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UNESCO, February 1948

Author(s): Charles Seeger


Source: Notes, Second Series, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Mar., 1948), pp. 165-168
Published by: Music Library Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/891431
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UNESCO, FEBRUARY 1948
by
CHARLES SEEGER
"Since wars
begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men
that
the defenses of
peace
must be constructed."-Preamble to
Constitution
of United Nations
Education,
Scientific and Cultural
Organization.
When the United Nations
Organization
was set
up
in San
Francisco,
provision
was made for a number of
dependent agencies. Upon
the
high-
est level were the General
Assembly,
the International Court of Justice
and
the
Security
Council.
Upon
a second level were the
Secretariat,
the
Trus-
teeship
Council and the Economic and Social Council.
Dependent upon
the
last
mentioned,
though
with no
definitely
established
relationship,
were a
number of
special agencies
having
to do with Human
Rights, Health,
Food
and
Agriculture, Labor, Statistics, Finance, etc.,
and a United Nations
Educational,
Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO).
There was
general agreement
that such a
body
should be authorized. But the name
(which
had
quite
a bit to do with the function and was
suggested by
the
British
Delegation) gave pause upon
two
grounds. First, considerable
doubt existed as to inclusion of the word "education" in the title.
United
States
Delegate Vandenberg, among others,
feared it smacked too
much
of
propaganda.
United States educators
relayed
the news back home
and
such a flood of
telegrams
came in that the
Delegation yielded.
A second
trouble was what to call the "and-so-forth"
interests,
not
strictly
scientific
or
educational,
that were
involved-libraries, museums,
fine
arts, letters,
humanities, theatre, dance, folklore, radio, cinema,
press.
The blanket
term "cultural" was
adopted, following practice
in most
foreign
offices
and
many
other
organs
of
governments,
and on November
16, 1945,
repre-
sentatives of 43 of the 55 Member States of United Nations
signed
in
London the Final Act of the Conference for the establishment of UNESCO.
By September 1,
1947 there were 32
members,
among
them the United
States.
Unofficially,
it was said on
February 1, 1948,
41 nations had
joined.
From the
beginning,
the
promise
of a union of intellectual rationale and
political
common-sense that
gave
birth to the
Organization
has
proven
an
inspiration
to all who have worked in UNESCO or watched its
growing
pains.
The difficulties of
making
the union work in
day-to-day practice
have
proven
enormous. Some of
them,
uppermost
in the minds of those
most
concerned with the
program,
have been the
supposition
that
peace
can be taken
by storm,
the
spreading
of too little over too much and the
pressure
of
special
interests. These are
largely political
difficulties. But
there are technical
difficulties;
not so
easily
identified. So
rapid
has been
the
development
of
intellectual
progress
in modern times that a
lag
of
portentous
size has
grown
between it and the
progress
of
political
thinking
and action. The naivete of the
intellectual in
minimizing
this
lag
is as
165
full of
danger
to UNESCO as is the
ignorance
of the
average politician
or
"man-in-the-street" in
magnifying
it.
The Conference in London wrote a
magnificent
Preamble to a
very
practical
Constitution' and set
up
a
Preparatory
Commission to function
ad interim to
plan
for the First General Conference in
Paris,
November to
December, 1946,
while
acceptance by
the minimum 20
governments
re-
quired
to make it a
going
concern should be received.
The
organs
of UNESCO are:
(1)
the General
Conference, (2)
Execu-
tive
Board,
and
(3)
Secretariat.
Membership
is limited to members of
United Nations in
good standing,
but
may
be
open
to non-members of
that
body
elected
by
a two-thirds
majority
vote of the General Conference.
Each Member State has one vote in the General Conference which meets
once a
year.
Each
year
it elects a President of the Conference for that
year
and six new members of the Executive Board to
three-year
terms. The
Executive Board elects the Director-General of the Secretariat. Each Mem-
ber State is
urged,
but not
required,
to form a "national
cooperating body"
or commission to secure mass
participation
of citizens within the Member
State.
Six,
among
them the United
States,
had done this
by September
1,
1947. The
Secretary
of the U. S. National Commission is Charles A.
Thomson of the
Department
of
State,
Washington,
D. C.
Representation
of music
upon
the Commission is
by
the National Music
Council, through
its
President,
Howard Hanson. There are several
representatives
for
Library
and
Education,
through
whose fields music is well served. The
American
Library
Association is
represented by Ralph
A.
Ulveling,
the
National Education Association
by
William G. Carr and the American
Council on Education
by George
F. Zook.
Musicology
has a friend in
Waldo G. Leland of the American Council of Learned Societies.
Relations with United Nations are
provided
for under Articles 57 and 63
of the Charter of the United
Nations,
and
legal
status in Articles 104-105
of that document.2 UNESCO
may
enter into relations with other inter-
national
organizations.
But national
organizations
are
supposed
to deal
with UNESCO
through
their
respective
Governments.
The
Constitution,
we have
said,
looks
good
and seems to work
smoothly.
After considerable
shifting
around,
which was to be
expected
in
any
new
agency,
there seem to have
developed
six main
headings
under which
activity
is carried on:
(1) Reconstruction, (2) Communications, (3)
Education, (4)
Cultural
interchange,
(5) Human and Social Sciences,
(6)
Natural Sciences.
Administratively,
there are besides the offices of the
Director-General,
Deputy
Director-General and Assistant Director-General,
three bureaus
(Budget, Comptroller
and
Personnel)
and 15 Sections.
Music falls under the Section of Arts and Letters and is
budgeted
under
(4)
Cultural
Interchange. Musicology
falls into the Section of
Philosophy
The Defenses of Peace.
Washington,
U. S.
Department of
State,
Pub. No. 2457,
Part I,
p. 13-22.

