outlying towns and villages, where Spanish is spoken although illiteracy is high; and later to the Indians, for whom a special series of bilingual instruction cards is being prepared. The final phase of the campaign will consist of a thorough tabulation of results. Penalties will enforce the law, and awards of merit, from gold medals down, will stimulate efforts and achievements beyond what is required. Guatemala's literacy law is even more comprehensive than Mexico's, for while Mexico limits instruction to illiterates between the ages of 7 and 40, Guatemala sets no upper age limit. Both laws place the obligation to do the teaching upon all literate men and women between the ages of 18 and 60 except where special exemptions are made. Changes in Costa Rican school administration Costa Rica's school law was modified this year by several pages of new and amended provisions published in La Gaceta of February 21, 1945. Except for the tightening of compulsory education requirements, most of the more important changes concern the organization of secondary schools. Primary education is compulsory in Costa Rica for children between the ages of 7 or 8 and 14; but until this year parents who did not wish to send their children to public school might send them to any private school at all, or might arrange to have the children taught at home. The 1945 law requires all children of primary school age to attend school. That school must be either a public school or an authorized private school. If more children go to school, more teachers will be needed, and the need will probably be more acute in the less attractive rural districts. The law attacks this difficulty by requiring three years' rural service. of all graduates of the School of Education who have been assisted by state scholarships; locations for the service are to be assigned by the Department of Public Education. Secondary education in Costa Rica will no longer be reserved for the well-to-do. The school law of 1945 provides that matriculation and tuition in the government's secondary schools shall be free to all students whose parents or guardians own no other property than the house in which they live. new Problems of student responsibility have been especially considered in the law. Each secondary school in the national school system is to have a student association of which every student is a member. This student association, through a governing board composed of one representative for each of the six years of the secondary school course, is to deal with matters of student rights and obligations; it will have oversight of school sports and school publications, and arrange for election of a section chairman by the students of each section. The president and vice president of the student association will also be voting members of the teachers' council, which discusses and acts upon questions of school policy; and they will be under the same obligation as the teachers to say nothing about what goes on in the council meetings. Section teachers in charge of personal guidance of students were formerly appointed by the principal. Under the new law these section teachers are to be elected by the students themselves, voting in secret ballot. With the school principal and secretary, and the section chairmen elected by the students, these elected teachers are to constitute a committee charged with fixing the conduct rating which appears on each student's report, and which was formerly fixed by the teachers' council. Conduct marks are expected to give a general estimate of behavior, out of school as well as in. Scholarships for Indian students in Panama Nine Indian students of the San Blas region in Panama were granted scholarships by the Government to enable them to study in the Juan Demóstenes Arosemena Normal School at Santiago de Veraguas. Because of the remoteness of San Blas and the lack of adequate transportation, it had long been difficult to secure teachers for the schools. The Indian head of the region therefore personally appealed to the Government to give the scholarships, in order to train teachers native to the district. The scholarships were made available, under the condition that the recipients on completing their teacher training would follow their profession in their home region. Reorganization of higher education in Haiti Higher education in Haiti was organized on new bases and the University of Haiti reorganized by Decree-Law No. 469, approved December 27, 1944, which coordinated previous legislation on the subject. Briefly summarized, the new decree-law places the University of Haiti under control of the Secretary of State for Public Instruction. Its administration will be in charge of a University Council, composed of the rector, the deans of the various schools, and the directors of affiliated higher education institutes or schools. To assure satisfactory liaison between the University and the Department of Public Instruction, the Secretary of State for Public Instruction will be assisted by an Advisory Council composed of the members of the University Council and the Directors of Urban Instruction, Rural Instruction, and the General Hospital. The rector, deans, and faculty members of the University will be named by the President of the Republic according to procedures prescribed by the decree-law. Titular professors and faculty members of the School of Medicine may at the same time function as chiefs or assistant chiefs of clinics or laboratories