of New York by vesting them with plenary authority to pre scribe regulations for the registration of any private school. The particular portion of the statute which was attacked on the ground of unconstitutionality pro vides: “No person or persons, firms or corporation, other than the public school authority or an establish ed religious group, shall establish or maintain a nursery school and/or kindergarten ■ and/or elementary school... unless the school is registered under regula JANUARY 1967 7 tions prescribed by the board of regents.” (Italics supplied). It was admitted that the plaintiff school, by rea son of its character and standing, would be entitled to a license if it should apply for it from the board of regents, the government office entrusted by the statute to grant licenses to private schools. But that school refused to apply for a license because of its claim that the statute was invalid and unconstitutional. Without wasting words and unnecessary reasoning, the Court of Appeals of New York, the highest ju dicial tribunal of the State of New York, on July 16, 1948, declared the statute unconstitutional as it was an “attempt to empower an administrative of ficer, the State Commissioner of Education, to regis ter and license private schools, under regulations to be adopted by him, with no standards or limitations of any sort.” The statute being an invalid delegation of legis lative powers, the Court stated that it was unne cessary to discuss the validity of the regulations is sued by the Commissioner of Education. But to show the danger of placing an undefined power in the hands of an administrative official, the Court pointed out, that “the Commissioner, left without legislative guidance', proceeded to legislate, broadly and in many different areas. Summarized, those regulations provide that each such school shall apply for registration un der forms prescribed by the commissioner, who shall determine the school’s eligibility for registration on the facts presented; that registration shall be given only for a number of children to be specified by the commissioner, but not fewer than six children; that the program, curriculum and financial resources of school must meet standards to be approved by the commissioner; that the qualifications of the teachers shall be up to those of the public school; that the Panorama number of children per teacher shall not be too large for proper education; that there shall be adequate equipment and space, adequate provisions for health and sanitation and fire escapres, adequate opportu nities for parent education and adequate record keeping; that the schools Shall be in session appro ximately the same number of days as the public schools, and that no school shall be registered if it puts out misleading advertising. A comparison of those regulations with the bare and meager language of the statute forces the conclusion that, however good or bad the commissioner’s rules may be, they were not controlled, suggested or guided by anything in the statute.” The Court explained the nature of the right of private schools and of the limitations of the power of the legislature to regulate such school in the public interest. It says on this point: “This is no small or technical matter we deal with here. Private schools have a constitutional right to exist, and parents have a constitutional right to send their children to such, schools. (Italics supplied) Pierce v. Society of the Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus and Mary, (268 U. S. 510). The Legislature, under the police power, has, a limited right to regulate such schools in the public interest. Pierce v. Society of Sisters supra: Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U. S. 390.” The fact that under the Constitution the govern ment may regulate and supervise private schools does not mean that it can do so in any manner and form however unreasonable, oppressive, violative of consti tutional rights, or prohibitory of acts that are in themselves harmless and useful. It is true that the maintenance and conduct of private schools may be used to commit fraudulent cases or to mislead the credulous as it has been actually done in some in stances. But, as the Supreme Court of the United January 1967 9 States correctly stated in declaring unconstitutional and void a statute which prohibited employment agencies from demanding from any person fees for securing an employment for him, the mere fact that abuses crop up in connection with a business may not justify “destruction of one's right to follow a distinctly useful calling in an upright way.” For, as the Court said in that case, there is “no profession, possibly no business, which does not offer peculiar opportunities for reprehensible practices; and as to everyone of them, no doubt, some can be found quite ready earnestly to maintain that its suppression would be in the public interest.” (Adams v. Tanner, 244 U. S. 590) Regulation and supervision, therefore, must be reasonable and must not be destructive of the rights of the individual to liberty and property. Statutes for such purposes must state clearly the prohibited acts that are in fact fraudulent, vicious, and undesirable. A statute of the nature here discussed goes beyond these constitutional limits. It vests in the adminis trative official unlimited power to issue restrictive rules covering all aspects of the organization, the conduct, the financing, and the life of private schools and. colleges, the liberty of the teacher to teach, and the natural right of parents to rear their children in the manner they believe wise and proper. The po wer thus vested is no longer a power of regulation but a power of control, practically complete and absolute, a power which can be exercised to sup press constitutional rights. It is quite clear that under the Constitution there are definite boundaries between the right of the owner and the teacher of a private school, on the one hand, and the authority of the government over such schools, on the other. It may be safely said that to the owner and teacher belongs the control and direction of the 10 Panorama private school; and to the government belongs the supervision over it so it may desist from doing frau dulent acts or from committing what, is obviously harmful to its students and the public. A review of the different legislative steps which eventually resulted in the adoption of the system of supervision and regulation of private schools and the circumstances which gave rise to it may be of help in understanding the present state of governmental control over private education. It may also enable us to determine the desirability or the disadvantages of restriction on the freedom of education in this country. The law passed by the Philippine Commission on January 21, 1901, as Act No. 74, establishing the public school system of the country provided in its Section 25 that nothing in the enactment should be “consrued in any way to forbid, impede, or obstruct the establishment and maintenance of private schools.” In those early years of the American occupation the private schools were still run after the Spanish mo del. The Spanish language continued to be used in the existing institutions of higher education. Their students and graduates were not trained in the Ame rican methods of instruction; and they hardly had enough knowledge of English to meet the entrance requirements of the newly organized University of the Philippines and other government colleges or to qua lify for civil service positions. Under such conditions there was much disatisfaction with their courses and methods of instruction. The result was that in 1907, in the first session of the Legislature following the creation of the Philippine Assembly, bills were pre sented for the purpose of placing private schools un der compulsory government supervision. But such le gislation was not considered necessary by the Ameri can administration as it was believed that the perti nent provisions of the corporation law were sufficient January 1967 11 to carry out what the Assembly had in mind with out provoking unnecessary trouble and bad feeling. But public disatisfaction with the performance of most private schools could not be wholly ignored. Some colleges began to realize the necessity of im proving their standards of instruction; and as the government discovered that they actually reformed their courses and methods, they received official authorization to confer degrees and award diplomas. Seeing these results, more institutions decided to ap ply for government supervision of their courses of study, methods of teaching, textbooks, and equipment in the expectation of receiving similar privileges. (Report of Phil. Comm. 1908, part 2, p. 779). Conse quently, the Department of Public Instruction’s curri cula and plans of study began to be voluntarily and uniformly adopted by private institutions for the sake of acquiring the privilege of awarding officially re cognized degrees and diplomas to their graduates. Any of these gave a sort of an advantage to its holder as it permitted him to transfer to any public school with the right to have his record in the private institution accepted and approved. But as Filipinos acquired greater knowledge and mastery, of higher education and its administration, the practice or rule of prescribing a uniform sche dule of courses, teaching methods, and other instruc tional ideas has obviously discouraged initiative and experimentation in the aducational activities; and it has prevented diversity and flexibility of educational plans. Without being consciously and widely felt, it has created a real danger to individual freedom, made authoritarianism superficially advantageous, and insidiously preserved the colonial spirit of intellectual parasitism. The Filipino newspapers at that time showed a remarkable grasp of principle and moral independence when they criticized the action of the 12 Panorama Department of Public Instruction as a threat to the freedom of education. For instance, La Vanguardia in a singularly perceptive editorial of May 22, 1912, made the following comment and protest: “The government, for the purpose of impel ling all studious youths toward official schools, has surrounded the latter with certain guaran tees and privileges in which private schools bare ly participate. The Department of Public Instruc tion has drawn up a course of study for all schools, as the condition sine qua non for their recognition, and the government is an Argus in spying out the slightest slip of private schools in order to withdraw the recognition given them. Is not this an offense against the freedom of educa tion? Thus, the tendency is to make private schools disappear little by little in order to leave a wider field for official schools and in this way to be able to embed in the brains of our youth the ideas of the government.” (Translation by Governor Forbes). The thought expressed by this editorial of the La Vanguardia was not understood by Governor-Ge neral Cameron Forbes, whose previous personal expe rience was confined to business and banking matters. Without a sufficient background of educational expe rience and with a meager knowledge of academic problems, he referred to the system adopted by the Department of Public Instruction as an “admirable arrangement.” But years later, it is remarkable how the ideas of the Vanguardia were practically upheld in their essence by those decisions of the United States Supreme Court which have been previously dis cussed in this paper. The basic theme of those ideas correspond to the views expressed by liberal thinkers and progressive writers in America, England, and con tinental Europe, as will be later shown in this paper. (To be continued) January 1967 13 ■ In this country a search for science talent has been started but no serious appreciation of exceptional ability in mathematics has been- shown with equal interest so far when real scientists and philoso phers often come from the mathematically gifted. EDUCATION FOR MATHEMATICALLY GIFTED I believe that, scattered round the surface of the globe, there should be a few special boarding-schools for young people who show