The Inspiration of Unesco

SINCE wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men L that the defenses of peace must be constructed. . . . This is the inspiring opening sentence of the Charter of Unesco. The minds of men. The individual mind and the mass mind. How does Unesco expect to remove the suspicion and mistrust between the peoples of the world that have so often broken into war, and replace them with mutual knowledge and understanding? Consider the advent of an individual student from, let us say, Bolivia or Iran, to a college in the United States. He sleeps in the dormitory and eats in the commons with the native students-neither of those institutions exists in his own country. He discusses problems with them in the classroom, he competes with them in the gymnasium and on the playing fields, he joins a glee club, dramatic or debating society, or any of a half-dozen other extra-curricular activities, he visits neighboring cities without having to report to the police, he attends political rallies, he is invited to typical American homes, he experiences democracy in action. He probably came with a great respect and admiration for the industrial and technological superiority of the United States but with a belief that its civilization and culture are materialistic and mechanical. His experience here transforms his mind. He learns that America has a soul, that it does not consist only of factories and assembly lines but has also magnificent museums of art, great symphony orchestras, beautiful cathedrals and churches. Like the wandering student of the Middle Ages who listened to Abelard at Paris, to a famous jurist at Bologna, and to a learned philosopher at Prague, and returned home to become a lighthouse of toleration in the surrounding sea of prejudice, our foreign student returns to his own country zealous to spread among his neighbors his respect and admiration for the United States. In 1938, there were ten thousand foreign students in our colleges and universities. Today there are seventeen thousand, next year there will unquestionably be twentyfive thousand, and if the plans of Unesco for the exchange of persons are realized, there will be in a few years as many as fifty thousand. But Unesco does not contemplate a one-way-street program. Let us follow an American student to, say, Italy. He repeatedly walks the streets of the Forum, passes under the arches of Trajan and Constantine, visits the Baths of Caracalla, the Coliseum, and the catacombs of the early Christians. He is amazed at the quantity of beautiful objects, unsurpassed by any of our own day, which have been found in the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and placed in the

Political science · Sociology · Global Peace and Security Dynamics