of the General Hospital. Higher education will also be offered in private schools and in special schools functioning outside the University but organized by the State or under State auspices (military schools, seminaries, etc.). Schools of this type are placed under the control of the Department of Public Instruction and they must obtain licenses from the Secretary of State for Public Instruction. Provision is made for their affiliation with the University in certain cases. At approximately the time when this reorganization legislation was approved, the Department of Public Instruction announced a competition for plans for a university center. The specifications call for plans for four buildings: a combination dining hall and dormitory, a library, an auditorium with seating capacity for 700 persons, and an administration building. The total cost of the new buildings must be within a range of $60,000 to $80,000, and the Department of Public Instruction asked that in their plans contestants take into consideration the future enlargement of the various buildings, with the exception of the auditorium. First and second prizes of $400 and $200, respectively, were offered for the two best sets of plans. Union catalogue for National Library of Uruguay As a part of the reorganization of the general administration and cataloguing system now in process in the National Library of Uruguay, work is progressing on the establishment of a union catalogue. The National Library itself has approximately 200,000 volumes, while in branch libraries in the interior of the Republic some 150,000 more will be located. A number of years ago branches of the National Library were planned for departmental capitals and several hundred volumes of books were dispatched to various towns. In the majority of places, however, no suitable library locations were available and the books lay untouched in their packing cases. Now the Government, in cooperation with departmental authorities, is taking positive action in the matter and during the year 1945 branch libraries are expected to be opened for use in the following cities of the interior: Canelones, Trinidad, Maldonado, Dolores, Pan de Azúcar, Bella Unión, Aiguá, Rio Branco, Pirarajá, Vergara, Castillos, and Lascano. This prospective scattering of books motivated the National Library's decision to set up the union catalogue of all books available to readers throughout the Republic. Colombian labor law Working hours, paid vacations, and the right to organize in industrial or craft unions are protected by Colombia's labor law, passed by Congress in February 1945. No police powers may be exercised by employers, and they may have no share in the selection or support of local police. All corporal punishment is forbidden. A system of local and regional courts, with provision for appeals to a Supreme Labor Tribunal, is to have jurisdiction in labor disputes; each tribunal is to include representatives of labor, of employers, and of the national govern ment. The standard eight-hour day and 48-hour week become a nine-hour day and 54-hour week in the case of farm workers, and a sixhour day for night work or work injurious to health. The law provides for special dis pensations at harvest time and in time of danger or emergency. Other overtime work is limited to four hours a day. Workers are to be paid for a yearly vacation of two weeks. Domestic workers, as so often happens, are excluded from most of these benefits, but the law does require that they be provided with medical services and that their wages be continued during sickness, with certain time limits; also their necessary burial expenses are to be covered in case of death in service. In consultation with representatives of capital and of labor the government is empowered to set up minimum wage standards, to be adapted to local conditions, living costs, kinds of work, and abilities and output of individual workers. A policy of equal pay for equal work is stated in the following provision: Wage differences for workers doing equiv alent work for the same employer shall be based only on grounds of individual ability, of seniority or experience, of family responsibilities, or of output, and in no case on differences of nationality, sex, age, religion, political opinion, or union activity. Farmers Union in Ecuador A new consumers and producers cooperative called the Unión Campesina (Farmers Union) was recently formed in Riobamba, Province of Chimborazo, Ecuador, which will undertake the effective organization of the agriculture of the province along lines directed toward its progress and the elimination of commercial and political speculation or other obstacles to its desired development. The cooperative will be a strictly non-profit organization, with all of its resources being reinvested in services and loans to members. Everyone in the province engaged in agricultural activities of any kind is eligible to membership. Publications of the Pan American Union, January-June 1945 Books, pamphlets, and leaflets on a variety of subjects are edited by the different offices and divisions of the Pan American Union. They offer useful material to the student and to the teacher in the Pan American field, and make available to interested groups and individuals the technical information developed through various phases of Pan American cooperation. The following Pan American Union publications appeared during the first six months of 1945: COLUMBUS MEMORIAL LIBRARY: Book Stores and Publishers in Latin America, No. 2, Part 3, revised. $0.25. Index to Publications and Articles on Latin America Issued by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1902-1943, prepared by Eugene D. Owen, Ph. D. No. 31 in the Bibliographic Series. $0.25. Selected List of Books (in English) on Latin America, No. 4. $0.25. COUNSELOR'S OFFICE: Handbook for the Use of the Delegates to the Inter-American Conference on Problems of War and Peace-English, Spanish, and Portuguese editions. Inter-American Conference on Problems of War and Peace. Report Submitted to the Governing Board of the Pan American Union by the Director General.