ex ceptionally high ability in mathematics. I am not sug gesting that there should be many; for example, I believe one would suffice for an area with a population the size of Great Britain’s. I pick on exceptional abi lity in mathematics rather thai) in others, partly be cause mathematics, like bal let, is a subject in which ex ceptionally high ability does develop very young and can be recognized at a very early age. 1 use the words ‘ex ceptionally high ability’ to mean what is possessed by not one in five but one in 500 people, of whom at most a tenth would have this ex ceptional ability specifically in mathematics. So I have in mind select ing about one in 5,000 from each age group for these spe cial mathematical schools. But I want to avoid staking exaggerated claims for the importance of mathematics. Scientists too often make exaggerated claims for science, usually to get a lot of money. But since the sum of money needed for a single new school in a country the size of Great Britain is hard ly exorbitant, grandiose claims for the importance of mathematics are not ne cessary to justify it. The pleading as I would put in for mathematics is based on two circumstances only. First, the subject is a structure, each part of which rests logically and necessarily on the parts that precede it (you cannot do fractions till you have done whole num bers) and, secondly, the sub 14 Panorama ject has been under inten sive development, stage by stage, for 2,500 years. In that time the structure has grown to a phenomenal extent, till it has become a formidable task to become acquainted with even one major part of it, and therefore special edu cation for those with a chance of achieving this aim may be desirable. Admittedly this continual growth in complexity is from time to time reversed by some flash of insight, which shows how a great complex of steps can be simplified and reduced and unified and given clarity. But only by utilizing to the full the exceptionally able can we ensure the occurrence of these flashes of insight, that show the way ahead again when it seemed dark and, cloudy. Naturally enough, I am not advocating a curriculum for such a school that would aim exclusively at the pro duction of pure mathema ticians. It is well known that much of the finest mathe matics today is going on in theoretical physics and in other fields of application of mathematics. Because the majority of these are at least founded upon physics, it can be argued that physics might play a specially im portant role in the syllabus. Without doubt, however, many other subjects should be included, so that people able to apply mathematics in many different fields would emerge from such schools, as well as a number of pure mathematicians. I certainly do not propose an exceptionally large frac tion of the teaching time for mathematics itself. The aim, rather, would be mathema tics teaching of high quality, that goes along at the pace which these exceptional pu pils can take, unimpeded by others with different kinds of mind (who, I hasten to add, can of course in their different ways be just as va luable to the community or more so). Furthermore, the same material would be ap propriate to those with in clinations towards pure or to wards applied mathematics, inclinations which in any case are not usually finalized at school age. But I have no wish to put excessive emphasis on curri cula. A much more impor tant topic is the benefit that January 1967 15 these children would receive just from living with large numbers of their own kind. It seems likely that contact with their peers on this scale would sharpen their wits, bring out their abilities, and give them ideas, more effec tively than any syllabus. So far I have argued in quite general terms. How ever, what I have said has been influenced by the fact that I know one part of the world, with a population close to that of Great Britain, where a school similar to what I have been describing has been in existence now for four years. The part of the world where, it appears, the first school of this kind, selecting from a large population, came into being, happens to be Siberia. This might seem strange to anyone except those lucky enough to know Mikhail Alekseevich Lavren tiev, the very remarkable man who for ten years has been President of the Siberian De partment of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences. Aca demician Lavrentiev is one of the great figures of our time in science and the organization of science, and he has managed to bring about during the past ten years a great flowering of science in Siberia. It is in the headquarters of the Siberian Department, that is, in the famous aca demic town Akademgorodok, near Novosibirsk, that the special school was set up, an event which without doubt owes more than anything else to Lavrentiev’s devotion to the cause of pure and ap plied mathematics, and to his conviction that, in the new town he was building, advanced mathematical and scientific education must be given not only at the gra duate-research and under graduate levels but also at the pre-university level. As a matter of fact the Siberian developments have been fol lowed by three boarding schools being set up in Eu ropean Russia with some similarity of aim. I have emphasized Mikhail Alekseevich’s personal con tribution to this because it is rather important to realize that developments of this kind have nothing to do with politics. Such a boardingschool to cater for special needs could equally well 16 Panorama flourish under communism, under socialism, under libe ralism, or under conserva tism, as is shown by the pa rallel developments in the case of ballet. In mathema tics a man with exceptional gifts who has chosen to de vote himself to the cause of science in Siberia has, as it happens, succeeded in bring ing about there the first realization of the aim I am describing. In this realization, the ar guments that I indicated ear lier, for physics playing a role of special importance, were found convincing, and the Novosibirsk school is call ed ‘physical and mathema tical school’, or fizmatshkola for short. While I am on names, which perhaps are important, I cannot resist explaining the name given to the pupils of this school. The Russian language has a special declension for the young animals, with singular in -onok and plural in -ata, so that a young goose is gusyonok and a young mouse is mysh-onoft, with plurals gusyata (goslings) and myshata (baby mice). This gen erated a rather attractive name for a young pupil at the fizmatshkola. He or she is called fymyshonok, and therefore of course the stu dent body becomes the fymyshata. There are just 600 fymyshata, and no intention to let the school grow longer. Their ages are between fif teen and seventeen. They are selected from the whole of Siberia and central Asia, so that the school draws on a population of about 50,000,000. A fymyshonok will spend three years, two years, or one year at the school, and go on to higher education at the age of seven teen. The selection for the school is based in the first instance on a method of testing known as the Olym piads, and consisting of an examination essentially with out time-limit. The ques tions are published annually in the youth magazines that are read in all Siberian schools. Actually, a different set of about thirty questions is given for each age group, but the general characteris tics of them all are the same. They are puzzling out the answer will tell as much as possible about the child’s January 1967 17 real ability rather than about his teachers’. To pick two examples at random, fourteen-year-olds were asked to prove that the first fifty odd numbers multiplied together come to less than one tenth as much as do the first fifty even numbers; and, again, to show that, in a country where the distance between each pair of airports was different, if an aeroplane took off from each and flew to the nearest airport, not more than five of them would land on same runway. But, as I hinted earlier, educationists are generally in agreement that high mathematical ability can be identified at an early age. The Olympiads are the par ticular method used to do this ,in Siberia, although only for the purpose of initial selection. They could not be used for final selection be cause of the possibility of col laboration, but in practice, where everybody knows that further screening will follow, they are found to be a most valuable method of identi fying those with really keen mathematical inclinations. I should mention, therefore, that similar Olympiad tests are now being held in many parts of the world, including Britain, although at present purely for the fun of com petition rather than for se lection purpose. About 2,000 of those who send in good answers to the Siberian Olympiad questions are brought to the university of Novosibirsk during the summer vacation, so that they can stay in the university dormitories (while the regu lar students are away) for a few weeks’ so-called summer school. There they are sub jected to an intensive pro gramme, including lectures on mathematical and phy sical subjects by distinguished scientists, and more problem solving work. Finally, only about 200-odd, those who really stand up well to this exacting environment, are selected for entry to the boarding school itself, and become fymyshata. Boys and girls are equally eligible, but, at any rate in particular conditions of Si beria and central Asia, only one-tenth of those successful in these tests are in fact girls. It is stated that their pre sence in the boarding-school naturally in separate dormi18 Panorama tones, causes no outstanding difficulties. At the school itself rather over half the teaching is in mathematics and physics, in cluding high-grade courses of lectures by prominent mem bers of the academic town’s fifteen research institutes and of the University of Novosi birsk. A large amount of problem-solving is featured in the course. The other subjects studied are chemis try, biology, history, geogra phy, Russian literature, and the English language (main ly for reading purposes only, I am afraid). There are, in addition, various optional specialist courses. A regular staff meeting is held with the aim of improving compatibility among the courses. On Thursdays there is no work, but there is compul sory exercise, including espe cially skiing in the winter and swimming in the lake in the summer. Sundays, on the other hand, are completely free for the fymyshata to do what they like. The evenings in the fizmatshkola are stated to be periods of intense acti vity: over thirty societies, devoted to all kinds of dif ferent pursuits, meet, and members of the research ins titutes participate in these meetings also. Some of the societies are devoted to ex citing branches of science like astronomy or meteoro logy that can capture the pupil’s imagination, some to musical and artistic topics, and some to games and hob bies. Certainly the teachers regard this free time as of great educational value, be cause of the way the pupils make each other think, as it were, in a vast variety of dis cussion and similar activities. No claim is made that the selection methods are of great efficiency. In fact, between ten and fifteen per cent of the fymyshata fail to com plete the course, and are re legated to ordinary schools on the basis of half-yearly examinations. Those who do complete it almost all go on to higher education, but it is only claimed that about half of those leaving appear real ly promising in mathematics and physics. However, this is perhaps not too bad a re sult at an early stage of such a development. — By M. J. Lighthill, F.R.S. condensed from The Listener, October, 1966. January 1967 19 FM CAN TAKE LESSON FROM MEXICO'S CARDENAS There is a President’s bio graphy that President Mar cos ought to be reading these days. It is the story of Pres ident Lazaro Cardenas of Mexico. Cardenas was the Mexican President who, on March 18, 1938, seized and expropriated 17 oil compa nies, all of them alien-owned, that were operating in his country. He nationalized the compa nies after they had refused to abide by a decision of the Mexican Supreme Court orderihg them to pay increased wages and extend additional social benefits to their Mexi can employes and workers. The decision would have meant increased costs of only $91,000 a month spread out among all the 17 companies, which had been making enor mous profits. The companies thought, however, that all they had to do was talk tough and Cardenas would capitulate. He didn’t. He expropriated them instead. * * « “It is the sovereignty of the nation which is thwart ed,” President Cardenas ex plained, “through the ma neuvers of foreign capitalists who, forgetting that they have formed themselves into Mexican companies, now at tempt to elude the mandates and avoid the obligations placed upon them by the authorities of this country. The attitude of the oil com panies is premeditated, and their decision has been too deliberately thought out to permit the government to re sort to any means less severe” (than expropriation). He then called upon his people to "furnish such moral and physical support” as would be needed to face the grim days ahead. 