Sixty-Ninth Year
EDiTED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
"We're Cleverly Fooling the Russians by Acting
As If Our Country Were Bankrupt"
REALLY RISING TIDE?
Statistics Stump
Church Leaders
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HUM1PHREY(
)NESDAY, MARCH 18, 1959
NIGHT EDITOR: PETER DAWSON
C Isolating the 'Elite'
Carries Competition Too Far
CURRENT efforts by Prof. Joseph Maddy to
set up a boarding school for gifted children
at Interlochen deserve praise. Such an educa-
tion could provide the "poetic leadership"
needed in the cultural race, and without the
cultural race.r
Students with so-called "superior" talents
musically and academically do deserve oppor-
t tunity to develop them. The National Arts
Academy will amply provide these.
Bt in looking over this project, as well as
any extended plans for educating the "gifted,"
reservations aritse.
What might be termed an educational "iso-
lationism" creeps into the picture. In bring-
ing together talented students "to inspire each
other," as Prof. Maddy puts it, such a project
also takes them from their natural environ-
ment. The trend is clear - special high-grade
public schools are already being set up in
many cities with the same intent.
FINE, educate the elite to perform its elitest
duties. Nevertheless, the "gifted" must
eventually do more than that. If they are
educated to lead, they must have some con-
ception of the people they are to lead. It will .
be more than difficult for them to deal with
people they have neser known, and thus do
not know how to handle.
A second reservation comes to mind. Prof.
Maddy notes that competition, "after all, the
American way of life," will be stressed at the
academy.
Practically, it is well to recognize competitive
spirit as motivation. However, if it is to be
used, its place should be evaluated.
IN THE "American way of life," people com-
pete for cars, compete in children, and com-
pete in armaments and orchestras. Not all the
effects of competition are bad; it is an incen-
tive toward a more comfortable and higher
standard of living, and to greater intellectual
achievement. f
Unfortunately, when competition can set na-
tion against nation, it should not be stressed
as a means to any end. The ultimate consum-
mation of current international competition
is, after all, total destruction.
In attempting to give each segment of the
population.what is "due" it educationally, edu-
cators must not forge one of the desires of a
democratic state: to be led well to its ideals.
-NAN 'MARKEL
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By GEORGE W. CORNELL
Associated Press Religion Writer
CHURCHES today have a dizzy-
ing problem in arithmetic.
They're stumped, in a sense, by
statistics. As widely assessed by
authorities, the figures on current
religious activity can be used to
show contrasting conditions-
either liveliness or lull-and often
are.
"It's a wide-open field for in-
terpretation," said Dr. Benson Y.
Landis, a longtime, top church
statistician.6
"The great difficulty is that
many of the figures not only are
crude estimates, but they don't
cover nearly all the ground that
they should."
Latest contribution to the ques-
tion is that of University of Cali-
fornia sociologist Seymour M. Lip-
set, who presents data to show the
much-heralded church boom in
t'is country is mostly a myth.
"The idea of a major post-war
growth in religious practice is not
well-founded," he writes in Forum,
a Columbia University quarterly.
And he presents an array of com-
putations to back up his thesis.
Other analysts have drawn simi-
lar conclusions before. Dr. Win-
throp S. Hudson, Professor of
Church History at Colgate-Roches-
ter Divinity School, says the pur-
ported religious revival is "largely
an illusion."
"We have been fooling ourselves
with our own brand of the 'num-
bers game," he wrote in the weekly
Christian Century.
On the other hand, editors of
Presbyterian Life not long ago
rounded up a set of figures to show
that church affiliation in America
is far greater than usually counted
-about 130 million rather than
104 million.
That's about three-fourths of
the population instead of two-
thirds.
OFFICIAL tallies listed by vari-
ous churches show a strongly ris-
ing graph, particularly in post-
war years. But Dr. Landis, editor
of the Yearbook of American
Churches, points out various dis-
parities, including:
1) Of 268 religious bodies, per-
haps only half of them compile
new tabulations annually, with
some figures long out of date.
2) Denominations have incon-
sistent definitions of membership,
with Roman Catholics and some
Protestant bodies counting all bap-
tized persons, including infants.
Most Protestant groups count only,
adults.
(It was by including Protestant
children that Presbyterian Life ar-
rived at its higher Protestant fig-
ures-about 86 million instead of
the 60 million generally given. A
1957 census bureau sampling got
similar results.)
