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AID PROGRAM:
U.S. Takes Gamble
In Latin America
By WILLIAM L. RYAN
Associated Press News Analyst
PUNTA DEL ESTE - In a converted gaming casino, Uncle Sam is
making a fateful gamble.
The roulette wheels were carted away to make room for con-
ference tables for the worried statesmen of 21 American nations as-
sembled to discuss President Kennedy's Alliance for Progress. Their
headquarters, a swank resort hotel, took on the somber air of an
international conference.
The stakes in the casino now are enormous.
The United States is gambling that Latin America's leaders will
be persuaded to accept the challenge implicit in an offer of a $20 billion
FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 1961
NIGHT EDITOR: PETER STEINBERGER
Foreign Aid Bill
Poses Serious Problems
THE ADMINISTRATION'S desperate strug-
gle to get its foreign aid bill passed is look-
ing brighter now, thanks to Sen. Fulbright's
proposed amendment to it.
The amendment, while it would allow the
long-term development loans the administra-
tion has been asking for, would also give Con-
gress a yearly look at how the money is spent.
This compromise wouldn't give Congress the
power to change any plans that it didn't like,
when the yearly look-see was arranged, but it
would, at least, give the representatives their
look.
IT WOULD BE IRONIC if this amendment
actually were added to the bill, and proved
the means of passing it, because it is a sop to
congressional vanity, while not at all a pro-
tection of congressional power.
The reason Kennedy wants independence to
plan foreign aid over 5-year periods without
constant harassment from Congress is because
he cannot trust the judgment of legislative
leaders and fears they will sometimes 'kill'
good aid plans and encourage bad ones.
Experience has so far shown only too clearly
how right he is.
BUT THE "SOLUTION" to this problem can-
not be altogether pleasing to anyone, be-
cause while it guarantees that Congress won't
interfere with the administration's aid plan-
ning, it also creates the possibility that the
lacl*,f supervision will lead to worse blunder-
ing than there is now.
Because those who support foreign aid are
Penalty
Unrealistic
THE RECENT DEMAND in Congress to es-
tablish a maximum death penalty for air-
line hijacking is an inhumane and unnecessary
act of hysteria.
The additional ultimatum, that all hijacked
planes be returned to the United States within
48 hours is quite unrealistic.
The puny propaganda motives, to discourage
any further hijacking attempts and to show
Fidel down in Cuba that "we mean business"
in dealing with him, will not go over well.
The Cuban government has a perfect right
to detain the United States Electra as collateral
for those Cuban planes hijacked to the United
States, unpaid debts to Florida companies not-
withstapding, because enough Cuban property
has already been confiscated to repay the
amount in question.
THE THREE attempted hijackings, two
were done by United States citizens. Only
one plane is being held in Cuba, the others being
allowed to return to the United States.
The harsh brutality of the action contem-
plated by Congress will be all that will be re-
membered in years to come.
Congress does not have the power to take
away the United States Electra by force from
Cuba and will do nothing about its remaining
there. The Electra is not worth an internation-
al crisis, which will certainly result.
The United States may well heed these in-
cidents as partial repayment for economic suf-
ferings inflicted on the Cuban masses during
the reign of Batista and company as well as
United Fruit, and as the price of folly.
Two wrongs still don't make a right.
-EARL POLE
generally satisfied with the administration's
views on the matter, Kennedy's plan has fairly
wide backing. Likewise, the sorry record of
Congress in handling foreign aid requests has
given the move an historical inevitability.
But in the long run there is nothing to cheer
about in Kennedy's proposal.
IN TAKING POWER from Congress and giv-
ing it to the executive branch the new bill
would take power from elected officials and give
it to appointed ones.
The CIA, with its secrecy and invulnerability
to opinion, is the most frightening example of
what can happen when Congress is "shielded"
from the formation of policy.
Right now the administration supports a
foreign aid policy that is far better than any-
thing the Senate could agree on, and so giving
it more power over aid policy seems like a good
thing.
But if in later years the President (or some
successor of his) were to decide to give large
scale loans only to especially "friendly" gov-
ernments, the transfer- of power to the execu-
tive branch would lose many of its present
supporters.
