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are now functioning-63 for boys and 21 for girls. A decree issued during the year made secondary education free throughout the republic.

A total of 3,279 teachers work in 375 primary and 125 secondary private schools.

In April 1946 a new university statute was issued. For details of this statute see BULLETIN, October 1946, p. 597.

An important cooperative educational experiment is being carried on in the Lake Titicaca region by Peru and Bolivia. A group of 75 rural teachers of the two countries is being given a special orientation course at Puno under the direction of Peruvian and North American educators and a number of doctors, agricultural experts, and social workers. These teachers will organize "nucleus-schools" which will serve as models for other schools of the region.

The Government has made a particular effort during the year to develop and improve the system of technical education so as to assure an adequate supply of technically trained workers in agriculture, industry, and commerce, and offset the overcrowding of the professions which it was feared might be caused by the decree making secondary education free. More than 500 teachers attended a summer school offering advanced technical training, and sections for training teachers of technical subjects were opened in many normal and secondary schools throughout the country. A permanent system of scholarships in the United States is to be established for technical teachers showing outstanding promise. Over 8,000,000 soles were appropriated for technical education in 1946-an increase of 126 percent over the 1945 appropriation.

The President expressed public thanks to the Peruvian-United States Cooperative Education Service for its work in educational projects during the year.

The country now has two National Pedagogical Institutes with 325 students; nine urban normal schools with 595 students; and 16 rural normal schools with 946 students. A summer school attended by 900 teachers offered courses in methods, experimental pedagogy, mental hygiene, testing techniques, vocational orientation, art, and decoration.

The Ministry of Public Education Press was established to handle the printing of textbooks, teachers' and children's periodicals, and the distribution of outstanding scientific, literary, and artistic works.

In September 1945 a National Council of Libraries was created to supervise and coordinate the activities of all public libraries. The necessary money was appropriated and borrowed for the completion of the new National Library building, which will replace the one destroyed by fire in 1943. The Library has accumulated 150,000 volumes, including 12,000 contributed by Argentina, 5,000 contributed by Chile, and 20,000 contributed by the United States. A valuable donation was also received from Spain.

In the National School for Librarians, the courses which will end in December 1946 are the first to be entirely in charge of Peruvian instructors. Peru now has 1,174 libraries, including 157 public and 185 semi-public libraries, 738 school libraries, and 94 popular libraries subsidized by the Government.

PUBLIC HEALTH.-The Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance was completely reorganized during the year. The new organization is based on a central technical-administrative office and regional health units in the various departments, provinces, and districts.

Vigorous campaigns to combat tuberculosis, malaria, venereal disease, plague, leprosy, and yellow fever were continued. Doctors and engineers specializing in the

In the

problem of malaria control were sent to the United States, the Panama Canal Zone, and Venezuela for advanced studies. DDT was employed in the fight against disease with considerable success. selva region, where control of the mosquito is impossible, 21,190 people were inoculated against yellow fever, bringing the total of inoculated persons up to 106,000.

The Government is planning an intensive hospital-building program. Blueprints for the first group of hospitals are expected to be completed by December 1946. This group will consist of general hospitals in Arequipa, Trujillo, Ica, Sullana, Tacna, Abancay, and Ayacucho, and tuberculosis sanitariums in Arequipa and Trujillo.

A Mobile Dispensary has been acquired, which will travel the length of the Peruvian section of the Pan American Highway, offering medical and dental services. to communities lacking resident doctors and dentists.—M. G. R.

Argentina now free of dollar debt

In November 1946, Argentina wiped out the remainder of its dollar bond debt by paying off $20,000,000 of 4%1⁄2 percent bonds floated during the depression and not due until 1971. This was the last of a series of redemptions whereby, since August 1946, $130,222,100 of dollar bonds were redeemed before maturity. During this period, too, Argentina bought the International Telephone and Telegraph Company's communication system holdings in the republic for $96,000,000.

On December 1, 1946 the Government announced that it had paid 59.9 million Swiss francs, the balance of the Swiss loan of 1933. The republic's first foreign debt was contracted in 1866, when it borrowed £2,500,000 in the London mar

ket. Today Argentina is still a nominal debtor by reason of external sterling bonds to the amount of £9,200,000 still outstanding; but these are offset by the sterling balances that accumulated to Argentina's credit in London during the war.

