Several times a day models descend the stairs to the platform over the pool for a fashion show--one of the biggest crowd pullers of the entire Exposition. The clothes modeled are all in a low-price range, to substantiate the claim of presenting "average" American life.

A few exhibits, however, fell victime to the charges that they were not typical of everyday America. There was concern lest visitors thought that every American child played with the elaborate modern toys on display. One filmstrip on life in these United States included a housewife flying her plane to the grocery. And people who do not care for modern art protested that the exhibit of contemporary paintings and sculpture was unrepresentative.

The two American exhibits that have attracted most attention are the Unfinished Work and Circarama. Unfinished Work was housed in three small huts behind the main pavilion, an attempt to explain three problems which the United States still needs to solve--the American Negro situation, the crowded city, and vanishing natural resources. The display in photographs and explanatory signs emphasized not the problems themselves but the progress that has been made toward their solution.

In August, however, the Unfinished Work exhibit was removed from the Fair. The official reason given was that the space was needed for additional exhibits on U.S. culture. But it is generally believed that the objections of Southern senators to the publicity on the Negro problem was largely responsible for the removal. Some people praised the removal on the grounds that each country should show off its best features. Others deplored the passing of what they believe an honest portrayal.

The greatest American success has been Circarama. This Walt Disney movie (not cartoons) takes viewers on a 20-minute color tour of the U. S. A., an uninterrupted panoramic scene in a complete circle. The spectators stand inside the circle, look up, and rotate their heads so as not to miss any of the breath-taking trip from the Statue of Liberty to the Golden Gate. Excellent propaganda, even for Americans.

In addition, the United States pavilion is the only one with free toilets.

The national pavilions do remarkably well at reflecting the national characters of various countries. The French pavilion is cluttered and marvelously disorganized--as if France sent one of everything that exists in the country. Britain's exhibit is solemn and stately. The main hall resembles Westiminister Abbey, the lights are subdued. There are no crowds and everyone files through in order. The guards at the door seem borrowed from the Buckingham Palace brigade, but they turn their heads and say a word of greeting to an occasional young girl. The hard-working Dutch were ambitious enough to build a model dike with artificial waves and a farm replete with cows, chickens, pigs, a farmer and his family.

International organizations and private industries also had exhibit halls. The Phillips Electric Company's exhibit of a symphonic poem in sight and sound, which many visitors passed up, portrayed current tensions better than anything else at the Exposition. As spectators gasped, pictures of apes, war, art, men, flashed on the walls in rapid succession, while sounds of music, air-raid sirens, and planes produced a swelling cacophony. It was a tribute to the marvels of electricity, a terrifying artistic expression of uncertainty.

At night the Expo becomes a wonderland. The exhibit pavilions close; the lights go on. Little points of light flicker in the spheres of the Atomium. White illuminated stars line the upper avenues and the fountains play in many colors.

Then the night life begins. At the cafes of "Belgique Joyeuse" the tourists drink and dance in a model old-time Belgian village. The amusement park is a medley of circus barkers and girlish squeals.

Some people feel that having fun is not enough justification for a world's fair. On one ship returning to the States, students hotly debated whether the Expo was "A Waste or Winner."

If it can be agreed that the purpose of a world's fair is to give a still picture of the turning world, then we can discount criticisms that the Fair lacked a unified theme, that there was a spirit of Cold War and not one of cooperation, and even that hot dogs were too expensive. Diversity, Cold War, and inflationary prices typify this year; and if these were evident at the Expo, it is not a short-coming. They merely added their bit in staging the drama, "World, '58.