SO, if some future administration would use
foreign aid money as, a way of stabilizing
unpopular military regimes, there would be
fewer ways to learn of this and change the sit-
uation than there are now.
Not, of course, that United States aid hasn't
borne some of these characteristics even under
the present system of controls by congressional
committees.
Abuses in the foreign aid plans so far have
often come from the ignorance and biases of
legislators (as well as of administrators), but
this stupidity was unfortunately an accurate
reflection of the public will. The incompetents
who blocked adequate long-term aid plans were
elected by voters who got what they deserved.
UNDER THE NEW PLAN to give the Congress
much less yearly control over spending, the
decisions on whether to renew aid programs
or not would be made by the same people who
thought up and administered those programs.
The Cuban invasion had those who thought
up the scheme evaluate its chances of success
-and carry it out, too. The plan to give the
administration long-range control of foreign
aid funds is an exact corollary to this. In both
cases, if the idea works well, everyone who sees
it is glad that outsiders weren't allowed to
meddle.
But in both cases, too, if anything goes wrong,
(as it did with Cuba), there is no adequate
way for outsiders (like voters) to decide how
to place the blame.
THE PUBLIC is constantly being offered the
accomplished facts of great decisions made
by secret, non-elected offices. Disarmament.
military strategy and decisions such as whether
or not to force Britain into the Common Mar-
ket are made final before anyone outside' is
told they are being considered.
The new foreign aid bill would continue this
trend. On the other hand (and this is what
makes the ouestion so awkward) if the plan is
defeated, the foreign aid program will lose much
of its (vital) cold-war potential.
The only moral to be extracted from the sit-
uation is that democracy gets into ridiculous
positions when its elected leaders are too ig-
norant to guide its policies and its non-elected
"leaders" have to subvert the democratic proc-
ess in order to insure its short-term survival
in a cold war.
-PETER STEINBERGER
"
~ 'N'
4'p
-1r ".
-s *x i
NONCONFORMISTS:
Admssi ons Negect Creativi.ty
By MICHAEL OLINICK
Daily Staff Writer
INVESTIGATIONS into the ad-
mission practices and formulae
of the nation's colleges have pro-
duced a worried man.
He is Prof. Sarnoff A. Mednick
of the psychology department.
Prof. Mednick is concerned these
days with the increasingly poor
chances for students with bad high
school grades to gain admission to
an institution of higher learning.
"I am suggesting that current
admission practices may be gain-
ing in efficiency and, as a result,
certain kinds of high ability stu-
dents will be increasingly denied
admission to college," he wrote in
a paper.
His "analyst's statement" ap-
pears in the recently published
1961 "Current Issues in Higher
Education," the proceedings of the
16th annual National Conference
on Higher Education.
* * *
PROF. MEDNICK reports that
special methods have been devel-
oped to scale high schools so that
-a high degree of intercorrelations
(as great as .85) has been found
between high school and college
grades. .
What worries Prof. Mednick is
the likelihood that admission of-
ficers will select prospective fresh-
men solely on the basis of past
grades and create a group of
college-bound students who are
nothing but "a relatively pure
strain of 'grade getters.'"
This "race of grade getters" im-
plies that we will be "breeding"
out certain characteristics of our
college population. Not all of these
characteristics are necessarily bad
ones, and some are even preferable
or, in fact, necessary for the ul-
timate well being of our society.
THE "UNFIT" or noncomformist
rejected from college may indeed
be one of inadequate ability who
could not perform college work
satisfactorily or gain appreciably
by attendance on campus. He
should be steered to another path.
There are others, however, of
highly creative ability who may
never get developed. In his re-
search at the Institute of Person-
ality Assessment and Research at
Berkeley, Prof. Mednick discovered
that some of the most creative
architects, scientists and mathe-
maticians of our day were medi-
ocre or. poor performers when it
came to racking up honor points.
Their low grade points did not
stem necessarily from inattention
to work or lack of desire but from
various other causes, which include
a reluctance to memorize formulas
available in standard texts, a fail-
tire to share some attitudes rele-
vant to grade getting and the hos-
tility of teachers who do not like
to work with the often upsetting
questions of these students.