Costa Rican election law

To add the strength of definite and explicit regulations to the nation's cherished traditions of democracy, Costa Rica's new election law of January 18, 1946 (La Gaceta, March 27, 1946) replaces the 1927 law as amended in 1936, 1939, and 1941, and prescribes in detail how national and local officers shall be elected. The law covers requirements for the various offices to be filled, and the organization and functioning of the bodies in charge of electionsthe national electoral tribunal, the electoral registry office, the provincial electoral boards, the cantonal electoral boards, and the vote receiving boards which actually conduct the elections. It also sets forth minutely the steps by which votes are to be cast, collected, counted, recounted, and announced.

Only men may vote in Costa Rica. They must be 20 years old, unless they are married or engaged in teaching, in which case the minimum age is 18. They lose their right to vote if they have gone into bankruptcy, have been judged to be mentally incompetent, or have been legally deprived of political rights. Men who fulfill all requirements are not merely permitted to vote; since 1936 they have been obliged to do so. Any qualified voter who fails to cast his vote and is not provided with a legitimate excuse is subject to penalty. If he is ill, or more than 70 years old, if he lives more than 6 miles from the nearest polling place, or if through no negligence of his own his name has been omitted from the registration lists, he is excused; otherwise

he is fined 10 colones (exchange value of the colon is just under 18 cents).

Election day in Costa Rica is the second Sunday in February. On that day no liquor may be sold. Polls are open from 6 a. m. to 4 p. m., and everyone is entitled to one hour's absence from work, without penalty or charge of any kind, so that he will have time to vote. During election hours private citizens who wish to report any irregularity in the conduct of elections may do so by telegraph and without charge.

The voter brings with him his cédula, or personal identification card, which must correspond with data opposite his name on the registration list. He is given two ballots, one for the national offices to be filled, the other for the local offices. On both ballots the names of the candidates are arranged in columns by parties, marked with the party colors; and if the election is a presidential election each party's column carries a picture of its candidate for president. Instead of marking his ballot in pencil the voter inks the thumb of his right hand, takes his two ballots into the voting booth, and marks his thumb print in his party's column. He is allowed just one minute for this operation; at the end of his minute he is called out, and if his ballots have not been marked he must not put them into the ballot box.

All voting is to be done through duly organized political parties. Only parties which have been properly registered with the electoral registry office set up in this law may take part in elections. Only through these parties, which are all supplied with sample ballots for the purpose, is the voting procedure explained to the

voters.

However, the electoral registry office may not accept or reject parties at will. It must accept every organized group of

25 or more voters which presents at the proper time and place a duly notarized copy of its platform, bylaws, and so forth, with evidence that its membership constitutes 2 percent of the electorate. Party registrations must be completely renewed every four years, and any national or local party which fails to poll 2 percent of the national or local electorate must begin a new registration if it wishes to take part in the next election.

All parties must nominate and register their candidates according to procedure prescribed in this law. They may have meetings at any time, but no parades or demonstrations may be held during the week before election day, or earlier than the first day of the December preceding the election. No party meeting may be held within 220 yards of a meeting of a different party. Radio facilities must be fairly apportioned among all the parties, and speakers must confine themselves to a script which has been submitted to the broadcasting authorities.

Dream city coming true in Brazil1

On a rugged and picturesque plateau twenty miles from Rio de Janeiro, ground is being broken for a new industrial city to be known as the Cidade dos Motores (City of Motors). Under the sponsorship of the Brazilian Government and the Chief of the Brazilian Airplane Factory Commission, the best efforts of some of Brazil's top-flight town planners and architects have gone into the blueprints for this city, which is designed to demonstrate a harmony of industrial efficiency with high living and welfare standards.

The city is planned in four closely coordinated neighborhood units, in such a way as to make traffic simple and keep

Information from "Progressive Architecture," September 1946.

walking distance to the civic center down to an average of under a quarter of a mile. There are peripheral roads giving automobiles access to the neighborhoods, but within the units all traffic is by foot, under covered passageways, which protect from the tropical sun.

In each neighborhood there are several types of group housing, as well as community buildings, schools, playgrounds, dispensaries, shops, and restaurants. Some individual houses will be built around the outskirts of the city.