20 Panorama Not merely the oil com panies and a wide sector of official and private opinion in the US, of course, but even some Mexicans themselves (just as not a few Filipinos would have reacted in this country) felt that Cardenas had only succeeded in dig ging his own grave. “Most American residents in Mexi co,” one account recalls, “were certain that Mexico's doughty leader had gone too far. He would never be able to run his country without foreign aid. (Familiar?) The oil companies would whip him if they could just get a little cooperation from Washington. They would starve him into submission. They would make it impos sible for him to continue his reconstruction projects. “They would tug so hard at the purse-strings of the nation that there would be no money to pay government employes, and then Cardenas, in spite of all his patriotic appeals, would have trouble in his own household. Dissa tisfaction in the ranks of his supporters could be fanned into a flame by clever propa ganda. Eventually, Cardenas could be overthrown and people would return to a sane realization of the neces sity of running Mexico in harmony with foreign in terests.” * • • The more outraged Ameri cans were clamoring that the Marines be sent into Mexico to deal with the impudent Mexican President. Accord ing to the same account, “Cardenas stated privately what would have been done if Washington had sent down an army to take back the oil fields. The Mexicans would have seen to it that there was nothing left worth tak ing. Every derrick would have been burned down, every well dynamited, and all the tanks and refineries blown to bits. Mexico would have sacrificed her oil before her self-respect.” The Marines never came, however. Instead the US government began to put the squeeze on Mr. Cardenas and his government through eco nomic reprisals. US purchases of Mexican silver at premium prices were halted. A boy cott was clamped on the pro ducts of the newly-national ized oil fields. Although he January 1967 21 never ceased protesting his continued friendship for the US and his desire to agree on a reimbursement price to be paid to the oil companies, President Cardenas refused to be fazed or intimidated. He sold his oil to the Axis powers (just as all other countries, including the then still uninvolved US, were selling to them), and develop ed the South American re gion as a substitute market for the US. By the end of 1939, Pres ident Cardenas could report to his people that the na tionalized oil industry, in stead of collapsing as his enemies and detractors had predicted, had brought in 23 new wells, increased domes tic sales from P153-million to P17^-million, exported PllO-million to other coun tries, and spent many mil lions of pesos more in im proving the lot of the la borers. Thirteen years after expropriation, during the year 1953 alone, 133 new wells had been brought into production, several new pipe lines had been installed, 18 tankers were hauling pro ducts over the ocean lanes, more schools and medical services had been instituted for the oil workers, sales had mounted to $1,619,660510, and government profits amounted to $429,915,00. « « • it was during the adminis tration of Cardenas’ succes sor, President Avila Cama cho, that agreement was final ly reached on a reimburse ment payment of $40 million (against the $400 million that the oil companies had said their properties were worth). What did Cardenas himself think of the value of the oil firms’ investments in his country? He had said: “It has been stated ad nau seam that the petroleum in dustry has brought into this country enormous capital for its development. This as sertion is an exaggeration. The oil companies have en joyed for many years, during most of their existence, in fact, great privileges for theii development and expansion; they have been granted cus toms rebates, fiscal exemp tions, and numberless other prerogatives, and their privi leges joined to the gigantic potentialities of the oil fields granted to them by the na tion oftentimes against the 22 Panorama will of the latter and in vio lation of the country’s laws, make up almost the whole of the actual capital so often talked about.” * * * The Cardenas story is one of the most stirring and in spiring chapters in the long history of the struggle of “weaker” peoples to uphold their dignity and assert their economic independence. It may even inspire President Marcos, who is being called upon, after all, not to expro priate any alien firms in this country but simply to seize and take advantage of the opportunity opened to him to help his people take over the channels of retailing and merchandising in their own homeland. If their own President won’t help the Fili, pinos, who also will? — By J. V. Cruz, in the Manila Times, December 28, 1966. AN ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR The biology professor turned to his class and said: “Now, it is time to dissect a frog.” He groped a hand through his pockets and came up with a very wrinkled and rather crumpled cheese sandwich. “My goodness!” he cried. “No wonder my lunch tasted so funny this noon!” January 1967 23 EVOLUTION OF PHILIPPINE RETAIL TRADE LAW In the Lao H. Ichong v. Jaime Hernandez, Secretary of Finance, and Marcelino Sarmiento, City Treasurer of Manila, case on May 31, 1957 the legal test of R.A. 1180 was completed when the Supreme Court justified the Retail Trade Nationalization Law by invoking the police power of the state. In the above case the Court said: “We are fully satisfied upon a consideration of all the facts and circumstances that the disputed law is not the product of racial hostility, prejudice or discrimination, but the expression of the legitimate desire or determi nation, of the people, through their authorized representa tives, to free the nation from the economic situation that has been fortunately saddled upon it rightly or wrongly, to its disadvantage. The law is clearly in the interest of the public, nay, of the na tional security itself, and in disputably falls within the scope of police power, through which and by which the State insures its existence and security and the supreme welfare of its citizens.” • • • After signing the bill, Pres ident Magsaysay said in a message to Congress — “I have discussed H.R. 2523 (subsequently R.A. 1180), which seeks to nationalize retail trade, with experts and political leaders, and have devoted considerable time to evaluating the arguments for and against the measure. I am fully aware that the bill has imperfections, but notwithstanding this, I am constrained in concurrence with its primordial objectives, to sign this measure. I have taken this action after care fully considering representa 24 Panorama tions from diplomatic sources and alien chambers of com merce for its disapproval, because I firmly believe in the principle — that it is for the best interests of our peo ple and posterity. To my mind there is nothing in this bill that contravenes our fundamental law or our treaty obligations.” * * * The joint executive-con gressional committee formed by President Magsaysay on Nov. 15, 1954 composed of such prestigious names as Oscar Ledesma, Salvador Araneta, Alfredo Montelibano, Gil Puyat. Edmundo Cea, Quintin Paredes, Daniel Romualdez, Arturo Tolentino and Eugenio Perez, to study the Retail Trade Law recom mended that the law be al lowed to stand "to give it a chance to show its effect upon our economy.” * * • In the implementation phase of the retail trade na tionalization policy a succes sion of institutions and mea sures were created and passed to expand Filipino participa tion in the retail trade. The appropriation of the Filipino Retailers Fund under the of fice of the Secretary of Com merce was quietly followed by the creation of the Na tional Marketing Corpora tion (Namarco). Both moves were designed to promote aggressively substitute Fili pino trade organizations. It is interesting to note that the Namarco has not only suc ceeded in taking over a big chunk of the retail trade from the aliens it has also muscled in "on the wholesale trade which is really the bulk of its activity.” So that one might say that Namarco was really designed to take over the wholesale trade from the foreigners. • * * As mentioned much earlier subsidies for Filipino retailers can be traced back even be fore the passage of R.A. 1180. In fact the National Trading Corporation created by an executive order on January 4, 1940 was described by a Manila Bulletin editorial of Oct. 18, 1940 as an attempt to "break the stranglehold of foreign retailers” upon Phil ippine trade. The NTC was January 1967 25 followed by the PRATRA (Philippine Relief and Trade Rehabilitation Admi nistration). After the war this was replaced by the Price Stabilization Corpora tion (PRISCO) — which at tempted to wrest control of retail trade from aliens by the transfer of importing business to Filipino hands. Going back into history, we can therefore detect a line in the pattern of marketing which is characterized by a conscious attempt on the part of the government to transfer the retailing and wholesaling business from foreign to Fili pino hands. Tomorrow we will see the results of this policy in the last few years. — Jose E. Ro mero, Jr. in Manila Bulletin. STINGINESS Russell Sage, the financier, had a wide reputa tion as a man difficult to separate from his money. A couple of promoters approached him one day and tried to sell him on a scheme they had. Sage talked with them for a while but said he could give them no definite answer as yet. Telling them that he would communicate with them in a few days he showed them out of the office. One of the promoters seemed quite optimistic and voiced the opinion to his partner that he thought Sage was pretty well sold on their propo sition. “I don’t know,” replied the other sceptically. “He seemed too suspicious to me. Didn’t you no tice that, after shaking hands with me, he started to count his fingers?” — Anon. 26 Panorama ■ This is part of an address of President Ferdinand Marcos delivered at the YMCA 55th anniversary program, November 10, 1966. THE REPUBLIC AND ITS YOUNG MEN The vitality of our nation, compared with other develop ing countries, has often eli cited admiring remarks. There is the energizing and catalytic effect of a broadly based educational system. And there is the vitalizing influence of volunteer civic movements. Up to 70 per cent of our population, I have been in formed, are below thirty years of age. This makes us one of the most youthful na tions in the world today. Even the heroes we revere most are taken from the ranks of youth. Jose Rizal, who first defined Filipino nationality, was only 35 when he was martyred at Bagumbayan field, and he was only 25 when he completed his major work, the novel Noli Me Tangere. Andres Boni facio was only 29 when he headed the Katipunan, and his trusted associate, Emilio Jacinto, was only 19. Apolinario Mabini was just thirty when he framed the struc ture of the first Philippine Republic. And both Quezon and Osmena were in their early twenties when they as serted their claim to the leadership of the nation. The modern