Propaganda for Peace

Commissioner Hirshfield of New York City is not the only person who wants to purify the histories used in public schools. But whereas in his recent report (TIME, June 18) he recommended that American history be retold so as to preserve a prejudice against England, others over the country are urging an effort in the contrary direction. Between the two --what?

Before a meeting of the Institute on International Affairs at Cincinnati last week, Frederick J. Libby of the National Council for the Prevention of War complained that most school histories now in use emphasize the glories of war and inflame national pride. He asked if something might not be done for the glories of peace.

Two men at the University of Washington have a program. Paul W. Terry and Wesley G. Young, writing in the magazine Education on High School Seniors and International Good Will, suggest that the first step is to canvass the high schools for opinion on international relations, so that "with this information on hand the curriculum-maker would be able to include in the course of study the materials which are necessary to improve the situation."

Messrs. Terry and Young examined 289 high school seniors in a city on the Pacific coast for traces of ignorant animus against the Japanese, and found that half these students believed war between Japan and America to be inevitable, while only a third denied this or thought war to be conditional on the behavior of the two nations. The significant fact is that the reasons in the first case tended to be of a primitive nature, while in the second case they indicated intelligence and--more important--information. The moral is: Inform, the assumption being that knowledge is the chief enemy of prejudice and so of war. It is a sound assumption.

But those who know the most history will say that the less definite propaganda of any sort the better. If history is rightly told, wars will probably take a minor place in any event. H. G. Wells in his Outline tried to sink them to their proper level, and succeeded.

In the test referred to, Messrs. Terry and Young asked the 289 high school seniors to check from a list of 19 adjectives the five which they thought to be most strikingly characteristic of Japanese in the U. S. The adjectives finished in this order: Industrious 255

Thrifty 249

Crafty 190

Courteous 186

Intelligent 121

Dirty 95

Healthy 79

Honest 41

Stingy 31

Clean 30

Dishonest 28

Immoral 26

Stupid 16

Generous 14

Cruel 9

Sickly 8

Kind 7

Lazy 2

Wasteful 0