Evening star., 1928-11-01

Said Roman of old, named
Phaedras "It brings praise TO me ina
| volt and those like you, copy my WORDS
| intn your books" What would old
Phaedras have said If he had lived to
| hear the dictator of the Turkish re-
| public. President Kemal, command all
| Turks to learn to read and write the
Roman letters, and to become proficient
| in the reading and writing within the
next two months?
! The motto of the American Navy In
| the DAYS of the World War was II
can't be done, but here it is In Tur-
| key as in Mexico, the motto Is MA
| nana"-"Tomorrow or some other day
| Yet. under the new decree of Kemal, al
| the end of the next two months all gov
ernment employees will be examined as
| to their proficiency in writing the
Western letters. and the unpronclent
will be discharged from the service
Other penalties of the law VIII De IN
! fiicted upon civilian delinquents. Age
| or previous condition of illiteracy will
| be no excuse.
| AT first the edict permitted Is years
| as the time limit, but the government
noted that that period was so long that
no progress was perceptible, SO 1t was
reduced to 2 years Still the literacy
| in the new letters was too slow, and, 1r
burst of impatience, the dictator de-
clared that two months was the time'
beyond that the penalty.
| The undermining of Turkey is one OF
| the most significant trends OF the times
1t means far more than fad Of an
arbitrary dictator. 1t is epochal, and
| the trend is not limited to Turkey
| much less to mere letters.
| X X X
It is a familiar saying that the worlc
| Is growing more intimate. Improve
ments in transportation and still more
| in communication are Wiping out race
| recognition that race differences are
| only skin Deep" Psychology no"
| comes forth to prove that the differ
| ences are indeed not skin deep, fol
| differences in the color OF the COM
| plexions no longer imply dlferences II
/ mentality. Whatever divides races Il
| more attributable to the effect OF en-,
| vironment and mutual ignorance o.
| each other than of inherent lnferlorlty
| of any. Whether it Is touch o.
| nature or what 1t Is that brings I'll.
relationship. "the whole worlds KIN.
The barriers of racial separation are
/
| foundation in capacity or mentan.y
So Turkey is bent upon eradicatlng the
| artificial walls.
The first step was to order that veliec
| women should unveil that mems lezzei
should be replaced with European hats
| and mems baggy trousers should gave
way to straight and ugly pantaloons
So picturesque Turkey became III ap'
pearances as monotonous ana uncouli
as Europe and America. Still, there Wa'
that difference in the Moslem use o.
! Arabic letters, with their orn amenta
curlicues, written from right tl leIt
And now that lettering must b super.
seeded bv the palmer Roman lstters
What will 1t all lead to?
" X
Late Investigations in anthropolog
and psychology attack the fundamenLai
of race prejudice based on color. Froi ui
Dixon of Columbia University, IN m
book. 1.-THE Racial History of Man. dis
cards color entirely as basis OF OH
ferences of ability and resorts TO meas
urements of the skull. He divides maj
into eight races, and accounts Tor tnel
differences by saying that the eve
luton from pre-human antnropoi'
forms into man probably occurred
; different times and different places, ant
these eight fundamental human type
may represent as many distinct trans1
tions from pre-human to human forms
Since the appearance of these distinc
types, more than 100000 years age
| there have been many migratlons Q
races from one part Of the world T.
| another, and as a result Of these migra
tions the primitive types of races hav
mixed in varying proportions to form
, the races Of today, with none of ou
present races representing pure, orig
inal types.