Sixty-Ninth Ycar
EDrrD AND M-ANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE1 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG. * ANN ARBOR, MIGcH. *Phone ,o 2-3241
"Lyndon, Are You Sure That's All
You're Trying To Launch?"
"When Opinions Are Free
Trutb Will Prevail"
GILBERT & SULLIVAN:
Patience A Virtue -
Patience A Success
PATIENCE is commonly a irtue, but last night. "Patience" was a
virtual success. Although lacking some of the slickness and energy
apparent in former years, this current. Gilbert and Sullivan production
is delightfully enjoyable and delightfully full of fun.
The play itself is perhaps W. S. Gilbert's finest satire. Spoofing the
Victorian rage for affectation, the author here aims specifically at
"aestheticism" and lets go with a witty and wordy, a distinctly pointed,
an enchantingly nasty attack against the devotees of Oscar Wilde, et al.
The central character is Reginald Bunthorn (a Fleshly Poet)
dressed in a velvet suit and wrapped around a flower.he entrances
Editorials printed in The Michian Daily express the indiiidual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
AY, NOVEMBER 21, 1958
NIGHT EDITOR: ROBERT JUNKER
Parent vs. Student Attitudes
Remain Residence Hall Problem
-rA
THE NEW RESIDENCE halls application
form approved this week by the Board of
Governors deserves some measure of praise.
The new form, which was to incorporate
the new integration policy of last year, is a
couple of giant steps in the right direction. The
identification photograph is eliminated, at
least until after roommate assignments are
made, and the pointed questions aimed at
background - i.e., racial and religious, are
thrashed out and thrown away.
In addition, the reference to desirable room-
mate qualities were debated, defended, de-
nounced, and finally, discarded. All that re-
mains is a general question requesting a de-
scription of a possible roommate without the
parenthetical adjectives that requested racial
and religious information as though these were
among the most important.
HOWEVER, the new form leaves at least
one area for improvement in, practice. Dean
of Men Walter Rea said, during the course of
discussion, that if a parent's wishes on room-
mate choice differed from that of the appli-
cant the parent's wishes would be dominant,
insofar as his office is concerned, over that
of the student,
THIS IS UNFORTUNATE especially since, as
Robert Ashton, Interhouse Council presi-
dent, pointed out, the Board's policy provides
that the individual may indicate his choice of
roommate, by name or type, and that this
choice would be respected. If the parent's
choice takes precedence over that of the stu-
dent this policy will not be implemented.
Often there is a cultural and social lag be-
tween younger and older generations. If the
applicant wishes, or at least does not object,
to a roommate of a differing creed or color
then it is better to promote integration and
understanding than to maintain the status quo
of segregation and prejudice more character-
istic of the senior generation.
AS WAS SO ABLY pointed out by several
board members, it would be better to have
this problem solved at home, before the stu-
dent reaches the University. This would also
serve to save the administration from facing
the "multitudes" of irate parents (John Hale,
senior director of men's residence halls says
there are about two such incidents each fall)
who suddenly discover that their son's de-
sire to room with someone "different" has been
actuated.
It might be better however, to have a few
such conflicts as the price for promoting un-
derstanding among those willing to accept
people as individuals.
It is consoling anyway to see that some
progress is being made in one area of human
relations on campus.
-RALPH LANGER
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the ladies who see him, but is him-
self in love with Patience, a simple
Dairy Maid. Admitting that his
osing is but a yearning for at-
tention, he becomes distraught
when Archibald G'rosvenor. a poet
even more affected than he, steals
Patience from him
Bunthorne plans with Lady
Jane, his sole remaining admirer,
to prove Grosvenor's aesthetic
"imperfection." To his great dis-
may, however, the plot backfires.
Aestheticism goes out. common-
ness comes in, and Reginald. the
sole remaining member of the Vic-
torian beat generation, is left
with only a tulip for a bride.
* * * *
DRAMATICALLY, the show is
a cut below former productions.
Ann Arbor audiences have been
spoiled by the uncommon collec-
tion of talent displayed by G&S
in recent years. Although such
people as David Newman, Lynn
Tannel, and Marian Mercer are
missed in "Patience," it is only
fair to say that the best possible
use was made of the talent avail-
able and that that best is still
far better than anything anyone
else has managed to produce
around here.
Two new directors have, of
course, produced changes in the
;how, some good and some bad.
