RF Annual Report - 1935 - The Rockefeller Foundation

262 THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION
what they hear and see as from what they read.
Museums are developing new techniques of
visual presentation that enable them to render
a new type of public service. Radio reaches a
wide audience that responds to the appeal of
spoken language and of music. In drama, language
combines with visual presentation to exercise
.a continuing hold on public appreciation;
furthermore, participation through acting gives
an experience that the individual can gain only
partially as reader, auditor, or spectator. The
power of the drama is further demonstrated as
the film uses it in reaching a public beyond the
influence of stage plays. These, therefore, are
evidently channels of cultural diffusion that today
have an increasing importance for the mass
of the people in the United States.
For international cultural exchange the film,
the radio, and the stage play are similarly significant;
yet the barrier of language differences
makes oral transmission difficult. Here the advantage
still lies with printed materials, and
consequently facilities for their exchange through
library service have continued importance for
all purposes of international understanding. But
effort must center upon means by which the
handicap of language differences can be lessened.
The common possession of one auxiliary language
would have a very far-reaching effect
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