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annoy the patients. Electric dumbwaiters, operated by press-buttons, carry the food and supplies for the patients upstairs from the basement.

3. The patient about to undergo an operation is taken first to one of the anesthetizing rooms, which have nothing at all of the operating room atmosphere about them. They are like little parlors, and are furnished with curtains, rugs and wooden furniture. The operating rooms themselves have a lighting system of such power that it has been possible to substitute a restful shade of gray for the traditional whitewashed walls.

As an example of the emphasis placed upon the psychological condition of the patients the instruments with which the basal metabolic tests are made are very terrifying for a patient to look at, although painless to operate. To save the patient from fear that might break down his resistance to disease, the hospital authorities have arranged things so that he is in a separate room from the awesome machinery while the test is made, so that he does not see it all.

The period of convalescence must be a delightful one in this hospital. First there are the open air loggias. Here one takes the air and diverts himself with a view of the park. Here also is the only place in the hospital where one may smoke. This is where modern woman puffs her cigarette in a modern hospital. Yes, the nurses say that even the maternity cases do it.

Then there are indoor sun parlors, and, finally, the magnificent roof tops, four of them, where the patient can find any variety of sun or shade or change of scene.

4. The hospital is not, as one might have imagined, the exclusive property of the rich. The hospital is for all, regardless of class, creed or color. Its sponsors found that the hospital problem had been solved for the rich, who could pay for what they wished, and for the poor, who get a free modern

ward service in city hospitals and privately endowed institutions. The Fifth Avenue Hospital caters to the great in-between class-men and women of moderate means who do not wish luxury, who will not accept charity, and yet need as careful attention as the rich or poor. The rates are "from nothing up." The very poor, who can pay nothing, are provided for. One-third of the cases are to be

free. A patient pays what he can afford, and the nurses and doctors attending a patient will not know how much he pays unless he tells them himself.

5. The sponsors of the hospital say that it proves that the ward system is a relic of the Dark Ages. Wards were once thought necessary for the sake of economy, but the Fifth Avenue Hospital proves that the single room system is justified by its economy. There is no waste of heat or light, as rooms not in use can be shut off. Elimination of sex and disease classifications allows the maximum use of floor space. While sometimes a man's ward is overcrowded, at the same time a woman's ward is almost empty. Moreover, single rooms can be redecorated and renovated one at a time, without closing a whole ward.

Newly admitted patients are spared the vicarious suffering caused by the pains and moans of the old patients, and the old patients are spared the disturbance caused by the admission of new patients to a ward. Isolation in private rooms decreases the danger of infection and contagion. Visitors can be admitted to private rooms at all hours, in the discretion of the attending physician, thus giving the patient intercourse with his family and friends, and giving his room a homelike atmosphere, in contrast to the restricted visiting hours and cheerless air of wards.

Is it any wonder that many believe that the Fifth Avenue Hospital will be the hospital of the future? N. Y. Times Mag., N. 19, '22.

Picturesque Mexico

Excerpts from The Mentor
Sherrill Schell

1. Our distorted picture of Mexico.

2. The crusade for better education.

3. Mexico's Fine Arts recognized abroad.

4. Surprises for the traveler in Mexico City.

5. Scenery comparable to Switzerland's.

6. The key to a better understanding.

M

EXICO is an unknown country to most Americans, in spite of the fact that she is our nextdoor neighbor. The average American, nourished on newspaper accounts of hold-ups and kidnappings, to say nothing of a steady diet of popular magazine stories and motion pictures about border desperadoes, thinks of Mexico only as a cactus-covered desert, populated exclusively by blood-thirsty natives whose chief interest in life is the cutting of innocent gringo throats. Of late years the irritation caused by the Mexican Government's failure to come to satisfactory terms in the matter of land grants and oil concessions has only added fuel to the fire of prejudice.

2. In spite of revolution and nonrecognition, Mexico has, in several ways, made vigorous strides forward during the past two years, the most important certainly being that of education. The greatest drawback to its advance has always been the illiteracy of the large mass of her population. The upper classes are intelligent and many of them are extremely well educated. Many Mexi

cans have taken high honors at Oxford and the Sorbonne, although the University of Mexico, founded some 75 years before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, has been the alma mater of most of them. The Indian class, on the other hand, has been woefully neglected, but President Obregon has determined that this sorry state of things shall not continue.