Che choruses sounded better than
they have for several years, but
they looked worse. The staging
was often sloppy and imprecise.
The stage at Lydia Mendelssohn
is really too small to hold the
number of people involved, yet in
the past, careful arrangement of
the choruses prevented chaos.
This year, despite a smaller group
of people, crowd scenes often
turned into mob scenes:
GERSHOM Morningstar, as
Bunthorne, is the last of the ld
stars. His voice and his acting, his
timing and his gymnastics were
incoedibly appropriate to his part,
Among the ladies, only Althea
Romaine, as the Lady Jane, was
able to keep up with him. Her
voice and manner are happily
reminiscent of Miss Mercer's, al-
though she is not quite so success-
ful a comedienne. Vocally, she far
outshone the other females.
Patience and Archibald Gros-
venor (Carla Cargill and John
Vavroch) acted their parts well
but were musically a bit unsatis-
factory. Miss Cargill, especially,
lacked control of her voice in the
upper ranges but brought a proper
pertness to her ingenue role.
-Jean Willoughby
AT THE CAMPUS:
Two Great
Documents
OUT OF THE explosive rebirth
of movie-making that was trig-
gered by the downfall of Fascism
in Italy. came the most telling in-
fluence on modern cinema: neo-
realism. In this bursting release
of artistic talent the first person
to receive both critical and com-
mercial acclamation was Roberto
Rossellini, whose first two films
established neorealism as a new,
dynamic method of screen presen-
tation. These films. "Open City"
and "Paisan," are not only biting-
ly potent entertainment but of
great historic import both as his-
torical pictures of Italy late in the
war, and as the first representa-
tives of the aforementioned class
of motion picture.
"Open City," the first of the
two 11945), will probably be re-
membered as the best. It is a di-
section of the degrading lives Ital-
ians were forced to lead during
the Nazi occupation. The sprawl-
ing cross section of the wartime
existence of such ordinary Italians
as a Parish priest. a young boy, an
underground leader, and a bride-
to-be formed an extremely vitup-
erative view of the Gestapo.
All this Rossellini shows with
a deeply passionate understanding
of human beings, through his
ever-probing sensitive camera ob-
servation.
* * *
PAISAN is a six-part story., de-
picting the northward drive of the
American forces. In Sicily, Naples,
Rome, Florence, a monastery, and
the Po valley, Americans and Ital-
ians worked side by side, became
better acquainted, but still never
understood each other.
Although it faces the facts of
life, Rossellini's story of the two
cultures tumultuously locked in
a common struggle but not per-
ceptive enough to see their com-
mon humanity is often too pat; it
relies 'too much on circumstance
and coincidence to make its point.
,Despite these faults, Rossellini
has pictured both poignant hu.
mor, and stark tragedy through
his neorealistic eye. These two
films remain among the most hu-
man documents ever filmed,
--Allan D. Schreiber
SGC IN REVIEW:
Council Challenged To Consider A ims
Department Draws Fire
CRITICISM when constructive, is of much
value. In many instances, however, through
lack of information or personal reasons, it can
become very detrimental. The actions of the
neighbors of the late Dr. Aaron Edwards in
criticizing the Fire Department in the last City
Council meeting is an example of the latter.
They claimed the fire department, in the
blaze that destroyed his house, killing him and
two daughters, did nothing to save Dr. Ed-
wards' family and that others escaped only
through the actions of his neighbors.
This type of criticism in no way can serve
as an aid in correcting any problems in the
fire- department.
As it is in many cases, there was a lack of
information on the part of the neighbors. For
some reason they seem to feel that as soon as
he fire department arrived they should have
at once dashed into the burning building. As
the Ann Arbor fire chief pointed out before
anything else can be done, precautions must
be first taken to prevent further loss of life.
Even with all the cautions that were taken,
seven were overcome in attempting to fight the
fire.
THE MAIN difficulty here as was mentioned
by members of the Council is the lack of
money for the fire department. More money is
needed to increase the number of men who
are now in the department.
The general public only gets aroused at times
such as the recent fire when people they know
are killed. But citizens of Ann Arbor and oth-
er cities refuse to pay the taxes necessary for
more adequate protection,
It is now that plans should be made to pro-
vide for a larger fire department. This is''the
foremost problem faced by most cities in the
United States; citizens' unwillingness to pay
for the protection they deem necessary.