Charter of the United Nations.
Washington, Department of State,
Pub. No. 2363.
166
and Humanities. Music Education will be taken care of
by
the Arts
and
Letters Section in
cooperation
with the Section of Education in a
project
calling
for three consultants and a
meeting
of
experts.
A sum of
$8,750
is allocated for that
purpose.
Music
Library might
claim to be divided
between the
Library
Section and that of Arts and Letters. But in this
latter there is a
project
"in collaboration with
experts
and institutions
concerned with
music,
to
prepare
a
catalog
of world
music,
listing
music
which is
already
available in recorded form and music which should
be
recorded to
supplement existing materials;
provided
that the Director-
General should seek
sponsors
to bear the cost of
publication,
which should
not be borne
by
UNESCO." A sum of
approximately $8,000
was allocated
to this
project.
Musicians,
music librarians and music administrators will be interested
in several dozen
projects
listed under Mass Communication
(headings
of
Audio-visual aids and
Telecommunication),
but more
particularly
under
Libraries,
where there are 15
projects involving preparation
and
guidance
of
librarians,
a
multilingual dictionary
of
librarianship,
creation of
union
catalogs,
standardization of
classificatory systems, bibliography,
archive
development,
etc. Music and books about music
might
be concerned in
the
general
sections
Books, Publications, Journals,
and
Copyright.
An im-
portant
liaison for music
activity
is found in the
project
"Fundamental
Education" in which a
regional
conference has
already
been announced
by
the Pan American Union in
cooperation
with UNESCO. Others are in
Reconstruction,
Exchange
of
Persons,
and Education in International Un-
derstanding.
Luiz Heitor Correa de
Azevedo,
distinguished
Brazilian music historian
and
folklorist,
who will be in
charge
of Music Affairs in the Section of
Arts and Letters
during
1948
(with
one
assistant),
will have his hands full.
Perhaps
the action most
significant
to musicians was the
resolution,
adopted
in Mexico
upon
motion of Helen White of the United States Dele-
gation, instructing
the
Director-General "to make
preliminary enquiries
for the establishment of an International Music Institute and
prepare pro-
posals
for
furthering
such a
project
for submission to the Third Session
of the Conference in 1948." A
large
number of such
institutes,
councils
and commissions
already
exist in
special fields,
among
them an Interna-
tional Theatre
Institute,
an International Commission on Folk Arts and
Folklore,
an International Federation of
Library Associations,
an Interna-
tional Commission of
Museums,
etc. There is no reason to believe that a
music institute or council cannot take its
place among
them.
The
picture, then,
of UNESCO-an
inter-government
agency, dealing
only
with
governments
and other international
organizations-surrounded
by
a
planetary family
of autonomous
specialized organizations
with which
it can
deal,
but which are controlled and directed
by private initiative,
makes considerable sense. UNESCO has sufficient funds to aid
many
of
167
them in
getting
born and to nurse them
through infancy,
and so can do
much to
integrate
the whole
group.
Such a
set-up
would mean that indi-
viduals and
organizations
in
any country
would have two channels
in
which to throw their efforts toward international
cooperation-one
indi-
rect,
through
their own
government,
another
direct,
through
the interna-
tional institute of their field.
Two words of caution should be
given
to
people
with such
intentions.
First,
in
working
via
government
or
intergovernment, patience, ingenuity
and,
especially,
watchfulness
along
the
"production
line" are
necessary
if concrete results are
expected.
In the United States the
steps
seem to
be,
roughly,
as follows:
1.
proposal
to the
Secretary
or to a Member of the U. S. National
Commission;
2.
proposal
and
adoption
in section
meeting
of
Commission;
3.
placing
on
agenda
of General
Meeting
of
Commission;
4.
support upon
the floor of the General
Meeting
of
Commission;
5. inclusion
by drafting
committee of
Commission;
6.
approval by Department
of
State;
7.
forwarding
to U. S.
Delegation
to General Conference of
UNESCO;
8.
presentation
at General Conference and
assignment
to
committee;
9.
support
in
committee;
10.
support
in
programme committee;
11.
support
in
budget committee;
12.
support by
Director-General in actual
operation
of
Secretariat;
13.
support by
office or offices concerned in Secretariat.
A
project
can be
completely
transformed or lost at
any step
of the
pro-
cedure
and, so,
needs
chaperonage every
inch of the
way.
It is
possible
to cut
red-tape--that is,
to short-cut official
procedures.
There are a
myriad ways
of
doing
this. And it is done
daily
in all deliberative and
executive offices. But it takes know-how.
The second word of caution is of more basic concern. It is: to remem-
ber
always
that the three
jewels
in the crown of
UNESCO-education,
science and "culture"
(which
is to
say,
the arts and the
humanities)-
are not
only hopes
for
peace. They
are
equally
essentials for war. No
nation backward in
any
one of the three can
hope
to
fight
a modern war-
much
less,
to win it. There is much talk
nowadays
of the beneficent ef-
fects of
interchange
of
products
and
producers
in these fields of human
endeavour.
Interchange
is
supposed
to induce international
understanding.
And international
understanding
to induce
peace. Nothing
could be more
false! The worst wars in modern times (it cannot be said too
often)
have
been
fought
between nations that have been
"interchanging"
and "under-
standing"
for centuries. And civil
wars,
where there has been no need
for either because
education,
science and culture have been held in com-
mon,
have been
just
as bad. If the words are
anything
but sematic illu-
sions,
it is UNESCO's task first to show how
education, science,
the arts
and the humanities can be used
specifically
for
peace
and
against
war.
Then,
to
go
ahead and use
them-specifically.
All men of
good
will must wish them luck.
168

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