The New Leader Book Page
The New Leader Book Page Later Than You Think By GERHART H. SEGER ttPTTIMK FOR DECISION. By Sumnsr Welles. Harper,, $3.00. \m much-publicized book of the former Under-Secretary of State...
...in Russia, to teach Communism...
...Horace N. Allen, a missionary-businessman - diplomat-meddler is genets...
...Nor can the schools be blamed (save irrationally and emotionally, through bias) for falling short of their appointed goal, until we hsve found a way of measuring th* potentialities of the pupils as well as th* abilities of th* teacher* and tha soundness of th* methods...
...But there he found a Stat* Department policy, and another Roosevelt —Teddy—was guiding that policy...
...But . . . "if the prejudice were ingrained enough"—then her bogies would jump out and gobble us all...
...Ultimately, Allen waa to go to the United States to warn President Theodore Roosevelt of Japan's aggressive aims...
...Welles believes the partition of Germany will solve all problems in that sasaect There he makes his fatal (spst, Germany can not be physically (|isiinat*4...
...ha ia Senior Adviser mt Stuyvetant High School.J Korea —and a Not So Dead Eras By EDWARD HUNTER COP...
...There is no doubt many students fsil in school, or in life after schooling...
...It was Allen as American diplomat who persuaded the queen, who was combatting Japanese influence, te trust the islanders—and her murder by tha Japanese promptly followed...
...Sumner Welles revives the rightfully forgotten announcement of the Kremlin eome time ago that the IB Soviet Republics are to be semi independent...
...It was to support Japan...
...issiead af laadiag tha German people n a feed start, their eatire fatare is I* la charged with the nationalist tssgaa af r*-anioa...
...On the whole Sumner Welles giv«s a description pf the development of *y Huisia from a communist dicta^Mp, bant on promoting a world revoJ**"j h> a state capitalism and a na**wlst power...
...Th* schools in Germany may aim to teach Fascism...
...She warns us that many subversive organizations wear in their titles such words as "mothers," "democracy," "freedom...
...To teach 'democracy" directly might seem a shortcut...
...It seems hard to avoid the conclusion that such a list is either "stupid" or "dishonest...
...Hence she tells us exciting, or dismaying, stories: of the Negro that threatened to pull a knife...
...seventy-flv* million persons eta net b* disregarded...
...You take a deep breath and think: he got it...
...instesd at evereeaiag th* nationalism in the Mama people it I* apt to increase it, sal to bar the way to democracy...
...so our best diplomats thought But history has a way af getting around diplomats- fortunately tor tha countries concerned...
...She seams the on* that lacks faith in democracy, for her advocacy implies either (1) that pupils cannbt be taught to judge, or (2) thst, judged sgainst opposing views, democracy cannot hold its own...
...By Maria Syrkin...
...Not,- to ba sur*, to from the annexation if th* will J\"» people opposes the Incorporation...
...By Fred Harvey Harrington, University of Wisconsin Press, 362 pages, $3.56r All REVOIR, called Pavloff, bravely as he could: and then his train chugged off to Chemulpo, leaving Japan in complete control of the empire of Korea...
...It waa Allen who, as businessman, intrigued to place profitable business concession* in favored hsnds—sometimes including his own...
...He asks himself and his public what it meant: "If the Soviet Union attempts to use such a regional system for the purpose of imposing a series of protectorates, as a preliminary to their subsequent incorporation within the Soviet Union itself, the other nations of the world can only regard it as an unmistakable sign that Russia is embarking upon a policy of expansion, whether by military force or by domination of th* internal affairs of independent states...
...it seems not to occur to her that they insy be merely "stupid.' Thus ws wonder which term to apply to h*r — perhap* merely "expedient"—when n significant omission occurs...
...Th* Anti-Semitic Tid...
...After the de itmtion of all remnants of Prussian Militarism Germany could, and should, a* given another chance at demorrscy, witk all possible safeguards to preclude ¦ eeaaeback of the military...
...Is this eternsl pesce w begin by turning the truly German fity ef Konigsberg, where Kent wrote it, into a Polish village, by order of Stalin...
...let haw caa a aew development of a Car sua democracy b* possible, if...
...Education must also be guarded against those who In its nam* would pervert its aim...
...Jottph T. Shipley, drama eritia of The Now Leader and WEVD, and editor of The American Bookman, Aa* taught in our schools and colleges for thirty years...
...permit aB individu.ls who d* not wisn to become Soviet citizens to depart freely with their possessions, and with due compensstion for their reel property they are obliged to abandon...
...The false lures are always tha more glamorous...
...L, B. Fischer, New York...
...When**' Russia considers it necessary to in*J*Jnt* a European country into th* Union, It should arrange for a ***t plebiscite...
...She has thr** chapter* on threats to democracy: "Fascist Influences...
...But he sees another alternative to the obvious, continuing: "If, on the other hand, such a aystem is based upon the same general foundations as the inter-American aystem, in which the sovereign independence of each state is assured, it should readily become one of the cornerstones of a stable world organizations...
...Allen want to Korea a* ¦ missionary, infiltrated into court circla* until he was the most trusted adviser te the king, and then bolstering the rotten royal regime—saved Korea from the equally decadent Manchus, and the Ruaaians, only to leave it ripe for the Japanese...
...Here, in "God, Mammon and the Jspanese," w* have a more interesting, more thorough and moie enlightening book on the subject of the Hermit Empire that was caught st its lowest ebb whan the destructive influences of imperialism were at their debilitating worst...
...It wss a pretty mess—and through it all th* Stat* Department followed on* consistent policy—a do-nothing policy in Korea...
...Dr...
...Tha fact that human nature intorv nes, that neither education nor democracy is wholly successful, that tha ideal cannot be fully realized, must not b* turned into a plea that we ba content with lessor goals...