-KENNETH McELDOWNEY
By THOMAS TURNER
Daily Stal Writer,
A MOTION to dissolve Student
Government Council was in-
troduced Wednesday night, cli-
maxing a meeting which showed
only too well why the proposal
might- have merit.
Daily Editor Richard Taub,
author of the motion, explained
afterward he was only trying to
get Council members to discuss
what they thought they were
there for, and what they thought
was the value of student govern-
ment. The reaction was disap-
pointing.
* * *
AT LEAST two Council mem-
bers chose to attack Taub's mo-
tion on a personal basis, asking
why he did not confine his
"grandstanding" to The Daily's
editorial columns. The answer
should have been obvious, that
after trying for some months to
provoke thought by the written
word he was getting desperate.
The attempt missed by miles, of
course, which was partially Taub's
fault - his approach a little too
shocking.
Another common interpretation
of Taub's motion was in terms of
defeatism, that he just wanted to
pick up his marbles and go home
following the Board in Review's
reversal of the Councils decision
on Sigma Kappa.
A member who had openly es-
poused reversal of the decision by
the Board in Review went so far
as to try to "move objection to
consideration" of the motion, in
what is surely a fine example of
defensive thinking.
Fortunately for the intent of
Taub's motion, this member was
not too familiar with parliamen-
tary procedure, not realizing that
consideration of the motion had
begun when debate began.
. *
SEVERAL others, including the
member who seconded the mo-
tion, favored it but still thought
of it only in terms of the Board
in Review action a week ago. But
Roger Seasonwein put his finger
on the issue, to d certain extent
at least, when he said he would
object to discussion unless it in-
volved student government as a
TODAY AND TOMORROW:
The Passing Generation
By WALTER LIPPMANN
whole, not just Student Govern-
ment Council.
This "debate" would have all
seemed rather funny, had it not
been so serious. It is hard to im-
agine more people who didn't un-
derstand one another in such im-
mediate juxtaposition.
But several times in the course
of that meeting alone they had
been presented with the problem
of what student government
should be. In opposing Maynard
Goldman's re-election as Presi-
dent, Scott Chrysler had said that
SGC had come to "a fork in the
road" after the Board in Review
action, and that this fork in fact
represented SGC's original orien-
tation.
The Council should cooperate
with the administration and fac-
ulty, Chrysler said. Had this been
done consistently, he maintained,
SGC would have the respect of
the student body and the confi-
lence of the administration.
Goldman, on the other hand,
stressed the role of SGC as a "gov-
,ernment by students for stu-
dents." It is possible to cooperate
a body right out of existence," he
declared.
SGC members voted by secret
ballot, and elected Goldman over
Chrysler.
DID THE members then think
that was enough philosophy for
a while, that it was time to stop
messing around and to get back
to the important matters at hand,
like exam files and the Student
Book Exchange?
Perhaps they did, for the newly
elected president told SGC that
he could not imagine how any
one could chair a meeting at
which the value and aims of stu-
dent government were being dis-
cussed, and that he could not see
how the conclusions of such a
meeting would have significance
"when the cards were on the
table."
-Allan D. Schreiber
UHER E IS NOT much doubt that the election
returns announced the passing of one
oltical generation and the arrival of another.
For the most part the men who rose to
oltical power as the result of the second
orld War have been defeated or they are
tiring. The elections played havoc with the
epublicans who were elected in 1946, in the
rst popular reaction to the miseries and the
ustrations of the war. The class of 1946,
nowland, Bricker, Jenner, Malone, the class
hich included the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy
Wisconsin, has been pushed aside. Among
e Democrats a similar thing happened in the
feat of Gov. Harriman in New York and of
ov. McFarland in Arizona. By and large the
w men elected have made their way up since
e war and they are only now ready for the
ading places,
POLITICS IS a very inexact science. But
there is a rule which usually works. It is
at about fifteen years after the end of a big
ar, there occurs a big politicalIchange marked
' the passing of the war generation and the
Lvent of the generation which had no re-
onsibility for, even though it participated in,
e war.
Thus fifteen years after the first World War,
1933, Hitler came to power in Germany and
>osevelt in this country. Two years earlier
pan inaugurated in Manchuria that series of
ilitary aggressions which marked the end of
e settlement of the first World War and led
to the second World War. The fifteen-year
le can be seen at work after our Civil War
id after the Napoleonic wars at the beginning
the 19th century.
