Evening star., 1938-02-06

math have brought the hand
and voice of Government into
Il eyervthing First the count
ing house, the factory, the farm. the
railroad then the power house. the
dam. the public utility; now the labor
union. the slum, the alley dwelling,
the rural Commune-and. last Of all
in the suise of relief, the schoolroom
and town meeting, the radio and
public forum.
Fifteen leaders of adult education
forums. employed by the Federal Offlce
of Education, recently left the Capital
armed with the latest teChnlqueS in
stimulating discussion" to man the
hustlngS in twelve different States.
Government itself has at last taken
to the air in big way and even those
who cannot read may now inhale an
education effortlessly from the corner
radio. Or so 1t is supposed.
When the full history of the Works
Progress Administration and the Pub
lie Works AdminlStratlor-"th w. P.
A. and P. w. A. golddust twins of the
NpN Dtdt --lS NILNltll NJ ~ SNNA NstA1
be effectively written> it must include
the story of much more than the
subsidies for armored cruisers and bat
tleshipS, beyond the ample official ap-
preparations therefore of Congress for
our ever-eXpanding Navy, with which
the record opens. Il must include
more than the solemn and lCngthenlng
records of physical relief of the un-
employed-more even than the long
list of public roads and bridges, power
dams and aqueductS, OF retorestatlon
enterprises in the "DuStbOWl and
water conservation projects on the
watersheds of the AppalachianS for
the control of our rivers.
1t must include, also, the heartenlng
human records of the Civilian Con-
servation Corps and numerous hous-
ing and hOme5teading undertakings,
urban and rural. Of the erStWhlle
Resettlement Administration. But be-
yond the chronicles Of the doomed and
the brave story Of Subsidizing costly
structures of steel ana stone, cement
and brick and plaster, Of wood and
water and electricity, with which to
wage war on the black plague Of
depression and unemployment III our
troubled times, that history must in
Clude also a record OF mental as well
as physical relief from Starvation, and
of substantial encouragement Of the
fine and applied arts Of expression. the
plastic arts, the theatrical arts, writ
ing and even education. For through
these agencies of reSuScitatiOn the de-
preston has brought the Federal Gov
ernment into the role of patron of
the arts and of education. formal and
informal, in a way unequalled in all
our history, unprotected and perhaps
undreamed of, save by Utopians.
NOTHING could be more interest
ing than the story of the latest
essays of Government in building new
patterns of ideas and sentiments
among the o-lucky American
masses who read as they run, un-
suspectingly, from one newspaper to
another, or one receiving set to an
other, equipped with ever more remote
and invisible controls!
Nothing could be more edfying than
the experiments of the Federal Office
Of Education in developing, over the
last 80 months, the fine art and tech
nlque Of radio eduCation'-Which is
something more than propaganda
and which has already launched itself
upon the airWays of the Nation, with
the cooperation Of the largest COM
merclal networks in a way far beyond
the scope of anything known in this
country, or anything possible in any
country so long as radio remains the
unemancipated colony of commercial
advertising and salesmanship.
In the spring of 1885 one of the ma
tlonal broadcasting corporations Of
fered the use of its facilities to the di-
rectors of the Civilian Conservation
Corps for presenting programs de-
signed especially for the 100000 youths
gathered in the Federal camps all over
the Nation. In pursuit of the means
to develop this proposal, DR.. John w.
Studebaker, the progressive educator
from Iowa who had then recently