According to the Department of Public Instruction, more than 30,000 persons, most of them adults that, a year ago, did not know the letters of the alphabet, have been taught to compute, read and write. The patriotic spirit of the educated class has given invaluable support to the cause by providing teachers and by establishing cultural centers in nearly all the towns where schools are organized and books distributed. The proportion of the national budget given to public education is probably larger than that of any other government, and the enthusiasm among the more fortunate classes to build up a body of educated and useful citizens has given the movement something of the spirit of a crusade.

3. Mexico supports a Symphony Orchestra which performs many important modern European works often before they are given a hearing in the United States. Caruso, Tetrazzini, Gadowsky and many world-famous artists have found their most enthusiastic audiences in Mexico. There are picture exhibitions, lectures, and theaters where the best Spanish-speaking actors appear.

Mexico's literature is virtually unknown in this country although it has always been read and admired in Spain, France and Italy. There are a number of Mexican writers whose work is lauded by the foremost crit

ics of Paris and London. Mexican painters, also, have yet to capture the fame in the States that they have enjoyed abroad.

Mexico has recently shot ahead of the United States by the creation in her Cabinet of a Minister of Arts. The plan for the art education of the people is unprecedented. Every child in the public schools is being taught to draw, and special instruction abroad is provided to those that show marked talent. The Indian children, formerly thought very backward, are now considered the equal of those of other countries. Insufficiently nourished in the old days, listless in consequence, they are now provided with free meals by the Government, and this experiment has already produced remarkable results in making them ambitious and quick to learn.

The Indians, who compose the greater part of the population, contribute not a little to the fascination of a trip to Mexico. As a rule they are good looking and gentle in manner; their graceful costumes irresistibly carry one back to Arabia or Palestine; they always add to the romance of their enchanting setting.

4. The City of Mexico, in spite of its antiquity, of which its numerous monuments show striking evidence, is a modern metropolis. The countless motor cars that stream over her imposing avenues, the occasional airplanes circling overhead, the modern office buildings, and the smartly dressed people seen everywhere give it an air of sophistication and up-todateness. The Paseo de la Reforma, the fashionable driveway, is the equal of New York's Riverside Drive in elegance, and the Opera House, nearing completion, surpasses any similar building in the United States.

5. Few countries of the world can boast of grander scenery than Mexico. Humboldt declared that the Valley of Mexico was one of the loveliest he had ever gazed upon, and all globe trotters ardently echo his opinion. The National Railway passes through a district which vies in

grandeur with the most famous parts of Switzerland. Many of the cities, and towns rival those of Old Spain in picturesqueness.

The prehistoric temples and pyramids built by the long vanished Toltecs and Aztecs are wonderful and awe-inspiring, though they are for the most part unexplored, indeed it is possible that only a small proportion of them have been discovered. No one can guess what light they may shed on the history of the human

race.

The crafts of Mexico often show a delightful and harmonious blending of Spanish, Indian, and even Chinese motifs. It should be remembered that the Chinese made cruises to the Eastern coast during the Seventeenth Century and indeed perhaps long before, and their impress may be noted in the pottery and other crafts of today.

6. One of the most significant proofs of Mexico's effort to keep her house in order is the small number of American claims filed at the consulates during the past year. For this effort she needs all the encour

agement possible from us. As a well-known Mexican said the other day: "The United States and Mexico might come to a satisfactory agreement if only their people would make the effort to understand each other. It is an established tradition in America to distrust every Mexican Government. The policy of dealing with Mexico need not always be that of the Big Stick.

"Americans have never understood the Latin character. During the war with Spain when Admiral Cervantes was bottled up in Santiago Bay your Admiral demanded his unconditional surrender. The Spaniard refused, preferring the annihilation of his fleet rather than submit to the peremptory order. To tell a Latin he must, offends him to the quick. Approach him like a gentleman and he will generally meet you more than half way."

Ment., N. '22.

In the Dawn of Human Greatness

Condensed from Collier's Weekly
H. G. Wells

Fresh from the pen of the author of "The Outline of History" comes this swift panorama of recent events, with a sharp warning of dangers ahead, and an inspiring vision of what we can make of our world if we will. Mr. Wells says:

1. Another great war threatens to come in twenty or thirty years.

2. The World War began nothing and settled nothing.

3. "States organized for war will make war as surely as hens will lay eggs."