There is no mystery or magic about the fif-
e-year rule. It is founded in the fact that
out fifteen years after a war ends the leaders
S0-
and commanders are no longer in their prime
while the young men who did the fighting,
when they were in their 20's, have matured.
IT IS NOW thirteen years since the end of
the second World War, and in the Presiden-
tial election of 1960 it will be fifteen years. It
is plain that we are living in the transition
between the political generations. It is plain
also that with this change of men there is a
change in the political climate.
All the analyses I have seen agree that as
between the two parties there was no outstand-
ing and clear-cut national issue. But in both
parties the winners were men who gave the
effect of looking forward into the future, of
looking beyond the era of the World War and
its aftermath, and of being alert to the needs
of the day which have been put off and ne-
glected. I suspect that this is true even of Sen.
Goldwater of Arizona, who is not a conserva-
tive but a reactionary. He may well be a vig-
orous portent of some of the things to come.
AGAINST this background - that of a gen-
eration which is passing and of a political
climate that is changing - one must, I think,
read what the President said at his press con-
ference on the Wednesday morning after elec-
tion day. He made no attempt to hide the fact
that he was a sad and bewildered man. "The
United States did give me, after all, a majority
of I think well over 9,000,000 votes, Now here,
only two years later, there is a complete re-
versal: and yet I do not see where there is
anything that these people consciously want
the Administration to do differently."
The answer, as it appeared in the election
returns, is that a decisive majority of the
people want the government, not merely ad-
ministration, but all government, national and
state, to come alive and to be alert and to show
vigor. and not to keep mouthing the same
old slogans, and not to dawdle along in the
same old ruts. When they are told by the Pres-
ident himself on the day after election that
the paramount task before the country is to
spend less money, rather than to master its
great problems, the people know that the Pres-
ident has lost touch with them, and with their
problems, and is living in the past.
VICE-PRESIDENT NIXON is in a difficult
iosition In hef
To The Editor
AT HILL AUDITORIUM:
Seeger Terry Exciting
THE PETE SEEGER-SONNY TERRY concert at Hill Auditorium last
night 'was certainly one of the most exciting musical events of the
season. The grand young man of contemporary folksingers was in top
form last night, picking five-string banjo, the twelve-string guitar, and
blowing beautiful selections on the chalil-an Israeli flute-like instru-
ment., It is his versatility that has made Seeger one of the leading
exponents of American folk music.
Spirit . * .
To the Editor:
THERE has been much-talk and
speculation of late about
Michigan spirit and the alleged
current lack of it among the stu-
dent body.
Any doubts or misgivings that
the writer may have entertained
on that score were dispelled by Si
Coleman's column, "Inside Chat-
ter," in The Daily, November 12th,
and "An Editorial" over the sig-
nature, the Senior Editors, in the
issue of November 14th.
Bennie Oosterbaan does indeed
embody all that is fine in the
Michigan tradition and all of us,
students and alumni alike, owe
him a debt of heartfelt gratitude.
-Clark M. Woolley, '30
Contempt . .
To the Editor:
THE DAILY editorial, printed
beneath that "brilliant" mis-
nomer "The Right To Work," was
a masterful example of contempt.
Indeed, Mr. Winer displayed his
contempt for the public in general,
which, he said, could be "manipu-
lated" by an interest group. He
showed even less respect for Labor.
His statement, "They (labor offi-
cials) are a raid only of a slightly
depressed pocketbook shows a sur-.
prising degree of ignorance in the
objectives of the Labor Union
movement.
Mr. Winer followed by saying
that "the rank and file were in-
timidated to vote against the issue
or else be reduced to a state of
slave bondage by the oppressive
management." Hogwash! As a
close follower of the Right to Work
issue in the 1958 elections, at no
in showing the weaknesses of La-
bor's side, Mr. Winer would have
attempted to explain why the
RTW bill is an easy way out for
that minority of workers who
would like to accept union-spon-
sored advantages without footing
a fair share of the bill.
It seems to me that in this
instance the editorial staff of the
Daily has used the freedom of the
press as a means of slandering
whole segments of the American
population.
-Kenneth Montlack, '62
GENERATION:
An Airy Autumn Issue
FROM TIME TO TIME we may
grieve that the grand vistas
of the San Francisco Renaissance
seem to be having no effect upon
sullen, medieval Ann Arbor. Still,
we do have the Autumn Issue
of Generation before us, installed
suddenly like a picture window in
a-I was going to say "in a monas-
tery" when I decided to take the
whole metaphor back and simply
say that the issue is on the whole
remarkably airy and well-lighted.