-English, Spanish, and Portuguese editions. $.50. Pan American Day Material 1. Pan American Day. 2. The Geographical Unity of the Americas -English, Spanish, and Portuguese editions. 3. The Interdependence of the AmericasEnglish, Spanish*, and Portuguese* editions. 9. Mr. Whimple Meets the Heroes. A play suitable for junior and senior high school groups, based on the names of Latin American heroes selected for Liberty Ships-English*, Spanish, and Portuguese editions. 10. Life of Benito Juárez, by Germaine Baer. A play suitable for high school groups. 11. Our Pan American Heroes. A play for boys suitable for elementary and junior high schools, based on a visit to the Pan American Union in Washington. Adapted from a play by Edna Randolph Worrell. Pan American Day pamphlets are distributed free to teachers or group leaders, but only one copy of each item will be sent to the same address. DIVISION OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATION: Manual de Alimentación del Ganado, by Jorge de Alba, in the Spanish Series on Agriculture. $0.15. Agriculture in Nicaragua, by José M. Zelaya, Minister of Agriculture of Nicaragua, in the English Series on Agriculture. $0.15. Brief History and Progress Report of the InterAmerican Institute of Agricultural Sciences, April 1945. Progress Report of the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences, May 1, 1945. Informe General sobre Cumplimiento de las Resoluciones de la Segunda Conferencia Interamericana de Agricultura, First and Second Parts. $0.25 each. English and Spanish editions of the June 1945 number The International Trade of Colombia, 1940-1944. $0.10. DIVISION OF INTELLECTUAL COOPERATION: Higher Education in Latin America, Volume III, Colombia, by Katherine Lenore Morgan. $0.50. Lectura para Maestros.' No. 17. Leitura para Educadores. No. 10. L'Orientation Professionnelle,' in the French Education Series. La Santé par l'Ecole,' in the French Education Series. Educação para uma Sociedade Livre, No. 83 in the Portuguese Education Series. Latin American Costumes: Bibliographical References, Sources of Costume Dolls, and Illustrations. Revised edition. $0.10. Latin American Literature in English Translation. Mimeographed list. Revised edition. The Exchange of Students between the United States and Latin America. Mimeographed leaflet. Revised. DIVISION OF SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS: American Cities set San José. $0.05. Mexico City. $0.05. EDITORIAL DIVISION: BULLETIN OF THE PAN AMERICAN UNIONEnglish, Spanish, and Portuguese editions, January through June 1945. These editions are not parallel, except for some official matter. JURIDICAL DIVISION: Status of the Pan American Treaties and Conventions, with text in Spanish, English, Portuguese, and French. Revised to January 1, 1945. The Pan American Union and Comparative Law Studies in America. Paper presented at the First Meeting of the Inter-American Academy of Comparative and International Law by Manuel S. Canyes-Spanish and English editions. Principios Fundamentales de Derecho Internacional. Texto de la Convención, de las Declaraciones y del Proyecto que serán tomados en cuenta para la elaboración de la "Declaración de Derechos y Deberes de los Estados" que figurará como anexo al pacto constitutivo destinado a mejorar y fortalecer el Sistema Interamericano. Improvement and Coordination of Inter-American Peace Instruments, Volume IV. Text of the Draft Treaty on the Establishment of an Association of American Nations submitted to the Eighth International Conference of American States. $0.25. MUSIC DIVISION: Music Education in 14 American Republics, by Vanett Lawler, No. 12 in the Music SeriesEnglish and Spanish editions. $0.50. STAMP SECTION: Who's Who on the Postage Stamps of the Dominican Republic, by Albert F. Kunze, No. 8 in the Philatelic Who's Who Series. $0.10. We see by the papers • Early in April 1945 Air Squadron 201 of the Mexican Army left the United States for a Pacific base to participate in the battle against the Japanese. The approximately 300 men comprising the Squadron had been training at United States aviation schools since July 1944. With the departure of this Air Squadron, Mexico became the second Latin American nation to send a force into action in the present war. Brazil sent troops in July 1944 to fight in Italy. • "Brazil," in the words of The New York Times, "has the distinction of being the first country to make a cash payment for materials received under Lend-Lease." The $35,000,000 installment paid in April is the first under a plan which will completely wipe out Brazilian Lend-Lease obligations by about 1952. • In Bogotá, Colombia, the working man's living costs increased 18.7 percent during the year 1944. • A branch railroad line is now operating in Argentina between Pedro Vargas and Ma |