3) No uniform policies exist for
removing deadwood from local
church rolls. Examples were cited
of congregations with a fourth of
their membership listed with ad-
dresses unknown. Many are prob-
ably also counted in congregations
elsewhere.
"We may be getting to a place
where duplication of membership
is more than negligible," Dr. Lan-
dis said.
The Rev. Joseph H. F'ichter, a
leading Roman Catholic sociolo-
gist of Loyola University of the
south, New Orleans, says studies
indicate about "one third ofall
baptized Catholics become dor-
mant"-fallen away.
DR. LIPSET also cited numerous
studies challenging the usual pic-
ture of a rising religious tide, in-
cluding these findings
1) Lessened religious activity by
American businessmen, with 63 per
cent having church preferences in
1920, and only 41 per cent in 1950.
2) Lack of proportional expan-
sion of the clergy, with 1.12 minis-
ters available to each 1,000 popu-
lation in 1950, less than the 1.16
available a century ago.
3) In 18 Protestant churches,
studies show donations in relation
to income in 1953 were lower than
in 1929-about the same level as
late in the depression.
4) Some churches which for-
merly didn't count children under
13 as members now do so, thus
inflating comparative totals.
Studies show adult membership at
55 per cent of population in 1906;
51 per cent in 1940; 64 per cent in
1950.
5) As for church-goin, polls
indicate weekly attendance by 41
per cent of the population in 1939;
39 per cent in 1950; 47 per cent in
1957.
"No basic trend exists," Lipset
said. "By far the most striking'as-
pect of religious life in America is
not the changes which have oc-
curred in it-but the basic conti-
nuities it retains."
DAMLY
OFFICIAL
BUlETIN
The Daily 'Official Bulletin is an
official publigation of The Univer-
sity of Michigan for which The
Michigan Daily assumes no edi-
torial responsibility. Notices should
be sent in TYPEWRITTEN form to
Room 3519 Administration Build-
ing, before 2 p.m. the day preceding
publication. Notices for Sunday
Daily due at 2:00 p.m. Friday.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 1959
VOL. LXIX, NO. 20
General Notices
Women students who have not com-
pleted the physical education require.
ment will register for the spring sea-
son wed., March 18, 6:00 to 9:30 p.m.
and Thurs., March 19, 8:00 to 12:00 a.m.
main floor, Barbour Gymnasium. Elec-
tive students register March 23 through
25, 8:00 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
International Student and Family
Exchange: Rms. 103 and 528 (basement)
Student Activities Bldg. Wed., 7 :30- :00
p.m.; Thurs., 10:00-11:30 a.m. Have
men's overcoats and sweaters, women's
warm clothing, maternityoutfits and
infants equipment and clothing and
children's clothing.
If persons have clothing or nursery
furniture, call Mrs. Trombka, NO
5-6662.
Film, Space Technology, sponsored by
sBendix Corp. and the College ofrEngi-
neering, Wed., March 18, in Aud. A,
Angell Hail.
(Continued on Page 5)
$
.4
A
Red, White and Blue-But Mostly Blue,
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Girls Call for Rush Referendum
THE BLUENOSES showed themselves again
last week.
The school board of Levittown, Pa., a )com-
muter's community, decided that Woodrow
Wilson would be a better name for its new high
school than the previously announced J. Rob-
ert Oppenheimer.
The decision followed the hue and cry raised
by the American Legion and the Veterans of
Foreign Wars after the board had decided to
name the new building after the famed atomic_
scientist.
The error of refusing Dr. Oppenheimer se-
curity clearance in 1954 because of alleged
Communist associations in his youth has re-
turned again to haunt thinking Americans.
It is a saddening observation that the so-
called patriotic organizations with fine, up-
standing, high-sounding names so continually
persist in "secondary persecution." Instead of
being the havens of American freedoms, they
seem delighted to find examples of possible
defections and pointing the finger at them.
TE PURITANICAL attitude and McCarthy
type atmosphere haven't died out yet and ap-
parently these remnants from the Inquisition.
will remain for sometime.
But thg most disheartening thing of all is
the decision of the school board. They yielded
to pressure from the so-called America-firsters
and in the process did both their country and
their community harm. The decision also
further illustrates the power that these "pa-
triotic" organizations wield with their influ-
ence.