youth is of course epitomized by the col lege student. I am informed that the Philippines today, although still a developing country, already ranks with the top ten or so countries in terms of college enrollment per capita. This is a matter, of course, over which some of us may have some deep reservations. The high pro portion of youth in college is an indication of a quan titative success. The quali tative aspect may be another matter altogether — this we must admit with becoming modesty and candor. It is entirely possible that without proper channels of development, the youth will be more of a prey to their own destructive impulses. For it is when the energies of youth are inhibited, or January 1967 27 are circumscribed by lack of opportunities for their exer cise, that the spirit of youth takes on a negative and des tructive aspect. Then youth collectively becomes a source of grave danger to the whole society. We have seen this happen, with catastrophic consequences to social and political stability and the sanctity of human life, in some other countries in our own time. The magical property of youth which all others envy is its overflowing energy and enthusiasm. It was this that made George Bernard Shaw remark so aptly that the time of youth was such a wonder ful thing, it was such a shame it had to be wasted on the young. When this strength and enthusiasm are misdirected, the result is ju venile delinquency, immora lity, vandalism, and assorted types of antisocial behavior. On a large scale, such mis direction of youthful energy can threaten the very fabric of the state and the founda tion of existing society. The qualities of prudence and tact are of course not as sociated with youth. An ex cess of prudence can perhaps be called a perversion of youth; but an excess of zeal can be worse because it is self-defeating. What the adult community deplores in student demonstrations is not the liberty to demonstrate but in the capacity to main tain demonstrations on a res ponsible level. Where such demo nstrations deteriorate into mob action, youth dis credits itself and sullies the brightness of its own ideal ism. I also believe the au thority of our laws must not be flaunted. I believe that our sovereignty is real and that the Republic should command the allegiance of all dissenters and its integrity must be maintained. I wish that all dissenters, especially among the youth, could ho nestly tell themselves, in their hearts, that they render due allegiance to the flag of the Republic of the Philippines. Dissent expressed within the framework of our common allegiance to the Republic is welcome; it is not only wel come but necessary. But any dissent which presumes the unlawfulness of the Philip pine Republic, in favor of another, perhaps now latent, sovereignty, borders on sedi tion, and those who do so must be manful enough to 28 Panorama face the consequences of their own acts under our laws. Ours is a young society. Previous to 1872, there was no distinct Filipino national ity. The thing the people of these islands had in com mon was the common expe rience of suffering, humilia tion and degradation in the hands of the foreign tyrants that ruled us. Then in 1872, this experience of common suffering reached a point of combustion in the execution of the three priests, Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora. In view of Rizal, the sense of Filipino nationality emerged at about this point. Then this led to the Propaganda Movement and the Philippine Revolu tion. Our country’s found ing fathers, from Burgos, through Rizal, to Quezon and Osmena, were invariably young men below the age of thirty-five. The Philippine Republic, as it now exists, is the ma terial result of all those la bors of so many dedicated men and women. Its fore runner, the Malolos Repub lic, was the first constitu tional government in the his tory of Asia. With such a distinguished heritage, our Republic faces its own sup reme test whose significance can affect the history of the world. This test lies in our ability to build a workable democracy in spite of the mass poverty, ignorance and disease which constitute the conditions of underdevelop ment. The academies say this cannot be done; that underdevelopment is incom patible with democratic insti tutions; that despotism is a necessary stage in a nation’s political evolution; that it is not the ballot but bullets that should arbitrate the issues in the life of a developing na tion. The Filipino people do not bend to this defeatist view of democracy. This is not the influence of America, which helped us develop some of our democratic ins titutions. This is the in fluence of our own authentic national experience. For if in 1898 our ancestors could assert the claim of 7 million Filipinos to the right to be s e 1 f-goveming democracy, why should our people now abdicate this challenge in 1966? Of all the developing countries in the world today, the Philippines has the long est democratic tradition. It has the social and economic January 1967 29 and political qualifications to succeed as a democracy. And if we cannot make a go ing concern of our democra cy, what other country in the world can do so? Certainly not Vietnam. In the end, therefore, the Filipinos must bear the burden of proving that democracy can work even against a heritage of mass poverty, ignorance and disease. If we can prove this, we shall render the cause of human freedom a genuine service which no military exploit can ever match. This is the burden of the Philippines, but this burden in immediate terms, becomes the mission of our genera tion — and the younger one that is immediately coming after us. The future of this nation belongs to the gene ration that is now in the ele mentary schools, the high schools and the colleges. The next twenty years are the crucial years of transi tion; they define the decisive period for Philippine demo cracy. The task is so im mense that it will defy all the energies and the best efforts of both the older and younger generations. But we must be mindful above all, of our own responsibility as the adult generation. We cannot plead any excuse for failure. We must provide principle and wisdom to the youth’s energy and strength. There was something Henry Tho reau said that struck me as so apt that I memorized it. He said: “The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, and at length the middleaged man concludes to build a wood-shed with them. . Our task, my friends, is to build the woodshed with which our generation is charged. Let us build it well. 30 Panorama ■ This is an Englishman’s report on how Germans build their universitaas. It should be of interest to Filipino educators. BUILDING UNIVERSITIES IN GERMANY I knew of course before 1 went to Germany that their universities are different from British and American ones. For one thing, students there may take practically any number of years to com plete their studies; they large ly plan their own courses and timetables, how long they in tend to take over certain stu dies, when they will go out to take a temporary job, and when they will take their examinations. The attitude seems to be that you use the university in the best way you,can as a preparation for passing the final examina tions. There is fairly little indi vidual guidance, which would in fact be difficult to get be cause there is nothing like the number of staff per stu dent that we are used to here. Also many universities are very large: Munich has 24,000 students, Cologne has 18,000, Hamburg 16,000, Frankfurt 13,000 and Bonn 12,000. They continue to grow because normally there is no possibility of limiting student numbers; according to law every young German who has the qualifications must be accepted. But the different outlook among those responsible for building universities is large ly a matter of a different at titude to the spending of money. What struck me was simply a very different atti tude to capital investment generally. It seemed obvious to my German hosts that if the job of building is worth doing at all it is worth do ing really well. I was shown over a chemis try building in one place, and as the architect and I crossed the entrance hall I looked at the beautiful greystone floor and said that we would find it difficult on our budgets to use such expensive materials. He just said: “It lasts longer.” January 1967 31 Buildings are double glazed against noise and cold, their services and other installa tions are over-sized to allow for future flexibility, and materials generally are of good quality so as to keep down maintenance costs in the future. Since German universities are controlled by the Lander (the States) which make up the West German Federal Republic, their layouts are normally prepared by Minis try planners, although many of the individual buildings are done by private archi tects. Budgets for buildings are not usually rigidly fixed in advance but are approved in each case with the parti cular requirements of the building in mind, and this normally includes a very high standard • of finishes and equipment. The first place I went to on my trip was the institute of sociology in Mannheim where they have a working party for research into uni versity methods. The uni versity is in the old palace which has been completely reconstructed internally and has been added to. It has high and spacious rooms and makes the most beautiful place for study. I was spe cially struck by the library: on opening the door I found myself in a large and tall room, a thick green carpet covering the whole floor and students working at indivi dual tables with white tops. The whole place was spotless, silent, and luxurious. It was air conditioned, with win dows double glazed and per manently closed. On going up to the counter one can get any book from the stack in a matter of a minute or two by way of a pneumatic tube of the kind we have in some of the older department stores to despatch cash. There are rooms set apart for typing, for dictaphones, mi crofilm, and individual study One of the lecturers at this institute asked me if it was true that the new University of Sussex in England started with an initial grant for building of no more than £1,500,000 ($4,000,000 U.S.). I said yes, this was roughly true of all our new universities but that this was fol lowed by further yearly grants of possibly similar amounts as the university grew to a viable size of say, 3,000 stu 32 Panorama dents. He was amazed; he said that in Germany, when they had that sort of money, they might think about start ing a university, or they might even start planning one, but in all probability they would just buy books and wait until they had vast ly more before actually build ing anything. In fact, £1,000,000 (>3,000,000 U.S.) was the sum that the new University of the Ruhr in Bochum was given for its initial purchase of books for the library. A few days later I visited Mainz. This university started after the war in barracks of the Luftwaffe. These bar racks surprised me: they are very large and handsome and built around three sides of a courtyard. They have pitch ed roofs, good heating, and are very solidly built. Ap parently barracks too, if they were built, had to be built properly and to last. And why not?