THESE MEN have the potential
for producing original and useful
ideas. But they also have the
handicap of low grades which
of the entire student body, not to
mention the faculty?"
An affirmative reply necessitates
a broadening of the limits of our
definition of acceptable behavior
for university students, Prof. Med-
nick says.
Prof. Mednick urges that the
nation's colleges take careful and
deliberate steps to admit the
"promising nonconformist." This
should be done, of course, with
considerations of the consequences
of these actions on the student
and the rest of the campus com-
munity.
NONCONFORMITY or original-
ity per se are not always virtues,
Prof. Mednick takes pains to dem-
onstrate. "It is cheap to be a non-
conformist and emit unusual be-
havior or thought," he says (after
all, "three plus three is 6,363,742"
is an original statement). "When
original behavior or thought meets
criteria, is useful, or satisfies some
need (broadly defined) then we
may refer to it as creative."
It is this creative nonconformist
the colleges must seek and make
room for.
Prof. Mednick urges the creation
of new ability tests which require
the student "to make original re-
sponses in ways which meet well
defined requirements." He himself
is developing a "Remote Asso-
ciates Test" which could fill this
very gap in our testing.
SEVERAL COLLEGES and
scholarship corporations have
made an attempt to find and
cultivate the creative nonconform-
ist. Harvard, for instance, is an-
gaged in a search for students
from low income groups who have
relatively low College Board scores,
but a fierce desire to learn.
The National Merit Scholarship
Corporation set a small number of
scholarships aside this year for
students who did not get the high-
est test scores on their exams
(usually a major criterion) but
who display special talents in one
or two other areas.
* * *
NO SUCH ACTIONS seem im-
minent from the University's Ad-
mission office. An applicants's high
school record remains the prime
criteria for acceptance.
There is space on the applica-
tion, to be sure, for comments by
the high school counselor .or prin-
cipal and an opportunity for the
student to put down, in essay
form, his reasons for seeking a
college education. But these are
rarely, if ever, used as a deter-
mining factor in admission.
The high school's comments of-
ten become nothing more than
empty platitudes or short psy-
chological analyses of the ap-
plicant. The student's own essays
are regarded as being more for his
benefit than the University's.
For the Michigan resident, ad-
mission to the University hinges
on achieving a "B" average. At
least this is what the high school
senior thinks. For the out-of-state
resident, those College Board
responsibility to inform the col-
lege about the peculiar talents of
an outstanding student whose
grades are not superior.
With the absence of personal
interviews, the University has
little but this to rely upon in mak-
ing admission decisions. It must
use them to a greater extent, how-
ever, and purposefully search out
these special talents in the stacks
of applications.
The pressure of growing num-
bers of applicants should not push
the University into a position
where those with high ability and
creative energies are barred from
the classroom.
Dilemma
"THE MOST IMPORTANT les-
son to be drawn . . . is the
incompatibility of the idea of an
all - embracing and all - solving
creed with liberty.
"The two ideals correspond to
the two instincts most deeply em-
bedded in human nature, the
yearning for salvation and the love
of freedom. To attempt to satisfy
both at the same time is bound to
result, if not in unmitigated tyr-
anny and serfdom, at least in the
monumental hypocrisy and - self-
deception which are the concomi-
tants of totalitarian democracy.
"This is the curse on salvationist
creeds: to be born out of the
noblest impulses of man, and to
degenerate into weapons of tyr-
anny."
-3. L. Talmon
program to help put their own
houses in order.
IF THE GAMBLE pays off, it
can build a new world for Latin
America and can openbroad vistas
for a hemisphere flourishing in
an atmosphere of active coopera-
tion. t
If it fails, the consequences can
be disastrous. That could mean
a revolutionary change in the
whole United States concept of
foreign aid.
The focus of foreign aid now
is on Latin America.
President Kennedy has called
this meeting the most important
of the century for the Western
Hemisphere.
In a sense, foreign aid itself is
on probation in Latin America. If
the gamble loses, there is little
doubt that there will be heavy
pressure in the United States to
turn away from pouring money
into other people's economies and
use the money for building im-
pregnable United States defenses.
** *
THE JOB AHEAD is staggering.