Some hope can be drawn, however, from the
choice of Wilson's name. Wilson had trouble
winning acceptance for many of his policies,
including the League of Nations, and was bit-
terly attacked during the latter part of his ad-
ministration. Perhaps Oppenheimer will have
schools named after him too . . . after he's
dead and the country wakes up to the stupidity
of its present attitude.
-RALPH LANGER
______- --','-.-.-~ "a"...~ ~ -. ___ ___
JUST INQUIRING
. by Michael Kraft
The Immediate Step
WITH MORE THAN a little pride, man ap-
plies titles to the various periods in his
history. For through the centuries he has
slowly, if not steadily climbed from the Stone
Age through the Iron Age and into the Indus-
trial Age.
But the pride in today's label - Nuclear Age
-has evaporated in the heat of bitter words
and angry gestures of' apparently determined
men.
Of past epochs, it could be said that cer-
tarn factors, influences, pressures and even
philosophies underlay men's action. Today, the
pressures are from above, taking the shape of
mushroom clouds brimming with a deadly rain.
Reactions to the nuclear shadow' flows
through many channels taking shape in beat-
nik hopelessness, or an almost militant paci-
fism as men withdraw from even thinking,
about the world's mess or run scared to block
reckless hands from pushing the plunger.
NORMAN COUSINS, editor of the Saturday
Review, Friday night took his place in the
front ranks of the restrainers, as he advocated
a world government to put restraints on "wea-
pons much too powerful for imperfect men to
operate."
The fears of Cousins and his "powerful idea"
of world unity and harmony threw on" Hill
Auditorium's bare stage the black silhouettes
of shifting complex problems that are neither
solid nor firmly outlined.
Cousins' approach may not be valid in the
realities of the cold war. But his concern cer-
tainly is, for the backdrop of his speech was
not merely the organ pipes at the back of
the stage.
THE BERLIN CRISIS has brought fingers
closer to the trigger than any time since
the Korean "Police Action" and cries of "bomb
the China mainland."
Last week, with probably more than a glance
at NATO's thin battle lines, President Eisen-
hower ruled out a ground war in Europe.
Editorial Staff
RICHARD TAUB, Editor
"MrILMKRAJOHN WBrCH~ER
His firm willingness to use nuclear weapons,
if necessary, provided a sharp contrast to
Cousins' statement that "we should come be-
fore the United Nations and say we'd rather
die than drop the bomb on others."
Yet, Cousins also firmly declares he is
against peace at any price.
However, should the United States actually
make such an announcement, and should Rus-
sian tanks roll into West Berlin, when does
the cash register stop ringing?
This, besides revealing the dilemma of those
who sincerely hate war and yet dislike Russian
domination, pinpoints one of the most danger-
ous aspects of a crisis set in a dangerous en-
vironment. Each side. broadcasts its determin-
ation to remain firm and assumes the other
side does not mean what it says. Each side as-
sumes the other is smarter and unwilling to
unleash its planes or missiles.
UNFORTUNATELY, it's big talk with a big
stick. Cousins hopes to prevent the swing
towards annihilation. Monday night the Presi-
dent summed up the philosophy the West has
adopted since Munich. "War would become
much more likely if we gave way and encour-
aged a rule of terrorism rather than a rule of
law and order. Indeed, this is the peace policy
which we are striving to carry out throughout
the world."
It is curiously unfortunate how even the
United States must find itself willing to use the
most horrible of all means to accomplish the
most worthwhile of ends.
Other optimists have already said that per-
haps the curse of the Nuclear Age will become
its blessing . . . that its deadliness will keep
men peaceful.
BUT THE DANGER lies in forgetting its
power and that in one crisis or another,
one side or the other will find itself unwilling
to relax its threatening posture of firmness.
Cousins contends that Berlin is such a case for
the Russians, that they can no longer afford to
watch East Germans stream to freedom. Red
attempts to slam the gate have resulted in too
many leaders having to take too many plat-
forms in attempts to convince their peoples
that the price demanded by the other side is
unbearable.
It may be, but so are the consequences of
doing something about it .. . militarily.