...Tha chapter was closed...
...IsnJaad af helpiag the German people is Hberate themselves from their own history, from Prussian militarism, 'rem the mast uafertanato nationslist , irsditie...
...T*HE title shows the bias of this book...
...From such teaching will emerge individuals imbued with the ideals of democracy...
...and it is possible to turn the ststement around and announce that the school has failed the students -failed in its duty to society, failed to fulfil its function in a democracy...
...The book, by Fr*d Harvey Harrington, chairman of the History and Politicsl Science Department of the University of Arkansas, is written sround one man—a most extraordinary American named Dr...
...MAMMON AND THE JAPANESE...
...Jim Crow in th* Class-room...
...thst is why I remember the story snd tell it...
...Germany would then •»ve become a part of the Soviet Un*«, Prussian and Red armies fighting ••Wtaer, and w« would have had by •*» I war between the East and the ¦•Jtj'and with all due respect to Amerjjj potentiality it is extremely doubtf»l Ust wc would have been in the po"»•»' we are in now...
...Until all these intangibles have been scientifically weighed, there i* sensationalism in any cry "what'* wrong . . ." except the sentimental generality "what's wrong with human nature...
...Why...
...giving East Pruisia imi the industrial part of Upper Silesia lajfajaaa, at lUggeitad by Russia Altmagh he does discus* briefly the srguaast that th* partitioning of Germany f*sM result in a revival of the primitive attianallsm which helped Hitler into _M_ht does not pay much attention to Mfkril...
...That was written in 1904...
...He rates, at its beginning, to the immortal eany which lnimanuel Kant wrote on "Eternal Peace...
...Miss Syrkin speaks af attempts to apply Dewey's "profound sdueationai principles mechanically" as "dishonest...
...And in neither ess* can the results be scientifically attributed to the school, handling...
...224 pages...
...And with that tinpot envoy's departure, black failure was "written to a sad and short-sighted foreign policy as our government ever pursued...
...An allied distortion runs through the book...
...It means to turn this liberauea lata the Ight for freedom from fsreht* atraagalation, thus reviving rtbW astionslism' Sumner Welles has written a good abspter on "World Organization...
...Ia th* United States, they should aim to teach judgment, fairness, abifity to weigh issues and determine truths...
...More strange •'ill, this sentence is found in the rhsp"f nailing with th* failure of the Wei¦w-lsanblie as Welles sees it—as if *• Iferl Liebknechts did not share, with *» Nasi*, tha responsibility for the **>lill of the German Repulic...
...Perhaps things are not so bad as to fit Miss Syrkin's thesis...
...rent indeed...
...that's how man catch Ash...
...2.60...
...SamVymg tha straggle for liberation...
...Has it not occurred to the honorable Undersecretary that the world peace is liable to stumble over this peculiar Russian cornerstone and fall down...
...Comrade Stslin is so gently unavowedl MlSS SYRKIN'S weightiest plea is for the "Springfield plan" of indoctrination of democracy, as against the teaching of tolerance and the weighing of all points of view — which she declares lead to laxity and cynicism...
...This is mo nolotkai at all—it is she oppoaiU...
...Try this: Declaring her pupils had no "mistaken attachment to any of the advanced schools of economic thought," she specifies that they w*r* "innocent of Trotsky, Sidney Hook, John Strschey, or Norman Thomas...
...Seek, snd ye shall find...
...other factors sre too complex to assess the contribution of any one...
...Hence, in the next breath, she must confess: "Of course, this case was extreme...
...But ha is again dis^jNrly nsive when h« pleads with to behave according to Western "••dsrds of civilized politeness...
...Yet if these assumptions are true, democracy is not worth holding...
...then, to justify her title, she has to go out of her way to mske them so...
...Meanwhile, the Japanese made hay...
...but without tha basis of discrimination tha swifter promise of th* falsa luie has ita hop...
...I«ftr the following- as some pertinent examples: i»i>i Welle* call* hi* chapter on - .,--------___________ fam»t>) ¦ "Th* German Menace Can Ba (**W.'' He propose* to cut Germany iwtthrat countries...
...Notice anything missing...
...But for every instance of prejudice or failure Miss Syrkin advances (and with urbane educational omniscience declares prevalent or characteristic) it would be possible to bring forward an instance of successful handling of s problem in democracy, or of a problem child...
...To indoctrinate, furthermore, without teaching discrimination, is merely to render folks suceptible to propaganda: yours today, but whose tomorrow...
...Instead of seeking "what's right" with our schools, or—that would be too mutii to expect!—impartially examining them to discover their degree of achievement, Miss Syrkin "looks at what's wrong...
...Your School, Your Children," in ways the author does not suspect, points out serious dangers of our time...
...m much-publicized book of the former Under-Secretary of State Sumner Writes ii • mixture of knowledge and impressive presentation of factH on throne hand, and a disarming naivite in their interpretation on the other...
...of the prejudiced boy she had passed who lster ssid, "There's the teacher that failed me...
...There are few books about Korea, and most of those are superficial or propaganda products...
...Education Today By JOSEPH T. SHIPLEY "YOUR SCHOOL, YOUR CHILDREN: A teacher lookt at 'what's wrong with our schools...
...We began paying real dividends for that narrow-mindedness of ours st Pesrl Harbor about 40 yesrs lster...
...of the class studying Ibsen's 7 he Doll's House that brought in designs of doll's houses...
...A* on* of our "astute" diplomats explained: Th* annexation of Korea to Japan seams to be absolutely indicated as the one great and final stop westward of the extension of the Japanese Km piie...
...0» page 16 we And the amazing sen tescs: "Had there been enough Karl Uebknsehts, the future of Germany and »' th* world might have been different...
Vol. 27 • October 1944 • No. 41