-since especially in building there is a definite limit to the sense of paring down. You can always use a good building, even if its original purpose had died. Money spent on the perma nent parts is never wasted. At the university in Mainz I visited the Chancellor whose office is in this ex-air force part. He told me that an average new university in Germany would start with a fund of between £50,000,000 and £100,000,000 ($140,000,000 and $280,000,000 U.S.) for building and equipment. These figures vary a lot from place to place because some of the Lander (States) are richer than others and there is a certain competition for cultural prestige between them. Mainz University, the Chancellor told me, is econo mical by German standards. It is a university of 8,000 students and has 180 profes sors. It spends some £13,000,000 ($34,000,000 U.S.) a year, of which about £5,000,000 ($14,000,000 U.S.) are spent on building: this inspite of having inherited the barracks. And that is considered economical! The Chancellor told me that the new University of the Ruhr at Bochum, which in tends to grow to a size of 12,000 to 15,000 students plans to spend some £230,000,000 ($600,000,000 U.S.) on buildings and equipment, January 1967 33 which is about £17,000 ($50,000 U.S.) per student. This is not only more than we would spend, it is three to four times as much. Last year this university spent £1 0,000,000 ($28,000,000 U.S.) on buildings alone, which makes it one of the two or three largest building sites in Europe. The Ruhr area of Ger many is a rich one and this no doubt accounts for their particularly high expenditure on this new university. There are many who regard it as extravagant but this could be said of a number of German university pro jects. I often asked myself if they might not spend a little less on various refine ments and instead build more area so as to relieve the overcrowding they suffer from, and yet maintain good quality. Because it does seem strange that they should af ford such high quality, even luxurious, buildings and that yet, nationally speaking, their student numbers arc smaller in relation to the total popu lation than in Britain or, for that matter, in France, Swe den, or Holland. In the most popular fa culties — economics, medi cine, law, German studies, and mechanical engineering — students hardly ever have a chance to meet their pro fessors face to face. I was told that many who used to finish their studies in about four years now tend to take six or more, and one-third ol them leave university without finishing at all; and I won dered to what extent this overcrowding was to blame for that. Apart from overcrowding direct contact between stu dents and staff is also made difficult because there are no colleges (buildings where classrooms, libraries, and dor mitories are within each, as in Oxford or Cambridge in England) and only a f ew balls of residence. Only 12 per cent of the students live in students’ homes, while in most other European coun tries the percentage is much higher and the aim is nor mally for half the students to be in residence. Various German universities have planned to build colleges on the English model but as far as I know none of them have been built. I was struck by the qua 34 Panorama lity of the research being done into university organi zation and Leaching methods on the one hand, and phy sical planning and construc tion on the other. The im pression I had was that re search in the lield of plan ning and building was most active in the Land of BadenWurttemberg. The capital is Stuttgart and I had been in vited by the technical uni versity there to lecture on university planning. A spe cial institute for university planning is attached to the faculty of architecture, the only such institute in the world so far as I know. In my lecture at this ins titute I talked about the new universities in Britain and the three different planning principles on which they are based: first, the type of plan represented by the Univer sity of Sussex, which has its centre, with its library, ad ministration building, and main dining hall in the mid dle of the plan, and various faculty buildings and halls of residence surrounding that centre and extending out wards. Then the second type of plan — York is a good example — which has not got one centre but is based on a number of colleges which form clusters, and extension could take place by adding further clusters. And the third type of plan, like that of the University of Lan caster, which has a linear centre in the form of a pe destrian street with build ings on both sides, with ex tension coming at either end — in other words the univer sity becomes longer. My feeling is that in gen eral planning, many of the British universities sh o w more cohesion and better provision for growth than the German ones. There is one aspect of planning, though at which the Ger mans are particularly good, and that is the very first phase, namely the choice of location of a new university. While on this subject of organization, I want to des cribe a building which was typical of much else; the new central dining hall of the technical university in Braunschweig. In the old German universities of some fifty years ago, in places like Gottingen students would have lunch with the families with whom they had lodg January 1967 35 ings. Here in Braunschweig half a century later they have it in the new large refectory — a simply looking building, one storey high, with walls of glass and surrounded by lawns and trees. The kitchen is cool and spotless and with out the slightest smell: from the enclosed stainless-steel automatic cooking machines are filled the specially de signed standard dishes with portions for each student. You can sit outside on the paved terrace to have coffee, and the whole building, des pite its size, is friendly and not at all noisy. You buy your ticket at the barrier for about 2s. 3d., and even at the busiest time there are hardly any queues. The menu is displayed in large letters, as well as tomorrow’s menu in case you want to give it a miss. — By Gabriel Epstein in The Listener, November 3, 1966, abridged. 36 Panorama ■ This story has the dignity of being part of the historical records of Mexico and the Philippines. In the learned “Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas” by Antonio de Morga, it is noted as a curious cir cumstance that the death of the Governor of the Philippines was known on the Plaza Mayor in the city of Mexico on the very same day. De Morga adds that he does not know how the news was brought. The Friar Gaspar de San Agustin in the “Conquista de las Islas Filipinas” published in Spain in 1698, tells the same story. — Muller. THE TRANSLATED SOLDADO On the morning of October 25, in the year 1593, there happened in the City of Mexico an affair most strange, which has not been explained to this day. The day had well begun. The streets were busy. At the tall doors of the Palace the guard had been set. The Plaza Mayor in front of the Palace was full of people. Then, suddenly, in the bright sunshine, this strange thing happened. The sentries of the guard saw all at once a strange soldier among them. He was walking back and forth like the rest with his gun on his shoulder, but his uniform was not that of Spanish soldiers in Mexico. It was the uni form of the guard of the Governor’s Palace in Manila, the capital of the Filipinas. It was evident from his sturdy, bold carriage that he was an old soldier who had seen much campaigning; but it would be seen also that, though he did not seem at all timid, he did most as suredly look dazed and amaz ed, for he stared around him like a man lost. "What is your name?" de manded the captain of the guard sharply. “What are you doing on a post to which you have not been ordered?" The soldier saluted: "My name is Gil Perez. As to standing sentry here, I am doing as nearly as possible what I was ordered to do. I was ordered this morning to mount guard at the doors of the Governor’s Palace in Ma nila. I know very well that January 1967 37 this is not the Governors Palace, and evidently I am not in Manila. Why or how that may be, 1 know not. But here I am, and this is a palace of some kind, so I am doing my duty as nearly as possible.” If the captain of the guard was astonished by this extra ordinary statement, how much more astonished was he when Gil Perez remarked most simply as one passing on a. bit of gossip: “Last night the Governor of the Filipinas, His Excellency Don Gomez Perez Dasmarinas, had his head cracked with an ax in the Moluccas and is dead of it.” All the officers crowded around Gil Perez. He was wholly sober and it was evi dent that he was not joking, but .truly, was as greatly puz zled as they were. When they told him that he was at that moment in the City of Mexico, thousands and thousands of miles away from Manila, he would not be lieve it — as how could he? They hurried him before the Viceroy, the great and noble Don Luis de Velasco. He and his Council examin ed the soldier in a manner most subtle. Gil Perez an swered correctly all the smallest particulars about the regiment to which he belonged, all about the per sons and affairs in the Fili pinas and all about the city of Manila. But when they asked him how he had come to' be shifted from Manila to the City of Mexico, he could say only that one moment he was standing guard in Manila, and the next mo ment he was standing guard in Mexico. Still less he was able to explain how he could know that the night before the Governor of the Filipinas had his head cracked in the Moluccas. He could only say that it was so. Having declared this, he twisted his mustachios and waited, bold ly enough, to hear what might be said to him. The Viceroy and his Coun cil were not long in telling him. They found that the affair had an unmistakable odor of the Devil about it, and that Gil Perez necessa rily partook of the odor. Therefore, they turned him over to the Holy Office and he was locked carefully into 38 Panorama the strongest cell in Santo Domingo. The Familiars of the Holy Office examined him with the utmost shrewdness and industry, but could not shake his testimony. So, while they realized, of course, that the matter was a matter perform ed by the Devil, they could not find that Gil Perez had any guilty part in it. Con sequently they treated him with solicitude rather than severity, and Gil Perez vow ed that he preferred jail to soldiering. Thus months passed, and at last a galleon arrived from the Filipinas. It brought the news that Don Gomez Dasmarinas had sailed from Manila on the 17th of Oct ober to help the King of Cambodia repel an invasion by ,the King of Siam, and that, putting into the Moluc cas, he met with the distress ing bad luck of having his head cracked — on the night of the 24th of October, 1593, as Gil Perez had said. Furthermore, said the peo ple of the galleon superna tural signs had announced the killing in Manila. On a wall of the Convent of San Augustin there was painted a portrait of His Excellency, January 1967 and at the very hour when he died a crack opened in the wall and ran straight across the picture. Finally, a passenger who was an officer of soldiery in Manila was taken to the pri son, and he recognized Gil Perez at once as a soldier of the Palace Guard. He said that he had seen this very same identical Gil Perez mounting guard in Manila only a day before he appear ed in Mexico so miraculous lyThen the authorities of the City of Mexico were vastly puzzled as to what to do about Gil Perez. The Fami liars of the Holy Office, be ing satisfied that he was in nocent, insisted on setting him free. The authorities of the city, satisfied that some thing devilish adhered to him, even though it might be against his will, felt that he was not a fit person to be at large in the city. So, in the end, it was de cided to ship him back to the Philippines. This was done — not without violent protest from Gil Perez, who wanted to remain in the pri son of Santo Domingo. — As summarized by Julius W. Muller. 39 ■ An American visitor gives his reaction to Phil ippine life. MANILA TO AN AMERICAN An American visiting the Philippines is apt to expe rience a strange shock of re cognition. For a half-cen tury of United States colo nial tutelage relinquished in 1946, seems to have fashion ed the Philippines into a mirror of America. But the reflection it casts can be de ceptive. Nothing is more disappointing to Americans than the discovery, often be lated, that "our little brown brothers,” as imperial propa ganda used to call them, are only superficial relatives. Americans are often led as tray by the outward signs of resemblance. Manila looks, in many ways, like a sprawl ing, unwieldy city in the United States. Its traffic-clogged avenues are blighted by billboards proclaiming American mer chandise in high-pitched Madison Avenue jargon; sleazy drive-ins offer "colos sal” hotdogs, hamburgers, and other gastronomic imi tations. Manila’s suburbs, with their split-level ranch houses and California haciendas, rival Beverly Hills; its slums outdo Harlem. And many educated, urbane Filipinos appear more Americanized than any American. Gentlemen with names like cigar brands — Benedicto, Modesto, Eugenio are known to their pals as “Butch” and “Baby,” and they have an extraordinary capacity for behaving like Babbits. They are avid golfers, earnest Rotarians, and proud students of "human rela tions” as taught by a local branch of the Dale Carnegie Institute. Nothing is quite so dis arming as to wander into a luncheon of the Junior Chamber of Commerce in a provincial town: The speeches might have been written in Cedar Rapids, even if the delivery is rather reminiscent of Wallace Beery playing Pancho Villa. 