The group housing units will include three-story apartment buildings, eightstory apartment buildings, and dormitories for bachelors. The apartment buildings, all only one apartment deep, will have a maximum variety of floor plans. Where corridors line outside walls, the walls will consist of rows of foot-deep boxes with eight-inch square openings, which give open light passageways and protect against excessive sun and driving rain. Outside living room walls will consist of a large pivoting counterweighted panel which, opened all the way in an above-head position, will serve as an awning. The bachelor dormitories will be lined front and back by cantilevered corridor-balconies.

Neighborhood centers will include nurseries, kindergartens, an elementary school, a dispensary, and a community club, as well as play areas and swimming pools. Around the center will be the stores, laundries, and repair shops. In both the kindergartens and the elementary schools each classroom will have wall sections opening onto its individual patio.

The city's civic center is designed around a town square or praça and a promenade or passeio. The administration, amusement, and commercial section is built around the town square and along the promenade. Nearby is the cultural

center with its exhibition halls, library, technical school, and sports area.

The industrial zone has been planned to achieve the same architectural unity as the other sections of the city. It contains a cafeteria designed to seat 650 factory workers.

The population density is about 100 persons to an acre- a figure arrived at after consideration of climatic conditions, walking distances, and maintenance problems. The basis for the whole plan has been accessibility and usability for the individual.

In the words of the planners themselves, this town plan “aims as far as any such plan can at creating a physical and spiritual background against which the modern Brazilian way of life may be carried on, with ever greater health, happiness, and efficiency."

Central Bank in the Dominican
Republic

In October 1946 a law was passed by both houses of Congress of the Dominican Republic calling for the election of a Constituent Assembly to revise two articles of the Constitution in such way as to permit the establishment of a Central Bank and the creation of a Dominican currency system. The President's message to Congress proposing that important step stressed the country's financial history since the beginning of independence in 1844 and quoted figures to prove that the nation. today is in the most flourishing economic situation and enjoys the most solid financial condition in all its history. Consequently, the President stated, now is the time to undertake a reform of the monetary system and banking methods, to insure continued economic prosperity in the future.

The message pointed out that the total

circulation of United States banknotes in the Republic on July 30, 1946, was conservatively estimated at $19,047,000. In addition to this, the banks of the country had dollar balances of $29,168,000 in New York on the same date. This represents a total dollar credit of $48,215,000, nearly five times the total of the republic's foreign debt. The message proposed, therefore, to use these dollar credits as the reserve fund with which to set up a Central Bank of issue; to issue Dominican currency worth one hundred American cents to the dollar; to retire United States currency from circulation gradually until it disappears; and to repatriate the outstanding balance of the foreign debt.

Generally speaking, the creation of a Central Bank will not only permit the institution of a sound organic monetary system within the republic but will also enable the country to take part in the organizations designed for international financial and monetary collaboration.

Members of the Assembly to act on the proposed amendments were scheduled to be elected sixty days after promulgation of the above-mentioned law, and to start their work some three weeks after the election.

Agricultural evolution of the State of São Paulo

The penetration of the railroads into the wilds of the western part of the State of São Paulo in the early years of the 20th century, and the exploration work carried on there by the State's Geographic and Geological Commission brought about a large-scale migration into that region and an agricultural boom unprecedented in the history of Brazil.

In the second and third decades of the century land values in the area increased

at a fantastic rate-in some cases 30 times

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In 1933-34, 8,409,387 acres were cultivated; in 1937-38, 9,217,130 acres; and in 1939-40, 9,702,167 acres. The sponding progress in stockraising may be seen in the increase in lands used for pastures and fields. Such lands totaled 8,766,381 acres in 1905, 12,458,050 acres in 1930-31, and 14,781,526 acres in 193940.

The number of landowners rose from 56,981 in 1904-05 to 274,740 in 1933-34, then began dropping until in 1939-40 it was 170,462. The decrease since 1933-34 is due to the fact that medium-sized and large fazendas have flourished at the expense of small farms.

Restoration of cryptostegia land in Haiti

"In August 1946 the cooperative food production program in Haiti completed its second year of operation. Established in August 1944 by the Governments of Haiti and the United States under the direction of the late Hubert R. Bailey, the program had as its immediate aim the restoration of 60,000 acres of abandoned cryptostegia land to the production of food crops," reports the Food Supply Division of the Institute of Inter-American Affairs.

"When all the Allies' Eastern Hemisphere sources of vitally needed rubber passed under enemy control during the war,

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