The two stories "I Understand
You, Dino" by Sarah Drasin and
"A Home in the Basement" by
Louis Megyesi both worry about
middle-aged Americans trapped in
lives of quiet desperation; that is
to say, trapped in jobs, circum-
stances. Both stories make their
points. Of the two, Megyesi's
is the more carefully composed,
yet it sometimes lags, while Miss
Drasin's, despite an incredibly ir-
relevant beginning and a very loco
arrangement, is assuredly never
The poem certainly looks like
necrophilia but is really as inno-
cent as a three-leaf clover-and, at
heart, as beautiful. Between these
extremes are Burton Beerman's
sturdy sonnet "To a Young Man,"
Nelson Howe's nicely relaxed
"Korea" and Robert Warner's
tangled but no doubt all-knowing
"Agnostic." In particular I liked
Jay Meek's controlled "Something
in the Rain," reminiscent, to be
sure, of Cummings on a crying jag
but not as silly as the master dares
to be. And I should like to con-
gratulate Bernard Keith for the
health, the balanced clarity of his
sonnet "Mystic."
Regretably, this issue of Genera-
tion offers no serious essay, but
David Kessel's "Hector Berlioz in
America" presents us with a pleas-
ant spoof which is almost as funny
as some serious musicology I've
read. Last and (I think) least is
Sadashiv D. Rawoot's play labeled,
with cruel understatement, a fan-
But Seeger does not limit himse
the motherland all the way aroun
hears the plaintive cry of the oppre
the joyous yell of the jubilant.
When the huge audience joined
him in song, it was with an en-
thusiasm that is rewarding to
hear.
Sonny Terry is a first-rate folk
musician. His rhythms and his
melodies remind us of the many
faces of a music. Always present
in his harmonica-playing is the
blues, but his skillful manipulation
of this element shows us that all
blues are not sad. There are happy
blues, and angry blues, and even
funny blues. Terry's renditions of
"My Baby Done Changed the Lock
on the Door," and "The Fox
Chase" were high points of the
evening.
* * *
A DELIGHTFUL surprise was
the appearance of Sonny Terry's
nephew, J. C. Burris, a very talent-
ed musician in his own right. Bur-
ris' contributions on harmonica,
bones, and the old "hambone" (a
rhythmic device effected by slap-
ping the hands against the thighs)
added enjoyment to the concert.
"One thing about playing
rhythm," said Burris. "You're al-
ways in tune."
Seeger claims that he is "still
learning to play the twelve-string
guitar," and, indeed, his playing
improves with every performance.
One of the selections he has been
playing for the past year is a
Welsh folksong, "Bells of Remney"
which, after the first two choruses,
soars through the air like a mass
of chimes on a winter afternoon.
His version of the Israeli shepherd
song, "Mayafim Chaelot" (How
Beautiful the Nights) was also
elf to Americana; he takes us from
d the world, and in his music one
essed, the sweet laughter of lovers.
AT THE MICHIGAN:
Fantasyl
FOR SOME reason which has yet
to be satisfactorily explained,
the writers for "From the Earth
to the Moon" have just about
completely disarranged the Jules
Verne story, so that a somewhat
ridiculous residue is left.
Unlike Verne's other story,
"Around the World in 80 Days,"
this one does not easily lend it-
self to the cinema.
Viewers who saw "Around the
World" may remember a brief ex-
cerpt shown from an early film-
ing of "From the Earth to the
Moon." Somehow, this 50-year-old
silent film, full of frenzied gestur-
ing of scientists and moon-crea-
tures managed to capture a great
deal of Verne's fantasy.
The modern version just about
fails completely and is not even
a good adventure story. Needless
to say, it completely departs from
the original fantasy; this is not
in itself necessarily a bad thing,
but in this case it is not a particu-
larly good thing either.
IN AN 1860 ROCKET, heading
for the moon, there sit four people:
Joseph Cotton, marvelous inven-
tor who dreamed up atomic energy
one afternoon; Debra Paget. an
I
Editorial Staff
RICHARD TAUB, Editor
LEL KRAFT Jo
,rlal Director
DHN WEICHER
City Editor
DAVID TARR
Associate Editor
Business Slaff