40 Panorama Filipinos may speak dia lects like Tagalog at home but their public language is a kind of calypso American that would have delighted Mencken. Recently, report ing the mayor’s investigation into police department com plaints, a Manila newspaper headlined: “City Dad Probes Cops Gripes.” It is midsummer madness to hold Philippine weddings in June when the heat and humidity are at their worst. Yet fashionable Filipinas must be “June brides,” and they perspire heroically through all the functions which, incidentally, feature delicacies imported from the U.S. Though there are 7,000 Philippine Islands, Filipinos thrive on canned American salmon and tuna. fish. Ma nila high society rejects local avocados and bananas as lower-class “native” fare. When thd late General MacArthur, an authentic Philip pine folk-hero visited Manila a few years ago, a banquet at the presidential palace opened with tinned Ameri can fruit salad. Thus this Philippine mir ror of America is a kind of carnival mirror, casting dis torted images. In contrast to Hawaii where the process of acculturation almost entirely assimilated a multiracial po pulation, the Philippines was never transformed into a par cel of the United States by colonial rule. — Stanley Karnow in Manila Chronicle. SNOBBISHNESS The Athenian general Iphicrates was the son of a shoemaker. One of his opponents in a suit at law, a descendant of the patriot Harmodius, referred in sultingly to Iphicrates’ humble birth. With the spirit of a true democrat, the general answered calm ly: “Yes, the nobility of my family begins with me; just as that of yours ends with you.” — Anon. January 1967 41 ■ The rate of population increase in the Philippine is 3.2% a year or about one million persons. The governm?nt does not seem to mind this grave problem, and so life in this country is becoming a very serious problem. PHILIPPINE INDIFFERENCE TO POPULATION EXPLOSION Dr. Gregorio G. Lim, the president of the Planned Pa renthood Association of the Philippines, charged in a television interview that the secretary of health, Mr. Pau lino Garcia, was “hostile” to the operations and objectives of his organization. Dr. Gar cia not only has not done anything to be of assistance to the association but has for bidden officials and employes of the department from ex tending any kind of hospi tality to , it. Dr. Lim said Secretary Garcia’s attitude was in contrast to that of his predecessor, Manuel Cuenco, who according to Dr. Lim, was help to the as sociation. And this, Dr. Lim added, despite the fact that Secretary Cuenco comes from a prominent Catholic family that has included members of the hierarchy. Undoubtedly what lies at the root of Secretary Garcia’s negative attitude towards fa mily planning in the Philip pines is the total absence, which Dr. Lim himself noted, of any definite government policy regarding the problem of birth control. If there is a glimmer of a policy at all, it is one that leans towards hostility rather than ap proval. President Marcos, the last time he spoke on the subject before an audience of Catholic physicians, sup ported the shopworn and naive thesis that the only way to tackle the problem is to hope for the best. This is not, of course, a solution. It is sheer escapism and eva sion of the issue. The reason no President and no Philippine adminis tration has dared touch the problem of population con-trol with a 10-foot pole is, 42 Panorama of course, the strength and influence of the Catholic church in this country. And the Church, while it may be wrestling with the issue with an intensity never seen be fore, up to now has not budged from its doctrine that the only permissible method of birth control is the rhythm method. A Vatican Coun cil-appointed commission de legated to make a compre hensive study of the problem has already submitted its findings to Pope Paul VI. The Pope has not yet an nounced, however, what de cision he has reached on the matter, and no one really knows when he will get around to it. Just the same, there seems to be no earthly reason why the , Philippine government should not extend positive assistance to Filipino mothers who, through their own free choice, have decided to take advantage of the discoveries and aids of modern science in order to control and space their childbearing sensibly. The reservation could be made that this service would be extended only to those who ask for it, and that the government itself will not undertake any proselytization in behalf pf family planning. In more enlightened coun tries the government does enlist itself in this sensible cause, but in the Philippines some concession must be made to the Church. On the other hand, if a Catholic mo ther should, despite the in junctions of her religion, in sist nevertheless on availing herself of assistance towards family planning, there is no call upon the government either to try to dissuade her from it because it goes con trary to the teachings and practices of her church. For almost two years now, the city government of Ma nila (which has proved itself more enlightened that the national government on other fronts, such as free educa tion and the medical care of schoolchildren) has been ex tending affirmative assistance to the family planning move ment on this basis. And many Manila mothers, who might otherwise have gone on bearing children reckless ly and irresponsibly far be yond their capability to bring them up decently, have thus been given the opportunity January 1967 43 to have only as many child ren as they should have. The most inexpressible tragedy besetting the world today is that far too many children are being born who should have — and could have been avoided. Moralists are perpetually pretending to be repelled by the notion of family planning. The genuine immorality is to abet and encourage, especially in the face of safe and effective deterrents, the unlimited procreation of human beings who will never rise above the level of animal existence through their miserable, if mercifully brief, lives. All the plans and dreams and hopes that the Filipinos may be nourishing about their future are meaningless unless and until the problem of this country’s fantastic po pulation explosion is met squarely. To ignore it is to ignore the single most im portant factor in the situa tion. The Philippines’ rate of population growth, 3.2 per cent, is the highest in Asia and one of the highest in the world. It i^/a vora cious monster that will keep devouring the country’s pro gress and advances as quick ly as they realized, thus in effect keeping us in a state of perpetual stagnation. It is not, however, an invincible monster against whom all of us are powerless. On the contrary, it can be tamed and subdued if only the govern ment would show some guts in facing the challenge. — By J. V. Cruz in The Manila Times, January 11, 1967. 44 Panorama ■ Was Pope a friend and protector of Hitler and the Nazis? This was a question that excited and disturbed many people in America and Europe. POPE PIUS XII AND THE NAZIS There are few subjects in recent history which have aroused more passionate feelings than the record of Pope Pius XII’s attitude to wards National Socialist Ger many; and, it must be ad mitted, such evidence as has appeared tends to give more support to the anticlerical side than to the defenders of Vatican policy. Dr. S. Friedlander has assembled an interesting collection of do cuments, most of them not previously published, mainly from the archives of the Ger man Foreign Ministry, with the addition of some valua ble evidence from the Zionist archives and other sources. There is no doubt that the successive German Ambassa dors to the Holy See were de lighted to be able to report to their government the re peated expressions of the Pope’s sympathy for Germa ny. Pius XII did have deep feelings of affection for Ger many, where he had spent many years of his life as Nun cio. He was genuinely wor ried that open opposition to the Nazis might lead to fur ther difficulties for the Church in Germany. He be lieved deeply in the dangers of Bolshevism and thought that the Germans alone could save Europe at a moment when, in his view, Britain and the U.S.A, were pursuing policies which would open the door to Russia. There is already evidence for all these attitudes in the publish ed American documents on the Foreign Relations of the United States and elsewhere. We know too that the Pope was slow and devious in con demning the massacres of the Jews (and Dr. Friedlander produces some convincing evidence that he knew what was happening by the end of 1942); but he was also slow and devious in protesting against what was being done to Catholics in Poland. Some important evidence January 1967 45 has been released by the Va tican itself which has to be taken into account in any at tempt to assess the reasons for the Pope’s attitude. This new evidence is contained in the letters of Pius XII to the German bishops, which were published earlier this year, 1966, in both French anti German editions. Much of this correspondence deals with purely ecclesiastical and administrative questions. Of ten when the Pope criticizes obliquely the German gov ernment’s action one has the feeling that he was reacting to pressure from the German bishops themselves, rather than initiating policy. Above all, he was intensely aware of the difficulties of his po sition. When, for example, Mgr. Lichtenberg, who later died in a 'concentration camp, was arrested after offering prayers for the Jews in the Catholic cathedral in Berlin, the Pope, prompted by Count Preysing, the Bishop of Ber lin, expressed his concern and issued a Christmas message in which he made a brief somewhat elliptical reference to the ‘hundreds of thousands of people who. . . solely be cause of their nation or race have been condemned to death or progressive extinc tion’. Yet Pius XII remained pessimistic about the effects of any direct or open inter vention and believed that an attitude of ‘impartiality’, which he tried to distinguish from one of ‘neutrality’, would save the Church from worse difficulties. This did not prevent some bishops and a number of lower clergy from speaking out or from taking action whatever the consequences. How far Pius XII encouraged such actions we still do not know; his successor certainly maintained later that he him self had been acting on the Pope’s instructions in his own efforts to help Jews in the Balkans and in Turkey. Equally we do not know how far rival factions in the Va tican were urging rival courses. Although the pub lication of Vatican documents is to be welcomed, it is un likely to tell the whole story. The truth is that non Catholics as well as Catholics perhaps expect too much of the Pope. The Vatican is an elaborate bureaucracy; its instructions are — even when not in Latin, as some of the 46 Panorama Pope’s letters to the Gentian bishops still were in 1944 — often extremely obscure. It is rare for the Pope to take an open and unequivocal stand on any issue in which the actual immediate interests of the Church are not directly concerned. Only by realizing the nature of Vatican admi nistration and traditions and by treating the Vatican as a political institution — as stu dents of the Soviet Union re gard the Kremlin — will we begin to analyze and under stand, even if we do not for give. the Pope’s dealings with the Nazis, and for this reason we must welcome any pub lication of documents, espe cially when presented as im partially as in Dr. Friedlan der’s volume. — James Joll in The Listener, October, 