To the Editor:
LAST WEEK a vote taken in
Student Government Council
defeated fall sorority rushing. SGC
has protested all year that the
Administration is deciding issues
which should be decided by the
students. Now it appears that SGC
has made the same mistake. Of
the people voting at Wednesday's
meeting, thirteen of seventeen
were men, who will not be affected
by women's rush no matter what
season it is held. Mary Tower spoke
for what she thugh best for
sororities; Pat Mrthenke spoke
for what she thought best for
independents. Yet no one asked
the opinion of the people who will
be directly affected by the decision
-all the women on campus. How
can SGC decide what is best for
all women on campus without
knowing what the women's opin-
ions are?
The SGC decision was based, in
part, on the Assembly vote pre-
sented at Women's Senate. SGC
believed this reflected the opinion
of the people involved. However,
the "representatives" who sup-
posedly expressed the wishes of the
unafriliated women at the Wom-
en's Senate meeting were not
elected by the women whose views
they were expressing. Furthermore,
no vote was taken in many of the
dormitories on this issue, even
though it affects the women indi-
vidually and not as members of a
residence hall.
The vote which SGC used as a
guide in making the decision on
fall rush was the opinion of a few
individuals who spoke for women
who had not elected them and who
had been given no chance to tell
these "representatives" what they
wanted.
We protest having been given
no voice in making a decision
which affects us diectly and indi-
vidually. We call for a referendum
on the issue of fall rush.
-Robyn McMillin, 62
-Sandra Gentry, 62
(EDITOR'S NOTE: The above letter
was signed by 88 additional Markley
residents.)
Confusion * *.
To the Editor:
THERE sems to be a good deal
of confusion both in The Daily
and among the student body as to
the meaning of the council's deci-
sion on sorority rushing and as to
the motives behind the abstention
of Roger Seasonwein from, that
decision. The issue in the minds of
those of us who oppose the Pan-
Hellenic motion concerned the
effects of rushing on first semester
freshmen. It was our feeling that
as rushing is now conducted, it is
an unduly disturbing influence on
the first semester freshman's ad-
justment to, and appreciation of,
the educational and intellectual
character of the University com-
munity. The vote of the council
was not an attempt to limit or
interfere with the sorority system;
It was a recognition that organi-
zational goals must be secondary
to the goals of the University as a
whole.
I had planned to introduce a
substitute motion to the effect that
belief that until a rush system was
worked out as part of an inte-
grated freshman orientation pro-
grai, the spring calendaring had
and should be retained.
This thinking can be clarified by
reproducing several of the notes
exchanged between Seasonwein
and myself. Early in the debate
Roger 'asked me, "Al, are you going
to substitute? All this about sorori-
ty preference and emotional ad-
justment side-steps the real issue."
My response, "Rog, there'd be
chaos; the campus wants action."
Later, after some very succinct re-
marks by Kessel, Roger wrote, "Al,
will you second an amendment to
Hower's motion, 'that SGC recom-
mends that Pan-Hel and Assembly
jointly initiate a program for both
pledged and non-pledged designed
to minimize the disreputive effects
of fall rush and facilitate the
freshman's transition from a high
school conception of education to
an appreciation of her role in a
University community.' We have
to salvage something out of all
this."
"Rog, we have to salvage some-
thing, but fall rush now is not the
way to do it. Keep spring rush for
a while and deal with the total
problem of 'orientation' as a total
problem. Then, if you change, you
know what you're doing" As the
debate drew to a close, the follow-
ing exchange: "Roger, you're the
vote, the question is doing some-
thing of uncertain value that can't
be easily undone, or doing nothing-
now, so that there is at least a
chance of doing something of real
value in the future." Roger's reply,
"Al, no, all I could do' is make a
tie, so far in this debate I've lis-
tened, wait 'til you hear me speak."
But Seasonwein didn't get a
chance to speak. Under the press
of the hour the question was
moved, debate was closed, and the
vote taken. Seasonwein abstained
and Goldman broke the tie. And
again before he had the oppor-
tunity to speak, the meeting was
adjourned.
Seasonwein's abstention has
made many people angry, but it
Was perhaps the most honest vote
cast, for it acknowledged that a
decision recognizing both the val-
ues of the University and the needs
of the sororities could not now be
made. A vote for fall rush would
be short sighted, while one for
spring rush doesn't solve the prob'-
lem and looks like a vote against
affiliates.
It Is my feeling that this ques-
tion is not closed and I hope that
the campus will see the basic is-
sues as they exist and will support
the council in its attempt to re-
solve these issues in the best in-
terest of all concerned.
