PEACE
A solution has finally been found to the problem of “keeping four gorillas pacified in the Bronx Zoo, according to a June 4 dispatch in the New York Times,
Each winter the four primates are brought inside. "Bored, cranky, out of sorts, their nerves on edge, they took to bickering among themselves."
One of the staff members at the zoo, undoubtedly a humanist endowed with unusual empathy, discovered the solution. He set up a 16-inch television set in front of the bars. When the set was turned on, "the gorillas stared at the tube transfixed."
This was not a temporary effect. The "personalities" of the gorillas changed. "Petulant brawling ceased; so did other symptoms of ennui and frustration -- the pacing, the nervous thumb-twiddling, the yawning and stretching, the constant arguments."
A study of the programs (there are eight television channels in New York) revealed that the gorillas especially appreciated those showing "humanoid forms moving about rapidly." Cowboys, Indians, or just teen-agers doing a dance fascinated the four viewers, TV standards met their level perfectly. a
. It would thus appear that a breakthrough has finally been made on the world's No. 1 problem of reducing the tensions that lead to conflict and war. The question now is to extend the benefits of this scientific discovery to the areas where it will do the most good,
The papers have reported that three television sets are kept in President Johnson's study in the White House, so that the three national chains can be viewed simultaneously in line with American efficiency. Wouldn't it be possible for the staff members to keep at least one of these sets tuned to the kind of programs tested out so favorably in the Bronx?
"THE MOST DISCREDITED PRESIDENT"
"No