1966. PROLIFERATION IN COLLEGE The bloated college curriculum is, I believe, the major impediment to increased effectiveness of most American colleges. One need not deprecate the hundreds of specialized courses of professional or graduate schools to point out that the liberal arts college ought not to offer such instruction. Able undergraduates who have had sound teaching in a selected but limited number of courses in their ma jor fields rarely encounter academic difficulties in their advanced education, and if they do not have the ability and the desire to learn, no amount of premature and specialized forced feeding will give them any lasting advantage over their classmates who seize the opportunity to get a broader liberal educa tion. — By Earl J. McGrath in The Liberal Arts College and the Emergent Caste System. January 1967 47 ■ Royalty decides to mix blood with plebeians. A DUTCH PRINCESS MARRIES A COMMONER Princess Margriet of Hol land, 23, married a Dutch commoner with the blessings of her countrymen as well as the royal family on January 10, 1967. The widespread popular approval of her choice of 28year-old Pieter van Vollehoven was in sharp contrast to the turbulence surrounding the recent weddings of two of her sisters. Princess Irene aroused cri ticism in 1964 by her con version to Roman Catho licism and her marriage to French-born Prince Carlos de 1 Borbon-Parma, Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne. Both decisions angered Holland’s Protestant major ity. Even the country’s Ro man Catholics — 40 per cent of the population — while expressing approval of her conversion, did not approve her choice of a husband. Many Dutchmen — includ ing government officials — condemned the Carlists as fascists. There were demands that Irene relinquish her rights to the throne if she did marry the prince. Irene did surrender her claim even though her pa rents, Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard, gave lastminute approval of the match, but not a single mem ber of the royal family at tended the wedding cere mony. Opposition to Irene’s mar riage was minor compared to the enraged popular out cry when Crown Princess Beatrix announced her in tention to marry German diplomat Claus von Arnsberg. Holland still feels the sting of World War II and the des truction wrought by the Nazi forces as they swept across the tiny country to the sea. German tourists to this day meet at best stiffly for mal, correct welcome in Dutch cities. Feeling against Germany still runs remark ably high among an older 48 Panorama generation of Dutchmen slow to forget. When newsmen digging into Arnsberg’s past revealed that he had been a member of the Hitler youth while at military academy — member ship was compulsory — and had served in a wartime tank unit whose emblem bore a striking resemblance to that of the dreaded SS, seething public enmity erupted in violent censure of Beatrix for her seeming “inconti nence.” Overlooked in the result ant furor were Arnsberg’s clearance in 1946 by an allied de-Nazification court, the fact he had never seen any combat, and his distinguish ed record in the foreign ser vice of the West German republic. Np factual proof was ever found linking Arnsberg to any Nazi activity. But for the great part of the popu lace he was a former German soldier and Hitler youth member. That was enough. Beatrix refused to back down. The debates and an gry charge-and-counter-charge raged on right up to the ac tual day of the wedding, March 10, 1965. Even then the wedding cortege ran a gauntlet of smoke bombs thrown by “Provos,” Holland’s self-styl ed young rebels with — or without — a cause. By contrast, young Van Vollehoven seems destined to win a lasting place in the hearts of his countrymen. Born April 30, 1939, he comes of a prosperous Dutch business family. Before turning to the study of law at Leyden university, the slender, bespectacled youth won nationwide ac claim as pianist-leader of a highly successful Dixieland jazz band. The group won a prize at a Dutch jazz com petition in 1959. His extra-curricular ac complishments range from jazz to sports of all descrip tions, including judo, in which he holds the coveted green belt. His favorite pastime is auto racing. He was victor in the 1964 Sheveningen-Luxembourg ral ly in the 1000-cubic-centimeter class, driving a Volks wagen. As president of the Na tional Dutch Students’ Sports organization he represented Holland at the 1963 Brazil “Universiade” and the 1964 January 1967 49 winter games in Czechoslova kia. He was employed as a law yer by the council of state in February of last year. Less than two months later he was drafted into the airforce, eventually being assigned to a legal branch with the rank of ensign. Margriet’s marriage leaves only Princess Christina, 19, unwed. — U. P. I. THE BIBLE AS HISTORY The 66 books which comprise the Holy Scripture represent the finest labors of the greatest minds of antiquity. To this has been added the work of lite rally thousands of translators, editors and compilers. The poetic books — for instance, the Song of Solo mon and portions of the Psalms — are more accu rately esteemed as magnificent fragments of the poetry of ancient peoples than as religious doctrine. Much of the great sagas of Abraham, Isaac and Ja cob, of Moses, of Samuel, Saul, David and Solomon was first reuered mainly as history — the story of the beginnings of the Israelite nation. With the birth of Christianity the Bible, the , racial library of the Jews, became no longer theirs alone. It became the spiritual wealth of the Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians and eventually of the entire civilization of the West. The Old Testament was 2000 and more years in the making. The New Testament represents the work of a mere hundred years. The Gospels — the recollections and biographies of Christ — were written within the century of His lifetime. And these magnificent accounts of the Master, as well as the histories of the Apostles and the letters of ins truction to the churches, were at first not considered a part of the Bible. — A. N. Williams. 50 Panorama ■ ‘The Master and Margarita’ is a notable work revealing the thoughts of a Communist on the life of Christ. RUSSIAN IDEA OF CHRIST A new novel that for the first time in Soviet fiction sympathetically describes the trial and crucifixion of Christ has been published in Moscow last year and has rocked this country’s literary circles. The philosophical satire “The Master and Margarita,” is the work of Soviet Russia’s most eminent playwright, the late Mikhail Bulgakov. It was suppressed by Stalin-era censors before the author’s death in 1940. The scene is laid in Mos cow in the middle 1930’s with the arrival of Satan in the guise of a foreign ma gician who casts a malicious spell upon all and sundry and causes widespread evil, chaos and death. Christ, of course, is the antithesis of evil. The author develops his theme into a struggle be tween the powers of good and evil and, among other things, concludes that abso lute power untempered by a sense of dedication to hu manistic ideals can only bring evil. “And once a man takes a stand on the side of evil, en courages it or remains in different to it, power becomes tyranny and might become weakness,” is how an editor ial note to the book by lite rary critic A. Fulis interprets one of Bulgakov’s messages. The author relates an ima ginary dialogue between Ro man Proconsul Pontius Pilate and Christ to develop his al legory on the conflict be tween good and evil. Portraying Christ as an unhumanly kind and saintly man who sees nothing but good in all his fellowmen, Bulgakov makes Jesus infu riate Pilate by declaring at His trial, “all government means violence over human beings and the time will come where there will be no government and no Caesars. Man will enter the kingdom January 1967 51 of truth and justice and no government whatever will be necessary.” Bulgakov poignantly and sympathetically describes the road to Calvary and the ago ny on the gross. Although he does not fol low the account of the four Gospels, Bulgakov does in troduce a hero named Levi Matthew and a villain Judas who betrays Christ. Judas is described as a ‘‘dirty traitor,” and contrary to all traditional versions, Pontius Pilate, in a fit of re morse has Judas executed. In a preface to the novel, Stalin and Lenin prize-win ning writer Konstantin Simo nov describes “The Master and Margarita” as one of Bulgakov’s greatest master pieces. According to critic Vulis the novel "is an outstanding phenomenon of Soviet Rus sian prose. . . . remarkable for its magnificent language, precise and subtle in the por trayal of characters and the matchless architecture of the book.” It is not the kind of book that will appeal to the masses like the post-Stalin muckrak ing novels exposing the hor rors of concentration camps. But to the Russian intel ligentsia “The Master and Margarita,” is easily the lite rary sensation of the year. — U. P . I. SHREWDNESS A boy, generally known about the village as being not too bright, was annoying the busy black smith. Hoping to scare him away, the blacksmith finally held a red-hot piece of iron under the boy’s nose. “If you’ll give me half a dollar I’ll lick it,” said the simple-looking youngster. The smith held out the coin. Without a word, the boy took the coin, licked it, dropped it in his pocket, and whistling softly, walked away. — Anon. 52 Panorama IMPROVING OUR ENGLISH This section of Panorama will be regularly published for the benefit of Filipino students of English. It will be devoted to idiomatic English — nouns, verbs, adverbs, propositions, and expressive phrases. Idiomatic expressions are distinctive ways or peculiarities of using words and phrases in English. They are usually forcible, terse, and vivid. They are the most difficult part of the language for a person who is not an American or Englishman to learn. They must be committed to memory and frequently used in speaking and writing. A. ADJECTIVE AND NOUN PHRASES 1. An able-bodied seaman is a skilled sailor. 2. An absent-minded person is a person inattentive to what is going around him at the moment. 3. Advanced in years, or in life means growing old. 4. Argus-eyed. Argus was a fabled monster of antiquity, having a hundred eyes and set by Juno to watch Io, of whom she (Juno) was jealous. Hence the ad1 jective has come to mean jealously watchful. 5. Augean stables. According to Greek mythology, Augeus. King of Elis in Greece, had a stable occupied by three thousand oxen, which had not been cleansed for thirty years. Hercules cleansed it in one day by turning two rivers through it. Hence to cleanse the Augean stables is to correct widespread evils and abuses. 6. Bad blood between two persons means active enmity. 7. A bad tongue means an unhealthy tongue. A foul tongue is one given to uttering oaths; a sharp tongue, a sarcastic one. January 1967 53 8. A besetting sin is a vice or sin to which a person has often yielded as, intemperance, laziness, hot temper. 9. One’s betters is colloquial, meaning one’s superiors in rank. 10. Blackmail is money extorted by threats or intimidation. 11. Black market is the illegal traffic in officially controlled goods. 12. A black sheep means one who has a bad reputation in a company of people usually a member of a family. 13. A blind alley is a narrow street closed at one end. 14. Plue blood is noble blood. Formerly it was held that the blood of a nobleman was blue as distinct from the red blood of the common people. 15. Bodily fear is fear that harm will come to one’s person. 16. A burning question is a matter in dispute which urgently calls for settlement. 17. Capital punishment is the punishment of death legally inflicted. 18. The cardinal points are the four points of the horizon known as North, South, East, and West. 19. A chicken-hearted fellow is a timid, cowardly fellow. The adjective chicken-hearted is used contemptuous ly. 20. A close-fisted man is a stingy, niggardly, penurious man; a miser. It is the opposite of ‘open-handed’. 21. A close shave is colloquially used, meaning, almost an accident. 