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4. Woodrow Wilson was great in his dreams and incapable in his performance.

5. There is a growing force for world order and world unity.

6. No patched-up system of conferences will meet the complex needs of the new age.

7. A systematic plan for the future is needed.

8. Man's strength is increasing, but still undisciplined.

9. We can, if we will, more -than realize the boldest imaginings of our race.

This article will appear as the closing chapter of Mr. Wells' new "Short History of the World," which is about to be published.

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much plan or foresight in a dangerous and unsympathetic universe. The crudely organized egotisms and passions of national greed that carried mankind into that tragedy emerged from it sufficiently unimpaired to make some other similar disaster highly probable so soon as the world has a little recovered from its war exhaustion and fatigue.

The Great War lifted the threat of German imperialism from Europe and shattered the imperialism of Russia. It cleared away a number of monarchies. But a multitude of flags still wave in Europe, the frontiers still exasperate, great armies accumulate fresh stores of equipment.

The war had arisen as a natural and inevitable consequence of the competitive nationalisms of Europe and the absence of any federal adjustment of these competitive forces; war is the necessary logical consummation of independent sovereign nationalities living in too small an area with too powerful an armament; and if the Great War had not come in the form it did it would have come in some similar form-just as it will certainly return upon a still more disastrous scale in 20 or 30 years' time if no political unification anticipates and prevents it.

States organized for war will make wars as surely as hens lay eggs, but these war-worn countries disregarded this fact, and the whole of the defeated peoples were treated as morally and materially responsible for all the damage, as they would no doubt have treated the victor peoples had the issue of war been different.

The French and English thought the Germans were to blame, the Germans thought the Russians, French,

and English were to blame, and only an intelligent majority thought that there was anything to blame in the fragmentary political constitution of Europe.

President Wilson exaggerated in his person our common human tragedy; he was SO very great in his dreams and so incapable in his performance. Born prematurely and crippled at its birth, the League of Nations has become, with its elaborate and unpractical constitution and its manifest limitations of power, a serious obstacle in the way of any effective reorganization of international relationships. Yet that worldwide blaze of enthusiasm that first welcomed the project, that readiness of men everywhere round the earthof men, that is, as distinguished from governments for a world control of war, is a thing to be recorded with emphasis in any history.

Behind the shortsighted governments that divide and mismanage human affairs, a real force for world unity and world order exists and grows.

It becomes more and more clearly manifest that a huge work of reconstruction has to be done by mankind if a crescendo of such convulsions and world massacres as that of the Great War is to be averted.

No such hasty improvisation as the League of Nations, no patchedup system of conferences between this group of states and that, which changes nothing with an air of settling everything, will meet the complex political needs of the new age that lies before us. A systematic

development and a systematic application of the sciences of human relationship, of personal and group psychology, of financial and economic science and of education-sciences only still in their infancy-is required. Narrow and obsolete, dead and dying, moral and political ideas have

to be replaced by a clearer and a simpler conception of the common origins and destinies of our kind.

But if the dangers, confusions, and disasters that crowd upon man in these days are enormous beyond any experience of the past, it is because science has brought him such powers as he never had before. And the scientific method of fearless thought, exhaustively lucid statement, and exhaustively criticized planning, which has given him these as yet uncontrollable powers, gives him also the hope of controlling these powers. Man is still only adolescent. His troubles are not the troubles of senility and exhaustion, but of increasing and still undisciplined strength.

When we look at all history as one process, when we see the steadfast upward struggle of life toward vision and control, then we see in their true proportions the hopes and dangers of the present time.

But

As yet we are hardly in the earliest dawn of human greatness. in the beauty of flower and sunset, in the happy and perfect movement of young animals, and in the delight of ten thousand various landscapes, we have some intimations of what life can do for us, and in some few works of plastic and pictorial art, in some great music, in a few noble buildings and happy gardens, we have an intimation of what the human will can do with material possibilities. We have dreams; we have at present undisciplined but ever-increasing power. Can we doubt that presently our race will more than realize our boldest imaginations, that it will achieve unity and peace and live in a world more splendid and lovely than any palace or garden that we know, going on from strength to strength in an ever-widening circle of adventure and achievement?

Coll. W., N. 11, '22.

"I thoroughly appreciate this wonderful publication. It meets the needs of the busy man who hasn't time to read many magazines."-F. A. P., Lansing, Mich.

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