This aid program has been com-
pared to the Marshall Plan that
lifted war-battered Western Eur-
ope from its ruins. But in many
respects the Marshall Plan was
simple compared to the task con-
fronting Latin-American states-
men.
European nations had been de-
veloped before the war. They had
great pools of educated talent and
technical genius.
Latin America has almost no-
thing.
In Europe, the job was like
helping an injured but healthy
man to get back on his feet. But in
Latin America it is like taking a
dangerously sick infant and nur-
turing it into a robust adult.
* * *
STRONG FORCES are at work
to obstruct and wreck the effort
-Communism and Castroism, per-
sonified here in the presence of
Ernesto Guevara, the shrewd eco-
nomic dictator of revolutionary
Cuba.
Guevara and the other Latin
American delegates here speak in
the same tongue but do not really
talk the same language. Guevara
is making his appeal to the young,
the impatient, the angry, the
revolution-minded intellectual ele-
ment of Latin America.
The United States is working at
government levels and with the
representatives of Latin America's
business and industry.
The United States, in a sense. is
trying to work from the top down-
ward. The extreme left, min ful
of the guidebooks of world Com-
munism, is attempting to work
from the bottom up.
* * *
THE DELEGATES to this con-
ference are engaged in a des-
perate effort to save themselves
and their own class from being
overwhelmed by a tide of violent
revolution.
It will not be long before the
world knows whether they win or
lose.
BRITAIN:
Economic
Policy
By EDWIN DALE
New York Times News Analyst
PARIS, Aug. 2-British entry in-
to the European Common Mar-
ket will mark the third major
turning point in basic British
trade policy in a little more than
a century.
The moves so far have been
from severe protection to com-
plete free trade, then back to
fairly severe protection. The lat-
est step would be a return, partly
at least, to free trade.
Like most nations of Europe,
Britain emerged from the age of
mercantilism, which followed the
break-up of the feudal system,
with a complex web of restric-.
tions on trade and shipping.
THE RESTRICTIONS were bas-
ed on the idea that the only true
wealth was gold, that a nation
able to export more than it im-
ported would earn gold and thus
be rich.
The basic principles of mer-
cantilism Were already being chal-
lenged in theory by the, great
economists, led by Adam Smith,'
in the eighteenth and early nine-
teenth centuries. But it was a
change in the facts of economic
life even more than theoretical
arguments that forced Britain in-
to a major reversal of policy.
THE BIG CHANGE was indus-
trialization, in which Britain led
the world. This created many new
demands: by industrialists for
cheap raw materials, by urban
consumers for cheap food. Brit-
ish governments felt the pres-
sures.
Starting in 1824 and ending in
1860 with the abolition of the last
duties on silk, Britain moved to
full free trade.
The change back to protection-
ism began innocently and almost
unintentionally. Itdstartedwith
the ,McKenna duties" during
World War I, which were largely
adopted as a war measure to cut
down imports
* * *
BY THE MIDDLE of the nine-
teen twenties, British govern-
ments admitted openly that they
were imposing tariffs in an effort
to protect British jobs in the face
of a chronically serious unemploy-
ment problem.
The return to protectionism did
not restore full employment in
Britain, but it played its part in
a sharp contraction of British
trade.
The' 'protected home market,"
in the opinion of many observers
of the British economy, is one of
Britain's main present difficul-
ties. Industries sheltered behind
tariffs have had a safe home
market
Copyright, 1961, The New YorkTimes
BIZERTE CRISIS:
four guiba Stirs Tension
Reason May Yet Prevail
FROM BOTH SIDES in the last few days a
little more emphasis on reason and a little
less on rockets for a solution of the German
question have appeared.
In Paris, while reviewing strength at arms, a
meeting of the foreign ministers of Britain,
France, the United States and West Germany
reaffirmed the willingness of the West to nego-
tiate about Berlin on a "reasonable basis,"
though they refrained from suggesting a date
for East-West talks.
The next evening Soviet Premier Khrush-
chev in a scheduled broadcast talked of pos-
sibly calling up military reserves but said also,
"Let us sit down honestly around a conference
table and negotiate. Let us not stir up a war
psychosis."