22. A close vote. When votes are counted and found to be nearly equal, for and against, it is said there has been a close vote. 23. A cold-blooded murder is an unprovoked murder, a mur der done deliberately without any cause to excite personal anger, hatred, or revenge. Such a murder is often said to be committed in cold blood. 24. Cold comfort is something offered as comfort, but instead of really consoling the sufferer will only increase the pain or produce irritation. The offer may be 54 Panorama 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. made with a kind intention, but in ignorance of what would suit the case, or it may be made with a secret wicked wish to vex and irritate the sufferer further. To have cold feet is to feel frightened. To give one the cold shoulder is to show a person dislike for his company. A cold manner is behavior wanting in warmth of kindli ness, a manner without any enthusiasm. A cool head. One whose nature is not easily excited is sometimes spoken of as having a cool head. A judge, for instance, needs to have a cool head. Crocodile tears. Old travellers tell, though it is now known to be a fiction, that the crocodile sheds tears over its prey, as if the reptile wept for the victim it was going to destroy. Hence crocodile tears means hypocritical tears; pretended sorrow. A crying shame or a burning shame is a phrase applied to something notoriously shameful. A dizzy height is a very great height, to look down from which is enough to make one dizzy. A dog-in-the-manger policy. A churlish man is said to follow such a policy when he cannot himself use what another wants, and yet will not let that other have it. The allusion is to the fable of the dog who made his bed in a manger of hay, and would not let the ox come near to eat the hay. A fair hand is writing which is easily read. A fair weather friend is one who deserts you in diffi culties. Family likeness is similarity of features of the face, such as is often observed in persons of the same family. A fast man is an extravagant man; a spendthrift. A foregone conclusion is an obvious one, resolved on be forehand, or determined before argument or inves tigation. January 1967 55 38. A forlorn hope is a desperate enterprise of which there is no reasonable probability that it will succeed. In military language, a forlorn hope is a body of sol diers told off to lead in an assault which is attended with great peril. 39. French leave is absence without permission, or going off without intimation. 40. A golden mean is a middle course or position between two extremes. 41. Good breeding is polite manners formed by a good edu cation. 42. To write a good hand is to write in clear, legible pen manship. 43. A good Samaritan is one who befriends a stranger or friendless person in difficulties. The phrase is de rived from the parable of the Good Samaritan. 44. Good sense is soundness of judgement. 45. Good spirits mean a cheerful and even hilarious state of mind. 46. The green-eyed monster is jealousy. 47. A greenhorn is colloquial for a raw, inexperienced person. 48. Half-hearted is having no enthusiasm for the business in hand. 49. Hard-boiled is used metaphorically to mean callous. 50., A henpecked husband is a man habitually snubbed by his wife. 51. A herculean task is a work requiring very great effort for its accomplishment, a work which only a Her cules could perform. 52. Hush money is a bribe paid to secure silence; money paid to prevail on someone to keep back information and to prevent a disclosure of unpleasant or com promising facts. 53. Indian file is one after another. File here means a row of men ranged after one another, and Indian here means North American Indian. Indian summer is another. American expression for the spell of fine weather which occurs there in late autumn. 56 Panorama 54. A jail bird is a notorious offender who has often been in jail for his crimes. 55. A laconic speech is a short pithy speech; a bald statement of fact without any of the embellishments of oratory. Such speech the Spartan warriors, who despised oratory, were wont tq indulge in and as Sparta was the capital city of that province of Greece called Laconia, any abrupt, bald, pithy speech came to be called a laconic speech. 56. A laughing-stock is an object of ridicule, a butt for amuse ment. 57. A left-handed compliment is one of doubtful sincerity, or ambiguous meaning. 58. A light sleeper is a person easily awakened from sleep. The opposite is a heavy sleeper. 59. Long-winded is tedious in speech or argument. 60. A mealy-mouthed fellow is a fellow so timid and sneak ing that he is afraid to tell the truth in plain lan guage, but speaks with feigned delicacy of speech. Tennyson speaks of one being ‘nursed by mealymouthed philanthropies’. 61. A narrow escape is an escape effected at great risk, an escape involving exposure to serious danger. 6;2. A one-sided statement or view is a statement or view 1 .which gives only one side of a case and is therefore only a partial statement. 63. An open-handed man is a man generous with his money. 64. An open mind is a mind not yet made up. A man is said to have an open mind about a thing when he is waiting for further light before forming a definite opinion regarding it. 65. An open question is a matter for discussion and not yet decided. 66. An open secret is a secret that has become known. 67. A pass word is a word privately agreed on beforehand to be given as a sign before one is allowed to pass. January 1967 57 68. Passing strange. The word passing here is equivalent to surpassing, and the phrase means, exceedingly strange. 69. A pious fraud is a deception carried out under the plea of religion. It is justly regarded as doubly wicked because it is perpetrated in a holy name or cause. 70. A practical joke is a trick played upon a person by which it is sought to put him into a ridiculous position or show him in a ridiculous light. A practical joker sometimes gives grave offence and brings himself into serious trouble. 71. A random statement is a statement made without due consideration, a chance guess. It is generally implied by the phrase that the guess is not correct, or that the statement is far from the truth. 72. Raw recruits are men enlisted but not yet drilled to be soldiers. 73. A red letter day is an auspicious, fortunate day; so called because in the old Christian calendars the holy days or saints’ days were marked with red letters, and the holy days were festival days. 74. Red tape. Official documents are generally tied with red tape, and so the phrase has come to mean ex cessive official formality. 75. A right hand man is one’s chief helper or agent, a man , whose active service one cannot do without. 76. A rough guess is a guess made without careful calcu lation. one only approximately correct. 77. A round robin is a petition or declaration to which men attach their signatures in a circle so that it may not be known who of them is the leader. 78. The ruling passion is the passion or motive which do minates a person's life, as the love of money, desire for popularity. 79. Scot free is, exempt from payment, untaxed; and hence, unhurt, safe, without molestation. Scot formerly was the name of a tax or assessment. Hence scot free is literally, free from the scot or tax. 56 Panorama 80. Saesoned timber is timber so thoruoghly dried that all the sap has gone out of it. 81. Sharp practice is a recognized euphemism for knavery. The phrase is probably derived from the practice of some unprincipled lawyers who are at pains to manage their cases so as to secure for themselves as much money as possible. 82. A shooting, pain is a quick, sharp pain, coming suddenly like a shot. 83. A side issue is a question only indirectly akin to the question under consideration. 84. Single blessedness is a term jocularly applied to the un married state. 85. A sinking fund is a fund formed by setting aside a spe cified annual sum which will accumulate and m course of time wipe out a debt. 86. Small fry is colloquial for children or insignificant per sons. 87. Small talk is trivial conversation, gossip. 88. Spare time is unoccupeid time, leisure time, time to spare. 89. A standing joke is a continuous subject for mirth or ri dicule. 90. Standing water is stagnant water, as distinguished from running or flowing water. 91. Stone deaf is completely deaf. 92. ‘A strait-laced person is one who has very rigid principles and manners, and who acts in a narrow-minded Way. 93. Strong language is severe, angry language. 94. A swan song. The swan, though not a singing bird, was formerly believed to sing a sweet song before dying. So when a man just before resignation or retirement makes a statement, it is sometimes called his swan song. 95. Sworn foes are bitter enemies. 96. Tall talk is a colloquial expression for exaggerated lan guage, especially language that is boastful. 97. A thankless task is a work for which, if you perform it, you will get no thanks or credit. January 1967 59 98. The three R’s are reading, writing, and arithmetic. The third word is pronounced as if the first letter were ommitted — ‘rithmetic.’ 99. A time-honored custom is a custom which has been followed for a long time. 100. Total abstinence is entire avoidance of the use of al coholic liquor. They who practise this are called total abstainers or teetotallers. 101. An untimely end is premature death. 102. Virgin soil is soil which has never yet been cultivated. 103. A watery grave. One who dies by drowning is said to have found a watery grave. 104. A well-read man is a man of literary culture, "one who has read many good authors. 105. A wet blanket. A blanket saturated with water if put over a fire will slowly extinguish the fire. Hence the phrase has come to be applied generally to any person or anything who discourages enthusiasm. 106. .4 white elephant. The elephant is an animal so hard to supply with food that he would soon eat all that an ordinary person possesses. Hence, to call a thing a white elephant, means that it is an un profitable possession. 107. White heat is intense heat. Iron when hottest looks white. We also speak of a persorf being in a white heat ' . when he is in extreme passion. 108. A white lie is a harmless and non-malicious untruth. 109. A wild goose chase is a foolish, wild, unprofitable ad venture, the pursuit of anything not knowing where it will lead one. 110. A young hopeful is an ironical expression referring to a naughty boy or a pretentious youth. FOR NEXT ISSUE ADJECTIVES, PARTICIPLES, AND APPROPRIATE PREPOSITIONS 60 Panorama Panorama Reading Association PANORAMA invites the educated public to join its Association of Readers. PANORAMA READING ASSOCIATION is dedicated to men and women who appreciate the variety and quality of its article? as sources of liberal ideas. PANORAMA READING ASSOCIATION includes stu dents, businessmen, professionals, proprietors, employers, and employees. It is also open to clubs, schools, and other ac credited organizations. PANORAMA has been in existence for over Thirty Years. PANORAMA provides excellent material for classes in history, government, economics, political and social studies, lite rature, and science. It may be adopted for secondary and college use. PANORAMA is not a fly-by-night publication. It was born in March, 1936. COMMUNITY PUBLISHERS, INC. Inverness, (M. Carreon) St., Sb. Ana, Manila, Philippines Contents Talent and Success .................................................................... The Case for Autonomy for Private Higher Education 2 Education for Mathematically Gifted ..................................... 14 PM Can Take Lesson from Mexico's Cardenas ............... 20 Evolution of Philippine Retail Trade L ............................ 24 The Republic and its Young Men ....................................... 27 Building Universities in Germany ......................................... 31 The Translated Soldado ^7 Manila to an American . . 40 Philippine Indifference to Population Explosion ............... 42 Pope Pius XII and the Nesis 45 A Batch Princess Marries a Commoner ........................... 48 Russian Idea of Christ ............................................................... 51 Improving Our English ............................................................... 53