-Al Haber, '60
SC .*.
To the Editor:
AS A RECENT Michigan gradu-
ate and someone who had
formerly been fairly active in cam-
pus affairs, as an alumna I stood
by and mutely observed the Board
of Review almost crush the SGC
structure with one well-aimed
blow.
Recently, the Council was again
And this is one case wherein I
cannoi stand mutely by as I did
before and watch-what appears
to me to be a case of dirty politics.
Mr. Seasonwein is a member in
good standing of the Council and
therefore obligated to vote on all
issues. The fact that there is much
emotional feeling about deferred
rush should not affect a vote.
Whether Mr. Seasonwein would
have voted for or against Spring
Rush is not the question-but
rather the fact that he was con-
tent to take the so-called middle
road supposedly in hopes that he
would not alienate either side. Mr.
Seasonwein's motives seem so ap-
parent to the outsider that it is
almost ludicrous to think he might
get away with it. I should think
that both the affiliate and inde-
pendent elements on campus would
feel unwilling to vote for a candi-
date who obviously will not stand
up for his beliefs, whatever they
may be.
SGC has had , its problems of
late, but it appears to me when a
campus refuses to use discretion in
electing its representatives, these
problems will become even larger.
With Student Government Coun-
cil elections taking place, it is as
much students' obligation to stand
up to their own convictions and
vote for their choice of candidates
(and not the Hectorians' choice or
the group's choice) as it was for
Mr. Seasonwein to vote for his.
Please don't make the same politi-
cal error he did.
--Donna Hanson Young, '58
Hyde Park . . .
To the Editor:
I HAVE just flinshed reading the
article about the disturbance at
"Hyde Park." Perhaps this is a
silly thing to say, but if Mr. Bent-
wich and Mr. Parker don't like
the way SGC works, why don't
they run for office themselves or
support candidates whose views
agree with theirs? These men have
come to our country of their own
free wills. Have they come to learn
and participate, or to . criticize
idly? There is nothing wrong with
constructive criticism, followed by
intelligent' suggestions, but it is
rude and stupid for a person to
ruin a public gathering just to
spout off' and get his name in
print. It might be much more
pleasant for all concerned if Mr.
Bentwich and Mr. Parker would
spend their excess energy doing
their laundry.
-Judy Margolis
A
a
4
INTERPRETING THE NEWS:
Limited Flexibility
x
By J. M. ROBERTS
Associated Press News Analyst.,
PRESIDENT Dwight D. Eisen-
hower devoted considerable
effort Monday night toward put-
ting "flexibility" in perspective.
His speech also went far toward
bridging the gap between himself
and Harold Macmillan, the British
Prime Minister who wants above
everything to pull up to the round-
tkI le and talk with Russia about
Qemany.
The President skipped his usual
arguments against top-level meet-
ings between East and West to say
he would talk if the foreign minis-
ters could find a real basis for dis-
cussion. His words were accepted
everywhere as presaging a summit
conference this summer if the for-
eign ministers can make even the
smallest. of progress.
But he also said plainly that
flexibility would not extend to the
point of abandoning West Berlin
or the principles under which free
men live up to their obligations.
"Soviet rulers should remember
that free men have, before this,
died for so-called 'scraps of paper'
which represented duty and honor
and freedom."
The Communists immediately got
the point. The East German news
agency said the President made it
plain the United States "would not
be afraid to unleash a war."
If it had said the United States
against any form of coercion to
the extent that coercion war-
ranted, then it would have exactly
expressed the point the United
States has been trying to make for
months.
The President came very close to
saying that only war will push the
Western Allies out-of Berlin. By
that token he expects the Reds to
modify their demands during the
course of negotiations which will
be undertaken, from the Western
standpoint, for the purpose of
avoiding a military showdown.
This position tends to compro-
mise the differences between 'all
the Western powers. France and
West Germany have been afraid
that "flexibility" was being carried
too far in Washingtorj. They have
felt sure it was being carried too
far in London. The President has
reassured them. Macmillan has re-
assured them. And Macmillan now
has some place to go except into
an argument when he arrives in
Washington this week.
By coincidence but with telling
effect, developments Tuesday ad-
ded emphasis to the American po-
sition.
Congress was asked to start four
hundred million dollars worth of
military aid through the pipelines
to America's allies abroad, in addi-
Pirates of Pittance
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