Evening star., 1947-07-13
@be 5uniot Sfar
| lust Between
Yourselves
BY Philip n. Love.

There's a message In the playing
Of q symphony orchestra, a message
which all but the most tightly closed
minds can easily understand. And
there's q lesson-sermon maybe. Is
better word-in many q SYM
phonic program.
The thought is not original-for
that matter, what thought is?-but
it came to me at a Water Gate con-
cert by the National Symphony Or
chestra. It came again at other
concerts, and each time enter
tanned it for a longer period. FL
nally, 1t became q message which I
understood. And when grasped the
message, ! also understood the les
son or sermon.
We live in q world which is tor
tured by many prejudices. Nations
are prejudiced against one a1other;
within nations there is prejudice
among races, religions, classes Of So
ciety.
In my neighborhood boys and
girls of Irish descent hate anything
English. Both the Irish and the
English dislike Germans. and the
Germans, for their part, seem con-
ternptuous Of everybody who can't
claim at least one Teutonic ances-
tor. The other day. all the kids In
the neighborhood ganged up on a
little boy whose mother is Italian.
Johnny" an Irish boy said con-
temptuously, you're a wop."
"Ya-a-a," the children Of Irish,
English, German and other ances-
tries chimed in, you're wop! -.
Johnny's wop!"
But Johnny wasn't any such thing,
really. He was an American-just
as much as any of the kids who
were abusing him.
A recent issue of The Sunday
Star Pictorial Magazine featured,
on its cover, a full-color photos
graph of two monks worshiping at
an altar In the Franciscan Mon
astery, and. inside. layout Of pic.
lures in "The Cloistered Life"
Several abusive letters and tele-
phone calls from Catholics
all anonymous, of course-followed.
More recently The Pictorial Maga-
zine carried an article on Temple
Bailey which brought nasty let
ter from a Negro-hating reader who
objected to the authors maid being
referred to as Miss"
Socially or economically, however
you want to put it, there's similar
conflict. The various labor groups
hate the bosses, and vice versa: but,
at the same time, the unions quarrel
among themselves, and even the
bosses can't agree.
n
The result Is, Of course, as dis
cordant as the sounds emanating
from the Water Gate barge before
concert begins. From. say, BIS
to a moment before $3.50 pm, the
noise made by the National SYM
phony is dreadful. Every musician
is an individualist, intent on tuning
his instrument, and the result is
tumble of musical notes that adds
up to one word-bedlam. Then, at
$3.50, the conductor waves his
wand and, as il by magic, more noise
is transformed into beautiful music.
A recent concert included compo-
sitions by two Americans, q Czech,
a Russian and a Pole. The orches-
ira, judging by the names of its
members, represented many differ
ent nationalities. And the work OF
the Russian was played with con-
summate skill by a Puerto Rican
pianist whose ancestors were
Spanish.
Austria, Haiti, Italy, Romania,
Russia and the United States were
represented in another recent con-
cert. in which Washington Negro,
Todd Duncan, was soloist.
The world, at present, Is like q
huge symphony orchestra tuning up.
It will remain confused and dis
cordant until some unifying force
religion, common ideals and under
standing, the United Nations or
something else-takes 1t over.
But that cannot happen in the
world at large until 1t has first come
to pass in individual nations. And it
can't happen in nations until people
learn the lesson Of the symphony:
No race or nationality, no religious
or other group has q monopoly on
genius. And except for superficial
differences of complexion, language
and local customs, people everywhere
are pretty much the same.
I~:J4 No- p1ol<s