T WAS APPROPRIATE that Khrushchev
should make the first specific proposal for a
meeting of opposing sides in the cold war
struggle since. it was he who precipitated the
now prolonged crisis over West Berlin by de-
mands for a change in the status of that city
more than two years ago.
He has not yet fully created what the Paris
group called a reasonable basis for discussions,
but he has made a move in that direction by re-
THIS IS ALL RIGHT for Moscow to say -
though millions are in bondage now because
of reliance on Communist pledges. But Khrush-
chev still declares communication with Berlin
would have to be arranged with the East Ger-
man puppet government, which has claimed
on its part the right to choke off such com-
munication.
If the Kremlin now will be more precise as
to what kind of muzzle it would be willing to
put on Walter Ulbricht and his East Berlin
lackeys, it is possible that some progress could
be made toward a four-power conference table.
THERE WOULD STILL BE the reluctance of
Western powers and of West Germany in
particular to give even the slightest form of
legal or diplomatic recognition to the unrepre-
sentative East German regime or to harden in
any degree the division of Germany into two
parts.
Yet the Communist shadow regime does have
physical control of East Germany, even though
that control rests on Soviet tanks instead of
German choice. In- the past, de facto recogni-
tion has been given to such governments, or
some dealings with them have taken place
without even that.
By CHARLES STAFFORD
Associated Press Newsfeatures Writer
HABIB BOURGUIBA, president
of Tunisia and a trusted friend
of the Western world, sprung the
lock on a Pandora's box of inter-
national tensions and suspicions
when he tried to expel the French
from their naval base at Bizerte.
In the uneasy aftermath of the
French-Tunisian clash of arms,
relations between those two na-
tions are ruptured, peace talks
between the French and Algerian
nationalists are endangered, the
Algerians must certainly regard
Bourguiba with suspicion. and the
United States has been forced into
the uncomfortable position of hav-
ing to take sides in a hassle be-
tween two friends.
And only the Russians seem
likely to profit.
w* .s
THESE ARE THE FACTS:
The French built a large naval
base in the salt water Lake of
Bizerte at the end of the last
century, and added an air base
early in this century. It became
one of four major French naval
establishments.
When France gave Tunisia in-
planes; the French, returned the
fire. When the smoke cleared,
several hundred people had been
killed and thousands wounded.
At the same time, Bourguiba
sent forces to plant the Tunisian
flag at Sahara Marker 233, about
45 miles southwest of the French-
defined Tunisian frontier in an
area of the oil-rich Sahara desert
that is claimed by Tunisia.
Eventually, both sides agreed to
the cease-fire that is now in exis-
tence.
Why did Bourguiba act at this
time to force the French out?
These are the speculations:
Bourguiga has long dreamed of
becoming the leader of the Mos-
lem countries stretching across the
upper tier of Africa: Tunisia, Al-
geria and Morocco, sometimes
called the Magreb.
With a solution to the long Al-
gerian rebellion apparently not
far off, Bourguiba would face a
strong, united Moslem leadership
in Algeria which proved its mettle
to the Arab world. By supporting
his demands that the French get
out of Bizerte with gunfire, the
Tunisian president may have hop-
ed to take his place as a militant
nationaliitnot afraid of facing un
What were the results of Bour-
guiba's actions?
This is the tangled situation:
One of the big things to be de-
cided in the French-Algerian
peace talks is the future of the
French naval base at Mers-el- Ke-
bir. The French are determined to
hold onto the base. But if Bour-
guiba forces them to quit Bizerte,
their case for keeping Mers-El-
Kebir will be weakened; it could
even cause a breakdown in the
peace talks. Obviously, the French
were anxious to accomplish that
peace and settle the future of
Mers-el-Kebir before negotiating
with Tunisia on the Bizerte base.
* * *
THE ALGERIAN REBELS sup-
ported Bourguiba in his Bizerte
claim as a matter of course -
Moslem supporting Moslem. But
they look with chagrin on his
claim to a portion of the French-
held Sahara. They claim it is
rightfully Algerian, and have de-
manded recognition of that point
in their talks with France.
The Bizerte crisis caught the
United States in a squeeze. Bour-
guiba has been considered one of
the most ,dependable African
friends of the United States and